October...

The last couple of weeks of my maternity leave we had a few play dates. The first was the Children's Museum. The kids had so much fun playing in the pretend grocery store and fixing the car at the shop. They made necklaces. Overall had a good time.

We also went down to Town Square. Monica and I finished the night out taking the kids for a ride on the train.

He loves to play his games...and I love to watch him play (especially when he doesn't know I'm watching).

Just a couple of other photos.

Cameron has a few words that I love to hear him say. I don't know what it is about the way he says it...just cracks me up. The first is "buckaroo" - he has a game called that. He knows I get a kick out of it so when he wants to play the game he won't say the name. Just calls it Bullseye (it's a Toy Story 3 game. The second is "grandpa Malcolm". I just love how he says Malcolm. The the last is "scroll up". He is addicted to playing games on our computer. When he says scroll up/down it sounds like he is saying squirrel up.

Milestones

I realized I haven't talked about any milestones in a while. Now that Cameron is 3 I will do an overview of where he is.

Cameron now weighs 32 pounds (actually has for quite some time).

Things he knows:

• ABC's - He knows each capital letter by sight. We are still working on the lowercase letters, but he knows majority of them. Gets stuck mostly on b and d. Also, working on what each letter sounds like. He probably knows about 1/3 of the sounds. He is so excited to get these down because we bought flash cards to help start reading. I told him as soon as he learns what sound each letter makes we can play with those more.


• Colors - He knows his colors. May get stuck from time to time on things that are more aqua or different shades like that.


• Counting - He can count up to 20 (sometimes still loses 14 and says 18 in it's place...then 18 again where it belongs). He knows his numbers by sight up to 9. Then knows which fingers correspond to each number up to 5.


• Drawing - He loves to color/draw. Can draw lines and circles. He has also figured out how to use scissors. Not really coloring inside the lines yet.


• Speaking - He speaks very clearly and has always done well with talking. Using full sentences including pronouns (almost always correct). I love how "yours" is used for everything right now. Example - Close yours eyes.


• Self Care - He can completely dress himself. We are not tieing shoes, but if they are velcro or sandals he can put them on himself. He is also brushing his teeth - though we are still helping him. He gets to go first and then we go.


• Social - He is still pretty quiet with people. At home he talks like his tongue is loose at both ends. Takes him a while to warm up to people. He will always tell me when he has spoken to a stranger like it's a big deal..."Mom, I said hi to that lady". He tends to be a watcher and a thinker. Will play with his friends and share for the most part. I think he really prefers kids that are younger than him or older. He seems to get intimidated by kids his own age...definitely doesn't know how to stick up for himself.

We are fully potty trained during the day - still not focusing on night time. However, he has asked to not use his potty seat quite a few times just in the last couple of weeks. I would love to get a point where we don't need to carry it with us anymore.

He still loves reading. However, I can't tell you the last time we actually read a book. Lately he just likes to look at books with lots of pictures and our reading becomes "which one do you like? which one do I like? which one does dad like? which one does Melia like?" and any other names you want to insert depending on who he has seen or talked to.

More Fun...

Bella and I took the kids to Springs Preserve. Basically a park/museum that sits at the original spring where Las Vegas was founded. There are a lot of fun things for kids to do. You can see a flash flood, exhibits of animals that are native to the area, learn about nature, arts & crafts projects, a park, etc. Every month they change things up. This was our first time going and the kids had a blast! We were shocked because Serafina and Cameron were actually friendly! Lately every time they have been together it ended with Serafina hitting and Cameron crying (he is a bit of a baby). ;) This time they were sharing raisens on the train in the park, playing with "soft blocks" as Cameron called them, and checking out the animals together. Finally! Lots of pictures to prove they like each other. Then Baby Angie is Cameron's little girlfriend...he just loves her!

I had to post this picture because I thought it was so funny. He asked me to take a picture of him and Melia. He was petting her head, but it looks like he was shoving her back/down out of the picture.

Cameron has several Leapfrog toys that are able to be personalized. He has had them for a while and I just now personalized him. He got the biggest kick out of it! The look on his face when he first heard them say his name was priceless!! He was just in such shock that "it knows my name". Now every time he turns one of them on he gets all excited because "it still know my name". Makes him laugh. I got a couple of videos. One is him reacting to it saying his name...the second is his reaction to getting an email from mommy on his computer (part of the personalization). He is so funny.





The other day I taught Cameron how to play I Spy. It has become his favorite new activity...especially in the car. The first time we played was really funny because he could play it if I spied something. When it was his turn he would tell me what the thing was instead of letting me guess. Second time we played it he had it all figured out. I love hearing his little voice say "I spy with my little eye...". He is really into games right now so I'm working on some new options for us.

Funny story - Cameron asked for David to help him go potty. David told him to go into the bathroom and he'd be there in a minute. After a few seconds Cameron yells "let's do this today dad"!

Happy 3rd Birthday!!

A few weeks before his birthday Cameron decided he didn't want to be 2 anymore...he wanted to be 3. He stuck to it. Anytime after that when you would ask how old he was his answer was 3. Then he would look at me and say "I'm 3 now mom, right?". If you said no he would get so mad and argue...so we just let him be 3.

His birthday fun started with Grandma Donna and Grandpa Malcolm coming to visit. There was some fun playing at the park and water guns in the back yard.



And Cameron tried to break Grandma's arms.



On the day of his birthday we took him to Flip-N-Out again. Everyone jumped and had fun.



So much fun...but the adults couldn't handle it. ;)



Here he is cooling off with a hole in the bounce house.



Then a few videos from jumping. He was so funny trying to "bounce" down the slide.








We then took him to Claim Jumper for dinner. They brought him a red velvet cupcake with and we sang Happy Birthday. He was also surprised with a present to open.





The big birthday party was Saturday! This year he wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine party. We went all out with the train theme.




Even his cake was a train!





All of his friends came and had a good time playing with his train table, coloring, and playing with toys.







He got lots of presents...and took forever to open them! Again, every piece of tape and paper had to be pulled off and handed to me before he would even look at what the gift was. Most kids rip into them and just want to see what they are...he has to make sure it is completely cleaned off before he will look at what it is.






Donna and I took the kids to Springs Preserve again. He had so much fun showing Grandma all the fun stuff to do there. He asked to have his picture taken with the cactus (now that he knows what it is he is all impressed with himself and points it out everywhere).




This time they had a bird show. After the show they had one of the birds taking donations. Cameron went right up and gave him a dollar.





He got to make his own mask for halloween. In the video you hear him asking if he can color...he loves to ask before he does anything (can I jump? can I color with this? can I eat this?). Too bad this trend won't continue.





Then for the first time ever he walked through sand without stopping after every step to get the sand out of his shoes! This is a big deal for the boy that hates to get dirty. He first asked if he could walk in the sand with his shoes on. Then made a big lap through a sand box and didn't attempt to clean his feet until after he was done. Progress!



Then some final fun with Grandma & Grandpa. They took the kids out for the afternoon. Went to play indoor mini golf and bowling.




On their final day here Cameron was a bit of a brat and refused to take a picture! Threw a very big fit. Well at lunch he got all sad because he didn't get to take a picture with Grandma and Grandpa on the couch when Melia did...so we had a redo at Chipotle. He was all proud of himself the rest of the day because he was "such a good boy and took a picture". If only he had really been such a good boy initially...



Last bit of birthday fun. Cameron LOVES the cards that play music. Below are a couple of videos of the musical card Grandma Beth sent him. It's a funny card as it has hampsters dancing (one actually shakes when you open the card as it plays music). The song is Shake your Booty. First video is Cameron dancing to it on the couch. The second is him showing it to Melia. She looks highly impressed! He then proceeds to shake her car seat. This is mild compared to the initial shaking she got from him just before the video. I really thought he was going to "shake" her right out of her carseat. It's no wonder she spits up at the end! Oh the torture she endures.