Monthly Photos that last forever (no pressure)

When it came time for the tiny human to turn 1 month old, I was struck with the realization that I didn't know what sort of photos I wanted to mark the passage of time. I knew I wanted to do some sort of photo every month that highlighted how she was changing, but I hadn't really decided on what.


And in a fog of hormones with a still healing scar across my stomach in the throes of my new stay-at-home-mom life, this decision seemed to be of paramount importance. If I got it wrong now... I wouldn't have it right later. I couldn't just start halfway through with a new picture idea if I thought of something later. I needed to get this right.

Unfortunately, at 1 month, the tiny human was still thoroughly enmeshed in her "but I want to be HELD" stage, and wasn't in the mood to be still and content while I fumbled through my first photo attempts.




In the end, I decided on three photos to take every month. One with a sticker, one with a quilt that grandma made, and one with this hilarious bear that has a belly button.

I also wound up taking photos almost once a week on different backgrounds and in different clothes just for fun. And to use to spam all the grandparents with how adorable my kid is.

A couple of things I have learned:

- It doesn't matter to me that these are a far cry from professional. The lighting is never consistent and there are nearly always wrinkles somewhere in the picture (and sometimes there are tiny puppy paws) but when I look at them, all I see is how fast she is growing.

- My kitchen has the best light. I haul everything in there and we do photos on the kitchen floor. I do a big soft blanket under the other blankets since we have tile, but the light in there is definitely the best.

- My phone is really a pretty decent camera. I take photos on my phone and on my camera, with my camera set to continuous shooting. The quality is a bit less that way, but for a long time the only way to catch a smile was to just shoot 100 pictures and see if it happened. These days the kiddo smiles because taking pictures is entertaining, which is helpful.

- The stickers are more scrumptious than I would expect. It is a hilarious battle trying to keep the sticker on her shirt and out of her mouth long enough to snap a photo.

- I split the photos into a couple of days. This was particularly important when she was little, but we still do it. That way we can be freshly napped, fed and in a good mood before everything gets started.

I am loving looking through these pictures and watching her grow- I can't believe how big she is already (I can hear those of you with toddlers giggle when I say that.) Go forth and have ye a photo shoot!

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