babybix newsletter #1

Our first newsletter!  How exciting!    I want to thank everyone who has signed up and is using babybix.com to track their child / children’s patterns.

As you know, we are still in alpha mode, and desperately need your feedback.  So please take a minute and let us know what you think or if you have any ideas for new features.

In this newlestter, I will be going over a few features that you might not have used yet – Avatars, Journals & Firsts, and Sharing.

Avatars

The avatar is the icon that appears for each child at the top of the screen.  To create an avatar, you can either click on the square smiley face or go to My Account > My Kids > Edit Avatar.  To select your picture, you can either upload a picture from your desktop or use a picture online.

For example, you could use a picture from your online photo album like flickr by right clicking on the image you want to use and copying the image location.  Then paste the URL of the image into the “Paste URL” tab.  A square selector will allow you to choose the portion of the photo that you want to use as your avatar.  You can expand or contract the box to fit the portion of the image you want to use.

Journals & Firsts

The Journals tab allows you to keep a diary, which you can share with others (see Sharing section below).  You can insert pictures and video clips in your journal, which you have posted elsewhere, such as flickr or youtube.  Some examples of things you might want to keep in the journal is the birth story of your child, a monthly recap of milestones, a 10-minute snippet of your daily life, etc.

The Firsts section allows you to keep track of your child’s “firsts”.   In addition to the major milestones, like first time sitting up, first solid foods, first words, and first tooth, you can also keep a list of other firsts that you want to remember, such as first time wearing size 3 diapers or size 18 months onesies.  First time seeing an airplane, first smile, or first trip to the toy store.  Kids grow up so fast, and they will have so many firsts that it really helps to write it down so you can remember later (when you have a second to catch your breath). 

When you write a journal or a first, you can also choose to post it to your twitter account (which you can link in My Account).

Sharing

Did you know that you can share your babybix account with friends, family, and care givers?  Select whether you want to give them the ability to read journals, write journals, and/or mark events.  You can access this control panel in My Account under Account Sharing.

Another idea is to ask your daycare / babysitter to sign up for an account and give them the ability to mark events and write journals so that you can monitor what your child is doing throughout the day.