Father's Day (from Cam's point of view)

Linda and Carl graciously hosted the BBQ this year. (THANK YOU!) We'll resume next year when it's easier to prep food for more than 3 people. Anyway, Camryn took over the camera, so here are her pics. Not bad actually. (Although I'm noticing a consistent angle on each of them. Ha!)

And here are a couple that I took.



Love these girls!

Oldies but goodies

I need to write my post about Camryn at 4 years. Have some notes somewhere, and will compile soon. But thought I'd jot a few more down since they're top of mind, so forgive me for jumping around...

I've been watching Glee this past year and they sing a lot of older songs. I have downloaded several and sing along to them in my car. But the coolest thing (and I know my dad will wish I would have felt this way about his oldies) is that Camryn is requesting the music in the car ride. Might be a sign that my music growing up was way better. :)

Craig has got to where he tries to get Camryn to say "three" as often as possible. She pronounces it "dree", and he thinks it's the cutest thing. Doesn't bother correcting her. Just wants to hear her say it.

Yesterday at Cam's school they had their first water play day of the summer. When I picked her up her teacher told me that she glanced at Cam and she had pulled down her swimsuit top and was just waltzing around like it was no big deal. That's one of those instances where you can make it a teachable moment or you can completely laugh at the situation. I didn't do too well at the teaching opportunity! Ha!

Let the firsts begin!

I'm getting her started on exercise this week. First tummy time - June 1

And then of course the appropriate spa treatment afterwards for those aching muscles. First bath tub bath - June 6

Ahh...look at the special treatment. Even my big sister is washing me.

Here she is with her first bad hair day. I didn't comb it after her bath and it dried all fuzzy. Craig thinks it's hilarious. He calls her Newman from Seinfeld, which drives me crazy. She's so much cuter than he is.

And a sweet shot of sisters.

Welcome Darcy Rae!

Our first family picture!

The first two weeks have been an adjustment. We knew it would be. Craig and I both prefer the older babies. 6 months and older. They are a bit more fun at that age.

But, unexpectedly, Darcy has been such a joy to snuggle with. Maybe it's because it took us longer to get her here. Maybe because I figure this is it for babies. Our foursome seems to be about the right number.

She's so stinkin' sweet to snuggle with. She is still at that stage where she tucks her little legs in like she's still in the womb, so she's this little bundle that will just nuzzle into you if you let her.

She lets you here it when she's hungry, but I can understand that. Did I mention she's hungry a lot! We keep upping the amount she eats, as the doc said "just let her eat what she wants...she'll stop when she's not hungry anymore." Oh, and she hates, I mean hates to be naked. We haven't started actual baths yet. Still the sponge baths, so I'm wondering if that will be a temporary thing. When Camryn was a baby, she grew to love bath time. And now, while she doesn't seek out naked time, she doesn't think twice about running through the house without clothes on. (We'll need to put a stop to that soon I suppose. Ha!)

We've had lots of visitors and much appreciated offers to help from family and neighbors. That's been a blessing really. With Camryn, we've wanted her to be able to transition into her new role as big sister as easy as possible and it's been a huge help to have people keep her active since I can't really go out much with the baby.

Here's Craig snuggling with Darcy after a long night of waiting for her to come along. :)

Jon and Liz brought their girls by and I couldn't resist loading them all up together for a picture together. Darcy - 1 day old; Camryn - 4 years; Charlotte - almost 3 years old; Riley - 10 1/2 months.

Here she is checking out one of Camryn's toys (already)!! She has so much hair and one little dimple on her left cheek. Other than that she looks so much like Camryn did as a newbie. We're all curious if she will keep her dark locks and if they'll turn out curly or straight as a board like Cam's.

Funny quote

Camryn had a funny quote last night after bath time that I'm adding here so I don't forget. As she got into her jammies for bed she said: "Hurry! Let's go get under the covers before I turn into a cube." I said, "A cube?" And she matter-of-factly replied "You know...cold?"

I don't know where she comes up with this stuff. I've laughed about it several times since.

Camryn started her part time schedule for school last week so we went to the mall one day to "build-a-bear" for her soon to arrive baby sister. She loved doing it and even put a sound chip in there that said "I love you. From your big sister, Camryn." So sweet!

Here she is after stuffing the bear...

Now washing the bear...

And naming the bear "Billie" and showing off her pink underwear...

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... :)