Keep In Touch! - Guest Post

Hi Growing Up Geeky Readers! I'm Staci, the "me" over at Gatorette and Me. I'm raising my little girl, E, in the great city of New York (Brooklyn, to be exact), and documenting our adventures through my new-found obsession hobby, photography. I'm so excited to be guest posting today!



When I first moved to Brooklyn from western New York over 5 (five?!) years ago, I knew most of my friends and family didn't think it would last long and that I'd return back home soon.  Well, five years later, here I am still, married and with a baby.  My mom and dad have made it really clear that they hate being "thruway grandparents" and want us to move back ASAP (which is the plan, eventually), but as for now, we're making do with lots of trips back and forth to see each other.  To hold them over between visits, though, I've found the internet to be an awesome way for them (and my siblings, extended family, and friends that aren't local) to feel more involved in E's life.  Here are my top tips for staying connected!

Skype

Hi Grandma!  Hi Grandpa!

It's a free phone service you use over the internet, and if both callers have video cameras on their computers, BAM--video chatting.  We have a weekly Skype date set up with my parents (my mom even has an alarm for it in her phone!), and I'm pretty sure E is going to know them as "the computer grandma and grandpa".  They sing to each other, do lots of waving, and play peek-a-boo.  My parents were able to see her roll when she started doing it, crawl, and pull herself up to stand. Oh, and of course, there are iPhone and iPad apps so if your computer doesn't have a camera, that's another option!

Facebook
This one is a no-brainer.  All of my siblings, my parents, and most of my aunts, uncles and cousins are on Facebook, so I post my favorite pictures and videos of E here.  Some people are a little iffy about having too much personal information on Facebook, but if you're careful about 1.) who you're friends with and 2.) your privacy settings, I haven't found it to be a big deal.  I also love that I can upload pictures and videos right from my phone--makes it so easy to share funny or milestone events right away!

Shutterfly's Share Sites

I set up a site for E before she was even born so I'd be ready to start uploading and sharing photos the minute she popped out.  I pink-puffy-heart love taking pictures, and Shutterfly makes it super easy.  Once you set up your site, you plug in the email addresses of the people you want to share with (it will even import your contacts from gmail, yahoo, etc.) and then it automatically sends weekly or monthly emails (depending on your settings) to those people!  You can upload pictures and videos, so I have videos of E waving and crawling for some of the first times on her share site.  I especially like Shutterfly for my family members that aren't on Facebook.  They're not missing out on any of the E photo action!

Shuttercal

This is another picture-sharing website. It's a way to organize a 365 Photo Project, and I upload based on what E did that day--her first meal of cereal?  That's the pic of the day!  I love looking back on it to visually see her milestones and other important events, and my mom always tells me her favorite part of her day is looking at E's calendar to see what she was up to that day.  Bonus--Shuttercal offers a service where they'll print your pictures and give you a handy storage box for all of them.  I'm definitely going to be incorporating the prints from E's first year at her first birthday party!

So, while it certainly isn't easy being so far away from our families (no free babysitting!), we've definitely made the best of a hard situation.  What do you do to keep in touch with your families?

Don't forget to visit me over at Gatorette and Me for more on being a mom in Brooklyn, lots of pretty pictures of E (and some photography advice thrown in!), and our adventures around the city!

Thanks for taking over for the day, Staci!