Family Weekend

We had a great family filled Memorial Day weekend! 

On Saturday, Ryan's family came over for a BBQ (Auntie DeAnn, cousin Amelia, Auntie Amber, Uncle Andy and Papa Dave Manke). We had fun grilling and hanging out outside, even though it wasn't super sunny. Auntie DeAnn brought bubbles and sidewalk chalk, and the other top hits for the kiddos were wagon rides and the Cozy Coupe! It's fun to watch Cameron and Amelia interact and play with each other, seeing as they are so close in age (3 days apart!). 

Cameron was so pooped from Saturdays events, he slept in until 9am Sunday morning - whoo hooo!! Late Sunday morning, Cameron and I met Auntie Amber, Auntie DeAnn and cousin Amelia at Sea Life at the Mall of America. Cameron wasn't digging the fishes and Sea Life experience - he was having quite the cranky day! His top two molars have finally cut through and his bottom two are still big bumps on his gums - poor guy! I can't imagine the pain he's in but the crabbiness gets old pretty quickly (especially in public!).  After walking through the exhibit, we walked around the mall and ate lunch, which at that point, Cameron was more than ready to hit the road - the case of the crabbies never disappeared during that excursion! 

Sunday evening, we met my family at Bunker Hills Golf Club for dinner. My cousin Dan flew in from MI for the weekend, so my Uncle Tim and Aunt Cindy invited everyone to the course for dinner so we could see him. Papa Steve and Nana Anita were there, as well as Uncle Patrick and Auntie Jill (who's due with Cameron's girl cousin in less than two weeks!!), along with a few of Tim and Cindy's other friends. It was good to hang out and surprisingly, Cameron was full of energy despite only having taken a 15 minute nap all day (in the car on the way home from Sea Life) and not having an appetite, so not having much food in his tummy! We were back in a private room with a door, so we shut the door and let Cameron run in circles around the table. And pretty much everyone took a turn running up and down the hallway with him when he'd get tired of doing circles around the table. We left about 8:15ish and he was up until 9:30. Needless to say, he slept until 9 this morning again :-)

Today was a relaxing family day for us: running errands and flower shopping and planting. This evening, Ryan and Cameron are up in Pease watching cousin Dade's baseball game and visiting with Grandma Chris and Papa Dave Z. who are in town from ND. More quality family time - we wouldn't have it any other way! 

Other Cameron highlights: 

* After having two play dates at an in-home daycare last week, we have decided to move Cameron from New Horizons Academy to Ms. Bridget's in-home daycare. Ms. Bridget came as a referral to us with high recommendations and we are excited for the new friends Cameron will make. Putting in our two weeks notice at NH last Friday was really hard for me - his teachers were excellent and he has made some good friends there, but at this time, we feel this is the right thing to do for our Cameron-Man. 

* Cameron is getting really good with his animal sounds! He knows what the cow, horse, sheep, puppy, and monkey say. He also learned the "O" to "E I E I O" when singing Old McDonald, so you can guess what song we sing a lot... He used to only know "E I E I" and now that he knows "O", he tends to hold that note a little longer than necessary. Oh well, it's super cute! 

* Mr. Independent LOVES to wash his own hands and brush his own teeth. We keep a stool in the bathroom and he moves it over to the sink when we wash hands and at night when we brush his teeth. To make sure his teeth actually get somewhat clean, Ryan or I get to brush his teeth through the first two rinses and then he goes to town. 

* Other new words: owie (and he's slowly correlating it to pain if something happens to him), baby, yummy, and puppy. He has also started calling us mommy and daddy on more of a regular basis instead of mama and dada.  

He's 17 months this week - yikes!! Where has the time gone!! 

My first flower bed I planted by myself! Ok, of course my mom helped decide what to put in there and split her irises for me, but I still planted it solo - whoo hoo!! 

Mother's Day Weekend Road Trip!

Last Saturday, my mom, Cameron and I packed up and drove down to Kanawha, Iowa for the weekend. Not only to see our family, but to celebrate Grandpa Glen's 80th birthday and Mother's Day! It was so much fun seeing all of my mom's side of the family that I don't see near enough. Some of my cousins I hadn't seen since last summer! Cameron had a blast playing with his second cousins. I love watching him play with other kiddos his age - it's so much fun! His second cousin Andrew is only two weeks younger than him and two of his other second cousins (Bentley and Hayden) are both two, so about a year older than him.  

When we got home Sunday evening, Ryan made dinner (okay, yes, he always makes dinner...) then took Cameron outside to play do I could enjoy some peace and quiet and then did the whole bath/bed routine. It was quite lovely :-)  

Little Scholar

Cameron's vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds! It amazes me how much he copy cats words and remembers them! Fortunate, he hasn't absorbed any naughty words yet... ;-) New words include bus, boots, mommy, daddy, puppy, and baby. He also put together his first two words: daddy's car. Every time we pull into the garage he points where Ryan's car is or should be, if he's gone, and says "daddy's car!?" 

Out of the blue, his obsession is buses. He said the word bus when we were walking out of school one day and ever since then, he says it over and over again whenever we see one! I told his teacher about it and she said they all stand at the window of his classroom at 4 and watch the bus drop off the bigger kids. No wonder he's obsessed! 

We had conferences with his teacher yesterday and she said that he's really enjoying the toddler room and has had a really good transition. His vocabulary is growing really well and he also loves the singing time with hand motions. For example, now when we sing Wheels on the Bus, he spins his arms around and around. Oh yes, that is by far his favorite song, too, if you couldn't guess! Papa Hubers started singing that song to him a few months ago and it had stuck! His other favorite song is "Old McDonald" and you can always expect an "E I E I" from him. We're working on the "O". The area his teacher said he needs to focus on is table manners - go figure!!! We're working on not throwing food, feeding Manson, or tipping his plate over when he's done (yes, even if the plate is still full of food...)!!! 

Cameron is also a huge book worm. His teacher says he sits and listens really quietly during story time and he always wants to read books if given the choice. At night after school, we could spend a full hour just sitting on the couch reading. I've had to limit how many books we read at bedtime because he would want to read ALL of them if I'd let him! We now read two books before bed and he isn't quite happy with that yet... Ryan says he takes after me and is a nerd :-) 

Last weekend we went to Vehicle Day in Champlin sponsored by the ECFE (Early Childhood &Family Education) and Cameron loved look at all the big vehicles, but was too afraid to sit in them for very long! He of course gravitated towards the buses the most and coming in second was the fire truck. He also sat in the race car, but he wasn't too fond of it. He was terrified f the Coborns grocery deliver truck and the snow plows. He left the school about 11ish and he zonked out on the car ride to the grocery store. All that running running around and looking at trucks is exhausting!!