During the first year of a baby's life, the stages of growth and development come in an astonishing rush. In addition to snapshot-filled albums, there are many ways to document the changes, both big and small, as a baby comes into his or her own.

One idea is to trace your infant's hand at varying intervals. Use a sharpened pencil to trace the outline of his or her hand onto a sheet of colored paper. You may find that it's easier to do the tracing while your baby is asleep. Repeat the process every few months using a different color paper each time.

When you have a year's worth of tracings, cut them out, write the child's name under them, and mount the paper with acid-free tape onto an acid-free mat cut to fit inside the frame you've selected. You can purchase the acid-free materials at a crafts store.