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!