Busy, Busy, Busy!

Our last couple of weeks have been really busy. It's mostly from me going stir crazy being at home all day and having lots of free time on our hands.

We took Cameron to a new trampoline place called Flippin Out. He had a blast! They have lots of bouncy house type things and the huge trampoline area. We actually got him to go down the big blow up slide this time by himself without being forced. Then he and David played a little dodge ball...from the video you will see Cameron won in the end with a smack to David's face. Also finally let him try to play air hockey. He always asks when he sees the tables...this time we let him go and he lost interest in about 10 seconds.






It never rains in Vegas, but this last week has been an exception. We actually had a couple of days with good rain & thunderstorms!! The first really good rain we had Cameron ran outside in his pj's to check it out. He was absolutely soaked. This was probably the first time he had enough rain to actually make a puddle...so he was experiencing his first puddles jumping around on the patio.

San Gennaro (Italian festival) was this last week too. This was the first year Cameron was old enough to actually ride at the carnival. They moved the location to the Rio and seemed to have more rides this year. We had a great time!! Started off on the little kids rides. He rode a little dragon roller coaster by himself...looked terrified like he was about to cry the entire time. Said it wasn't scary though...just hard to hold on. The hit of the night though was the Tilt-a-whirl! We rode that a couple of times. When it really got spinning we were laughing so hard. We were so dizzy!! I must really be getting old because it didn't take long for me to feel miserable from all the spinning and swear it took a couple of hours to recover after we got home.

The biggest news...he finally conquered the carousel!! So if you remember, the first time he cried and kicked and ended up only sitting on the bench like a 90 year old man. The second time David tried to take him on and he started crying again so David gave up and just pulled him off. This time I took him on and forced him up on the horse. He wasn't happy and kept a death grip on my neck until it started. Then he realized it wasn't scary and all was good. Not a great picture because you can't see him, but had a huge break through so had to include.



This is a picture of Cameron in "his cage" as he calls it.

We took Cameron on his first hiking trip at Red Rock. He had so much fun!

Then he got so cranky when we got in the car to go home. Mostly because we aren't napping anymore and we still have days he really needs one or he turns into a little crank monster. He actually rolled his eyes at me. Can't believe they learn to do that so young.

Cameron eating breakfast in Melia's car seat.

We bought Cameron a train table for his birthday. We have been into Toys R Us a couple of times over the last couple of weeks and have had to drag him out of the train section because he loved the floor demos. Well we are like big kids and couldn't wait to give it to him. Last night we stayed up and put it all together. Thought it would be fun to have it sitting in the loft so it would be the first thing he saw when he got up. He came into our room and said "Can I go play with Thomas?". He was super excited and I told him he could go play with it.

One of the first things we do in the morning is sit on the potty and he picks out his underwear for the day. Of course he had to pick Thomas the Train underwear...then proceeded to play with his trains in ONLY his Thomas underwear. He spent the entire day up in the loft playing with his train set. It is a huge hit. Now at least it won't be so new he won't share when we put it out at his Thomas birthday party for the kids to play with.

A funny story about his birthday. The other day Cameron randomly asked me if he was 3. I told him not yet that his birthday was in a couple of weeks and then he would be 3. He got all upset and told me he didn't want to be 2 anymore and asked if he could be 3 now. Now when you ask him how old he is he will say 3 and look at me and say "right mom, I can be 3 now".

Cameron likes to play games. We bought Perfection and took a video of Cameron the first time we played it. They practiced at first just putting the shapes into the holes. He had no idea that when it was actually turned on when the timer expired it would pop everything up in the air. As you will see in the video it scared him and then he started laughing. At the end he said "that was a good one".

August Wrap Up

Cameron helped David pull off a surprise for me. They brought a little bit of Hawaii to our back yard. Cameron helped to build the tiki bar and then we made shaved ice for a treat. He loved putting everything together. Didn't do a great job keeping the secret though. David was trying to bribe him not to tell. They were up in the guest bedroom blowing up the palm trees and Cameron came downstairs to me because he hurt his finger. Then told me to come upstairs so I could see the palm tree. At the time I still didn't know what they were doing, but David wasn't happy. Said he was going to start making up random words for what they were doing so if Cameron did talk it wouldn't make sense. ;)

August has also brought about a lot of water gun fights in our back yard. Even though Cameron hates to have water in his face, he has had a blast. We're working on the water in the face thing. He's a bit of a big baby about it.

Video of the water fight...and Cameron screaming like a girl.

We are still obsessed with all things Melia. As you can see from the photos below, Reindeer gets to sit in her car seat with her. When we ride in the car he puts him in his own car seat buckles on his lap. The other day he said Reindeer was hungry and needed formula. He was upset because I wouldn't put real formula in the bottle so I had to explain Reindeer's formula was different than Melia's. He had to feed & burp Reindeer (not the best picture but he stopped before I could get a good one or a video).

Then videos to show some of the quality time with his sister. Melia is very loved...probably more than she would like to be sometimes. There is also proof in the second video that he likes her...he says so himself! One of his favorite things to say to anyone "I like you".

3 Year Photos

Ok, so I know these are a bit early. However, we decided to do Cameron's 3-year photos when we took Melia for her newborn pictures. Get them all done in one shot. These were taken on 8/6. I think they turned out really cute.

This one so captures Cameron! First of all, he has his favorite thing (next to Reindeer)...Dad's Iphone! Loves to play games and it really is amazing what he can do on that thing! The games he has mastered are way beyond his age and things I can barely do. The look on his face is a common look you see from him.

And some photos with Melia. Cameron had a fake smile on for most of these. We didn't get the real smiles until we told him he could have Dad's phone when he was done. Although, the photographer was really excited by how many good shots she got. Apparently it's unusual to get this many with 2 kids together this age.

And a couple of family shots.

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.