A Hula Christmas

Camryn's Christmas program at daycare was on Sunday evening. I meant to write about it sooner in the week, but the week somehow slipped by me. Anyway, we had been hearing Camryn sing "Feliz Navidad" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" as well as seeing her do the hula at home for weeks now. We had no idea why she was doing the hula, but we finally figured it out Sunday night. When it was time to perform, all of the kids came out on stage (Camryn went front and center) in hula skirts and leis. They proceeded to sing the traditional songs and then, Santa came out to read the story of Christmas. Unlike last year, Camryn was all smiles and pointing to "Santa Closet" while she listened to the story. After Santa was done reading, they all stood up to sing "Mele Kalikimaka" while dancing the hula. Finally, the mystery was solved. I can't even say the lines in that song, so it was rather entertaining to hear the kids sing it. Of course, we were proud parents in the audience and enjoyed every minute of the evening! Now, if we hear any of the songs she performed while listening to Christmas music in the car, we can hear her singing along in the back. She is really growing up and is absolutely loving the Christmas season!!

The perfect flower girl

Yes, you read that right...Camryn was absolutely perfect in the wedding. She got her hair done like a big girl (complete with a tiara) and was so excited to get her pretty dress on. And of course, the outfit was made complete with her purple shoes (which she promptly informed me hurt her feet) and her diamond (yes, I said diamond) "C" necklace from Gina and Paul. She was absolutely beaming and loved being a pretty princess with Gina. She was a big girl and walked down the aisle holding Dylan's hand and walked back down the aisle after the ceremony was over. I actually think she was loving every minute of it! She fell asleep briefly between the church and reception, but we had to wake her up for some pictures. She wasn't too happy about that, but she quickly found her second wind. After the cocktail hour, she eagerly held Dylan's hand again to be introduced into the reception (keep in mind over 200 people were there) and they walked right in. She is braver than I am!! At the reception, she proved to be quite the party animal! Chris took her on the dance floor and we literally couldn't get her off of it!! We had to pry her off of it just to eat dinner! She was dancing with us, Gina and Paul, the bridesmaids, Dylan, the band...you name it. She was having the time of her life! It was so much fun to watch her. You would have never known that she hadn't really slept at all!! We ended up leaving a little after 10:00 to go back to the hotel room and she was out within minutes of hitting her bed. The day went way more perfectly than I could have ever imagined it. We were so proud of her!

We took lots and lots of pictures, but unfortunately, I have been sick since we got back and I haven't felt like posting them yet. Once I get some energy and focus, I will make sure I post more pictures. Until then, this will have to do! :)

Mommy's Little Girl

We are currently in New Jersey fulfilling Camryn's important flower girl duties for Gina and Paul. Our first mission was a very special one. Camryn had her very first pedicure and manicure this morning with the bridal party. I have been painting her cute little toes for quite a while now, but she has never had a professional job. She sat in the chair like a really big girl while she had her feet washed, massaged, and her toes painted purple. Next, she sat very patiently while her fingernails were painted to match. She had a very serious look on her face the entire time, but I know she was enjoying every minute of it. She has been looking at her nails ever since and is very eager to show them off. I can't believe how lucky she is to have such pampering so early in life. I am excited, though, because this just means that I will have yet another friend to join me in spa days!!!

She is currently sound asleep in the hotel room for a nap before we go to the rehearsal and dinner. She is excited to meet Dylan, the ring bearer. She has been saying all week that she has to "hold Dylan's hand", so I hope she actually does it tonight. More importantly, I hope she does it tomorrow for the wedding!!! I will be sure to post more updates about the exciting weekend and there will be a lot of fun pictures to come on the website once we get home. For now, send good thoughts our way for a successful day tomorrow!!!

A lot to be thankful for...

Happy Thanksgiving!! We just got back from visiting Chris' family for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time and really enjoyed all of the yummy food!! You just can't beat Thanksgiving dinner!!! As you can see, Camryn wore her new shirt because she is thankful that she is going to be a big sister. Many of you who actually read this blog already know our wonderful news, but we are officially going public with it now that I am safely in my second trimester. Our actual due date is June 10th, but we are sure that the special day will be a little sooner since it will be a repeat c-section. We are so incredibly excited about adding to our family and Camryn already enjoys giving the baby in mommy's belly kisses. We just hope she enjoys the baby as much when he/she arrives!! So, we have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and continue to pray that everything goes smoothly!!

Speaking of going smoothly, we are also praying that this weekend goes off without a hitch (other than Gina marrying Paul). This is the weekend of Carmyn's important flower girl job. We have talked a lot about it and she is very excited to wear her "purple shoes" and "pretty princess dress". Needless to say, mommy and daddy are nervous and hope she takes her job seriously! I will be sure to keep you updated!!! Now, I am off to pack for the weekend. Fun.

Long Overdue

I am about to go to bed, but I wanted to let you all know there are lots of new pictures on the website. There are 6 new albums that I added today. Enjoy and goodnight!

Two Important Days

We have had 2 very important days in the past week. The first day was Halloween. We were all looking forward to the fun that Halloween brings. Camryn had a party at school with her friends and was very excited to have the job of providing the juice. She even got to wear her costume in a parade around the school. Believe it or not, when we got home, she told me what every person in her class was. If I ask her to this day, she can still tell me all of them. Her memory is amazing! That night, we planned on going trick or treating with Connor and Ella like we did last year. Just like last year, Camryn had so much fun!! She was so excited to wear her costume and walked up to the doors by herself, said trick or treat (about 50% of the time), and said thank you. As soon as she would get back to us, she would immediately say, "I want more candy!!" Needless to say, we had a great night!! And, interestingly enough, she didn't even ask for any candy the next day. Mommy and Daddy have eaten most of it - isn't that why she wanted more candy anyway??

The next very important day this week is today. We have been very excited for this election and couldn't wait to vote this morning. We told Camryn when she got up that she was going to go vote with us for a new president. She seemed very excited about it!! We put on her new "Vote Now" shirt and she started yelling "vote now" and "vote for president" around the house. We had the TV on and, of course, we saw both McCain and Obama on the news. I told her who they were and I asked her which one she liked. She thought about it for a moment and said, "Bara(t) Obama". So, if she were old enough to actually vote today, I guess her vote would have been for Obama. She was very excited once we got to our voting location and eagerly watched while mommy and daddy voted. Now, we are all anxious to see if our wishes come true!

On a sad note, my grandma passed away late Sunday night. I got the phone call early Monday morning, which was not a good way to start off my week. I am headed home to Meadville tomorrow after school to be with my family and attend services on Thursday and Friday. It is going to be a rough few days.

Finally...a big girl bed!!

Camryn should have had a big girl bed a long time ago. We planned on getting one over the summer, but we decided to focus on potty training instead. We didn't want her to have too many changes at once. To make a long story short, we procrastinated getting her a new bed until this past weekend. As with everything else we have presented to her, she took right to it. She was so excited to see her new bed and climbed right into it. When it was finally time for her to go to bed that night, we sat for a minute in her chair like we always do. I was expecting some resistence when I told her it was time to go to sleep, but she didn't fight one bit. She climbed in it, got comfy, and went to sleep. It was an extremely easy transition. She still yells for us in the morning like she can't get up herself, but I am sure that will end soon!

Things have been crazy around here so I haven't had much time to write or post pictures. We have all been sick in some way for the past week or so and it makes it difficult to get anything done. I promise I will try to get that done soon. As for now, we are looking forward to Halloween. Camryn has a party at school and trick or treating that night with Connor and Ella, so it will be a fun filled day. I just hope that the weather cooperates!!!

Busy weekend

What is better than a long weekend? A long weekend with beautiful weather! We were lucky to have a 3 day weekend for Columbus Day and the weather forecast was absolutely perfect with temperatures in the upper 70's. Sure, it didn't feel one bit like fall, but we weren't complaining! We had big plans for the weekend and we were looking forward to spending it outside.

On Saturday, we started the day with our weekly Gymboree class. From there, we went to lunch and headed to the pumpkin farm for a corn maze, hayride, and picking pumpkins. It is hard to believe when we went to this same farm last year, Camryn had just started walking. Although, it was a very similar day with weather reaching almost 80! This year, we thought we would also tackle the 5 acre corn maze. Yeah, I am not sure what we were thinking. We really should have used the map they gave us rather than letting Camryn lead the way. The novelty ended fairly quickly. We finally ended up coming back out the entrance and we were happy to be done. Camryn yelled, "we did it!!!" Um, yeah, sure we did. After that, we went on the hayride (which actually had no hay) to the pumpkin patch. By that point, Camryn was fairly tired, but we managed to get a few pumpkins to take home. We finally made it home and Camryn crashed for a very long nap.

On Sunday, we planned on spending the day at Dutch Wonderland. We had bought 2-day flex tickets when we went earlier in the summer, but we hadn't used them yet. Seeing as how this was the last weekend for the park to be open for normal hours, we decided we better use them. As we all know, Camryn loves rides and was so excited to go! As soon as we got in the parking lot, she started yelling, "Dutch Wonderwand, Dutch Wonderwand"!!!! When we are there, she is in charge and she tells us where she wants to go and what she wants to ride. It is priceless to see her there - she is totally in her element. It was fairly busy, but she was very patient and waited her turn for the rides. When it was finally our turn, she was overflowing with excitement each and every time. Once again, she loved the Frog Hopper and the Wonder Whip and, of course, those hands were way up in the air!!

On Monday, we decided to have a more low-key day. It was still absolutely beautiful outside, so we went to a local park so we could enjoy more of the beautiful weather. Long's Park is a huge park in Lancaster that has a pond, a playground, and a petting zoo. Camryn loves playing on the playground (who doesn't??), so we set her loose. She spent quite a while climbing up to the top of the slide and sliding down. When she got tired of that, she decided she wanted mommy to take her picture as she jumped off the ledge at the edge of the playground. She has recently mastered her jumping skills and it is one of her favorite things to do. This was the first time she decided to be daring and jump off of something instead of just jumping in the air. She fell a few times, but she got right back up and tried again. After a while, she was landing on her feet like a pro and saying "ta da". Then, we explored the huge playground some more, did some swinging, and took a walk to see the animals. The petting zoo is closed for the season, but we still got to see them through the fence. It was getting close to nap time and Camryn didn't want to leave, but we managed to get in the car to go home. She was all but sleeping by the time we got home and we all got a really long nap. There is nothing like a fun day at the playground to tire everyone out.

Now, we are back to work (and not happy about it). I am just hoping the weekend is here soon!! I have a bunch of pictures to post of our fun weekend, so I will try to do that soon.

A beautiful fall day

We took advantage of the fact that today is a beautiful fall day. We went to a Fall Festival at a local grocery store/garden center to enjoy some fall fun. There are several locations where they do the festival, so we picked the location with the most activities. And, the best part is that most of it is free!! Camryn got to paint her own pumpkin, go through a straw maze, watch a juggler, have her hand painted, and go on a hayride. She was very proud of her painted pumpkin and couldn't wait to bring it home. And, even though the hayride was short (and very uneventful), she had a great time. It wasn't anything overly exciting, but it got us out to enjoy the day and take part in some local fall fun. We still plan on picking our own pumpkins again this year at a nearby pumpkin farm, so we have more fall fun to look forward to!

Party Central

I just realized that I have completely neglected writing any blogs. I guess I have no real excuse other than the fact that we have all been busy getting back into the routine of the school year. Unfortunately, it is taking me a lot longer than it should to get back into it. That is pretty pathetic considering it is almost October! We haven't been up to too much due to working, which is a huge adjustment from our fun summer. We continue to go to weekly Gymboree classes and we have friends over for all of the Penn State games. Other than that, we try to enjoy our weekends and attempt to get some rest and relaxation.

The majority of this weekend was not one of those where we could rest much. Friday night was Connor's 6th birthday party (I still can't believe he is 6!!!!), so we went over to Aunt Jen and Uncle Jay's for the big party right after school. Camryn was so excited to see Connor and Ella that we apparently couldn't get there fast enough for her! She kept saying "ConnorElla" over and over again and was extremely disappointed when we had to stop at the store quickly before we got to their house! She had a great time at the party playing with the kids. They even got to do a pinata together. Camryn was fine pulling the strings, but when the candy really started to fly out, she stepped back with an extremely worried look on her face as if she were thinking, "woah, I didn't do it!" Then, of course she enjoyed the yummy cake and burned off the sugar by playing with the balloons. Needless to say, she crashed as soon as we got home! It is a good thing because we had a big day planned for Saturday.

On Saturday, Camryn and I were invited to Gina's bridal shower in New Jersey. It was important that we be there because Camryn is their flower girl. Even if she wasn't their flower girl, I still wouldn't miss it! She loves both Gina and Paul, so she was excited when I told her who we were going to see. I will admit that I was slightly (ok, very) worried about how I was going to keep her entertained for several hours at an adult bridal shower without a nap, but she was amazing (other than the 52 times she asked to use the new and exciting bathroom). She ate lunch with us like a big girl and was perfectly happy while Gina opened her many gifts. Once she warmed up to everyone, she was proud to show off her princess gifts from Gina as well as her jumping and twirling skills. I think she had a very good time and was asleep in the car 5 minutes after we got in it. It was a long hard day of being a pretty flower girl-to-be princess!

I promise to post more often. The craziness of the beginning of the school year is beginning to die down (other than Chris getting a new student tomorrow from Egypt who doesn't know a word of English - anyone know any Arabic???) so I will try my best to write updates more often. As for now, we are doing well.

Big girl!!!

Camryn is proving to be a very big girl. She has been almost completely potty trained here at home for a while now and only wears Pull-ups when she is sleeping. We have even ventured out in public with her wearing only her big girl panties (well, not ONLY her panties - you know what I mean). We were worried that her success wasn't going to transfer to daycare, so we have been sending Pull-ups with her. But, she has been a very big girl and has been going potty there since the first day. She would usually go in her Pull-up at least once each day, but we were still happy that she was going potty. This week, she had two successful days in a row where she stayed completely dry all day - even after nap. Like I said before, she has been doing this at home for a while, but we were so excited that she is doing it at school!! She proudly posed with her good report so mommy could share the good news (you just have to ignore the goldfish she still had her in mouth while posing).

While we are on the topic of Camryn being such a big girl, I would like to share an email that Chris sent to me this week at work:

"Camryn is a genius. We saw 5 buses this morning at varied intervals. After seeing the last one, I decided to ask her how many buses we saw to see how she would do. This was her response:

"1,2,3,4...saw 4 buses! (long pause) No, I saw 5 buses daddy!'

Such a smart girl!

Whirlwind

Things have been overly crazy for the past few weeks, so I have been kind of MIA. I could write a novel about all of it, but I choose not to because I am just too tired to. Let's see if I can summarize it in as few words as possible. First of all, we found out why Camryn was so tired at Hersheypark - it was the beginning of her being sick. Yes, I said sick. Needless to say, this frustrated me because she wasn't even back in school yet. I thought it might be allergies, but I have been told that allergies don't start this young. By that Friday, we were all tired of her runny nose and terrible coughing. Since we were going to the beach that Sunday, we took her to the doctor and she was put on antibiotics. The good news, though, is that her tubes did their job - no ear infection!!! Bad news is that I got whatever it was that she had. That weekend, Chris was in New York for a golf tournament while Gina and Paul came to visit. We had lots of fun shopping for a flower girl dress (she loved looking in the mirror and spinning in them). After a full day, we successfully found a dress for her - and she looks beautiful in it!! As soon as they left on Sunday, we were packed and ready to drive to the beach. We drove there in some terrible storms and prayed that it wasn't going to rain for the duration of our short vacation. We were hoping to go to the beach that day, but the weather didn't cooperate, so we hung out with Rebecca at her beach house. We did walk to the boardwalk for dinner, but it started to rain while we were there. It stopped, so we tried to hurry home before it started again. Good thing that Camryn isn't afraid of storms because we got caught in one. Thankfully, we found an awning to stand under. We thought it would pass over, but it just got worse - absolute downpour with the loudest thunder we have ever heard. Camryn thought the whole situation was silly and kept yelling, "KABOOM". When the sidewalk we were standing on started to flood (no kidding), the guys ran to get the car to pick us up. While getting Camryn in her carseat, I was standing in water up to my calves in the street. Fun. The next day was better and we were able to go to the beach. I could talk endlessly about how much Camryn LOVED the beach. She had so much fun in the sand and water. She kept saying, "I go to the beach!!!" It was very difficult to get her off of it!!! Unfortunately, Rebecca had to leave that day, so we moved on to an inn a few blocks away. This place was adorable - Camryn even had her own room that was connected to ours. We spent the night on the boardwalk and Camryn rode some rides. The next day, we drove up to Atlantic City to walk around and walk on the beach. Much to Camryn's dismay, we didn't allow her in the water that day because I didn't want her to be sandy for the ride home. We had a really great mini-vacation - I just wish I wasn't sick the entire time!!! As soon as we got home, we began planning for our next trip that weekend and getting the house ready for my parents. In the middle of that, Chris and I fit in an adult trip to Hersheypark on Thursday night while Aunt Jen hung out with Camryn - very fun! My parents got here on Friday and Chris and I were headed back to NJ for the weekend for Tom and Rachel's wedding. That was the longest that I have ever been away from Camryn - it was nice, but I missed her a lot! We both had a great time at the rehearsal dinner and wedding - it is great to be an adult every once in a while. We were both very thankful to my parents for coming down to stay with Camryn and Jordan for the weekend. I think it was a great weekend for all - my parents really enjoy time with her and Camryn absolutely loves them both. They stayed until Monday so we could spend time with them too. Then, the dreaded Tuesday was upon us. Camryn went back to daycare and we were back to work. How did the summer go so fast?!?!? Now that we have been back for 4 days, I am exhausted. But, Camryn is really enjoying her fun at school and talks to me the ENTIRE ride home each day about her friends and what she did that day. I truly think she was getting tired of hanging out with mommy and daddy so much!! We really did have an awesome summer, but all good things must come to an end. We just have to figure out how to be working parents again. Ugh!

PS Pictures from the beach will be posted soon...

Sweetest Place on Earth

We continued our tour of local attractions and amusement parks yesterday by going to Hersheypark. We went with a few friends of mine and Camryn had a friend to play with too. Camryn had fun playing in the Boardwalk, which is a huge water play area, until lunch time. After that, we got her dressed for some rides. She rode a bunch of new rides and was even able to ride some grown-up rides with us like the Scrambler and The Flying Falcon. She seemed very tired most of the day, but every time we asked her if she wanted to go home, she would quickly say, "No - ride rides!" It was a long day at the park and we were all exhausted when we got home, but it was worth it! As always, check out the pictures!! Chris and I plan on going back next week for a night of adult rides. I was able to ride the new roller coaster yesterday with my friend, Erin, but Chris didn't get the chance due to long lines. So, we are looking forward to a night to ride together!

Unfortunately, I return to work 2 weeks from today - ugh! But, we have a packed schedule until then with some summer fun. We still have a trip to the beach, a visit from Gina and Paul, and a weekend at a wedding in NJ. While Chris and I are at the wedding, my parents are coming to stay with Camryn, so I am sure she will have a blast with them. I am just amazed at the fact that the summer is almost over. But, we still have a few things to look forward to before it is back to work!!

Future American Idol

While Chris was golfing today, Camryn and I found a new fun activity. I discovered that she enjoys posing for the camera on our laptop and making her own music videos. She loved singing while watching herself on the computer screen. She is constantly singing around the house, but every time I get our video camera out to tape her, she stops. So, I was thankful for the chance to finally get her talents taped! Check out some of her wonderful music videos - enjoy!

More local fun

Lancaster has a lot of fun activities for kids and Camryn is finally at a good age to enjoy them. We took her to Hands-on House, which is a children's museum with a lot of interactive exhibits. She was very serious while she was there and you could tell that she was soaking it all in. She went from one exhibit to another and learned all she could. It was a little crazy for a while due to a bunch of kids on a field trip, but they didn't phase her at all. She was on a mission to have fun and learn! I just added some pictures of our fun on the website. Check them out!

Little daredevil

We finally decided to take advantage of the fact that we have an amusement park for kids 15 minutes away. If we had thought about it sooner, we would have gotten a season pass to Dutch Wonderland, but it is kind of pointless now that summer is almost over. We did get a 2 day flex pass, though, so we can go again. We already knew after going to Waldameer that Camryn loves rides. So, we were looking forward to some fun at Dutch Wonderland. It is a very cute park and it wasn't crowded since it was a Monday. She was able to ride most of the rides - I think there were only a few that she wasn't tall enough for yet. I can't wait until we can ride the roller coasters together!! There were family rides that we could ride together and rides that she rode all on her own. She still enjoyed the Frog Hopper a great deal, but found some new favorites. She LOVED spinning in the Turtle Whirl (tilt-a-whirl) and couldn't get enough of the Wonder Whip. After her first ride, she decided it was much more fun to put her hands up as she whipped around the corner! Needless to say, I was very proud! The other parents were getting a kick out of her screams of delight and the fact that she wasn't holding on! We all had a really fun time together and look forward to when we go again.

In other news, potty training is going well. We have been at it for over a week now. She is really good at home, but we are working on when we are out of the house. We are probably making a mistake by using pull-ups when we are gone, but I am not ready to deal with accidents quite yet. She is getting good at telling me when she has to go, though. She has told me while we were at Gymboree and while we were at a friend's house. When she becomes more consistent with telling me while we are out and she is distracted, we will back off on the pull-ups. I was totally dreading the whole process, but she is making it fairly easy so far.

Chris and I were also able to get away for a night last Thursday thanks to my sister. Camryn had another sleep over with Connor and Ella and Chris and I had a night of a romantic dinner, Green Eggs (a band), and slot machines. We haven't seen Green Eggs since right before I found out I was pregnant, so it was nice to see them and it brought back good memories. They played at the new casino near here, so it was a watered down performance, but that is ok. Then, I got addicted to Jackpot Party - I could play that all night! It was a great night away and much needed!

Chris and Camryn are back from Gymboree and Roots (a wonderful farmer's market), so my alone time this morning is over. At least I was able to get everyone caught up on what we have been up to!! Oh yeah, check out the new pictures on the website as well!!

Taking the Plunge

We are officially delving into the process of potty training. This is the one aspect of being a parent that I was NOT looking forward to at all. Camryn has been showing signs of being ready for a while, but we kept putting it off. We knew that once we started, it was going to take a lot of commitment. We didn't have anything planned this weekend (except for Gymboree), so we decided it was a good time to start. We started on Friday by letting Camryn pick out her own big girl panties. Of course, she picked the Sesame Street ones. I explained to her that she was going to be a big girl like mommy, Ella, and her friend, Sarah. She was very excited at the idea of getting to wear panties. She started Friday night by going #2 in the potty! We made such a big deal out of it that I think we scared her!! Then, when she got up on Saturday morning, we told her that we were done with diapers. We made sure that she knew that she had to sit on a waterproof mattress cover on the furniture and our fun began. Surprisingly, it has been going very well! She had a slight accident on Saturday and she did not like the pee running down her leg. That afternoon, she stopped playing with her toys and said, "Potty - hurry!" Sure enough, she went in the potty!! She even told us that she had to go #2 after her nap! Of course, we still ask her a million times if she has to go, but she is catching on really well. We have only had 2 "slight" accidents today, but she managed to get to the potty. We were trying to figure out a reward system, but it seems as if just getting the opportunity to wash her hands after she goes potty is working just fine! She has her own step stool and soap, so I guess she views that as a pretty cool reward!! It works for us!! I know we have only been doing it for a weekend, but she is making wonderful progress. I just hope we can keep it up! I am not looking forward to what this means for when we are out and about, but I am trying not to think about that right now.

Lots of Stuff

It has been forever since I have written anything. It is partly because we have been busy traveling, partly because we have just been busy, and partly because I haven't been motivated to do it. We currently have no electricity due to storms, so I don't have much else to do. There is a lot to write about, so I will do my best.

First, we made the long 5 hour trip to Meadville to visit my parents over the 4th of July. We stayed from Thursday to Monday, so Camryn had plenty of time with Dam-ma and Papa. Even though it has been a while since we have seen them, it took her no time at all to warm up and attach herself to both of them. They both enjoyed her a great deal and were very impressed with the little girl that she has become. She was very flexible with sleeping there - it was if she goes there all of the time. Although, she did try her best to go to bed as late as possible by cuddling with Papa on the couch - how could I tell her no to that?? While we were there, my parents had a picnic on the 4th. My grandma came up to the house, which I was very happy about. She is currently battling lung cancer, so I was glad to have her spend time with us. My brother also came with Zachary, so Camryn had a playmate for a while. He enjoyed giving Camryn a ride on his four-wheeler around the yard. She even had another birthday cake that day - what a lucky girl! On Saturday, Connor and Ella were also in Meadville, so they came for a visit. Camryn always loves playing with them, so she was excited. On Sunday, she got an early nap and we drove to Erie to go to Waldameer Park. It is a small traditional park on Lake Erie that reminds me of when I was little. It has a lot of old classic rides as well as some newer ones. Camryn enjoyed all of the kiddie rides and the big rides that she was tall enough to ride. She is just like me - she LOVES rides! She was such a big girl and rode the kiddie rides all by herself. Her favorite was the Frog Hopper. She rode that about 20 times and giggled every time she was on it. The last time she rode it, she even stopped holding on and put her hands in the air! That's my girl! I missed it, though, because I was off riding the new roller coaster with Papa. Luckily, Chris got a picture. We all had a really good time and Chris and I were thankful to have grandparents to take advantage of. They would keep her entertained while Chris and I would ride rides together. We don't have the grandparent luxury at home, so it was nice while it lasted! Unfortunately, our visit had to come to an end some time. We made the long drive back on Monday and it was good to be home. We just need to figure out a time to go back and enjoy more Dam-ma and Papa time.

We relaxed at home for the next few days, spent time at the pool, went to Gymboree, and had some friends over for a game night. On Thursday, we got back in the car to travel some more. We went to PSU for Arts Fest for the day. We always love a reason to go back to State College. Camryn is starting to love it just as much as we do. She was very excited to see the Lion this time and gave it lots of hugs and kisses. We walked all around Arts Fest and even bought 2 paintings from an artist we like. She has several PSU paintings, so we added to our collection. We already have one of the Elms on the mall and we bought one of the old creamery and one of Old Main. The artist told us that this is her last year at Arts Fest, so we took advantage while she was there. My friend, Erin, joined us that day and we all had a great day together. Even though Camryn didn't get a nap, she was very good and enjoyed her time in Happy Valley. Although, who doesn't have a good time in Happy Valley?? In fact, Camryn asked us this morning if we could go bye byes to see the Lion today! Chris was very proud.

I have been working very hard on completely changing our website. I am very close to being done with it. We just have keep our fingers crossed that it all works. If it all goes as planned, it will be much easier for me to post new pictures and can do everything solely from our new laptop. Some of the old pictures will no longer be on there, but I don't think anyone cares about anything other than new pictures of Camryn anyway! I will make sure to let everyone know when it is done!!

Sesame Place

As previously planned, we met Steph, Scott, and Sarah at Sesame Place yesterday before they went back to Florida. I am so glad that we found a time and place to see them during their visit here. This worked out perfectly and gave the girls a fun place to play together. We were all slightly disappointed in the park itself, but Scott gets free tickets through work (thanks again, guys!!), so we didn't let it bother us too much. The park was just a lot smaller than we thought it would be and it was poorly managed in certain areas, but we still had a good time. Steph and I rode the rides with the girls while Chris and Scott were left with stroller and camera duties. Camryn REALLY enjoyed the rides and expressed her disappointment (to put it nicely) after she had to get off of each and every one of them. The girls also enjoyed the Elmo's World Live show while the adults enjoyed sitting in the AC for 20 minutes. It was a very hot day, so any opportunity to cool down was a good thing! Unfortunately, Steph, Scott, and Sarah had to leave after a few hours in order to catch their flight home, but we were thankful for the time we got to spend with them. We decided to spend a little more time at the park after they left. Camryn wanted to see Elmo again, so we went to see the Elmo's World Live show for a second time. She enjoyed it just as much that time as she did the first. Then, we saw Abby and Elmo. She was very excited to see them and told us she wanted to give them a hug. But, when she got within 2 feet of each of them, she refused. We were able to convince her to give them both high-fives, but that was absolutely it. I give her credit for at least doing that! We rode a few more rides, including Grover's World Twirl. It is a bunch of teacups that spin really fast. Chris was relentless in spinning the teacup and Camryn was LOVING it. I was taking pictures of her fun - the one to the right is my favorite picture of the whole day. Her face says it all! After some rides, we walked around for a few more minutes and sat on the Sesame Street "stoop". At that time, it started to rain. We knew it was coming, but we figured we would leave before it started. Nope! I will say that rain never felt so good - it cooled me down quite a bit. We all got soaked walking back to the car, but we had fun doing it! Camryn thought it was silly that we were staying out in the rain. I assumed that she would sleep on the way home, but she was wide awake. She went the entire day without a nap and wasn't even overly cranky. We took that as a sign that she had a really good time!

Updated pictures

I finally updated pictures of Camryn on the website. I have been meaning to do it for a while now, but I finally forced myself to get it done last night. We are working on completely changing our website around so we can do it all on the new laptop, but that involves a lot of work. Surprisingly enough, we have been very busy since school ended, so we haven't had too much time to sit and fiddle with it. But, anyway, there are new candids, birthday pictures, Gymboree pictures, and pictures from her daycare picnic. I will try to be better about updating pictures more often because I really have no excuse not to. Enjoy!

Birthday weekend!

We all had an exciting weekend for Camryn's birthday. It is still hard to believe that she is 2 already. We started off the weekend by going to her Gymboree class on Saturday morning. Chris and I felt like we had never left because we were just there Friday evening. She had a lot of fun learning and pretending to be one of her favorite things - birds. As soon as we got home, we put her down for a nap so we could get ready for her party. Chris picked up the cakes (when you turn 2, you get 2 cakes!) and balloons while I started on the food. When she got up from her nap, she was excited to see that her guests were here. She was especially happy when she saw that one of her cakes was Cinderella. She successfully blew out one of her candles all on her own, but couldn't quite blow out the second one. So, she tried to put it out with her fingers. Needless to say, mommy had to move in really quick to blow it out for her before she hurt herself!!! We gave her a fork and told her to dig in because that cake was all hers. Well, I hadn't thought about how messy blue icing could be - good thing we were outside! I don't think she ate any cake because she was enjoying the icing too much. She ended up getting icing on her dress, so we had to change into another dress for presents - just like last year! Although, this year, she didn't require an entire bath before opening her presents!!! She took her sweet old time opening her presents - I guess she wanted it to last a long time! She spent the rest of the evening enjoying all of her new gifts. She really was a very lucky birthday girl!!!

On Sunday, her daycare had their annual family picnic. Since she hasn't been going for the past 2 weeks, we thought it would be fun for her to go see her friends. She plays a lot with 2 girls in her class, Peyton and Kirsten. We told her she was going to get to play with them and she got a huge smile on her face. When we got there, she was excited to see everyone. We had a picnic lunch and the kids got to enjoy all kinds of fun activities. Camryn, Peyton, and Kirsten all had fun doing the activities together. They did the peanut scramble (with yummy candy!), got their faces painted, and had a BLAST in the bounce house. Since they were the only ones in their age group there, they had the bounce house all to themselves!! Once they discovered they could climb up to a great big slide, they didn't want to bounce anymore! Camryn LOVED the slide! She flew down it every time with a huge smile on her face. They all had a really great time together. When it was time for the bigger kids to have a turn, the girls played on the playground instead. I am really glad we decided to go. She has little friends at Gymboree, but she has known Peyton and Kirsten for a lot longer. I love the fact that she isn't in daycare over the summer, but it is a bummer that she doesn't get to play with them every day. But, she will be back there before we know it. Ugh - I don't even want to think about that right now!!!

Two Years Old!!!!

Today was our baby's 2nd birthday. How on earth is it possible that she is 2 already?!?! It feels just like yesterday that Chris and I were going to the hospital the day she was born and when I heard her cry for the first time. It is just hard to believe that 2 years have passed already. She is officially a little girl now and there are no signs of my baby anymore. She had her 2 year check up this morning at the doctor. She is perfect in every way as far as the doctor is concerned. She is now 30 lbs 15 oz (91%), 34 1/2 inches tall (75%), and her head is 19 1/2 inches (93%). I think those numbers prove she is no longer my baby!!! She was extremely well behaved and did everything the doctor and nurse asked her to do. They all commented on how good she was! Thank goodness she decided to behave instead of showing her attitude we have seen a lot of lately! She even got 3 stickers for being so good and because it was her birthday. After we left the office, her good luck continued. I had to stop at Toys R Us for a few things and a worker there asked me how old she was. Of course, that turned into her finding out that it was her birthday, so she got a balloon and a crown to wear home. She was so excited!!! The birthday card from my parents also had a princess crown in it and she is posing with it in the picture. She kept saying all day, "Camryn birthday." I am not so sure she knows what that means because her party is tomorrow. So, I am sure she will continue to say that it is her birthday tomorrow!

Because her party is tomorrow, we had to make sure we did something special today. Gymboree has an open play time on Friday evenings, so we decided to take her to play. Gymboree is by far one of her favorite things to do, so we figured that would make her happy! She had the entire place to herself for about 15 minutes and then a few other kids showed up. She had a great time playing with them and was having an absolute blast running around, climbing, and jumping. We were there for a little over an hour and she was on the go the entire time. I finally got my wish and I took a bunch of pictures of her fun. I will make sure I post them when I get around to posting all of the other pictures I have. Anyway, we all had a really good time and she will be even more excited when we go back tomorrow morning for her normal class. It is just amazing how much she loves Gymboree - she gets SO excited when it is a "Gymbadee day!!!"

Adult Thursdays

For the past two Thursdays, Chris and I have been able to have some adult time to ourselves. We haven't done much of this since Camryn was born mainly because we want to spend time with her as much as we can. But, we have been taking full advantage of the summer so far. Okay, so today involved buying her some birthday presents, but we did it alone. After that, we went to see the movie The Happening. Last week, though, we had a full 24 hours to ourselves in wonderful New York City. We took the train from NJ into Penn Station in the city and only had to walk a few blocks to our hotel. We walked around Madison Square Garden and the Empire State Building for a while until it was time to get ready for our dinner reservations. We left our hotel around 5:30 to grab the subway completely forgetting about rush hour. It is a far cry from rush hour in Lancaster!!! It was quite an experience, but we handled it like pros! After an amazing Italian dinner, we saw Phantom of the Opera. It was awesome! We enjoyed Times Square after the show for a while and headed back to the hotel much later than we had intended. We planned on getting up bright and early at 4:45 AM to get to the ABC studios to see Regis and Kelly - yes, we are crazy. Unfortunately, the alarm didn't go off and I woke up at 5:27 AM. We needed to be at the studio for stand by tickets by 6:00 AM. By some random miracle, we were able to get up, get ready, grab the subway, and make it to the studios right at 6:00 AM. Yeah, don't ask me how! Too bad it was all for nothing because we learned at that point that they don't do live tapings on Fridays in the summer! It would have been nice if the website said that!!! Anyway, we then walked a million blocks while making pit stops at the Today Show where Kenny Chesney was performing and stumbled upon The Early Show where we watched the cast of Xanadu perform as well as Camryn's favorite person, Bindi. We could only imagine what Camryn would have done if she were with us. We literally could have reached out and touched her (apparently the Early Show isn't a popular show in NYC because no one was around), so I am sure Camryn would have run right at her!!! We continued walking and doing whatever it was that we wanted to do. We walked in Central Park, had a great breakfast in a small cafe, and did some shopping in the big stores like Macy's and Toys R Us. Before we knew it, we had walked all the way back to our hotel! It was a lot of walking in one morning!!! We had a wonderful time, but it had to come to an end. We checked out of the hotel at 12:00 and headed back to Penn Station to catch the train to NJ. Camryn had a wonderful time with Connor and Ella and Aunt Jen said she fit right in to the family. She was extremely excited to see us when we got home, though!! There is nothing better than seeing her run full force across the room while screaming, "Mommy! Daddy!!!!!" We missed her a lot, but we had an incredible time. We plan on having more adult time this summer, but it may not all land on a Thursday - any day of the week works for us.

All better

Camryn's surgery was scheduled for 7:30 this morning. We had to be there bright and early at 6:30. She was very good throughout the prep procedures including getting her blood pressure checked. After all of that fun, she was excited when they gave her a puzzle to play with. She began to get rather antsy after a while, but we managed to keep her entertained until they took her away from us. She willingly went with the nice male nurse and she said, "Mommy too." I gave her a kiss and told her that mommy couldn't go with her, but we would see her soon. It was then that she started to cry. Our last sight of her before her surgery was her crying while the nurse walked down the hall. It was terrible!!! We only waited in the waiting room for about 10 minutes when the nurse told us to come back to talk to the doctor. Dr. Belser (who is wonderful, by the way) told us that she was all done. He said that her right ear looked great, but her left ear was red with fluid behind it and was most likely on its way to being infected again. That is yet another sign that we made the right decision. He said the tubes are in and everything looked great. He told us to come on back because she was already beginning to wake up when he left her. We got back to the pediatric recovery room and she was crying. I got her out of bed, but she was still disoriented and crying. She just kept crying and crying - it was breaking my heart. It was a cry that neither of us had ever heard from her before, so I just held her and told her that we were there. We eventually got her dressed and out to the car - still crying. She cried the whole way home. We asked her if she wanted to watch a movie, so she requested Bambi. She immediately calmed down - the picture above is of her engrossed with Bambi. I eventually crawled in beside her and we watched it together. After a little while, she had some toast and started to get back to her normal self. She napped for 3 hours this afternoon - she really needed it. All in all, I don't think she is too traumatized by it. From now on, we just have to make sure she wears her ear plugs in the bath and pool. We got them last week and we tried to make wearing them fun. She went along with it and doesn't complain one bit when it is time to put them in, but I think that is only because they are pink - she loves anything that is pink!

I have more to write about our trip to New York, but that will have to be another post. I figured Camryn took priority over our trip for now. I promise I will write more later and I even have plans to post more pictures of Camryn on the website soon - I will try my best.

Too much time...

I have only been on vacation for a few days and I already feel like I have too much time on my hands. After a trip to the pool this evening, I decided that it was time to turn Camryn into a proper girl. I absolutely have to have my toenails painted pretty colors in the summer (well, all year long), so why shouldn't she? So, I painted her toes a very pretty shade of pink. She loved every second of her pedicure and sat very still while I made her toes "pretty". I figured that Chris would be annoyed with me, but he really liked them. She stood very proud as I took a picture of her toes before bedtime - aren't they pretty???

Water Baby

We went to the pool last night for the first time. Camryn has never been in a big swimming pool, so I expected her to be a little leery. We started in the kiddie pool and she got bored with that pretty quickly. She pointed to the big pool and said, "Go to big pool, mommy." So, we took her into the big pool and we started to teach her how to "swim" by showing her how to kick her legs and move her arms. She is a natural!! She is definitely daddy's little girl in that respect because I don't particularly like swimming. She was "swimming" in no time. She is definitely going to be a little fish this summer, which is just fine by us. We are very glad that our pool passes are going to be put to good use!!!

Another good thing for the summer is that Gymboree classes are now unlimited. We only went once a week in May, but we can go to any or all level 5 classes every week now if we want to in addition to the free play times. We just got back from our class today and she continues to absolutely love it!! Today, they pretended to be monkeys - she had a blast. All we have to do is ask her, "What day is today?" and she immediately responds with "Gymboree day!!!!"

I am also officially on vacation. It feels great, although it hasn't really sunk in yet. I spent yesterday BY MYSELF since Camryn was scheduled to go to daycare. I don't remember the last time I spent the day doing nothing. It was very nice. I think Camryn knew it was her last day because she didn't want to leave. It was cute. They are having a family picnic in a few weeks, so she will be able to see her friends that day. We are going to try to stay busy this summer so we don't get bored. I think we have done a good job so far!!

I really should be taking a nap now that Camryn is napping. I successfully walked my 2 straight hours for my Relay for Life team last night from 11 PM - 1 AM. My friend, Erin, and I were very glad to have a night walk because it is supposed to be in the upper 90s today. No thank you. It was in the 70s last night and very humid, but it was doable. We walked a little over 7 miles and it felt good. Well, except for the huge blister on the bottom of my foot today. But, that is a minor thing to deal with when compared to those we were walking for.

Alright, I need to go make some pasta salad for a picnic we are going to later. I guess that nap isn't going to happen!

Future Artist

Camryn showed off her artistic skills last night while using sidewalk chalk. She very carefully chose each color and took her time creating her masterpiece. I must say that her picture was very beautiful and extremely colorful. She was so engrossed in her artwork that she didn't even notice that both legs were rather blue from her hard work. Too bad that the rain last night erased her artwork. That is ok because we have a whole summer for her to create more wonderful art.

Speaking of summer, tomorrow is my last day of work!!! I am so glad that it is finally here. Too bad that I had to work my last few days with a black eye. Unfortunately, I am the victim of parental abuse. Camryn and I were playing on Sunday morning when she decided that it would be a good idea to throw a block at me - literally out of nowhere. There was an immediate bruise right under my eye. I could tell she felt terrible and she kept saying, "I hurt Mommy. I tiss her boo boo." She has given me lots of kisses, but it hasn't made my black eye go away. Needless to say, it has been an interesting week at work telling everyone that Camryn gave me a black eye. The kids seem to get a kick out of it.

Even though my last day is tomorrow, Camryn's last day at daycare is Friday. I messed up when I told daycare my last day, so she has another day with her friends. I honestly think she is going to miss them! I haven't quite figured out what I am going to do by myself all day, but I am sure I will come up with something!!! I am looking forward to sleeping in seeing as I am walking in the Relay for Life that night until 1:00 AM. I don't remember the last time I stayed up that late, so we will see how it goes. Chris' last day is Tuesday, so we are celebrating with a night in NYC next Thursday while Camryn has a sleep over with Connor and Ella. We have tickets to see Phantom of the Opera that night and we are hoping to get standby tickets to Regis and Kelly on Friday morning. We are really looking forward getting away together and starting off our summer!!! The next time I write, I will officially be on vacation and will hopefully have more exciting things to share about our extra time with Camryn!!

A girl loves her shoes!!

First a little update - Camryn is feeling much better and we have all gotten some sleep. Thank goodness!! I called the ENT on Thursday and scheduled a date for Camryn to get tubes put in. I go in next week to sign paperwork and get information and she is scheduled for the procedure on June 16th. I truly hope this helps her.

Now, on to shoes. We took a trip to the mall after work today to get Camryn some Crocs. I have a pair of Croc flip flops and I love them, so I figured I would get her some for the summer because they are comfy and easy to clean. When I tried the first pair on her, she didn't want me to take them off! I had to tell her that I would buy her a pair if she let me take them off. That seemed to work. I had no idea what color I wanted, so Camryn picked it for me. She seemed to like the light pink ones, so we went with those. She wouldn't let me put her other shoes back on her and she kept asking for her new shoes. The Croc lady took the tags off for me just so she could wear them home. Ridiculous. She has never been so excited about a new pair of shoes!! I used this love against her about 15 minutes later in the car. She was throwing a temper tantrum as we were getting in the car and she attempted to hit Chris. She was already in her car seat and there was no way of putting her in a time out, so I told her that she made a bad decision and that only good girls get new shoes. So, I took them off of her. It was the only thing I could think of to teach her that she was acting inappropriately at that time. Well, it worked because she didn't like that one bit!!!! Once she calmed down, I asked her if she was done and she said "Yes, shoes?" She said she was sorry and she got her shoes back. I never thought that taking shoes away would be so effective!! She kept those shoes on until it was time to go to bed. Luckily, she didn't want to sleep in them.

We are all excited for a 3 day weekend. We have Gymboree class tomorrow and we are having a "party" with some friends here on Monday. It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend, so I am sure Camryn will get a lot of use out of her new shoes!!!

Here we go again...

It was a rough night last night for all of us. Camryn was up most of the night screaming and yelling for "mommy" and was very hard to console. She refused to be in her bed and would only sleep in my arms. We were at our wits end as to what to do and how to help her. We weren't sure if she wasn't feeling well or if she was having terrible dreams. Either way, we didn't get much sleep. Finally, around 3:00 AM or so, we got her to sleep in her bed until this morning. Because she was exhausted, Chris stayed home with her so she could get some sleep today. We could only imagine the day she would have had if we sent her to daycare! When I got to school, I was still trying to figure out what was wrong. So, I had Chris call the doctor to make an appointment because my mind always turns to her ears. She didn't have a fever and she wasn't showing any indication that her ears hurt, but it is always a possibility with her. Sure enough, she has bilateral ear infections again. Sadly, I was hoping all day that she has ear infections just so I had a reason for our terrible night. I am not sure I can do another night like that!! I am in the midst of parent conferences at all of my schools this week, so it is terrible timing (just like my work computer crashing on Monday while doing my paperwork for the week). So, I guess I got my wish. I will admit that it is a terrible thing to wish for, but I needed an explanation and a way to solve the problem. So, she is back on antibiotics and we made a call to the ENT. He called back telling us that he would be more than happy to put the tubes in because these infections are apparently not going away. Our next step will be to make an appointment for her to get the tubes put in. Fun. Thank goodness I only have 10 more days of school left. It can't come soon enough.

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day! It is still hard to believe that I am someone's mother - I don't feel old enough to be a mother! Anyway, we had a nice day. Last year, I had Chris take some pictures of Camryn and I together and I asked him to do the same this year. I think it will be nice to have a collection of pictures from Mother's Day once she is grown and gone. It was a little more challenging this year because she didn't really want to cooperate. All she wanted to do was to chase the birds in the park. Apparently, chasing birds is much more fun than posing with mommy. But, we managed to get a few decent pictures. I always have an idea of the perfect picture in my mind, but it rarely turns into reality. But, we had fun trying!

After our photo shoot, we decided to do a fun family activity before the rain was supposed to start. We decided to go to Lake Tobias, which is a wildlife park not far from Harrisburg. It was an interesting trip, but we had fun. It is a park with a random assortment of animals like zebras, lions, bears, tigers, ostriches, peacocks, capybaras, monkeys, etc...you get the picture. They also have a petting zoo (she only wanted to chase the goats and not touch them) and a safari ride. The safari ride was a huge hit! The best part of the whole thing for her was that she got to ride on a bus - well, 1/2 of a bus. They have old school buses and they cut the roofs off. She was so excited to be on a bus! The ride was very cool. Everyone on the bus had food to feed to the animals and the animals would come right up to the bus. It was crazy! We had buffalo, elk, deer, llamas, Texas longhorns, emus, rheas (a bird that Camryn really liked), yaks, and zedonks (my favorite - a cross between a zebra and a donkey) so close that we could touch them. The only bad part of our safari tour was the wind - it was really windy and cold. But, it didn't spoil our fun!!! I will try to post our other pictures soon - I have been kind of slacking on that lately. Sorry!

We Love Gymboree!!

Since Camryn won't be in daycare over the summer, we were trying to come up with some activities that she can do with other kids her age while we are on "vacation". Plus, we need to keep ourselves occupied and not bored, which happens pretty easily. We did get a pool membership for the summer, but that won't necessarily give her the opportunity to play with other kids. So, yesterday, Chris and I discussed trying out Gymboree. I went online to see if we could sign up for a free class and they had an opening for her age this morning. Because it was going to rain, we didn't have anything planned, so I signed us up. This morning, I told her that we were going to play with some new friends and she seemed excited. As soon as we parked the car at Gymboree, she told us she wanted to go play. The kids have free reign on the mats, ramps, slides, tunnels, etc before the class starts, so we took our shoes off and went on in. She was a little hesitant at first, but once she realized she was allowed to play on all of it, she was excited to explore. It killed me to not take a million pictures of her, but I didn't want to be an obnoxious parent on our first day. So, I discreetly took a few pictures of her jumping on the trampoline just so I had something from our first day. After that, the class started. We were extremely impressed with the class and her willingness to follow directions and participate. They all had fun pretending to be in a bus (her favorite), driving cars all over the ramps and tunnels, playing hide and seek and dancing and singing with Gymbo the Clown, chasing bubbles, playing with maracas, and playing with the parachute (mommy and daddy's favorite). Camryn enjoyed all of the activities and was very good with the other children. We all had so much fun! Before class was even over, we were sold. After class, all of the kids got stamps of Gymbo (Camryn chose to have stamps on her hands and her belly) and we talked to the owner about signing up. She told us that she has a discount for teachers in the summer, so we could get 3 months for the price of 2. The prices are so reasonable anyway, but this was even better. We don't usually make decisions so quickly, but this didn't even require any thought. So, we are all signed up for the rest of May and the whole summer. We have unlimited access to all of the Gymboree classes in her age group as well as free play times throughout the week. It was really a bargain for everything we get. When I asked Camryn if she wanted to come back, she yelled "yeah"! So, we are all happy!

PS Just a side note: This particular Gymboree is famous because it was where Jon and Kate Plus 8 took the sextuplets on an episode. Chris says I am obsessed with the show, so I had to mention it. He laughs at me whenever I tell him that I saw the twins in school (they go to one of my schools) like they are celebrities. I can't help that I like the show! :)

Two Hops!!

I am starting to think that Camryn has some Snow White qualities to her. All of the forest animals come to visit her in our massive back yard. Every night, she goes to the door or window and watches the birds and a bunny always comes out of nowhere for a visit. She took it upon herself to name this bunny Hop. I thought that Chris had something to do with that, but he said she came up with it all on her own. It is amazing that this bunny just comes and sits in the yard for no apparent reason every night. Camryn sits at the door and talks to it until it hops away. Most of the time, we try to scare it away just so we can move on to bath time or bed time, but it doesn't budge. It just seems to be a fixture in our yard. Tonight was no different until Camryn got really excited and yelled, "Two Hops!!!!!" Sure enough, there were two bunnies in the yard. She didn't know what to do with herself and kept telling us that there were two Hops! They sat there for a quite a while and Camryn watched them. Well, she watched them until we made her go to bed - she was not a happy camper about that, but she got over it. I am sure she knows that they will be back for a visit soon!

Celebrating 30 years and Camryn's ears

Turning 30 wasn't so bad. My actual birthday wasn't very exciting since all I did was go to work. Fun! We did go out to dinner that night, but that was about it. Chris got me an iPod nano, but he gave it to me before my birthday. So, turning 30 wasn't too bad since I could pretend that it wasn't even my birthday!!! All of the fun came after my birthday. Chris somehow pulled off some birthday surprises. This is amazing because he has yet to really pull off a surprise (other than our engagement) in almost 7 years. He managed to put together a surprise party for me on Friday evening. While he and I were at Camryn's ENT appointment (more on that later), my friend, Erin, and my sister were here preparing for the party. I knew that Chris was acting strangely, but I decided to ignore it. It all fell together when I came in the house! Apparently, both Erin and Chris have been lying to me for quite a while. Yeah, thanks! And, the other surprise had to be postponed due to the weather. He had planned on us going to Six Flags in NJ for the day on Saturday. Erin was going to go with us and Alicia and Dan were supposed to meet up with us. He had talked to Rebecca and Gina as well, but they couldn't make it that day. I am so mad that the weather sucked because that would have been so much fun!!! He ended up telling me about it on my birthday because it had to be postponed. So, hopefully, we can go on a day when we can all actually make it. Even though we didn't go to NJ on Saturday, Camryn still spent the day with Jason, Connor, and Ella so Chris and I could enjoy the day together. It was also the 5th anniversary of our engagement, so it was nice to have some quality time together. I will admit that Chris got major bonus points this week. He put a lot of thought into the plans and managed to pull it all off. He really did make my 30th birthday a happy occasion!!!

Camryn's ENT appointment went well. Her ears were completely normal that day even though her nose was running like a faucet (we think she has allergies). He said that he would rather hold off on putting tubes in her ears since her ears are fine now and she won't be in daycare this summer. He said if he put them in now, there is no guarantee that they would stay in through next winter when she would "need" them the most. So, when/if she starts another pattern of ear infections, he will put them in then. Chris and I were comfortable with that decision and we will go from here. She may end up with another infection tomorrow (in that case, he said he would do it now), next fall or winter, or never. Only time will tell and we will do what is necessary to make her better!

Bubble Bellies

I realized today that I can't resist buying fun toys at the store. I could say that I want them for Camryn, but that wouldn't be the entire truth. It seems as if Chris and I have just as much fun with the toys as she does!! Anyway, I was at the store today and decided to buy a Bubble Bellies bubble blower. Camryn really enjoys bubbles, so I figured this toy would be a big hit. I picked out the dog for her since she loves puppies. Puppies and bubbles - how could I go wrong?? Of course, she absolutely loved it. The only thing that would have made her happier would have been if she could pull the trigger AND chase the bubbles at the same time. She had a blast running around the backyard and would have stayed out there all night if we let her!!!