I can't believe my little girl is already three months old. Actually, she's more like 3 and a half months old. Time is flying! Because taking weekly pictures while I was pregnant turned into such a pain, I decided I would just do monthly pictures for her first year instead of more weekly ones. Only problem was that I couldn't decide exactly how I wanted to do them. In this Pinterest era that we live in, there are so many creative ways floating around the interwebs of how to document your child's life. And it's not hard to get wrapped up in all of those fancy videos and professional photographs and feel pressured to have the best pictures of every moment. But sometimes you just have to make yourself snap out of it and do what works best for you. At least, that's what I had to do.
I spent the first month with different "picture theme" ideas rolling around in my head and when the 23rd approached, I still hadn't decided on one. Same chair every month? Same outfit every month to see how she fills it out? Something completely different every month? Agh, too many different ideas! So, I took three different pictures and thought I'd just see which one I liked best and wanted to keep doing. Three different pictures sounds like more work than just picking one, but I had one very big rule: I absolutely would NOT stress about getting the perfect picture. Set her up, grab the camera, click the button a couple times, and call it done. If I happened to get a cute smile, great. If not, so be it.
As it turns out, I've done all three different pictures for three months now. I still can't decide on just one. And, as you can see below, I absolutely have not gotten lots of cute smiles. But I'm ok with it. Maybe it's just a better representation of our life right now...not every day is rainbows and butterflies.
The first picture theme is of her sitting in the chair in her room with a chalkboard sign. I decided not to do the same outfit, but I'd at least try to make sure she always had on pink and white (hey, don't want to clash with the chair). Katie Wynn is making me stick to my "don't stress about it" rule. Tears during the picture? Check!
Truth be told, I did get a non-crying picture this last month, I just think it's funny that my usually happy baby has managed to cry in this picture for three months in a row. Maybe I should shoot for getting that face each month?
The second idea I toyed with was doing one of me and her together on the front steps of our house each month. This way I could see how we grow together over the year (hopefully only one of us will physically be growing). These have literally been 2 minute photoshoots. And since someone different has taken the picture each month, they're all slightly different.
Oh, I hate that the picture above got cropped because one reason I chose it is that you can see Lolli in the window to the left. I made her stay inside the house and she was feeling left out. I also liked this one from this month.
The third and final monthly picture has been a themed one for each month. This one's by far the hardest since I have to think of props or something to make it fit the theme. It might be the first one to fall off since it will be harder to think of a theme for each month...what do you do for January??
The plan will be to have all these printed and displayed at her first birthday party, and also put them all in a photobook documenting her first year. That is, if I actually follow through on taking them every month for 12 months. I'm a fourth of the way there, just gotta keep it up!