I see you all the time in Polaroid...

I have a small confession.  I really sucked at filling out The Incredible Hulk's baby book.  I mean, I have a lot of the important stuff written down - first foods, first steps, first words - but, trust me when I say every little box isn't filled out in the way I thought it would be when I purchased it.

Whoops.

For me, the beginning was so overwhelming and busy, I had no time or energy to painstakingly fill out every moment in a baby book.  I did, however, have time to take pictures.  Lots of them.  And eventually I was able to organize those into four books which chronicled the first year of TIH's life.  In fact, I continued doing so and have since made a photo book for every year.  These are TIH's baby books.  These are what I will go to when I'm feeling nostalgic.  (Who am I kidding, I do it already.)

 

Though this entire blog is devoted to giving lots of varying advice to New Moms, I think this particular piece of advice is super important.  Make photo books for your babies.  Today I'm sharing my methods for doing so in TIH's first year, as well as giving you a SUPER simple (and affordable) way of doing so, but do what makes it easy on you.  That's the point, getting yourself organized enough that when you do feel like sitting down and making an album that you can do so quickly and easily (so that you can spend your time with that adorable little creature you're so heavily documenting!)  So here it is:


1.  First and foremost - you must take pictures.  And LOTS of them.  If you don't have some sort of photography apparatus before your child is born, try to make friends with a rich person who will buy you one scout out a good deal.  I definitely would suggest digital (do they even make cameras that have film anymore?) because you're going to need to take 300 pictures to get the one shot you want.  Babies are wiggly.  At the very least, get a phone that has a good camera on it.  We have a decent digital camera and 95% of my photos of TIH were taken with my iPhone.

2.  Whether you're printing a bunch of photos or making full photo books - do it in chunks.  Whether you do it every month or every few months, you'll be happy that you're not trying to decide between photo #689 and photo #1258 of your baby in the bathtub.  What I mean is that if you wait too long, you'll have to print all 8000 pictures you took over the span of several months and you won't necessarily remember what was going on or why you felt it necessary to take so many pictures in the bathtub.  Keep it simpler by breaking it up a bit.  If the plan is to make a photo book, working as you go will make the process all the easier. (For example, as soon as you upload the pictures from family vacation, immediately start dragging and dropping them into a photo book.)

3.  Have a system for organizing your photos.  I use Apple's iPhoto because its easy, organized, but mostly because it was free software that already came loaded on my computer.  My filing system is done by month and I label the folders with idiot proof names (i.e., "October 2013," "Christmas 2010").  That way, when I'm ready to print my photos or if I'm looking for something in particular, I know exactly where I can find it.  Putting your photographs on Facebook (with similarly easy album names) can be helpful as well as many photo printing/sharing sites allow you to connect with your Facebook page.  This means that even if you haven't managed to download all of the photos from your phone to your computer (which I'm totally guilty of), you're still able to access them for prints.

4.  As often as your resources allow it, have professional photographs taken of your family (or at the very least of the baby.)  We got TIH's photos taken in the hospital, at 3 months, 6 months, 9 months, and 1 year.   Since then we usually just stick to the year mark and then try to get in a minishoot in the fall for Christmas cards.  I'll be the first to admit that some of my favorite photos of TIH are the snapshots that I took myself (so don't discount those), but there is something to be said for the magic of good lighting and Photoshop.  At first, we went the portrait studio route, but after one bad (and expensive) experience, we started looking for comparable packages with other professional photographers.  What I found is that many photographers offer "First Year" packages and the price of those were better than any coupon I could find with portrait studios.  There's no wrong route to take, but you'll be happy you have these as bookends for your photo book...

5.  Make PHOTO BOOKS.  Wait, did I already say that?  Okay, because it is THAT important.  Seriously, the prints can get expensive/lost and can be really easy to forget to print.  The photo books are easy to make and easy to duplicate (Hello, easy Christmas presents for grandparents.)  Not to mention, they are super fun to do!  (Hours of looking at cute pictures of my child?  Sign me up.)  Plus, these things will last.  The stack of TIH's photo books sit in our living room and everyone LOVES looking at them when they come to our house.


To make things even easier, the awesome peeps at Kindred Photo App contacted me to share this incredible new service they've just rolled out.  This service couldn't be any simpler if it tried.

I made three photo books in about 30 minutes during a train ride back from the city the other day.  All you have to do is download their FREE app (available on iTunes and Google Play), make an account that will allow you to access your photos (from your phone's photo albums, Facebook, or Instagram), select pictures (or have the app do it for you!), and ship it out to your choice of recipient.

Seriously.  It is SO simple.  What will arrive at your house are these neat little booklets:

The printing is high quality and the paper is nice and thick.  I immediately sent out two brag books to each of TIH's grandmothers to enjoy and of course they both were elated.

I made a couple of books for myself, of course, and could totally see me doing a "Best of..." book for every month.  The cost of the service is $5.95 a month and each booklet costs only $5.00.  I can tell you that I have spent that amount of money MANY TIMES OVER on making prints of photos, but none of them looked this beautiful!  (Nor was it ever this simple.)  And, if you decide that the service isn't for you, you can cancel it at any time with no penalties!

Even better?  Kindred is giving away a "year supply" (12 booklets, but you can use them all at once or space them out over a year, whatever) to THREE lucky readers.  Here's FIVE different ways you can enter:

1.  Leave a comment on this post saying that you like NMOTB on Facebook.
2.  Leave a comment on this post saying that you follow NMOTB on Instagram.
3.  Leave a comment on this post saying that you follow NMOTB on Twitter (and while you're at it, why not follow Kindred on Twitter too?)
4.  Leave a comment on this post saying that you've downloaded the FREE Kindred app on either iTunes or Google Play.
5.  For a bonus entry, upload your favorite photograph of your little one to my Facebook page or Instagram (by tagging me @newmomontheblog and using the hashtag #NMOTB_kindredphotobooks) and then come back and leave a comment on this post saying that you've done so!


I will be announcing the winner on Friday, so be sure to check back!  Good luck to all who enter.  And, even if you don't win - consider giving the subscription a shot.  I've been so happy with my experience thus far!

Though Kindred provided me with a complimentary subscription to their service and with a few complimentary photo books, the opinions expressed in this post are solely my own.  Obviously I barely have the time to wash my own hair daily, so I'm not going to take the time to write about a product I don't fully endorse.

I'm gonna pick up the pieces and build a Lego house...

To any mother (old or new) who has ever stepped on one of those tiny, incredible, creative devices of torture known as Legos - this post is for you.  Bonnie of The Joyful Organizer was kind enough to send this post to me and while The Incredible Hulk is still a few years away from playing with Legos - after reading these ideas, I'm TOTALLY inspired to get started organizing RIGHT NOW.

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Legos are some of the best toys out there.  They allow kids to be creative, play independently, and they are a toy that can span many age groups.  However, they are also one of the biggest organizational challenges that parents face.  Here are a few organizing tools and methods for those Legos!

First of all Lego has tried to tap into the organizing of their own toys.  They have specialty organizing bags available.  They are cute, and useful, but can be cost prohibitive.

I like to establish a system and then stick with it.  You can sort by size, color, or even project.  Once you’ve decided how you want to sort, the next step is getting a container that will help you keep pieces in order.  I like organizers that allow you to take a set out, play with it (possibly even in a different location from the storage unit) and then put it away.

Ikea sells great organizers that can be easily labeled.  The drawers pull out easily so your child can play and then put away.  {Editors Note: And, it gives you an excuse to go to IKEA.  Win. Win.}  Above is an organization system established by color. 

Sets of plastic drawers can be purchased at almost any super store and are a great way to allow kids to have a visual of what’s in each drawer.

If you have a smaller amount of Legos, or want to use them on the go, small pencil boxes are a great solution.  You can buy them on sale after the back to school season or at a dollar store.

If you’re tired of Legos all over the floor, try a “pack and play” system like this.  The mats spreads out for your child to play on and then you can scoop it up and store it away with ease.

There are also custom sorters available that allow you to dump the blocks in and the organizer does the sorting for you. This is great for kids who help in the put away process.  It also allows you to move your Lego collection all over the house.

And here's how we organize things at the NMOTB house.  Kidding, it's Legoland.  (Awesome, right?)

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If you'd like to keep up with The Joyful Organizer and find more of these wonderful ideas, check out The Joyful Organizer blog, Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest boards, and my favorite, The Joy of Organizing Radio Show.