Caleb's Fedora

When Caleb first started getting into video games, Dave went looking for a challenging, yet age appropriate game for a five year old. The twenty-something salesman at Best Buy sheepishly told Dave that he really liked playing the LEGO games and that Indiana Jones was one of his favorites. Dave and I are Indy fans, so he bought the game for Caleb . . . . 

Soon our five year old was enthralled with Indiana Jones, to the point where Dave ordered him Indiana's trademark hate - a fedora. Caleb loved it so much he wore it to bed all last summer. It was such a big hit, that Zach needed his own fedora. I have (no exaggeration!) at least a hundred pictures of Caleb wearing this hat, so I felt it deserved its own layout.

Journaling:

Photo Tip:

One of the best take aways from all the scrapbooking magazines I've read, is to zoom in on important detail photos. Caleb fell asleep holding his LEGO Indian Jones, and I didn't want to ever forget this phase. It called for a closeup photo.

Scrapbooking Tip:

I followed a sketch to make this layout and I was debating whether or not to include this banner and stitching detail. I'm so glad I did. It only took a couple of minutes, and I love how it turned out. 

Dress Up

Have I mentioned lately that Dave was an awesome daddy? I know I sound like a broken record, but words just don't communicate how devoted Dave was to his boys. 

Zach loves to dress up. He went (unwillingly) with me to Hobby Lobby and found, in my opinion, the ugliest black foam pirate hat. He HAD TO HAVE it! He was so excited about this hat and it was only $3 - the best $3 I ever spent. This was two years ago now, and both he and Caleb still wear it.

One night Zach wanted Dave to be the pirate, and Dave just played along. He didn't just wear the hat, but talked in his best "RRRR, me mateys" pirate voice, and even put the boys to bed in character. He told them that they had to walk the plank, and then proceeded to drop them into the ocean (aka their beds).

I miss all the characters and voices Dave did. I try to imitate him when the boys ask, but it's nothing like Daddy's.

Hello there, Handsome

I will admit that I moved past my apprehensions about Dave cutting Caleb's hair. In fact, I even asked Dave to cut it. We were getting ready for our road trip to Minnesota and I was running out of time to take Caleb for a hair cut, but I had time to take pictures! I loved all the faces Caleb made while Dave buzzed away.

Close Ups:

Dave was pretty focused on the task at hand!

Caleb looks like a mini-Dave.

Journaling Close Up:

Scrapbooking Tip:

I belong to a monthly kit club through Scrapbook Generation, and this kit was designed by one of my favorite scrapbookers, Allison Davis. As much as I love getting the kits every month, sometimes it's hard to match my pictures to a pre-designed layout. When I saw the title, "Hey there, Handsome," I thought immediately of these pictures.

My First Haircut - Caleb

Here's a layout from 2008 - Caleb's first haircut. He was 18 months old. No one accused him of having a beautiful head of hair when he was born! Dave and I took him to Super Cuts - the same place we spent hours waiting on the weekends for Dave to get his hair cut when he was in the NYSP Academy. When Dave was about half way through his training, he decided that that it would be a time and money saver to have me learn to cut his hair. I started cutting it the weekend before his "official" picture was taken . . .  not great timing.

When I was pregnant for Zachary I was on bed rest for the first trimester and was unable to cut Dave's hair. So, he started cutting it himself, and continued to do so after I was allowed out of bed. He became pretty good at what he described his "high and tight" haircut.

Dave had assumed he would be doing the honors of Caleb's first haircut. I usually went along with Dave when he had ideas, but I flatly refused on this occasion. So back to Super Cuts we went! Dave was okay with that, but still maintained he could have done a good job. 

One day a few years ago, I was working and Dave sent me a picture of Caleb's new haircut - he had done himself - and I have to admit that Caleb didn't look half bad. He was happy to look just like Daddy - and in reality the high and tight hair cut made him look even more like Dave, if that was even possible!

Scrapbooking Tip:

I included a lock of Caleb's hair on the page. I slipped it in a vellum envelope and adhered it underneath the "after" picture. Super Cuts had given us a certificate commemorating Caleb's first hair cut, but I couldn't fit it onto the page, but I couldn't throw it out. I folded it and taped it to the inside of Caleb's baby book. 

I have a hard time throwing out anything "sentimental". But if I can't fit it in the scrapbook, I don't just want to stick it in a box. (I have too many boxes filled as it is!) What I've started doing is taking pictures of the certificate, card, etc., and then sizing the picture to fit the scrapbook page. Once I have a picture, I toss out the item. It really is a space saver.

Helping Daddy Mow

One of the boys' favorite summer activities was helping Daddy mow the lawn. Technically, they weren't really mowing. Dave would go out and mow, and then once the work was done, he'd take the boys for a ride.

Zach especially liked riding with Daddy, however, he didn't like the noise, as you can see by the picture of him covering his ears. Many times Dave would turn off the motor and just let Zach pretend he was driving. I love the smile on his face in the far left picture. He was just as happy sitting on the mower with Daddy as he was actually going for a ride.

Scrapbooking Tip:

I used up a lot of paper scraps on this page. I found a layout just like this in Creative Keepsakes magazine and thought it would work with these pictures and the scraps I already had on my table. It isn't necessarily my "style", but I love that I didn't waste any paper!

Daddy's Helper

These pictures are shadowed and blurry, but I absolutely love them! It's Caleb helping Dave build his little Crazy Coupe car. Caleb loved it when Dave pulled out his screwdriver, and had to have one too, just like his daddy.

This is before we realized that Caleb had SMA, and our doctor had suggested we get a riding toy that would force Caleb to use his legs. It's a little painful to see Caleb sorta standing in the second picture. We were still blissfully ignorant at how developmentally far behind he was, especially because when he wanted to he could balance and stand. Helping his Daddy was motivating.

That's one of the many things I'm really missing about Dave - his ability to think outside the box to motivate Caleb. Everything is so hard for Caleb because of the SMA and he gives up easily. Frankly, I would too. Dave could do things in a way where Caleb thought he was having fun, and little did he know, Daddy was sneaking in some exercises and extra physical or occupational therapy. This was just one of the many ways Dave was an awesome daddy.

Like Mother, Like Son

This was a fun page to put together. Dave used to make fun of me because I would fall asleep all the time with my glasses on and my book laid open across my chest. Many nights I'd wake up as he was taking my glasses off. Once I fell asleep with a bottle of hand cream standing up on my chest. Dave got a lot of mileage picking on me for that! 

Caleb follows in his mommy's foot steps. Dave went in one night to check on the boys before we headed to bed. As I was climbing into bed I heard, "Amy, come here and bring your camera."  There was Caleb fast asleep with his Buzz Lightyear toy on his chest. Dave began picking on me all over again. 

Since then we found him asleep in various positions - toy cars in his hands, a book open across his face, his toy cars all lined up on his bed. Yep - he takes after his mommy, and it's one of the few things that he gets from me. In so many ways he's just like his daddy.

Scrapbooking Tip:

I stole this page idea from my favorite scrapbooker, Allison Davis of Scrapbook Generation. I loved the circle background and I stitched around one circle and used one of my favorite embellishments - buttons! The striped strip of paper under the picture helps anchor the design.

Close Up:

The picture that inspired the layout.