We received the Guess How Much I Love You Baby Book as a gift from a friend when my son was born and I thought it was a really lovely gift to receive. It is basically a book for recording things from his first year of life and is themed around the books by Sam McBratney of the same name. The RRP on the back of the book is £9.99 but I have managed to find it for around £6 online.

For those unfamiliar with the Guess How Much I Love You books, these tell the story of two hares - Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare - and their adventure together. This book is illustrated with the two characters throughout. The book is A4 in size and a hardback book with paper pages. The pages have a glossy feel to them, making the book feel special and well made.

CONTENTS

The first page records details of baby's family and there is space for you to put a photograph in. The next section is about 'my first nine months' i.e. in the womb. This records facts like due dates as well as opinions like 'mummy thought I would be a girl/boy'. There is a space for a photo of mummy when pregnant too (should she wish!!). There is then a section on being born - place of birth, time and the first days. Here there are some lovely ideas for making records with your new arrival - my first footprints, who people thought baby looks like, what gifts were received as well as room to stick keepsakes that you may have - hospital bracelets or newspaper announcements. There are also spaces to record who the prime minister is, famous film stars and how much a stamp costs. There is then a section to record your baby's 'firsts' - first grasp, clap, sleeping through the night.

There are then various sections to record things that baby may do in their first year - holidays and celebrate Christmas. There is even a section to record 'bumps and bruises'. The last sections in the book are for baby's first and second birthdays and then growing - where you can record height and weight at whichever ages you wish. There is also a completely blank page at the back entitled 'special memories'.

MY OPINION

This is a lovely baby book and a very thoughtful gift to receive. The illustrations throughout the book make it childlike and fun to look at. The sections are incredibly well thought out and the book is laid out in an order that makes sense and is fairly chronological. There are sufficient spaces left to record things in as much or as little detail as you like without it looking too crammed/too empty.

There are some really unique ideas for things to record in this book that I haven't seen in other similar books, for example illnesses and bumps and falls. I guess that this is because we don't think that we should 'celebrate' these things, but they are landmarks in your child's life none-the-less! I also like the fact that there are a lot of 'opinion' prompts in the book and not just cold, hard facts. When my son is old enough to look through the book with me, I expect he will have little interest in what time he was born or his weight but more in whether mummy though he would be a girl or boy or who daddy thought he looked like. I also think the section recording famous people and prices of things at the time he was born will be very interesting to him when he is older.

The way the book is written, it is like your baby is recording the facts themselves - 'I first noticed my hands aged ______'. This makes the book really fun and personal too.

Filling in the book can be as quick or as time consuming as you like. This is a great property for a book like this as you have very little time to do anything with a newborn baby in the house! I certainly didn't find much time to record anything very early on in my son's life but the book is such that you can fill a lot of the early sections out from memory at a later date (after all time of birth is etched in my mind permanently...!). As you get further through the book, it becomes more necessary to record things as they occur - for example when baby reaches milestones such as clapping hands. This is just a matter of recording an age though and (hopefully!) by then you should have just a little bit more time on your hands!

As with a lot of these things, you get out of it what you put in. So, if you spend ages writing down your opinions and attaching photographs and the like, you will have a really lovely keepsake. If you choose to just record facts, you will have a record book - still lovely and something that baby will enjoy when they grow older, but not quite the same! At first, I did struggle to find the time to fill this in and it nearly did get neglected but I am glad I persevered as, even now, I look back at the early pages and smile. The book has prompted me to record things that I would never have even thought of and has a lovely childlike charm about it. If you are looking for a gift for someone you know that is expecting a baby, this really is a fantastic buy.