When Mommy's Not Looking...

A couple of days ago I was laid out on the couch watching HGTV...I mean busy folding laundry while the tv played in the background...when I heard this strange noise coming from the kitchen. For those of you that haven't been to our home, the kitchen and the family room are open to each other with just a bar height counter between them. So, normally if someone's in the kitchen, you can see them...unless that someone is only about 2 1/2 feet tall.

I wait, thinking the noise was the fridge or the dishwasher and then I hear it again. I also hear Camden in the kitchen but I don't think much of it. We have all of the "off limits" cabinets locked up tight and the rest I don't mind if he explores and plays with the pots and pans or the measuring cups. But nothing I can think of that he can get to would be making the sound that I am hearing.

My curiosity finally got the better of me so I laid down my laundry and walked around the edge of the bar to see this...


















Evidently I had gotten the refrigerator door closed just far enough that the alarm didn't sound but not closed enough that it sealed tightly. Camden opened the door and promptly found the Reddi-Wip and proceeded to make himself a snack.

Now some of you are probably wondering where he even got the idea to squirt it directly in his mouth...that would be my fault. And I guess it's also my fault for not getting the fridge door shut all the way. And since I already had two strikes against my winning the "mother of the year" title, I decide not to take the can from him, but to get him to do it a little longer so that I could get a good picture to share with all of you.

And since it's been a while since my last posting, here are some other pics from our summer for you to enjoy!!!

Camden jumping to Daddy in the "big pool"

















Sliding down the slide #473

















How we kill time while drying off before leaving...
Mmmm, Rainbow Pops

















I LOVE GOING TO THE POOL!!!

Happy Cousin's Day!!!

So I am pretty sure Hallmark just makes up "holidays" in order to create more cards and gifts to sell. Nonetheless, we just wanted to take a moment to wish Cousin Jay a "Happy Cousin's Day" today.

So far, this is Camden's only cousin...but none of my three siblings have started having kids yet so I am guessing that number will grow if they ever get around to it. I know I shouldn't pressure them, but I had to deal with the "pressure" for a few years and now it's someone else's turn. Okay...now it's Matt and Annie's turn - I'm fairly certain I don't want Camden's next cousin to be Uncle Ira's kid. :o)

So, Cousin Jay, enjoy your lone spot of cousin attention today - and have a great cousin's day!!! We'll see you in just four days!!!

A Visit with Friends

This past Wednesday Camden had his first "sleepover" when my dear friend Jenny and her one year old son, Drew came to visit. We had a great time hanging out for a few days and then Jenny was off to a conference so it was just "me and the boys" for a couple of days.

I know there's lots of research out there trying to disprove or prove the idea that boys innately play with trucks and girls with dolls. I'm not sure which side of that argument I fall on, but I learned this weekend that at least our two boys fall on the side that likes to wrestle as soon as you put them together.

We enjoyed watching them so much we decided to take a couple of short videos to share with you. They're our version of a "cage fight" since they're trapped in the crib - but they enjoyed it and only cried when we took one of them out and the match was over.






I really enjoyed having a great visit with my friend and getting to know her little guy better. I will admit, going from one kid to two wasn't easy and took a lot more thinking, planning, patience, and Advil than I had thought it would - but even though they just left to head back to Raleigh/Durham today, I'm already looking forward to the time that we can visit again!

Happy Birthday, USA!

We hope you all had a great Independence Day weekend. Ryan and I enjoyed a nice long weekend where we were able to get all of our "chores" done on Friday so that we could spend Saturday and Sunday just relaxing and enjoying time with friends.

Friday night we took Camden to see the fireworks in "Kaboom Town" which is in Addison, Texas about 15 miles from where we live. They have one of the best Independence Day celebrations in the country as rated by the American Pyrotechnics Association, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal...and they didn't disappoint. We got there in time to enjoy a nice dinner (thanks for the gift card, Mom and Dad) and see the war planes and flight stunt show before the fireworks began at 9:30. Camden loved the fireworks. He sat perfectly still for about the first 15 minutes and then he just wanted to play with the glow sticks a local church group had been handing out. I think they gave him 7 or 8 of them...they bought us quite a few minutes of peace - i.e. when he wasn't begging to get down and walk around.

Saturday night we had some friends over to grill out and earlier that afternoon while I was cutting up the watermelon for our appetizer, I handed Camden a piece...he wasn't quite sure about picking it up to eat it, but hey, whatever works...

The Last Few Days...

We've been doing our best to survive the 100+ temps we've been having in Dallas the last few days. Yeah, right - you'd think we'd at least have enough sense to stay indoors where it's air conditioned. But no...Camden and I spent all day Friday at the zoo, then Ryan and I worked in the yard almost all day Saturday and then we had a church picnic Sunday late afternoon. At least the higher-ups at church did have enough sense to move the picnic from the park back to the church where we could at least have the option to be indoors if we wanted. It's supposed to cool off with this "cold front" passing through...it's only supposed to be 98 today...what a relief! :o)

I just wanted to share a couple of videos we've taken over the past week or so. There's nothing spectacular like first steps or anything...but Camden's a total ham and keeps us cracking up non-stop (I've been told he gets that from me...) and I wanted to share a few funny moments from the last few days. Enjoy!!!

The first one comes courtesy of Ryan's mom. She mailed Ryan a gift for Father's Day and Camden found the packing peanuts to be much more exciting than the actual gift. We agree with the YouTube video of the kid cracking up when his dad rips the paper...why buy expensive toys?



The second is Camden's assessment of his trip to the zoo. Here are a couple of still shots of Camden checking out the animals and then doing his impression of a lizard...you'll understand the lizard thing a little better when you watch the video...







In this video, we're at home and Camden's reading one of his favorite books. It's the touch and feel Baby Animals book he got for Christmas from Great Uncle Wayne and Great Aunt Betty. He loves the gorilla on the last page - he thinks it's a hilarious animal. While we were at the zoo we saw all kinds of animals, but Camden seemed to be most intrigued by the lizards and quickly learned to do his impression of one...



The last video was taken just before bedtime when Camden discovered that his mommy has ears too. He's been pointing out his own eyes, ears, mouth, etc...but would never point at mine or Ryan's when we asked him about ours. The other night we tried again and he finally "found mommy's ears" - perhaps he thought I didn't have any since I seem to not hear him when he's whining. :o)

World's Greatest Dad!

Happy Father's Day, Ryan!!!

Hawaii...at last

I know I am getting close to being a month overdue on posting about our Hawaii trip...but it's taken about that long for us to recover from it so cut me some slack. :o) You'd think being gone on our first actual vacation...a trip that doesn't involve Ryan attending conference sessions or the pinball movements that come with a trip to North Carolina...we'd come back rested and ready to tackle everything on our "to do" lists. But the trip seemed to have the opposite effect for me. I came back so laid back and relaxed that I just haven't yet been able to get back into the groove of everyday life. Now that things are starting to get back on track, I am finally posting the pictures from our trip...another thing on my to do list can officially be checked off.

We had a wonderful time - it was great to get away from the normalcy of everyday life and to reconnect with each other...to remember what life was like back in the B.C. (before Camden). It only took me about two days into the trip to stop telling the hostess "two and a highchair" when we went out for a meal. I did almost cut Ryan's food up for him once...but I caught myself just in time. :o)

We had such a great time that we're already planning our next trip. And I promise the pictures from that one will not be a month old before they're posted.

Click here to view our photos!