Babies don't blink much

Did you know that babies blink less than adults? We didn't know that either, but it's true. Now, to figure out why. Speculation includes the fact that they sleep so much, and spend so much time in general with their eyes shut.

How often does your baby blink? Ever thought about taking a blink count?

Not to worry, though. Baby will turn into a full blown blinker by the time he or she is 14. Meanwhile, you can record how often you baby blinks as he or she grows up, at Tot Jot!

Be the best parent in cyberspace

That's what the Tampa Bay Times says Tot Jot is all about.

As one of Tot Jot's co-founder's put it...

“I can’t be FedExing a hard copy book back and forth to my mom in Delaware to write about my kids, whereas online she can chime in whenever she wants.”

No kidding, even if you do pull it off through your company account!

Read the story here.

Tot Jot In The News

Tot Jot made the evening news in Beantown!

Boston is one of the first places my Dad took me for a summer vacation, being that my family hailed from New England. I wish I could remember more about that trip - driving up 95 from Florida and walking/being carried over the Freedom Trail is about it. Yea, I wish I had all the details, but Tot Jot didn't exist back then!

Check it out:

ABC News Channel 5 Boston
6/19/06 - Jamy Pombo Reporting
Share Your Baby's First Words Online

Thanks!

The Tot Jot Team

Don't know who you invited to see your Child's Tale?

Well that was our fault.

In the process of protecting your child's information, we made it almost impossible to figure out who you invited in to see it. The good news is, we've issued a fix. Now, when you receive confirmations that your invited friends joined Tot Jot, that confirmation will tell you their username and email address (which you knew already, or you couldn't have invited them in the first place). If you sent that invitation from your parent account, that friends list will be updated automatically - all you have to do is click to add.

If you want to give that invitee access to your Child's Tale, you will still need to add that username to Your Child's Tale Friends List. That is a manual process - log into your Child's Tale and click "Manage" under the "Friends" menu. Add the username, select display colors if you like, and save your changes. You have to think twice - once when sending an invite, and once by confirming that person's access to your Child's Tale. It's is our way of keeping your Child's Tale, and all the great stories within, safe and sound.

Thanks!

The Tot Jot Team

More than one Child's Tale you want the grandparents to see?

No problem.

Say you are the proud parent of two children, and you have a Child's Tale set up for each. Now, you want to invite the grandparents to see both Tales, but don't want to deal with sending an invitation from each Child's Tale. Easily done.

Log into the first Child's Tale, and send the invite. Then, when your invitee accepts the invitation, check Your Child's Tale Friends list for their username. Now, log into the other fantastic Child's Tale, and add that username to its Your Child's Tale Friends list. Your invitee will then see the additional Tale in their Invitation list, where they can just add it to their viewable tales with two clicks of the mouse.

Thanks,

The Tot Jot Team

Parents speak, and someone is listening

When we built Tot Jot, we tried to make it as simple as possible because we know parents of tots are busy, busy, busy. We figured the easier we made it, the more you would use it. Still, we thought that once you signed up, you might want to get the lay of the land before getting down to the nitty gritty, so we held off on delivering Tot Jot Facilitators until you had a chance to do so.

Then we got a bunch of "I figured it out in ten seconds, so why don't you just give me my questions" kind of stuff. We said "huh.....wow!"

So, now you get Tot Jot Facilitators as soon as you sign up. And if you are a parent invitee who is just taking a peek around first, don't worry about being treated differently once you take the Child's Tale plunge. Those nifty questions will be waiting for you as soon as you add that cute child of yours.

Thanks for the feedback!

The Tot Jot Team

Letting your invited friends see your Child's Tale

We've had a few folks say:

"Hey, I invited a friend to check out Tot Jot, but they can't seem to see my Child's Tale."

Well, that is because you invited them from your parent account - now you have one extra step to let them into your child's world. You received a notification that they accepted that invitation, and you checked your parent account friends list and saw their new username. Now, all you have to do is log into your Child's Tale, and add that username to the "Your Child's Tale Friends."

Note that after adding people to the "Your Child's Tale Friends" list, you don't have to share everything. Just mark entries you'd rather keep to yourself as "Private". How easy could that be?

Going forward, you can avoid this "extra step" for your closest family and friends (those you know desperately want to hear about the latest goings on with your little one) by simply logging into your Child's Tale, and sending invitations straight from there.

Where are my questions?

We've already had a few people signup and immediately ask where those Tot Jot facilitation questions are. Anticipation....

Tot Jot delivers questions to Child's Tales each evening - you will generally get them in bundles of four to seven at a time. If you have already answered them all, you generally have to wait a few days until more show up. You can find unanswered questions under the...get this..."Unanswered Questions" menu when logged into your Child's Tale.

So, if you just signed up, wait until a day passes. Those elusive (and ever so important) little facilitators should be waiting for you!

Thanks,

The Tot Jot Team

Some new communities for Tot Jotters

We've added some new open communities for members. Here they are:

- birthdayparties
- childcare
- familytravel
- foodallergies
- sleep

If you'd like to join one or more of these communites, simple enter the community name into your friends list, while logged into your parent account. You can then see all community posts by simply clicking on Friends/Entries on the left sidebar.

We'll be adding many more open communities in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

The Tot-O-Sphere

Tot Jot has its own, self-contained source of news and information on the Tot Jot service, which can be found at The Tot-O-Sphere. Yea, the "Tot-O-Sphere" is a silly play on the whole "blogophere" concept, but then again, aren't kids always silly and "play"-ing. We sure hope so!

Welcome to Tot Jot!

Tot Jot is a new online experience where parents can record, collaborate, and organize their children's life stories. The new service caters to parents of children ages birth to five years of age, and provides facilitation questions that both assist parents in getting their virtual baby book started, as well as gather important data points on their child's developmental progress. Parents can invite their family and friends to join in on the fun, and parents can join various Tot Jot communities (as well as create communities of their own) where they can liaise with like minded parents.

The Tot Jot crew is looking for feedback on the service, so members are encouraged to provide it in droves.

You can find Tot Jot at www.totjot.com.