Happy 4th Birthday Camryn

When Camryn was sleeping I snuck a bunch of balloons into her room. She was so excited to wake up and see the surprise in her room.



We got her a dollhouse for her present, and to our delight, she LOVED it! It only came with the family and a few pieces of furniture, but she probably played for 2 hours with that house at different times throughout the day.

Then later in the day, we spent some time at The Magic House. I had not been there since they added the big addition. It's just awesome. She roamed around that place like she owned it. And because it was a Tuesday afternoon, it wasn't busy and she could actually play with most of things there.

She took a carriage ride in the "once upon a time" room.

And even got her hands all greasy (well, so to speak) and worked under the hood for a bit on the car.

She caught a fish and then took it upstream to let it swim back into the pond. This was one of my favorite things to watch her do.

She also spent time making pretend pizza and going grocery shopping. Working as a librarian and looking at her finger print through a magnifying glass. Even finding out which items in a box were electricity conductors seemed to intrigue her. Every time she saw a computer, that seemed to be a must stop. Here she is listening to a story.

And of course we needed her picture with the #4! :)

And given the choice of where to go for her birthday dinner, she chose Red Robin. No surprise there. We pass it every day on the way home from school and she asks to eat dinner there every day. What's surprising to me this time is typically she asks if Red Robin is there (a.k.a. person in Red Robin costume). When he is, she likes to see him from a distance. This time, she walked up, gave him a hug, and even took her picture with him. Maybe she's turned a new leaf.

Being silly...


And with Red Robin, himself...

Is she really my daughter?

I'm taking Camryn out of school tomorrow to goof off all day for her birthday, so this morning we took cupcakes in to her class so they could celebrate today. Only she got upset that other kids were singing "Happy Birthday" to her and wishing her a happy birthday. Why, do you ask? Well in her words, "It's not my birthday mommy. They can't sing me the song yet." And off she stormed to hide in one of the cubbies at school.

Really?
1. She's four.
2. Why is she stressed over that? There should be so much excitement around her birthday that any wishes should make her smile.
3. Is she that literal of person that she can't enjoy a birthday week?

Frosty's brother

Craig took Cam outside the other day to play in the snow. She was so excited about it. Their mission was to build a snowman, but a snowball fight also took place and lots of snow angels were made.

I heard a knock on the back door..."Mommy, do you have any carrots? We need to make a face for the snowman." I had baby carrots, celery and grape tomatoes in the fridge, which became his nose, arms and eyes/mouth. Add on a hat & scarf and he was set.




After a while Craig was ready to come in and told Cam she could stay out a few more minutes in the backyard. I glanced out to check on her and she was eating the snowman's face. We've laughed about that several times. And if you ask her about it she thinks it's funny. The only thing she left were the two pieces of mulch Craig used for eyebrows. And the celery stalks stayed put. :)

What a memory!

Craig came downstairs after storytime with Camryn tonight with an amazed look on his face. We typically read books to Cam before bed, but lately she's been wanting a story. And then she wants to tell us a story (which, usually is the same one we just told her, only way abbreviated).

He said he told her the story of the Little Engine that Could a few nights ago. Tonight she requested a book from him and then she had a story to tell him. He said she recited the full story of the Little Engine, almost verbatim. Didn't miss a detail, but happened to change some of the characters to girls in her version, which I have to laugh at. He was shocked at the detail she remembered.

It's another girl!

We had our ultrasound on Wednesday and discovered we're adding another girl to the family. We're thrilled and Camryn is too. She came with us to the appointment and received her own ultrasound picture of the baby's head and hand (so it looked like she was waving at Camryn) and the gal put "Hi Camryn" on the picture. Camryn has treasured that ever since.

I don't think Camryn really understood what to expect. Even afterwards she says she thought she would see the baby born, but I reminded her that she has to grow some more and we at least were able to look at her on the computer screen.

She's been diapering, covering up and feeding her dollies lately, occasionally asking me if I can babysit while she plays. I think that's hilarious. Because she'll pop back by where I am and say "OK, it's time to feed my tiger now."

When asking her about name ideas she suggested Purple as the nickname. She also suggested Cam, but when I explained to her why that might be confusing she changed her mind. The name is always a challenge for me and Craig. I have strong opinions of names that I like but he seems to have known a high school student with the same name that he didn't care for. He's taught for more than 10 years now. He's met a lot of kids. Who knows where we'll land.

But, for now, we do know it's a girl... :)

Army Bowl

This past weekend Craig and I traveled down to San Antonio for the Army All American National High School bowl. They picked 90 football players out of a reported 1 million in the U.S. to participate and one of Craig's players was chosen. Pretty cool! It was so cold down there. Last year they said it was 70 degrees that week. We got a balmy 25 degrees with crazy winds. It was still a nice trip. Craig and both had a chance to tour the army base at Ft. Sam Houston. He went with the coaches and I went with the spouses. We saw the Center for the Intrepid which was this amazingly high tech rehabilitation facility. I have to say we both appreciated the military before we arrived, but we got an inside look and both walked away with such a deeper appreciation for what the army does every day and were completely in awe of the pride these soldiers carry around with them. Amazing stuff. That was fun to be a part of for just a short while.

Here is a picture from my plane window in Chicago. I could not believe the planes could fly in this cold and ice. That guy over there is de-icing the plane. He would spray off the entire plane with what looked like the de-icer stuff you put in your windshield wiper fluid each winter.Here is a shot of us turning on the runway. Again....glad I didn't have to fly the plane.
This is a picture of the famous River Walk in San Antonio. I heard from so many people before the trip how beautiful this was. Only the week we were there was the week they drain it every year, so we saw the Mud Walk instead. It was too cold to spend too much time walking along it anyway, so I guess it was for the best.

Here is Craig, Nick Demien and Nick's army hero Sgt. Novak. This was a shot of the Army's program on the field before the game.

And finally, since we were staying so close to the Alamo, we ventured out a bit to get a history lesson.

----------------------------------------------

And a few Christmas shots. I didn't have a Christmas blog, but thought I'd add a few of the family.


(Liz if you see this, Camryn took a look at this and told me we looked alike. The only difference was I had something coming out of my shoulder. I figure it must have been the hair.)

Two new lines

Two new things Cam has said to me this week:
You're embarrassing me.
and
You're freaking me out.

Where does she get this stuff?

Naughty & nice list. Does it really exist? I mean REALLY?

So why is it that Camryn, who on the whole, is a great kid, chooses to pick the month of December to bust out the attitude? Is it because she's getting older? Is it because she really wants to know if Santa cares whether or not she is a good or bad? Craig and I have literally started to dial the phone to the North Pole several times this month and she runs after us begging us not to call Santa. She corrects her attitude almost instantly. Until the next opportunity for her to be a total stink head!

I wonder if Santa has ever not come to someones house because they were bad. I mean the toys were loaded in the sleigh and everything and he just decided "nope...this child needs to learn her lesson." Is Santa capable of that? I guarantee he'll be at my house regardless of our threats. Like I said, she's a REALLY good kid, but she's testing our patience this month 10-fold.

A quick lesson

Camryn educated me this morning by saying: "Well mom, actually, I am a woman. Just a little one."

Great weekend

This weekend we made Turkey cookies! (No, Aunt Linda, there isn't turkey bits in the cookies.) Thought it would be a fun project with Camryn and we got mom to participate. Turns out she got a new fancy mixer and was all too eager to use it. All we needed to mix was food coloring with white icing (since we used the pre-made cookie dough), but that was enough. Hope it was worth it mom...LOL!

Yesterday, at Sunday school they started talking about the Christmas story to Camryn's group. They're practicing a Christmas song, and all she said ALL day was "Baby Jesus is born." Over and over and over. There was some tune to it, but couldn't make anything out consistently, and then at the end she would act like she was rocking a baby with her arms. So funny. Even at bed time, she was yelling it out loud. Poor thing gets her singing ability (or lack of) from me.

Cam is challenging us a bit more lately. We've had to bust out the extra dose of discipline with her. She spend her first entire evening in her room last week. And she's been dangerously close to losing shows for not listening and toys from not picking up after herself. I guess she knows we'll follow through so threatening it and then counting to 5 seems to do it. I wonder how long that tactic will work. Craig suggested we get some type of see through box where we put anything she's left out at night into it and she has to see it in there for an entire week before she can play with it again. That's so mean! Although probably would work better than just putting the toy up someplace. Because while that would bother her for a bit, pretty soon it becomes out of site, out of mind, and the whole lesson you're trying to teach is lost.