Two, two Camryn is TWO!?!?!?

     How in the world have two years flashed before my eyes so quickly?  As blessed as I am to have a healthy, happy and beautiful baby girl....I can't help but get a little emotional as I type this post.  I never thought two years old would get here so quickly.  It seems like we were just leaving the hospital and bringing our beautiful little girl home for the first time.  Camryn has most definitely changed our lives for the better and made every single day more complete.  I never thought I could ever love someone or something as much as I love that little girl! She puts the biggest smile on my face and completely fills my heart with joy and happiness.  Our world is so complete because of this amazing little girl and her giant personality!

At two Camryn:

• is an incredible 36 1/2 inches tall (not even on the growth chart....she's a monster!)
• weighs 31(ish) lbs.  (the big girl scale is so intriguing...we have a very hard time standing still :) (85-90th percentile)
• continues to have light blue eyes and white blonde hair
• wears 2t and 3t size clothes (most 2t stuff fits in the waist, but is too short in the length :/)
• wears a size 7 shoe
• is strong-minded, strong-willed and knows exactly what she wants (and usually gets exactly what she wants...within reason :)
• enjoys playing babies, Legos (or any type of blocks), bubbles, outside and coloring most
• is very into pushing anything...doll strollers, real strollers, her grocery cart, real carts in stores, the broom and even vacuum 
• will ask to go shopping (a girl after her momma's heart :) and usually requests to go to Target
• LOVES her dogs (Zoey and "Brobi")...her world revolves around these four-legged creatures
• is talking SO much...she repeats everything and often says 2-4 word phrases and almost complete sentences...some of her trademark phrases or "Camrynisms" as we call them are...
• "I want taco" (even though she doesn't even eat tacos, just the tortillas :)
• "Where __________ is? (Where Zoey is? Where daddy is? etc.)
• "Gooooo Reds!"
• "Mamryn (as she calls herself) do it"
• I want "my-meam" (ice cream)
• "Hi, Eh-yee" (Hi Ellie)
• "Dag Nabbit!"
• "Excuse me _________"
• loves to sing songs, including The Wheels on the Bus, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Special Agent Oso theme song, Itsy, Bitsy Spider, and Bieber of course :) (honestly she will sing along with anything!)
• knows all of her colors: orange, pink, purple, red, blue, green, yellow, white, black and brown
• can count 1, 2, 3
• watches Special Agent Oso, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins and has started showing an interest in Jake and the Neverland Pirates (I think she watches that with Aubrey at Miss Patty's)
• continues to love reading...her favorite books include Are You a Cow?, Hippos Go Berserk, Click, Clack Moo Cows That Type, Chicka Chicka ABC and The Wheels on the Bus
• is our absolute world!  Love that little girl more than words can say!!!

Sneaking a cupcake before the big party :) That's our girl!!!

Bieber Fever

     I never thought I would be writing a post that my almost two year old has developed a love for the one and only...Justin Bieber!?!?  I am not sure where this love came from, but feel confident it definitely may have started with her "Aunt" Giggi (Chrissie).  Chrissie does love J.B. and has passed on her excitement and enthusiasm to C.  She gets so excited when she hears the beginning of the "Boyfriend" song and immediately starts singing and dancing.  She also has become quite demanding in the car, requesting Bieber be played over and over (and over and over again...we sometimes listen to it 5 or 6 times in a row :).  I love watching her bounce up and down, tap her foot to the beat or listen to that cute little voice sing the words and even change her pitch during the song.  So stinkin' cute!  Maybe one day she will figure out Bieber is the singer of the song....not it's name :)    

Nana's New Car

Watch Out!!! Nana got a new car!! Nana has dreamed of owning a Mustang convertible since before college.  She finally treated herself and demonstrated how hard work WILL pay off!  Cam LOVES Nana's new car and riding around with the top down.  She often tries to tell me about the adventures she and Nana take in "Nana's Car" during the day. :) So excited for Nana....she deserves it!!!

Front view :)

First Haircut

     Today Cammie got her first haircut!!! If you saw her hair you would never believe that her white-blonde locks were ready for a trim, but her poor bangs were down in her eyes.  I probably could have trimmed it myself, but knew our long-time hairstylist would love the opportunity to put Cammie in her chair. :)  Cammie confidently climbed in the chair and sat right in the seat like a big girl.  She put the cape around her and sat pretty still considering she is almost a two-year old. :)  Sheri trimmed her bangs and even the back a little to help with those baby fine tangles that create quite the tangles on a daily basis.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives, as Sheri refused to accept any money for her haircut and even gathered all the tiny locks for me to save forever. :) C sure is getting to be such a big girl!

So big! :)

Doing such a good job of sitting still...

Just about finished...now if Sheri could just help us control that mess we would be in good shape!

"Wing, Wing"

Our little munchkin LOVES to swing!  She swings at the park with both grandma and Nana when she visits during the week and was lucky enough to have temporary swings in her backyard for most of the summer until the old owners of our house were ready to put their swing set up at the house they are building.  Fortunately, Cammie was not home the day the swing set left our house.  I knew I couldn't let her be home...she would have been devastated. When she finally ventured to the backyard a day or two later she looked at the empty grass and asked to "wing" over and over with such a sad face it broke my heart.  I knew Chris and I had to do something.  I couldn't bear to see that face each day. :(  We had been discussing what we were going to do once the swing set was gone for a large part of the summer.  We both decided we would wait for the swing set at Sam's Club to go on sale and buy it once did.  That plan didn't last long....we barely made it 2 weeks. :)   Chris and I priced swing sets online for about a week, but decided to go with the one at Sam's.  I knew many people who had bought swing sets at Sam's and had relatively positive things to say about them.  We called a few days in a row to check the price then decided to just bite the bullet and buy it.  Part of our decision to buy was that her birthday was quickly approaching and I knew I wanted to have a party as an excuse to invite people over to see our house (people had been asking me all summer :/).  Another reason we decided to buy that day was my dad volunteered to spend his only Saturday of the month off and help put it together over the upcoming weekend.  Finally, the weather was supposed to be absolutely gorgeous....in the 80's and you don't get any better than that in the middle of August.  Chris, Dad and Nick ("Dick" as Cammie calls him) worked all day Saturday and half of Sunday to get it together.  We are so fortunate to have such awesome people in our lives!  Right as they finished C woke up from a nap and headed outside to see the finished product.  Although she did not show her true excitement (it takes her a while to actually wake up most days) she is in love with her new toy!  The only down side: Brohdi can't climb up this one and sit with her in the house. :)  Thank you to 3 of my favorite guys! You are the best!

Directing Pop where to take the swing set...his truck of course :)

So excited for what's in those boxes :)

The finished product :)  Thank you Daddy, Pop and Dick!

   

Back to School

     Going back to school is always so hard as I struggle to admit that summer is coming to an end.  It seems like going back to school gets harder each year as Cammie gets a little older and we are able to interact with her more and more.  This school year was no different with the exception that it seemed to sneak up even quicker with as busy as the summer was.  Don't get me wrong....I soaked up the summer sunshine and days away from work as much as I could with my little sun princess.  We played outside on the swing set, blew bubbles, went swimming and even managed to grab a few nap snuggles together every once in a while. :)
     Unfortunately, a majority of my summer days were dedicated to online classes and a curriculum project I applied for that would pay to take my Cammie to Disney for the first time.  Chris and I were also busy slowly trying to get everything (well as much as we could) painted, hung or put away in the new house. I feel like I blinked my eyes and summer was gone!  
     I always struggle with the beginning of the school year.  There is never enough hours in the day to get even half of the items on your to-do list accomplished.  I always feel behind at work, school and home at the beginning of the year.  I struggle to find time to work-out (which I need even more on school days).  I never can seem to find even a few minutes to spend with Chris and pretend I am his wife, in addition to being mom and second grade teacher.  Most of all, I struggle with the amount of time I am away from Cam, compared to the time I was used to spending with her on a summer day.  To make things even more complicated Cammie has to go to occasionally go to a baby-sitter this school year.  My dad decided to head back to work in early June so I lost my full-time babysitter and C lost her Pop who kept her scheduled and in line. :)  Although I am very excited for him to get back to something he missed, C and I will miss him more than we can put into words.  My mom will continue to watch C on her days off and Chris' mom will continue to keep her each Tuesday, but for the remainder of days each month C will have to stay with a babysitter.  Thankfully we have found an amazing sitter who I know will take the best care of C while she is there.  Miss Patty, whom C knows from the Y will take care of her when family is not able to.  Miss Patty also has a 2 1/2 year she takes care of daily, which will give C a playmate when she is there.  I know this will be a great opportunity for Cammie, especially as we think about enrolling her in preschool next year, but it's just hard to make adjustments when you are used to things being just so.  Crossing my fingers for a successful start and a less stressful school year than the one before....anything to make that next break or those summer days come a little faster... :)

Girl's Weeknd

      This weekend the boys headed to Cincinnati for a weekend filled with golf, while the girls stayed at home and had a packed, but very fun and interesting time together. :)  Friday night Cammie was invited to Kaidyn's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.  This was Camryn's first time there and she had so much fun!  Little Miss K. is so sweet and so kind to all her friends, including the younger ones like Cammie. :) C loved riding the rides, playing Skee Ball and following her friends around.  She enjoyed pizza, a cupcake and even the birthday show with Chuck E. Cheese.  I was so impressed that he didn't scare her (he is kind of scary up close :) and she seemed to enjoy the giant version.  With Disney in our future I just don't want her to be scared of the big characters. :)  After the birthday party we picked up the dogs from mom's house before they headed out with friends and were on our way home.  Chrissie, Ellie and Penny met us at our house where we enjoyed pizza and some girl time as we played, snuggled, watched t.v. and slept downstairs. (With Friday being our first teacher day...the older girls were beat :)

My cutie pie :)

      Saturday we were up early and ready for a day of shopping!!!  Chrissie, Tammy (Chrissie's mom), Nana, Pop, Cammie and I had plans to head to the outlets.  Chrissie had 30% off at Gap and Banana Republic and we sure are not ones to let a coupon go to waste. :) Unfortunately, Nana had been battling some sinus yuckies and decided not to go at the last minute.  Pop stayed home to take care of Nana, so the girls went on their way (while Ellie split her time and stayed with Mamaw and Pop...2 kids at the outlet mall was a bit much the first time, so we tried our luck with just one :).  We had a great time at the outlets, found a few good deals and C even wormed her way into a few rides. :)  

Just another reason to love the outlets :)

Best way to shop.....she was OUT! :)
(Such a lady :)

     We rushed home to get Ellie and were ready to settle down for a relaxing evening when we discovered C locked us out of the house! :(  For the first time ever I followed my mom's advice...locking the front door, putting the garage door down, doing all the things to keep us girls safe while the boys were gone.  Chrissie, Ellie, Camryn, all 3 dogs and I had headed out to the backyard to enjoy a few minutes outdoors before it got dark.  Chrissie went to open the door so she could feed Ellie and discovered it was locked.  Immediately she asked me if I locked the door and then asked my little monster who smiled and replied with "mmm-hmmm".  We had no phones, no car or house keys...nothing.  I ran next door to our amazing neighbors, Robin and Billy to use their phone to call my dad.  Billy ran over and tried opening the locked door with his credit card but had no luck. :( Ellie is now SCREAMING...she is starving and we can't get in.  My mom and dad accidentally gave us our house key back the week before when returning car keys so they had no way to get in either.  Thank goodness my dad is handy.  He came to our house as fast as possible, tools in hand and was able to get the door opened pretty quick.  (Thank goodness for dads...what we would do without them??? I feel like my dad has saved me a handful of times...he is the best! :) After Ellie finally ate, we had a heart-to-heart with Camryn about not locking doors and were able to calm down we finally settled in and called it a night.
          Sunday we ran a few errands, planned for our first day of school and tried to start Cammie's yarn-wrapped letters craft (way more involved than what I anticipated) before Chrissie, Ellie and Penny packed up and headed home.  I can honestly say their golf weekend has turned into one of my favorite weekends of the year!  It just keeps getting better each year!  Many people think we are crazy to keep 2 kids and all 3 dogs under one roof, but we absolutely LOVE it! :)