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.

Disney World!!!

Ok, so Disney was probably a better thought than it was a reality. We've had quite a string of bad luck lately and it continued on this trip. Last Wednesday Cameron got sick at daycare. Thursday I had him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with strep throat and a touch of the stomach bug that was apparently going around. On Friday night (of course the night before we leave) he has a bad reaction to his medicine so we find ourselves calling the nurses line to track down our doctor and have her call in a new prescription to a 24 hour CVS so we can get him on something else before we fly out the next morning.

The morning of we were running late leaving the house. Got all the way on the highway and realized David left his wallet and phone at home so we had to turn around. Made it to the flight in time (thank god). No issues with connections, but we did get lost on the way to the hotel that night...in true Emily fashion. Always get turned around in Orlando. Cameron did great on the plane. He was so excited to fly again! He and David played games on the Iphone - mostly a monster game and angry birds. Cameron loves those.



We stayed at Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort, which is right on Disney property. I love that property and it's the perfect location.



Cameron got to play video games in the arcade with Dad.



And there is a play ground where he did some rock climbing.



He crashed hard after playing on the playground.



Then there are 5 pools, 2 lazy rivers, and multiple kids pool areas. We didn't get to take advantage much due to him being sick, then me being sick...and trying to fit everything in we wanted to do. But he did love it! He especially loved dunking dad in the pool! Then while swimming he would sing "just keep swimming...just keep swimming".



Can't really hear his singing, but here he is swimming...and dunking dad.





Then there was the fun had by jumping off the couch onto his bed.



Tuesday night after work we went over to Downtown Disney for dinner. We ate at T-rex thinking Cameron would be into the dinosaurs. He didn't last long before he wanted to move to a chair next to me and practically ate his dinner glued to my arm. He was determined the dinosaur was going to fly off the wall and get him. Every 15 minutes or so they come to life and move around. He liked it overall, but was a little unsure.



At the end of dinner we tried to put him in the sand/rock pit. You could dig up dinosaur bones. This picture is so Cameron...he was more concerned with his feet getting dirty and rocks between his toes that he couldn't actually play.



I had to work the first couple of days we were in Orlando. Then Wednesday we went to Sea World. Cameron was most excited about the penguins, dolphin show, and seeing sharks. The sad part was he crashed hard for a nap just as we were getting to the sharks so he didn't get to see them...and was sure to tell me later how he didn't get to see any sharks! We didn't get to see Shamu due to the first show being full early and not sticking around for the last show of the night. It was so hot and we were all exhausted. We never did get him to ride any of the little kid rides there. He is still afraid of carousels. Most of his "ride" time consisted of climbing a rope ladder up to a boat over and over.



Thursday was a resort day. I was so sick I couldn't get out of bed. Cameron and David just entertained themselves. Luckily on Friday I was feeling better and we could go to Disney World! Since Cameron was so anti-rides, we wanted to start him off slow. We took him to It's a Small World first because he had no idea it was a ride. Then the same trend followed for most of it. He rode Peter Pan, Snow White, Winnie the Pooh...all basically the same type of ride where he had no clue he was getting on one. He was bummed he couldn't find Captain Hook in Pirates of the Carribbean. Loved Buzz Light Year. The highlight ride for him was the Tomorrowland Speedway...he actually got to drive a car!! We didn't get him on Dumbo until the very end of the night...took a lot of coaxing.



Winnie the Pooh had it right...lots of toys and things to entertain the kids while you waited in line. This was a hit! Then Tigger & Pooh were outside the ride so Cameron got to see his first characters. This one went over the best, even though he's not really as into them as Mickey & gang.

The Carousel of Progress put him to sleep...he crashed so hard!!



The nap caused us grief because Buzz was outside so we waited in line. He woke up so cranky that he wanted nothing to do with anything. And the character photos went down hill. Mickey & Minnie were after Buzz and it was a repeat. I had to hold him to force these photos.



Cameron keeping cool in the heat.



The stocks are supposed to be for kids that misbehave, but Cameron thought they were great and wanted to stick around and stay in them. We had to pull him away to do the Haunted Mansion.



And we loved these photos!!



We squeezed in some putt putt golf...but got rained out the last 2 holes. This was Cameron's first time golfing. He was so funny.



I wonder if this is how Tiger Woods played golf at age 2?







They gave him a pirate hat and flag when we finished. He put them on in the car and immediately screamed "Argh Matey". Hysterical!




Flight home ended up being delayed almost 3 hours...made for a long day. To top it off David was sick on the way home. Overall, we had fun...just probably not the best idea to travel now.