Electronic Baby Book DIY

Photo credit: Paul Inkles

Well, here I am with my bi-monthly blog post! While that is certainly not the goal, that is what my posts are shaping up to be lately. It won’t be like this forever, so just roll with it.

I do.

Sweet Toddler and I are recovering from an awesome stomach flu. Sweet Baby is cutting the hugest top 2 teeth you’ve ever seen, and DH is overwhelmed with a work/school combo right now, so needless to say; ya, we are still getting our asses handed to us.

Sigh.

It’s OK though, because It won’t be like this forever, and I will remember it all so clearly since I’ve found a way to hack the “baby book.”

Obviously, creating a well-rounded baby book for my children is not paramount to survival; but, it’s important to me. It’s one of those nagging things that keeps me up at night.

Dear Son cut his first tooth last night. I need to get that written down.  When Dear Daughter cut her teeth I had all of the dates and times recorded down to the second.  I don’t want Dear Son to be left out.  What if he thinks that I love him less…

The Mom-Guilt.  Holy Toledo it’s friggin’ overwhelming at times.  Children will never understand, (until they have their own children), that they weren’t less loved– it’s just that there was less time!

And then there’s the printer.  Or, well, my lack of a properly functioning one. Please believe me when I tell you that I have exactly one photo of Sweet Toddler printed out and hanging up. It’s taped to the fridge. Printed out by someone other than me. There are exactly no photos printed of Sweet Baby. But I’ve got the photos.  Digitally. You see where I’m going with this?

So, one night lying in bed, I wished for an electronic baby book.  Somewhere where I could send photos and videos and excerpts from our crazy-busy, love-filled lives.  Somewhere where I could send things on the fly, from my phone while, half-asleep, on the toilet, with an infant attached to my breast.

‘Cuz that’s what life looks right now now my Dear Sweet Readers, and I ain’t gonna lie about it’s glamor.

I decided an electronic baby book would come with costs that I didn’t want to pay, if I was even able to find one that I liked.  So I hacked it.  It wasn’t hard either…

Create an Electronic Baby Book for Your Children by Setting Them Up a Free Email Account

It was so amazingly easy I wished I would have thought to do it when Sweet Toddler was an infant.  Now I have a little work to do gathering special things for the kids like this post, and this one from when they were born.

I created them each an account with a free email provider wrote them a “welcome email”  explaining the purpose and the goal of the account and that they would get the passwords when I felt they could appreciate the content.

Another bonus is that their name is reserved so they don’t have to be “sweetbaby12345” by the time they reach email age.

So now I can send them cutest little clips of Dear Daughter “taking care” of Dear Son, albeit a little roughly, it’s done with love.  I love to watch them each grow and develop, but what really makes my heart sing is the siblinghood that they are fostering and it grows more and more each day.

These little people have stolen my heart, and I’m going to tell them that through email.  Besides, it may be their first language by the time they are teenagers.

Sigh.

What about you?  Have you created email accounts for your children? What do you do with them?
What “baby book hacks” have you discovered?

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