I remember when I had my first son who is now ten years old. The pictures, the box of scrapbooking pages, and embellishments, the good intentions of sharing an incredible book with him that he would pass on to his grandkids. Well those good intentions are still in the same box and I’m frantically looking to find a person that I can pay to do the work for me.
With the birth of my now 16 month old son, I decided to try a different method to keep our memories, keepsakes, and also a journal of Dawson’s entry to the world. A good friend told me about Babysites.com, a free website that I could utilize to make a wonderful website of Dawson’s journey to his first year and actually have them send me the CD of my work to have on hand as his “online” scrapbook for whenever he felt like looking at it. Maybe even some day a screen saver for his own laptop (or at least that of his wife).
Navigating Babysites.com is actually very simple. On the right hand of the page you will see an area to type in the baby’s name of a friend or family member to find their web page. For an example let’s go ahead and use my son’s name – Dawson Straub. When you type that in you’ll find his web page and see the latest update on the left hand side where I have written the latest journal entry. You can add photos and even email the link to friends and families whenever you update. There is a growth chart to keep track of your little ones and photo albums that you name and choose the background theme for.
The guestbook is a real nice feature and allows relatives near and far to leave lasting comments for your baby to read when he’s old enough to appreciate them. My son may not have any Great Grandparents left but they’ve written him some special notes on his web page and I will be able to either print or read them on the CD when I receive it. I can also print out the journal entries and enjoy the progression from infant to toddler.
Here are some of the features that come with all of the packages on Babysites.com:
Included in all Packages
Baby Journal – create an online journal that allows you to share your baby’s experiences with family and friends.
Photos – share photos by creating online albums.
Standard Themes – Choose from over 25 adorable themes for your babysite. You can change the theme as frequent as you wish.
Growthchart – share how your little one is growing.
Guestbook – allow your visitors to share their thoughts with you and your friends and family.
Contact Us – allow your visitors to send you a quick note to your email account.
Instant Notifications – send an email to your address book when you make changes to your babysite.
Website Visitor Counter – we give you the capability to track the number of visitors to your babysite.
Favorite Links Page – we give you the option to create a page with links to your favorite websites.
Website Security – we give you the option to create an access id and password that you can give out to your family and friends.
No programming required – with our easy to use Site Manager, we give you the tools to add photos, video and content to your website without any additional programming.
Personalized Web Address – http://www.babysites.com/sites/YOU
Personalized Website – select from our library of website templates to give your site a personal touch. We make frequent updates to keep all of our customers happy. Update your site template anytime.
In addition to Site Themes, we have festive Album Themes to give you even more personalization.
Disk Storage – start out with 5MB of storage and approximately one hundred photos online. If you need more space, no problem, join our Premium Membership for an additional 45MB of space to store your precious memories.
Premium Features
Multiple Children – Our Premium Membership allows you to add multiple children. You can view all children’s information on 1 “family” baby site or view as individual baby sites. You can add new children once you upgrade to Premium Membership.
Premium Themes – In addition to the Standard Themes, we have additional Premium Themes for our members.
Video – share video clips by uploading your favorite moments captured on video.
Audio – share your baby’s favorite sound clips with loved ones.
Order Prints – You and your visitors can order film-quality prints directly from your Babysite! (Powered by ShutterflyTM)
No Banner Ads – no advertising banners on your babysite.
High Resolution Photos – Your visitors have access to your high resolution photos to print directly from their computers.
Additional Services
Keepsake CD – save a copy of your babysite to put into your baby album. Order at anytime during your membership or at the conclusion of your membership.
Having your own website for baby is not only a great keepsake idea; it’s another option to scrapbooking all together. It makes it easy for parents on the go that just can’t make time due to work schedules, wrangling other children, or with great intentions to scrapbook but never make it to first base. I know that I will treasure my Babysites.com CD for years to come and I appreciate the tools that they give you free of charge to help make it affordable for any family to personalizes a website for their baby.
