Baby MacGyver

My son is fascinating to watch. I have always been big on "child-led" exploration. I was puzzled by parents who felt they had to take their grown-up bodies on the jungle gym at the park and felt they had to create play for their children. I much rather watch my kids and see how they go about solving their problems. I like to think of it as empowering them. Again, fascinating.

On this particular day, we were home. School was called off due to freezing temperatures. I turned on a Raffi CD that we had, and Max went a little bonkers. He didn't want to listen to it, but I figured he would get used to it. So, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He had to get to the stereo receiver.

He first piled the living room pillows and tried standing on them for a boost. He realized quickly that this idea was not going to work. Then, he brought in the laundry organizer and turned it upside-down. It was so tall, he couldn't climb it. Strike 2. Finally, he dumped the laundry out of the laundry basket. Once overturned, the basket was the perfect height and strength to get his foot to the middle shelf. Standing on the middle shelf, he could reach the receiver easily.

I admired his perseverance with this one. The photos are from my phone, as I couldn't bare to miss a moment of this by going to get my Nikon.

For this sketch, Cathy is stressing the concept of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines. She indicated that, when intersected, these lines give strength to the structure of the page. I remembered this idea from my layout editor days on my high school year book staff. It's pretty ingrained in me when I set up a layout. The intersection occurs at the black strip of words (horizontal) and between the 4 x 4 and 3 x 4 pics (vertical).

I wish I could recall the manufacturer of the sticker sheet I used. They are PERFECT sentiments for many pages about both of my sons. I do know that I used a 1 1/4" circle punch with some black Bazill Bling paper and popped up the two sticker pieces on dimensionals. I used Thickers Daiquiri brown vinyl letters for the "macgyver," and SU! That's Nice stamp set for the word "baby" (stamped in SU! Chocolate Chip). The background paper is SU! 12 x 12 textured Blue Bayou. I also inked the journaling panel with SU! Blue Bayou ink.