Outlet for parents _ fun for the masses.

Byline: Molly Millett

When co-workers ask Alecia Davis if she has any photos of her baby son, Colum, she doesn't pull out her wallet _ instead, she sits down at the computer and logs on to her baby's personal Web site.

"I think it's the new baby book," Davis says. "It's a whole new way of communicating."

Baby Colum's site is actually an online diary _ a Web log _ kept by his dad, John Davis, a stay-at-home dad who is also an English teacher. Besides photos, the site also includes regular entries about daily life, comments from readers, poems and statistics (number of teeth, height, weight, etc.). It is a grandma's paradise.

But the funny thing is, it's not just friends or family who log on to the site to look at 10-month-old Colum's latest candid photo. Strangers do, too (often other parents). In fact, a whole community of parents from across the globe has gathered on the Internet to share stories and advice and musings about parenting small children. Many are doing this via Web logs _ also known as baby blogs.

"I haven't written in Olivia's paper journal for months and months and months, but I'm on the computer all the time, checking my e-mail, making a note about our day (on her online journal), taking a break to see what that 2-year-old in New Jersey is up to," says Julia Janousek of Minneapolis, a mom to 2-year-old Olivia and 6-week-old Xavier.

Janousek belongs to Live Journal, a Web site that helps people create and maintain online diaries. As part of that service, Janousek can link to the Web logs of ...