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I love taking pictures. It is very odd to see me at some function or event without my camera. As I have mentioned before, we take lots of pictures of our son, so he is pretty used to having the camera aimed at him.

What has been interesting lately is that he is interested in being behind the camera as well. We have an old digital camera that still works, so we charged up the battery and stuck in the memory card. We showed Fuller where the button was and he went to town. He went to town taking pictures of his fingers. They were all over the lens. And it cracks us up.

But, he is only two and a half. What are we going to do?

If you don’t want to hand over the camera to your little ones, why not the pictures?

I am not one who enjoys scrapbooking that much. I did it once for a trip to Ireland in college, but beyond that, I just never really got into it. And with our family spread out all over the world, I feel as if the mission as been accomplished once I upload the pictures to my flickr account. At least then the pictures are visible to others.

But I have been recently thinking about those pictures and ways to display them somewhere off my computer. And what ways are there to get Fuller involved?

This article at Family Tree Magazine gives several scrapbooking ideas for children, but my favorite is the Picturing a Pedigree:

Kids may have a tough time keeping all the branches of their family tree straight, especially when your pedigree stretches back centuries. Illustrate the relationships by creating a pictorial family tree together. Start with a simple paper-pieced tree like the one shown here—kids will love cutting out leaves and crumpling brown paper to make the bark texture. Collect photos of parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Color copy them so you won’t damage the originals, then crop the copies into apple shapes and mat them on red paper. “Hang” the apples on the tree and write the names on the leaves. Add a tire swing just for fun.

What a fun way to help your littles ones remember who all their relatives are and where they are in the family line. This would be great for my husband’s side of the family, since they are many in number and get together every major holiday.

In the early days of summer, it might be fun to pull out pictures from over the school year and have your kids put together pages commemorating their accomplishments and events. Scrapjazz has a great list of ideas of types of pages to create:

Favorite subject at school. Why?
Favorite teacher. What does your child like about this teacher?
Describe a typical day at school.
Describe the items in your child’s backpack. Take a photo of those items.
What does your child like about his or her school?
Where does he or she usually hang out?
List of fun things your child does with his or her classmates.
What extracurricular activities or clubs do you child join? Since this is a personal choice, why did he or she choose it?
Who does your child usually sit with at lunch?
Who are your child’s favorite classmates? What does your child like about them?
What are the memorable field trips?

A trip to the craft store can inspire children to create and remember the days gone by. They will have something that they created and will last a lifetime. I guess it is time to start printing pictures!

scrapbooking, scrapbooking for children

Fuller enjoys coloring, finger painting, and doodling on his magnadoodle. I wouldn’t say that he loves it and won’t do anything but that, but I can tell he does enjoy cramming as much color onto a piece of paper as possible. And he has entered the “ew” phase of toddlerhood- where he hates having anything on his hands. So, finger painting hasn’t been that cool lately.

But I have a feeling, based on the genes this kid carries, he is going to have his chance to be even more creative. He has a dad who sews elaborate Halloween costumes, a grandmother who does beautiful calligraphy, another grandmother who makes crafts for craft shows, and a mom who writes and crochets.
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I have a big day ahead of me. I have to whip this house into shape in order to feel like a proper hostess for a playdate tomorrow. Since staying at home, we have been to a few playdates and now it is time to reciprocate one. As a bonus, I am kicking my butt to get the house cleaned. (Here is a tip: invite someone that you aren’t as familiar with. I thought I would clean my house for a playdate with my bestfriend and I guess I am too comfortable with her because my house was wrecked when she came over.)

This past Sunday our church had a pancake dinner and dying eggs was part of the program for the little ones. Fuller got to dye his first egg and he seemed to have a pretty good time, so why not do it again? I called a mom from our church and asked her and her daughter to come over for egg dying, lunch, and a possible playground trip. So, in addition to cleaning the house, I am needing to prepare for two two and half year olds to dye hardboiled eggs.
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