Big Brother Update

When Cameron was not playing baby, he has been a pretty big helper and a great big brother.

He has also taken up photography. Or at least likes playing with our camera. Let me tell you we've got quite a selection of photos of the carpet, Cameron's feet, fuzzy pictures of each of us, and every other random thing around this house. Here is a selection of his most recent work.

During the couple of weeks Grandma Beth was here, he got spoiled by going to the park just about every night! Now he thinks that trend should continue. He waits until the sun goes down and says "It's so nice outside and the slides are not hot anymore. I want to go to the park. I've been a good boy!"

Grandma Beth also started another thing...making reindeer talk. Now all you hear is "Mom, hold reindeer. Reindeer wants to talk." This turns into the most lengthy conversation and once it's started it never ends!

We are also building lots of "sand castles" with his soft blocks. We need to take him to an actual beach so he can build a real one.

On Melia's first doctor's appointment visit after coming home, Cameron locked himself in the bathroom literally minutes before we were supposed to walk out the door. Now we saw this coming at some point because he has been locking the doors. However, typically he was locking them when one of us was in the room with him...and he's been able to unlock them himself. Well this time he couldn't unlock it. David was working with the key trying to unlock it (not much luck) and Cameron was crying on the other side. I finally got him to figure out how to turn the lock and get out. Now every time he goes into the bathroom he says he won't lock the door. Grandma Beth thought it would be a good idea to put duct tape on the lock so he couldn't turn it. So he then was telling the story later that he locked himself in the room and was crying and Grandma Beth put duct tape on him. I swear with his versions of some of the things that happen we will all end up in jail!

He is obsessed by Bush's Baked Beans! He has never had them so I guess this is a sign that he's watched too much tv. Every time he sees baked beans...they are Bush's Baked Beans "with spices".

More funny Cameron sayings:

• I asked him if he wanted to go outside in the yard and have a picnic. His response "that sounds like a plant".



• We were eating dinner and he hadn't touched his green beans. I asked him to try them. He barely got one in his mouth, spit it out and said (with a complete straight face) "I'm not a fan of those, mom". Now everything is "I'm not a fan" because we laughed so hard at him.



• So he is still doing great with the potty all day! No regressions (at least yet). Well he likes to go in by himself and every once and a while you hear him talking to himself. His latest statement of choice is "I'm a peeing fool".



• The other day out of the blue he started telling me there was another house with a yellow potty. Someone was going to flush Melia. As soon as he said it, he got all sad (almost crying) and said "That's my sister, mom. I love her. I really worry about her, mom." No clue where it came from, but he was really concerned and couldn't help but laugh.

Some videos of him playing tee ball in the yard. He is doing pretty good with hitting, catching & throwing. Thinking we may have a baseball player on our hands.






We took Cameron bowling for the first time. He was a "big fan". Halfway through they started cosmic bowling. He was able to bowl all by himself. They had little stands that helped him roll the ball and of course he got the bumpers to help out. Actually beat David in one of the games! He lost interest halfway through the last game because he dropped the ball while trying to put it up on the stand to bowl and decided he didn't like it anymore. Got some videos, but I missed the best one. He actually had a victory dance he did after a couple of his turns.








Then a picture of Cameron and Melia watching cartoons.

Melia Arrives!!

Cameron was so excited to meet his new baby sister! He was there when she was brought to us for the first time. He immediately got up on the chair next to me to look at her. He was talking to her, touching her cheek, and giving lots of kisses! The picture below is him giving her a kiss...though it's a bit fuzzy.



It took a little while to get him to hold her.



Cameron gave Melia a present of her very own reindeer! He even told her he would share his reindeer with her. We got it on video so we have proof later when he doesn't follow through. Cameron even got a present of his own...a Thomas the Tank Engine toy. He was so excited. It occupied him for quite a while and made Aunt Lynn crazy when she saw the photo of him sitting on the hospital floor.



Cameron also got his own baby care kit to help us take care of Melia. This is him showing her the rattle that was in it.



Each day we were in the hospital Cameron came to visit. He helped to feed and burp her...didn't want me to help at all! Then got mad when I changed her diaper because he wanted to do it.



Overall, he is a very proud big brother!

Mt. Charleston Picnic

Spent the day up at Mt. Charleston with friends for a picnic...mostly to escape the heat of Vegas. The kids had so much fun playing! Cameron's highlight was climbing the big hill and "hiking". There were teeter totters made out of logs and the kids played ball and blew bubbles. They were all completely exhausted and crashed as soon as we got in the car to head home. Definitely a hit! Though I didn't end up with a lot of good pictures.

Baby Angie is Cameron's favorite.

Early July Highlights

Cameron has learned to count to 10 in Spanish.




4th of July

This year we watched fireworks that were put on from Seastrand Park (a couple of blocks up the street). While we were waiting we could see some being put off by other people. Cameron was excited, but he was anticipating them being really loud. We couldn't get him to stop plugging his ears...until the actual show started.

We also bought a bunch of sparklers and poppers. This was the first year he got to hold his own sparklers...only once did he try to put it down by his side and almost burn his leg. I think we even had one instance where he was pointing it at me and walking towards me trying to get help. Big fan though of the poppers still.

Still a fan of "fixing" things. David was working on his car and Cameron thought it was a great time to fix his four wheeler (or as he calls it, his motorcycle).

And the naked chef...

Funny Cameron Moments...

I think I have mentioned before that Cameron seems to be a fan of Usher. I had told him he ws my Usher man because he wanted to listen to that CD. Last time he wanted me to turn it on he cam in saying "I want to be a mushroom man mom". Took me a minute to figure out he meant he wanted to be an Usher man and turn the song on.

He was asking about Melia's diapers and talking about how they will go in her diaper stacker. I asked him if he was going to help mommy change Melia's diapers. He thought about it for a second and said yeah. Then I asked if he would help change the poopy diapers. The look of shock and horror was hysterical! Then he said "no way, not poopy diapers! Poopy is gross, mom". All we could do was laugh. David said look he's already a man.

He came downstairs the other morning getting ready to head to daycare. About halfway down the stairs he said "I'm a stud muffin". He will say this every once and a while as we get him ready for the day.

Cameron has been asking when Melia would be here. We thought it might be a good idea to print off a "countdown to Melia calendar" and let him cross of each day so he could see as we get closer. The day after we printed it off, I hear Cameron yell "Yeah, Melia's here!!". Quickly realized he had pulled the calendar down and crossed off every day all on his own.

Lots of Singing...

We surprised Cameron with tickets to go see Thomas & Friends. He had no idea where we were going. In the car on the way there he kept asking for his surprise. When we got to The Orleans, we had to go up escalators to get to the areana. On the ride up he was getting really excited and started saying "I know I'm getting a good surprise" over and over. He didn't realize where we were going until we got inside and took him to a stand that sold t-shirts. David told him we were going to see the show and he immediately started jumping up and down and giving out hugs.




This was a singing session in the bathtub...I don't know if it's a real song or not. But he is into his Thomas videos lately.




To continue the theme...he is way into singing songs! Most kids are into kids songs right now, which he is. However, it seems his favorite songs are more of a hip hop nature. He's way into Usher, Black Eyed Peas & Rhianna. His favorite song...Rhianna's S&M. Not overly appropriate for a 2 year old to be singing, but he loves it. LOL.






Then there is the more kid friendly songs...this video is a bit hard to hear, but it's BINGO. Funny part is when he sings it without the video he has the letters all wrong.




This is his favorite place to be these days.



This group of photos was Cameron's idea. He wanted to make faces and have me take pictures so he could look at them. Still loves to look at photos/videos of himself.




Then there are some self portraits when he got ahold of the camera.



We took him golfing for Father's Day. It's an indoor mini golf course under black lights...pretty lame and not much too it. However, Cameron got a kick out of it and all of the animals. He also loved the huge blow up golf club & ball they gave us there.




This is Cameron getting dirty...probably for the first time. We bought some little sand toys and let him go to town in a big pot of dirty. He made quite a mess outside. Then quickly wanted to wash his hands when he got inside. Such his mother's child!



David has been working with him on getting dirty. Today Cameron "helped" work on my car. In the process he got pretty dirty. It was so funny because he came running in the house (hands black) and said "Mom, it's not a big deal to get dirty". It was like a big revelation. David kept saying it's not a big deal to get dirty...it washes off.

His other funny saying today..."Don't sweat the small stuff, mom". This also went with the "it's ok to get dirty" training.

A couple of weeks ago we bought Cameron a dresser for his bedroom. He was so excited about it and insisted on helping us put it together. He wasn't really much help...kept taking parts out of the bags. One of the parts he thought looked like a potty so that's what they were called. First video is of him showing his excitement and telling us how much he's going to love his new dresser. The second is of him playing with his potties.






Then finally, this is the place Cameron likes to camp out after we put him in bed. He can sit and listen to us downstairs...sometimes without us knowing. Other times he makes noise not realizing we can hear him. On a few occassions he has fallen asleep and this is where he stays until we come up to bed.

Cameron Update

Our biggest news is that we are officially out of Pull Ups and wearing underwear all day!! Still diapers at night, but I am considering him potty trained. It's been 3 weeks and I can count on less then one hand the number of accidents we've had. Although, he still isn't consistent with telling us when he has to go. At least no accidents in public...for some reason when we are out that's when he will tell us when he has to go. We figured after our Orlando trip and staying dry on the plane rides, Sea World & Disney days it was time to just go for it. The funny thing is he is more concerned with how happy we are than being proud of himself. Almost every time we go he will get all excited and say "you so happy mommy? You not mad anymore?".

We took Cameron to a 4D ultrasound so he could see Melia on the tv screen. We are hoping his interest & love of Melia continues after she is born. I can't tell you how many kisses and hugs my belly has gotten. Cameron will see my belly and say "I like Melia". He always asks if Melia is done growing yet because he wants her to come out. Then there are times he will pretend he's taking her out of my belly to play with her. He was fairly interested at the ultrasound. Even after kept talking about how she is "relaxing in there", and how she wouldn't move her hand off her face. Every time he sees the photos he has to talk about what is in them and repeat what we saw on the screen. He has also asked us where Melia is going to live. My response was "she's going to live here with us, is that ok?" He took a moment to think about it then said "yeah she can live here with us". We also put Cameron's crib up and he's not concerned in the least...refers to it as Melia's crib and could care less (at least right now) that she will be sleeping in our room.

This is a picture David is so proud of. Cameron with his purse! We were leaving the house and he refused to leave until he had his purse.



Lately he has been obsessed with his tools. He takes them outside to fix his car and his slide. It will literally entertain him for 30+ minutes.





Now that the weather is finally getting nice consistently, we have been getting his pool and sprinklers out. The water is still pretty cold for him...poor thing had goosebumps and was shaking so bad the first day from being cold. Kept getting mad at Max for drinking his pool water. He is a bit of a weiney when it comes to water so he mostly plays standing up in the pool. And as far as the sprinklers go...he doesn't really run through them unless I do it with him. Mostly walks around it and just plays in the water that sprays up.






Oh, and the hat in some of these...from his pirate Halloween costume when he was 1. He loves pirates right now and got a kick out of wearing this hat. One of his favorite shows on Disney Junior is Jake & the Neverland Pirates. He always talks about Captain Hook & Mr. Sneed. He drives the pirate ship with the steering wheel on his slide and goes hunting for treasure.



There have been so many funny things he's said/done lately...so to capture a few we can remember.

• He was playing with my phone one night and brought it to me telling me he was talking to daddy. I heard a lady's voice and when I grabbed the phone realized he had called 911. It was my work phone so you either have to click a button to login or dial an emergency number. I don't think the operator was very happy.


• A sign that advertising is really set up to reel the kids in - Ask him what kind of cereal he wants and he will sing "Reeses Puffs, Reeses Puffs" just like the commercial.


• Cameron's latest favorite - "I just want to be all naked". We at least convince him to put underwear on, but if he had it his way he wouldn't have anything on.

Karina's third birthday party was a few weeks ago. We went to Pump it Up...bascially a place that has rooms full of bounce house type toys. Again, Cameron was a weiney. I swear his fear of everything is the only thing that will help me survive having a boy. David had to drag him to the top of the slide and force him down! Later he did get into a bit more...like playing basketball in a big bounce house with Jacob.