How Quickly Summer Goes

The boys are both resting after a busy morning of playing with balls, trucks, blocks, and anything else they could get their hands on.  So I am filling in once again.

In front of our first house full of memories

Our biggest change has been our recent move.  We found a place with more land (over an acre) in the town of Waukesha, so about 15 mins from where we previously lived.  The boys have adapted much better than expected (and much better than me quite frankly, but I'm getting there).  It probably helps that they now have a lot more room to run around, a bigger yard that has a playset (or little park as Cameron calls it), a playroom full of toys, and lots more little kids around.

Because moving wasn't a big enough project to tackle, I also invited my friend from high school, Tim, and his family to stay with us a week after we made the move.  It was great incentive to get a few rooms usable and it is only fair - we visited them shortly before they moved from Indiana to Michigan so what goes around comes around!  It was wonderful to see old friends again but more on their visit later.


CAMERON

Cameron is becoming quite a goofball.  He told his first knock-knock joke Wednesday:
C: Knock-knock
Me:
Who's there?
C:
Orange
Me:
Orange who?
C:
Orange cupcake

I'm guessing this joke originated because I have told him the classic banana knock-knock joke that ends with Orange ya glad I didn't say banana.


Cameron loves to talk.  Whenever we are in the car, he is sure to point out everything he sees.  He also is very inquisitive.  Yes, many of his questions are still "Why?".  But he also asks things like "Why isn't it working?" and  "What's that?"   It's so neat to see the learning process in action.  As part of his curiosity, he is constantly trying to fix things around the house with daddy.  He also loves to help cook.  His favorite things to do while cooking, other than taste test pancakes, is to pour the measured ingredients into the bowl, stir them together, and also to use the onion chopper. 

To help him prepare for preschool, we worked really hard on the potty training over the past month.  Thanks to Liam and Quinn's visit (Tim's boys), Cameron immediately stopped arguing about sitting on the toilet.  In fact, we started putting him in underwear right after their visit.  There were a few accidents, but he made lots of progress in a short amount of time thanks to a new (really a gently used, but well cleaned) Elmo potty chair to encourage his independence and motivate him to do it himself (the one thing that really motivates Cameron) and some nuts & dried fruits (probably the other thing that really motivates him - foods he likes). 


NATHAN

Nate is quite the talker.  He now says ball (in fact one day he told me to get ball - nothing like taking orders from a little one!), window, hiding, bread, water (pronounced wah-wah), broccoli, baby, smoothie, and blankie among other words.  Yes, he is also attached to his blankie, though not quite as much as big brother yet.  His love of talking combined with Cameron's love of talking makes for way-too-social bedtimes.  The boys share a room in the new house so that they can have a separate play room.  We have to keep them separate at nap time and many nights at bedtime, after an hour and half of socializing, we end up moving one of them out for the night.  The first week or so, Nate would fall asleep before we put Cameron to bed.  However, he started waiting up for Cameron because for several weeks he was is rarely asleep when it was Cameron's bedtime.  Now once again he is falling asleep before Cameron goes to bed.  It's sweet they get along so well in the same room, but also frustrating that they both keep talking well past their bedtimes.  And now Cameron's latest hijinx in the morning is he climbs into Nate's crib.  That has replaced his previous favorite morning escapade of emptying every accessible drawer, basket, etc into Nate's crib. 

Nathan is also very opinionated and sensitive.  Every little thing sets him off and the tears come spilling out.  I'm sure it doesn't help that his big brother constantly is picking on him (grabbing toys from him, touching him when he is already crying, even hitting or kicking him and worse of all what happened last month - biting him).  Fortunately it has gotten better since we have moved.  I know some of it is just the natural sibling relationship, but some of it is extremely frustrating when it is the same misbehavior over and over during the day.  When they do play together nicely though, it is the most wonderful thing to watch!

Cameron better watch out though as Nate is catching up in size!  He is just one size smaller than Cameron (Nate is 12/18 months and Cameron is 18 months/2T).  At his last doctor's appointment in mid-July, Nathan measured 50% on height and about 10-25% on weight.  If I find my slip from that appointment, I will update with actual numbers.  Poor guy - you can tell he is the second child as I am much less on top of everything with him.

Finally, Nate's biggest accomplishment these past few months is learning to walk.  He took a step a couple months ago while at the doctor's office, but didn't show much interest again until last month.  Around the second week of August, he really started taking off and gaining confidence.  Now he walks almost everywhere and crawls very rarely.  In fact, this morning Nathan was "chasing" me around the house going "are you?" (for where are you) - his version of either tag or hide and seek.  It was too cute!  He is still not keen on shoes, but is complaining less now about them.  The first day we made him wear shoes, he wailed the whole time he had them on.  Now he only tries to take them off in the car, but without screaming.  I guess that's an improvement.

Seeing as there will be an update on Cameron's first day of preschool and his birthday coming sooner rather than later (or so I hope), I will sign off.  Plus I can't remember anything else from these past several months.  It's all a blur and a good lesson to me to update this blog much more regularly!

Love, 
Cameron & Nathan (via their mom)