Need Ideas - capture memories for kids when they're young

[Mamaluu]

I need some ideas to journal, photograph, or somehow capture and keep all the memories of all the little things and special little moments for my son (and myself) when he is baby. Some specific questions:

1) Actual method of journaling (ie, online photobook, scrapbook...) - photobook ends up costing a lot, where do you go that's got good price & quality? scrapbooking is no-no for me - too time consuming.

2) How you find time to do it, instead of letting months and months go by while you already don't remember those little moments clear enough to write about and feeling regretful? (that's me, son is almost 9 months and I still don't have anything) Do you sit down once a week/month to do all this or what?

3) What is your system for organizing all the photos, videos, and keeping backups? (how often you organize/back up, how?) Mine is all piled up either on the digital camera or computer harddrive and they are all over the place... yet, if something were to happen to the computer I'd lose it all.... :-O

I get kind of sad thinking how fast the baby stage passes by, and I want a way to keep memories for all those little moments that we can look back one day. What is the best and least time-consuming way to do that? I'd like to be able to see pictures or something and recall: "oh, he used to always lick his bear when he went to sleep".... "oh, remember when he was first crawling all over the room saying Mamamamama trying to get me to feed him?" Or perhaps make a journal for him so he can see what he's like as a baby when he grows up.

[LoveLife]

Photos are something that I really cherish. I'm always snapping pictures. I would suggest start small and just get those pictures printed and thrown into an album. But here's what I do so far...

1.) My Method- Well I don't scrapbook, its just too expensive and like you said- time consuming. (I wish I had the patience for it though.) But I do use snapfish and create photobooks online. The quality is good and they have a lot of creative options. I also got Photoshop Essentials for Christmas. I LOVE editing and playing with all my pictures, but it does take time too. So I'm slowly learning it and hoping to create some one of a kind photobooks eventually.

2.) For finding time- I make sure to print off pictures every month and at least stick them in a photo album. I take maybe an hour over the course of a few days and jot notes next to each picture, so I don't forget those moments. Then I set up project times (like next month when I have a 3 week break from school) that's when I make online photobooks and edit to make them really special. You can save them too, and come back and work on them later, so it doesn't have to be in one sitting.

3.) As far as organizing goes- like I said, I have the regular photo albums abd photobooks. These are dated and when one gets old it goes in the closet on the shelf by date, the newer ones sit on the coffee table.

And BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS!!!!!! Sorry, but its SO important to back up your pics. I'm pretty crazy about it. I have mine on the computer, then on snapfish (only because I create and order stuff through them). Then I make 2 CDs of my pictures, one goes in a photobox (you can get them at michael's) the most recent ones in front. The other CD goes to my mom's house in a photobox in her basement. A friend of mine had her house burn down to the ground and the only thing she wanted that couldn't be replaced was YEARS of her family photos. It was heartbreaking, her kids will never be able to look at their baby and childhood years. Also, Photoshop also has a free back-up system that comes with their program and it automatically backs up your photos whenever you load them, but I haven't tried to retrieve them yet or anything, so I don't really know much about it.

Sorry that was long, but I hope it helped. Just jump in and figure out what works for you!

[Erinz]

I do a private family blog. It's dual purpose as friends and family can check out the pics and at the end of the year I can order a book of my blog through sites such as Blurb. A friend ordered hers and it looks fabulous!

[catinthehat]

I have a journal that I just jot down a few little special things they did each day. I usually write only a small paragraph each day, but after a year, there will be a lot of memories there.

[berry987]

I'm not answering all your questions because I am not great at preserving memories, BUT, I did get a great idea from a friend. I keep a pretty notebook on my kitchen counter. When one of the kids says something or does something funny/cute/special I write it down. There's no organization (I just put the date and the funny story) and there is just one notebook for all three kids. But it's easy to do and so I do it and am able to capture a lot of funny things they say. I can already look back and see things my 5 yo said 2 years ago that I would have completely forgotten. I plan to one day type it up and give a copy to each of my kids.

[Mamaluu]

Originally Posted by LoveLife

I do use snapfish and create photobooks online.
....

I make sure to print off pictures every month and at least stick them in a photo album. I take maybe an hour over the course of a few days and jot notes next to each picture, so I don't forget those moments. Then I set up project times (like next month when I have a 3 week break from school) that's when I make online photobooks and edit to make them really special.

So I'm hearing that you not only print out hard copes of each photos, but you also create a photobook print copy too? Is that right that you do both? So you would have 2 hard copies of every photo?

I didn't want to print out all the photos just because they are too much (and it'll be taking up a lot of space as they add up), but I don't really have a way of jotting down notes next to the digital photos so I can wait until I can sit down and compile the photobook with those note/journals later. Any suggestions on being able to easily jot down some quite notes about the moments associated to specific photos without printing out the photos? (I want to use the notes when I actually compile the whole photobook)

Another question, how often do you create a photobook? My first photobook consisted of my child's 2-4 month old photo collection (doesn't even have any notes/journals) (I skipped making anything for birth and first month), and then I never did another book again and he is almost 9 months now. Do you have one photobook per, say, 6 months, a year, or what? and how many pages do each of these photobooks have? Just wanted to get an idea of how much photographing you do and how much you make them into products like photobooks.... Because to me all the photos are overwhelming, I don't take photos all the time, but when I do, I take a lot of the same shot to make sure I get a good shot (because the baby moves so much and you can never get a clear shot), and I end up having to screen through possibly 20-30 shots of the same thing trying to pick out a good one).

[rootzdawta]

Moved from Stay-at-Home Parents.

[LoveLife]

Originally Posted by Mamaluu

So I'm hearing that you not only print out hard copes of each photos, but you also create a photobook print copy too? Is that right that you do both? So you would have 2 hard copies of every photo?

I didn't want to print out all the photos just because they are too much (and it'll be taking up a lot of space as they add up), but I don't really have a way of jotting down notes next to the digital photos so I can wait until I can sit down and compile the photobook with those note/journals later. Any suggestions on being able to easily jot down some quite notes about the moments associated to specific photos without printing out the photos? (I want to use the notes when I actually compile the whole photobook)

Another question, how often do you create a photobook? My first photobook consisted of my child's 2-4 month old photo collection (doesn't even have any notes/journals) (I skipped making anything for birth and first month), and then I never did another book again and he is almost 9 months now. Do you have one photobook per, say, 6 months, a year, or what? and how many pages do each of these photobooks have? Just wanted to get an idea of how much photographing you do and how much you make them into products like photobooks.... Because to me all the photos are overwhelming, I don't take photos all the time, but when I do, I take a lot of the same shot to make sure I get a good shot (because the baby moves so much and you can never get a clear shot), and I end up having to screen through possibly 20-30 shots of the same thing trying to pick out a good one).

Most of the time I do regular photos first and stick them in an album and jot stuff down. The photobooks I'm a lot more selective on. I did one for DH for father's day last year, DS's first birthday, Christmas, etc. Just the really big occassions. There are some repeat photos, but not all of them- if I know I'm going to make a photobook I tend to save those ones. And since the photobook tends to be themed, the pics take on a very different look than just a regular album.

I'm not sure about writing notes without printing. Maybe adding a caption when you load them onto the computer? Then you would know exactly what you wanted to say for that moment. Of course then you'd have to make sure you regularly load them so you don't forget. Its why I tend to do both regular albums and photobooks... I don't have a good solution there. Or maybe have a small notebook in your camera case and note the date plus your comments? Then you could match it up when you did the photobook.

I fill up a 250-350 page album about every 3 months. Now, those are just what I print, not the 15 pictures I took of one moment. I'll just pic the best one or two and print those. Both photoshop and windows gallery have side by side comparison, so you can wade through the pics more easily.

HTH!

[wife&mommy]

I do photo books as well once a year for each kid. But if that is too much for you, maybe you could just keep a blog? And then you could print it out if you choose one day. Or I have a friend who copied and pasted her blog into a photo book.