More Layouts for February

I've been doing a lot of scrapbooking this month.  Club Scrap, one of my favorite paper and digital companies, is having it's annual Pro Scrapbooker's League contest, eight weeks of scrapbooking as a team to gather points and prizes.  I'm participating in both the paper and digital categories.  And Natural Designs in Scrapbooking is having their Amazing Digital Scrapbooking Race season five, six weeks of scrapbooking 2 layouts a week.  Add several creative team requirements and that's a lotta layouts - almost 50 this month!  Here are a few of my favorites...

Once Makena figures out how to open the doorknob, we're gonna be in trouble!  Club Scrap's Birds of a Feather kit.

Makena may not speak, but she quite definitely communicates!  Guess whether she wants to leave the playground in this photo?!?  Bekah E's "Love is in the Air" kit, from Scrappity Doo Dah.

This is from LDrag Designs' new kit, Love Out Loud, from Scrappity Doo Dah.  Gorgeous, gorgeous, colors!  Makena was awake from her nap but she was still really tired and coming off of a cold, so she dragged her blankie out of her bedroom and plopped at the top of the stairs.  Too tired or two lazy to come downstairs, but too adorable to not photograph.  In fact, I lvoed the pictures so much that I scrapbooked another layout with Bekah E's Love is in the Air kit with other pix from the moment....

This one's from Lilleyscrap Designs, from her kit Always Kiss Me Goodnight.  Makena snoozing on top of Clint's chest. Soooooo very small compared to her big brother!

Slide!!!  Makena's new trick is climbing up the stairs and sliding down them all by herself.  I say, "Go slide!" and she crawls to the steps, ascends, and goes down belly first.  Club Scrap's Avant Garde kit.

And this one's from Crystal's Creations kit, Pistachio Rose, at Scrappity Doo Dah.  Connor made almost 30 valentines for his second grade class and he was very proud of them.  I especially love the photo of him peeking out from the valentine he made for his teacher.

"Row Row" and other little miracles

Yesterday, Moo went to toddler group at early intervention.  They have a little rowboat there for the kids to sit in, and she loved it.  She and another child sat in the boat and we'd sing the song, "Row row row your boat...." and clap when it was over.  In order to get more rowing, they had to sign or say "more."  Makena upped the ante by saying her version of "Row row!" for the first time.  We'd clap and woo hoo and she'd sing, "Row row!" with a big grin.  I got a short video on my phone and she enjoyed re-watching it as I showed the video to her daddy.

This morning, we were upstairs working on laundry since Friday's house-cleaner day and Thursday's run-around-the-house-and-put-everything-away day.  I found a bouncy chair that she'd used as a baby and got it out for her.  It's rated 25 pounds and she's 22 so I figured she may as well get more use out of it since she loves things that vibrate (yet another thing explained by her speech therapist - the vibration helps her sense her limbs and muscles, part of the whole low-tone thing that often goes with Down syndrome).

She lay back in the chair, body straight, and bounced it a little.  Then she held on tighter with both hands and rammed her back against it harder so it would rock more.  And she said, "Row row!" just like she'd said yesterday while rocking.  Spontaneous, relevant, clear, speech!  I clapped and repeated the words, and took turns singing, "Row row!" 

This is big news.  Good news.  Make-mommy-tear-up good news.

Our little Moo shares these little miracles and her unbounded joy with us every day.  We're so lucky to have her and Con.

Layouts for the first week of February

Lots of layouts done this week!  For my CT assignments with Scrappity Doo Dah, I get to guest design for two wonderful designers this month, Crystal's Creations and Bekah E Designs.  I've loved working with their kits so far, and I'll definitely be showing off more of their stuff later this month.  Here's the first of what I've done for them:

New kit from Crystal's Creations, Love and XOs, and here are the layouts I did with them...

Chocolate Lover's Delight, By Bekah E, and the layouts I've made with the kit so far:

Pistachio Rose from Crystal's Creations, and the first layout I've done with it:

February layouts for Club Scrap, from their Castaway kit.

And last but not least, I have a layout in this month's issue of scrapooking.com magazine. They have an article about sports layouts, and I have a cute layout of Connor and his first (and last) time playing goalie at his soccer class at Indoor Goals.  This one is from Club Scrap's Common Threads kit and tattoos from Scrapgirls tattoo paper templates.