When it comes to being a parent, any app that makes your life a little easier is one that has my vote. As a photo taker and memory maker, these three apps have helped me in my quest to capture all the important moments on my motherhood journey to date. Storing, editing and sharing photos is a real passion of mine. These three apps may just change the way you think about maintaining precious memories with your own Tiny Humans.
1. Lifecake
If you know me and you have kids, there is no doubt I’ve been harping on about the Lifecake app for about as long as you can remember. Think of Lifecake as a timeline of your little ones life that is private to you and whatever family members you invite. Created by Canon, this app is free for the first 10GB of space, and you can earn extra space by recommending it to friends. Beyond the 10GB of free space (which I have not yet reached after 2.5 years, Lifecake costs approximately €2.50 per month).
What’s great about Lifecake is, it’s a backup of all your best photos and videos. The key is getting into the habit of adding photos to your Lifecake every day or two. This way your photos are safe in case anything should happen to your phone. I discovered Lifecake a few days after Luke was born, and have been an avid user and advocate of it ever since!
When Olly arrived we simply added him to our Lifecake app and now we have two separate timelines of the boys and a joint one, with pictures of the two of them together. You know when you have a second child and both kids milestones start to blur into one? Lifecake has your back and time stamps and dates everything chronologically. This means you can look back and see the exact date that your kids did things! When you download and start using Lifecake, it will automatically know when the pictures were taken. The app will then order them accordingly. So no need to panic if you’re starting and your kids are older. It’s great looking back at the boys at different ages and stages and seeing the differences between them.
It is hands down the best app I have come across since becoming a parent. Lifecake has revolutionised the way I take, store and share photos with family. Both sets of grandparents and siblings have this app meaning that we can share all the boys meaningful moments. My brother lives in Sydney and this app has meant he can keep up with what the boys are doing from day to day. Invited family members or friends can ‘heart’ and comment on photos and will be notified when new photos or videos are added. Lifecake can be downloaded free from the App/Play store or online.
2. Baby Pics App
If you like to have fun with photos and mark and measure milestones then this app is really handy. I remember being pregnant on Luke in the very early weeks and my ample enthusiasm for pregnancy shots. 4 weeks in, Hyperemisis hit and standing up was a struggle not to mention fun and happy photo shoots. This app made editing photos and marking my pregnancy milestones so much easier when the haze of nausea left me much later on in pregnancy.
When Luke was a baby I was fuelled with first time parent energy and enthusiasm. Arranging various elaborate photo scenarios for each of his milestones. By the time Olly came along I was unsure what age he was a lot of the time. Being honest, I was lucky to get a photo of him most days whilst wrestling his older brother off him. Handmade signs and magnetic letters arrangements were a distant memory. Thankfully, the Baby Pics App made me feel like less of a failure as a parent! I bought the full app for €3.00 which includes graphics and pictures for pregnancy milestones and baby milestones. This app has been invaluable to me in putting together baby books (particularly Olly’s – second child extraordinaire).
3. Touchnote
The TouchNote app is another really personal app that I just love. Perfect for sending impromptu Thank You cards, postcards and birthday cards to friends and family. The premise of this app is using photos you take, uploading them to TouchNote and sending them anywhere in the world for a fixed price using a ‘credit’. Credit packs are available to buy through the app, the more credits you buy, the cheaper they are.
I use this app all the time to send letters from the boys to family abroad. It is also great for sending photos to Grandparents. I find older family members love a physical photo of an event if they don’t use a smartphone. The app is also brilliant for ‘Thank You’ cards for friends and family. Although I tend to favour postcards, Touch Note also have cards, canvases and frames available. A postcard costs €1.99 or less to send (depending on how many you buy). As far as I’m concerned it’s a bargain given a national stamp costs €1 these days! Grandparents and friends alike really enjoy receiving our TouchNote cards and they are a great way to show someone lovely that you are thinking of them!
