LittleMan's New words

LittleMan is growing so quickly. We've been teaching him signs, but until a month and a half ago, he wasn't interested in learning those. Now he has a growing list of words he can sign to us. He's so excited that he can communicate and we actually understand what he's saying.

Right now he can sign:
Hello/bye bye
fan
light
eat
drink
more
sleep
change (as in "let's go change your diaper")

A few nights ago, as I was brushing his teeth, he said his first (non family name) word. He said "light". He looked right up at the light, did the sign, and said it. I was so excited and BittyBit shared my excitement. We gave him a huge round of applause and she said, "Good job! You did it, you said light!"

Gym Playdate

LittleMan's cousin Liam invited us to a kid's gym where he goes a couple of times a week to exercise and socialize with other babies. My kiddo was at the top range of the class, according to age, so he was more interested in crawling around and exploring than bouncing on the balance beam or doing somersaults. He had a fun time though and we were able to hang out with Tayton and Breanne and little Liam for a while.All he wanted to do was stand up.
Chin-ups are fun!
Pretty good for a six month old.
But bubbles are the best part.

I See The Moon, The Moon Sees Me...

Julie, you mentioned trying to look at the moon Wednesday night when it was supposed to appear larger than usual. I read about it in an article on the Yahoo! main page, so I went outside and tried to take some pictures. I am even more convinced that I want to buy lenses for my camera, but I think the results are respectable.My mom used to sing a song to me when I was small, and I sing it to both my kids before bed every night. The tune is something that is unique to this song (meaning I can't say "sung to the tune of...") but the words go like this:

I see the moon
The moon sees me
Down through the leaves of the old oak tree
Please let the light that shines on me
Shine on the one I love.

Over the mountains
And over the sea
Back where my heart is longing to be
Please let the light that shines on me
Shine on the one I love.

This is LittleMan's favorite activity lately.
He races as quickly as he can to the bookshelf, then before anyone realizes he's there, he pulls as many books as he can off the shelf.

He got his first haircut on Wednesday. I was too busy trying to finish the elements to my kit to remember to blog about it. Here are the before and after pictures.
Before
He's not sure what he thinks about the scissors, but he liked them better than the clippers.
And after, smiling with his favorite hairdresser, Grandma.

Sally

My daughter introduced me to her imaginary friend "Sally" a few weeks ago. She usually joins us at meals, but sometimes she shows up to play dolls with BittyBit. Tyson thinks it is silly to have imaginary friends, but he probably never had one himself. When I was a child I had "Jamie-boy" and we got into all kinds of trouble together. I was more than a little jealous when my younger sister Robyn took over as Jamie-boy's best friend. I had kind of outgrown him, but I didn't want to share. Good times.

LittleMan learned how to wave goodbye this week, and he also learned how to sign "milk". He got so excited when he made the sign and we actually delivered a bottle. Now that he knows how to communicate, he gets extremely impatient waiting for us to prepare his food.

I finished my first digital paper pack today. I might make elements for it later, but for now I'm just going to package up the paper. I'm still getting the preview ready, writing up my terms of use, and getting ready to upload my files to the file sharing site, so it might be a few days before I post it.

Memorial Day Fun

First of all, I want to say thanks to Julie for picking me up for the second time in a week so that I could be part of the festivities. It is driving me nuts having to rely on other people for everything, but maybe the Lord is trying to teach me patience and humility.

Julie came by my house early Monday morning and helped me round up the kids and load them in the car. We camped out at her house in the morning while she prepared food for her BBQ later that day. The food turned out great and I had a wonderful time hanging out with old friends and meeting some new people. My daughter ran around with Shannon and Kelly and the other kids and managed to get completely soaked by a water gun, but it was so hot outside that I bet she was more comfortable than the rest of us. BittyBit and Shannon after a serious water gun fight.LittleMan chilled out most of the day, in spite of being tired.

In the evening we all went over to another friend's house for Jenny G.'s going away party. The gals who put the party together did a wonderful job and we all had a great time. It was nice to be able to get together for one last hurrah before Jenny & her family move far, far away. My only regret was that neither of my kids got much of a nap, and they both pitched fits for a good portion of the party. Especially my eldest child, who realized how slow I am on crutches and decided to take advantage. It is always humbling to have the worst behaved child at a party. Check out Missy's blog for some great pictures of the event (I mean the party, not the tantrums).

Last, but not least, I finished another layout. I've been trying to complete this one for weeks, but I couldn't find papers I liked that didn't clash with the page that will go next to this one in the album. The two pages are of different events, so I didn't want to use the same papers. I finally found a kit that has a similar feel to the other page I did, but isn't too much the same. As always, click on the layout to view it larger.

Credits: Template by Andrea Gold, Papers from Danielle Corbitt's Don't Be Shy kit. Font:CK Stenography. Atomic Cupcake action used on title.

Rude Telemarketers

I always try to be polite to people who call my house, even when they call me when I am home by myself trying to get both kids ready for bed. I really don't like it when the telemarketers call. I have been getting tons of solicitations recently and only realized last week that it is because my time on the National Do Not Call Registry had expired, so I had to put my numbers back on the list.

I think most sales people take a speed-talking course before they begin the job. As soon as I pick up the phone they begin their sales pitch, not even pausing to breathe, and I am left listening carefully for an opening to tell them, "No thanks". I make an effort to be polite, because I know that they are just doing their job, but as Dear Abby once said, in response to a whiney letter from a telemarketer (I am paraphrasing) - "People have no obligation to talk to sales people on the phone. Hanging up on a telemarketer is not terribly rude, as the call was unsolicited and the caller often doesn't give the person a chance to disconnect politely."

I spent close to a minute listening to the guy who was trying to sell me a termite treatment package. When he finally took a breath I said,"No thank you, I'm not interested." At which point he promptly hung up. No mumbled "thanks" or "bye". So I've decided I'm tired of being polite. I'm not interested in torturing the poor people who try to sell me something(like my brother in law enjoys doing), but I'm not going to feel obligated to listen to their sales pitch either.

I thought I'd list some of LittleMan's accomplishments
words: Ma-ma, da-da, (He said his sister's name once, but he has yet to say it again)
talents: clapping hands - he just learned this skill last week
crawling, pulling up on the furniture, and a little bit of "cruising" along the furniture
giving kisses - the big, slobbery, open mouth kisses that babies give, but he does it on command
moving around on his ride-on toy, Mater (he can do this by himself, but prefers to ride around with his big sister)

He is very happy and laughs a lot. I can tell he's going to have a great sense of humor and maybe even be a joker like his dad.
BittyBit and LittleMan riding Mater

New teeth and photography lessons

LittleMan cut his second tooth three days ago. At this point, it would still be incredibly difficult to get a picture of the teeth, but when they have emerged a bit more, I am sure they will be more visible.

I am so smart
Most of the moms I know take tons of pictures of their families. Even those who started out barely able to find the shutter soon blossom into competent photographers. Many of these moms also choose to scrapbook to preserve these memories. One common problem we all face is that because we are usually the one behind the camera, we have thousands of photos and only appear in a handful of them ourselves.

Some days I am more than fine with this (especially the mornings that I can barely roll out of bed and don't want a picture to remind me that I didn't get any sleep and didn't bother fixing myself up), but occasionally I would like some proof that I was actually with the family on that last family vacation.

My solution? I taught BittyBit how to use my old Kodak digital camera. It has been gathering dust on my desk since I bought my Canon, so I figure that with proper supervision, she can learn how to use it and eventually might take some decent pictures. I see only positive things coming out of this. She finds the process of taking pictures highly entertaining. She likes taking multiple pictures, so one of them is bound to be my good side (unlike my husband, who will only take control of the camera when I beg, who usually takes one shot, then when I ask, "Did that picture turn out ok?" -glances at the camera and says,"Yeah"-when what he means is you were blinking and there was something in your teeth). She actually did a good job for her first time using it. More than half of the pictures were in focus and after the first few, I showed her how to center her subject in the viewfinder, so most of the photos contain the subject she was trying to photograph.

Of course, some of the pictures turned out like this...I guess her photography skills still need some work, but with a little practice, she'll be a professional in no time!

Remodeling, blog books, teeth, and BittyBit-isms

Final Phase of LittleMan’s room
Today Tyson and I picked out carpet for LittleMan's room. It looks like we will not be able to have it installed until the middle of next week, but at least everything else is finished. They are going to come measure our house tomorrow so that they know how much carpet to order. We are only installing the carpet in LittleMan's room right now, because Tyson wants to update all of the other rooms, and said it will be much easier if he can just tear up the carpet when he is ready to do each room. That way he does not have to worry about messing it up when he busts up the old windows and installs new ones. He also won't have to worry about making a mess when he re-textures the walls, replaces the trim, and paints everything.

Blog Books
My friend Elizabeth sent me a link to this site, which allows you to turn the entries from your blog into a soft or hardcover book. I have not used it, but I will definitely give it a try. I know a lot of you use your blogs as journals and this might be useful to keep all of those entries from getting lost in cyberspace.

Teeth
LittleMan now has one, on the bottom. I would take a picture, but it is barely poking through the gums and it is usually covered with drool and his tongue. He has been working on this tooth for about a month and a half, so I was very excited today to see that it had come in.

Big Momma
I had to add another BittyBit-ism. Sometimes at naptime or bedtime, I will tell her, “I love my big girl”. A couple of days ago after I told her this, she followed up with, “I love my big mommy”. Uh…thanks kiddo. I guess it is the sentiment that counts.

New Scrapbook pages

BittyBit usually awakes before Tyson's alarm goes off and ends up waking him up around 6:00 or 6:15 am. This morning she must have been extremely tired because she slept in until almost 8:00. Tyson went in to check on her and when he put a hand on her shoulder, she immediately awoke and started telling him about her dream. "Daddy, I was dreaming and I tried to get an orange, but I couldn't reach it, so I strrretched but I still couldn't reach it. Then I got a giant apple and a giant potato." I am sure she has dreamed before this, but she has never told me or Tyson about her dreams, so it was pretty funny. It's even more funny that she was dreaming about food, because her nursery teacher at church and her preschool teachers have all commented on her healthy appetite. She is always the first to sit down for snacks and the last to finish.

LittleMan was in a fabulous mood yesterday afternoon, so I snapped some pictures. I scrapped them today using a premade layout. All I did was drop my pictures in and add the journaling and quote. I usually create my own pages, but Quick Pages save a lot of time and the colors in this set really worked with the photos.

Quickpage made by Silvinha K from Nathan Boy Kit by Janine Oliveira. Quote is by Katie Pertiet of Designer Digitals

Quickpage made by Carla Neiva from Nathan Boy Kit by Janine Oliveira