We Love Daddy's Day Off Work!!!

Rich started working four 10-hour shifts at work, so until he finds a second job (probably after he takes the GRE) we have him all to ourselves on Wednesdays!! I'm afraid we're getting spoiled... Cam and I will miss having an entire day with Daddy!! On Monday, my friend and I took our kids to the Discovery Museum at the Gateway, and decided to get season passes! Best decision we ever made. We've already been twice this week. Totally worth it. So today Rich wanted to go and see Cam in action...

Outside by the helicopter. Life flight donated one of theirs that had some mechanical problems, and all the big kids love to play in it. Cam didn't care so much.

This is what happens pretty much every time we pull the camera out. She'll be looking at me, and as soon as she sees it, turns away!! Boo. But.... it is an awesome shot of the shirt I embellished for her. Cute, huh?

She LOVED coloring her own "cartoon." She did this for about 10 minutes, which is the longest she did any one thing at the Gateway.

She climbed all the way to the top. The girl loves stairs. She could have done this all day if we let her.
We played music. This is Cam's second favorite thing to do. (P.S. she is starting to look super old...)

So, so fun!

Typical Cam concentration face. Hahah. This is yellow because I took the picture through yellow glass... They have this tube (kind of like at bank drive thru's where you stick the canister in and it is sucked up inside) where you can put a ball in, and it is sucked up through a maze of swirly tubes.

Cam played dress up!! Hahah she LOVES hats. You'd trust her to build something, wouldn't you??
Stopping to smell the flowers...

After we played, we ate lunch at Panda Express in the food court. YUM!! Cam is a big fan of chow mein (she should be, that is what I craved during my first-trimester-evil-morning-sickness!)

Coming soon: POTTY TRAINING!!!! We have already started pre-potty training her. She's peed on the potty 6 times already!! Yay!

Now that Miss Camryn is 16 months old...

*she is talking up a storm! Off the top of my head she's now saying:

treat (tree)

up (I taught her to say this after I got tired of listening to whining every time she wanted to get on the couch!)

hot

hat

ahbah (popsicle)

Aduh (Atlas, the little boy I watch Thursday and Fridays)

all duh (all done)

doggie (instead of dog... kind of hard to distinguish from daddy)

apple

bzzz (the sound a bee makes)

Memi (Remi her cousin... she LOVES him!)

Bapa (Papa)

Elmo (she is obsessed.)

Hi (she says this all.the.time.)

*loves reading.

*loves puzzles. She can't do them by herself just yet, but she knows how to match the puzzle piece with the picture on the board. She just needs help getting the piece to fit in.

*loves dancing. (Her favorite movie is Juno... she loooves the music in the beginning and asks for it... 'no? 'no?)

*Still eats pretty much everything (except bananas still!!)

*Is down to one afternoon nap, ranging anywhere from 2-3 hours. We are working on getting that to a consistent 3.

*has 12 teeth (4 top, 4 bottom, and all 4 one year molars)

*her newest nickname is Ray. As in Ray Charles. She closes her eyes ALL THE TIME!! She squints them shut randomly while she's eating, playing, dancing, walking down the hall.... It's HILARIOUS. I wish I could catch it on tape.

*She loves wearing necklaces. She puts them on and says, "Diddy" (Pretty).

*She is a TOTAL Daddy's girl! And I love it!! When she gets hurt, she cries "Daddy," when she wakes up the first thing she says (after hi about 5 times) is "Daddy?" All day long. She loves him. It's my favorite (when he's home).

I still can't believe my kid is 16 months old!! How did that happen?? She is seeming more and more like a big girl everyday. *sigh.

Our Trip to Wyoming!!!

Being a stay at home mom has some definite perks. One of them is the freedom to travel at my leisure!!! I haven't seen my friend Katie since she was pregnant, and now her little James is 7 months old, so Cam and I made the 8+ hour drive to visit them for 10 days! It was so much fun, we were sad to go back home! Katie has this awesome park by her house (where they sell the yummiest ice cream for super cheap!), so we took the kids a few times. (Incidentally, these are the ONLY pictures from our trip. Oops. *Note to self, TAKE MORE PICTURES!)

Cam loved the swings, until she discovered that roaming around the park was much more fun (For her. Chasing her was not so much fun for me.)

How freaking cute is James?? This was his first time on the swings...

And he was LOVING it!!

Check out all those teeth!! When did my girl get so OLD??

And this is the face she pulled for most of the pictures. Haha eyes closed, huge smile. Yelling, "EEEEEeeeeeEEEE!" the entire time. Pure joy.

Thanks for hosting us for so long Wallenkamps!! Can't wait to see you (in Utah this time) in November!!

Piggies!!!!!

(Tell me this is not the CUTEST thing you've ever seen?!?!)

This kid has a TON of hair. She's sported a hair clip since the day she was born (true story!). But I am not a fan of palm trees/pigtails, etc... on babies. So all of that hair has been waiting, for this day!! Cam's first pigtails!

Miss Camryn...

Ok, so Cam's been feeding herself for awhile now. Mostly we cut up her food, stick it on her tray, and let her go to town. But not until this week did I even CONSIDER the idea of letting her feed herself her yogurt or applesauce!! Haha. It is quite entertaining. She does a pretty good job, except she always turns the spoon upside down before she puts it in her mouth. So she drops 1/3 of it in the process. The nice thing about this self feeding is that it entertains her for a lot longer!! Here are some photos from the first time I let her feed herself applesauce:

How cute is that girl??

She was SO PROUD of herself!!

And now that another month has passed, it's time to do some Cam updates!!

What Cam Says:

(We wrote all these down on Jul 28 in preparation for her doctors appointment)

Water= wa wa or wahder

Daddy= da da

Night Night= ni ni

Ball= ba

Balloon= bahgnn

Dog= da, woof woof (in that order)

No= no no no

Mom= ma ma, or mom

Sippy= "sss"

Food= fooff

More= ma

Thank you= thk u

Book= ba

Bubbles= buh ba

Ryder (her boyfriend)= Ryder or de ry.

Uh oh= uh oh (recently she's added a syllable to it, and it's uh oh da)

Her favorite bear= Ma

Shh= Shh shhh

** Additionaly, since her appointment she's added:

Tickle= tckl

All done= ah da

Elmo= Mommy, or mo mo

Show= (as in, I want to watch a show) Shhh

Book= Ba

Bath= Ba

Bug= Buh

Animal Sounds:

Cow=bbbbboooo

Dog= woof, woof

Horse= (Shakes head, like a horse does)

Pig= (snorts)

Chicken= bababa (bawk bawk bawk)

Lion= ahhhhhhh (it's how she roars)

Snake= sssss

Monkey= ah ah ah (sometimes... she forgets this one a lot)

Bunny= (Scrunches her nose and blows air out of it, like a bunny wrinkling his nose)

Dinosaur= ahhhhh (roaring again)

Fish= smacks her lips softly

Cat=(a high pitched aaaahhh)

Actions:

When she's told to say bye bye, she blows kisses.

When she wants a treat, she says "thk u, thk u"

When she wants to play pat-a-cake, she does the hand gesture for "Mark it with a C" and says, "Patik, patik"

When she wants to brush her teeth she puts her index finger in her mouth like it's a toothbrush and says, "chh, chh, chh chh" Like the Raffi song.

When playing with a toy car or helicopter, she says, "Brrr brr"

Shakes head no

Drinks from a straw (FINALLY)

Loves to look at pictures of herself and say "dat" (That maybe?? No idea)

Loves to look at herself in the mirror.

Can identify eyes (ours and hers)

Loves playing peek-a-boo.

Loves swinging in her swing.

Her rage:

We have discovered that Cam has a VERY short fuse. If you take something away from her, wipe her face, try to help her *but she thinks you are trying to take something away from her* she clenches her teeth, balls up her fists, and makes a "Hhhhuuuhhhhhh" sound. We really need to video it. It is like she is Hulk baby.

Ok, that is all I can think of for now. I am so glad she's started talking now!! It is so much fun!! And also, really really nice that she can tell me what she wants for the most part!

Appointment Stats:

22.4 lbs= 55%

32" tall= 90%

Just being silly

A few nights ago I went into Camryn's room at 11:30 to check on her before we went to bed. I walked in to find her sitting up in her crib, just talking to her bear. She had snot all over her face, so I brought her out to give her some Emergen-C. She wasn't used to the carbonation, so she kept making the funniest faces!! Whenever we'd laugh, she'd get this big cheesy grin, and crack up. Evidence:

Walking!!!

And getting into everything!

A preview....

Here's one of the ADORABLE pictures of Cam, taken by my friend Lauren!! You can see the others that she put up here.

P.S. The kid walks. EVERYWHERE. Video will be up once we get around to taking one!