We are lucky and not. My parents and siblings live close enough that Miles gets to see them regularly (and we have access to eager babysitters). Kristie's mom, sister, and our nephew, though, live in Virginia. They visit as often as they can and we're planning a trip to see them in August, but in the meantime, I wanted him to have a way to connect with them regularly (outside of Facetime).
Have you ever looked up "quiet book ideas" on Pinterest? There are thousands. Quiet books are wonderful things, I've come to learn. They're full of little age-appropriate activities –– although whether the books are so named because these activities are quiet or are designed to keep toddlers themselves quiet, I'm not sure. Both work. And the internet abounds with DIY tutorials for creating new pages which can be sewn or hot-glued into existence.
I decided to wed the "quiet book" concept with photos of Miles's (our) Virginia family members: Kristie's mom, her dad (who passed away suddenly in early 2017, around the same time I finally got pregnant), her sister Raven, our nephew Jacob, and Kristie's grandma and step-grandpa. I thought the little activities and games would keep him engaged while also looking at their photos and practicing their names.
Happily, it's working. He refers to it determinedly as "MY book," and is regularly occupied by turning the pages, pushing beads from one side to another, and making Pawpaw's cars drive around the road. He spends a lot of time on Jacob's page as well, carefully moving legos from their plastic pouch to the waiting velcro squares. ("Jekkop," he says confidently.)
Have a look at the video above if you can. The photos in this post were hastily snapped near a window in the kitchen, and the light puts a glare on some of the printed images, making them look too light. (They're not.)
A few tips and sources, if you'd like to make one too:
- I made a secret Pinterest board to collect the favorite ideas I'd come across, and then plotted out the content of each page beforehand in Google Slides
- Much of the felt came from our local Buy Nothing group on Facebook (including the car page, already assembled) and from Etsy [affiliate link]
- I printed the family photos onto iron-on transfer paper [affiliate link], then ironed them onto scrap white cotton. Beware, if it matters because of text legibility, this process will flip the photo! (See backwards text in Mawmaw and Don's wedding photo. Oh well.)
- I designed the front cover (and Jacob's name) in Photoshop, then flipped it, printed it, traced it onto this paper [affiliate link], ironed to transfer it onto the felt, then stitched over it with embroidery thread
- The rest of the odds and ends I already had, or purchased in a $20 Michaels trip made the morning I put it all together