Fun With Photoshop: Hip To Be Square

I'm trying hard to chronicle the little good bits of this stage in life.  There are plenty of not-so-sweet nuggets that I intentionally omit from this journal, after all this is about "seeking miracles in the mess," and although I have messes and struggles, and not-so-great mom moments, I do hope I can enjoy these guys as they are in this season of their life, because it's going so fast and God knows I'm not the one with a memory (Aaron's the Memory Keeper, and Shannon, too), I try to collect the small things I (or they) may wonder about one day, pilfering through the daily doldrums to cherish the fleeting and wonderful little glints of their childhood.   

It was as hard to foster a love of reading in Raph as it was easy with Andres.  But it seems that Raph has finally caught on, and now we unbook his bed each night as we do with Andres. Our house rule is that no toys can go in bed (plush animals aside) after we read to them in bed and say prayers, but books are welcome.  They have a bit of time to "read" in the low light cast from the hall and it's a calm, quiet time to ease them into dreamland.  

Andres has mentioned to me several times that he's not into "cute stuff,  just cool stuff" now,  so the departure from picture books to early chapter books has begun.  And Raph has just discovered superheros and is all agog with anything relating to them.  We were finally able to break the code for his synonyms for Batman (Dut-Dut) and Superman (Dee-Dee) and they stem from the songs he sings for each character.   He's musical, ya know.   I'm so proud of them with their noses in books.  I've wanted to capture their blooming love of reading at this stage in their lives, but more importantly bolster their own pride and ownership of reading.  

I love the big posters at the library showing off librarians posing with their favorite books.  I thought it would be fun to make posters for the boys, showing them that they are readers, and bibliophiles like their mother, and it's good and right and even cool to read.  And as I created them, I thought how fun it would be to do this annually to watch their taste mature with them.  We're getting them printed out and framed for the house (somewhere, not yet sure of wall space) but I'm so proud of them, my wonderful little reading men!