Toddler Journals

My child turned 14 months old last week, and I have been amazed at all the new things she has been learning each day. Her expressions are adorable and becoming more and more toddler looking!  I am so proud of all she has accomplished in such a short amount of time (oh and if you had any idea of how hard it was to get her to keep her scarf on her head in that picture, without ripping it off AND me getting a photo op in there, then you would be proud too. Just saying.)

She is learning new things on a DAILY basis, seriously.  Her signing 'more' has gone from wanting food items to wanting 'more' of everything such as more toys during bath time to asking for me to show her more of the video clip I just took of her.  She is making more distinguishing words now too, or at least I think she is saying more words like "ball" or "bubble." And then I swear she is doing more and more dramatic play by the day, such as pretending to feed her baby doll with her spoon.

Witnessing how much she is growing made me decide I just had to get some sort of journal to capture all of these moments, and to keep it close by in the kitchen so I can hurry and jot them down right at the moment so I won't forget. Her official baby books are in her room and I work on them from time to time, but what I needed was a quick journal type book.

So after researching and researching I found a few options (and I was not compensated at all for these in any way- I wish!):

1) The Mother and Toddler Journal: A Fun, Interactive Journal to Fill in Together is a great journal to capture all of those little moments after 12 months of age.  The only thing about this one is that it looks to be more of a preschool aged journal.  So maybe next year we will get this one.  If you click here you can see a sample page.



2) Then there is the Toddler Journal, The Toddler Journal : A Week-By-Week Guide to Your Toddler's Development from Ages 1 to 3

This is the follow-up to the First Year Journal.  I had the First Year Journal and didn't like it as much because there was not enough room to write anything down and I was more into using a journal to write down her daily feedings, diaper changes and sleep schedules.  But this Toddler version looks like it has a lot more to write in and just the kind of things you want to write down such as new words, new motor skills, and other weekly tidbits.

3) Since I was more into a daily thing her first year, I used The Essential Baby Organizer pictured here that I loved, but....

the author has a new follow-up for it called the Essential Toddler Journal which is now only available in PDF format, so you can order it here and then print it out yourself and put it in a little organizer. I already ordered one for 12$. It has a lot of good things in there like pages to write down words, making handprints, and a daily groove chart where you can write down cute things your toddler does.

4) Then there is the Baby Tracker is a cute binder that you can keep daily track of your child, and order more pages as you go along.  This is ideal for those in daycare as it keeps track of diaper changes, meals and sleep schedules, but it doesn't have enough room for all the comments and 'cute' things your child does on a daily basis. I of course ordered one to check out, but will probably get more use out of it when she is older and order the Kid Tracker pages that helps chart toilet training, etc.

So I think for now, I am going to use the Toddler Journal and then use one of the other choices after she turns 2 :)  (I hope I can keep it up when I have a second one).  Let me know if you guys out there have found anything that works well!