[PR Gifted]

Since becoming a parent I can testify life with a little one is hectic.  Especially being a first timer, day to day life is crazy enough, so it can be tricky keeping up with the rest of life such as family visits.  If you’re not seeing relatives as often as you’d like that’s a lot of growing up, and time, for babies to forget.  When you’re a baby or toddler, feeling like you don’t recognise someone you’re expected to can be daunting, maybe frightening, and that can be tough on both sides.

Even social media, which makes it pretty easy to engage with family these days, wouldn’t be the same without imagery.  Looking at a photo of a loved one makes us feel emotionally connected even when we’re not face to face.

Showing little ones photos of their family keeps them aware of who people are, so what better way to help educate than with baby’s own photo book?  Babies love books!

Photobox recently added to their range of photo books with the adorable My First Photo Book (£14.95), a baby friendly board book full of baby’s family photos.

The My First Photo Book is a chunky book made specially for little hands; it has a substantial feel and nicely thick pages with soft rounded corners.  With a premium matt finish cover and 16 glossy pages, this compact sized photo book can hold as many photos, with an additional photo on the cover.

The little photo book offers a decent level of customisation without causing you to spend too much time on editing.  First you can choose whether to have photos accompanied with words or not, with the option to print one to three styles (a full page image, a condensed image, and condensed with a title).  You can modify the title text with a choice of several fonts, colours and text size.  And with the choice of creating each page minimalistic white or a colourful background, you can create a book that’s as educational as it is fun.

I really wanted to create a photo book for Reuben that contained all of his family, which initially proved the trickiest task.  16 pages was not going to be enough for a family our size so it took me a fair bit of arranging and rearranging until I was happy.

So the format I settled on was the condensed size photo with text, which allowed me to tag relatives names beneath the picture.  With it being a baby book to learn from, I felt the need to keep the look as simple as possible.  I forwent the coloured backgrounds, instead keeping the clean white template, and I chose a font that was clear and rounded printed to the biggest size so the letters and words were easiest to read.  Though I did make the text a medium blue which was the shade I chose to cover the book, just so there was a pop of colour.

Fitting the whole family into 16 pages took a little creativity so I grouped some people up.  I thought this would be a good way to help Reuben understand family dynamics too, so I used photos of coupled aunties and uncles together.  Sadly both of Reuben’s Grandads are no longer with us but by putting them in the book meant Reuben would learn to know who they were.  I put their pictures together on the first page.

And yes, I included Reuben’s furry family too!  Animals are a big part of our lives, we have two rabbits who live free range in the house and two guinea pigs, all of whom Reuben sees every day.  Danny, our lion head cross rabbit is around Reuben the most, who I’m sure Reuben sees as his fur brother.

I’m really pleased with how the book’s printed; for some reason it’s so much nicer than I imagined!  I think because the construction is so solid and there’s no rough edges, makes it so perfect.  I don’t know if it’s my image quality but the pictures haven’t printed as clearly as I’d have liked them; they’re not unreasonable though and still look really good with full vibrant colour.  The overall look is very polished and professional.

Never mind what I think of the book though, it’s what the little one thinks that counts – and Reuben loves it!   I’d just love to know what he’s thinking when he’s looking at it because he’s clearly fascinated and will quite often flick through the pages with a little laugh.   I like to think that’s because he recognises people, but he’s probably thinking he’s come from a right family of nutters!
 

What do your little ones think of family photos?  Do they love to look at photos whether in an album or on your phone?  I’d love to hear how you share family photos.