Saturday chores are fun to do....

Have I mentioned before how intrigued and fascinated (a little obsessed) Cameron is with vacuums?? It is soooo cute how he loves to clean. He is so interesed in how vacuums work and loves to look at all the parts on the big one. Pretty much every day he points to the closet where we keep our vacuum and says "see, mommy, daddy vacuum". Then he runs and grabs his and wants us to vacuum. The good news is we have clean carpet :) The other good news is the batteries are almost dead in his. But of course I will give in and put new ones in, how could I not??

I love how he knows how to step on the lever with his foot and pull the handle down, he learned that just by watching us. Such a smarty pants!

Updates

I just wanted to post some things Cameron has been doing the last few months. I've been meaning to post his 19 & 20 month updates. Anyway, he always has loved to give five to everyone and the last few months he learned to give "knuckles". He even says knuckles in his cute little voice and gets his fist up. Cameron says all the animal sounds, when you ask him what they say. Cameron knows most of his colors. He knows blue, red, yellow, orange (sounds like nose), green, and purple. Apparently this is advanced according to my friend who was shocked when we were at lunch and Cameron pulled out the crayons from his kid meal and started saying the colors. She said her kids were never interested in the color of anything until they were at least 3. I am just glad to know Cameron didn't inherit the "color blindness gene" that most of Jeremy's family has :) He folds his arms, bows his head and closes his eyes when we say prayers....he keeps his head down but sometimes if we are blessing the food he sneaks some off of his plate before we are done. I don't know how I would know that, I keep my eyes closed the entire prayer :) He loves to sing "popcorn popping on the apricot tree" it's way cute. And he loves to eat popcorn, he asks for it all day long. Cameron loves to play hide and seek, build things with his blocks and then knock them over, color, play with Tica our dog and "pull" her toys...he learned to say Tica a few weeks ago. He knows his name and calls himself "Mon". He gives the best hugs and kisses and even says "love you". He is soooo good to clean up and does it most of the time without me even asking. If something spills he says "oh no made mess" and then picks it up. He is still fascinated with the vacuum and loves to vacuum with his little one when we are vaduuming. He continues to crack me up everyday and amazes me at what he knows. Cameron knows what Mickey Mouse show it is going to be 30 seconds into it and will start telling me what is coming up. Nights are great, he loves his bath and story time and goes to sleep with NO trouble. Sometimes is sits in his crib talking to himself if he isn't tired, but then falls asleep. He sleep through the night and wakes up bright and early ready to start a new day. I can't complain about his lack of naps since he is such a good kid and sleeps through the night. I won't say it doesn't make me jealous to hear all my friends' kids take two naps a day that are 2-3 hours long!!! I dream of the things I could do during that time, but then again I wouldn't trade it for the memories I am making, the smiles and laughs I get, and being his best friend in the world. One day when he grows up I will wish all he wanted to do was play and spend time with me! Cameron loves suckers, stickers, and bubbles....these things make for good bribes for me :) He also has fun playing in Chick fila play area and shopping with mommy. Cameron really is an easy going kid! I love you little man. Your enthusiasm and excitement with everything is contageious!

A natural....

One day when Cameron and I were at Target a girl approached me and said, "your little boy is so cute....how old is he....have you ever thought about getting him into modeling?" I answered her questions and told her that I never wanted to be a "stage mom" and have my kids model/act etc. She kept insisting and wouldn't stop talking about how cute Cameron was...so I gave her my name and number. A few days later the manager of this talent company called me saying his scout gave him my information and wanted to meet with us. I reluctantly made an appointment on a day Jeremy could go with us, I didn't want to get roped into anything and I figured it would be easier to say NO with Jeremy there. Well, long story short the guy talked us into it and we set up a photo shoot a few weeks later to get pictures for Cameron's portfolio and these are the pictures!

I think this is my favorite one (but I find myself saying that after I look at each one)

Cameron puts the HAM in Cunningham that's for sure!



I can just see this on a Coke add...

They scheduled 2 hours for the photo shoot and told me most kids take at least that long. They need breaks, have melt downs, get tired, won't sit still, get hungry etc. Cameron had 4 different outfit changes and 4 different back drops and we were done in 40 minutes! The photographer was so happy and said he was one of the easiest kids she has worked with. And was shocked that she was able to get soooo many good pictures in that amount of time. He acted like he totally knew what he was doing and was so fun to watch. After the photo shoot Jeremy took Cam home and I had to stay and wait to meet with another person to review all 300 pictures and narrow them down to these 8!! Talk about HARD! I wanted to keep at least 295 of them, they all turned out so dang cute. Really you can keep as many as you want, or more like as many as you can afford :) I am happy with the ones I picked, now lets just hope this cute little face and personality make some $$$ (for his college fund of course).

Shopping buddies

My friend Danielle has a little boy Cameron's same age. They have fun playing together. Cameron is always trying to hug Jayden and be close to him, but Jayden usually doesn't want anything to do with it. Danielle says his 2 older sisters hug and kiss him all day and he gets sick of it.

We went to lunch one day and then went shopping at Costco after. Cameron wouldn't stay in the cart and kept wanting to get out and run as usual. Finally I decided to put him in the cart with Jayden and he was happy and we were able to shop a little faster :)

I love that Cameron is starting to have friends over for play-dates and watch him interact with them. He gets so excited when friends come over...he is such a social, friendly kid. I look forward to many more play-dates and birthday parties and hope that our house is the "hang out" for Cam and his friends as he grows up!!

So cute & creative

Cameron turns everything into a "ride" and says "mommy, push". He climed into his shopping cart all by himself and from the other room I heard, "mommy, mommy, ride, ride, mommy push" when I came in the room this is what I saw! So we went for a ride around the house and along the way he has to pick up other toys and animals because he likes to include everyone and everything!

Heart Breaker

Just a fair warning to all you parents of little girls out there. I predict this little face will cause many heart breaks. Sometimes I look at this kid and wonder where he came from....really?! How am I so lucky to be his mom. I love you little Camster :) One of his cute traits is being a little OCD maybe??!! Notice his toothbrush....yeah he usually has to carry this with him around the house saying "brush" and "paste" he likes to brush his teeth often!! He also cleans up after himself and is very conscious of picking up his toys saying "nup" for clean up. Whenever he spills something he says "ought oh...made mess" and then proceeds to wipe it up or pick things up. Hopefully this trait stays with him through his teenage years.

Christmas

This was Camerons 2nd Christmas and he was so cute! Everytime he saw a snowman he would say "noman" and he loved to say "HO HO HO Merry Messmas" In fact he would just walk around the house saying that. It made me laugh.The whole month of December Cameron was so good about not opening the packages under the tree, I wasn't sure what to expect with him. He just had fun carrying them around the house and re-arranging them under the tree. Every now and then he would take a ribbon or bow off and then say "nooo" and shake his head.

I wasn't sure he would know what to do with the presents once we handed them to him, since he didn't try to open them before. But he is a smart kid and went to town!

Of course we (I) never forget to give Tica a few gifts. Grammy and Grampy always show Tica some love and bring gifts too.

I love these pictures! Here is Cam trying to get the lap top out of the box (which is adult proof with screws and barb wire, so of course he couldn't get it out).



Once it was out of the box he got comfy and went to work pushing every button he could as many times as he could! Thanks cousin Lydia, this was a PERFECT gift for him!

Cameron is fascinated with buses. He looks for them when we are driving and yells "BUS" usually before I even spot them. I caputred this cute video of him after he opened his bus.

And I captured this cute picture of Jer after he opened the Wii Mario Kart game. He was really excited :)

Love, love, love this sequence of pictures!! Here Cameron is opening the shopping cart Grammy T gave him....

Next he picks up the heavy box and carries it to daddy all by himself....


Daddy opens it and puts the shopping cart together and Cameron gets a closer look in the box to make sure he got everything out!

After we opened all our gifts Grammy and Grampy came over to give Cameron his gifts and open the ones from us. He definitely got spoiled.

This is the real reason Grammy and Grampy like to come over Christmas morning though :) Jeremy has "twisted my arm" making me promise to carry on the traditional Christmas breakfast wreath my mom made EVERY year when I grew up. It is a total labor of love! I takes the entire day before to make it....I curse a few times that day, but then when I am eating it Christmas morning it is all worth it!

In the afternoon Jeremy's dad and his wife flew in from Texas to visit for a few days. Cameron opened up his gifts from them. His favorite was this vacuum. I don't know what I was thinking when I said to get this...except that it makes Cameron happy and that makes me happy! He literally wouldn't let this thing out of his sight the rest of that day. After they left to go to Jeremy's brother's house, I took Cam on a drive so he would take a nap (our little ritual for him to fall asleep) and he insisted he take the vacuum with him and hold it in his car seat and it had to be ON. So when I thought he was sleeping I reached back and turned it off and he immediately woke up crying. So back on it went and back to sleep he went, but every time he would be almost asleep he would loosen his grip on the thing and it would wake him up causing issues! Finally after driving around for 15 minutes with this scinero happening every 3 seconds I aborted the mission and returned home! Still to this day he has to have the vacuum on even if he isn't playing with it, and he notices when I turn it off even if he is in the other room and will run to turn it back on. I can't quite get myself to take the battries out....yet anyway!

Then he got a fun basket ball play set. He will get a lot use out of this. Cameron shows a big interest in sports and has a pretty good arm!

Then at 4:00 we went down to Margo & Rick's for dinner and more gift exchanges. I thought for sure Cam would fall asleep on the drive there, but nope! Good thing he is a super easy going and not moody kid because I don't know many kids that can go all day without a nap, be overly stimulated, and still be happy, funny, & in a good mood never crying once!!

Rick had all his kids jumping off the fridge and various ledges when they could balance. I wanted to see what Cameron would think of it....so Rick willingly particpated. Of course Camero LOVED it and couldn't get enough of it...after several times of it Rick was worn out. I think Cameron bonded with Uncle Rick this day.

Cute cousins....

Mallory drew Cameron's name this year and he scored with this ginormous Mr. Potato Head that had 4 other potato heads and a million pieces inside of it! Cameron loves to play with this and it is so cute to see the creations he makes. He knows all the names of the parts and will say them so cute....he just doesn't know where they all go yet. Sometimes Mr. Potato head ends up with an arm protruding out of his head and his eyes where his nose should go. He does know where the shoes go and the purse...he always gets my purse for me when I say we are going to go somewhere. He even calls Jeremy's computer bag "daddy's purse"....I keep trying to tell him it is a "man bag" but he insists on calling it a purse LOL.

Cam found some cool shades and fun things to play with while we were there. Lindsie had a lot of fun playing with him.

They played with Mallory's DJ piano thing she got. Cam had fun pounding on the piano and recording a song.



Then while a few of us were tearing it up playing Rock Band to ACDC....Margo & Michele watched Cameron take a shower in her waterfall. They said he was having the time of his life and they have never seen him laugh soooo hard. He played in the water for about 30 minutes. Needless to say he was SOAKED from head to toe and had to borrow clothes to wear home.

Christmas Eve we always go to my parent's house for dinner and the traditional gift opening. Paw Paw Herb and Cam read a book. He loves Paw Paw & gets excited everytime he sees Paw Paw and Maw Maw. He gives them high fives and laughs.

So this picture was me opening my gift....that night....my mom cut out the most important part (the gift) but obviously I was excited! She gave each of us daughters these sterling silver goblet things that we have all coveted forever. They are heavy, sturdy, goblets that remind me of something a knight would drink out of in the midevil period. They are awesome! It makes me want to have a party so I can use them!

Margo still can't ride in a car since she broke her neck, so they weren't able to come this year. We missed their family, it wasn't the same without them! Good thing Spencer and Janessa were there to play with Cameron :)

AWWHHHH....Cameron loves Grampy! Cam gives the BEST hugs ever. He is such a tender, loving little boy. He is my sweet heart.

Cameron opening up his gift....

He saw it and yelled "Mouse"! He is still obsessed with Mickey Mouse and knows all the characters names and even has most of the shows memorized.

We went to Thanksgiving Point one night to drive around and see the lights. It is so neat because there are amazing lights and sceens created from lights that you get to view from the warmth of your cozy car. You pay $8 per car and drive around with your radio tuned to a certain station that plays Christmas music. Cameron sat on my lap in the from seat and got soooooo excited, pointing out every light and calling out "moose" and "ho ho ho" and "LIGHTS!" and "noman". After the lights we were headed home and I noticed a bunch of people standing around so I looked and saw some reindeer. I told Jeremy to stop and we could let Cameron go look at them. Jeremy had to go to the bathroom so we went inside the building. While they went to the bathroom I decided to get a hot fudge sunday :) So I was sitting there enjoying my dessert and I saw them walking down the stairs.....then right behind them came Mr. and Mrs. Clause!! I tried to get Jeremy's attention to tell him to turn around, but he couldn't hear me. I ran over there with my camera (leaving my dessert and purse unattended) so I could snap a picture. Mr. and Mrs. Clause were coming from a party upstairs and headed home. I ended up getting a few pictures. Cameron wasn't sure what was going on and wouldn't talk until Santa walked out the door....then he got all excited and squeeled "ho ho ho Merry Messmas!"

Then we went outside and saw Santa's reindeer.

Another annual tradition is the ornament hanging at my Grandma Murdoch's Mortuary. My parents' treat us to dinner and then we go hand the ornament on the tree in rememberance of cute Granny. Again we were small in numbers without Margo's family!

Merry Christmas!