Scrapbooking the Dizzying Movies of Toddlers - by Fion Lim

Toddlers are highly energetic life forces. Between infancy and kindergarten school days, your toddler is often fully involved in massive actions and activities. Sometimes, your kid hardly let you slow down enough to take a deep breath before he or she is off to another "movie" stunt.

One moment, your toddler is the angelic little kid with great innocence, and within seconds he or she has morphed into a bundle of horror! Such spirited and tireless days are mixed up with endless explorations, comical episodes and crazy chaos. It's all these exasperating, frustrating, endearing in-between moments, that make their ways into your scrapbook pages as little movies starring your precious toddler.

Would you swap such unforgettable moments with any other? Probably not. Hence, scrapbook these experiences before they're gone in a flash. One minute your toddler is two, next is four, and before you know it, you'll be asking yourself, "Where has my little girl/boy gone to?"

Besides letting photos take center stage in your scrapbook, don't miss out the all-important aspect of journaling. With just the right caption, the star-quality of a page will shine forth even with very little embellishments.

Quick, grab your ever-ready camera and capture as many amazing scenes as you could of your little hero or heroine in the lastest escapade! Camera 1,2,3! The camera has started rolling...

A) "A Day in the Life of Toddler"

Dedicate a page to a typical day of your kid's life. Toddlers are busy human beings. Document their daily activities by chronicling their routine for a day. If you faithfully scrapbook such a theme over the years, you can even spot the changes that have transformed over the years.

B) "Can't Live Without Bedtime Stories"

Toddlers can be such devoted lovers of stories. You've probably lost count of the number of times you recited the same stories over and over again. But to your toddler, it's as if he or she is listening to the story for the very first time. When a bedtime story seized your child's heart, there's no letting the matter rest until he or she gets her way. Take pictures of your boy or girl flipping through the storybooks, staring intently at the pages, or together with daddy reading a story to your kid. A page recording your toddler's enthralling and favorite bedtime stories deserves a place in your scrapbook.


C) "Scary Eating Episodes"

Eating is usually a messy, messy affair when it involves toddlers, especially when left on their own. There's basically no sense of etiquette to speak of. It's a case of dunking their dirty faces into the bowls or plates, with sauces smearing all over their faces, and food scraps scattered all over the tables and floors. Yet, the way your kid eats make a dish appeared to totally delicious. Consider doing a page on your boy’s step-by-step process of devouring a plate of spaghetti, or your girl curiously sampling different food or snacks as a food critic.


D) "Mini Home Destroyer"

To satisfy their innate curiosity of their worlds, toddler left behind home wrecks in their trails. Toppling over a box of cereals and scattering hundreds of pieces on the kitchen floor, scribbling markers crazily on chairs and walls, strewing books and toys all over the place without a care in the world, Toddlers are capable of so much more. And when they partnered up with their sibling in crimes, it triples the destruction. Of course, you rather cry than laugh at that point in time. But these will turn into funny stories on hindsight. So yes, put down the mischievous exploits of your toddler too.

E) "Special and Unique Me"

Toddlers are shaped by their environments in addition to their heredity character traits. By noting down your kid's preferences and reactions to people, things and events, you'll get hints of his or her uniqueness. Scrapbooking these evolving personality traits would document the rapid development of your child as a unique individual. Photos showing your child caught in various expressions or unguarded moments will reveal the different sides of your kid. A child's personality is like a canvas, painted in many different colors and shades.

F) "Play is Serious Business"

With bountiful supply of pure energy, your toddler probably reminds you of an object in constant motion. Capture a series of such motions in a single play day, or gather a series of photos of your toddler playing different games and activities. The work of a child is not to earn, but to play. Playing with others at the playground, figuring out how to work the computer, stacking up building blocks, creating first piece of artwork, play is serious business to toddlers. These scrapbook pages will reveal the creative workings of your child's mind.

G) "There's Family and Friends Too"

Family and friends are influential presences in a toddler's life. Documenting the special relationships or moments your toddler has with others, will remind him or her of how much he or she is loved by others. As grandma's little kitchen helper in baking cookies, as an earnest student of grandpa's on star constellations, a loving big brother hugging baby sister, all these speaks of love in abundance. Even the innocent hand-holding and sweet hugs exchanged between inseparable friends are touching moments for the pages.

H) "Wild Wild World Out There"

Funny how toddlers will make us voluntarily go places that we haven't been to in ages. It's like reliving our own childhood, through the eyes of our toddlers. Playing sand at the beach, memorable trip to the zoo, magical moments at the theme park, amazement at the circus stunts, and even travels to other states. A toddler would love to know where in the world had they been when they're grown up. So add these to your scrapbook pages as well.

As always, there's heaps of toddler's "movies" you can scrapbook about. Potty training, bathing time, zonking out moments, make-up session and pretend-playing, all these are themes you can gleefully dig into. Time to get imaginative!

Happy scrapping about toddler's movies!

About the Author

Fion Lim is the creator of
Everything-About-Scrapbooking.com - Learning about scrapbooking? Here's your guide to beginner scrapbooking. Find tips, ideas, inspirations, articles, and resources to free quotes, poems and fonts right here. http://www.everything-about-scrapbooking.com