Ever since I found out I was pregnant with Ezzy, I guess you could say that I became a little obsessed with recording every memory and milestone. That's why I started this blog, and I still love to go back and re-read old posts to remember what we did on weekends or how we spent our vacations. But I love having all our favorite photos and memories in a tangible format too. That's why Joe's Father's Day present was (another) photo book that I made using Shutterfly. This is the 4th book I've made for Joe using Shutterfly and I love how personal and creative they are.
This book covered Ezzy's 1st year, which means I looked through thousands (and thousands) of photos. The typical Shutterfly book is 20 pages, and I had to add 30 additional pages just to fit it all in. That's 50 pages! And that was showing restraint, I could have easily doubled that. That boy's life is well-documented, to say the least.
While we're in the midst of day to day life, it's impossible to notice the small changes taking place. But to put it all down in one book and see Ezzy go from sleepy newborn to a smily baby to a lil chub ball, and now to a little boy just boggles my mind. Since we're first-time parents, I don't think it really registered to us just how helpless a newborn is. It was a big milestone when Ezzy could finally grasp toys on his own. Rolling over, sitting up...all that stuff that he had to learn to get to where he is now: crawling all over the place, tentatively walking, scattering toys everywhere he goes, mimicking us, cracking up over the silliest of things. It's the kind of stuff you take for granted, or just don't think about at all before you're a parent, but then once each little milestone happens it's the biggest deal in the world.
Technically I made this book as Joe's Father's Day present, but I imagine one day it will be Ezzy's. That's why the little monthly updates are addressed to Ezzy. Joe and I often wonder if Ezzy will be embarrassed by the thousands (and counting) photos we have of him, but I think he'll enjoy looking back on all of our little adventures just as much as Joe and I do.
I'm sure as fellow parents in this digital age you have just as many photos of your little ones. How do you use them/display them?
This post turned out to be a little more rambling than I intended and I've got a little boy at my feet tearing up a napkin and scattering the pieces all over the floor, so I'm gonna wrap this up. Happy humpday!
The photo book looks so nice! I am so jealous! I have no made 1 book yet for Elin and she is already 2!!!! I have been dying to make a book like this before she was even born but the longer i wait the more the idea seems so daunting. I need to work on it ASAP! It's my goal to get the first year done this summer.
ReplyDeleteThe more pictures you have, the more daunting it seems. The most time consuming thing for me was going through all the photos we have (at least a thousand per month) and picking out the best. Once all the photos were on Shutterfly, the organization and decorating was fun and flew by. I think if you took an hour a day, you could probably get it done in about a week though, so you'll definitely have a great book by the end of summer :)
DeleteI love it! I'm still trying to do Aria's year one and she is 1.5. Maybe by the time she is two? maybe... looks great though!
ReplyDeleteAt least you have the blog to look back on, that makes it so much easier to organize everything :)
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