The power of words.

Okay, seriously, someone flipped a switch on my 2.5 year old recently and the kid is just high on the power of words. I know plenty of other toddlers who talk more at this age and all that, but the kid just makes me smile. He's so dang bossy now that he knows using the actual words gets results. It's like he'd just been storing them all up and suddenly decided to try using them instead of just pointing and whining. "Mommy, sit here. Play. Now," says he. How can you resist? Of course, we still can't get him to say his own name, though I suspect that's more just stubbornness on his part. He gets a kick out of saying "Baby!" instead and knows we want him to say "Micah." Maybe it's a power thing. ;)

In related Micah adorability, the kid is definitely mine. I casually asked him today "What should we do for dinner tonight?" His reply? "Eat." Duh. Nathan just laughed and told me it served me right. He often asks me "What should we eat?" and my reply is usually something like "food" or "something edible."  Guess that's what I get, eh?

FYI.

Just for your information...watching ladies figure skating with a 2.5 year old...particularly a 2.5 year old who *thinks* he can skate like the people on tv and proceeds to try to show you all around the family room...is darn funny. Seriously. :)

Brain dump.

Many unrelated thoughts jumbled around in my head right now. Rather than making multiple posts or trying to actually organize my thoughts, I'll just spit it all out. ;)

First up, check this out! Creating Keepsakes and Shutterfly have joined up and made photo books even more awesome. At the moment, they're featuring two fabulous options...one by Ali Edwards and one by Jessica Sprague, two of my very favorite designers. To help show off how cool (and easy!) this system is, CK asked me to share this lovely little album that I made for my Micah using Jessica's ABC's of You book. Folks, I chose pictures and words and completed this whole thing in less than a day (and the longest part of that was my own indecision about which pictures to use). Super easy. Beautiful. Micah's going to love it...if I let him have it *laugh* (let's just say he's still not quite as careful with books as I'd prefer).

The boys and I watched "Mary Poppins" tonight, and it was a fabulous break from all things Transformers. They actually enjoyed it quite a bit, having been lured in by the promise of finally learning where "supercalafragilisticexpialadocious" (please don't ask if that's spelled correctly!) came from and assurances that watching the movie would help them say it better. :)

I really need to update my online galleries. I'll put that on the ol' to do list for the near future, okay?

Don't forget about the Prism contest going on right now!  

If by some slim chance my dear high school friend, Vanessa, is reading this...happy birthday just a wee bit late...well, on the west coast it's still the 25th, so technically I'm not late. ;) 

Oh. I actually sat down and put most of my pages in albums the other night. Whew. I need more albums. Despite the part of me that would really like all of my albums to coordinate, right now it's totally hodge podge...some strap hinge, some post bound, some three ring and all different manufacturers. I'm rather indecisive about the whole thing. :) I love the flexibility of the three ring style (and definitely prefer them for my 8.5x11 layouts which tend to be always "out of order") but like how secure everything feels when you're flipping through it with post bound albums. What do you think? Have any recommendations? 

Finally, a Micah funny. Gave the kid a bath tonight, right? Nothing out of the ordinary. As I'm drying my delightful 2 year old off, though, he suddenly noticed that his fingers were pruney. Oh. My. Gosh. It was hilarious! He was soooo concerned and immediately had to check all his other parts to see if they were pruney also...I'll leave this to your imagination; but, yes, he checked all of his appendages.  Apparently, he'd never noticed this particular phenomenon before. He was quite relieved when everything was back to normal. Kids. What awesome entertainment!

Okay, I think that was most of it, though I'm sure I forgot something. :) Hoping to enjoy a sunny weekend here...it'll be a heat wave! We're supposed to be above freezing all weekend!! Woohoo! 

ETA: Sorry, I think the link to the album of Micah is working now! 

Sharing a few...

So...did you want to see a few of the 17 layouts I finished last weekend? :) Oh, okay. Here are three:

This first one had been in my head for about a month. The journaling reads: Every year I tell myself that I should have started earlier on my holiday projects. Yet, somehow, every year I find myself behind and working up to the last minute to finish things up...wondering how it got so late. This year in particular, I find myself behind and know that the lesson to be learned is to not attempt to reorganize my office in December. So. This year I’m writing it down. Now. I’m making a list of things while they’re fresh on my mind, and I fully intend to space these projects out throughout the coming year, so that I have the time for more attention to detail and so that I can be primarily done with my holiday projects by the start of December 2008. Ideally, next December will be occupied only with wrapping and shipping...with the rest of my time available to spend with my family, more fully enjoying the holiday season with my guys. That, I think, is a very worthwhile goal. Here’s hoping actually writing it down makes a difference. Here’s to...next year.

 

You can relate, right? ;)

This one was just a super quick one but I love the simplicity:

 

And this last one has pictures from just last month...no great story or anything, just fun snow pictures. :)

 

All of these had pretty minimal supplies (despite my having packed up a gazillion things to take with me to the crop *laugh*)...Prism cardstock primarily (love my Prism!).  The last one showcases some brand-spankin'-new felt snowflakes by Creative Impressions! Dude. These are awesome...great variety and they come in multiple colors and sizes (I used one of the blues here and have used the white ones as well...I hear they'll be available in purples and creams as well). Here's a close up:

 

Used Creative Impressions' brads to fasten them, and viola! Very cool.  Have one quick project to work on tonight and tomorrow and then I'll be working on more layouts to share so stay tuned!

A fun contest...

I"m still working on photographing those layouts so I can post (sorry...overcast weather). In the meantime, check out this new contest over at the Prism blog (scroll down to the end of the post). Looks like great fun with some of my favorite colors!