Grandchild Yearbooks Done!

[dreamshark]

Every year I sift through hundreds of adorable pictures of my grandchildren and craft them into elaborate memory books on Shutterfly. Although my goal is to get them done in time for delivery by Christmas, I'm satisfied if I manage to send off the order before the usual end of year "50% off Everything!" promo expires. This year it expired on Dec 23, so I spent the last 3 or 4 days head down in the Shutterfly editing tool. Needless to say, they will not be delivered by Christmas.  Here's some sample pictures of (respectively) Harris, Leo and Lena. 

If you are a real sucker for cute kid pictures, you can view the photobooks for free on the Shutterfly site. 

Lena's Seventh Year
Harris and Leo's Second Year

I particularly love this shot of Harris. He is usually more solemn, but in this picture the two of us have just finished assembling that little chest of drawers together. He is SO PROUD!  He mostly "helped" me turn the screwdriver and hold the drill, but he actually put a couple of the drawers into the cabinet all by himself. As far as he is  concerned he MADE that piece of furniture. Usually Lena is the one who makes things, to the adulation of her little brothers. Harris wants to be a maker more than anything in the world and now he is.


Leo appears to be more on track to be an entertainer, although with his energy and enthusiasm the sky's the limit.

Comments

[spiderplanet]

An adorable collection of photos! There are hardly any sparkly unicorn shirts for adults.

[dreamshark]

I'm okay without the cutesy unicorn, but I would really like something in flip sequins. You run your hand over them and all he sequins flip over, turning the pattern to a different color!

[spiderplanet]

Another thing that's only available in inexpensive children's or fast-fashion, both in the "disposable clothing" market! Why I oughta...!

Flip sequins are great.

[quadong]

Normally I would flip through your books in your house, so I guess I am a sucker for cute kid pictures. I looked. Lena's going through that transition when sometimes she has a baby face and sometimes an adult face, depending on her expression. To me they are like two different people.

[dreamshark]

Totally! Spoken like an observant father.

Lena's whole aspect changed sometime in the middle of 2021. Surprisingly, I think Lena's looks have changed more in the past 6 months than the little boys. The difference is mostly by age, but since the pictures in that book are not arranged chronologically it looks like she is switching back and forth. The sweet picture on the front cover is from Valentine's Day, still looking so very young. By August (the lake vacation pictures) she looks much more mature. And that suddenly lanky little girl in the pumpkin pictures really does look like a different child.

And yet: Google Photos can still identify the new Lena as the same person as tiny little Baby Lena, which continues to astound me.