So...I've been thinking should I be keeping a baby book? It is one of those things that I thought I would have a lot of time to think about and plan for but that has obviously not been the case! Don't laugh! How many people do you know discover they are going to have a baby and then actually have the baby less than 48 hours later!? Ok then, back to the main point here!
So Zadok is doing all these amazing things, rolling over for the first time, cooing like crazy, smiling with not just his mouth but his eyes and eyebrows too and I never want to forget any of it. The problem is, that over the many years of waiting for his arrival I have NEVER seen a baby book I liked. I have looked at many of them wherever they have been offered. It all looks so cheesy and dumb to me, put their hand print [here], lock of hair [here], date of when they rolled over [here], and so on. I want something cute, imaginative, and fun!
I've thought of making my own but I need a starting place...and I am not feeling inspired by the boring white with blue writing and a teddy bear on the front kind. What is with all the baby sized little animals, pastel colored blocks, and ducks saying "quack quack" on everything anyway? Guess what he can't read yet! Why not put something on their that mothers like to look at....I can't think of anything right now I but not all that babyish stuff!
Anyway...I'm just looking for ideas, do you have any?
Also, here are some pics of Zad's "bio" cousins Levu and Liahona from the family night we attended with Norma this last Monday. Aren't they just adorable? They are the twins of Norma's sister Monica and are about 7 months old here! Doesn't that family make the cutest babies?
We had a great time meeting more of Norma's family and playing Scottish games. We met her cousin Monte who is home on leave from Iraq, we had heard a lot about him. Everyone dressed up like him from different times in his life. It was pretty funny to see grown men wearing little clip on ties and little girls in fatigues. Zadok won one of the prizes as looking most like Monte as a baby in an outfit Norma prepared for him and I can't believe I didn't get any pics of it! Norma, what was I doing? I did get some pics of a few people playing the caber toss, sheaf throw and light hammer toss, they didn't turn out two well but here they are anyway. But isn't it all about the babies right now?
11 comments:
Angie-
Do what I do just make a scrapbook month by month. Each month journal what he likes, doesn't like, what he is doing, funny stories, and how you are feeling. Just make sure you keep up on the journaling and you can always do the scrapbook later. That is what I did for my kids. I would get caught up on the scrapbook when I had time but I always had time to journal because you forget too fast. Dy
I wish I had done a baby book for Payton, but I never found one I liked and now I feel like its just too late! You could always try putting a custom alchemy request on etsy. You can type in the specifics of what you'd like and the price you are willing to pay and people will place bids for your custom book! There's so many talented scrapbook makers/book makers on etsy I bet someone would be able to make you something. Here's a link if you are interested:
http://www.etsy.com/alchemy/
my mom said that she would just write things down on the calendar until she had time to put it in a book later. I have not done so well with that but kbow that if you don't get it down somewhere you will not remember.
Gosh, those twins sure are cute! I bet they get all their looks from their mother....
Or they get their good looks from their auntie Norma! ;) Just remember I can cut out vinyl for you for whatever you need!
Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you...There is a pic of Zad on my wall from Dustin in the MMM outfit. Also I will see if I have any more. I would email them but hotmail won't let me sign on right on.
Angie,
I have two suggestions for you...actually, maybe three. Though I have the typical baby book that I keep for our daughter, I also have a baby book that was created specifically for adopted children that is set up as a three ring binder with individual cardstock pages so you can remove anything that does not apply (like information on the foreign country the child is from). I like it because there are no "awkward" pages that I don't know how I should fill out. I could let you borrow it if you're interested in making your own.
#2 - Because I keep a pretty detailed blog of all of Lily's "accomplishments" and they are accompanied by pics and the date is recorded, I copy these entries into another document and plan to have it bound in a hardback book through Lulu.com or some other printing company. I am also toying with the idea of binding all of the correspondence with her birthfamily.
#3-I have tried to take pics of all of her firsts (and tons of pics of everything else) so I have put together a photobook using mypublisher.com. They have different templates which allow you to add text to pics to explain, or add dates, etc. We plan to give one of those to each of her parents chronicalling the first year of her life -I'm just waiting for pics of her first birthday party and I'm done with that one :)
That's what we're doing since they all serve dual purposes. Our birthparents asked for the blog, so I'm using it as her "journal" - which also encourages me to keep up with it faithfully. The photobook and the "journal" will be great "hardbound" items that should stand the test of time too. And, so she doesn't feel like she's "different", I keep her "regular" baby book too. Hope that helps! - Andrea
Angie- I highly recommend digital scrapbooking. mmm. It's my new obsession. There is a post on my blog with a list of websites and explanations to get you started. :) I haven't read the rest of these comments so if I'm being redundant, I apologize! Either way-congratulations! sounds like a fun night!
I am totally with you. The baby books just aren't that great... so that is why Benson is going to be a year and a half soon and still doesn't have a book. Oops.
I'm going to make his "first year" book, too. It'll have the basic info on firsts and lots of pictures, but I also want to have things like... what the cost of things were when he was little, what his favorite toys were, etc. I've just brainstormed a ton, and now I'm going to either use a tool like shutterfly or photoshop to make his book. I just love the idea of making it more personal, and something you can enjoy now and he'll enjoy later. Whatever you do, it will be great!!
Love your little guy -- he's SO beautiful! And as for baby books, I love this one created by another blogger (who's also a graphic designer) who couldn't find what she wanted anywhere else: http://lovelife.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/book-it-baby.html.
But I mainly liked her accompanying post -- that she thinks baby books should not be so much about how much they weigh or how long they are at any given time, but how amazing they are and how they make you feel. Those are things I cherish about what I've recorded of Chris' life.
oh my gosh...I have been so bad about baby books. I would just buy one of those baby books that you can just fill in. Then anything on top of that is just icing on your cake. :)
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