# Those who have used the Tomy photo album



## Doofuz (Mar 9, 2008)

We have been asked to sort our photo album out for MP, which we were going to do anyway, no need to ask twice! SW said not to put anyone else in, just us but didn't say much else. What have you guys done with yours? I want to put my two dogs in too, and am planning on a doggy speech as my eldest boy does this on command and I think it will help get her used to the noise he makes at the postman etc. I have our wedding photo and a couple of other pictures from times together. Do they need to be of us in the house as she will be 6 months old so maybe not really looking at what will be behind us in the photo and crammed into a small space in the album? I would like to take one of her nursery with her teddy in it but would quite like to use the others I have sought out as I currently look tired and haggard whereas in these photos I have made an effort  Thanks in advance for any advice


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## Macgyver (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi doofuz 


We are doing ours too   , we have put a photo of dh and he says hello ***********  I am daddy I can't wait to meet you. Then there is a photo of me and I say hello I am mummy yada yada then I have a pic of our cat saying this is our cat tommy and he can't wait to play with you and he meows.  Then the rest are of his nursery say this is where you are going to sleep, the garden saying this is where you can play ball with daddy. 

Also in the photos there is lo teddy that we brought so lo will be able to see teddy in the photos and when he finally gets home.

I hope this helps.


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## GERTIE179 (Apr 20, 2005)

Hiya Doofuz,

We kept ours to those who live in our house (doggies included). Most of our pics were on holiday also I clouded one with/without glasses and hair up/down if you wear it different.

Dog voices sound good. We included pic of house from outside & pic if the car. We didn't need to do many of inside the house but on reflection it would have been good to do back garden or living room. 

Have fun x


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## aaa is a MUMMY (Oct 13, 2009)

Congratulations.
We brought bubba a little jelly cat croc and he was on all the photos. We did I am mummy/daddy with croc,one of us together with croc, her bedroom with croc in cot, her new toys with croc. I would use current pics looking as you do as that is what lo will be meeting so maybe not wedding.  Would defo use dogs as but the majority of it should be mummy daddy.
Hope that helps x


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## Doofuz (Mar 9, 2008)

Thank you, it makes more sense now. I had written down all the types of photos we should do but that was over a year ago when I first started on this board after the fertility boards. I will sort out house photos too and won't include wedding ones. We have bought her an Eeyore toy to include in all the pictures, I've also been sleeping with him for my scent to transfer. I honestly think I have baby brain, I know all this stuff but my mind went blank! Thanks for your help


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## aaa is a MUMMY (Oct 13, 2009)

Doofz  baby brain gets a whole lot worse. Holding a conversation at adult level is a challenge enjoy it xx


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## -x-Lolly-x- (Feb 3, 2012)

Used the baby brain excuse yesterday when I got all my dates mixed up, and was 'eating for two' when I went back for seconds on Friday


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## Frangipanii (Nov 21, 2011)

We are using Tomy talking albumn too. Just curious did people use toys they knew the kids liked or juzt selected ones. We are Lso doing a really nice art scrap book for the older one. 
X


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## baby0684 (May 20, 2012)

I have this book too, i think it is amazing!

If you LO is younger (under 1) I wouldnt say too much. I would just probably say Hi ****** im your mummy/daddy, this is our dog ****, ***** bedroom, our house, our garden etc.

A child that small will not get the just of the long speech. They will respond more with short things.


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## aaa is a MUMMY (Oct 13, 2009)

Fran we didn't even know we had a link when we brought croc. We were away for weekend before sw came out and decided we were gonna buy the toy that weekend. We fell in love with jelly cat toys and decided croc was suitable for either flavour.


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## Wyxie (Apr 10, 2013)

We did ours very similar for Bladelet, who was 10 months.

Hi I'm Mummy, Hi I'm Daddy, two photos of Wyxling, one where I introduced her, and one where she said a hello, one of our cats, one of Bladelet's bedroom, with a toy we were sending him right in the middle of his cot.  We finished with two photos of the three of us, one in front room, one in garden, so various parts of the house would be less unfamiliar, saying something like this is your family, and we can't wait to meet you.

We kept it very brief.

We did one for Wyxling when Bladelet was placed, perhaps oddly, but it was something she didn't have and clearly something that she was struggling with, but that was done differently because she was 2 1/2 and she'd been with us for over a year at that point.  It's nice to have though, I'll probably update Bladelet's when we get the AO and he's a bit older.  We started with photos of when we first met her, some firsts with us like feeding the ducks and making snowballs, and then finished with a photo of when we went to Court to get the AO.


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## Doofuz (Mar 9, 2008)

Thank you Wyxie, excellent ideas there, as from everyone else. I have a better idea now what to do and my mind is not so blank. Looking forward to sorting it out when we have a chance this week.


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## katie c (Jun 15, 2009)

Waaaaaaahhhhh, we have album, have photos. And the bloody thing has just starting making this horrendously loud shrilling noise. Mr C has had to take the batteries out :-(

I don't know if the batteries have run out or what, I hear it gobbles them up.

Hope it doesn't do that when he has it, it'll traumatise him for life!


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## thespouses (Jan 5, 2006)

I'm not sure I see the point for a 6 month old!  When our little boy was that age he liked listening to you read books but wasn't really into the pictures.


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## someday (Sep 11, 2008)

We got these for our two and it worked really well. While we felt like loons when we were taking photos and doing the talking it was a good cause and it worked for ours. Between when they received it and met us they looked at it all the time. It helped that it was bright and colourful rather than just an ordinary photo album.xx


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## Daddyboo (Paul) (Dec 24, 2012)

thespouses said:


> I'm not sure I see the point for a 6 month old! When our little boy was that age he liked listening to you read books but wasn't really into the pictures.


But 6 month olds still recognise faces, and it's main use is for the FC to introduce you to the LO before introductions start. Then when you meet the LO, they should recognise you and your home and feel more comfortable.
They won't be using it as a toy.


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## thespouses (Jan 5, 2006)

I'm not sure what the point of the voices is, though (and honestly, I can't get little boy to sit down and look at books of photos now either! He would look at them in frames/on the wall from quite early but he wasn't interested in looking at any pictures in books).


I've just been thinking about it and what I'd recommend for this age is, if you can get them, a frame with a mirror in one side and a photo in the other, and to ask the FC to hang it on the wall, show the baby themselves, and then their new mummy and daddy next to them.


I think they might also get a video of mummy and daddy waving and saying "Hello X!" but only a VERY short one and not showing anything other than that. And I wouldn't recommend showing it on the TV (our little boy just ignored TV completely till he was about 8 or 9 months, apart from gymnastics    - but he would look at something moving on a smartphone or tablet - but only about 5 seconds maximum LITERALLY.)


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## newmum (Jan 22, 2011)

We've got our tommy photo book today, can't wait to complete it. I've just got to pursued two very cool SS's to have their pictures taken for their baby sister


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## newmum (Jan 22, 2011)

Aw have to share, I showed my 9yo SS the tommy talking book and he has just said to me I know the first page should be a family photo of me, his Dad and brother and the single photos from oldest to youngest. Then a picture of LO bedroom,living room and toys. He also said we must say hi I'm mummy, I'm daddy, I'm your brother etc and we can't wait to meet you.  Aw so sweet I chocked up x x So lucky to have wonderful SS's and a new little addition x x


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## Doofuz (Mar 9, 2008)

I know plenty of 6mo that have enjoyed this type of thing at nursery in the past. We can only hope the BG gets the benefit from it too. It's also something we can show her as she grows. Thanks for the advice everyone  

Nm2b, that's lovely stuff, bless your SS's


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## Jaynemummy (Jul 6, 2013)

Hello there, Our dear son moved to live with us forever 12 days ago!  So apologies if some of this is confused as we're still emotionally exhausted.

We used the Tomy Butterfly, we ordered it from Amazon as at the time they were best price but there were some on Tesco.com I think.  We also managed to claim the cost back from social services (keep all your receipts, and keep copies of them too when you have sent them off to claim expenses).

We have a son age 6 already, and he absolutely adored choosing his photo for the tomy book - and recording various comments like 'I'm your awesome new brother!' plus fake farts and the like!  He even tried to squeeze the cat (told off for that) to get her to meow on cue).  Seriously though, we knew it was a fab tool to help our little son (age 2) get used to our voices and home and us, but had no idea how much it would help his older brother along the process too. Our SW advised us to:

Photo 1 - Just Mummy and Daddy
photo 2 - Daddy
photto 3 - Mammy
photo 4 - older brother
photo 5 - outside of our home
photo 6 - garden (include our slide with our older son on it!)
photo 7 - our new son's cot/nursery - with soft toy placed in photo which we were giving him the day we met - we said something like ' can you see your new room and 'sheep' (soft toy!)?'

photo 8 - all 3 of us saying 'see you soon!"

when we went to the social services matching panel which were placing our dear little son, they asked to see the book (out of interest and they were a lovely bunch) they asked if it was ok to pass it round and all thought it was a wonderful thing - the adoptive Mams on Panel were a bit teary when they listened to a page which was sweet.

We also on SW's advice laminated 2 x of each of these photos - the 3 of us and (2) myself and my husband and these were for our son to have anytime in foster mummy's house, when we turned up to meet him the first time ever, he ran into our arms shouting 'mammy' 'daddy' holding these photos which were well used, scrunched, sticky.  our social worker said 'that's exactly what you want, he has used them all the time' the batteries on the butterfly book had run out too and he can still remember word for word what we said on each page :0)  Our son's foster mummy had done a lot of work with him, well as much as you can with the attention span of a busy toddler, and he was very clear who we were.  We had not expected him to definitely call us Mummy or Daddy immediately and were fine iwth that, but it wasn't half emotional when he did.  Precious memories.  By the way ask your foster carer to get a photo of you together when you first meet so you can buy a lovely 'family' photo frame (next have some good ones) and display with pride :0)

so yes I'd recommend the book for toddlers, I think it's a good tool to bond for part of your preparing your family nest too!

good luck to you all xxx


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## Frangipanii (Nov 21, 2011)

Anyone issues with the speed of the voices!?!


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## -x-Lolly-x- (Feb 3, 2012)

What do you mean? When you play it back? If so no, but we do have a constant humming in the background so had to speak quite loudly when we recorded it. You have 8 seconds per double page to record the messages. I found it very stressful


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## Frangipanii (Nov 21, 2011)

Yes stressful is the word!!! No it changed the speed of our voices a few times!! It was very irritating!!! Not sure how well it is going to work. We also had background fissle which makes the quality an issue. 
Oh well lets just see what happens!!! 
Xx


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## SummerTilly (Aug 14, 2013)

I've just ordered my Tomy book from Amazon and appreciate all the ideas above about what to include / say.  

I am meeting with my SW and LO's SW about a link next Tuesday and she is currently 16 months old.  I am a single adopter and have 3 dogs and a cat - would you recommend having a photo for each of these pets with a little voice-over or more of me?

Did anyone include people from their support network who will be around regularly?  I guess it's best to use the 8 photos to show the LO's new home, mummy, garden etc?

I have an accent, so I hope the recording will be clear


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## Frangipanii (Nov 21, 2011)

My top tip is  to do the records quickly(not speak quickly) and keep it simple!!! We did us, garden,chickens, ducks, dogs, cat, grandparents, and then us again. 
Xxx good luck x x x


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## -x-Lolly-x- (Feb 3, 2012)

If you are a single adopter I think it would be right to add a picture of grandparents. You want at least two of you, maybe just youmon a plain background and then you doing something like cooking or in the car. Good luck with your potential link


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## Macgyver (Oct 27, 2008)

We have like a clicking in the background which is annoying, you guys might be interested in this book I just found online called My Family, My Journey: A Baby Book for Adoptive Families" I have just ordered my copy it looks lovely x


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## newmum (Jan 22, 2011)

Macgyver said:


> We have like a clicking in the background which is annoying, you guys might be interested in this book I just found online called My Family, My Journey: A Baby Book for Adoptive Families" I have just ordered my copy it looks lovely x


Amazing book, I had this as a gift and love it

I've had no problems with the talking on the tommy but did find it hard to,put the photos in x


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## -x-Lolly-x- (Feb 3, 2012)

Oh my goodness, really hard!!   Our SW came today and said that they currently have one in the office which does the same background humming/clicking noise, so seems pretty standard


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## newmum (Jan 22, 2011)

newmum2b said:


> Macgyver said:
> 
> 
> > We have like a clicking in the background which is annoying, you guys might be interested in this book I just found online called My Family, My Journey: A Baby Book for Adoptive Families" I have just ordered my copy it looks lovely x
> ...


Just checked and yes we do have the back ground noise. Its ok though and I wouldn't of noticed if I hadn't read about it on here


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## Sun Flower (Jul 14, 2008)

Hi 
I know this thread is old but hoping someone can help, we are doing the talking album and we have issues with our voices, it keeps going slow, fast, we sound like we have deep voices and then like squeaky elves! It's driving us mad.

Did anyone work out how to stop it? We just want to sounds like us   

Thanks xx


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## Arrows (Nov 9, 2008)

Sunflower -take it back and exchange. It's great when it works but we went through 3 to get one that worked!


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## baby0684 (May 20, 2012)

If anyone would like one, I have one for sale. X


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