Ghetto-Fab

It was an eventful weekend in our home. We didn't go anywhere or do anything exciting.  All of the excitement was Fletch related. First of all, it now takes two of us to change the boy's diaper. I lay him down, get the diaper off, and then it's like wrestling a greased pig. He turns himself over then stands himself up holding on to the end of the changing table. He does this half-naked with all his boy parts hanging out. It truly is a sight to see. We actually attempted putting on the diaper in this standing position, but it was not any easier. I'm seriously considering wrist and ankle tethers. We may have to move diaper changing to the floor for safety precautions.

That is not the exciting part. No, the exciting I speak of is the destruction that occurred. Saturday Fletch and I were sitting around playing, and I made the mistake of letting him play with my cell phone. He's done this numerous times without destroying it, so I was not worried. Then the stars aligned and somehow he entered the keystrokes of death. My phone went into sync mode and I couldn't get it out. Then when I took the battery out to do a soft reset, it locked up and wouldn't turn on. There was nothing. Just a little red light of death. I tried numerous things to make my phone come back to life, but alas after a trip to AT&T it was determined that there was no hope.  What makes this so ironic is that we are about to change carriers in two months. TWO MONTHS! It would be almost $200 to get out of the contract now, so that was out of the question. The dude at the store suggested we head to Wally World for a pre-paid phone. All I had to do was put my SIM card in the pre-paid phone and that would tide me over until we switch carriers.

The choices were slim. There were two Nokia phones to choose from. A flip phone and a fixed front phone. I am not a big fan of the flip phone, and considering I now have a destructive 10 month old I don't think a flip phone would be safe from his need to explore. Now I understood this would be a no-frills phone. I just needed something for calling and texting. This was the first time I have ever gotten a new cell phone and not felt any excitement whatsoever. I mean look at this boring piece of plastic.

Blah-zay. This phone is leaning towards the ghetto side. I mean...I definitely feel a tad ghetto having to use a pre-paid piece of crap phone. Who uses these things? Maybe the pre-loaded ring-tones will give us a clue. Oh look, they're all latin dance music. WTH? (I guess even AT&T stereotypes it's customers) Couldn't they also add in a few Italian songs for the mobsters too? I guess I watch too much TV.  There was a little part of me that would think "I can't believe they are just throwing those phones away, what a waste"when I watched The Wire on HBO. Well I would have no problem tossing this baby out the window either. (By the way, I really miss that show.) 

I miss my old phone. I miss my fun ring-tones that I made on phonezoo. I miss my calendar and reminders. I miss my full qwerty keyboard. Once you go qwerty, everything else feels dirty. 

I made myself a vanilla vodka and coke cocktail to ease the pain of owning a ghetto phone. I got to take one sip before Fletch reached out and knocked it over spilling it all over him, me and the kitchen floor. PARTY FOUL! How early is it to teach your children about alcohol abuse? I think I may have to borrow a sippy cup from Fletch for future beverages. 

  

New Pages for the Baby Book

I'm beginning to get the hang of GIMP and I have found some pretty great free digital scrap-booking stuff. I am still a novice compared to some crazy-awesome pages I've seen, but again I don't plan on making this a full-time hobby. Since I don't have any holiday paper on hand for the baby book, I decided on using the digital format. Here is the Halloween page:

I thought this one came out pretty cute. I still want to learn short cuts and how to efficiently use the program. I feel like it takes me forever because I'm just learning as I go. I learn best from experience, but I need some guidance. Anyone want to give free lessons? I can cook/bake, sew, clean for you :) OK...enough bribery. Here is the Christmas page:

I'm not sure I'm in love with this one, but I do like my idea to put our names on the stockings. I prefer more pictures to embellishments, but when it comes to Christmas you can't get too cheery. In contrast, for the page for Fletch's first solids, I chose a more simple approach:

I figured an explanation was not necessary. The pictures say it all on this one. I decided to use the scrabble tiles since both words ended in D and it worked out nicely. I may add a little something to this one, like some food splatters. That would render it more accurately. 

So these are my first attempts at digital scrap-booking. It is definitely keeping me motivated to finish the baby book.

Digital Scrapbooking

One of my new year's resolutions was to finish Fletch's baby book. I had gotten started, but it's hard to get crafty with a little munchkin nipping at your heels. I subscribe to a few craft blogs and one of them frequently posts examples of digital scrapbook pages that people have created. I also see posts for free digital scrap-booking kits. Last night I decided to give it a try. I had downloaded GIMP, an open source version of Photoshop, which is perfect for this type of project. I like the digital aspect and I can print out the finished page on photo paper and just slide it in the sleeve. If I have something 3-D to add to the page, I can still add it to the finished product. I am by no means a "scrap-booker." I don't feel the need to spend hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours pursuing the hobby. I just like to have all of my mementos from a trip or special occasion in one place. Putting them all into a scrapbook is a good way to view and keep them safe. Since I didn't want to go spend money on an Easter scrapbook kit, I decided to try it digitally for free.

So what do you think? I'm pretty minimalist when it comes to my real-life scrapbook pages, so don't look for a ton of embellishments. I think it's pretty good for a first try. I just want to find some nicer fonts for all the writing parts. Next up is a Halloween page.