Our Smart Baby

Every Mom wants to take great photos of their babies and toddlers. We all want professional looking photos for our children without paying a fortune! This better baby photo article will help you take the best photos you can and you don't even have to own an expensive camera.

When I had my first baby 4 years ago, I became extremely interested in photography. I wanted to capture every precious moment and every important milestone on film. I am sure you are just like me in wanting to take these same precious photos of your baby or toddler. I now use a digital camera and take professional looking photos everyday of my 2 little boys from these 5 simple tips below. These 5 tips will help you take better baby and toddler photos.

1.) The first tip I suggest is to be aware of the lighting. The best place to take photos is outside in a natural setting. You should take photos early in the morning or late in the evening right before the sun sets. Remember to use your flash for fill flash outside. This lighting produces stunning results!

2.) The second tip I suggest is to get closer to your baby or toddler and get down to their level. Never photograph your baby or toddler from above.

3.) The third tip I suggest is to make the setting/background simple. Try to place your child near a simple or plain background.

4.) The fourth tip I suggest is to take lots and lots of photos. The more photos you take, the more photos you will have to choose from. You may just get lucky with an adorable one of a kind photo of your baby! You may capture the perfect moment! So, never stop taking pictures!

5.) Invest in a good digital camera. It doesn’t have to be an expensive digital camera. You can buy a good digital camera for under $300. I use an inexpensive Kodak digital camera and great photos of my baby every time.

You are now on your way to taking better baby and toddler photos.

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About The Author: Amanda Compton is a work at home mom to 2 little boys. She owns and publishes a fun site for Babies and Moms, ContestForMoms.com featuring a free baby photo contest, mom forums, and lots of baby & mom information!

I was doing some research on baby sign language for my 11 1/2 month old and came across a great site that has a free baby sign language video dictionary. You can view signs for the most common words for babies such as baby sign for ball, baby sign for dinosaur, baby sign for more, baby sign for milk, baby sign for airplane, baby sign for apple, baby sign for book, and so much more. You can learn how to baby sign language right here from this free online baby sign language video dictionary HERE.

I am looking for a beginner sign language dvd for my baby. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should start with? All we have been doing lately is some basics. I've looked around and seen lots of different baby sign language dvds but I'd like to know which baby sign language dvd is the best?

Head on over to my personal blog to see more updates, more photos, and more of just me!

http://www.contestformoms.com/ablog.htm

Is your baby ready for table food? Table foods or solid foods should be introduced slowly. Our baby started eating solid foods around 6 months and table foods around 10 months. He now eats almost everything we eat and he is 11 months old. Here are the kinds of table foods he currently eats with us.

Breakfast: Pancakes & Sausage, Toast with butter, Cheerios and other similar cereals, baby oatmeal,

Lunch & Snacks: Bananas, Strawberries, mixed fruit cocktail, baked snack crackers, small dried fruit pieces, grilled cheese sandwiches, Gerber wagon wheels in vegetable and fruit, Gerber banana cookies, tortillas, pizza lunchables, turkey and cheese sandwich bites, gerber and beechnut vegetable pieces in a jar

Dinner: baked potatoes, noodles, mashed potatoes, roast beef, small pieces of meat loaf and hamburger, green beans, carrots, peas, corn, sweet potatoes, tiny bites of chicken, macaroni & cheese, tiny bites of fish nuggets, french fries, onion rings, pizza cut up into bite sized pieces, soup, cooked potatoes, spaghetti, soft shell tacos cut up into bite size pieces, bean burritos, baked beans, soup beans, rolls, cornbread, refried beans and rice, and just about whatever we could for dinner as long as it is cut up into bite size pieces suitable for a baby.

We also offer our baby bites of chocolate and ice cream. I know alot of parents do not allow their babies to have chocolate but we do in very small amounts. Our baby enjoys the small amounts of chocolate or ice cream he gets.

Is your baby eating this food yet?

We recently tried the Crayola Creative Cookie Studio kit. Our 4 year old had a lot of fun making shapes and painting the cookies. The cookie kit only cost $3.99 in our grocery store and this was fairly cheap for a kids craft activity that you could eat too! Overall, this was fun and fairly easy to do. I think it works best for kids over age 3. It encourages thinking and creativity! The only drawbacks to this kit was that the sugar cookies werent very tasty and the food coloring paint was a little too messy.