First day of Pre-K

Cameron was VERY proud to start Pre-K today. He was so proud that when I picked him up this afternoon and took him to the newsroom... He told EVERY person he met how today was his first day in Pre-K. What a big guy.

Cam also spent a good portion of his time in the newsroom using the computer without needing any help. It gave me time to work and take care of the baby. He's so grown up... It's amazing.

Loopy party

Cam decided that a good nap just wouldn't be enough to let him have fun at a birthday party today. I wasn't there until after the worst of it... But Randy says the moment they got there, Cam was ready to complain and freak out about everything. He threw a fit about putting on his bathing suit, walking on grass without his sandals, sliding down a slip-n-slide, drying off... the list goes on. What a bummer.

His Poppy and Grandma are here... So Cam got a really nice looking haircut. He was getting shaggy... And not in a good way. I'd like to grow his hair out eventually, but I don't think this is the time of the year.

Last day of class

Today is the last day of Cam's preschool class. He moves into his Pre-K class on Monday. I think he's really excited about being one of the "big boys" at school. What really blows my mind is how this is the last school year before he goes to elementary school. My simple life of two children in one school will end. Not to mention, I've started looking into possible soccer or karate or t-ball stuff. I don't want to overbook him, so I'm trying to pick out the best option.

I'm thinking we might start karate now... Until a soccer class opens up later this fall. Then I'll sign him up for t-ball in the spring. One activity... but different ones throughout the year. That way he can get a taste of them all and we'll see which one he likes best. I was talking to a parent who has a four-year-old in gymnastics, karate and swimming. That sounds exhausting. I just don't have that kind of energy to drive my child around like that. Okay, I don't have the funds either. But hopefully I can find an activity that Cam likes.

Oh. And he just started asking about Halloween costumes. That's right. Let the costume project begin. I think we're headed into another superhero theme. It will probably be Superman or Spiderman or Batman or Buzz Lightyear. Only time will tell what outfit he ends up picking out.

No sleep, but awesome fun

We took a 24 hour trip to Uncle Barry's house so the grown ups could see a concert. (An amazing one by the way. I strongly recommend getting to know Alejandro Escovedo.) And today we took Cam and Jordan to a children's museum that was amazing.

First, I have to say that Cameron perfected a new scam with our friend Christine. She kindly watched the kids... And Cam talked her ear off, said the FUNNIEST stuff to her and he ended up passing out on the couch at 11:30pm. That's hours past his bed time and we expected an interesting day with him today. Christine told us so many funny stories about what Cam said during their time together. So many that I can't even document them well. But I'll just say that when we got home, we were all rolling in laughter. He did tell her each step of his night time process like this: "My mom says I have to pray." My mom says I have to bless people." "My mom says I have to wear socks." He kills me.

So this morning he woke up really early. So did Jordan. So I was exhausted. I got both kids to nap. I got a nap. Randy got a nap. And then we got up and went to the museum. This museum was AWESOME. This place was a child's heaven. Cam's favorite spots included a pizza restaurant where he got to serve and cook plastic pizzas. He also loved a construction zone that had foam "bricks." He was moving all over the place and hard to capture in photos. For a boy who was so tired, he expelled all of the energy he had left.

Which is why he crashed at the end of the night. We were up watching our local little league team playing on t.v. and Cam was ordered to clean up his toys. That led to a big crash and burn of crying fits. I ended up holding him tight and talking him down. When I finally got him breathing again, he told me he was ready to return to cleaning when he says: "Mommy, I'm tired." I hugged him and took him to bed instead. No complaints. He was ready. We read our book, we said our prayer and blessings... And he got my standard lullaby complete with a back scratch. He's living a good life.

Fun words

Cam has been pronouncing some things in a very funny way. So here's his latest:

Commercials: "Come-er-shin-als"

We gave him a frisbee to play with for the first time. He isn't very good at it. Actually, he's kind of dangerous.

Frisbee: Rizzbie

(I'm not sure where the "f" goes)

Risking it for competition

Cam's friend Eric came over to play yesterday. It was a good time for all since Eric has a sister who is a year old, so Jordan had someone to play with as well. Anyway, the two boys were running around like crazy. They were loud (so loud that my ears felt like they went to a concert later that night) and they had a ton of fun. While the Moms and babies were inside, the boys were outside playing. That's when Randy watched Cam jump from the top of his treehouse (on the ladder side) to the grass while the two boys were chasing to get to a toy.

My boy who is nothing but safe jumped off something high.

So apparently his desire to compete overrides his fears.

Very interesting.

Old video... but worth posting to this blog

I love the video I put together for last year's Maine trip. So here it is:



If you can't see it there, watch it here.

Playing with technology again

I keep finding new ways to post video online... I've tried Motionbox and Google just released an embedded link. So I had to give it a try. This is a piece of video I caught a couple of months ago of Cameron dancing. But it gets even better. I added music that I know Cam has never heard or danced to. But man, this is fun stuff when you mix the two together:



Have fun. If you can't see it here, you can watch it here.

My incredible boy

Cameron spent the entire day wearing his Incredibles costume... It really doesn't fit him anymore. But he wore it all day long... Picking wedgies out of his butt. So I had to capture some video of it.

Cam was lucky enough to be in the front yard to see a neighbor kid walking by wearing a Superman outfit. So they played in the backyard for a little while. Very cool.

Aunt Jan and Uncle Chuck time!

We had a great day hanging out with Aunt Jan and Uncle Chuck. We took it easy for most of the day... and after Cam took a monster nap, we packed up the crew and went to a small town nearby that has a winery. We were going to eat at our favorite place when they were basically booked and weren't serving food for a while. So we went down to the local nature trail and enjoyed a really great walk. It was a little too hot, but it was so nice to enjoy the scenery. Cam had a lot of fun on his bike... Unfortunately it was a little ugly getting him into his bike helmet and we worried about his steering skills as he looked up the bluffs periodically. But it's so great to watch him speed down the trail figuring out his balance.

We went out to dinner at a different favorite restaurant. Both kids sat next to each other and Cam kept stealing the one toy that Jordan is really into right now. It was driving me batty... Which is why he probably continued to take it away from his sister. I have to work on my reactions to him. I need to be more positive and try to find new ways to work on adjusting his periodically obnoxious 4 year old attitude. In between the obnoxiousness is amazing energy and excitement. I don't want to kill that. So I need to chill out.

A new friend

Cam made a new friend today... A little girl who lives a few counties away who has an arm that is a lot like Jordan's. I told him this morning that we were going to have lunch with a 5 year old and he was very excited. I never said anything about the little's girl's arm because that isn't who she is... It's just a part of her. So when we got there and he met her, it was so cool to see him not make a big deal about it at all. He asked when she could come over and play at our house. They talked about things... Not many since they were just meeting. But by the end of our time together, they were getting along and wanted to sit next to each other.

Even after we left town, he just said how he was so happy to meet her. (I'm not saying her name just in case her parents don't want too much information about her out in the web world) So, when we got back to school, his teacher went on and on about how he got to meet a little girl with an arm like Jordan. So now when Cam is asked about meeting her he says very matter of factly: "I met ******* and she has a little arm like Jordan." And he moves on about how he got to eat ice cream with her. I pray I can continue to introduce him to kids who look a little different but are SOOO obviously just like him. It's important to me.

New change

For the last 3 years, Cam has been a soy milk drinker. Of course, Cam calls it "soil milk." Last week Randy had finally had it with me and my need to continue to buy soy milk. So when Cam when grocery shopping with me this past weekend, I announced to him that we were going to buy milk for him. He was very worried he was going to drink "Mommy milk." I tried to calm his concerns.

So this morning was the first time I cracked open the organic skim milk for Cam. I've been drinking the expensive cow milk the moment I found out I was pregnant with a girl (I'm a little hyper concerned about girls maturing too quickly). So I pour Cam's milk and he didn't notice. But when I poured the milk into his Cheerios, he noticed. He didn't want "Mommy milk" in his cereal. So I told him he could either eat it or not. I didn't care. Suddenly, he liked it. But he asked it this was Jordan's milk. And I explained that he wasn't drinking "mommy milk." He was drinking the kind of milk that I drink. I'm not sure if he really got it. But he did drink it.

I've kind of held onto the soy milk thing because he doesn't eat anything healthy. We spent a good hour battling over his dinner choice tonight. I got him to take 3 bites and it was a miracle. I guess I'd just think to myself... At least my kid is willing to drink soy milk.

I'll get over it.

I'd have to say Cam's behavior lately has been pretty challenging. He's throwing fits and not listening to us at all. A simple request becomes a battle and/or a crying fit. I'm sad that I haven't found a solution to help him through this phase. I have to say it exhausts me and I worry that I jump to anger too quickly.