Of course, what started as "let's print a few pictures" has turned it "let's scrapbook Everett's entire life, from conception until whenever "the present" happens to be when we finish this enormous project". How to you decide which pictures to print when you think they are all the cutest thing you've ever seen? I've printed apx 400 pictures, and thank God Matt has helped me make a few scrapbook pages.
Matts pages are pretty, with layered sheets of different color papers and cute handwriting. His pictures are all framed with cute little borders and such. They look like they had a lot of time and though put into them. They are great. I assumed I was on my own with this project when I started, so I am super happy to have Matt's help, and its fun for us to work on it together.
My pages look like they were made by a woman who has 400 more pictures to put somewhere. They give the impression that they have been pumped out assembly line style at break-neck speed. They remind me of my moms scrapbook pages, the few that she has completed in her lifetime. Finished long before she ever considered having kids, the pages in moms scrapbook are worn and faded, her handwriting right beside the pictures instead of on clever notecards or whatever. They look rugged, like they have been around for a while, and they have. Those they are not full of luster, I like them because they are hers, just like I like my pages because they are mine, ugly or plain thought they may be :)
I know it will be fun later, to look back on what used to be my scrapbook, but is now a collaborative effort between me and Matt, born in a rush to catch up to present day pictures. It's now part of the family, and it tickles me to think that Everett will one day get to add his own pages. And though I know that not most little boys get a kick out of scrapbooking, and he will probably blow me and Matt off, abandon our arts and crafts one day in favor of something more boyish, I hope that he will take an interest in it while he is little. That way, he will have some of his own creations in the family book that will one day be a treasure to him when he is adult, regardless of how boring it may be when he is a child, or embarrassing it may be when he is an adolescent.
Having said all that, it is my sincerest hope that this project gets finished. I say that because I know myself well. Hell, you have all seen how great my follow-through has been with keeping this blog up-to-date. A lot of my projects turn out that way: half finished. Hopefully we will actually scrapbook all of these pictures, but if we do not, I vow to at least have them all dated and placed in an album in chronological order within a reasonable amount of time, because I am going to be major pissed if I never get anything else done, and have nothing to show for all of the time I have spent uploading pictures to Shutterfly to be printed this week. If there were nothing else to motivate me, I believe that the sheer memory of the pain in the ass that i have endured uploading pics will surely drive me to at least archive them in an organized, and hopefully creative, way.
So with that I shall leave you with something to look at. Looking through all of these pics has really put things into perspective. What a wild and wonderful past year I have had, and damn, its flown by fast!! Here is a picture from a year ago. Man, what a difference a year makes :)
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| March 16, 2010 - 30 weeks |
The reward, a year later :) -
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| Mommy and Everett March 12, 2011. Everett's ten month birthday. |
