Review: Baby To Five An Early Years Journal

Hello and happy Friday! Today would normally be a day that I would write up a Friday Faves post, but to be honest I'm not really feelin' it. I think I am just having post holiday blues ;-)

Anyway, I mentioned before that I got a really nice baby memories album and I thought I'd share more of my thoughts on that.

When I was pregnant with my oldest son, my cousin made a scrapbook for me for his first year. All I had to do was put the photos of him in when I had the relevant ones. I absolutely love that album and will cherish it always.

When my second son was born I received a Peter Rabbit 1st Year Memories book for him from a friend. It was also nice, especially since I didn't have any place else to keep the memories of his first year. Now however both my babies are past their first year. I am still taking photos of them, there are still some milestones to remember and they are now even making little things for Mummy and Daddy to keep. So the question then became: 'What do I do with all these things?' 'Do I buy a plain old photo album?' 'Do I start another scrapbook (which I only wish I had time for)?'.

I totally remember this kind of album from my childhood!

So...I did a bit of googling and came up with a sweet little book which is available on Amazon. I believe I paid about £10.50 for each of them but if you are in the States the retail price is $19.95. The book is called 'baby to five an early years journal', published  by Ryland Peters & Small. It is such a great find that I really wanted to let you all know about it.

The front cover has a cute baby/early years design on it. Unfortunately it has not been designed to be personalised and that is probably one of my only criticisms as I did end up buying two of them. I am going to either make my own cover or add a label so I know straight away who's is who's.

Cover design

Inside there is a sort of pre-birth section which I really like. You are able to include ultra sound pictures and your thoughts on baby and your pregnancy, along with some family history. Then it goes right into the first year tab.

There are some really nice relevant prompts such as: 'Your 1st Smile', '1st Steps', 'Likes', 'Dislikes', etc... Unlike other memory books I had seen or read reviews on this one has plenty of space with each prompt for your stories and quite a few blank pages at the end of each section. The tab of each section is also a little folder for any keepsakes you might have from that year.

A page with some prompts

Also included and a nice touch, is a little growth (height chart) which both my boys are starting to really get into now!

Best Things:

• Colourful
• Up to 5th birthday
• Folder for keepsakes

Folder tab

Things I didn't Like:

• No outside personalisation opportunity
• I ended up repeating a lot of info from my 1st year albums in the 1st year sections (but I guess you could skip that bit if you already have a 1st year album)

Overall I think this is a great product that I would highly recommend if you are looking for a memories album/journal for more than the first year or a nice present for anyone you know who is expecting.


**I am not affiliated with any of the companies or publishing houses in this review. I also was not paid or compensated in any way for this review. All opinions are my own. This is simply a product I like and wanted to share.