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!

Sniff. Sniff. Its quiet here

Our house is quiet. The kids aren't fighting. Cam isn't running around wanting to watch a show/play Wii/play outside/complain about his sister/wanting my undivided attention/complaining about my food/giving me hugs at many random and sweet moments.

On Sunday he went off to stay the week with his grandparents. I know he's having a great time. I talked to him and heard that he's skinned his knee, elbow and ankle from riding his bike and falling off. I think it's amazing how he's learning about his limitations on a bike and continues to get back up and ride again. I'm very proud of him.

We're going to meet up with him for the weekend, so he really won't be away from us for a long time... but it's long enough for our house to feel very strange and lonely. Even Jordan is feeling it. Tonight she looked at me and said: "Where Cameron at?" I reminded her that he was with her grandparents. She responded: "OH YEAH!!"

Vacation memory: Skipping rocks

Cam has seen us skipping rocks for years. It's something we like to do when we visit Maine. For most of Cam's life, he's enjoyed throwing rocks into the water. It's a great pastime. But this year, he wanted to master the skill of skipping rocks. His first attempts were while we were camping. His uncle offered Cam some tips on skipping rocks. But I promised him, his Grandpa would really show him how.

I was right.

Cam and my dad went down to the water and the lesson started. My dad is good. He's really good. What made it even cooler was watching Cam's reaction. His jaw dropped as my dad skipped a rock 15 times or more across the harbor. It was really cool. Then the lesson started. It didn't take long for Cameron to pick up the skipping skills. He went from a kid who could double skip to a kids who could skip 8 to 10 times! It was pretty amazing.

All good things must come to an end

We're packed up and getting ready to leave Maine in the morning. I'm bummed that we're leaving, but I know we're all looking forward to getting back to our lives. Cameron had a really fantastic trip. He got to know his new friend Charlie... They had a blast and Cam really got to play hard with a friend without a lot of the drama that seems to happen with a couple of kids in our neighborhood. It was pure boy stuff. Cam and Charlie climbed and explored and rode their bikes and played soccer and MAN is Cam bruised up. He has scratches and cuts from his head to his feet. Some of those injuries included crying, but a bunch of them didn't. It was pure boy fun. They even created a spy club... Something Cam's been dying to do with a friend.

What made it even better was the fact that since we're on a really quiet street and on a really small island, we were able to just let the boys run around between the two houses. They could ride their bikes, run outside and have fun. It was very cool. The only bummer: Cam had to write Charlie a goodbye note since they weren't home on our last day in town. We left my email and Cam's email so hopefully that will help them stay in touch. We're going to be in Maine later next year, so it may be less likely they will get to hang out next year. I'll hope for the best!

By the way, the top picture is Cameron at L.L. Bean's newest extension to their main building in Freeport, ME. It's a cool dome inside a trout aquarium. Super cool. Both kids really thought it was exciting. Okay. I thought it was pretty exciting too. I'll admit, I went inside it too.

Cam and I also explored the Giant Stairs after biking along the island together. It was a bit scary for a mom: there are no sidewalks so we had to ride against the island traffic. That's a little scary, but Cameron did pretty well. He did skin his knee at one point when he slide from the side of the road into some sand, but he ended up surviving that experience. In the end, he got a new bandaid and a really HUGE popsicle, so I think he didn't mind. After that experience, we rode over to the Giant Stairs: HUGE boulders at the edge of the ocean that look like they are steps. Very cool. Cam got pretty brave and started climbing around. We ended up going the next day with both kids and with my friend Eryn and her boyfriend (who is my new friend) Rick. There are just so many beautiful things to see.

On our final day, the waves were rocking outside our view from the house. The water near the rocks at the edge of the harbor were crashing. It's rarely that active when we visit so it was a great show. I pointed it out to Cameron and mentioned how we wouldn't need TV ever if we could watch that view all the time. He watched for a while and told me: "It's even better than super heroes!" I thought that was pretty cool.

Some very big news

As of yesterday, Cameron can officially....

(drum roll please)

RIDE A BIKE!!!!

Check it out:



We took Cam and Jordan out along a bike path in Brunswick, Maine this afternoon. All of this exciting bike bravery came about because of our next door neighbor Charlie. He's five and started really riding his bike a week or two ago on the road behind our coastal houses here in Maine. With Charlie riding on a bike nearby and a push of Cameron's bike by Dad to get it all started, Cameron was rolling. In less than 24 hours, Cameron was getting the bike moving on his own. During our bike trip this afternoon, Cam even steered the bike around without stopping. It's been an amazing transformation.

HOORAY! I can't wait to get out on the bike trails at home with my boy!

Official rock picture of 2008

Enjoying the heck out of our vacation

Cameron is living it up on vacation... Of course we've had our periodic emotional outbreak. But on the whole, he's had some amazing experiences. I think I'll work our way backwards for all of the excitement.

After driving to New England for two days, we spent five days in New Hampshire camping in Crawford Notch in the White Mountains. Now we're on the coast of Maine. It's our third day here and we decided to take advantage of a sunny, warm day to visit a beach. It is so fun to watch Cameron get excited about water and running around in the waves. His sister is still wary but Cam had a BLAST. Not only did he spend a ton of time in the 53 degree water, he also spent a lot of time rolling around in the sand. It was SO messy but that's why God made showers. I let it slide. And Cameron did slide and climb and roll and dig and giggle in the sand. It was great. I still haven't been able to convince him to eat seafood, but we finally have a beach loving kid!

Before the beach, Cam was happy to climb around the rocks on the cove. He's so certain and confident, it's hard to tell him no when he wants to go down on his own. I'm not ready to let him go on his own. Maybe next year once his swimming skills are better. His climbing is great - I watched him do things on the rocks while wearing Crocs that should have never taken place. He somehow found a way to grip onto the rocks with those plastic shoes. I should have known better than to let him go down to the rocks with those shoes on! But he did great and he had all kinds of fun. He's also learning how to skip rocks! I can't wait for his first rock skipping time with his Grandpa. My dad is very good - he has decades of rock skipping practice.

Cam got some great rock skipping tips from his uncle while we were camping. Uncle Barry hung out with us for three out of the five days we were camping in Crawford Notch. We had a wonderful campsite that was right next to the Saco River. We had all kinds of fun throwing (and skipping) rocks. Cam, Barry, Randy and Jordan even floated down the river a number of times. Cameron got so good at it, he started floating on his own! That was so fun to watch. Our floats were so big, Cam had a hard time steering! There were so many amazing highlights of the trip. Cam got to bike with me on the Franconia Notch bike trail, swim near The Basin in Franconia Notch, visit The Flume, ride the tram up to Cannon Mountain and hike the Ridge Trail, ride the 8 mile auto road up to the peak of Mt. Washington, hike up a mountain to see the largest waterfall in New Hampshire and even got to cook hot dogs over the campfire! So many cool experiences. I really think he likes camping and I love that.

We have a bunch more days here in Maine and we're sure to have some more fun experiences. I'll try to take some time out to post a few more stories here.

So big and so small

We're driving... We're driving a lot as we head towards the northeast for a long vacation. Cam has grown so much that his head pops up in the rear view mirror. It's one those kinds of little things that remind us how freaking big he's getting.

Speaking of big, last Thursday I took the kids to the dentist. It's the first time they went together and Jordan got to watch her brave brother. He was so good getting his teeth cleaned, flossed, x-rayed and fluoride treated. The teeth look good. I talked to his dentist about how Cam grinds LOUDLY at night and how I think it may play a role in his moodiness lately. The dentist said many kids grind a lot when they have new teeth coming in or even when they have cavities (Cam has no cavities). Cam does have his six year old adult molars coming in and it may play a role in his recent grumpiness.

Who knows. He is doing relatively well on the car trip. Just like last year, the DVDs seem to keep the kids happier than any of the other awesome options I created for them. Oh well.

A couple of funny moments. We were driving into Illinois when Cameron asked if we were in New Hampshire. Ha. If only it took two hours to get there. When we got into our hotel in Ohio last night, Cam rushed over to the ironing board and touched it. He kind of jumped back in surprise. He looked at me a little embarrassed and told me he thought it was a surf board. I guess that's a sign I don't iron clothes enough.

Summer school and stuff like that

Cameron's summer is going pretty well. His summer school started last week... And it ends for him this Friday since we're going on vacation. He's had a hard time trying to hold onto his emotions... And as usual, it's up to him to figure out a way to fix this problem... Boy is it hard to not get angry. I'm doing my best to stay calm.

An interesting turn of events took place this past week while I was at a conference. The kids started bickering. Not a little, but a lot. They're at each other's necks one moment and they're playing really well the next. Randy and I have noted the fighting only happens when the parents aren't nearby. I've recommended Cameron walk away from some of the battles... and I've told him to hold his own in others. It just depends on the situation.

Cam is super excited for our vacation. I think we all are. We're looking forward to camping and hiking and exploring. We're also excited to hang out in Maine for a while. It's the best time of the year for the family! Minimal work, lots of outside time... And we get to personally enjoy many of our nation's highways. (I said that part sarcastically) The new battles between the kids will make this extra tricky... But I'm going to put on my patience cap and hope for the best.

Super cool

I took Cam to the pool this afternoon to enjoy some real vacation time. He and I went to a local indoor pool since it was raining outside. This was the first time he and I have gone to a pool where we actually had fun!!

We floated around (he used a kick board a lot) and get this: HE EVEN WENT DOWN THE SUPER HUGE SLIDE! Not once. Not twice. He went down FOUR times! I'm so proud. He's still not a pro at swimming yet, but he's getting braver every moment. I'm really excited.

Plus, we had some fun Cam and Mom time. That's also pretty great!

My baby isn't a kindergartener anymore

Can you believe it?


I can't.