A review of a primatologist's research in the New York Times offers an unexpected celebration of how babies change our lives.

In the view of the primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, the extraordinary social skills of an infant are at the heart of what makes us human. Through its ability to solicit and secure the attentive care not just of its mother but of many others in its sensory purview, a baby promotes many of the behaviors and emotions that we prize in ourselves and that often distinguish us from other animals, including a willingness to share, to cooperate with strangers, to relax one’s guard, uncurl one’s lip and widen one’s pronoun circle beyond the stifling confines of me, myself and mine.

You should read it! - Jeremiah

When my first child was born I had a baby book, first-year calendar and a journal where I wrote down her milestones and first words. With my second it was the book and calendar. My fourth was lucky to get the calendar! Offline solutions for recording precious moments and memories as my child grows don’t seem to be working and that’s why I’m intrigued by Keepaboo.

Keepaboo is not an online scrapbook, which is appealing to someone like me who’s never had an interest in scrapbooking and doesn’t want to think about page layouts and design. But it also isn't as DIY as starting up a blog, pulling elements together, and ending up with a basic way to post photos, videos and pictures in a chronological stream. Think of Keepaboo as more of an online suite replacing the standard baby book and even scrapbook. You can collect, record and even share moments and milestones from your baby’s first year. You can keep a parent diary, create picture galleries, track your baby’s growth and “write down” the memorable things your baby is sure to say.

Everything you record is put into your baby’s LifeBook, an online 3D book you can browse like a real baby book. Plus you can create custom books with themes such as Baby’s First Birthday or Grandma’s Brag Book. Keepaboo plans to offer the ability to print hardcover versions of your keepsake books, which is clearly their money-making strategy - great for us, because it means the site itself is completely free to use.

Keepaboo is a wonderful way for parents to capture those first-year (and second-, third- and fourth-year) memories in one place and share them with family and friends. It’s the perfect solution for a mom who’s online as often as I am and tired of dusting off her daughter’s current baby book! - Emily H.

When parents find out they are expecting a second (or third, or fourth...) child, one of the first thoughts in their minds is trying to figure out how to prepare the current family for its new addition. There is no time like the present to start getting little one’s siblings ready for all of the big changes ahead.

One of the first big decisions parents need to make about preparing their children for a new baby is deciding when to tell them about the impending arrival. I have heard many different opinions about this, and there are many different schools of thought that could work for your family. I know of parents of young children who held off telling them about the new baby for as long as possible because nine months is many lifetimes for a young child and because they were too young to understand much of what was going on.

I subscribe to the philosophy that it is best to be upfront with children as soon as possible. We decided to tell our twins, B and E, about the new baby before we told anyone else. My husband and I knew that the boys would be faced with many people asking them about becoming big brothers, and we wanted to be sure we talked to them about it first. Plus, B and E were just past their second birthdays, so they could understand what we were telling them.

Explanations don’t have to be too specific or in-depth. Our new baby is due in October, so we explained to the boys that there was a baby growing in mommy’s tummy, that he needed lots of time to grow big and strong, and that he would come to live with us around Halloween.

If you have multiple children, how and when did you share the news with the post-natal kids? Are there any tricks that have worked especially well for you? - Sara I.