First Books!

Recently I was able to cross two more things off my "To Do Someday" list.  First of all, I made my first Tot Book.  I have seen them around for a while, but with Xander being so young, I haven't had a reason to make one yet.  I decided to use my friend's son, Elijah, as a guinea pig.  I made the Cars one from here: http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/CarsTotBook.html.  This set included his name, a Cars Colors mini-book, a Cars Shapes mini-book, and number cards.  It was easier to assemble than I thought and I finally got to put my laminator to use! However, the pages on the mini-books didn't turn as easily as I would have liked.  (If anyone has any tips for getting the laminated card stock to fold easily, without pulling the staples, please let me know!)  According to his mom, it was a big hit.  I am excited for Xander to be old enough to appreciate this kind of thing.  Maybe when he is just a bit older I can make him one with all the pieces separate.

I also made Xander his first photo book!  I have been wanting to do it since he was born, but put it off, partially to accumulate pictures.  Rather than doing a traditional photo book, I made it more of a story.  I used a really large font, simple sentences, and tried to incorporate as many words that he has been taught as possible.  I LOVE the result.  Xander was very interested in reading it also, although he wanted to grab the pages a bit too roughly for my liking.  Definitely a book he will need to read with supervision!  It would be nice to make one of these every six months, or so, with increasingly difficult vocabulary.  Goodness knows I take enough pictures to make many!  I hope he appreciates them as a keepsake when he is older, assuming he can convince me to give them up.