Scroll through your Facebook newsfeed and there’s a good chance you’ll see a photo documenting that a friend’s baby has aged another month or week. In these month-by-month baby pictures, the child is generally photographed near a sign showcasing his or her age.
And often times, you can tell that a parent spent money on the special milestone props — whether they’re a set of $10 belly stickers or $5 printable month signs — that may not have much use after the shoots.
But lately, I’ve noticed a few of my friends posting especially creative month-by-month baby pictures. So today’s hint focuses on these three clever, and you might even say frugal, ways to mark the months (or weeks) in these types of photos.
1.) Old-fashioned alphabet blocks. Every month for the last eight months, my friend has taken a picture of her now eight-month-old baby near some ABC/123 blocks, with a number block marking the milestone month and letter blocks spelling out the word “month.” Not only is this approach, especially cute, it’s also thrifty. New parents who buy the blocks as photo props can repurposed them into just what they are, blocks, down the road. And meanwhile, for experienced parents who already have these blocks lying around the house, they’re a cute way to chronicle another baby’s growth without spending money on flimsy signs. A variation on this idea would be to use other types of toy letters, like those in these photos, and you can see a whole series of block month-by-month baby pictures here.
2.) Small chalkboards. I’ve also seen photos of babies propped up near small chalkboards that display their monthly or weekly progress. I like this approach because the chalkboard can also be repurposed into a toy, as well as into a useful item to have around the house (for instance, you can hang a chalkboard on your kitchen wall and use it to write down what groceries you need or other notes to family members). Plus, during photo shoots, you can write down key baby stats on the board, transforming the photograph into an easy baby book entry of sorts, a great idea covered recently by Cool Mom Picks and another way of modernizing old-fashioned baby books.
3.) Apples, Oranges or Other Similar Objects. With this approach, instead of spelling out your baby’s age, you place your baby next to a certain number of objects. For instance, a one month old would be propped next to one apple, while a 12 monther would be surrounded by a dozen fruits. I like this idea for the same reason I like the others above – the items can be repurposed, this time into food. You can see an example of using apples as props on this Pinterest board.
Looking for more month-by-month baby picture ideas? Check out this Pinterest board on the topic, this She Knows piece, these ideas covered by the Daily Mom blog and this helpful Babble.com post by Molly Thornberg of the Digital Mom Blog.
What are your favorite methods of marking the months, or weeks, in baby photo shoots and why?
These are such cute ideas.
When my kids were little, you documented them by taking them to the local Sears, Walmart or Kmart photo center for 3, 6, maybe 9, and 12 month photos if you remembered to. Digital photos have made it so easy to document your little ones as they grow.
Wow some really great ideas! gonna share this with my BFF Who is due next spring!
I wish I would of seen a post like this when I had my son. He is 7 months right now, every month I take a pic of him with the same teddy bear. It stared out the bear was bigger than him, now he is bigger than the bear! Lol
Thanks for sharing my photos as inspiration! They definitely got harder to capture as he got older. I’ve started a new series with my daughter too, I only hope I can go as long, haha! The web address actually moved to http://myriadandsundry.com/