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.

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).

Getting active as best we can

I have this newish rule - We have to go outside (the kids and I and Randy if he wants) once a weekend. To help with that "rule," I bought a bike extension for my new bike so Cam could ride on our local bike trails without screaming. So the whole family jumped on board the bikes (Jordan in the bike trailer) and took a really long trek. We ended up at a local park that has a really fun water spray area. To make it even more fun, a pre-school and now elementary school friend was there so they got to enjoy the water together.

Once we talked Cameron out of the water, the whole family went to a nearby restaurant and ate outside. We kind of pushed it... It was almost dark as we rode our bikes as quickly as possible back to the the parking lot where we started. Cam pedaled as hard as he could. It was awesome. The best part was as he and I pedaled down the trail and he said: "I'm the fastest biker ever! I love biking!" I can't wait for him to feel the same way on his own bike! Until then, we finally have the ability to enjoy bikes without feeling like we're bleeding him to get from here to there. HOORAY!!

Warm and happy

It was so warm out that we got to go on a hike today! Cameron was a trooper and walked to a cool playground and back to the car with minimal complaint. It was clear that he had an amazing amount of energy cooped up inside him. I swear he ran more than walked for most of the walk.

He also got to bring out the baseballs and bat... And he has a lot more force than last year. He also seemed to have more focus. It could be a very interesting t-ball season when it starts in April. Cam also worked on his basketball skills. If things get warm enough, we're going to start working on riding bikes again. One of our neighbors mentioned how they were thinking about selling their bike attachment that lets your kid pedal, but it's attached to your bike. I should have bought one of those a long time ago... But I think this is the right opportunity. Cam can use it as the step towards really riding a bike and then Jordan can follow.

A warm day really helped improve the mood here. The air has been so cold and uncomfortable, it's been tough to stay sane. I know Cam's had a hard time lately. Getting sick and having a lot of days off from school -- it's great to get out and run.

Hiking pro

Cameron continued to show his hiking prowess. We hiked close to 2.5 miles AND then we hiked another mile to visit a really cool cave. Cam barely complained and he actually was interested in exploring inside the cave! I didn't bring a flashlight and I didn't feel very balanced to really go in with Jordan on my back. But it was really great to spend so much time outside with the kids.

After the big hike, we got some ice cream and enjoyed it at a really great park where I saw a bunch of people who have kids at Cam's old school. Cam climbed to the very top of the tallest piece of playground equipment and went down the tunnel slide again and again and again. It was amazing. Of course he screamed REALLY loud every time. Funny stuff.

After dinner, Cam even got a chance to meet up with a pre-school friend at the local indoor kid playground place. We were there for an hour and it was great to see the kids play again. But man, we packed a TON of stuff into the day. Hopefully Cam will sleep really well.

Growing, learning... Testing

Mister Kindergarten has talents that he's never exposed before at home. Look at this picture! It's his self portrait. It's awesome.

Cam has been REALLY busy since Kindergarten started. He has a whole bunch of friends and he's been pretty darn positive about everything he talks about at school. And I finally got Cam interested in riding his bike! On Sunday, I finally reached him as he started screaming, "I can't! I can't!" That's when I announced to Cam that I won't bike ride with him unless he changes his attitude to "I can." It worked pretty well. Instead of driving to the nearby parking lot, I got him to walk his bike up the hill we live on and then ride it almost all the way to the parking lot. We rode like crazy and I almost got him to ride all the way home on the bike. The best part: He asked to go out biking after dinner. So we did. I hooked the bike trailer to the back of Randy's bike and had Jordan join us for the ride. Cam had very few "I can'ts" and Jordan even wore her helmet the whole time without protest. It was fantastic. I'm SO thrilled to have more excuses to enjoy outside time with the kids. The best part: As Cam and I were riding down our street he looked over to me while he pedaled and said: "I love being outside." It was awesome. Then we talked about our great camping trip. It makes me all warm and fuzzy.

Of course he's still testing me. Food continues to be a big challenge. But that testing is normal stuff... And the crying and craziness is not as crazy as it has been. The funniest stuff is Cam's complaining as we walk towards school. He is a bit more motivated each morning when we walk with our neighbors. That's been an added plus to the morning walks: Grown ups to talk to!!

Great day

The day didn't start well... With the pea incident. But overall, it was great. We got up, battled over peas and then played outside while Jordan took a little nap. Chalk drawing is a big activity at the house lately. Today Cam drew a pink Darth Vader with a white torso that was throwing pink fire. I drew a rainbow that had Cam and his friend Camryn standing under it. I gave Cam a smile which he exclaimed looked like he had lipstick on. Picky picky picky.

After lunch and a nap for both kids (and mommy), we headed out to a nearby water fountain. Cam likes to run around it. Then I got this awesome idea that we should get ice cream cones and then walk to a nearby garden. There was this place nearby that sold ice cream and snacks... But when we walked in there, things looked different from the last time I was there almost 2 years ago: No ice cream. Yup. The place didn't sell ice cream and snacks, just snacks. Luckily, there was a grocery store nearby and I bought a box of little ice cream cones... To make it even more exciting, it was supposed to be Incredibles ice cream cones. So we took our box of ice cream cones to the garden, gobbled it down with quite a mess. And we just played outside. It was awesome. Cam got to have even more fun when we saw a friend from school there. They ran around while his friend's mom and I stressed about elementary school plans. It really is more stressful than I expected.

After the big garden/ice cream fun, Cam rotated between running in the back yard and coloring a race track on multiple pieces of paper while I prepared dinner. Yes, I had vegetables in our meal: Chicken burritos with hidden mushrooms and red and green peppers amongst the cheese and chicken. The hiding never works. And after a number of dramatic attempts, Cam ate a tiny bit of red pepper. It included very dramatic gagging. But he didn't want to eat it at breakfast tomorrow, so at least he tried a new vegetable. By the way, the mom of Cam's school friend told me how she gets a report about lunch every day including how Cam ate one pea or one bean. That's how dramatic my boy has become about vegetables. Even the other kids need to talk about it at home.

I got the girl off to bed, then Cam and I played "basketball" in the backyard, talked to neighbors, got him in the bath (after much protest), read him a book and got him into bed. I asked him to clean up some of the billion books that cover his bedroom floor before waking me up in the morning. Hopefully that plea works. His room really is a disaster zone.

Anyway. The great weather gave us a chance to chat with many neighbors. We got to hang out for HOURS outside... And the boy seemed happy most of the day. It was nice.

One other thing, after saying his prayers tonight, Cam asked me why he prays for himself... Ever since he could say a prayer, he has always ended it: "And God bless Cameron Lee Reeves, Amen." I never encouraged or started this -- it was his creation. I told him that I didn't know why, it was his thing. So he announced that he won't do that ever again. If that's the case, I'm kind of sad. It was very cute.

Returning outside

Drawing in the setting sun
Originally uploaded by Jen.

Yesterday was cool, but the sun just screamed: "Come out and play!" So we did. We went for a walk through the breezy wind earlier in the day. Late in the afternoon, the sun told me that we had to come and enjoy its light one more time before it set.

So Cam, Jordan and I went out to draw on the driveway. I love playing with chalk. It was the first time Cameron was totally into drawing his own stuff. He drew his own hopscotch, a basketball hoop, basketball player and a scoreboard. Then we drew many, many characters from Sesame Street. I'm kind of good at making fuzzy monster heads, Cam did the bodies and Oscar the Grouch.

The funny thing was when we went outside, Cam had be asking to watch a movie. I looked over at him while we drew and I said: "Aren't you glad we didn't watch a movie?" He agreed and said we should draw on the driveway every weekend.

I like that idea a lot.