My First Year: A Baby Record Book

Naomi Brun is a freelance writer and a book reviewer for The Hamilton
Spectator.

There is certainly no shortage of appropriate gifts for new and
expectant parents on the current market. Traditionally, people have
given silver cups and baby shoes to honour a family’s new arrival, but
lately, friends and family have gravitated toward baby calendars and
baby books. These gifts chart the progress of a baby’s development
over the first year so that parents will be able to reminisce fondly
over baby’s first milestones, and will undoubtedly be interesting to
children themselves as they get a little older.

My First Year is a particularly good choice from the wide selection
currently available. There are places to paste in ultrasound scans,
birth announcements, and first photos; boxes to check indicating hair
and eye colour, bath time, and reactions to first foods; and spaces to
write out the family tree, first words, and happenings on the day of
baby’s birth.

This fill-in-the-blank approach is immensely practical for new parents
who would love to create a scrapbook in celebration of baby’s first
year, but between diaper changes and feedings, just can’t find the
time. The book is beautifully illustrated, clearly organized, and
demands very little from new parents who are discovering whole new
levels of exhaustion.

In a nod to political correctness, the author has included a page for a
“naming ceremony,” which probably will be left blank in many books.
Not too many babies have special naming ceremonies, although baptisms
and other such events could be substituted.

Unlike many other baby books, this one is likely to be used because it
is so attractive and very little work. It would make an ideal baby
shower gift.