Start a baby book

There are as many ways to capture baby book memories as there are families. There is no wrong way. Some methods might be more appropriate for your style of parenting and documenting.

Make a baby book already | Option one spoon fed headings & pages

The song “Hey-Ya” by Outkast was so popular in 2004 when I became a Rookie Mom that I decided it should be documented in the baby book. Is that weird? I wrote “Popular song is Hey-ya by Outkast.” I figure Julian will download it someday and laugh. I also think it’s babybook-worthy that going to the movies cost $10 as of his birthdate, but I’m sure when the kids grow up and read that they’ll be all “$10 for a movie! Dude! That’s way [insert slang word meaning inexpensive]”

Option one: Traditional baby book

Pictured above, a traditional baby book will have space for photos and prompts for first and special memories. These are easy enough to complete when you remember to do it all in real-time.

Option two: Blank scrapbooking book

The book I used for Julian was not a pre-designed baby book (like the one pictured above by Pearhead) – it was just blank pages designed for scrapbooking. I did not scrapbook it up. There aren’t tons of details required, just a paragraph per month above a picture or two. I try to write down new tricks when I can remember them.

This scrapbooking system is from Project Life

If you want to add some facts about the world to help capture the era in which your child is born, here are some ideas:

• Headlines from the date of birth
• Popular movies, music, celebrities
• Cost of a gallon of milk, gas, etc
• Median home price in your zip code
• Where parents work, what they do
• How you get around (perhaps someday a 2000 Honda CRV will seem interesting or the subway may be called something different)

Option three: Some digital baby book with an app or hash tag

You can slurp your instagram account right into a book like this mama did with Chatbooks or others have done with blurb.

Option four: Digital half-assing that you pull together later like when the kid goes to college

Heather used a calendar to jot down firsts and a digital camera that reminds me of when different things happened (“When did the cord fall off? Oh good, she took a picture of it”).

Consider a plain 12×12 memory book to start with. You don’t have to do all the themed papers and lettering. Keep it simple by pretending there’s no such thing as the scrapbooking industry. Or use a cute box and just toss mementos in after you’ve sharpie’d a date on them. Then shake it like a Polaroid picture.