Springfield, Virginia--Mary bell, 56, is a self-described "album person": she teaches classes on how to assemble photo albums, carefully documents events in her family, and treasures the disintegrating album, annotated in white ink, that her mother made in 1923. So when Mary's first grandchild, Connor, of neighboring Falls Church, Virginia, was born two years ago, he provided her with a new outlet for her hobby.
To help Connor learn his ABC's, Mary decided to use family photos to illustrate an alphabet book, which would double as a record of memorable family events. She sorted the photos according to letter (a photo of the family picking apples might be categorized under "A" for "apples" or "P" for "picking apples," depending on her needs) and then pasted them into a scrapbook, with two pages for each letter of the alphabet.
With a children's dictionary by her side, Mary would come up with polysyllabic words beginning with the featured letter ("gallivanting" or "opulent," words to grow into) and funny phrases ("Crazy Grandpa Bob with a colander on his head") to describe the photos. The key, Mary suggests, is to organize the book so that it tells a story about the family. Connor's book, for example, records the antics of his grandfather Bob Bell, 60, his uncle David's swimming awards, and his own very first Christmas.
While Mary takes a professional approach to the project, she reassures other grandparents that any ABC's photo album they make would be wonderful for the grandchild. "Don't think it has to be perfect," says Mary.
