How Cameron found out he was going to a Springsteen Show

Springsteen Revealed from NerdyMom on Vimeo.

First day of First Grade: "Awesome"

The day didn't start out as I had expected. It was wet. It was really wet. It was so wet even psycho-walker Mom decided that I should drive Cam to school today. Of course a lot of parents drove their kids to school today so considering where we parked, we half drove-half walked.

I took Cam to his spot in the gym where the kids wait for their teacher, gave him a big smooch and went back home to wake the girl for her day. I'm thinking positively about the school year. I think this is the year for the boy to relax, have fun and learn. If he lets himself learn how to relax, his enjoyment of everything will jump.

The best part of the day was when I was working late and I called to check on how Cameron's big day went. The very first thing he said was it was "AWESOME!" He met new friends, saw old friends and he has a new desk mate who doesn't really speak English. He thinks she's from Korea but doesn't remember. I challenged him to help her speak English and see if she can help him learn Korean. His first task: Learn how to say hello in Korean. I think that's cool.

Preview of the school year

So... I hate to be whiny. But Cam didn't get my dream teacher for the school year. I'll get over it. To add to the stress, his assigned teacher will not start the school year with her students because her husband is very sick. So I met the temporary teacher who was asked to come out of retirement. She spent 14 years teaching first grade at our school before she retired. I spoke to her about our terrible summer school experience and she looked me straight in the eye and said in the 23 years she taught, she never sent a student to the principal. I hope that's true. To me, that was a good start for the school year.

Cam and I had a good time together the last few days and I think we're headed into the school year with a good state of mind. We went to the local indoor play place yesterday -- he ran around and climbed and had fun. Then we played in the arcade area - I've never spent money on arcade prizes before so he was really excited. He also had a great time playing with another neighbor kid who was out of town all summer. I think I convinced his mom to let him join us in our daily neighborhood-wide walk to school. The more kids, the more fun the walks!

By the way -- that's a picture from our big hike over the weekend. I just think it's sweet and worth posting.

Let the countdown commence

The boy and I have spent A LOT of time together since he isn't in school yet and hasn't had much scheduled in his life. But I'm starting to figure him out.

First - I need to take advantage of his interests. He really likes superhero/science fiction stuff. So this week I bought Cam a Star Wars Clone Wars book that's about the movie that came out this weekend. He read the entire 24 chapter book on his own!! He also read it in two days. Did he totally ingest everything he read? No. But he did get the gist of the story line. It was pretty amazing.

I took the boy to that movie today -- He was SO into it. Star Wars Clone Wars was created for six year old boys. It wasn't a challenging plot, it wasn't that bloody or gross -- just a lot of red vs. blue. I also think he really appreciated the one-on-one time. It was really funny when he needed to go to the bathroom. We RAN to the bathroom. BOOKED to the bathroom. It was so funny as we washed hands and ran back. We almost ran down a mom and her little kids as they were walking out of the theater.

Second - I need to get Cam out and playing with other kids more often. I'm lucky he's had a neighbor up the street who is fun, sweet and a buddy. He goes into Kindergarten this year so the boys will see each other at school. Cam is so much happier when he gets to hang out with kids every once and a while.

Third - My boy has a lot of teeth moving around in there. I need to give him a break every once and a while and wonder if he's in pain. He's had some headaches lately and his teeth are super sensitive. He's going to be okay. Thank goodness for Motrin.

It's been challenging to have Cam everywhere and all the time... But I know I'm going to miss having him around. He's a really sweet guy. A really sweet, emotional guy.

Vacation memory: Skipping rocks Part 2

Here's a cool moment with my Dad and Cameron during the big rock skip lesson:

Skimming the day away

Cam, Jordan and I had a great time hanging out this afternoon... I had a long split day at work so I spent the full afternoon playing. The weather is pretty close to perfect for playing outside. I pulled out the skim board pool and watched the kids go crazy. I love watching them giggle and splash. So, this is a quick moment to show you how Cam is figuring out his skim board. Very cute.

Emotional guy

Cam has had a tough time rejoining the family since his trip to his grandparents house. He's been very emotional. VERY emotional.

I think I may be to blame. I've let him surf the web on kid sites while he spent time in the newsroom with me at work. So he's enjoyed a brainless, non-involved time on his own. So I've tried to get him out and about at least for a little while each day. That still didn't seem to be enough to improve the whining and complaining at home. On Friday I took him out for the morning to go on a bike ride on the local bike trail and go to a park with water sprayers and a playground. I packed a lunch and everything. I was excited. I really want to bike more and it's so cool to have Cam on his bike now... Until he had to pass a person on the trail. It freaked him out and he decided he didn't want to bike. Tantrum on the trail. It was rough. I ended up pulling his access to the work computer and he snapped out of it. THEN we had fun. We enjoyed lunch, water and running around. Biking back tot he car was even great. I just don't know how to deal with his moods.

I think some of it has to do with his teeth. Those molars are moving and his front teeth are wiggling. He's lost four bottom teeth and two have poked through. He isn't sleeping as well and he's cranky. It's kind of like Cameron is the six year old version of his 4 months teethingn self. I just want to hug him when I don't want to jump off the roof when he's crying and screaming.

I'm not going to dwell on this... But someone at the university mentioned that I should consider testing Cam for ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). I'm very uncomfortable even thinking about considering treating Cam with drugs. We see so many students who are medicated. I had a friend in college who went off his long-term ADD medication while we were in school. He was so messed up. Anyway, it does confound me at times when Cameron is so highly sensitive to the smallest things and he's six years old. It made sense when he was two or three, but I'm sure it's not right for his age.

Helping Mom out

Cam's summer vacation is winding down... I don't have much for him to do since his summer school, vacation, VBS and grandparent visit time is wrapped up. So he's stuck following me around work.

He did get to help me do something a little different today: Help me move into a VERY big, temporary office on campus. It's new, it's red, white and green and Cameron was impressed. Hell, I was impressed. I'm taking part in a fellowship in the coming school year. It's a scary change, but a temporary change and I hope to take advantage of the opportunity.

Anyway, I'm hoping to find moments in between work time to go out and have fun with Cameron. He'd be happy just sitting in front of a computer screen all day - but I'd like to end his summer with some more fun and activity. I'm hoping to take him biking tomorrow afternoon... Maybe we'll visit a pool on Friday. My goal is to help him start the school year with outdoors activities on his mind and not just Danny Phantom and Avatar (Nick cartoon shows that I'm a little unsure about -- because I'm overprotective and I've seen him obsess about shows before).

Home!

We had a really fast, but very nice visit to family this weekend. Cameron really enjoyed his time away from home. He got to watch way more TV than his strict and annoying mom would have ever let him. He got to ride the heck out of his bike AND he even got to go to a really fun water park.

The whole family (you know, all four of us) got to spend time with Moma Dot and Daddy Junior. It's really cool to see how loving the kids are to them. They're always giving out a bunch of hugs and kisses. I took a shot of Cam with Moma Dot - I never seem to catch good moments. But I really like how she's trying to get Cam to smile.

The kids were really happy to see each other -- but they're back at each other's throats. Traditional sibling stuff.

He missed me!!

We just arrived in Kentucky to spend time with family here and see the boy. He's been here for five days with his grandparents and I really think he missed up. He and Jordan were SO happy to see each other. They played and didn't scream much and just seemed so great to be together. They hugged, they kissed. It was great.

And he missed me.

He hugged me so tight and kept telling me how much he missed me. It made me feel so good. We butt heads so often, it's so awesome to be back with my boy.

And another big deal:
He has REALLY short hair. He finally got the buzz cut I've been talking to him about because I'm tired of figuring out how to keep his hair from looking totally crazy. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

He seriously looks two years younger with that hair. It reminds me of back in the day when he was 3 or 4. I love it!