Somebunny made rabbit ears at today’s Oatland Island story time. And somebunny not only enjoyed wearing them, but she didn’t want to take them off. I had to convince her to nap without them. Once she was up, I was trying to motivate her to come to the grocery store with me, and the only thing that worked was standing by the door and saying, “Hey Camille, I’ve got your bunny ears!” She dropped whatever toy she was holding and came running, yelling “Bunny ears!” And she wore them through Publix, much to the delight of several shoppers who said she was a very cute bunny.
Lots to say about our Colorado trip, but I need to upload all the photos and video first! For now, nighty-night.
The alarm will be going off early tomorrow morning so we can make it to the airport by 4:30 a.m. for our 5:30 flight – but I don’t think I’ll have too much trouble waking up. I’m too excited to sleep!
We’re headed to Colorado to spend a week in a cabin with my parents. And Anna, Jason and Elliot are joining us the first half of the trip! I cannot even believe I have not met that child yet – I already adore her. Then Jeff, Michelle and Stella will be with us for the second half of the trip. I can’t wait!
Mom and Dad are already at the cabin, and say it’s a great spot. Dad sent me this photo, taken from the living room window.
Colorado, here we come! (Now, back to packing…)
Hello Sweet Camille, and Happy 23 month birthday (plus one day)! I started writing this letter to you yesterday, but a storm knocked out the power in our house and it didn’t come on until this evening. No electricity = no internet = belated birthday wishes. I can’t believe that next month you’ll be two years old! Your Daddy and I are making plans to celebrate your birthday, and we’re hoping to have a little party at our house in our new backyard. Right now it looks pretty crazy out there because the landscaper has been tearing out old trees and bushes and overgrown weeds and vines, and making room for sod. And your Daddy and I have been laying stones for our new patio. You love being outside, and we want a backyard you can enjoy – in fact, I know we’ll all enjoy it.
We’ve settled on a theme for your party. After narrowing it down to three, we passed on Elmo and Yo Gabba Gabba characters and decided to go with a farm animal theme. You are CRAZY about farm animals! Now that I stay home with you two days during the week, we get to go to the Oatland Island Education Center’s Toddler Story Time every Tuesday. There are lots of animals there, but your favorite area right now is the barn. You love visiting the cow, donkey, goats, sheep, turkeys, chicken, ducks, rabbits and the pig. In fact, you love it so much you talk about it all the time. You’ll be riding in your car seat, and suddenly exclaim, “Cow! Eat hay!” Or “Pig! Night-night!” You’re remembering things the animals did when you last saw them. Your memories can be pretty specific too, like the fact that the goat was scratching his ear. “Goat itch ear!” You’ll remind me about that goat’s poor itch for weeks and weeks. Recently when we saw him rubbing against the fence, you pointed at him and told me to give him medicine. You know that when you get an itchy bug bite, I put benedryl cream on it, and you were pretty sure the goat needed medicine too.
You also really want to feed the animals. The goat can be munching on her own personal bale of hay, but you’ll pick a stray piece of hay off the ground and hold it out to her, saying, “Here you go! Here you go goat!” It’s really cute.
But your love of animals doesn’t stop at Oatland Island. Nana got you a farm set with little plastic animals, and it’s currently your absolute favorite toy. You play with it longer than anything else, and love arranging and rearranging the animals in the different stable areas. You’ll often carry the goat all around our house with you. And your favorite DVD is about farm animals, which you watch with rapt attention and frequent squeals of delight.
You definitely assert your independence more and more every day. It wasn’t that long ago that I was still feeding you grits, but now even before I’ve finished making them, you’re demanding, “Hold spoon! Hold bowl!” And actually, you do quite well with it and don’t usually spill very much. Sometimes, when I turn my back, you’ll stick your hand in the bowl and start eating fistfuls of grits – but if I ask you to use your spoon, you try to comply.
But your absolute favorite food right now is a popsicle.
“Camille, what do you want for breakfast?”
“POP-SICLE!”
“Camille, what would you like for a snack?”
“POP-SICLE!”
You get the idea.
Sorry, but I don’t think popsicles for breakfast are a good choice, but we usually have a popsicle break at some point in the day. Whenever I get one for you, you almost always say, “Mama tooooooo!” So we enjoy a popsicle together.
Dinner time has become easier as you’ve grown to accept and understand our bargaining techniques. It used to seem impossible to get you to eat vegetables, and if you saw something on our plates that you really liked (a.k.a. mac and cheese), then that’s all you could focus on. But now that we are better communicators, we can bargain. “Camille, if you’ll eat two green beans, you can have a bite of macaroni and cheese.” Sometimes you grimace while eating your veggies, but you do it, and I’m grateful! It’s so much fun being able to communicate with you – not just because you eat your veggies, but because I feel the more we can say to each other, the stronger our bond becomes and the more we understand one another.
Your current favorite book is Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess. Whenever you spot its bright orange cover, you shout, “Dr. Suess! Dr. Suess!” It’s a pretty long book, but you have already memorized the endings of many of the sentences, and will say them for us.
Me: “I will not eat them with a…”
You: “Fox!”
Me: “I will not eat them in a…”
You: “Box!”
Smarty.
Your beautiful hair is getting longer and longer, and now curls up at the ends and is so cute. I can even pull it into a ponytail, although it never lasts long.
Another of your favorite things these days is anything having to do with water (except having your hair washed). It could be a tiny puddle left over after we watered the yard, or a big river stretching under a bridge as we drive over, and you’ll see it and beg, “Touch water!” Quite often I have to reply with, “No, we can’t touch that water, we can just look.” This is especially problematic in all the great downtown squares that feature many beautiful fountains. You cannot understand why these should be any different than the spray pools you enjoy so much, and you’d dive in head first if I didn’t hold you back. That’s another reason I want to get our backyard renovation done – so we can just turn on the sprinklers and let you run wild! I think you’ll have so much fun, and Savannah is just too hot not to find creative ways to cool down.
Last month, you got to meet your new cousin, Baby Jones. Even though you were a bit jealous, I still think you liked him, and I believe you’ll grow to love him even more as the years go by. And in just a few days, you’ll meet Elliot, the daughter of Mama and Daddy’s good friends Anna and Jason. She’s practically your cousin too. Then later in the week, you’ll spend several days with your cousin Stella. I’m excited for you to have all this time to spend with the people I love and their kids, because I hope they are important fixtures in your life as you grow. And you are growing so wonderfully and strong, my sweet girl – every day I feel so lucky to have you in my life.
Thank you for another great month. I look forward to seeing you in the morning for our daily snuggle. Couldn’t think of a better way to start the day. I love you pumpkin.
Well so far, Erin managed to have a fantastic labor and delivery, give birth to a cutie pie, and still look fabulous moments after he was born. I’d say things are going well, and this video clip is proof!
Mr Jones from Lee on Vimeo.
Baby Jones was born yesterday at 7:21 p.m., weighing 7 lbs, 3 oz and 19 and 3/4 inches long. I think it’s kind of cool that both Camille and Erin weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz at birth, and Camille was 19 inches long.
He’s a really cute and sweet baby. So far he seems to spend much of his day like this:
But also a good bit of the day with his eyes open, looking around:
Camille thinks her new baby cousin is very interesting. She likes to point out his nose, eyes, mouth, hair, chin and cheeks, and does not like it when he cries. He hasn’t been crying much at all, but when he does, she says, “Baby crying!” in a sad voice like she wants us to fix it. Then she usually follows it up with “Baby diaper!” I think she likes watching us change him because she can see so much more of him without the swaddling blanket. Or, maybe she speaks the newborn language, and knows that Jones cried out because he needed a diaper change.
Camille, however, is not fond of sharing her Mama, Daddy or Boo with Baby Jones. She’s fine until one of us picks him up, then she starts crying and sounds so pitiful and rejected. I expected it, but I still hate to think about hurting her feelings. But she’ll calm down if I hold her and Baby Jones at the same time. Although from the look of her frown in this picture, she’s still not really happy about it.
But once she gets over the initial upset, she remembers how cute he is and how fascinating. It wasn’t long before she was waving at him and saying, “Hi Jones.”
I think these two cousins will be just fine, and soon enough, will be fast friends. And that’s a good thing, because Aunt Ginger and Uncle Lee think Mr. Jones is cool, and we look forward to seeing a lot more of him in the years to come.
We’re in Miami where hopefully, in less than 24 hours, Baby Jones will arrive! He’s a little behind schedule, so they’re planning to induce in the morning. I’ve been feeling the baby squirm and wiggle all night in Erin’s belly, and I can’t wait to meet him and hold him myself!
The drive down was good, thanks to all of Boo’s great entertaining. Camille napped for an hour in the morning, but that was it, so she was kind of delirious once bedtime rolled around. But we traveled for 6 hours before feeling the need to turn on the DVD player, so I think that was pretty good. She loved it, of course, and I just hope it doesn’t become a battle over the next few days now that she knows it exists. But it was a nice little break for us all.
I wish there were some way for her to understand how special this trip is, and how exciting this time is for us all. We’ve told her she’ll get to meet Baby Jones, but she doesn’t have any idea what that means. And even when she meets him, I’m sure she still won’t understand the importance of his arrival. But I have big plans for these kids. I hope Camille has close relationships with all of her cousins, and that when she meets Jones, it’ll be the beginning of a special family bond.
And I’m excited for Erin and Dave too. All of our lives will change with the arrival of this baby, and we have so many good things to look forward to together. I can’t wait!
Right now, I’m taking a quick break from cooking dinner while the potatoes roast, and listening to Camille and her Daddy hanging out upstairs. They’re playing the electric guitar, Lee is singing and Camille is laughing. I’m so thankful we girls have him in our lives.
He’s the kind of Daddy who lets her “help” him re-upholster a bench, even though we both know it would’ve been easier to do it without a wiggly toddler in his lap.
He’s a good role model when it comes to sharing, because Camille has taken a great liking to all of his superhero toys. She learned pretty quickly how to remove the child lock from Daddy’s toy cabinet, and now likes to take Spawn and make him fly through our dining room. But Batman is her favorite (wonder where she gets that from?).
She loves Lee’s old batmobile, and he didn’t protest when his beloved childhood toy was commandeered by a cow and a goat.
He doesn’t mind that his Batman regularly gets put “night-night” in the cradle and told to “Shhhhhhh.”
And he didn’t even interrupt yesterday when Camille made Batman and Superman kiss.
He’s teaching her lots of wonderful things, like songs and numbers and letters, and valuable skills like “respect knuckles.”
Daddy Gets Respect (Knuckles) from Ginger on Vimeo.
But best of all, and what makes my heart melt, is how he’s teaching her to laugh and love. Just watch this video and see what happens when she hears Daddy coming up the stairs (making monkey noises, of course).
Daddy Tickles from Ginger on Vimeo.
Now that’s a Daddy’s girl if I ever saw one.
My neighbor had a playhouse when I was growing up. It was one of those legit playhouses, built out of wood with a front porch and curtained windows. We spent countless hours in that thing, and I loved it so much I’d even sneak over there and play when she wasn’t home (even got busted one time).
Last Christmas, we got Camille a little playhouse – one of the plastic kind that is small enough to occupy a corner in our living room without being too obscene. It’s a good size for her right now, and she enjoys playing in it for a few minutes at a time (she doesn’t do too much of anything for longer than a few minutes these days). It has built-in seats and a little table, and she likes to share snacktime with her animals in there, like this Cheerio and milk break with Elmo.
Her friend Sterling just got a new outdoor playhouse, and it’s about 4 times larger. We’ve played over there once since she got it, and the house was a hit with both girls.
But I still have my heart set on getting Camille a wooden playhouse one day. On a recent trip to Sam’s Club, they had one on display. It had a front porch and workable shutters, and was perfect. Her little one is fine for now, but it’ll be a good Christmas or birthday one year when she gets the mega-house – good for me, because I think I’m the one who really wants it. But I imagine she’ll like it a little bit too!
Before I had Camille and before my friends had kids, I used to believe televisions did not belong in cars. I was a travel snob, and may have even said something like, “we didn’t have TVs in the car when I was growing up, so why should my kids? They need to enjoy the scenery like I did!”
Then I had a child. And I took a road trip. And it was tough.
Camille is a good traveling buddy. She sleeps well in the car, and she’s content to look out the windows for a little while or look at books. But even good kids have limits, and after 4 hours of being strapped into a carseat so tightly she looks more like an astronaut ready for liftoff, she’s done being in the car. If she cries, I don’t blame her.
When we were growing up, we weren’t quite as restricted. I listened in horror when my parents recounted early trips with my brother when he was a baby – how they’d put a mattress in the backseat and let him roll around and play. On the one hand, I don’t know how any of us survived. But on the other hand, it sure would make trips easier if the kids could stretch out for the ride. I obviously don’t remember trips we took when I was a baby, but I do remember being older and lying down in the backseat, curled up with a book and my Vanilla Ice cassette single in my walkman.
Well, we have several lengthy trips coming up, and tonight, Lee and I made the BIG PURCHASE. A portable car DVD player. Our compromise is that we won’t have it in the car all the time – it will be reserved for long car trips only. I think it’ll help keep her happy and entertained for a while on these road trips, which is good for all of us, but I couldn’t help but feel guilty.
My guilt includes all things TV related when it comes to Camille. Yes, I am aware of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation that kids watch no TV before the age of 2. I think about that nearly every time the TV comes on. But she LOVES watching TV, and let’s be honest, I like it too.
We still try to limit the amount of TV she watches. She only sees a few shows, and sometimes only a few minutes of those shows. She has one beloved DVD about animals, and I can’t find too much harm in that. These facts help assuage the guilt a bit, but it doesn’t go away completely. I sit there and wonder what kinds of things I could be teaching her during that TV time – but sometimes we all just need a quick break!
I knew it was bound to happen, I just didn’t expect the transformation to be so swift and complete.
Camille has lost her timidity of the ocean. When we first began going to the beach this summer, she loved playing in the tidal pools, but was scared of the ocean waves. Then, gradually she grew to like the waves and was quite content to sit in the shallow water and let them lap over her.
Last time we went to the beach, she seemed relaxed enough around the ocean that I decided to take her with me into the deeper water for a swim. She loved it. But when I was ready to get out of the water, she complained and showed no interest in playing in the sand.
Then Saturday afternoon, it was 96 degrees in Savannah and only 83 degrees on Tybee, so we decided it was a perfect afternoon for the beach. But as soon as we got on the sand, Camille started running toward the ocean, shouting, “Water!” and contemplating a head-first dive. So we took her in the ocean.
She was okay in the water, but the waves were a little higher and staying above water felt like a wrestling match. But anytime we tried to come back to the beach she’d start crying, with big tears rolling down her face. The sand was no longer a fun place to be – the sand was for babies.
She was in a bad mood the rest of the trip, walking from tidal pool to tidal pool without really playing, and without those smiles I enjoy so much. I’m not used to this. She’s usually such a happy, sweet and loving baby, but she was mad at us. She usually says things like, “Mama too!” because she wants me to play with her, but this time she clearly wanted her space. I had visions of what it might be like if she turns 13 and decides to paint her fingernails black and wear heavy eyeliner and become vegan and write poems about being misunderstood by her parents – who, by the way, are totally lame. When she’s in a grumpy mood, I sometimes call her my grump-opotamus. Wonder what she’ll think if I call her that when she’s 13? That would be totally lame, I’m sure.
We finally gave up and went home. She perked up a little at home, and when she got in the bath she even said, “Mama too. Mama. Bath.” I think she forgave us.
Thankfully so far today, our sweet happy girl is back. But we may stay away from the beach for a while until grump-opotamus decides it’s ok to play in the sand part of the time too!
