Added fun point

Cam had a good afternoon with his uncle... But the big moment was when his Dad was offered the chance to coach Cam's T-ball team this year. Of course he said yes. And since Randy had a chance to choose a name for the team, he chose the Cardinals. Cam's very excited to play for the Cardinals AND have his dad as the coach.

What is going on?

I don't know what is going on with the boy. We struggled with his rebellion to us. It drove us nuts. He got better at home, but now he's really doing poorly at school. He had notes sent home two days in a row. Today was the kicker. He got to go to his first theater class today. I was excited. He was excited. We talked about listening to the teacher and treating his new friends with respect. He was ready. I dropped him off and I was confident he was going to do a great job. I mean, Cameron is everything about drama, right?

Not yet.

I get there and he's crying in the corner with the teacher. Apparently Cam had been put into time out twice in the hour and a half he was there. He was fooling around with a new friend when it happened the first time. The second time he was sitting in a "duck, duck, goose" circle and kept poking at a new friend. He was told to stop multiple times, but he didn't until he was put into time out again.

It's like anytime he's told to do anything, he won't do it unless he is threatened, spoken to loudly or is given a consequence. I realize this is a normal problem with kids, but it seems like Cam's is magnified. And for him to blow his first day at theater class just bums me out. He is perfect for theater. He could really use the energy release. And his teacher tells me that if Cam continues this way, he won't get to be a part of the performance. We told Cam if he continues this way, he won't get to return to class. Now I understand how parents feel when they invest into something and then their kid walks away from it.

So Cam is on notice. He has to clean up the act or he isn't even going to get to prove himself in class next Saturday. I took him up for his nap with no complaints. We'll see what happens in the next week. But I'll tell you, I'm exhausted from the emotional relase. I'm so disappointed. I'm not sure why I'm so deeply disappointed. Cam is 4 years old. I can't expect him to be perfect. But I guess I expected him to love this class. And I guess I was wrong. Heck, the teacher said anytime she asked Cam to try something, he immediately said: "I can't." It's just strange. And I can't be inside Cam's head to really know what's going on. But I'll say, I'm exhausted. And I'm not even halfway through with this weekend.

We had so much fun

Cam's BIG snowman
Originally uploaded by NerdyMom.

I bundled up into the snow with Cam and we built an AWESOME snowman. Of course Cam named him Frosty. We used the gumballs from our tree for his eyes, a carrot for a nose and raisins for a mouth. Cam picked out the twigs for his arms. I found an old hiking hat... But Cam decided it looked like Frosty was just coming home from T-ball practice.

We had snowball fights, snow angels... We just laid on the ground and looked up at the sky just like we used to when Cam was younger. It was sweet and fun. We had a lot of fun. And of course, after we played outside, I cooked up some yummy hot chocolate. A perfect end to a chilly, fun time. It's the kind of stuff that I want to hold onto forever. When I knew this snow was sticky, I was giddy knowing we were going to be able to build a snowman. We haven't built one together since he was almost 2 years old! That was 3 years ago! This was really Cam's first real snowman. His last one was as tall as he was! What fun.

Cam went back out for a while in the afternoon... He was army crawling all over the yard making what he called a "track." It was his own "masterpiece." He kills me.

Next week is the official start of Cam's theater class. I think he's going to LOVE it.

Big news (a little delayed)

I should have posted this immediately, but last Friday I was in Jordan's room putting her to bed, talking to her grandparents on the phone and chatting with Cameron... So I asked Cam to read Jordan a book before bed. So he pulls out her Hop On Pop book and goes at it.

HE READ ALL OF IT!

And he didn't just read it elementary school style, the boy read with emotion! He read the exclamation points with a flourish! He questioned every sentence that ended with a question mark! He needed very little help... Mostly with 'W' words. But some of the words he grasped were AMAZING. I was so proud and it was awesome that my parents got to hear it too.

Other than that, Cam had a ball with an ice storm that moved through this weekend and throughout the week. The first morning after the storm, he went outside thinking there was snow on the ground and said: "This has a hard cover on it!" He still enjoyed sliding around and playing with his slippery and slidey slide that was covered with ice. It was cool. But the next day, he looked at me and said: "I am NOT going out there." Ever since then, before we go outside, he says: "I can't be in the cold. I just can't."

Drama.

Speaking of drama. Our theatrical boy is starting a theater class on Saturday. I can't wait. I haven't even told him yet. He's going to get to learn how to act and put together a little play about Curious George. And he LOVES Curious George. I'm excited and I'm hoping this may be a way to put some of his DRAMA.

What the heck

I can't figure out the boy. He's been very rough to his friends at school. He's been getting in trouble a lot. Today he had a hard time and kept hitting many people. It's not the first day. He's having all these social challenges. Then he goes and reads an entire book over the weekend: "Hop on Pop." Then he starts teaching me Italian words and sings Jordan an Italian song to make her happy. He's clearly learning a lot at school... But his social interactions still stink. He's back to his disrespect after at least a week of doing really well at home. It's like we make baby steps forward and fall back again.

What was that all about?

I was at a church meeting this evening when Cam and his Dad had a sad conversation. Cam announced: "Dudley and Bubba are going to die someday." (If you don't know, those are our dogs) Cameron then announced that both dogs would go to doggie heaven and then told his Dad that he had to kiss them before that happened. So he kissed the dogs.

I have NO idea where that came from.

Figuring it out

I think we're finally figuring out how to help Cam calm down. he's really good at doing things with motivation. So I figured out a new way to use our reward board in the kitchen. It was first used to help Cam earn TV time. Now it's just assumed that he has to get dressed, hold no tantrums and eat his dinner to earn TV time. So I added a new reward board to get him to Disney. But it didn't work really well. When we got back from our Florida trip, Cam told me he wanted to earn a trip to somewhere... So we decided on a place called Bonkers: It's a life-sized hamster run for kids. It's a loud place, but kids can really get some energy out there. I created a board where he had to earn smiley faces: 5 for being respectful, 5 for flushing (it's a skill he just hasn't picked up) and 5 for cleaning up. He was able to put that off in time for a trip to Bonkers today. And the greatest thing has come from this week. He's truly motivated. He starts into a rude or disrespectful behavior and he stops because he doesn't want to lose a smile. Even after the Bonkers trip, he flushed the toilet. He apologized for being rude. I think we may have broke through the bad attidude. And the basement is still clean. It helps that his Poppy built a massive toy bin to keep the kids' toys. The sad thing is it's full. It's very full.

I can only hope.

Cam has brought back the old afraid to be alone issue. I'm not sure why. He's also having some trouble being nice to his friends at school after his time away. His teacher says he's playing really well by himself, but when you add another person into the mix, Cam just can't share or be friendly. Hopefully he'll get over that soon.