Baby Books

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Mine is pretty empty because I was the third child in five years. It has the newspaper birth announcement, the engraved announcement card with a lock of my hair tied in a pink ribbon, my foot prints from the hospital form (for baby books), and a few hand-written notes from my mother. It didn't last too long, but it's fun to look at. First big word (elephant), favorite things (my thumb, my sisters, and my Pooh Bear), favorite foods (whatever the adults were eating), phobias (alone in the dark, the sparkly butterfly popper on a handle my sisters would tease me with), what made me cry (my sisters or a dirty diaper)....and most firsts. Talking, walking, tooth eruption, vaccinations. Then there was a yellowed newspaper recipe for something, and it ended. Before pre-school.

My kids' baby books are pretty bare. Started out really well, but then I got lazy by putting things on video. VHS video, the old kind. Lots and lots of VHS cassettes, and notes on calendars. Very few things were actually entered in their Baby Book proper. It was "a project I'd work on one of these days". I have loads of labeled pictures on Kodak paper, photos in books, locks of their hair and all their baby teeth (hmpf), but no real Baby Book.

Do you have a Baby Book? What's it look like? Are you happy with it, or a bit disappointed? *If you don't have one, do you wish you did? What would you like it to look like or show you?* What do the "new" Baby Archives look like, with all the digital photos and recordings available?

The new parents here post their baby pictures on-line, it makes me wonder what they save, do they save everything, and.....is there a written record of baby's personality....or just jpgs?


Edit: My parents' Baby Books are mostly photo albums, from the late 20's and early 30's, with some hand-written things. Padded silk covers that say "Baby" on the front. Beautiful cursive from ink pens. I have no idea when Baby Books became a thing of their own, but guessing Baby Boomers started it?