"Growing Together": The Spark and the Stack
Every developer has that one “itch” they need to scratch. For me, it was tracking my kids’ height. Sure, there are apps for that, but none of them felt right. They were either cluttered with ads or lacked the specific “sibling comparison” logic I wanted.
So, I did what any self-respecting IT professional does: I spent three weeks building a custom web app instead of just using a spreadsheet.
The Vision
The goal for Growing-Together was simple: A clean, emerald-themed dashboard where I can log height measurements and see exactly how my kids are tracking against WHO growth charts.
The Stack: Choosing “The New Shiny”
I decided to go with a modern, production-grade stack to keep my skills sharp:
- Next.js 16 (App Router): Because if you’re not using the latest React features, are you even developing?
- TypeScript: Because I value my sanity and don’t like
undefined is not a functionat 2 AM. - Prisma + PostgreSQL: The ultimate developer experience for database management.
- NextAuth.js: Handling auth so I don’t have to (more on that later).
- Tailwind CSS: For that crisp, responsive UI that looks good on my phone while I’m actually at the measuring tape.
The First Commit
Day one was all about the “Initial Project Structure.” I wanted a clean foundation. I set up the Child and Height models in Prisma, wired up the basic CRUD operations, and got the first measurement saved to a local DB.
It’s just a “Hello World” with a database, but seeing that first data point pop up on a chart? That’s the spark that keeps a side project alive.
Next up: Moving this thing off my local machine and into the cloud. (Spoiler: It involves a lot of YAML).
Stay tuned!
nextjs prisma fatherhood tech-stack