The binkeys are gone (well...almost)

The last couple of weeks, the three of us have talked about mailing Santa all of Camryn's binkeys so he can give them to little babies that need them at Christmas time. She tells me "I'm big now." so we worked with that and tell her bigger girls don't need binkeys anymore. They snuggle with their dollies instead. She's only had a binkey at nap & bed time for quite a while, but we felt it's a good time to start transitioning her off of them. Well Christmas is coming up, so we needed to get the box shipped to Santa if we were going to do it this season.

So on Friday, I grabbed an empty box, put some tissue paper in it and lined up all of Cam's binkeys in front of her on the floor. I asked her if she was ready and she replied "yes." She put all of them in the box and looked at them. Then looked at me and said "Not et mommy...maybe t'morrow." So I told her that was fine and we waited. Talked about it more on Saturday and she said "Not all of my binkeys. Some." I figured it was all or nothing, but MaMa Karen came to her rescue and suggested that maybe she could just keep one (and then maybe it gets lost sometime soon).

So last night we grabbed the box and packed them all up. I got the same look I did on Friday and so I told her she could pick out her favorite, but Santa really needed the rest of them. She picked one out, helped me tape up the box. I marked "SANTA" on the box and opened the door. She tossed the box out on the porch for Santa to pick up last night, and seemed pretty proud of herself.

Unfortunately the teachers will have to deal with the first nap without the binkey (hee, hee), because the one remaining is not aloud to leave her bedroom. Craig took her to school for a bit today and said he had a long talk with her this morning and she took her stuffed Rudolph to snuggle with at nap time. Here's hoping the withdrawal phase is fairly easy. Although, I don't guess we're quite to the cold turkey phase yet.

'Tis the season

So let me take care of last Saturday & Sunday before time escapes me any further. On Saturday we had a neighborhood candy cane hunt. One of our neighbors hosted everyone in their garage. We brought cookies to share and they supplied the hot chocolate.

They spread 300 small candy canes across 3 front yards and passed out bags with the instruction that once each kid got 10 candy canes, they needed to stop. That didn't stop some of them coming back with probably close to 30 in their bags, but fortunately kids like Camryn aren't old enough to care (nor did I want to bring home 10 candy canes). Turns out Camryn really likes candy canes. She consumes just about anything that qualifies as food (except bread).

After the hunt, we had the cookies and hot chocolate, although I thing most of the hot chocolate was spilled on their garage floor. At the last count I heard, I think 8 different kids spilled their cups of cocoa.

Did I mention it was freezing? But we knew we had a special guest coming soon so we stuck it out. At last it was time to take the kids around back for a group photo. I figured it would take longer, but those kids lined up pretty good.


Then the kids were told to head back up front, and guess who was there when they got there?? Santa! Not sure if we can ever repeat this in the upcoming years. The element of surprise would be gone. But it was fun to watch all of the kids get excited. Santa had all of the parents stand on one side of the garage and all of the kids stand on the other side. We then had to take turns singing jingle bells and whichever group was better, Santa had brought something special. The kids won (are you surprised?), so they huddled as tight as they could get around Santa and watched him pull the first gift out of his bag. He had one with each kid's name on it. They took turns sitting on his lap and opening them up. It was so sweet!

Camryn got a Hello Kitty dolly and some stickers to match.

And then on Sunday we were invited to have dinner over at Craig's Aunt Wanda's house. Kind of an early Christmas gathering, which was fun. We always have a great time with Susan, Jon & Wanda. Wish our schedules matched up a little better.

Susan, Wanda & Jon

Susan brought her reindeer ears and nose which were a hit with everyone. The nose was passed around and we all had to take a turn being Rudolph. Craig even wore it while the group sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."


Rudolph Camryn. She seems to be infatuated with Rudolph this year, although she doesn't care for the TV show that has come on every year since I can remember. She doesn't like the Bumble. Even though she tells me he's a good monster because he puts the star on the tree at the end, you can tell the character bothers her.

Collins Family

Jessie and me

(part of my quest to make sure I'm in some of the family gathering pictures, and not just the one taking them)

Why? Because. Why? Because.

I know. I know. I need to focus on getting my pictures accessible again. We have quite a few saved up on the camera. So, in lieu of cute pics to share, I thought I'd update you all on a variety of things that Cam is up to these days as a 2 1/2 year old.

One of my favorite new activities is her reading to us. When we finish the bed time book, she'll look at me and say "now I read to you". She doesn't exactly follow the page order well, but on the pages she does turn to, she's retained what's on that page pretty well. She'll remember some of the phrases verbatim. A lot of kids' books start with "one day...". When Camryn is reading, every page starts with "one day." It's very cute.

She's become a lot more vocal on phones lately. Especially her fake cell phones. And she's really loud. We gave her some old phones of ours that don't work anymore and she has pretend conversations with her granparents all of the time. She found mine in my purse the other day and pulled it out pretending she was talking on it. Craig called it and she came running into me saying I had a phone call. I picked it up and said "Camryn, it's for you." She thought it was so neat to talk to daddy on the phone. She said "where are you daddy?" He said he was on the couch. And she said "Oh. OK. Bye-bye."

She's still covering things up and putting them to bed. Although the Windex bottle has been long gone, she doesn't always cover up her dollies. The remote control, car keys, pieces of paper and books are all fair game. :)

I recently purchased some chocolate/mint Hershey Kisses. I think that child has eaten more than half the bag. We'll tell her she can have two, but she figures out how to sneak them. The other day, she was watching one of her cartoons and I ran upstairs to change clothes. I heard her running across the kitchen floor and stop abruptly. I knew exactly what she was doing. I came downstairs to see a pile of the kiss wrappers on the floor next to her feet. She just gave me one of those Camryn smirks, as if to say "yep, I got more on my own. They're all gone now, and there's nothing you can do about it." She's addicted to those things. I was making dinner the other night and she asked for kisses and goes and stands next to the counter they sit on. I said "Camryn, I'm making dinner. You've already had two kisses. No more." And somehow she quickly changed to "No, I want hug and kiss." and started to pout. That little snot. I KNOW she wanted chocolate and here she is trying to make me feel bad for turning her hug and kiss down. She's done that twice since, by the way, so it wasn't a single instance of misunderstanding her.

Speaking of no, she's got to where she starts whining every time we tell her no. This is a newly formed bad habit. It's throwing me off at first. I find myself inclined to give in. She's never like that. But I'm training myself that no, means no. Otherwise, she'll never learn.

Here are a few quotes/phrases:
"I eat it all gone. It's in my tomach." Referring to a snack she had while riding in the car. I love that she adds the "gone" to the end of the phrase.

Everything happens "last week". She could have watched an episode of the Backyardigans thirty minutes ago and she'll tell me she watched it last week. Or Saturday afternoon, we were talking about her swimming lesson (from that morning), and she told me that she learned to scoop after the ball "last week". Not sure where this inaccurate sense of time is coming from, but we get a kick out of it.

She's gotten in the habit of saying "wait a second" with her index finger held up. Drives me crazy, because she overuses it, but I'm pretty sure she's picked that one up from me.

I titled this entry "Why? Because. Why? Because." because that seems to be most of our conversations lately. She has started asking why over and over and I find myself going through a series of reasons. For example:

"What you doing mommy?"
"Warming up pizza rolls for you in the microwave."
"Why?"
"Because you are supposed to serve them warm."
"Why?"
"Because they're frozen; and if you don't warm them up, they'll hurt your teeth."
"Why?"
"Because when they're frozen, they're too hard to bite into."
"Why?"
OK, really? You're not satisfied yet?

Another example:
"What you doing mommy?"
"I'm cleaning the litter box."
"Why?"
"It's filled with cat poop and pee."
"Why?"
"Because Jake & Josie need a place to go to the bathroom, and they thankfully choose the litter box."
"Why?"
"Because it's gross to go to the bathroom all over the house."
"Why?"
"Because it would smell."
"Why?"
OK, I'm done with this one too!

So I haven't learned my lesson yet but I've found when I stop answering her, the "whys" stop. I guess I answer thinking I'm educating her in some way. But I kind of wonder if she even listens or if she just waits for me to stop talking and promptly says why.

That's all for now. I promise to work on getting pictures loaded up here.

Have a great week!

Send good thoughts our way

Go Wolves! First round of state playoffs starts tonight.
Mother nature has held out for us. Let's all hope for good things to happen on the field tonight for Timberland.

It might be a while...

...before I can blog with pictures. Our computer has fallen victim to one of those nasty viruses and well, it locks up as soon as we turn it on. We saw it coming. Literally. The screen removed Camryn's pretty picture and actually put the text up on the screen. "WARNING! Your computer is at serious risk." That could have been the virus talking for all we know. And maybe it was in retrospect. Craig downloaded and ran some major anti-spyware that we paid $50 for! And apparently the virus ate that because the computer told us on Friday that we needed anti-spyware and what we downloaded was no where to be found.

Thank goodness I took time on Friday night to back up a year's worth of pictures, while the computer was still cooperating. Hopefully those files aren't corrupted if I ever need to access them. I wonder if I can have those files scanned by someplace before I would use them on another computer. I'm afraid I couldn't get all of our videos, as the file sizes were just too large to burn on CD. Anyway, I won't be putting any more pictures onto that computer, so I can't get them onto the blog for you all to see.

Yes, I'm in mourning. I'm so dependent on that machine. Each night I check my email. And each morning I check the weather forecast. Just knowing that I can't access information on the internet makes me want to access everything even more. It's kind of like when it snows really bad and the roads are bad, basically trapping me inside. I just want to prove that snow isn't going to change my day. I'm weird I guess.

But I'm ready to trash the thing and move on to a new machine. Craig doesn't appear to be, but he doesn't seem to be offering other options. I don't know. Maybe one of those Geek Squad services in Best Buy can look at it. The downside there is we'd have to deal with Vista on a new machine, and I've heard really bad things about that. Mac maybe? Craig would never go for it.

I need my computer!!!

St. Louis Rams' Coach of the Week

Congratulations to Craig for earning this week's St. Louis Ram's Coach of the Week. He works so hard, and I'm so proud to see him get this local honor. When he told me the news his humble comment was "I'm more excited about getting the $2,000 for the program."

October 22, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TIMBERLAND HIGH SCHOOL COACH CRAIG COLLINS IS RECIPIENT OF U.S. ARMY/RAMS' COACH OF THE WEEK AWARD

ST. LOUIS - It was announced today that Craig Collins, head football coach at Timberland High School, was named the U.S. Army/St. Louis Rams High School Coach of the Week.

In week eight of high school football, Timberland's big win over Washington High School on Friday kept the Wolves undefeated on the year (8-0, 7-0). The Timberland Wolves secured their second consecutive Gateway Athletic North Conference championship with the victory.
Timberland raced out to a 21-7 halftime lead against a talented Washington High School team before defeating the Blue Jays 47-21. The Wolves, currently ranked #3 among large schools in the area, continue in district play as they face Fort Zumwalt South High School on Friday.

As a result of this award, Coach Collins will receive a certificate signed by Rams Head Coach Jim Haslett and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, as well as a $2,000 donation to the Wolves' football program from the U.S. Army, the Rams Foundation and NFL Charities. In addition, Coach Collins will also receive tickets to a St. Louis Rams' home game.

As part of the Rams' community outreach effort in youth football, the team, along with the U.S. Army, STLtoday Prep Sports and the National Football Foundation, selects one high school head coach as the Coach of the Week winner. The Coach of the Week Program continues through the high school regular season. At season's end, one coach will be selected as High School Coach of the Year. The winner will receive an additional $4,000 donation to his school's football program.

About the St. Louis Rams Youth Football Initiatives The Rams have joined with the NFL to identify opportunities to enhance, promote and recognize positive aspects of football at every level. The team, along with the Tom Lombardo chapter of the National Football Foundation and USA Football, has led the way in creating an Amateur Football Council, designed to support organizations committed to amateur football and to promote youth development, sportsmanship and academic excellence through youth football. As part of these efforts, the Rams host the St. Louis Rams/USA Football Youth Coaching School. In addition to the Coach of the Week program, efforts include providing free tackle football camps to area middle school athletes through the Rams Junior Player Development Program, the High School Player Development program 7 on 7 tournament, the NFL Flag regional tournament and partnering with PHL, Inc. to refurbish and maintain St. Louis Public School athletic fields.

Don't want to jinx it, but...

...oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!
Camryn has gone 3 of the last four complete DAYS without an accident. The first day after she did her business on the potty all of the teachers came in and did a little dance with her in celebration.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

The Great Pumpkin

Or as Camryn calls them "po-kins". I love the trip each year. I think Craig's okay with it. If he's not, he never says anything to the contrary. Now that we have Camryn and it's not just me bringing him along I think he can justify it a bit more in his mind. Ha!

So we psyched her up to go find a pumpkin, we walked in, she got out of her wagon and literally walked straight to the first pumpkin in the first row. She just zeroed in on her task.
This just wouldn't do. I mean, have you looked around Camryn? How do you know that's the right pumpkin? I feared that our annual trips from here on out would be 5 minutes or less. Where it takes longer to park and check out than to enjoy the pumpkin patch. I mean, you've got to stand in line and get the yummy lemonade that 25 bees are buzzing around at all times. And you've got to go check out the ponies and the kiddie train and the play area. And, mommy has to take pictures for the scrapbook (after all, isn't this what it's really about...ha, ha!).

Anyway, Craig tried to tell her it was too heavy for her to pick up so she walked down a bit further and pointed out which one she wanted. Craig put it in the wagon for her and then we went hunting for mommy and daddy's pumpkins.

The perfect po-kin.

So once she took her mind off finding the pumpkin, she did notice all of the things to do. There was a big blow up house for her to climb through, and a small playground. I think her favorite was this little train. She looked so big riding in it by herself. She's one of those children that are more interested in what others are doing than what's going on with her. Not right or wrong, but I've noticed this about her in other situations too. She's a people watcher. She spent much of the train ride turning around and watching what the little girl was doing in the car behind her than taking in the ride.

Farmer Camryn.

Here, we've picked out all of the pumpkins. Cam barely fit in the wagon, but insisted on going for a ride. I think she was getting tired. I remember last year Camryn's naps followed a schedule much more than they do now. She wore out fast last year. This year, we stopped and had a nice late lunch and then finally got home when we all rested.

Movies

Here are some quick movies of Cam.

This one is nothing overly exciting, but I love watching her get so serious over coloring. She loves to color, glue, paint and stamp anytime she can. We dedicate this to Aunt Linda. :) My favorite part of this movie is when I tell her it's a neat art project and she says "Yep. Sure is."




Here's another one of her messing with the computer. Aahh! Kind of looks like she knows what she's doing! That child will know more about computers by age 5 than I will ever know in my lifetime probably. Being tech-savvy is a must for this generation. I hear from people at work that their 9 and 10 year olds are asking for cell phones. Wonder how old Cam will be when she asks for her first (working) phone. I know she already observes how important cell phones are to both me and Craig. We always have them with us. She flips them open, will hit a bunch of buttons and gab away. She's even taken a picture on her own with my camera. She, of course, prefers to use Craig's or my phone because they light up and make noise.



And finally, this is about a month old, but I absolutely love watching this video. It's Cam and Charlotte interacting together. Now that Charlotte is talking more I think Cam will see her less as a baby and more just like her. By the way, Charlotte loves crocs. She's wearing Cam's crocs in the video. :) Charlotte, every time Camryn sees this she points out that you're wearing her crocs.

Update (with pictures this time)

Way overdue on updates. Not that I'm obligated to, but so many things happen each day, I hate not to stop and document a few of them.

Go Wolves!
Well, the Wolves are now 6-0. Last week they were ranked 3rd in the Missouri AP poll and 1st in the Mo Sports poll for Class 5 schools! We play Warrenton on Friday, which should be another easy win. BUT, Craig had a dream early in the season that Warrenton beat Timberland. Noooooooooo! I just hope something crazy doesn't happen and it comes true. So, I'm not counting this game in the win column until I see the result.

Camryn has been a true fan this year. Although, the more we go to, the more antsy she gets. Last week, we sat right next to the band, and she danced and clapped the entire first half. Home games are better for her. Seems like there's more action to catch her attention when you're on the home side vs. the visiting bleachers.

The Wolves two biggest fans. :)

Cam likes to go stand in the "O's" that she finds on the field after the game.
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Garage Sale Woes & Bows
This past Saturday was our subdivision garage sale. We did so well, we decided to do it again this week. Just kidding about the doing well part. We found out afterwards that it was annual garage sale day in Wentzville and there was some book published that said where all fo the sales were. Well, we're technically not in Wentzville, so didn't know about the book, and figure that's where all of our customers were. (Hopefully!) Some of us are going to try again on Saturday since everything is priced anyway. I figure I'll open for a few hours only. I'll be running this one alone, and won't be able to man it 100% of the time while I'm getting Camryn dressed and taking her in for potty breaks.

I decided to make those cute boutique hair bows for Camryn that sell for like $10 each and realized I would have a lot of ribbon left over, so I made a bunch and tried to sell them (very inexpensively) at the garage sale. I figured if they didn't sell, no big deal. I know lots of people with little girls and they will make great gifts!! But I'll give it another whirl this weekend and see if I have any more takers.

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The Missing Cell Phone

Last Saturday I misplaced my phone. I knew I had it on Friday night at home and I didn't go anywhere all day, so knew it had to be around. I kept calling to hear the ring, but no luck. I asked Cam while we were eating dinner if she knew where my phone was. And without skipping a beat, she immediately said "I threw it away." So, I've never caught her fibbing intentionally, and she said it so matter-of-factly that I was torn on if I should believe her.

"Which trash can Camryn?"

"That one," and she pointed to the kitchen trash can.

"Why did you do that?" There's no way she would have thrown away my phone. She knows that it doesn't belong there; and has never teased me about doing that before.

"I don't know."

"What color was it?"

"Purple."

Ah-ha! More doubt began entering my mind that she was fibbing. My phone is maroon, but still not a far cry from purple (even though she knows the difference between purple and red). I looked at Craig and he was just smiling and said "I'm just waiting to see what you're going to do." Rationally, I kept thinking I would have heard it ring when I called the phone. But then I got to thinking what if she hit the off button while she was playing with it. So, I rolled up my sleeves and removed each piece of trash until I got to the very bottom and realized my phone was not in there. ugh!

I found it later in Craig's car. Not sure how it got there, but it was there. Nice one Camryn. Score one for you. I'll get you back. :)

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Back to hanging out with the 2 year olds
So Cam's school has a new director. And prior to her arriving they had moved Camryn up to the threes. Her teacher was very energetic and very supportive and committed to getting Cam ALL-the-way potty trained. Camryn was learning how to spell her name and the days of the week and lots of neat things that the 2 year olds don't get to do yet in that room. (She was singing a song last night after bath time and saying the days of the week. I didn't pay attention to the words, until Craig pointed out that she was rattling off (in order) the days. I can't believe she knows that. I tell her things like "we're going to daddy's ball game on Friday" and "It's Wednesday! That means the gymbus is coming to school!" Now I think she might know what that means because she can understand the order of the days. )

Well, they decided to move her back due to space issues, so I've been very vocal about making sure she doesn't get bored. I like the teachers just fine. They're sweet girls and very good to Camryn. But they're also more used to kids in diapers, so I'm not sure they'll work as hard to help potty train her. She's supposed to be in underwear all the time and after an accident yesterday, came home in a pull up. We'll see.

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Speaking of Potty Training

Against every moral fiber, I decided to try rewarding her with two M&Ms if she went on the toilet (not pee. She has that one down pat.) The three year old teacher was committed to working with me and she said it actually would help all of the kids because they would see what kind of incentive others got when they did the right thing. Well, like I said, she moved down to the twos, so I don't know how they'll handle that. I've asked them to try. AND, what's worse, is Camryn still doesn't seem to care. I guess the first day, she cried when the teacher told her she wouldn't get M&Ms that day (after she had an accident). Well, she's moved on. Now when she has an accident she looks at me and says "No M-m-Ms today" and goes on with her day. I wonder if she would have stayed in the 3 year old room, if her teacher could have been influential with those and the other kids.

I've bought a book that a friend recommended. I'll see what they suggest and see if anything works. Because NOW, I'm out of ideas. And I know what you're thinking. She'll get it. She'll do it when she's ready. But I'm convinced she's ready, and it's a control thing with her. So I need to figure out how to get her interested in wanting to do the right thing.