12 Months of Pictures

Watch Me Grow! 

I saw this idea on Pinterest when I was going baby pin crazy with Jellybean. Take a picture of your kiddo every month, spruce it up with a teddy bear or something to reference their growth and BAM, you've captured their growth in a cute and easy way. Some people use the same outfit or color onesie, some make chalkboard signs with specific traits for that month (I'm sorry but I just don't have time for that kind of detail, but I wish I did!), some use cards with time hacks on them....the possibilities are endless. I had a friend who made specific onesies with her kiddo's name on them and the month he was in. I chose to keep it simple. A onesie, didn't matter what color, a teddy bear from my friend Brittany, and a simple sticker. Every month I took my Jellybean, plopped him on the rocking chair (courtesy of my friends Nicolle and Danele), and snapped away. If I were really meticulous, I would have noted how far away I was from Jellybean and taken the pic from the same exact distance and angle every time and made sure the lighting matched up every single time. But like I said, sometimes I just don't have time for that kind of detail. And the teddy bear is a good marker of how much he's grown anyway, as is the size of that sticker. It gets smaller and smaller his he gets bigger and bigger! I love that you can also track when they begin to hold their head up, sit up straight, etc. Towards the end there, I was lucky if I could get a picture of my little guy sitting down! Or even a non-blurry pic because he loves to rock back and forth in that thing. 

Anyway, I'm really glad I did this. Time to put it in a fancy frame or something so I have it on my walls. While I'm trying to keep most of my photo memories here on this blog or through a yearly Shutterfly book, I think I'd like his 12 month progression on the walls so I can see it every day. 

I haven't decided if I want to go the same route with Tater Tot. I don't think I'll use the bear since that's something special to Jellybean. I don't know if I want to use stickers or find some other way of advertising what month my kiddo is in. While I want to do the same "type" of things with Tater Tot, I don't exactly want to mimic the very same things I did with Jellybean. My boys are two different personalities...individuals. I want to treat them that way, even before I find out just how different those personalities will be. I want to make Tater Tot feel just as important as my first born son. I want him to see that mom made an effort not to duplicate every detail instead of using my creativity to make unique situations out of the same idea. Something I learned through being the "experienced" mom now is....don't take a laying down picture. I can't imagine trying to capture a picture of my kiddo once he learns to turn over, sit up, or start walking. They won't sit still! Much easier to get a picture of the kid sitting up, and before they can sit up properly they can just lean back on the chair like in the first few months of photos below. I think I'll still use the rocking chair since it seemed to work well in keeping my kiddo in one spot long enough for a picture but the stuffed animal/sticker combo might be different the second time around.