Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Baby Book Ideas

Ok - thought I'd share something on this blog for ease.  Emailing pictures this large will likely blow up email accounts.  Some folks are getting to the "photo album" stage - that precious time when you get to send a photo album to your child waiting to know all about YOU!  Here are a few pics we took of our album. 
Tips:
1.) Think of showing things for the social worker to talk to your child about - we have pictures of an airplane, our van, and even a car seat -- all things these kiddos may not have ever seen before. - Can easily find this stuff off the internet if you don't have a good picture.
2.) Do close-ups so they can REALLY see your face
3.) If you want to send two albums - a great idea is to send a baby cloth album for the child to carry around with him or her - we put ours in a baggie with one of my shirts (with my perfume on it) for abut 2-3 weeks before we sent it off....hopefully she can get used to my scent, her brain will recall that smell when we meet... let the bonding begin!
4.) For us, we used textures for her to touch and feel butterfly and flower stickers. 
5.) We sent some stickers along for her to put on some of the pages - if she wants.
6.) We made copies of HER referral picture and put those also in the book - especially the ones where we added HER to our family.
7.) Make sure to include family pets – it helps for them to get used to dogs, etc. – they are not used to having pets.

Enjoy this little project -- it is a very happy time.  - I hope blogger doesn't blow up with this many pictures :)
Love, Renae.


Baby Album - small and just pictures of her family.







For the other albumn, it has more details .... hope this works  - my IT skills are not the best :)  Hopefully the social worker has been able to go over this album with Lauren many times so she's used to seeing where she will live, her room, etc.  -- and even be a little prepared for a ride in an aiplane.




















Hope this helps in sharing ideas for all those at this stage of the adoption.  Enjoy.

16 comments:

  1. We weren't able to do this with our first adoption -- and I don't know if we will be able to this time either, since it's a different orphanage altogether. But the ayahs (nannies) put together a little scrapbook for us and Anya, and gave it to us the day we met her. I totally lost it . . . what a thoughtful thing for those BUSY ladies to do.
    Nancy

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  2. These are great ideas! Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Renae...thanks SO much for sharing this...this is wonderful, and you had such good ideas... love it. I enjoyed your creativity, and ways you made it fun for her to look at. I think I might get started on hers tonight. :):) How fun! Your little girl is adorable, and she looks like she fits in already. :) Soon, very soon..praying.
    Thanks again for taking the time to post this. It really helps.

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  4. Love, love, love it! I really want to do both of these.

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  5. Wow!!! This is exactly what I have been working on and was looking for ideas! Where did you get that first small album? I was struggling with figuring how how to photoshop her into some of the photos of us. Thanks for sharing this.

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    1. At first adding her pictures seemed a little weird because of scale - and how to paste these on to look ok - but we just went for it. Kindof like where's waldo - only where's anjali hiding in our pics :) We just glued them on the pages.

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    2. Can get album from amazon - it's from Manhattan Toy Company - what is neat about this one was there were lift things making it a bit interactive. Type in whoozit album on Amazon and it will come up for you. :)

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  6. We did the same thing with the two photo albums for Charu. We also sent a recordable book to her that we had recorded us reading to her. Charu still requests to read "her books" before bed a lot of the time and we were blessed to get the books back when we left SKB with Charu!

    Love your photo albums!!! Sooooo excited for you!!!

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  7. I love that. I will have to copy the soft book and perfume idea!

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  8. So excited to share with all of you -- and now I know why we took pictures of the books before we sent them off :)

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  9. I love it Renae!!!! Thank you so much for sharing.

    And, okay...I'm totally curious....what perfume do you wear?

    Love you....
    Mer

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    1. Hey Mer-
      Several years ago Brad got me DKNY Be Delicious - it's a little fruity / citrus - clean, light smelling :) And it comes in a round bottle (clear) light green - so looks sortof like an apple.... I hope Lauren likes it! Maybe she will LOVE fruit - although we normally have red apples in our house. I have a weird feeling you might have already guessed me as a citrus scent-kindof gal. :) I can't wait until it's time for you to put your awesome photography skills to work and do YOUR book :) What's the latest on V - just waiting for your dossier to be reviewed / approved across the water??
      Love you-
      Renae.

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  10. Happy Raksha Bandhan to Joshua and Lauren! This celebration, next year, the brother-sister duo will be together!

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