More Conversations with BittyBit

My friend Jessica has taken to calling the baby Sam (for Super Awesome Man), since Tyson and I won't tell anyone the baby's name until he is born. Well tonight "Sam" was wiggling around like crazy in my tummy and during one particularly uncomfortable moment I might have gotten an incredibly uncomfortable look on my face. BittyBit noticed and asked, "Mom, is the baby about to come out?" "No", I replied. "Then why is your face sour?" she asked.

On another note, happy birthday to my big sis Jenni!

Adventures in Makeup

This is what I found when I awoke this morning...
Apparently she was trying to look like me, so I guess she really meant it when she said she thought I look like a clown when I wear lipstick. This isn't the first time BittyBit has gotten into my makeup, here she is in April using a similar technique, only using eyeshadow instead of lipstick all over her face.

Sweet & Sassy

I know, I know, it has been forever since I posted. I've been trying to go to bed at a reasonable hour, since I have to be responsible and awake early to get ready for my new job every morning. I've also started clipping coupons, and I spend much of my evenings trying to stay on top of that hobby.

Almost a month ago BittyBit attended a friend's birthday party. I was a little skeptical before I went, because I'd been told it was a dress-up party, makeup and all, and I was expecting my daughter to look like some sort of JonBenet Ramsey clone when we were finished. The making up mostly consisted of fingernail polish, hairspray, and glitter. It was actually a really cute party and I'm glad I let BittyBit go (and that someone else was paying for it, I don't even want to know what something like that for 12+ four year olds costs!)

Here are some pictures from the celebration.

The birthday girl
The painting of the royal nails...
This was the best part of all...All of the little girls were boogeying to techno versions of the hokey-pokey and other formerly mellow children's songs. Then they each walked down the catwalk one by one as their names were announced and were crowned with their very own princess tiara.
The princesses in all their glory.
About 2/3 of the way through the party, LittleMan decided he'd been exposed to enough estrogen and demanded some fresh air. As soon as Tyson put him down on the sidewalk, he took off running. He's a smart kid, he can see when he's outnumbered and he chose the path of least resistance!

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.

No boots in the house

Last night BittyBit wanted to wear her cowboy boots in the house. We usually take our shoes off while in the house, and it was almost bedtime, so I told her that she could wear them to school tomorrow instead. She looked at me and said, "I don't want to go to school tomorrow". Most of the time she loves school, so I asked her why she didn't want to go. "I don't want to go to school tomorrow because I'm mad at you mom", was her reply. I had to fake a cough to cover my smile. I am glad that she can tell me when she is upset, and even gladder that she can be civil when she tells me. It just surprised me and the expression on her face when she said it struck me as funny.

I started the layouts below about a month ago, but I have not been able to get the second page to look right. I think I'm done messing with it for now though, so I will post it. I can't wait to start scrapping 2006, when I lost the rest of the baby weight. Those pictures are always easier to look at.

Credits: Sketches by Becky Higgins. The papers and elements are from Buzy Bee Scrapper Designs

Stupid Computer

I fully intended to post yesterday, after Jenny G. and I had another fun scrapbooking session, but my computer is acting up. The power in our neighborhood has been intermittent since the last big storm. It usually works, but it will surge a few times a day and then my computer turns off and I lose whatever project I was working on. Tyson had a spare battery backup and offered to plug my computer into it so that it wouldn't die if there was another power surge. He also gave me some new RAM for my computer a few days ago. After he plugged my computer into the battery backup, my computer wouldn't boot up. I started stressing out because I knew that Jenny would be coming over soon to learn more digital scrapbooking and my computer wasn't working. He messed around with it for half an hour and finally got it working. He thinks the new RAM might be incompatible with my computer, which would be a shame, because it my computer was running twice as fast as before with the new RAM.

I was so glad when Jenny showed up with her two boys, because the kids entertained each other for the most part. Before she showed up I was seriously considering locking BittyBit in her room and not letting her come out until she was ready to be married off. She kept trying to play with LittleMan, but she was being way too rough and I kept having to pull her off of him. At one point I stepped out of the room to start a load of laundry (my next house will have a laundry room in the house, not in the garage). Tyson was home, so I thought I could step away for a minute, but through the walls of the garage I heard LittleMan crying, so I charged back into the house. When I got to the living room, I found him lying on his back fussing. BittyBit was leaning over him, repeatedly slamming her forehead into the softest part of his stomach. I think I set a land record running across the room to pull her off of him. I was so mad, because I had already chastised her three times for hitting, pushing, and "tapping" him with her foot. She looked at me with this blank look and said, "But mommy, I'm not hitting him, see? I'm just bumping him with my head." Right...I guess I'll have to sit down and consider every possible physical assault so that I can forbid each one individually.

The computer worked the entire time Jenny was here, but almost as soon as she left, my monitor went out. It started blinking, then repeatedly turning itself on and off every few seconds. I finally had to unplug the darn thing. I have a feeling the motherboard is going to go out on my computer soon. So many things are going wrong with this computer. I really wish this would happen at a better time, not when we just got hit with a huge tax bill. That is another story entirely, but one that I don't want to talk about right now.

Well, Jenny told me that I should post more of my layouts, so here are some pages I finished today. The first one I completed several months ago, but I tweaked it today and created the second page. The templates and papers are by Andrea Gold. The rusty brads are from Jennilyn's RustIron kit. The overlay around the edges is from Shabby Princess's Two Soon collection. I used CK's Corral font for the title and journaling.


I am thinking about creating a freebie mini kit of digital papers, and maybe a couple of elements. I have never done this before, so I don't know how long it will take me or how good they will turn out, but if anyone has a specific theme or color request, leave your suggestions in the comments and I will consider them.

New Scrapbook layouts

I thought with all the time that I am spending teaching others to scrap, I really ought to do more digital scrapbooking myself. I am way behind and trying to catch up. Here is a double page spread I did today of a friend's birthday party in June of 2005, when BittyBit was 5 months old. (You can click on the images to view them full size.)


I based my layout on a sketch by Becky Higgins. The papers and embellishements are from Sweet Moon Graphic's Summer Sea kit.

Goodnight Ladies

I am so proud of my daughter! Sometimes I let BittyBit watch a show in the morning, but often I make her wait until after nap time. That way she has an incentive to actually take a nap. She wanted to watch a particular show that comes on in the morning, so it wasn't available to watch when she woke up this afternoon. I suggested Meet The Robinsons instead, but she said,"No, I want to watch Goodnight Ladies". That is what she calls The Music Man. I sang show tunes to her a lot when she was younger, but I hadn't sung any Music Man songs in a long time, but the other evening BittyBit began singing "Goodnight Ladies" at bedtime. I told her that the song was from a movie and asked if she wanted to see it. She watched some of it the next day but lost interest about half way through. Today she sat down and sang along while she watched the entire thing.

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.

I'm an aunt (again)!

Tayton and Breanne had their baby boy last night at 10:36 pm. His name is Liam and he weighs 6lbs, 8 oz. and is 19 inches long. They live out of state now, so I haven't gotten to see the baby in person, but I saw some pictures and he is super cute.

I completed a blog header for my mom a few days ago, which I think turned out nicely. I made my own header too, by the way. I'm still learning how to mess around in Photoshop Elements, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it. I decided to take part in a contest at one of my favorite digital scrapbooking forums. All of the competitors get a free digital kit to work with and have to create an original layout using only the kit. Some of the other folks have been scrapbooking a lot longer than I have, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. If my layout is chosen to advance to the next round then I'll get another free kit and will complete another layout. I'm not getting my hopes up, but it is worth a shot. Here is my layout for the first round. Credits can be found here.