Dear John (Or Aiden or Chloe or Oliver) Letters

When I left home, my mother sent my own baby book along with me. She had taken great pains to record minute details for me, including our family tree and every newborn gift I received, but it was her personal commentary - the notes scrawled on scraps of paper - that really touched me.

I hope to do this very thing for my new baby, inspired by the words and photographs of Bev Hawley. Her book, Held in the Arms of Love, is a collection of stunning black-and-white photos of infants and their parents, interspersed with questions to help you consider what you'd like to write to your baby.

At the end of the book are several glossy blank pages for you to write on, as well as a seal to keep them held in place until you turn the book over to your child in 18 years or so.

This book makes an undeniably sentimental new mama gift, and it's so simple and elegant that even moms who eschew baby books will be enticed to put it to use. Surely your children will find your heartfelt sentiments more meaningful than a list of which third cousin bought them which receiving blanket. - Julie