Scrapping baby pictures, particularly of people who are no longer babies, can be very tricky. I have two sisters and it's fun to scrap our childhood photos, but more than once I've scrapped a picture of my sister Nicole as myself. And there have been times I've mistaken my other sister Lisa for Nicole. In my defense we looked a lot alike as babies and even as toddlers. I'm learning to check with Mom first on the identity of the children in the picture before I start scrapping all willy nilly.
Now you would think that telling babies apart would come easier for the actual parents of said babies but I'm here to tell you that is not always the case. I came across a picture in my stash of family photos that was obviously one of us. And there's a 33.333333% chance of getting the identity right - after all, there are only 3 choices. On the back of the picture, in what is clearly the handwriting of one of my parents, my name is written. And crossed out. Then Nicole's name is written, along with her age. Hah, Mom, not so easy now is it? (Watch her tell me that's Dad's handwriting. Wait for it...)
Mom claims there are ways to tell us apart - Nicole has the big brown eyes, Lisa has the lighter hair, etc. I'd like to point out that we all had brown eyes, brown hair, and we were pretty much the same size for the first 5 years. Plus we shared clothes. And we lived in the same house for all of our infant and toddler years.
Assuming you will recognize your child 25+ years and thousands of sleepless nights later is not the best plan I’ve ever heard of. A better plan, one that should have been born in the sleepless nights while you were pacing the floor comforting a crying baby, would have been to slap a big ole initial on our foreheads before taking a picture. Or dress us in clothes with our names on them. Even color coordinating by child - this is the blue child, this is the green child... Probably I should write a parenting book. I could call it "How to Turn Sleepless Nights into Marathon Planning Sessions." Don't tell my parent-friends that I said that, they'll lynch me for sure. I'm not supposed to be giving parenting advice. Or baby advice. Or toddler advice. Or child or teen advice. In fact I was given specific instructions not to give out any advice at all. Good luck with that.
Assuming you will recognize your child 25+ years and thousands of sleepless nights later is not the best plan I’ve ever heard of. A better plan, one that should have been born in the sleepless nights while you were pacing the floor comforting a crying baby, would have been to slap a big ole initial on our foreheads before taking a picture. Or dress us in clothes with our names on them. Even color coordinating by child - this is the blue child, this is the green child... Probably I should write a parenting book. I could call it "How to Turn Sleepless Nights into Marathon Planning Sessions." Don't tell my parent-friends that I said that, they'll lynch me for sure. I'm not supposed to be giving parenting advice. Or baby advice. Or toddler advice. Or child or teen advice. In fact I was given specific instructions not to give out any advice at all. Good luck with that.
This week I had the opportunity to digi-scrap with some really cute baby kits, starting with Karen Aicken's Oh Baby. That's when I reached back into my stash and came up with the now infamous "I'm not sure who this baby is" picture. After having my work corrected a couple of times lately for mislabeled people, I was happy to scrap about someone else's failed labeling attempt. Here's my layout:
And that sweet baby is about to have a baby of her own. I'd better make sure to share my baby labeling tips with her pronto. The first one should definitely be the Blue Baby.
(For the record, the easiest way to make something "infamous" is to call it that on your blog. It worked with Tampa Airport; someone got lazy during a newscast and now every Joe and Jane on the street is calling it TIA. Years from now you'll hear someone refer to my sister's infamous childhood photo and you'll remember that you read it here first.)
(For the record, the easiest way to make something "infamous" is to call it that on your blog. It worked with Tampa Airport; someone got lazy during a newscast and now every Joe and Jane on the street is calling it TIA. Years from now you'll hear someone refer to my sister's infamous childhood photo and you'll remember that you read it here first.)
