Renewing a child's passport

I cannot believe my eldest son is almost 5! We applied for his US passport and got it a few weeks after his birth so his passport photo shows him looking like a squishy wee baby!

Our eldest child's passport is about to expire.

It would expire halfway through our Christmas visit to the States. It is illegal for a citizen of the U.S. to travel without a valid U.S. passport.

We decided to renew the almost-expired-passport before we go. It is permissible to renew at any time, you don't have to wait for the old passport to expire, we learned.

The steps involved:

1. Order photos (at least 2 per year, showing how your child develops between stages) or a photo book - if you haven't been updating your child's baby book or 'best of' album, do so now! Though it is important to note that a hard backed 13-by-9 inch book does not fit through the glass between the interviewer and interviewee, so maybe go for a paperback version that bends, or just realize that you'll have to hand the book to the security officer to pass through to the back. He has to bring it back to you at the end too.
2. Get American passport photos - we get ours at the Digital Image Centre at 27 Elm Row - but take a tape measure because they do occasionally get it wrong. It is supposed to be 2 inches by 2 inches with the head between 25 and 35 mm. See the official consulate or embassy website for more information.
3. Fill out the form, which you do online and then print
4. Set a date for the appointment and ensure that whole family will be there or that you have the relevant documents if one of them cannot. Use the Consulate website to schedule the appointment.
5. Budget for passport fees - there is no expedited service outside the States but the normal service is quick - our passports have always arrived within a week or two. You must pay by card or International Money Order, they do not accept cash.
6. Buy the return envelope, a pre-paid, self addressed Royal Mail Special Delivery envelope insured up to 500g.
7. Attend your appointment, allowing time to go through security. 
8. We always ask someone to drive us to the appointment to ensure we're not late while trying to catch buses, etc. The Consulate in Edinburgh has no bathroom facilities - there is a sign in the waiting room counseling that the nearest toilet is in the St. James Centre. The St. James Centre is currently closed so I imagine the closest toilet is probably the art museum or somewhere equally far - probably nothing within a 15 min walk. So all this to say - make your kids go to the toilet before you leave and try to keep the trip as short as possible by getting a taxi or a friend to drive you. I think the earlier in the morning you schedule the appointment, the less likely long queues are. 
9. The family before us had their kid wearing his school uniform and with his hair combed neatly. Our kids arrived in their sport class clothes, looking like slobs with messy hair. My eldest still got his passport but I wished I had put a tad more effort into it.
10. Our Consulate in Edinburgh has a few books for the kids but we brought plenty of paper and pens to keep the kids busy as well. There are clipboards in the waiting room which were novel to use, for our kids.

Renewal requires a few photocopies and original documents but nowhere as many as the original passport.

And that was it - we received our son's new passport within 8 or 9 days.

the shiny new passport

Update 19/8/19:
PHOTOCOPIES OF THE DOCUMENTS ARE NOT REQUIRED!

If you're like me, you will have gathered all the documents, filled in the form, and printed photocopies before applying for an appointment at the U.S. Consulate. I then received an email a week before the appointment saying we did not need the photocopies. I could have saved so much printer ink!

We just renewed Number 2 Son's passport.

We were totally a slick operation - we knew to turn off our phones and hand them over first thing. We had all our paperwork accessible. Our kids and ourselves were clean, tidy and well-dressed.

But they still made us wait around for an hour, despite our appointment being at 9 am. Note to self: bring lots of things to do with the kids!