• Instead of scrapbooking every photo you take, divide your photos by month and choose some of your favorites to highlight in a 2 to 4 page layout for each month. You’ll be able to show how your baby has grown and changed over an entire year, without having to create separate layouts for each roll of film.
• Keep a monthly calendar to document various milestones, firsts, and important dates. You can then include the calendar with each set of monthly photos. It’s a great way to do your journaling “as you go” and remember all of those important little everyday moments.
• Include the photos that you don’t choose to scrapbook in photo sleeve pages behind each monthly layout. This allows you to include the additional photos in your album without having to make additional scrapbook pages for each event or set of photos. Be sure to add the date and label each photo so that you’ll know when and where they were taken as well as who was in them.
• Don’t let this system prevent you from creating scrapbook pages about special moments or events that inspire you to create additional layouts. Just add them to the album in chronological order!

Remember that there is no “right” way to organize your scrapbook. Use whatever system that works best for you.

About the Author
Andrea Steed is the author and creator of Scrap Tutor, a web site and CD-ROM that teaches you how to create scrapbooks and how to perform many popular techniques used in scrapbooking. For more information, visit www.scraptutor.com.

While there are no hard and fast rules to which events must absolutely be covered and since it is very impractical to have a camera within reach at all times there are a few moments that you will want to take great care in trying to catalog. Some of these special events for which you will want to be sure to snap plenty of baby pictures include some of the following.

1. First steps. While the probability of you actually getting the very first steps your baby takes on film your baby will have a few days of wobbly steps and a great sense of pride and accomplishment for you to capture this moment on film (or data cards as the case may be). This is an important moment for your baby and will be a bittersweet time for you as your child takes the first of many steps towards independence.
2. That first tooth. While we love our baby’s smiles there is something special about that one smile where one tooth is proudly displayed for the world to see. Your baby has labored hard and spent many nights in misery for this small trophy. You should record this moment and take comfort in the knowledge that your little one may have a day or two of peace and relative painlessness before the next tooth begins to work its way to the surface.
3. Raising her head. This is one of the first major accomplishments your baby will experience. When she begins to raise her head on her own she will begin for the first time to really see and desire to explore the world around her. A world beyond her mommy and daddy.
4. Siblings holding baby. There are few photos that are more precious than those of older siblings holding their baby brother or sister for the very first time. These are the photos you will want to grace the cover of your baby photo album and send out in your birth announcements for many reasons. First, it eases big brother/sister anxiety and lets them know that they are still important. Second, it gives the baby a reference to those times that he or she will not remember in the future. Finally, this is a huge bonding experience and a tender moment for siblings, who wouldn’t want to record this special moment?

You will find plenty more opportunities to take excellent baby pictures throughout the life of your precious little one. Don’t sweat the details so much that you forget to record a photo of baby with daddy (or several) and mommy in the process. The memories behind the photos will prove far more precious in time than the photos themselves so be sure to capture some special moments to recollect later.