When I was pregnant with my first child, everyone commented about tracking baby development stages in the infamous baby book.

“Your first will have each page filled,” they’d say. “Your second will have a few facts hurriedly scribbled down. Your third will not even have one to call his own.”

I didn't want to fulfill their predictions about development in baby, but when my first child, Nathan, was a few months old, I knew I couldn't keep up with his baby book.

There were too many "firsts" -- smiles, creeps, crawls, giggles, teeth and more. My baby book didn't seem to have space for them all, nor did I have the time to record them. Yet I felt it was important to keep track of these events, because I knew that my memory would fade.

So I devised a system that has worked well for the past eight years.

Like most moms, I always have a yearly calendar hanging on the wall to record upcoming events. Each time Nathan reached a milestone, I would just jot it down in red ink on the appropriate date. Sometimes I would fill in more details in his baby book if there was time. The calendar made it easy to note minor events also -- events that baby books don't often include, such as a visit from a special friend or relative.

Nathan's events stood out because of the red ink. If an event occurred over time, and not on a specific day, I used the margins of the calendar. They were perfect for recording Nathan's gradual weaning from the breast or his progress toward sleeping through the night.

When my second child, Anna, came along, I just chose another color of ink to record her "firsts" right along with Nathan's, and a third color for our third baby, Claire. I keep all three pens close to the calendar so that recording events is as quick and easy as possible.

Although my baby books have gaps and blank pages, with each passing year, I see my ordinary calendar fill up with a rainbow of colors marking events that will never be forgotten.



Kim Achilly lives with her family in Moorestown, New Jersey. This article is excerpted from "The Baby Book Blues: A Cure."