Very soon we are heading off to Spain for just over a week, this will be our first holiday abroad as a family of 3 and I am so excited about it. It feels like a long time since we have been abroad, our last trip was to Dubai last year when I was 21 weeks pregnant, and I am in desperate need of some proper sunshine, a beach and to relax in a pool. I’m sure that this holiday will be very different to our usual holiday’s with its new stresses of getting a plane and dealing with the heat with a 10 month old. To enable this all to happen we had to get our daughter her first passport, and the whole process from start to finish was surprisingly easy. My first thoughts were how do you get a passport photo of baby and how long will it take to get her passport back. I was recommend by a friend an online company called Paspic who take out all the stresses of getting as passport picture created for your baby, it’s very easy to do and allows you to take your child’s picture at home. It’s really simple, all that you need to do is: Place your baby on a white coloured background, I used a white sheet, and this is what Paspic recommend. Take a head shot photo of your baby, this needs to include their shoulders too. I used my Canon DSLR to take the photo, but taking the picture on a mobile phone will work too. For babies under 6 months they don’t even need to have their eyes open. Submit your baby’s photo online via the form on Paspic the website. As you can see it’s super simple and for a total cost of £5 I would really recommend it. I later received an email from Paspic saying that the picture had passed their passport check, and I would be receiving my printed photo’s in a couple of days. I think that they actually arrived the next day – which I was super impressed with. Once the photo’s were received, I then went about completing the application form for her passport. The majority of the form was really easy to complete, except for Question 8 that requires you to provide the details of your parents – your child’s grandparents, if you are born before 31.12.82. The question is really oddly worded and didn’t make a lot of sense to my husband and I, and we had no idea what information the Passport Office needed. But after lots of Googling we found out if you are born after 31.12.82, you need to provide: Your parent’s full names. Their date of birth Where they were born Date and place of marriage All a bit weird, and we provided this information on a separate piece of paper. We also needed to get her passport application and photo countersigned. There are a lot of people who are able to do this, but I still find the process slightly annoying. However once the application was completed, and checked and sent via the Post Office Check and Send service, I received her passport back in 5 working days which is great. We completed her application in January, and I would definitely leave more time if you are getting a passport approaching the summer months. The Passport Office advise that it can take six weeks to get a passport, so please leave plenty of time. I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading this. Claire x P.S My review of Paspic is my own, I was not asked to write this review, I’m writing it as I was so impressed with the speedy service.