A New Approach to the Baby Book - the Instant Scrapbook Calendar

I have to admit that when I found out I was pregnant, the first thing I did was run out and look at baby books. Im not entirely sure why, perhaps I like the feeling of writing in the correct information and then pasting the correct picture in its intended space because it reminds me of doing homework.

Eventually my mom gave me a book I liked and I began writing every last detail of my pregnancy on the corresponding pages. I pasted cards from the baby shower and even went outside the box with some freestyle decorations. Turns out baby booking is a large load of time-consuming work! I started to suspect that Ikaika was going to end up with a detailed account of his infancy while his sibling would end up with a few reciepts from the doctor taped into a spiral notebook.

And then along came the baby calendar.

This is an amazing product that takes all the craziness out of baby booking.

Basically its a blank calendar and you just fill in the days with something that happened. But its cute because it is pre-decorated like a scrapbook.

It comes with stickers like "doctor visit", "plays peekaboo" or "first tooth" that you can stick onto the appropriate day.

It also comes with beautiful backgrounds to paste your pictures too and a sheet of stickers to decorate the pictures, making the scrapbooking part of it a breeze. You can even use things like their hospital bracelet or a plane ticket to decorate the photos.

There is even a pocket in the back to put special things (like a baptism certificate) so you dont lose them. You can also store things you want to use for the pages. How I wish I had put his ticket from the Brewers game into that pocket right away instead of letting it be swallowed by the diaper bag...

When the baby is a year old and the calendar is finished then you just tear the pages out and they fit perfectly into a 12x12 scrapbook album!

This satisfies all the major requirements of a baby book (except it only goes to one year) and its so much easier to remember to update. Mr A and I love going back through the calendar and seeing Ikaika grow month to month. The only hard part is picking which pictures to use!

This is definitely something I will do again. These scrapbook calendars come in all different styles and for all different occasions. There are wedding, new baby, school year, and generic family templates. Mine is from Hallmark (it was a gift) but I couldnt find it on their website. Ebay has a generous selection - just search for "instant scrapbook calendar".