Camryn has become quite the little music diva. She has always loved to dance and sing, but she has stepped it up a notch lately. She has even started to tell us to "turn it up" when we are in the car so she can listen to her "favorite song". Her favorite song varies from day to day, but she knows the words!!! Right now, it seems her favorites include "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, "Low" by Flo Rida, and "Whatever You Like" by TI. It is hilarious to hear her singing in the back seat!! And, of course, she still loves her Laurie Berkner. She also makes up her own songs and dance steps at home and insists that we watch her every move! Her favorite place to perform is her "stage" (the steps up from the living room). She stands up there and sings her heart out while she twirls and twirls. Then, the other day, she spotted the turkey baster in the kitchen drawer. She immediately claimed it as her microphone - completely on her own! Needless to say, she has been doing a lot of performing with her new microphone! This picture was taken tonight while she was performing - complete with "feather boa" and her hand on her hip. Yup, definitely a little diva!
It isn't all song and dance, though. She has a serious side, too. She continues to love books and is constantly asking us to read t0 her. When we are busy and tell her to read it to herself, she claims that "I can't read the words!" Usually, this prompts us to drop what we are doing to read to her - it is hard to resist and we hope she continues to love books like Mommy and Daddy. In order to do this, we started taking her to the library to pick out her own books. Granted, she has hundreds (literally) of books in her own library at home, but the public library is a special experience. Some of my earliest memories include going to the library every week with my mom and I loved it. So, I wanted to share this with her. We picked out several books this past weekend and she has requested to read them over and over. She is even content looking at them herself. In this picture, she is spending time with one of her favorite picks, "Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct" by Mo Willems (one of our favorite authors).
By far my favorite part to her personality lately is her sweet and loving nature. Sure, she has tons of energy like any toddler and can throw a tantrum with the best of them, but she has so much love and compassion to give. She is very aware of the baby in Mommy's belly (it is pretty hard to ignore the large bump!) and knows when Mommy's belly isn't feeling so good. She will immediately come over and want to kiss it to make it all better. Then, tonight, I was sitting with her before bed and I told her Mommy had a bad day at work. She said, "You had a rough day?" I was amazed at her response and I told her it was a rough day. She looked at me and said, "tomorrow will be better." How can you argue with that? Watching her grow is absolutely amazing.
Cabin fever has started to set in. We have had a few "teaser" days where the weather was really nice, so it makes us want Spring faster. But, the reality is that it is only February. Ugh. We had a long weekend, so we wanted to do something fun to get out of the house. Unfortunately, we have exhausted most of the "winter" options within a 2 hour driving radius. Then, Chris mentioned we should go to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg today (a short 20 minute drive from home). Camryn has been pretending to make "trains" out of blocks and various objects lately, so we figured it would be exciting for her. I will admit that I was not all that excited about going to a train museum and had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. Instead of seeing pictures and reading about the history of trains (this is exactly what I was expecting), we got to see actual trains in a HUGE museum. It really was a lot of fun to see the old trains. Camryn was SO excited and ran from train to train. The only downfall to the museum was that it isn't heated in the winter - that would have been nice for Chris and I to know before we left our coats in the car!! Camryn was nice and toasty with her coat - good thing! After walking around the huge museum looking at the trains, she had fun playing with several toy sets in the children's area. There is also a train station across the street where you can ride in a vintage train, but we decided to do that another day when it isn't so cold! The whole ride home, Camryn kept saying, "Trains are fun!" Who knew trains could be so much fun?!?
Oh, and of course, how could I forget Valentine's Day? Camryn started her festivities on Friday with a Valentine party at school with all of her friends. She signed up to take cheese curls to her party and she was so excited for her "job" all week. She kept asking me, "I take my cheese curls to school today?" I kept having to tell her she had to wait until Friday. She was all ready that morning dressed in her "Valentine shirt and pants" and she had her cheese curls and Dora valentines in hand. When I picked her up that afternoon, she had a bag full of cards and treats and she was excited to tell me all about her day. Then, on Saturday, we went to Gymboree as usual and went out for a nice lunch as a family. I am not sure she has any idea what Valentine's Day is all about, but she sure did have fun wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!!!
