Brought to You by the Letter {A}

Posted on | March 15, 2011 | 4 Comments

Today was Jovie’s well baby appointment. While the appointment went well, it wasn’t tear free. Jovie is not a friendly baby and anybody outside of her two parents and M who touches her would get a cry. Anyhow, while we were waiting (and I was filling out dozens of questionnaires) Jovie read and scribbled on a piece of paper. When the doctor came she was still scribbling and in the middle of her “writing” moment she got a capital A. She was so proud of this A that she kept pointing and showing it to us. The doctor was already impressed with her A-Z reading (she got all the letters about a month or so ago) and when he saw that she (accidentally) wrote an A and recognized the letter as such he was more so. A minute or two after the A moment he pulled out his tools and started inching closer to Jovie. While Jovie’s afraid of this person she’s a curious being and accepted all the “toys” that he handed her. She started crying though after he started examining her (just poking around really) and to distract her the doc asked Jovie about her A. Jovie, in between her sobs, said “AAAAAAAAAA” and pointed to it. It was so funny because I saw more and more how different our two girls are. M would have just screamed her head off and not cared about anything else – even if an extra large Happy Meal was in front of her (she was a huge fan back then).

At 21-mo Jovie hit all the areas in the growth chart. She’s very good at some like: Professional stair climber. We let her go up alone with us behind her and we hold her hand coming down. A few steps from the bottom we’d let her go down alone (she’d hold on to the rails). She is starting to know her colors and lowercase a-g. She can also say and sign 1-10 although still working on the concept of numbers. She’s awesome at stacking (hubby said she got this from me… it’s how I clean he said). She kicks and throws too. But, there are two things that she might be behind in: Forming two word sentences and speech. The doc said that her speech might be ok. Jovie does say many words well but others… only her mama would know. You should hear her say “W” – not at all close but so so cute. Just FYI, no, it wasn’t because she couldn’t say “W” that I made a fuss about this part of her development. Tomorrow I am going to throw words at her and write down those she doesn’t say well. I think it’s a letter or two that she can’t say. Then the sentence forming… she’s still a one word gal! I tried all sorts of ways to get her to say two words because “all done” – which has always been a one word in her head – but it’s not working out. I’ll have to research this some more!

So that’s that. My baby’s growing up!!

I have a layout to share too. It’s from last month’s Scarlet Lime kit. The March kit is out and it’s so so lovely!! Do check it out!!!

I love the sparkles and shine! I also want to show you the rub-on behind the alpha. Gives the area a bit of grunge.

Have a great one all! I’ll post again in a little bit!!

Our Precious

Posted on | November 9, 2010 | 8 Comments

That’s what I was going to title the page above but I just couldn’t because I kept thinking of Gollum. I can hear it right now: “My preciouuuuussss.” I think my kid’s a lot cuter than him though {::SMILES}.

I love the picture of Jovie. I just took the photograph a few days ago and love it because I can see her daddy all over that little face.

A few days ago Jovie turned 17-mo and she’s now walking, signing and somewhat saying words. One thing for sure: She is ADORABLE!! Emma grew up quick and at Jovie’s age she was running and talking. She was always well behaved too and in a way she was like a little adult. Jovie on the other hand is like a big baby. Size wise she’s comparable to a 9-12-mo-old and she still acts like an adorable little baby. She VERY fun and very smart!! She’s quick at learning new games and everything amuses her. She’d giggle or play pick-a-boo or show us her belly and repeating the word over and over again (she can’t say “l”, she says belly like one would say tortilla, a “y” sound instead of an “l”). She’s a little kisser and she loves being snuggled and showered with tons of kisses.

My only complaint is that she’s one terrible eater, a bit OCD I think. At first we thought that it’s the texture but that’s not consistent. We almost thought she’s vegetarian but then she loves bacon. Then we thought it’s the flavor but one day she’d like it and another she wouldn’t. I know that kids can be picky but she’s way beyond that in my opinion. She does love rice so I try to make things tiny and mix it up with the rice. Oh, it can’t be too moist though or she won’t eat the rice. She got upset today because the ice cream looked different. There were pieces of chocolate on it. I set it down and she eventually poked, licked and liked but she wasn’t happy about the different ice cream at first. She also doesn’t like her hands to be dirty or have things stuck to it.

Any of your kids or somebody you know like Jovie? We’re going to take her in again to see if she’s deficient in some sort of vitamins or something. Her blood work came out normal though so just odd…

Page details:

For this page I used the November Frugal Fab kit from Scarlet Lime. LOVE this kit because for about $20 it’s just FULL of goodies! My thing about kit clubs is that most don’t add a lot of embellishments, which is understandable, paper is cheaper, so it’s always great when there’s a kit (for $20 too!!) with all sort of goodness included with the package. It’s just so much more enjoyable to work with I think!

On the photograph… there’s one thing that I don’t like about the Canon Selphy: It crops your photo! Compare the original below to how it printed. On this photo I don’t think it really hurt it but there was one where I had to re-crop on my photo editing software so that M would not be headless. I was also messing around with Photoshop layers and adjustments and came up with this feel. I likey! Aaahh… Love the look of my girl… I think we hit the jackpot in the cuteness department for both our girls!!

I love the brads from Chatterbox:

The cork from Pink Paislee is fun too. I did a couple just for accent and on the on to the right, I just cut it with regular scissors.

I hope you all have a great one, take care!!

Signing Time

Posted on | August 16, 2010 | 10 Comments

When I learn something or if I find something useful I feel the need to share and/or show somebody how to do it. When I am interested in something I research it to death. Hubby said it’s to the point of being overly overwhelming but he lets me be as long as he doesn’t have to hear every single detail or read a 100 page summary.

After I was pregnant with M I got a whiff of baby signing. I researched and researched, learn a few signs along the way, and concluded that it’s one of the best thing after diapers. Right now we’re focusing on signing with Jovie. Like most babies her age Jovie can’t speak (M was an exception, she babbled well and woke up talking one day at about 14.5-months). Jovie makes noises which some I can understand but for the most part she sounds like a little cave girl. The good news is that Jovie’s been really good about learning how to sign the last few days. Even though she got milk and change down the end of January it just recently clicked that all the different hand movements we’ve been doing mean something.

So here’s the educator in me sharing with you: If you’re expecting or have a little one I highly recommend teaching your baby how to sign. Research and personal experience have shown that signing does not slow speech development. M talked at 14-mo but she still signed until she was 18-mo because a few of her words I had a hard time understanding. M actually still signed a few words, “please” included, until she was three. She was a thumb sucker and she’d have her thumb in her mouth and politely ask for things with her other hand (cute at first but hubby and I decided that the thumb needed to be out of the mouth when asking for something). Jovie is much much happier now that she knows a few more words. When she wakes up she’ll ask for milk, then a change of diaper and then cereal. A few weeks ago she insisted on ice cream for breakfast. She’ll ask to go outside or to play. It’s wonderful!!

You don’t have to know American Sign Language. I didn’t. I just watched the videos, Signing Time or My Baby Can Talk, (this site has a wonderful video dictionary of different words) with M and we learned together. Plus it’s not like I was going to sign in full sentences. It was a word or two here and another one there. I did take a signing class just for fun last summer. It taught me a lot about ASL and and Signing Exact English (SEE) but that didn’t teach me a lot of new things in terms of baby signing. Do do do try this! So far Jovie knows: Milk, change, more, eat, cereal, outside, play, hot, cold (with “brrr” as the sound effect), sleep/night-night, ice cream, and potty. It’s a third less than what M knew but they’re better than nothing.

Here’s little Jovie showing off her teeth, cheesy smile and a few :

Page details:

Although the page might look complicated it actually wasn’t. It’s just the paper that’s busy. Then I added a bit here and there, mostly scraps, and came up with this piece. The left photo is of her saying “all-done“. The right is “more“. Both were not done correctly but that’s how Jovie signs.

This little corner was just layered with random bits of leftovers. They used to be a part of a Studio Calico kit (except for the flower and the doile) – mostly Making Memories travel kit stuff. A little piece here a little there and voila.

I also want to show you this part. Just stickers here with the edges a bit curled or unglued. It wasn’t my idea. I guess cause the stickers are 2-3 years old the adhesive were non-existent. After I adhered the stickers started peeling off. I liked the peeled look and so I added more glue but just to half the side. This just gives the page a bit more 3D look.

That’s it! Oh, isn’t Jovie getting so big?!?! She’s looking more and more like her daddy… the prettier version.

Sweet Oreos

Posted on | July 30, 2010 | 5 Comments

HAPPY FRIDAY!!! Kind of weird, even though I don’t work now I still look forward to Fridays. I think it’s because I know we’ll all be home the next day and also that it’s just another day until market day!! Granted there’s market day everyday around us the big more fun ones are always on Saturdays.

I can’t wait until next week either. There are a lot of things to share, new projects using Clear and Simple Stamps and WPlus9 (AWESOME sets you’ll want to have!!) and some personal news – no we’re not having another one!!

Page details:

I got this color combo from the Color Combo Challenge on Ning, #153. At first I wanted to do a card but after digging around I found some perfect matching colors. I’ve been into simple, scattered, kind of fun layouts lately and this is just another one. I am into the ink spots too. They just add more visual to a simple page.The star of the page is Jovie and she loves the dirtiest cookies ever created. When it’s warm I’d remove her clothing before I give her and Oreo but on colder days it’d be laundry soon after. I don’t do laundry all in a day so there’s always something to start. So it’s no big deal. I love her smiles when she’s enjoying her cookie. I only give her one, a half at a time.

For the ink I used a Stampin’ Up! ink blowing tool. I’ve had it for a looooong time now but rarely use it. You stick an SU marker through it and push hard on the blower. The butterflies were recycled from a K&Co packaging, a Serendipity Embossed Sticker package, that the blue sticker came in. The yellow’s so rich and really, who’s going to look at my page from the side? Who cares what it looks like under the butterfly… if it’s got a bit of text here and there. The packaging is nice and firm, thick card stock, and makes the butterfly wings bend so nicely.

The rest of the stuff I used are American Craft alpha and vinyl stickers, Making Memory strip of paper from their travel line two years ago. Then a tiny bit of October Afternoon pattern paper with a flower from Prima and a rhinestone adhered to it. The small alpha’s from KaiserCraft. Oh, and some pom-poms. You can’t see it on the picture but the page was sprayed with some Marshmallow Tattered Angels mist. I think I finally figured out a good way to not get blotches on my work. I’ll have to try a color mist to confirm though.

Then there’s the little tear. This was actually an accident. I was scrapbooking on the floor and the foot of my chair got on top of this part and tore the paper. So I had to make it a bit more attractive and feel like it’s part of the page. Under the tear I adhered another piece of the October Afternoon paper.

I’ve been using a lot of old products lately. I have tons of new stuff but I really want to use up my old stash. I’ll probably never be able to catch up because I continue to shamelessly hoard but I also want to remind myself that just cause I’m using old stuff it doesn’t mean my page will look outdated in terms of design or what’s in right now in paper crafting. I can still use old material and combine it with new techniques or even old ones, and make it look like it’s a layout from 2010. If you’re new to this hobby or don’t have a lot of money to buy all sorts of things keep in mind that you can use just a little bit of this and that, they don’t have to be new either, and place them properly and you’ll have a page you’ll love to keep for a long time. I love this page I did, oldies but goodies for sure!!

Ok, have a great Friday!! We’ll see if I’ll show up tomorrow but for sure Sunday to share a super cute Clear and Simple card. Tata!!

Is Moving Ever Fun?

Posted on | January 5, 2010 | 9 Comments

Moving things around sucks, going through junk sucks, deciding what to keep and not to keep sucks, comforting M sucks (three melt downs so far), imagining a few months with VERY minimal furniture sucks, the thought of leaving my job sucks (I love my job and plus, not working equals to house wife duties aka cleaning). Hmmm… what else? You done listening to me whine? Sucks, sucks, sucks. But, all the negativities does go away when I think about the journey ahead… all the adventure that we’ll be having whether they’re good or bad as a family. That’s why my 2010 one little word is: journey.

Main Entry: ¹jour·ney
Pronunciation: \?j?r-n?\

1 : an act or instance of traveling from one place to another
2 chiefly dialect : a day’s travel
3 : something suggesting travel or passage from one place to another

All of us are very excited about this year and we’re one of those people who doesn’t mind changes — as long as they’re good (or at least they sounded good at that time). I’m hoping to be able to document most if not all of our adventures via my good old blog — or blogs — and scrapbook pages. I mean it’s not everyday we get to pack all our belongings and move to a different country. Now, don’t worry, I won’t be bombarding you folks with pics. I got Flickr/other photo galleries for that {::SMILE}.

Here’s my first page of 2010:

My baby girl.

I used bits and pieces for this page. A little bit of Making Memories paper that came from Studio Calico in 2008, some American Craft, Creative Imaginations and Amy Butler. Nothing fancy — something that’s M-ish.

K, that’s it. Have a great night!!