Aiden's Mommy & Me Project

With baby Delforge #2 on the way, I've been looking for ways to stay connected with the wonderful son I already have.  I got the idea of doing a scrapbook with him from a post from one of my favorite sites, Offbeat Mama.  Upon reading the post I was instantly in love with the idea.  We're still working on our magazine collection, so all we had to work with today was one of my old Cosmos...luckily, like all magazines, it was full of ads, which means plenty of appropriate pictures that caught the eye of my two year old boy. 

What a trip!  I tried to keep my cool and be patient with him, and was mostly successful, with the exception of one meltdown when I had to take the safety scissors away from him.  I mistakenly thought it would be a good idea to try to teach him how to cut with scissors.  Yeah, between him only being two, being super independent, and having the world's biggest temper, that just didn't work.  When I eventually realized this, I took the scissors from him, which prompted the most pathetic display.  It was really difficult to be patient during that scene.  It was a long road with a few more melt downs over when to use the glue stick and when to put the cap back on and leave it be, but it was still lots of fun.  When I had his attention, he picked out the pictures that appealed to him: a pair of bare feet, a popsicle, a cracker which he dubbed a cookie, and a motorcycle helmet (Yeah, that one caught me off guard).  I let him put the glue on the back almost by himself.  I had to show him how to use the glue stick and added some extra glue to be sure it'd stick.  Then had him place the pictures on the page exactly where he wanted...which happened to be right on top of one another.  But that's where he wanted them, so that's where they went!  After that I got out the stickers and let him pick which ones to use and where to put them.  When we were finished I dated the page and held it up for him to see.  He said "All done!" very loudly and with such pride and we put it in his book.

All that fighting was so worth it.  He was so happy and proud of what he had done, and so happy when I showed him that he had his own book to put his pages in.  I'm hooked.  We'll be doing this hopefully every day.  I know that if I persist, keep in touch with my patience, and constantly try to make it fun for him, that it'll eventually be a smooth, completely fun and meaningful project for us to do together.  I'm looking forward to tomorrow's session!