Visiting Nana!

We planned a trip to visit Nana and it was full of surprises. Grandma Beth, Aunt Lynn, Olivia, Ava, and Grandma Barb all made the trip too. Nana had no idea any of us were coming. Grandma Barb even surprised Aunt Diane by showing up. Grandma Barb had no idea Cameron and I were coming...so there were lots of secrets we were all trying to keep.

Cameron did great on the plane, though at times was a bit restless. He's now at the age where he really gets the concept of being on an airplane (and loves them) so during take off & landing he was glued to the window watching. Our flight was a little delayed leaving so we didn't get in until midnight. Mom & Aunt Diane had to make an excuse they were running to the store at 11:30 PM so they could come pick us up.

Cameron definitely played shy for a while. He wasn't sure what to think of the girls. We all had a slumber party at Nana's.

Ava thought Cameron (or Cay-Cay as she calls him) was a baby. She was trying to feed him breakfast.

Cameron was surprised with some early birthday presents. He got lots of clothes, some dinosaurs, a piggy bank that counts your money (that was a hit), and other toys.

Cameron LOVED Ava's shoes! It all started because Ava walked outside and Lynn grabbed Cameron's shoes since they were right there. Ava thought it was great she was wearing Cay-Cay's shoes...so Cameron put on Ava's. After that he kept taking off his own shoes and trying to put hers on. Of course they had pretty colored flowers all over them.

We played outside a little bit (until the bugs ate us alive). They look like a fun bunch huh. :-)

Best buddies! They had their moments of not sharing, but overall they had a great time playing together.

Ava combing Cameron's hair.

It was Aunt Diane's birthday while we were there so had cake & ice cream.

Uncle Chris & Aunt Rhonda were also there the last couple of days.

Lynn and I thought it would be great to take the kids to have pictures done together. They aren't together often and we found a place that prints them same day. It was quite the ordeal!! Cameron cried the entire time. Ava was completely defiant and would not do anything she was told to do. We were so frustrated, but when they pulled up the final picture we just laughed hysterically...it was a completely captured each of their personalities for the day.

The highlight of the picture trip for them was playing with the blocks. Even Aunt Diane joined in.

Some other random photos from the weekend.

So it's time to share some new funny stories! Cameron is our little ham and makes us laugh constantly.

Story #1 - The other night David got out of the shower and went into his closet. Cameron followed close behind. As David dropped his towel Cameron reached up and slapped him in the butt. "Whoa" was all David could say. Cameron thought it was funny...so did we.

Story #2 - We had a whole grain/wild rice for dinner. It had brown rice, darker black colored grains, and small round grains. Cameron kept picking out the black & round grains. I wasn't sure he would eat them, but he surprised us. Got so excited saying "Mom, Bugs"...then proceeded to stick them in his mouth and eat them. He thought it was great that he got to eat bugs for dinner. Such a boy.



We have recently realized Cameron is actually a 13-year old girl trapped in a 2-year old boys body! He is obsessed with ICarly. He will sit in front of the tv and watch so intently. The other thing he loves is the commercial for the Kids Bop 17 cd. He loves Justin Bieber's song "Baby"...sings it every time it comes on. He also seems to be into Lady Gaga. It has to be daycare that he is getting exposed.

We started a new game that David hates! Cameron has 3 favorite toys (Reindeer, Teddy Bear & Duncan)...they now get to wear diapers. He brings them over one by one with a new diaper and wants you to put it on them. As soon as it's on, he will rip it off. At times he will pretend he's checking to see if it's dirty before ripping it off.

Then last weekend things got quiet. Any parent knows it's a bad sign when that happens. I walked into the room and there stood Cameron with an open jar of vasoline. He had his hand in the jar watching tv. As I walked in he turned to look at me and I noticed his entire face was covered!! He had it piled on his lips...and cheeks, chin, hand up to his wrist. We had to go in and show daddy and take a picture. He loves putting chapstick on his lips. This time he went a little too far.

He found his old baby chair...and proceeded to climb in it. He thought he was pretty cute.

He is all about giving hugs & kisses to the cat & dog. The good news is the cat has officially stopped biting him and puts up with him. Cameron can get down on the floor in his face without any issues. He even laid on the floor and slept the other day and let Cameron put bead necklaces on him.

A couple of weekends ago we cleaned carpets. Cameron always goes crazy when we run the vacuum. Since we had all of the furniture moved back he could really have fun.

Recently he discovered the fun of spinning around in circles until he gets dizzy and falls down. He thinks it's so funny. Doesn't help that we laugh at him.

Playtime

I continue to say this is the best age! He's just so much fun. Even when he is testing us...he's just so darn cute when he does it. I am also realizing I have quite the tattle tale on my hands though. When the dog comes near him (doesn't have to touch him) and he's in a mood he whines/cries "Mom Max get me". Or when David does something he doesn't like he starts crying and says "Daddy Mean".


Photos from our last play date (below). Jacob is one of Cameron's buddies. They hung out on the stairs for quite some time. It was funny because they spent most of the time staring at each other and then copying what the other one did.




Cameron is completely into puzzles right now. We found an alphabet puzzle to help him learn his letters. We've only had it a couple of weeks and he now knows a few letters: A, D, O, R, T, and W. He kind of knows Z, except he calls it zebra.




We literally spend hours doing this:




The next video is for Uncle Adam! On the puzzle are pictures. U is supposed to be for Uncle. Well, the funny part is the picture is a really old guy. Cameron now points to it and says "Uncle Adam".






Howdy Y'all!

I know most of you think I have one child. In reality, I'm finding I really have two! These two have had a blast at the park in our community. Cameron is finally old enough to really play out there. He and David will climb through tunnels and race down the slides. He has even learned how to climb up the slides.

Papa Rick and Lisa came out to visit. This was them playing with cloth napkins at the restaurant.

I thought these photos were fitting as Cameron is reaching the stage of actually needing time out. He has been put in it twice now at daycare. Today he was pushing Natalie down. We went from the boy that took all the crap and wanted me to fix it...suddenly he's the bully.

The last picture is just for David! Karla's girls paint her nails at daycare. Cameron watches and wants his nails painted, but they never paint them. Last night Cameron saw my nail polish and said "Fingers" and proceeded to put his fingers out to be painted. You can't say no to that face...so he got his 2 pointer fingers painted. David warned there would be no more kids if I did it because Cameron would have officially filled the role of boy & girl. I did it anyways. I thought Karla would get a kick out of it in the morning...come to find out David made sure to take it off before they left the house. No fun!

Where does this come from??

I really don't know where this came from as it seems like all at once. Why are boys so wild?! Honestly, the energy is endless and he's so rough and crazy! In the last week or so Cameron learned a new skill...he's a screamer!! No idea where he picked it up. Karla says he doesn't do it at daycare. All I can figure is maybe Serafina...so I will blame Bella. ;-)



Daddy becomes a trampoline.

Lately he's been spending lots ot time trying to put clothes on. He just sticks his arm through and pushes them up his shoulder until it hangs like a purse. I went to take a picture tonight and before I even had the camera out he looked at me, gave this big cheesy grin and said "cheese".

Look guys, it's "Mickey Gouse" on his shirt!

21 Months

Cameron has turned into a little parrot...he repeats EVERYTHING!! We have had a few bad words by now. Luckily none of them have stuck.

He has this little toy that meows. Recently he started mimicking the sound of the meow and when he does it he gets this scrunched up little face and his voice gets really high pitched. It's the funniest thing. We got a video of him meowing at lunch.



The other night in the tub I had him laughing hysterically. David had to come in and try to get it on video because it was that infections baby laugh. I don't want this giggle to ever go away.



After his bath, Cameron took off and ran to his toys to play...naked. He jumped onto his little horse and started bouncing. Then we had him saying "yee haw".

Happy 4th of July!!

Since this was the first year Cameron saw fireworks, we bought some firecrackers, sparklers, and small fireworks. In Nevada you can only buy "safe and sane" fireworks. David thought it was kind of lame and he wanted us to take Cameron to a place that allows you to buy and put off the big ones that fly through the air. We decided we'd wait on that and see how he does this year.

We bought everything the night of the 3rd. When we got home, we went outside and tested a few. Cameron loved them! Threw lots of the little poppers in the backyard on the patio. We also had some sparklers. Later that night, Seastrand Park (less than a mile from our house) was putting off fireworks so we took Cameron over to watch them.

The photos are of Cameron waiting "patiently" for them to begin. There were some going off around us that helped to entertain him a bit. He was all over the place and didn't really get into it until the grand finale.



The video is of the grand finale of Cameron's first fireworks! Not bad for a small park.



On the actual 4th of July, we took Cameron to Shark Reef! He loves fish and I have wanted to take him there for a while. When we first got inside, he saw the exhibits and immediately asked for the zebras...he thought we were at the zoo. He was a little intimidated at first because the tanks were so big and it appeard you could fall off a ledge into it. Once he realized there was glass there and the huge fish swimming in front of him weren't going to get him, he loved it.




Later that night we finished off the rest of the fireworks (or most of them). He was throwing & stomping on the poppers. Next year we will have to buy lots more because he loved them. We also did lots of sparklers. I had to hold both of his hands because he was trying to touch the fire or swing his arms frantically. Then there were some attempts to stick his face into the smoke near the flame. The neighbors were putting off some bigger fireworks similar to one we had done the night before so we got to see some freebies. Overall, they were a big hit.






A couple of videos from our first night of fireworks.

Potty Training Attempt #1 (21 Months)

We planned to try potty training over the long weekend. After lots of advice and reading tips, we decided to try the cold turkey method. He has been showing lots of signs that he is ready. We've had him sitting on the potty (just hadn't used it). Bought lots of fun underware (Diego, Spongebob, Mickey, Toy Story) and rubber pants. Even thought we'd try getting a little duck potty that plays music when it is used.

Friday night the diapers came off! We got lucky because he is showing signs of needing to go #2 and so I rushed him to his new duck potty. YEAH. Success. Although when the duck started playing music he was pretty freaked out! We thought maybe this would be easier than we had initially thought. Boy were we wrong.

We kept him in underwear all night...plan was absolutely no diapers! I heard him start stirring around 3 AM so I went in to check on him. I asked him if he needed to go potty to which he shook his head yes. So we got up and went in to sit on the potty. I was surprised he was still dry...but nothing! So we returned to bed. I knew by morning he would not be dry.

He got up around 8 AM and was wet. So we sat on the potty and then got a bath...ready to start full on potty training. We closed ourselves in the kitchen all day. After a couple of accidents that morning and not being able to get him to the potty before he peed, we thought we'd do what all the sites said about cold turkey...naked from the waist down. This lets them see when they are going and hopefully connect the feeling to needing to go to the potty.

Not the case with Cameron. He peed outside on the patio once, on my stairs once (also pooped on my stairs...we think he was trying to get upstairs to tell us and didn't make it), and in my kitchen probably a dozen times before the day was over. We were consistently putting him on the potty and asking him if he had to go. Every time we saw him start to pee we tried to rush him there.

There were no consistent signs that he needed to go, which makes me think he hasn't learned how to control his bladder yet. Doesn't seem to understand when he needs to go and how to control it. We even tried bribing him with candy late in the day..."if you can put your pee in the potty you can have candy". Poor thing tried and tried. Every time he peed on the floor he would ask for candy. LOL. One time we got a few drops in the potty so we let him have some.

It was a long, exhausting day!! After a full 24-hours, we have decided to continue putting him on the potty at consistent times during the day. Still wearing diapers for the most part. Will continue keeping him potty trained on #2 (at least when he's home and not at daycare). Then we'll take the full potty training at a slower pace and give his body some more time to develop.

Independace day weekend...and we are not free from diapers. Oh well. It will come in time.