Her name is Kristin Coons, and three years ago she came up with my her own "harebrained" idea: a baby book that actually reminds parents to record the details of their child's life. As a mom of three young boys ( 1, 4 and 5 ) she has spent the last 3 years bringing this fabulous idea to life and in April launched www.MyOwnLittleStory.com. Parents who sign up, enter their child's birthday. Based on this information, she sends out an email with a short narrative describing the baby's stage of development along with a few ideas of what they might want to write about. On the email, there is a direct link to your child's story along with 3-5 questions they can answer. Every questions is optional and any unanswered questions are omitted from the published page. Also, every milestone is optional. Any unpublished milestones are omitted from the published book. The reminder service is free and the only time a credit card comes into play is if the user decides to order a printed copy of their child's story. This is great for busy moms (ok all moms are busy...duh!), like myself, who want to keep track of their children's milestones but can't find a pen that works, a cute book or a free minute to write things down. Below is a summary of a few more features of MyOwnLIttleStory.com:
Free Service: You can sign up and start recording the precious moments in your baby's life free of charge. Take advantage of our free reminder emails and the ability to share your child's story with friends and family at no cost. If you decide to print a copy of your child's story, we offer all levels of pricing so you can print a book that fits in your budget.
Milestone Memory System:* a customized email reminder system that reminds you to record your child's milestones- before those milestones are forgotten. The Milestone Memory System sends reminders every other week for two years.
Template pages: We formatted our system so busy parents are given lots of ideas of what to record. My Own Little Story will ask several questions for each milestone. You choose which questions to answer. Any question left blank will not appear in your book.
Custom Pages: If you are the creative type and want to dream up your own page, we give you the option creating custom pages for you child's story.
Upload photos: We know that every great story must have some visuals, so we encourage our parents to upload photos to accompany the details of each and every page.
Timeless Illustrations: Throughout our book you will see original water-color artwork carefully created by our illustrator, Devon Galusha. The illustrations are timeless and sophisticated...they will never go out of style.
Gift Vouchers: If you are past the baby book stage, consider giving My Own Little Story as a gift to a friend. Along with each gift voucher, parents will receive a keepsake folder that includes sample stationery, vellum envelopes for storing small items such as first hair clippings, a hospital bracelet or ultra-sound photos. Check out our store so you can see other darling items you might want to give.
Privacy: At My Own Little Story, your privacy and the privacy of your child are so important that we have taken every measure to ensure that only you and your invited guests can view your story. We didn't take any shortcuts when it came to building an air-tight system to protect your account.
