High Maintenance Mom

This week is a great time to take holiday pictures if you haven't already. We like using the Shutterfly collage option, as I mentioned last year (along with including kids' stories in holiday letters). It's great for those of us who can't get everyone to look remotely happy for a family picture. You can also choose to make cards out of your kids' artwork (my parents made our moving card out of a picture I drew when I was five and it's in my baby book). Another great gift is a family photo / artwork book. They take a little time to make and only cover the things you've photographed throughout the year but they are really fun to look at and last longer than calendars. My kids also each have their own ABC book with pictures I've taken of them or things they like...

Making books is also a great way to teach kids the things you want them to remember such as how to get dressed in the morning. See our previous post on Back-to-school photo books.

Here is N's ABC book with pictures of things he likes

A is for Artwork. Saba and Savta collected art.
B is for Brothers, Baking, and Balls (three pictures).
C is for Canada. My Granny and Grandad live in Canada. It snows there in the winter so we can go sledding.
D is for Ducks, Diggers, Drains, and Dinosaurs (four pictures).
E is for Exploring. I love to explore.
F is for Firetrucks, Flamingos, and Frogs (three pictures).
G is for Giraffes, Garbage (cans and trucks), and Gorillas.
H is for (his last name with family pictures).
I is for Ice skating.
J is for Jumping. B likes to jump and so do I (picture of brother in the air).
K is for Kumquats and computer Keys. I like to eat kumquats and I like to type. I also took several keys off my parent's laptops several times (two pictures).
L is for Lights. L is also for Lions. I like to watch the lions at the zoo (two pictures).
M is for Mud, Mammoths, Maps, and Mail trucks (four pictures).
N is for (his name with three cute pictures).
O is for Owls, Ostriches, and the Ocean (three pictures).
P is for my cat Pixel, Penguins, and my Puppy towel (three pictures).
Q is for quiet time (picture of N looking at a book in bed in his pjs).
R is for Running and Reading (pictures of running and reading with his brother).
S is for Shoveling Sand. I also like to sweep.
T is for Tractors. T is for Trucks. T is for Teeth. And T is for Trains (four pictures including riding a play tractor, our favorite UPS truck, brushing teeth, and the CalTrain).
U is for uncles (two pictures of uncles).
V is for (my last name).
W is for Water. I love water (three splashing pictures).
X is for railroad crossing. The railroad crossing sign is in the shape of an X.
Y is for Yellow boots and Yellow school buses.
Z is for Zoo. I like to go to the zoo with my family and friends.

Here are a few other ideas for letters

You can include numbers, colors, animals, friends, and favorite toys/characters.
A - Animals, Airplanes, Aquarium
B - Baseball, Brother, Birthday, Bathing, Boats
C - Cake, Crawling, Climbing, Cleaning, Clown
D - Drawing, Dolls, Dress-up, Daddy, Dance
E - Eggs, Excitement, Entertaining, Energy, Eating
F - Forts, Flowers, Fish, Family, Friends
G - Graceful, Garden, Games,
H - Hopping, Hugging, Holidays
I - Ice, Imagining, Island, Idea
J - Jumping, Jam, Jet, Jigsaw, Joke, July,
K - Kite, Kisses, Keys, Kick, Kitchen,
L - Library, Laughing, Love, Listen
M - Make believe, Me, Mommy, Music
N - Noise, Naps, Neighborhood / Neighbors, Night, Numbers
O - Outside, Orange, Odyssey, On, Open,
P - Playing, Parks, Picnics, Play-doh, Piano, Parties, Princess
Q - Quiet time, Quack (ducks), Quick, Queen
R - Resting, Running, Reading, Roaring, Racing
S - Sleeping, Swimming, Splashing, Sharing, Smiling
T - Talking, Traveling, Trains,
U - Uncle, Under, Up in the Sky
V - Valentine, Visiting, Vacation, Vegetable, Vogue
W - Water, Wonder, Washing, Weather,
X - Xylophone, X-ray (broken bones), Xmas
Y - Yellow, Yelling, Yoga, Yawning, Yard, Yummy, Yogurt
Z - Zoo, Zippers, Zen, Zoom,

Shutterfly also has adventure books including an ABC book that you can just add your pictures to.