Cooped up

We had two snow days followed by a three day weekend. (Well, tomorrow makes his third day) That's five days out of being out of sort and stuck in the house.

Cam is stir crazy and driving us crazy. I love him. But geez! Can I get a moment where I can just sit down and focus?

Anyway. Cam is on a quest to clean the house up so he can go on a special adventure. I'm thinking the local hamster run for kids is the right spot for him to run off his extra energy. I'm not a huge fan of the place, but I figure it's safe, it's fun for him and they have wireless so I can do work over there if I want.

Proof I'm getting Old

"Mom! There's a song that's called 'Welcome to the Jungle!' Have you heard it?"

"Uh Yeah." (And here's where you know the times are changing) "Honey, do you have that in your iTunes?"

Next reason why I'm getting old:
I started telling a story to a student that had happened seven years ago. Seven.

Geez.

"Grandfather!"

Cam is feeling better but I'm guessing he's getting a little stir crazy. He hasn't left the house since Thursday. The cough is improving and he's been wrestling with his dad. He just got tackled by Randy... And Cameron yelled out:

"GRANDFATHER!!!"

He meant "UNCLE!" to get his dad off of him.

I guess you had to be there. It was really funny.

Cam kept trying to play with Jordan today.. But it was things that weren't quite age appropriate. Like puzzles or books that can be easily ripped. Right before bed they started playing with Jordan's Aquadoodle. It's an awesome toy. All you need is water and there's enough room for both kids to draw. It's so cool. They both are pretty supportive of each other when they aren't trying to bargain for attention.

My poor little valentine

My sweet Cam had a rough day. He woke up coughing and was having a hard day getting his day started. But he REALLY wanted to go to school for his Valentine's Day party. I kept asking him if he wanted to stay home. He decided he just had to go. That was okay until I got a call about four hours later saying that he threw up on the playground.

Poor buddy.

So his Dad took him home for the day. He got to take home all of his valentines and the treats that came with it all. Randy made sure Cam took it easy and gave him toast and water for lunch. When I got home, I started cooking dinner and asked Cam if he was up for the meal. Cam told me that his dad told him that he was going to have to eat toast. So I made him toast. I figured he must still be feeling a little queasy.

I was wrong.

When I took my poor, congested son up to bed, I noticed sugar all over his sheets and quilt. And there were little tiny pieces of hardened sugar. I look at Cam and ask if he's been eating cookies in his bed. He looks at me in shock: "NO!" It turns out it was Nerds. You know, those tiny chunks of sugar that I thought were AMAZING when Willy Wonka came out with them.

Apparently Cam snuck up to his room this afternoon with a box of valentine's candy and chowed down. And he left a sugary mess behind.

Silly boy.

So, we changed the sheets and talked about ways to properly eat candy (i.e. NOT in bed).

He's not feeling great, but at least his tummy is fine.

I love this kid

You know what's really exciting about this year's Mommy-made valentine? This is the first year Cameron can really read it all by himself. That's pretty special.

Wii fun for Kindergarteners

Cameron and his very good friend got to hang out today -- They haven't seen each other much since they started Kindergarten at different schools. But I tell you, the Wii brings kids together. They had a blast competing in sports and Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz. It's really fun to see Cam play with another kid his age without falling out and crying when he loses something. He won a bunch of stuff too... So that helped.

Unfortunately, Cam's excitement kept him from maintaining his self control for the rest of the night. The screaming and tantrums returned. But I know he's going to figure out that it doesn't work. Some day he will realize that crying won't keep us from turning off the Wii, or making him eat dinner. or telling him to go to bed, or telling him to clean up... or... whatever you can think of. Someday... Some day he will realize that crying doesn't work.

Some day.

Tonight he told me another chapter of Boo and Chowder -- It was all about the two going to a Foo Fighters concert. He was watching the Grammys before bedtime... And he was mad that we wouldn't let him stay up to watch the Foo Fighters perform.

Boo and Chowder

This week, Cameron has been making up a chapter book in his head. Instead of reading something during bed time, he tells me a chapter about the adventures of "Boo and Chowder." Boo is a monster and Chowder is his friend who is a boy. The chapters include quotes like:

"I don't want to scare you. I want to be your friend," Boo said.

"I guess I could be your friend," said Chowder.

It's classic. If I could secretly bring in an audio recorder, I'd try to keep track of this story. It's very cute. I'm also impressed with the complexity of his story so far.

Cameron has been extra emotional around me lately. He wants to play with me... He doesn't want to be alone... He has returned to crying over his food at dinner time. He wines and cries over stupid stuff. Oy. I'm sure there's a correlation between that and how I've been working more than usual.

So many things

There have been so many things going on in Cam's world... But I've been a bad blogging mommy who has worked too much and blogged too little.

Mr. Cam continues to research caves at school. He's still working on his social skills there... And that's putting it mildly.

He's becoming an amazing pro in tennis and bowling on the Wii. He's also starting to consistently hit home runs in baseball. He is fiercely competitive and his Dad has been forcing him to play against us so Cam can deal with losing every once and a while.

In between brilliant conversation and excellent reading and writing skills, Cam still thinks he can cry to get his way. It is exhausting.

I'll tell you this though -- He loves his parents. I found the sweetest page he wrote in school: "I love my mom and dad. They are my best frens" (You know, that's Kindergarten spelling for friends)

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

23

Why do people get sick?

My aunt is in the hospital... She's battled ovarian cancer for the last eight and a half years. It's a mean, mean cancer. Right now she's in the hospital due to blood clots - a danger that is created from the chemo treatments.

I've made sure Aunt Jan is in Cameron's prayers in the last few nights. Each night he's asked me about illness and hospitals. Tonight he asked me why people get sick. I told him that some people get sick because they didn't wash their hands or they happened to be close to someone who was already sick. Then there are other people who get sick and no one knows why. Cameron asked if that's what happened to Aunt Jan. I said yes... But honestly, I wish I had more answers why some people get these kinds of horrible illnesses. My mom has Type 1 diabetes. That's supposed to be a genetic terminal illness - but it isn't in our family's history until my mom got it. No one we know in our family tree has had ovarian cancer but my aunt got it. It all just sucks. That's all I can say. It sucks.

So if you have a moment... Say a prayer for my aunt. If you don't do the prayer thing, I ask you to think positive thoughts in the direction of Dallas. My aunt deserves every bit of it.

[update on 1/6/08: She's out of the hospital!!]

Found in Cam's bag:

Two pieces of paper.

On the front of the first page: A big heart with the words, "I love you. Look on the back"

On the back of the first page: "Lets have a sleep over this night."

On the second piece of paper: The girl's phone number








Wow.

Wii are having fun

Cameron loves his new Wii. LOVES it. Did I mention how he loves it? I'd say that if he could play it all the time and win that entire time, he'd play it non-stop. He's an incredible bowler. In his first day playing, he bowled a 178. Wow.

He's enjoying that, but he did have a really hard time with his sister's birthday. He felt so dang jealous of how she was the center of attention. Poor kid. I know how hard that is... It's a big part of growing up with a sibling. At one point he went to me and said: "I'm feeling jealous." So we talked it out. I'm not sure it helped... But we did find a little time in the day to get away from it all and go for a little walk/run around the neighborhood.

On the whole, this time off from school has been good. I think he's enjoying the family time away from school. He gets some extra family fun for the next few days. My parents are up from Florida to watch the kids while Randy and I travel for work. They should have fun watching Cam and I know he'll enjoy the Grandparent time.

Merry Christmas!

You gotta love it when your son is as excited about books as the new Power Ranger helmet he got for Christmas.

Cam didn't want to go to bed tonight before he got a chance to try and bowl on our new Wii. He immediately threw a bowling ball into the crowd of people at the bowling alley. He seemed a bit distressed about that. I told him we'll work on it. By next week he'll be a bowling pro.

Cam had a hard time waiting for present opening time. He was the oldest kid in the bunch this year. I think that was a little different for him. But he did write a sweet note to Santa. I expect Cam will find the four cookies and glass of milk will be a hit with him. I'm not sure how much longer we'll enjoy Santa with Cam, so I'm eating it up this year. Next year, Jordan will probably buy into it. That will be fun to see.

Holidays together

Cam and Jordan have been a lot more "together" these days. Sure, it's mostly because they're stuck with each other while we all hang out for the holidays. But they're also just playing together more. They're also fighting and arguing and bothering each other. But that's all part of being siblings. I just think it's cool to see them coming together and sharing their attention with each other. They chase, they hide, they scream, they giggle. It's fun to watch.

Right before school let out, I helped out with the holiday party at Cam's school. The teacher made it a craft-themed party. I decided to make "crafty" food. I mixed a bunch of frosting different colors so kids could decorate cookies. I also brought bagels and raisins for the non-sweets kids (those actually exist). It was fun to watch the concoctions they came up with. The kids had fun playing and eating at the same time.

Sledding fun

Cameron is starting to really enjoy his sled... And living with a really cool, steep road next to our house makes things really fun -- With parental supervision of course.

That little giggle of his as he's sliding down the hill is fantastic.

Figuring things out

The holiday season is interesting as Cam gets older. He's always kind of understood why we celebrate Christmas and he's always been much more excited about the Santa stuff than the God stuff. But recently, he started seeing through the Santa stuff. He announced to me:

Cameron: "Mom, Santa is already dead. There's just people pretending to be him."

Me: "Hmmmm. Interesting theory."

I didn't really say much more than that... But I think he's starting to see through the ruse. I haven't spent a ton of time trying to keep him from coming to the conclusion that Santa is just from our imagination... But I have a feeling this is the first crack in the Santa foundation.

Other than the Santa think, Cam's teacher and I are discussing ways to help direct Cameron's attention to constructive work when he's done with the class assignments. Apparently, his teacher finds Cam dwelling on super heroes when he doesn't have to do work at school... And we've seen a bit of a correlation between super hero obsession and violence against his friends. So we're trying to limit his time dwelling on superheros. So instead, his teacher is thinking about giving Cam a "six-year-old's" research project. Cameron and I are going to pick out a topic and Cam will get to go to the library, look up books and work on a research project. I think that's pretty great. It will give Cameron a new challenge and help him focus his time on something more constructive. Pretty exciting stuff.

He loves the snow

We had a great snowy morning to enjoy yesterday. Cam hopped into bed around 6:50 and I said: If you get dressed quickly, we'll eat a fast breakfast so you can go out and play in the snow. That boy was fast. I had both kids fed and dressed by 7:06. They were bundled up and out by 7:10. To top it all off, Cam got a new sled! He loves it. I'll be honest. I've never bought him a real sled before. I always think of it before it's too late in the season. We have a really sweet sled, but it's a classic sled, not a fast sled. So this year, he has one. It's a cheap piece of plastic and it's exactly what my boy always wanted. He had a BLAST sledding down the slight hill in our backyard. It's a great starter hill.

We got to play for an hour before packing up for school. We walked to school with all of the neighborhood kids and they were all high on snow excitement. It was great. The thrill of snow isn't exciting until you've spent a good 10 minute walk up and down steep hills with super-hyper kids (ages 5-10) trying not to throw snow. It was fun. The whole morning was fun.

New World

So I'm trying to de-violence Cam's world... We're focusing less on super heroes and more on positive things. I'm thinking about leaving Tae Kwon Do and moving Cam's attentions to piano lessons.

So a funny thing as I try to make these changes. I walk into Cam's afterschool program and there he is in a Spider Man costume running around "fighting" someone. I immediately found the director of our program and talked to her about Cam's recent violence issues. She's so cool and responsive that she's willing to take the costumes away from all of the kids to help restore my boy's grip on reality. I think that's super kind. She seemed impressed that I wanted to talk about Cam's problems... I think it's important that every person who watches him is on the same page. As Randy mentioned: It's in her own best interest.

So true.

Go Tigers

Questioning my ability as a mom

Today went really poorly and all of those gut issues I've had with Ben 10 came to a head today. It's gone. Cartoon Network is gone. Ben 10 is gone. I'm sad that the deep pit of my stomach told me that he should have never watched the show in the first place. I should have never encouraged or allowed it to continue.

The big issue: Cam is so grown up on some levels, but so immature on others. I realize no one can know how role play and games can affect a child, but Cameron can take it too far. He took it too far today. And I blame myself.

I feel pretty rotten right now.