Template 15, New Pages, and 15 Month Update

Ignore the timestamp on this entry. I started it while John took Emma with him to do a couple things and wasn't able to get back to it until much later. Had to make dinner, have FHE, and put the baby to bed before I could get back to it. Finishing it up around 1:30 AM...

The number 15 has always been significant in my life. As such, it's one of my favorite numbers. My birthday is on the 15th of August. Before I got married, there were 15 letters in my whole name (4 in first, 5 in middle, 6 in last - now my last name is 10 letters long, for a total of 19). The creek my parents live on is 15 miles long (and named accordingly...real creative...). And now, my little Emma is 15 months old. Coincidentally, I also have template 15 to share with you today:) I love it and am excited to use it myself:) But more on that towards the end of the entry.

I have yet to do a 15 month update on Emma. So, I'll do that now:) Emma is SUCH a fun little girl! I need to upload some of the videos I've taken with my new camera one of these days, so you can all see her cute antics. She has her 15 month well baby check up on Wednesday, but we took her in a couple of weeks ago for a ridiculously high fever (104.7 - eeep! Thankfully, we got it down to 101 by the time we went in) and she weighed in at 17 lbs. She lost a little weight in January when she had diarrhea for a week, but she gained back all or most of what she lost. It will be interesting to see where she is on the charts now, especially since she lost a bit of weight and she was in the 2nd percentile before she got sick. She's been consistently in the 2nd percentile since her 9 month check up. Before that, she wasn't even ON the charts! Teeny tiny baby, but she's growing perfectly. She's still wearing 3-6 onesies and 6-9 outfits. Yep, she's little!

Emma has a great schedule. Well, she wakes up a little early for my taste, but I'm not a morning person at all (that and I typically stay up till 3 AM;)). She usually wakes up between 7:30-8:30. John is mostly home in the mornings (class at 10:15 T-Th), so he gets up with her, feeds her, and keeps her entertained while doing homework so I can sleep in a bit. It's awesome. I don't know HOW I got so lucky to have such a great husband. He's the best daddy. Emma and I play with her toys and such after John leaves. We have lunch around noon, which is followed by my 2nd favorite time of day: naptime!! (First favorite is bedtime.) Emma typically naps in her crib rom 1-3 ish, but it varies. Some days she only naps for an hour or an hour and a half, other days she naps for 3-4 hours. We play and eat snacks as needed until dinner time. John keeps Emma entertained while I cook. After dinner, we get Emma ready for bed and she goes down for the night around 8. Of course, there is some variance from day to day, but this is our basic, general daily schedule.

Emma is now fully weaned! Woohoo! I nursed her for the last time on Friday the 13th LOL. I weaned her very gradually, just dropping one feeding a week. For the last oh, month or so maybe, we were down to just one nursing session a day - right before bed. Honestly, at that point, it was more out of habit than anything else, and for her comfort. She was teething and I wanted to wait until the tooth fully popped through before taking it away from her. But as soon as it was completely through, we were DONE. She had NO problem with going to bed without nursing, either. I was concerned she'd scream and fight it, since she'd always nursed right before bed, but she went down just as easily as she did WITH a nursing session before bed. That indicates to me that she truly was ready for it. I'm SO blessed it was such an easy process for us!

Emma does some of the funniest things!! She is SOO smart. We didn't really even "teach" her this (she's watched us do it all the time, though, and we tell her what we're doing when we do things), but she knows how to throw things away. We just discovered this last week. Emma had a paper towel that we'd used as a napkin for lunch and I asked her if she could throw it away. We were in the living room at the time. She then carried it into the kitchen, opened the cabinet (we never got around to proofing those...not sure if we can since it's an apartment), and threw it in the garbage can! And she's done it many times since! LOL, the other day, I was sick of boogers getting in her hair (runny nose + long hair in front = boogery hair), so I pulled it back with a hair tie. John was watching her for a few minutes while he worked on homework, and when I came back, her hair was down again and the hair tie was nowhere to be found. We looked around, but couldn't find it. Then John said, "maybe she threw it away?" Well, sure enough, it was in the kitchen garbage!!

You may have seen the pictures I posted about Emma throwing old formula samples we were given (and never used - I'm proud of the fact that I never gave her formula) in the Diaper Champ. At the time, I didn't know she knew it was a garbage can. Well, not long after that, Emma found an unopened toy in her room. She wanted to play with it, so I took it out of the wrapper. I asked her to throw the wrapper away. Instead of taking it to the kitchen, she put it in the Diaper Champ!! So yes, she knows it's garbage! LOL! My child thinks formula is garbage. I taught her well:D (No offense to formula-feeding mommies - I just don't like formula. I am VERY pro breast feeding.)

Emma loves to share her food with Mommy and Daddy. She will take a bite of something, or pop a small cracker in her mouth, and then put one in OUR mouths. She LOVES feeding us. Sometimes she's more interested in feeding US her food than in eating it herself... And tonight, she tried to get me to drink from her sippy cup! She kept trying to stick it in my mouth! It was so cute! But there was NO WAY I was going to drink her nasty whole milk. Ew. I like my milk skim, thanks. No nasty fat for me.

I mentioned in my last Emma update that she loves to watch me cook. Well last night, she wanted to help! She stirred the noodles and LOVED it. Of course, she can't really stir them hard enough for it to do much good, but she had fun.

Emma has a new obsession. It's called Mommy's New Camera. We've had issues with her wanting to play with the camera before we got this one, but now that we can do video, it's gotten more complicated. She ALWAYS comes over to see the camera when she sees I have it out. She reaches for it and wants to play with it. Uh, no. She also wants to watch the videos after we take them. She LOVES watching videos of herself!! It's so cute. She points at herself on the screen and sometimes even grabs the item she was playing with in the video. She tries to steal the camera away from me all the time, too. Ironically, she's not too interested in watching things on TV. Maybe she knows she's watching herself on the camera and loves that? *shrug*

Speaking of Emma's obsession with technology, she also loves our cell phones. Last week, I had just gotten off the phone with John and she wanted my phone, so I let her play with it a bit so I could brush my teeth. Then I heard the sound it makes when it's making a call...!!! It was the first time she'd made a real phone call (she'd dialed in a bunch of 333333s and pushed the call button, but nothing happened) Thankfully, she was just calling the number I last called, which happened to be John. Phew! But then, she closed the phone! LOL, she hung up on Daddy! He called back and I explained what happened. It was so funny!

She also pretends to talk on the phone all the time. Of course, when someone ACTUALLY calls and we put the phone next to her ear, she's quiet and just listens. But she gets mad when we take the phone back!

Emma is now starting to reach up and grab things off the dresser, desk, or bed. Uh oh! We have to make sure things are far enough back that she can't grab them! She also knows how to open all the dresser drawers...one time she took a lot of John's clothes out of our dresser! She also opens cabinets. She hasn't gotten into anything, though, and we're not sure yet if we're technically allowed to babyproof our apartment (we asked - still waiting to hear back). I know others have done it, but I'm leary about drilling into the cabinets of a rental without permission. Besides, we're always watching her like a hawk.

We discovered today that Emma knows what keys are for. Like most toddlers, Emma loves to play with keys. She's even pushed the panic button on the keyless entry a few times... Today, she had my keys and she went right up to the door and tried to reach the doorknob with the keys! She's still too short (thankfully!!), but she definitely knows what keys do. She's so smart! She just picks up on everything! We definitely need to make sure we're setting good examples about everything now that she's so aware of her world!

Emma is a great little helper. She loves to "help" with the laundry. She got all excited when I let her put some dirty clothes into the washer. She also helps me load the dryer. She likes to help clean things, too. She spilt some milk on the couch and I asked if she could help me clean it up. She grabbed a nearby paper towel and started wiping up the milk! The same thing happened with water and some antibiotics that we spilled while trying to give them to her.

In the bathtub, she grabs the washcloth and starts "cleaning" the tub! She "cleans" herself with it a little, too. She also looooves to play with her belly button. She knows exactly what it is, too, because when I asked her where her belly button is, she pointed right to it! She does this with facial parts as well, but only on us. She has yet to point to her own eyes and nose.

She also "brushes" her own teeth. She won't let US do it for her. SHE has to hold the toothbrush herself. She mostly sucks on it, but she moves it around a bit. I help her a little, just to make sure her teeth get SOME brushing action, but I'd prefer to get a bit more actual cleaning done in there. Oh well. She only has 4 teeth fully popped through, and a 5th on the way. At least we're developing the habit, right?

So, one of our neighbors won an Elmo Live at work. She doesn't have any kids yet, and it will be awhile before they do. They also have nowhere to store a toy that won't be used for quite a while. So...she gave it to Emma!! Oh my goodness, it was like love at first sight. She LOOOVES her Elmo! He dances, tells jokes and stories, plays Elmo Says, and more. She hugs him, carries him around, and everything. She wants to take him to bed with her, but he's too hard and mechanical for that. The only downside is he goes through batteries super fast. After a week, they were already needing to be replaced. Thankfully, we have rechargeables. But they take forever to recharge.

Emma usually sleeps with 1 or 2 stuffed animals now. She snuggles them, especially when she's tired. It sometimes varies which ones she sleeps with, but for the last few nights it's been the same 2. She hugs her stuffed animals throughout the day, too. She doesn't seem to be attached to any specific ones. The closest to an attachment she has is to her Elmo Live.

Emma loves to give us hugs and kisses! She does so on request:D It's so sweet. And sometimes she just randomly decides she wants to hug or kiss us^_^ We had a group FHE tonight, and she even kissed the 6 month old baby!! Uh oh, my 15 month old has already kissed a boy...LOL!

She's still not really that interested in talking. She sort of says "uh oh." She does the "uh oh" inflections, but she's humming more than saying the actual "uh oh" words. We think she said bye in context the other day, but we're not 100%. Ah well. She'll get there. She's so well developed in all the other areas that I think that's where her focus has been.

Yesterday, we discovered that Emma can drink from a real cup all by herself!! Of course, she usually spills, since she's used to drinking out of a sippy cup by herself. She keeps trying to steal my water glass...

Emma also loves to knock on doors. It's so funny; when she knows one of is in another room with the door closed (the other is watching her, of course), she goes right up to the door and knocks on it! She knocks on doors randomly, too. This is another thing she must have learned from watching us, since we didn't specifically teach her how to. At least, I don't think we did...*shrug*

Anyway, that's all on the Emma front. Now on to the digiscrap stuff!!

First of all, Gab made a gorgeous page using template 12!! This is the first time I've seen a LO with one of my templates by someone I don't actually know! Kimi and Elly have both done pages, but they're 2 of my closest friends. In some ways I guess it means more that someone other than my friends used it, you know? Anyway. I don't know how to contact Gab to ask permission to post it (I don't really know much about comments in blogspot - I'm used to LJ. And there isn't anything on her blog yet, so I can't leave a comment there). However, I figure since she posted the link in a comment here, that it'd be ok to post. If not, I can remove it no problem:) Anyway, here's the link: http://www.browniescraps.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=4027&ppuser=414. Isn't it gorgeous? I love the way she had the text go around each picture, and how the little blue triangles of paper between the pictures makes it look like a sun around the newborn center pic. The colors are really fun and vibrant. And her little girl is adorable, too!! Thanks Gab!!

LOL, so anyone else have a LO with one of my templates to share? I suppose I should actually check the email addy I have listed in my TOU. It's not my primary email and I always forget to check it. Heck, I don't even remember the last time I DID check it! It usually only gets junk mail, anyway. Note to self: check that email.

So, I did something incredibly stupid with one of my pages. So, every page, I save, resize it, save for web, and then close the PSD without saving the changes. Well...I accidentally saved the PSD in the save-for-web size on the D is for Daddy page. Oops! As a result, I had to redo it. Thankfully, I knew what I used for it since I had a list of the credits and was able to redo it pretty quickly. I made a few improvements, though. I added more papers and changed a few of the elements. I like it better now:) So, here's the new and improved version:



Credits:
Red paper (slightly recolored), stack of books - AllieKat Creations, A Good Read
Argyle paper and star - A Work in Progress, Primary Grunge
Dot paper - Andrea, Little Moments Like That
Blue paper - SSarducci, A Walk in the Park
Alpha - Red Set, no TOU
Brackets - Ginger Scraps, Beach Glass
Knight - Russian-Dutch Heart Design, Knighthood
Glitter - Gwen, Cherry Moka
Word art - Elegant Word art by Bethany
Atomic Cupcake - simple tear

Now we come to the current letters, K and L. I'm almost halfway done!!



Credits:
Papers (from bottom layer to top) - Silk, Marta; LaRessie's Digital Designs, Cool Color Papers; Shabby Princess, Sweet Serenity; Brenda Smith, Free Paper Pack; GothKittie, Vite Vite Printemps
Alpha - Marie Stones, Messy Edge Alpha
Elements - ScrapGirls, Refresh
Key photos - taken and extracted by me
Staple - Shabby Princess, Promise
Atomic Cupcake actions - simple tear



Credits:
Papers (from bottom layer to top) - Silk, Marta; LaRessie's Digital Designs, Cool Color Papers; Shabby Princess, Sweet Serenity; Brenda Smith, Free Paper Pack; GothKittie, Vite Vite Printemps
Sun, brads, tab, tape - ScrapGirls, Refresh
Moon - Braham's Lullabye (colored chromed)
Star - A Work in Progress, Shabby Christmas (lightened and colored chromed)
Staple - Shabby Princess, Promise
Light bulb - Google image search, extracted by me
Light photos - taken and extracted by me (do you know how much a pain it is to extract something when the background is practically the exact same color?)
Baby sign photo - taken by me, from a Discovery Toys poster on baby signs
Font - vaguely repulsive
Atomic Cupcake actions - simple tear, colored chrome

I have an awesome idea for a kit! I'm going to make it, but it will probably take awhile. The kit I started needs some work before I can consider making it available. It's currently on the back burner. But this other one will be really fun! So, for Emma's ABC book, I'm going to make a T is for Toys page. Naturally, it will feature tons of Emma's toys. Since I plan to extract them one by one anyway, I'm going to make a fun kit out of her toys! It will be called Emma's Toybox. It will have primary colors for papers and frames and such, and have lots of toy elements. Doesn't that sound fun? However, since I'll be cutting each toy out individually, it will take FOREVER. Cutting things out is a pain in the butt. I already did the keys for the K page, so I've got one down...but I have sooo many more to go! I haven't completely decided which toys I'm doing, but I will definitely be doing her Elmo Live, her toy cell phone, her ride on toy, some stuffed animals, some books, her stacking cups, her stacking rings, her piano, and one of her balls. I'll probably do a few at a time, so that I'm not majorly overwhelmed or anything. Need to get started on that...but I'm excited! I hope others will like it!

So, I had this little poll on the side of my blog for a little over a month. I was trying to find out what you'd like to see in a template. Only 8 people voted LOL. The main thing I wanted to know was if you prefer 1 or 2 page LOs. It was pretty evenly split between them. That's fine, since I plan to do some of each anyway:) I do whichever I feel like at the time. Square framed photos seem to be what voters want, though one person wanted other shaped photos. Well, template 15 features some circular photos for you:) When I make a template, I try to make something that I would actually download. Admittedly, some of my templates are way better than others. I'm learning and improving my LO design skills all the time:) I tried to incorporate the poll results in this template. I think it turned out great! I also took some inspiration from Kimi's templates. If you haven't yet, you should check them out here.

Template 15 is a 2 page LO in PSD format. As always, I'd love to see what you come up with with my templates:) I've only gotten pages from a handful of people (2/3 of which are my IRL friends), so I would LOVE to see more. It thrills me to see what others have done with my templates. I get warm fuzzies all over^_^ Feel free to leave feedback, too. If you have any requests, I'd love to hear them. Anyway, enough with the shameless plug. Here's the preview for template 15:



You can download it here. Hope you like it!! Thanks for stopping by! And goodnight:)