The Scrapbook

July 31:

I took my time getting over there.  I had said I will be there shortly... but I took my time.  So, it was 15 minutes rather than 5 minutes before I got to the house. When I turned the corner on Trade Street, he came running out to the front yard shouting and waving at me.  I am not even at the house yet and my heart overflows!  He must have been watching and waiting for 15 minutes. My lovey.  Had I known he was keeping vigil, I definitely would not have kept him waiting so long.

I parked at the usual place at the back of the house.  He was already there to greet me, just so happy to see me.  The lovey.

He wants to know if I would help him with his scrap book project. Of course I will.  I am not a big scrap-booker, but who could say no to a child with so much enthusiasm for the project and so much faith in you and your help!

He was at the circus a few days ago and took several photos.  He wants to make a scrap book out of them. We are at the computer.  We go through the pictures one by one.  He selects the right ones for the book... This one is good, this one is blurry, I like the Martian who spoke Spanish...I wonder how they made his head... This picture is better because it has the camel and the zebras...

The girl comes over to see what we are up to - sits on my lap. These boys were spun around on a pole by the man, he says. The younger boy was really cute, she says.  They must be very talented, I say. The younger boy was really cute, she says, again!  :)  Then she jumps off my lap and runs away... Oops, I forgot I was helping bake my cake!!, she says.

I wish I could zoom in on the trapeze artist, he says.  I wish I could cut out the black part on top.  I say it is cool how the trapeze looks like it is not attached to anything - just hanging out of the sky.  He says we must make sure the "audience" understands it was attached to the circus tent.  Similarly, he wants to make sure the "audience" understands that the clown is on a balance beam, so the balance beam has to be clearly visible.

I show him a few tools - crop, color tones, brightness, contrast.  He loved playing with the color saturation tool... Called the 0-saturation setting (Black & white) the picture from a century ago, and as he enhanced the saturation on that picture, he said it shows the world getting more and more modern.  I love to follow how his brain operates.

The big problem... how to print the pictures so that they fit his little notebook (the scrap book).  I showed him how we can bring pictures in to Word, and then shrink them to the size we want, put about 4 pictures per sheet.  I showed him how you can call out the sheet you want printed - you don't have to print all 4 pages, when you only want page 3.  He absorbs the information- my sponge.  He is happy he has learned new things.

Cutting the pictures with scissors is not good enough, they need to be trimmed by the paper trimmer. My little perfectionist!  He is not allowed to use the trimmer. So, I trimmed.

We then taped all 14 pictures to the scrap book.  He agonized over which direction the pictures should be aligned in, "because we want to make sure it is the way the 'audience' wants to see it".  He planned and re-planned the layout of the pictures.  And then it it was done.  He is happy.

He expects to show his scrap book to his "audience" on Sunday...  the audience being gathering of family and friends.  He worked hard on it to make sure it is done and ready for sharing.  He is looking forward to showing it to everyone and having them enjoy it.  I will make sure everyone pays particular attention to it.

He tells me his sister has a wish list of items I can select from.  I said no, I will select something on my own.  I said I will get him something small too.  I told him I could get him a roll of double-sided tape.  He is thrilled by the concept of double sided tape, and even more thrilled at the prospect of having some for himself.  He didn't know such a thing existed.  We were folding over our single sided tape to make our own double sided tape for the project.  He wonders if I could also get him a roll of single sided tape as well because we used up his roll of tape on this project.  Such a small thing makes him so happy.  My lovey.