Parents try to trace the growth of their children in many ways, like tracking their height in pencil along doorframes and sticking their drawings up on the refrigerator door. The most effective way to record the growth and development of your child is by using a camera and then storing those pictures in a printed photo book.

While it’s popular to only store your photos in digital albums on technological devices, you should cherish these significant transitions in your child’s life in a physical family photo book. Online albums can get lost in the shuffle, whereas you won’t forget about a tangible photo book displayed in your office or living room. You can easily make your own photo book online by taking all of the pictures stored on your various computers, tablets, smartphones and social media accounts — then you can drop them into a website andorganize them into your ideal format. The website photoroost can help you create a polished photo book and have a printed copy sent to your home in under a week. Their software will let users pick their own layout and choose their own designs so that the final product is customized. Now that you know exactly how you can make your own album, here are the meaningful moments that you should catch on camera.

Milestones For A Baby

Every new thing that your baby does will feel like a groundbreaking occasion that you will want to preserve in a photograph. There are plenty of milestones to capture with pictures during your baby’s first year, like lifting their head without support, rolling over, sitting, standing and crawling.

Milestones For A Toddler

One of the biggest changes for toddlers is the movement away from diapers to potty training — many parents find pictures of this progression to be charming, but be wary of any photos that will be deemed too embarrassing when your childis older. Here is a brief list of other physical changes to think of commemorating in an album:

• Running
• Climbing
• Jumping
• Brushing their own teeth

Milestones For A Child

The term child usually refers to the period from age four or five until they are considered a teenager—that means you have almost a decade of important moments to capture in pictures. During this stage of their life, they will go through a lot of childhood milestones that you will want to snap in photos, like the loss of their baby teeth, learning how to ride a bicycle and swimming without flotation devices. It’s also good to keep your eye on your child’s academic milestones throughout their years at school, like reading without any help or completing their first project on their own.

Every child is different, so they will have milestones that are unique to them—it might be participating in a school concert, gaining a new belt in martial arts or learning how to play the piano. If you want to have proof of their personal milestones, you just need to be close-by and holding a camera.