Nanny to Mommy

Being a parent is very strange. You’re always full of mixed emotions, as so many situations demand different responses. For example, one of the joys of being a parent is watching your child grow up. You see them go from a tiny newborn into a toddler, then into a full-on child with a schoolbag on their back! Equally, this is also the worst thing about being a parent. You don’t want your child to grow up as you wish they could stay small and be your baby forever. You see, contrasting emotions! 

Realistically, you have to accept that your child will grow up, and you should embrace this. Tracking the growth of your child is a brilliant way to do just that. So, here are some creative ways you can document your child’s growth: 

Photoshoots are a fantastic way to visually document your child’s growth. Start with photos of them as a newborn, then keep taking them every few months. There are companies like NYC Newborn Photography that can put together professional photos of your newborn baby and you. To make things even more creative, try and recreate the same photos and poses every time. This gives a better visual representation of how big your child is getting! You should also create your own photobook to put all of these pictures in. This way, you can easily look back through them over the years.

What better way to track the growth of your child than by creating a wall chart? It’s one of the age-old classic ideas to see how tall your child is getting. Now, you’re probably not going to be able to stand up your newborn baby and track their height! But, as soon as they can stand up, then get them up against a wall to measure how tall they are. Keep doing this over the years, and you will see just how quickly your baby goes from titchy to tall. Expect to see some dramatic height jumps during the pre-teen years! How often should you do this? Once a year is a good place to start, preferably on their birthday. If you’re super keen, you could up this to twice a year.

Kids love making a mess and getting their hands dirty, so this is perfect! Handprints are very easy to make, and there’s a short video above that tells you how to do it. This idea is amazing as it lets you create keepsakes of your child throughout the years. You also see how much bigger their hands get year after year. If you want to, you could do the same thing but with footprints - though this will get harder when their feet get bigger!

With these creative ideas, you will see how much your baby grows during their life. It’s such a great idea to do things like this as it reminds you of how small your child once was. Plus, it’s just a lovely way to see their development and progression.