Oh yuck

Cam woke up at 5:30 this morning throwing up... It kept happening every 15 minutes or so until 7:00. I was getting over my own stomach bug, so we spent the day working on feeling better. By late afternoon, Cam was very normal. I think it's because I got him to take two naps.

I let him watch a lot of TV. So much that he spent a lot of the day telling me how much he loves me and how I'm a really nice Mom.

But the moment I have to mention is after I put him back to bed after his first throwing up bout. He knew I was painfully ill the night before. I tucked him into the bed and he looks up at me and asks me if I'm feeling better. Here's this little guy who just threw up and he's concerned about me. That made me feel very lucky. I was feeling better enough to care for him and I'm grateful for that.

Cam's stuff

Cam has a new thing he's doing. He found a pad of post-it notes. So he takes his pencil and labels things in the basement: Cam's TV, Cam's desk, Cam's couch, Cam's shelf, Cam's door, Cam's books. He writes some of them by himself. Others he asks how to spell it. There are yellow tags all over the place.

I think it's awesome.

It wasn't that long ago when I couldn't get him to write to save my life. It's awesome.

Cam has also been really excited about using his scissors. But today he took it too far and I'm going to have to restrict his scissor use. He sliced his jacket. I think he was testing the power of his scissors... And he was surprised to discover that scissors will cut things that aren't paper. So surprised that he SCREAMED and SCREAMED in his room. When he emerged (I was in the bathroom with Jordan who had enjoyed a HILARIOUS bath full of giggles and splashes) he apologized to me. I hugged him, asked him if he learned a lesson... And now I'm going to need to go to a fabric store to find an iron-on patch.

Growing up

Cam got a chance to go to a gymnastics class today... And although he cried a little at the beginning, he branched out and seemed to have actual fun! He even climbed across the balance beam and climbed along the parallel bars. Of course he also got to run around and jump. It was pretty great.

Afterwards, both kids and I got to go get ice cream with Cam's best friend and her family. I love hanging out with other families... It makes me feel good to be around other people who are in the same kid world. When I work around so many students, I sometimes don't feel like I can chat a lot about my world the same way. Don't doubt that my poor students have to listen to me talk about the kids all the time. But they can't say: "Well, I totally understand because my kid did/does the same thing."

Valentines Love

Valentines Love for Cameron
Originally uploaded by Jen.

Cam woke up at 6am this morning because he was so darn excited about Valentine's Day. I gave him my homemade Valentine, baked biscuits for breakfast and had doughnuts with him (and Jordan) at school. Every single thing set him into crying fits early in the day -- A standard sign that he's overwhelmed with his expectations for the moment. By the time I got to school this afternoon for the school party, he seemed okay.

He also officially made it through 5 straight dinners without crying about vegetables or any other silly thing. Hooray. So now he has a chance to watch the original Charlotte's Web animated movie. That was his reward. He's thrilled and I'm just hoping he's quit this crying habit at the dinner table.

I'm exhausted. The combination of early rising 4 (almost 5) year old and a cranky baby has exhausted me.

He will hate me for this

Cameron has been really into High School Musical... I've mentioned this before. But now I have proof:



If you can't see it, go to here.

He will hate me for posting this someday.

Family time

Cam had a great weekend with his grandparents in town. He also made it through another theater class. Randy picked him up this week. Apparently Cam was in time out two times this week... There's a kid who keeps egging him on. The teacher asked Randy the funniest thing: "Do you know any way to help him focus for longer periods of time?" Ha. Right.

Cam and Jordan are being sillier with each other lately. Cam does anything he can to make her smile. He was sitting next to her at breakfast this morning as Jordan kept patting him on the arm and giggling. Cam joined in on the happiness. It was great. Simple pleasures of siblings.

Story I almost forgot to post from last Sunday. We were watching the Superbowl while Cam was eating a hamburger. He looks up to me and says: "Jesus' body is in this bread." It was communion Sunday. I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that one.

HSM Drama

So tonight we decided to try Cam's new obsession with High School Musical to get him to eat vegetables. Randy announced to me earlier today that he had to put a stop to our constant High School Musical music listening because he keeps catching himself humming to the music. And he wants it to stop.

I think he figured out how to make it stop. Tonight we tried to encourage Cameron to stop crying at dinner. I decided to offer him the chance to earn the Charlotte's Web DVD (the original movie) if he could go 5 straight dinners without crying. Every night he's decided to cry over vegetable eating. He cries if I spoon the vegetables on his plate. He cries if he's told he has to eat a vegetable or he will miss ice cream or cookie opportunities. He cries. He cries. He cries. It's annoying. So we put this new carrot (ha, get it? carrot? it's a vegetable!!) in front of him. He was ready. I spooned vegetables on his plate and he didn't cry. We discussed him eating the peas and carrots. He didn't cry. But then Cam asked if I would turn on High School Musical. That's when Randy said: "Only if you eat one pea and one carrot." That set off a MASSIVE crying jag. He had to go to his room and cry. Then he came back and told me that I couldn't listen to the music unless he can. I told him that wasn't how it worked.... And the crying just kept going. He was still crying when I needed to put Jordan to bed. But I decided Cam was going first. And he cried and cried and cried. He cried so much that he lost his chance to say his prayer and get a nighttime lullaby from Mommy (which includes back scratches). He was a disaster.

Jordan eventually got to go to bed. Cameron eventually went to bed too. But it just wasn't much fun.

Hopefully tomorrow he'll try harder. I kind of want to listen to High School Musical again with him. It's too fun to watch him dance around in the kitchen.

Dramatic day

Good news... Cameron was only sent to time out once during theater class today -- and it was during the dance portion of the day. He felt very proud for knowing some of his lines ahead of the class. Hopefully we'll be able to stick with theater through the big show day in March. Of course I just realized that Cam's big show is on a 4 day Reeves holiday weekend: The first weekend of March Madness. So Daddy's going to have to come back home for the morning to see the performance before we all trek to STL and hang at Uncle Barry's house for the fun.

Everything would have worked out just fine except an ice storm delayed the start of theater class. Bummer.

So after Cam had a dramatic morning and a nap, we spent the afternoon playing. The highlight of the night: I downloaded the High School Musical soundtrack from iTunes. We sang the music until Jordan needed to go to bed. When I came down to play a little more, he was just chanting one of the songs. Randy was just rolling his eyes. I've dragged Cam into my love of Disney silliness. I just can't stop. For some reason, Cam and I both love HSM. It's catchy music. And it captures the true silliness of what it's like to be in a high school musical. I've been there, done that. So I'm having a ball.