Tulip Town

This past weekend we had the best day ever! We took our annual trip up to the tulip festival and had a great time. It helped that the weather was beautiful and sunny too. The kids were great and the flowers were beautiful as always. Cameron was very good about not walking into or pulling the flowers. Addy loved all of the flowers and no matter how hard I pressed couldn't pick her favorite "I love them all" she just kept saying. No matter how many times we see them I can never get over just how striking an entire field of tulips really is. The kids had a great time and we love our annual tradition. 

16 months

Cameron is 16 months old! His vocabulary is exploding, every day he adds several new words. He now says "no" to things which before his answer was always "yeah." He's becoming pickier with food and only seems to like things off of Brian's plate. It's actually quite funny because we always all have the same thing for dinner every night, but Cameron won't eat what is on his plate, but will happily pick at the same food on Brian's plate. And it's impossible to say no because he always says "please."
He's always trying to open doors to get out of a room and is always trying to climb up on things. His favorite is to try and climb up on the bed and then once he's up there he falls straight forward, I swear he could do this for hours. He loves finding his eyes, ears, nose, belly, etc and then loves to find mine. Every night he leans in to my face and then pokes at my eyes, nose and mouth.
He is clearly more opinionated now. He hates diaper changes and fights them, he hates his car seat and fights it and he loves reading books, but only the ones he picks and he's in control of when the pages turn.
We are still working on "gentle touch"but he is getting much better with it. Today I saw him give all of his friends hugs which was so adorable to see.

Lover or a Fighter?

Cameron had lots of new tricks that he learned while we were away and my favorite one was that when he gives you a kiss he says, "Mmwwaahh." It's supposed to be the lip smack sound but he literally sounds it out when he says it and it's adorable. While cuddling before bedtime, he just lays these huge kisses on me and says, "mmwwaahh." It makes me laugh out loud which makes him laugh out loud, which leads to another kiss and the cycle continues. My little loverboy make me so proud.

Contrast this story, with the letter we received below from his teacher this week. I could hardly finish reading it because it was making me laugh so hard. I know it's not funny that Cameron is being aggressive with his friends, but at the same time you have to admit it is pretty hilarious to imagine a 15 month old "wrestling his friends and holding them to the ground, as well as hitting and pushing." I know it won't be funny a few years from now if it's still happening, but right now it's hilarious to picture my little guy as the "aggressive" one. So which is it Cameron, are you a lover or a fighter? Or are you just upset that you didn't get to go on the cruise?

Until we know there will be a lot of "gentle hands" practice for Cameron. 

Addy and Izzy

One of the cutest parts of the trip was watching Adelyn and her cousin Isabelle playing together. They had so much fun and were so enchanted with everything that was going on around them. Here are a few pics of the girls in all their glory. They of course loved that everyone on the cruise referred them as "princess" everywhere they went.

Princesses, Princesses and more Princesses

To say Adelyn likes princesses is an understatement. To say that she was excited to meet the princesses is an understatement. She got to meet princesses on at least 5 separate occasions and each time she was completely mesmerized. It was absolutely priceless. One morning she went to the "Princess Gala" and got to meet all 6 of them back to back. I don't think she stopped smiling the entire time. She couldn't even process which one was her favorite because she just loved them all so much. She said "I just don't know, they are all so beautiful, I can't pick just one."

Here are pics of some of her encounters. She got autographs from every one. 

Off to Orlando

Several months ago my Dad told me that he wanted to take the entire family on a vacation together. After much research, it was concluded that a Disney cruise was the vacation of choice. Warm weather, kid friendly cruise, all you can eat buffet- we were sold! Then we realized it would involve flying to Orlando- with a 15 month old, and taking a cruise- with a 15 month old and spending time in paradise- with a 15 month old. I love my son very very much, but "relaxing" and "Cameron" are not two words I would put together. So Brian graciously offered to stay back with Cameron so Addy and I could go on the cruise (or was he just worried about being trapped on a ship with my family?) Either way, in a word, this trip was AMAZING.
Adelyn was the perfect age. She loved everything about the cruise. She saw princesses, she saw Disney characters, she went swimming, she played at the beach, she ate ice cream. She had the best quote of the entire trip when after seeing 1 of several princesses when she said, "oh my gosh, it's like all of my dreams are coming true."
Yes, Adelyn, that's exactly what it was like.

Here is the first of several posts related to this trip.

For the Record

While it is true that Cameron is an incredibly happy child, this doesn't mean that he's always happy. He can be known to "turn on the tears" just as fast as Addy could and lately he's also a little bit of Jekyll and Hyde. The other night at dinner he proved both of these points to be true. He was so thrilled to be eating tomato soup by himself (although I use the word eating loosely as I'm not sure anything actually got into his mouth). He was of course distraught when his soup was gone and he couldn't wait the 10 seconds until he got more. But then when he did, he was back to being thrilled again. These pictures were all taken within the span of 30 seconds.