Today is Olivia's 8 month birthday. Every month we take the same pictures using the same props so that we can see her growing up throughout her first year of life!
My baby shower utilized chalkboards throughout the party, which my beautiful friends left with me. In addition to that, the main activity during the shower was to make tutus for Olivia. Thus, my baby shower was actually the inspiration for Olivia's monthly baby pictures.
Every month, on the 11th, I lay out a muslin blanket and write her age on the chalkboard. The first month I used what I thought was a chalk marker but it wouldn't erase... Oops! Since then, I just use plain old white chalk. I dress her in a white onesie, her pink tutu and a matching bow.
My challenges have changed over the months. It used to be that the hardest part about taking the picture was getting her to smile or have a good facial expression. Nowadays I can make her laugh just by looking at her, but she desperately wants to eat the chalkboard :) Keeping that darn chalkboard out of her hands has become practically impossible!
I take several different poses every month, so that I will have a variety of options when it comes to creating photo collages. For example, I used a bunch of different styles when I did a six month collaboration.
I highly recommend finding something that is personal to you and your family to use as props for your monthly pictures. By incorporating our baby shower theme, I paid homage to the amazing party that my best friends threw for me. I have another friend who uses a meaningful rocking chair and blanket for her daughters monthly pictures. It is a great way to create a keepsake that documents how quickly babies grow and change.
Happy 8 month birthday Olivia!
See you soon!
Love!
ReplyDeleteThank you! And thank you for helping to inspire the theme of her photo shoots! xoxo
DeleteLove the tutu and it starts out so huge on her heh. I didn't get organized enough at the beginning and then wanted my pictures to all look the same so they're not as exciting as some who use chalkboards or cool stickers. But it works :) The idea of putting one item that is the same for the whole year to show relative growth is really cool and I wish I did that heh.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I didn't do anything like this with my 9 year old son and I wish I had. I do have a great series of his first days of school, I'll have to share that soon!
DeleteReally lovely idea, I wish I had seen this idea whilst my 2 little girls were babies. I can however pass this on to my sister-in-law who has just had my new beautiful baby niece.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Congratulations on your new niece :)
DeleteThese are so cute! I took monthly pictures of my first son, but I totally wish I had made them special - good thing number 2 is almost here ;)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on #2! Stay tuned, I will be posting a pregnancy photo shoot soon!
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