Hi everyone ~

Today I am learning to use my scanner and upload old photos, and I will post as I get the hang of it. Here is the first effort:




September, 1961 Merme's First Day of School with a quilt for nap time made for me by my Aunt Marion.

If the sizing isn't correct, please, someone, jump in and help!

Merme

Merme - I just turned my computer on, and this was the first thing I saw!!!

What a precious picture of our wonderful Merme!
I was going to ask if that was your blankie!
You look JUST LIKE MAXI there! WOW!!!

Can't wait to see more - bring 'em on!

Wonderful pic Merme!! Nice to know we can now have pictures to accompany your lovely stories!

Maxi, 10 days old, with his Papa

Close Up of Maxi at 10 days old in Papa's arms

Gosh! he reminds me of Summer when she was a baby!! Amazing how fast they grow, huh!! What a fine boy! He was 3lb 5oz, just like Summer, right?

Maxi with his Mama

Maxi, ticked off at Mama after his first all-over bath and shampoo. Three weeks old.

Whoa!! That boy has some hair!!!

Nice to "meet" you Merme!!

Maxi with Wildwood Flower, 4 weeks old, a big 5 pounder of a boy finally ready to leave the hospital.

Merme & Maxi going out into the snow for the first time!



And yes, behind that binky, under all those blankies, was Maxi!

Could I possibly have wrapped him any further?!

Oh Wow Merme these pictures are awesome!!!!!

Don't stop now!!!>>>>>> keep em coming!!!!!!

Does anyone know why these photos are coming out so much darker than they are in real life? They look okay in Adobe photshop and in Photobucket.

In the one of me & Maxi in the snow you should be able to see my face just fine and the red trim of my big hood.

Merme

I can see your face and the trim of your hood

Maxi in yellow, a few months old, posed to show off the beautiful handpainted quilt friends had sent from Amish Country. It became his favorite blankie.



Maxi in his moose slippers, resting on Papa after a long day around Thanksgiving, 1995

Me too I can see you just fine Maybe adjust image on manuel before going to photobucket if you want it lighter

The Tired Men on Thanksgiving Day 1995

Maxi and Papa on Christmas Day, Maxi wearing his Christmas Micky Mouse Suit.

Awwwwwwwww How sweet Merme!!! Wow Maxi Sure has a full head of hair!!!

Mama trying to wake up a sleepy Maxi to wish him Happy New Year!



And trying...




Mean Mama, chuckling at her baby who did NOT want to wish anybody Happy New Year.

My family loves this photo. Maxi and I were playing in the rocker when Edward pointed the camera at us and called our names. We both turned toward him, making the same face!!



Maxi in his bunny suit.

Merme,
Love the pics of you and Maxi.... he was so little... like the twins- they are bigger than Nicoli now...
Looks like you are having a ball with your scanner and new puter-- fun isn't it?
Have fun and keep them coming!
Nana

Merme and Maxi, about 5 months old

April 1996, Maxi with his beloved Cousin Cara.




Cousin Cara, the athlete, giving Maxi lessons in Sitting Up Alone

Oh I am loving all of these pics!!! So glad you can share them with us now.

On'ry "Aunt" Missy up in the treehouse with her boys and my baby.

Although Missy is actually Maxi's cousin, she is so much older, she was already married with children of her own before he was born, so he calls her Aunt respectfully.

A Day At The Beach, August 1996, Maxi 10 months old.



First Swimming Lesson with Papa and Randy



Checking Out The View From Higher Up In The World



The sleepy end to a wonderful day of fun in the sand and the surf.

With Mama, ready to head for home.

Oh this is fun Merme!!! Keep em coming!!!

Maxi, 11 months old, practicing with Mama's birthday cake, 'coz he is Next!



THE BIRTHDAY BOY! on Aunt Nancy's (wildwood flower) lap.




The Birthday Kid with Mama

Great pics Merme!

Nice to finally see you guys.

Playing with the clothes from the laundry basket...

I think these were mislabeled. I think they were his first birthday back at home after our trip to PA because I remember getting him the things in the photos for his birthday that year at Filene's October Sale. Plus, the tree isn't up.

Trying on Papa's Leathers at 16 months old.



Papa taking the boy on a sliegh ride.

Cool pictures Merme! Is Maxi getting a kick out of this blast from the past?

Christmas Eve in his "tux".



Max being on'ry, checking to see if Mama is noticing.



Christmas is LOTS of fun for a kid who can really walk!

Merme & Maxi enjoying the warm, snowy day.



Merme & Maxi in the kitchen 'coz it was too cold to go out to play!

Baby In A Box! Now isn't THAT a great way to get 'em?

Stealing clothes from the laundry again. Geez, is nothing sacred?!

loz ~ Maxi is just tolerant of me, although he thinks I am being silly... he's too polite to comment.

Tonya ~ yes, Maxi had the same birth weight as Summer 3.5 pounds, although he quickly lost some.

We struggled to get every ounce on the kid for the first 4 years.

Merme

Good one there Merme!!!!!, (last photo posted!!)

Maybe he thought it was a slingshot? That a good picture to show his girlfriend/wife one day!

Well I mean they're called boulder holders for a reason!

I have enjoyed looking at all these, Merme!! I am sooo looking forward to more pics and stories! So nice to put faces with the names!

We struggled to get Summer to gain also- The joys of parenting preemies! Now I am struggling to get Mack to gain! :p

Keep those pics coming!

Maxi is sooooo cute!!!

Love the pics Merme & you look JUST like I envisioned! I love the pic of Maxi in his Christmas tux, too cute. And the "boulder holder" pic is just hilarious!

Such nice pics!Loved to see them:-)

For St. Patrick's Day I invented a little game and decorated the house cheerfully because that can be such a dreary time of year up here.

The wall art you'll see was made out of construction paper. The Leprochaun was just a stuffed doll I sewed out of fabric scraps. Using a clay pot I wrapped with twine and lined with green paper, I made a "pot of gold" with a few gold candy coins on top which was hidden at the end of the rainbow. It took his dad and I some sleight of hand to pull the game off, but Maxi enjoyed it so.

First, after dressing him in lots of green, I gathered up all his green toys I could find and put them in a pile, with the Leprochaun "hidden" on top for him to find.



And of course, he found it right away and was so proud, too!



... the story continues in the next post...

Playing back and forth between Papa




and I,



Maxi soon discovered that the Magical Leprochaun kept "disappearing" and "reappearing"...

Sometimes in very unlikely places...



Until, the silly Leprochaun led him to the pot o' gold!




Well, Maxi had never seen a pot o' gold in all his life before and didn't quite know what to think of it, but...

Papa soon helped him figure it out!







Which was a happy end to a very good story...



Merme

Thanks for sharing your pictures. I really enjoyed looking at them. I can't believe Maxi's hair what a cutie.

What do you guys think of how I ended the rainbow by breaking it up into mult-colored shamrocks which turned into coins which fell into the pot o' gold?

Merme

Merme...sending you instructions on how to re-size your pics in photobucket.

Thanks, afgrey!

I thought photobucket automatically resized things but now I see it does not!

Once I resize them in photobucket, will they appear correctly here?

Merme

Yep...all the ones I've re-sized this morning were done in Photobucket.
I had never used the photobucket re-sizing feature til just now...just always did it in my photoprogram. But Photobucket was easier!

Merme, these pics are soooo kewl! Scanners are fun, aren't they? I recently had to dust mine off & remember how it works so I could send Shelly baby pics of herself, cuz she wanted to compare them with Lil' Naomi's. Scanning more old pics is on my list of things to do this winter, to keep from going stark raving you-know-what, since the forum has changed so much since last winter & there doesn't seem to be much to help a person fight off the 'winter blues' now. (Actually I need to do it anyway, because so many of those old pics are losing quality with time & that's the only way I know to preserve them.)

I've enjoyed your pics so much & could probably have commented on each one as they were going up, but now they're all running together in my little brain! One thing that I remember clearly though, is the head of hair on that baby! Thanks for sharing them! (Got more?)

I've only had the PhotoBucket resizing feature work for me ONE time, & that was when I mistakenly resized something to avatar size... (had to delete it from PB, resize it on my own program & rename it before it would come up right!) I think it's easier to resize them in my puter (which also takes up less storage space on my HD... as does saving them as 200 dpi rather than the 96 dpi, that so many of them default as.)

Don't know "why", but unfortunately they just do, & some people's pics are so dark that if I really want to see a pic badly enough (Like Missy's ultrasound, for example, & more recently, Mel's worm egg) I've had to put it in my own system so I could lighten it for better viewing. I lighten 90% of my pics before sending them to PhotoBucket, & since I don't want them saved that way permanently (in case I want to print them later) I have a folder set aside for "PB Uploads" that I've lightened for the purpose of posting here on the forum.

Patty ~ Maxi was called "she" constantly, even though I dressed him in very boyish clothes, even when his long hair was under a ski cap. When we finally took him to have his hair cut at age 7, a woman turned to me and asked

"Why are you letting your little girl have her hair cut so short?"

With some people, Patty, ya just can't win!

Later I'll post a few miscellaneous pictures from when he was older.

Merme

Merme, I love the shamrocks turning into coins! How clever!

Thanks, Mel!

The kid and I had such limited resources in those days and barely any stuff in our home, that I had to get pretty inventive to decorate for all the holidays. And I went all out for even the little holidays, making a big deal of each one, so that over years he would get familiar with the rhythm of the passing seasons.

He owned a big Tiny Tots double sided easel in those days with a huge pad of newsprint paper on one side. I'd tell him the story of whatever holiday it was, and draw basic pictures in marker to illustrate. Then he would color them in and show off his holiday art to everybody.

Our neighbors thought we were crazy to celebrate EVERY holiday to the fullest, but we had to do fun stuff whenever we could as it was his only chance to be a kid.

Merme

What a wonderful & creative mom you are Merme , Maxi is so lucky to have been blessed to have you as his mom. I am really enjoying seeing all of your pics, and love Papa's hair!

Enjoyed all the pics:-) nice to put a face to the person:-) they are all good and fun pics:-)

Very nice Pictures Merme!! I agree nice to put a face to all the imagination..

your not done are ya Merme??? I wanna See more!

Dianne ~

I'm "done" until I can get photobucket to re-size things for me. It keeps insisting they ARE resized, no matter what, but they didn't show up here in the correct size and afgrey had to go and edit every single one I put up AFTER I resized them all in photobucket.

Merme

I was looking for some to post and scanned some and put in photo bucket then I went to edit (sizing) and clicked on web site size if I clicked on size recommeded for here they turned out too big too ,but said the size was right so I went a size smaller for websites I haven't tested it yet but will in Bustagut thread

Merme It did the same thing to me
I took it down to 236 x320 and it was STILLL Big! Can't figure that one out!!

did Papa ever get a haircut?

NOPE.

Merme, photobucket was doing the same thing to me, so I started resizing my pictures on HP Image Zone.....it was installed on my computer the same time I installed stuff for my camera. Does your computer have any kind of photo imaging programs in it...maybe something was installed when you set up your camera or scanner??

I have adobe photoshop, Jenn, but it seems very complicated.

Merme

Anyway, Maxi was a cutie then and is a cutie now.

Thank you for sharing! I love the pictures. They grow so fast. I think it's wonderful that you celebrated every holiday and I love the shamrocks! Maxi is a very lucky little man to have you.

i loved all your pic's merme!
wow Maxi had some hair, took my BB 2 years just to get a peach fuzz!,Maxi looks so much like you!
thanks for sharing your pics