Photo Book Baby’s Second Year in Review

 

Two years have flown by (actually 2.5 years) and I’ve just completed Photo Book Baby’s Year Two in Review. Nothing like a great photo book deal to get your project in motion. Can’t wait to see it!

Last year I made a baby photo book for him covering his first year.

I really liked the way that book turned out. I actually printed out an abridged copy for him to thumb through and then a copy for myself with more pages. He’s enjoyed looking at it for the past year and now his second year book is out to print.

For his second year, I planned to repurpose the same design to keep it consistent, but I did make some small changes. Last year the main title page to the month featured a layout of 9 of my favorite photos of PBB in a circular frame. (b/t/w it was really hard to narrow down the photos. I think most parents love most any photo of their little ones!)

This year to make it a little different I changed the circular frames to rounded corner frames. Not a huge change, but you do get to see more of the photo itself as it doesn’t crop out as much as a circular frame.

I also decided to add more captions with anecdotes on his progress from month to month. I have been keeping a journal which focuses on his progress and the milestones he’s been reaching since he was born. As he started to become more verbal over the last year, I kept a list of the words he was adding to his vocabulary. I also kept track of his favorite foods, books and toys so I could add these little notes to each month’s spread.

I also decided to give the month and year for each month’s spread so it was easier to identify the timeframe. For example, “month fourteen” also included the note of “October 2012”

A new thing I decided to do at the end of the book is a collage of photos of his favorite things, or things in his everyday life. I know that as time passes my memory will lapse and I’ll be happy to be able to look back at the details with these visual journals. Of course when Photo Book Baby is older, I hope he’ll appreciate these books as well! (or he’ll just think his mom is strange – I think that’s inevitable.)

 

Another fun idea I recommend for your year in review and baby photo books is a time progression shot. As you may recall I have been taking a photo of PBB with his father’s guitar since he was one week old. I broke the streak by missing his two-year guitar photo (arrggghhh!!!) but I did get a 2.5 year photo. It’s an unfortunate lapse, but I’ll try to be better at keeping it going. The plan is to do it every 6 months rather than every month as I did in the first year. When my husband teased that I would have our son take a guitar photo through age 21, I said, “absolutely – why not!?” (Just another reason for PBB to think his mom is weird.)

If you’re concerned about being bored with reusing an old design, you can always add different ideas in future books or make some changes to set it apart if you want, but retaining the main structure can keep the project cohesive and moving forward. In summary, I wholeheartedly recommend repurposing your old designs, not only for expediency and ease, but also for continuity. I look forward to having a multi-volume set of these books to enjoy for years to come!

I would love to hear about your baby book projects! Please comment below. B/t/w a lot of awesome deals (up to 70% off) are ending today! Be sure to check them out!.