July 30

Tonight we treated ourselves to a dinner out at Benihana. It's one of my most favorite places. Cameron's meal came with chicken and corn, and as you can see he was pretty excited about it.

July 29

This happens so frequently I figured I needed to take a picture of it at least once. Every time the closet door opens Phipps does whatever he can to sneak in the closet and hide. Here he is hiding under Caleb's pants.

July 28

Tonight was taco night and Cameron found the cheese. I know that looks like a lot, but I always like to grate cheese for as many applications as possible at one time, and tomorrow nights dinner is cheesy too. I think he must have "snuck" 5 or so handfuls while Caleb and I were getting dinner ready.

July 27

Now that Cameron finished his first potty chart we started a new one upstairs and downstairs. We got these charts from Kim, who made them on the computer while Aaron was potty training. As you can see those stickers are a little too big for the squares, I think we will have to get some smaller ones.

July 26

Disneyland Day! We were planning on just staying for about half the day, but we ended up staying until about 6. It was pretty warm, but not miserable and we had such a great day. Here's Cameron crawling through a tunnel in the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail in California Adventure.

Here he is trying to fit his hand into some footprints on the ground.

And finally the best part of the day, meeting Russell from Up. Cameron was very excited to see him and just kept talking about becoming a senior wilderness explorer.

July 25

Today Cameron completed his first potty chart. He was very excited and has been doing much better. He wears big boy underwear most of the time while he is at home and awake, but he still isn't quite proficient at asking to use the potty by himself.

July 24

Costco Day. I got a new Guy Fieri herb crusted tri tip to try. It looked so yummy. Costco also made those shrimp you see on the plate. It was very flavorful but not nearly as tender and the normal tri tip we get there, which was a bummer.

July 23

Cameron spent the day in Apple Valley with Grandmama, Grandpapa, Miles & Layla while I worked and Caleb was in New Jersey. He had a very fun and active day. I picked him up after work and he was asleep within two minutes of being in the car.

July 22

Here's a cute sleeping picture of my little man after I put him back in bed. Yes, he started getting out of bed and falling asleep by the door a few days ago. Ugh. Here's to hoping we can break him of this faster this time.

July 21

Tonight we went to see a Beatles band in the park after I got home from work. We met Shenan and London there and they shared Cameron's peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That seemed to be just the perfect amount of energy they needed to run around like crazy children the rest of the evening.

July 20

Maybe one of the goofiest pictures ever? Here's Cameron just hanging out in a t-shirt, big boy underwear and one croc. Not really sure how he ended up like this. We have to save this one for his future girlfriends right?

July 19

This picture is really for my cousin Wendy. I love this tea, it's my favorite and you can't find it in any stores. So for Christmas I asked for a 12 bottle case, which I got from Auntie Kathy and Uncle Tommy. Wendy thought it was such a funny thing to get as a gift, but I was so excited. I made it last a long time and today I had my last bottle, so delicious.

July 18

Look at these cuties! So, I'm not afraid to admit that Shenan took this picture, but it was too cute for me to pass up. Shenan watched Cameron for us today while Caleb drove down to San Diego for some SCPA business. She got both of them sleeping together at the same time on London's floor. How sweet.

July 17

Another lazy pj day before I head back to work tomorrow. Caleb and I caught Cameron playing puzzles on his iPad while finding a very creative way to prop it up. He wasn't to happy with me for taking this picture.

July 16

Today was just a nice relaxing day at home after our busy week. Here's Cameron showing off that he ate his whole peanut butter & jelly sandwich, including the crusts! (which he sometimes leaves behind)

July 15

Today we went to Sea World. We had a great time and Cameron loved it. He really liked seeing the whales, dolphins and fish. We were able to do everything we wanted to and felt totally satisfied when we left. Luckily Uncle John and Cindy had just gotten home from a trip and we were able to have dinner with them. It was really nice having the chance to see them since we were down in San Diego. I couldn't pick just a few of my pictures from the day so here is a link that will take you to all of them.
https://picasaweb.google.com/107366639062419806500/SeaWorld?authuser=0&feat=directlink

July 14

Today we drove down to San Diego, for a little mini vacation. We drove around a bit and had lunch at the beach, before going back to our hotel for Cameron's nap. After he woke up we went to The Container Store, the coolest store ever and we don't have one anywhere around us, and then on to Outback for dinner. In the last few days Cameron made up this new Mommy song. The lyrics are pretty simple, but I love it! He sings it the same way every time.

July 13

Disneyland Day! Hooray! It was a pretty cool day, for July, it was overcast most of the day which was nice. Here are Caleb and Cameron on Autopia, I was in the car ahead of them and I could barely see the top of Cameron's head over the wheel. He really likes this ride. And then once we got off this for the first time all by himself he said, "I want to go on the Buzz Lightyear ride". That was the first time he had asked to go on something specific because he remembered going on it before. He also asked to go on the Winne the Pooh ride.

Then we took him over to Tom Sawyer's Island for the first time and he had a lot of fun running around and going in the caves. They have updated the island with a lot of pirate swag and Cameron was so excited to see all these gold doubloons in this big pirate treasure.

We decided to call it a day after going on the Monster's Inc. ride at California adventure and on our way we happened upon Goofy. He was a lot more excited than the look on his face would suggest.

July 12

I got home from Virginia this afternoon, and after a trip up to check on Mom & Dad's house and a trip to Costco we made it home just in time for the all star game. Caleb had Cameron dressed to cute in his baseball gear for the game.

July 11

Surgery day! We had to be at the hospital by 5 this morning so Aaron could get checked in a prepped for his surgery. He was such a brave boy all morning, and the anesthesiologist finally carried (literally picked up and carried) him back about 7:45. His nurse called the waiting room to tell us the surgery had officially started at 9. The waiting room was very comfortable, they had lots of recliners and blankets thankfully because it was pretty chilly in there. They called to say the surgery was over and everything went very well at 1. Aaron's Dr. came down to talk to Kim and Chris once everything was complete and he brought them his 3D model of Aaron's spine to show them. It was so neat to look at.

Caleb and Cameron were at home all morning waiting for updates from me about Aaron. Since I wasn't home Caleb was very excited to make chili dogs for he and Cameron for the Home Run Derby (I don't like hot dogs much). From what I hear it was a big hit with Cameron because he finished the whole thing.

July 10

Today I flew out to Virginia for Aaron's surgery. Mom and Dad picked me up at Dulles and we drove straight to the hotel just down the street from the hospital. Kim, Chris and Aaron met us up there a little later and we were able to go out to a nice dinner. Here's Aaron giving Nana some love.

Dad ordered this huge delicious chocolate dessert, which Aaron was all about. He had such gooey chocolate face!

July 9

Caleb's in Las Vegas today, so while I was at work Cameron had a super fun day with Mee Maw and Grandpa Jim. When I got there to pick him up he didn't want to leave, and once we were driving home in the car he was pretty upset. I said, "I'm sorry you're sad buddy" and he said, "that's okay mommy, just get me back to Mee Maw's house." How cute is that? He didn't take a nap while he was there and he was asleep before we made it home.

July 8

Tomorrow morning Nana and Grampy are flying out to Virginia for Aaron's surgery. They will be out there for about a month to help with Aaron and things around the house after they get home from the hospital. So tonight on Nana's way home from work she wanted to stop by for one more hug goodbye.

July 7

Caleb found a couple of sets of Cars characters on the Disney Store website for a really good price since now all their Cars 2 stuff is out. His Piston Cup Garage only came with one car and we wanted him to have some more he could play with, but all you can find in stores are Cars 2 characters and we also wanted him to have some of the original Cars characters. Here he is playing with his cars like such a little boy.

July 6

We have ants. I mean more than we have ever had before covering every surface of the kitchen, the counters, the floor, the stove, the walls, the pantry you name it. There isn't a chance in the world I would have been able to cook dinner tonight so we had to go out. We decided to try Kabuki, a Japanese restaurant across the street from Lucille's that we have never tried. It was pretty good, and Cameron loved the edamame they brought us. He ate the whole bowl and was pretty good at using his kiddie chopsticks. We did end up getting the ants cleaned up after we got home and put Cameron to bed. It took the two of us working 3 hours nonstop to kill and clean them all (and throw out about half the pantry, humph). Plus our bug guy is coming tomorrow so hopefully that will take care of it.

July 5

Cousin night! Auntie Shen taught Cameron "Row Row Row Your Boat" and here are the kiddies singing with each other and pulling each other back and forth. I may need to try to get a video of this soon.

July 4

Tonight Cameron got to take a bath in mommy's big bath tub. He was pretty excited to use the jets which really multiplied the bubbles as you can see. I love my cute goof ball.

July 3

Caleb, Cameron and I went to a drum corps show at RCC today. Cameron enjoyed being there and listening to the music, even though sometimes he was a little too loud in the stands. Here he is after the show talking to Joy, she is a previous student of Caleb's and now marches with the Blue Devils.

As we were mingling with some of our friends after the show, Cameron caught sight of someone's badge. He really likes wearing badges for whatever reason, he got very excited.

Here's Cameron with our good friend Tony, the owner of the badge. I was so happy wit how this picture turned out.

July 2

Most nights after dinner I sit on the couch with my iPad, which I put on a pillow over my legs. When Cameron saw me doing this tonight he ran and grabbed his iPad and two pillows so he could sit like I was. I thought this picture was so cute with his little feet sticking out.

July 1

Our two vines in the courtyard are so full of blooms right now. We really love looking out there at the pretty flowers.

June 30

This morning after Caleb & I woke up we picked up Cameron from NanaGrampy's house to go see Cars 2. Cameron has been so excited to see it in the movie theater, and he really liked it a lot.

Then this afternoon it was time for swimming lessons again, tomorrow is their last day. Cameron has gotten a little more willing to "jump" to Caleb without holding his hands, but as you can see it's a little more of a fall in.

Here he is practicing his kicking in the water.