How to Keep Track of Your Baby's Milestones: Fun Ways to Document the First Year and Beyond

Whether you are adding a baby to your family or anticipating the arrival of your first child, you certainly want to capture those special moments of a child's early years in a way that is fun and easy.  Here are a few ideas to help you with that process.  Happy Milestone Marking!

Photos:

What:  When I was a child my mom took a picture of me every year with the same stuffed animal.  As I got older I found the practice annoying, but today I am super thankful for the record of my growth and my girls love to watch me grow up in pictures.  I decided to carry this tradition on with my kiddos as well.  For the first month I take a picture next to the animal of choice every week.  Then at a month, I move to taking every month.  At the one year mark, I move to every year on their birthday.  

Why:These pictures make an easy and inexpensive way to mark the growth a child undergoes and they'll love looking at them later!

How:  This is the easy part, just choose an animal or doll for the pictures and then snap away!  We went with a gender neutral stuffed animal because I wanted to use the same one for all our kids.  I chose to always take the monthly pictures in a onesie because you can really see the change and growth better when they're not all covered up.  Once my girls hit the year mark, I always pick out or make a birthday shirt and take the picture in that. 

Journaling:

What: I have to admit that I am a terrible journal keeper! I have great intentions but often go long periods without writing in them. My solution is to keep a calendar for my kids instead. During the first year of life I use a monthly calendar to record all kinds of information. I include things from first experiences to doctor visits, to interactions with people to fun stories and details of behavior and preference.

Why: I do this for two reasons. One I love that my kids will have a record of their babyhood written in my own handwriting. I think it speaks to our connection and how they were known and cherished long before they remember it. The other is that it is a quick and thorough way to really get a lot of information recorded. My girls love to have theirs read to them and we often get them out and read a bit on their birthdays.

How: My favorite thing about the calendar is that the squares are fairly small. This means that I'm just writing little tidbits, not long stories or tons of details, just little snapshots of life. I also like that I have the option to fill each day or write weekly or just record the days where major things happen. The calendar I use has a section for pictures and a few lines under them where I try to capture just what the child was like this month or something I really enjoyed watching them do that month. Easy, quick, but very meaningful.

Child Created Art Projects:

What: One of my favorite ways to record the growth of a child is to mark art projects that involve painting their hands or feet. These are darling and make great gifts for family members too.

Why: I love these because they really show the change in the child's body as it grows. Not just as they hands and feet get bigger but as the child becomes more and more independent in the making of the project.

How: Choose your project. This site has fun ideas of all kind of hand and feet art. You can do one a month or just a handful of seasonal ones that you make every year. We do an apple tree in September, a turkey in November and a Flag in July. After we make them, I write the child's name, age and date on the back of the project.

There are all kinds of fun ways to record your baby's milestones and growth.  These are the ways we love.  I am so grateful to have ways of record keeping that are fun for me to do as well as easy and free of mommy guilt. I hope you find the ways that are just right for your family and then enjoy the journey!  Here is a great hub about how to keep a baby record book.  What are your favorite ways to capture and record memories of your kiddos?