Clara is officially six months old today, which means we’ve reached the halfway mark of our weekly baby photo project — the one with the fabric backdrops, a plain white onesie, and a lot of silly faces.

At the three-month point we shared a detailed how-to on the process, so this update is more about what we’ve learned and how the project has evolved now that we’ve added another three months of photos. We’ve taken 26 weekly portraits so far, and looking back through the collection is already one of our favorite little rituals. If you want to see them up close, they’re available on our photo stream online.

It’s surprising how much variety a single white onesie and a handful of fabric swatches can produce. We were worried we might burn out or regret the weekly commitment and wish we’d taken monthly pictures instead. Instead, Friday afternoon has become something we both look forward to: a short, focused shoot, a few props, and whatever expression Clara decides to give us that week.

Sometimes she yawns in the most dramatic way, a candid little moment that feels perfectly honest and completely hers.

Other times she pulls an unexpectedly mischievous face, like she’s plotting the world’s tiniest caper — twirling an imaginary mustache with a locked-on gaze that cracks us up every time.

And of course there are celebratory outfits: a tiny costume for Halloween with a perfectly pointed toe and a performance-worthy pout. Those themed weeks remind us that this project is more than documentation; it’s a series of personality snapshots that capture her changing moods and growing character.

We’re already thinking about how we’ll use the photos. For the coming holidays we plan to assemble the first half of the year into a small, tasteful photo album for the grandparents. It’s an affordable, meaningful present that showcases the progression of her expressions and the variety of textiles we’ve used as backdrops. While this is technically a spoiler for what they’ll find under the tree, we couldn’t resist telling them — and it’s nice to know they’ll have something personal and handmade to unwrap.

When we’ve completed a full year of weekly portraits, we’ll create a more polished, hardbound book to share with family and to keep on our own shelf. We’re leaning toward a professional print for the one-year compilation so the images will hold up well over time, but for now the simple album will do a wonderful job of preserving these first six months.

We’ve also started planning what to do with the fabric swatches that have become an unintentional side collection. They’re small artifacts of this project — cheery colors, subtle patterns, and soft textures that look great in photos and will eventually be repurposed into something meaningful. Ideas on the list include a DIY quilt that incorporates a panel from each week, framed fabric art for Clara’s room, or a festive bunting for the nursery. Repurposing the textiles will keep those visual memories in a physical form long after the baby clothes are outgrown.

One practical reason we might switch to monthly photos after the first year is that the fabric stash is growing faster than our storage space. Weekly sessions are a delightful discipline while she’s small and fairly stationary, but as she becomes more mobile the logistics change. For now, though, we’re enjoying the routine and the tiny surprises that arrive each week.

It’s hard to believe our baby girl is already half a year old. The weekly portraits are a simple way to capture the subtle progression of her first year — the way her eyes change, the new expressions that appear from one week to the next, and the small moments that would otherwise disappear into a blur of busy days. They’re becoming a chronicle we’ll treasure for years to come.