I was able to attend Manila Workshops’ First Time Parents: Making Memories and Party Planning, held at the Medela House in Quezon City a few weeks back. This is my second time to participate in a Manila Workshops event as I have attended their Lunches With Love workshop last year {which I have yet to share here, by the way}. The speaker, Michelle Katigbak-Alejandro, editor-in-chief of Metro Weddings, shared loads of tips and chunks of knowledge to first-time and would-be parents about effectively recording the little one’s milestones and capturing precious memories.

The second part of the workshop, on the other hand, was chock-full of tips and wonderful ideas on how to plan and throw a beautiful party for our children, without stressing too much and breaking the bank. It was something I enjoyed attending and I really wish that I was able to attend a similar workshop when I was just a fledgling and struggling new mum.

Part I: Making Memories

Some of our baby’s milestones include growth milestones {the monthly birthdays, increase in height/weight, and pedia visits}, the developmental milestones {like the first laugh, first smile, first time to sit up and first time to eat solid foods}, social milestones {like the first play date, first time meeting family or their first music class}, and finally the holiday milestones that include their first Christmas, Halloween, Easter and so on. Our little ones accomplish a number of these milestones during their first year of life and it ought to be one of our goals as mums and parents to document each momentous occasion in our children’s lives.

There are several ways in which we can capture our baby’s milestones:

• Photographs ~ the most common and the easiest way to capture our little ones. Photographs last for a lifetime and more and sure are effective and wonderful ways to remember and capture the moments in our babies’ lives. Nowadays, parents can choose the most convenient way to take their children’s photographs, may that be with professional DSLR, point-and-shoot camera, mobile phone camera or Instax, or what most of us know as Polaroid.
• Videos ~ these might be a bit tricky to shoot but videos are just as nice to capture our little ones, with sounds and actions, to boot!
• Recordings ~ is a great alternative especially if your child tends to be distracted by the camera in front of him. Recordings are perfect and discreet way to capture babies’ voice and noises without them being conscious about it.

Here are a few tips from the workshop on how to take baby photos