“I can do it”

These have got to be some of Cameron’s most frequently uttered words! She is so independent, she wants to do everything all by herself–feed herself, brush her teeth, go down the stairs, climb this, climb that, you name it! Also, the girl has a sense of humor; we’re on Night 3 of night weaning (brutal!) so now she jokes around about having “daddy milk” or “di-di” (Dylan) milk and then she’ll follow it up with a, “heh heh. That’s weird!”

It’s been a while since I’ve posted because it’s been soo darn busy–some good, lots of work, too, etc., etc.–but I just had to post these pictures that Auntie Christina took just today.

Cameron loves Humpty Dumpty and it just so happens that my mom had a bunch of beautiful smocked dresses made for Christina (made by Mike’s sister, Dinah) one of which has Humpty Dumpty. Cameron clearly loves it! And, I love these photos!!



Pretty cute, huh?? I actually have lots more pictures–including some from today’s Easter Egg hunt at the preschool and a couple of Cameron in her “new” (Tiny Tots) training pants (this is her first time wearing them!!). I’ll post soon…(I hope!)!


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potty potty power and the gift of gab

trying a pull-up
trying a pull-up
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron is starting to show an interest in the potty–one day when I went into the bathroom, she followed me and just decided to plant herself right on to her potty! Since then, she’s been doing daily (I’m pretty sure). We’re in the process of getting her some of her own pull-ups, but leftovers from Dylan’s potty training days are sufficing for now!

We’ve also let her watch a couple of potty videos and she already knows the “When Nature Calls” song. Hearing her sing it is pretty awesome. And, of course, we are hoping that she will potty train quickly once we start.

Oh, and she is still a remarkable chatterbox. Yesterday she asked Tom, “Daddy, why you have to run?” and now she’s got “I’m not ready yet” in her repertoire of responses (“I want it”, “Don’t do that”, “More [fill in a snack food], please”, “I dropped [insert toy]” and “oh, no! My shoe fell off” are also pretty popular). Today at story time (we saw Kaden, Julie and Jenny there!), she stacked up some blocks and cheered herself on with “yay! I did it!”

It’s so funny to hear her talk in these short (but complete!) sentences. She is growing up so fast. Now when I see her amongst other kids, she looks so big!


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more weekend fun

enjoying swinging with dylan!
enjoying swinging with dylan!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here are a few sweet pictures from this past weekend’s fun–bday party for Hailey. Cameron just climbed right on into that tire swing and held on. She has such good coordination, balance and strength, I don’t worry about her on the playground in the same way that I did with Dylan. I’m pretty sure that, at this stage (she’s 19 months), I would have still felt like Dylan might let go and fall right off! She was just fine!


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DSC_0779
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

After exhibiting some reluctance to go down the slide by herself, she discovered her courage…


cameron tried the BIG slide!
cameron tried the BIG slide!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

She even went down the big slide all by herself. More amazing, I felt comfortable watching her climb up and slide down all by herself!


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DSC_0801
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here’s Dylan participating in the pinata part. At first he held back and told me he didn’t think the stuff inside was vegan, but I didn’t want him to feel sad about it so I told him he should go on along and we’d trade the non-vegan stuff for vegan goodies. Turns out he was able to scan the goodies fast enough to determine and target the treats that were vegan. He is really an amazing kid. As usual, I was impressed by his lack of interest in getting tons of stuff. He picked up a couple of rolls of Smarties and only a few plastic trinkets; he even picked stuff up for Cameron!


ready to play
ready to play
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan had a blast. At first, he was worried he wouldn’t know anyone there (aside from Hailey), but he was super stoked to see a bunch of school pals, including Nate and Cleo. Fun was had!


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Happy Hollow highlights

The weather was beautiful and the company was perfect…our daytrip with friends to visit the not-so-newly renovated Happy Hollow was a hit!


All the kids bravely ventured into the goat-petting area (where the Goats even had their own rest area!)…


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DSC_0755
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Following Cleo’s lead, Cameron finally mustered up enough courage to reach out and touch a goat!


with a new pal, eva!
with a new pal, eva!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Eva is just 2 months younger than Cameron. They had fun playing in parallel. Cameron also loved the new Carousel! She is still talking about the rhino she rode (which, after the first ride, she was proclaiming as “her’s”) and the zebra, giraffe, dragon, and elephant she saw (while on the carousel!).

Dylan was barely 3 months old during his first visit to Happy Hollow! It was very different back then–I don’t think I saw Neptune’s Carousel during our last visit. Dylan doesn’t remember, but this is where he rode his first amusement park ride ever! He’d just turned 1 when he was big enough to ride the Granny Bug Ride! Good times, great memories.


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sibs

3/21/2011
3/21/2011
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Going to bed turned into a mini-photo shoot. Can you tell my opportunities for taking pictures of them are more difficult to find???


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DSC_0743
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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DSC_0742
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Cameron definitely thinks Dylan is fun (and we do, too…especially, when he isn’t feeling moody!).


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did you say sneetches?

Yes!S-N-double E-T-C-H-E-S sneetches! Dylan sings it as “S-W-E-T-C-H-E-S”, but that just adds to the charm! He picked this up on his own, from listening to it on DVD.

He also still comes home from school with some pretty fantastic face paintings! This day, he was a pirate superhero!

Here’s another version, sung at bed time…

And, we can’t forget about Cameron who sings so well, all of the time! She actually sang “Sneetches” as well, but I didn’t catch it on video….

Cameron, by the way, continues to astonish us and everyone else around her that hears her speak for any length of time. She talks amazingly well — she forms full and complete sentences. Just tonight, in reference to a cookie she knew was on the counter, she was asking Dylan: “Can you reach it? I can’t reach it….” Then, she pulled the stool over to the counter and continued to poll folks on their ability to reach the cookie!!

The other night, I went running with her in the Bob and when we didn’t see the kitty cats we expected to see, I suggested the cats might be eating dinner and she busted out with “kitty cats eat donuts….that’s silllllly!” When her shoe falls off, she says “uh oh. shoe fell off. Put it back on.” She says so many things that crack us up, I almost wish I could constantly videotape her–a current favorite is “what the heck??” and “ver-ry nice.” She’s got intonation down pat as well!

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hail and weekend recap

little layer of hail!
little layer of hail!
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

We’re in the middle of a serious storm! Yesterday, we even got enough hail to form a thin layer on the ground. Oooh yes, this meant it was a stay indoors kind of weekend. Dylan made a pencil holder out of popsicle sticks; we spent oodles of time making “forts” out of tents, blankets and a string of beautiful lights; we whipped out my old tabletop fountain (old office decor from my AOL days) and “decorated” it with my polished stones, and tried our best to avoid television!


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DSC_0723
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

There was a whole lot of chasing Cameron, who was running amok with pens, so to distract everyone from pens and other mess, we eventually braved the weather to pick up some presents for folks and some groceries.

There was more cold weather today, so we made mint chocolate chip cookies and more of that vegan Irish Soda bread we made for St. Paddy’s Day (quick, easy, and yummy!). HAT came over for some games while the kids played (and bickered!)!

Back Log: I am reminded that Dylan wasn’t always good about coloring just on paper either!


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our pirate superhero!

awesome school face painting - pirate superhero!
awesome school face painting
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Last Wednesday, Dylan came home with yet another super cool face-painting from Teacher Sandy. This time he was a pirate superhero! I love how they encourage “generic” superheros at the school!

This one was especially fitting. I think we were in the middle of reading Magic Treehouse Pirates Past Noon! Dylan has really been enjoying reading these chapter books. He gets very caught up in the suspense and often doesn’t want to stop at just one chapter…!


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sledding photos…finally!

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v
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here are some sledding photos Heather took during our Tahoe trip. You’ll notice that Cameron is completely absent in these sets because she was experiencing her worst teething weekend ever! Baby girl and I had to skip the festivities and remain indoors where she could comfortably throw herself onto the floor…!


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IMG_5000
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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IMG_4996
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Heather is an amazing artist, so we always get to see snow sculptures that are more interesting than just snow people made up of rolled snowballs! She made an amazing Queen!


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IMG_4995
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Dylan always has so much fun…until his fingers start freezing because he gets tired of wearing mittens or gloves! He only has one on in this photo, so I imagine he came in shortly after this shot was taken.


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DSC_0703
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

The kids also went sledding on our way out of Tahoe. Tom snapped photos while Cameron threw a small hissy fit in the car before she decided (after nursing, of course) that playing with every single control in the car was pretty fun.


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DSC_0702
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.


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DSC_0701
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Overall, I’d say we all had a blast…even poor little Cameron who had to suffer mightily through the teething! She is still not done! From the feel of the gums, she probably has about 3 more that need to pop through. The rest are through but not all the way down. We’ll update with those pictures soon!


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Tahoe 2011

DSC_0592
DSC_0592
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Here’s Dylan in his snowsuit before he suddenly decided “dots” weren’t his style!! This was taken outside of the rental home on our first day in Tahoe. While we waited for Heather and clan to return from a grocery run, we played outside and practiced snowshoeing (a necessity since the snow was so deep!!)!


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DSC_0595
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

He’s lookin’ good and using my poles to good effect!


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DSC_0593
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

He looks like a natural here. No ski lessons this year, by the way. We didn’t feel we had enough time for the kids to really get a good feel for skiing, so we nixed the idea. Maybe next year we’ll see if they are interested.


DSC_0583
DSC_0583
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

This one is just a sweet shot of Dylan in his shades.


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DSC_0614
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

After HAT returned from the store, we all went on a very short snow shoe hike in Sugar Pine Point State Park. The loop was not long at all, but at the end of the day, all of the kids were pretty beat! Poor Cameron didn’t really nap at all during the day and didn’t fall asleep as I’d hoped while riding in the backpack carrier so we had to abort the loop and head back not even halfway through the walk!


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DSC_0624
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

And, here’s Tom!


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DSC_0625
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

Nothing like some snacks to motivate the kidlets! And check out the lake behind them…it was far more breathtaking than the camera conveys!


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DSC_0655
Originally uploaded by coffywoman.

The following day, we went snowshoeing near Emerald Bay. Due to uncooperative kids, Tom and I took turns: I went with the Claussen Clan to a viewpoint of Cascade Creek Falls with Cameron in the carrier. Once she started fussing, I turned back and Tom went up to the same hike. It was unsatisfyingly short, but as you can see, the view from Inspiration Point added much value to the excursion!

Tom and Assaf also managed a ski day and the big kids (Taliana and Dylan) did some sledding as well. Cameron was still having oodles of teething pain, so I missed the sledding entirely, so I’ll post pics that Tom and Heather took as soon as I get them downloaded!


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