She's really movin' now!!

Reese is not only rolling but crawling at the speed of light ;)  Well not quite, but she's crawling faster and a lot more then she was 2 weeks ago!!  She also is "walking" when she's standing and being supported under her armpits and she's trying to walk along the couch and coffee table too!  And she's learned how to sit up from crawling!  A couple of weeks ago she could sit up from laying on the ground, by holding onto something with one hand and pushing on the ground with the other, but now she sits up without holding onto anything!!  Every morning when I go into her room to get her out of her crib, she's sitting up!  She gives me the biggest smiles, I love it :)  She tries to pull herself up on everything she can hold onto and has bumped her head more times then I can count :S  Way more then Blake and Emerson!!  She's a lot busier then they were at this age!  It's amazing how fast she's growing and changing!  I also taught her the signs for "more" and for "all done!"  And it seems like she actually gets them, which is amazing to me?!  I showed her all done a few times and now when I say it she tries to copy me and do the sign!  I never taught Blake or Em signs when they were this young, but when they were over 1 one of the library programs we attended taught signs so I remember a lot of them and just for fun thought I'd show Reese a few!!

Cousins!

The last few weeks of August and the beginning of September has been busy!  We had our niece Jenna and nephew Colby for a sleepover on September long weekend.  It was lots of fun and they were SO well-behaved!!  We really enjoyed spending time with them :)  We also attended Berlyn's 2nd birthday party that weekend.  There was a great group of kids there and we all had a lot of fun!  Blake and Emerson had a blast in the bouncy houses!!  And to top the weekend off, we met Carmen and family (- Kourtney) for dinner.  It was nice to see everyone :)

1st day of Preschool (year 2) - September 6, 2011

Blake started his 2nd year of Preschool on Tuesday, September 6th.  We registered him in Fun Factory at the CD YMCA again.  It's a great program and so convenient for us, because we take Emerson and Reese to a parented program (Come Play With Me) across the hall from Blake's classroom!  It was an entirely new scene for Blake this year, only 1 returning friend from last year and all new teachers!!  Although, Mrs. Steele (a volunteer) did return on Tuesday mornings and Miss Kara ran the summer day camp programs this year, so Blake recognized her as well.  Emerson had a blast at Come Play With Me and Reese did too!!!  Reese crawled around, "talking" and playing! 

On Wednesday we had a fun playdate with my cousin Jessica and her daughter Emma and look forward to more "dates" with them!!!

Enjoying the zoo!

Today the kids and I made an impromptu trip to the Valley Zoo.  The past 2 summers we've visited the zoo numerous times, but hadn't made it there this summer.  There are a lot of renovations happening, but the kids still had a blast!  Emerson had a close encounter with the tiger - he was right on the glass behind her!  Scared the life out of her (& Blake)!!!  It was SO funny, I wish I'd had my camera out at that time!!!  Every time we go to the zoo, the kids wish Cal was there!  They're always saying, "I wish Dad could see Lucy!"  "We should show Dad the monkeys!" etc, etc, etc.  So hopefully we'll make it there on Free Zoo Day (September 25th)!  Free admission for all, can't beat it!!!

Swimming lessons start today (Blake) and tomorrow (Emerson) and Blake's hockey starts on September 17th.  Both of our little fish are looking forward to their lessons and Blake is super excited for hockey ;)  Emerson is also VERY excited to start gymnastics on Wednesday and to attend Emma's Dynamyx birthday party on October 1st!! 

Cal had his annual Telus golf tournament yesterday afternoon/evening.  He had a great time and brought me home a pair of Oakley sunglasses!!  All the golfers received a pair!  And apparently the door prizes were amazing, last year he won an iPod touch, but he didn't win anything this year.  Cal doesn't get out golfing much anymore, but I'm sure it's a hobby he'll take up again one day ;)

Our weather has been absolutely gorgeous this week!  We've had fun in the backyard, playing in the sprinkler and keeping cool in the shade!!   

Hope you're able to enjoy some of this sun, have a great weekend :)

Love The Cameron's

PS:  I forgot to mention that Emerson is doing so great on the potty!!  At home and out and about!  She takes herself and doesn't even need reminding!  Very few accidents too!  We're so proud of her!!  Way to go Em :)

So much going on!!

Reese:

a.k.a. Reesey, Goose, Goosester, Blueberry, Baby!!  Reese turned 9 months old on August 19th.  9 MONTHS?!?  Oy!!  Her 1st year is flying by. I am not sure where I got Goose from, but that is my favorite nickname for Reese a.t.m. Emerson refers to her most often as "baby!"  Reese continues to be a very fast roller!  She gets from one end of a room to the other extremely fast via rolling!!  She still doesn't get too far with crawling - gets up on her hands and knees, crawls a "step" or 2, collapses and rolls!!!  But her new favorite thing to do is what I call a bear walk position - up on her toes and hands on the floor in front of her!  She loves doing this "downward dog" type pose!!  Makes her smile ;)  She also loves to stand!!  Reese has a rough few days last week.  She came down with a high fever and was extremely unhappy for 2 days and not very happy for a 3rd day!  We were off to Saskatoon last weekend for my cousin Aaron's wedding and she fell ill on Tuesday night.  Wednesday wasn't too bad, but Wednesday night and Thursday all day were terrible!  So I took her to the E.R.  She had no other symptoms so they did an in and out catheter to see if she had a urinary tract infection, but she didn't.  Dr. said it was a virus.  Dang viruses!!!  She was not nursing, not eating solids, crying, fussing, not sleeping ... it was terrible!!  By Friday night she was almost back to her normal self and so we left for the airport early Saturday morning.  We had a wonderful time in Saskatoon, visiting with a lot of my "Smith" family.  Reese travelled well, thank goodness and was back to her normal self!

Emerson:

Emerson is pretty much potty trained!!  She has been going to the potty off and on for the past few weeks and this week started using the potty exclusively.  She's had a few accidents, mostly #2's, but has really impressed us with how quickly she picked up on using the potty!  We new that potty training Emerson would not be the same experience as we had with Blake.  She had to decide how and when to do it and she pretty much did just that and virtually trained herself!  Which I suppose is not really training at all, but maybe more appropriately called potty learning.  Blake has been one of her biggest cheer leaders, which I think has helped a lot :)  We've taken her out 2 days in a row now, yesterday she had an accident while out so today I put a Pull-Up on her, but she used the washroom while out :)  We're so proud of her!!!  The whole process has been a lot less work this time around!  We were going to have her potty party on Sunday evening, but post poned it to this Sunday evening at my parent's new lake lot!  Emerson is SO into clothes and is of course really into all her new underwear ;)  She's always been a girly girl, but it's getting more and more as she gets older.  She picks her clothes and changes her outfit a gazillion times a day!  It's like an ongoing fashion show around here :)  It is so cute to see her pick up a piece of clothing, hold it up and say, "Awwww ... cute!"  Or sometimes she'll look at something, put it down and tell me to sell it!!  Too funny!!! 

Blake:

Blake's doing great!  He's still our little ball of energy, enjoying summer and all the activities that come with it :)  He loves to play every sport you can think of and still loves his truck's and trains!!  He had a blast at his Jitter Bug's camp in July and is in another session this week.  He was pretty excited to see Adam, his preschool buddy this week at the YMCA.  It was cute to see them chatting and catching up!!!  Blake is very proud of Emerson's potty accomplishments and all of Reese's new accomplishments!  He's very excited to go camping and quadding with Grandma and Grandpa D this weekend!! 

So as I said above, Reese took her first airplane ride this weekend.  She did great!  I was worried about her ears, but we had no issues.  We enjoyed visiting with family in Saskatoon!  While Reese and I were in SK, Cal, Blake and Emerson were having a fun weekend in E-Town!!!  Saturday they went to the Canadian Derby at Northlands (an annual outing for the Cameron family!) and had a great time par-taking in the race day activities.  Sunday they went to a local park with Berlyn and then after naptime, they went to the Parenteau's for a pool party/BBQ!  They had a busy weekend and were tuckered out by Sunday night!! 

September is fast approaching and with it comes a new set of fall and winter activities.  Blake's taking a skating lesson on Monday's starting in October and Initiation 1 hockey will start sometime in September (Saturdays).  Preschool starts the week after September long weekend (Tuesdays and Thursday mornings) and so do swimming lessons on Friday afternoons.  Emerson starts gymnastics (Wednesday afternoons) and swimming lessons (Saturday mornings) starting the week after September long weekend.  Em's also really looking forward to Come Play With Me (during Blake's preschool class) and seeing Ms. Christine again!!  Reese will be joining us at Come Play With Me and I'm really looking forward to seeing her reaction to the group this year, as she is older and LOVES singing and music!!  She loves playing with our LeapFrog fridge toys that sings and smiles and tries to clap her hands when I sing and clap to the music!  I think she'll really enjoy Come Play With Me!!

Looking at the list of activities above worries me a tad!!!!  I already feel overwhelmingly busy and we don't have any of that on our plates yet?!  I better get better organized!  And get to bed earlier ...  

Enjoy the last few weeks of August everyone!  Hopefully our weather will continue to be nice and our September will be kind to us as well :)

xoxo Tracy

Productive Weekend!

We have had a very busy weekend around home! 

Blake had his last hockey camp ice time on Friday morning.  We all went to watch!  Cal and I both noticed a huge improvement over the course of the week.  But what matters most is Blake had a lot of fun :)  I spoke to the lady who was running the camp and she said, "He is so cute!  Every time one of us looks at him, he has the biggest smile on his face!"  Now what more could you ask for?!  

Friday afternoon Emerson and I took Jazz to the vet.  He's been urinating in places he shouldn't be :(  I know ... gross, right?!  He got his regular vaccinations and also an antibiotic shot.  Hopefully it was just an infection causing his issues vs. crystal's in his bladder (which he's had before), a tumor or just plain old bad behaviour!!  We've also been letting Jazz out to hunt mice, but the vet advised against it.  So far, so good.  We got him a new litter box and hopefully (fingers and toes crossed) this issue is resolved!  Cal also painted the railings on the deck on Friday night!

Saturday morning I put Reese down for her morning nap and took the other 2 kids to the St. Albert market.  I love, love, love all the markets available to us in Edmonton and surrounding area!!  We bought some organic carrots and onions and a few different varieties of organic chicken.  I wish we could afford to eat organic meat all the time, but wowzers is it pricey!!  We met up with my Mom, sister, her friend and new baby girl and ran into my friend Melissa and her 2 boys there!  The kids had fun and Cal was able to finish painting the deck while we were gone!  Saturday afternoon Cal and my Dad fixed the hot water heater in our trailer, so we're getting closer to being able to list it.  Not sure how successful we'll be with selling it this late in the year, but if it doesn't sell we'll either try again next Spring or trade it in!!  I can't wait to get our new trailer!!!  We're really looking forward to camping with adequate space next year ;)  Saturday evening we went out for supper with my sister and watched a movie with her after the kids were finally sleeping!!  The Lincoln Lawyer - if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!

Today was a bit slower, Cal took Blake and Em to yet another new spray park near our house!  We feel pretty lucky to have so many options of spray parks, all within 15 minutes of us!!  I did some Cameron's Closet business and cleaning while they were gone and Reese napped.  I even got 2 pictures hung today!  This afternoon my parents came over for a visit and homemade hamburgers and potato salad (yummy!!!)!  

It feels great to get some things checked off of our every growing to-do list!  We hope you had a great weekend too :)  Have a wonderful week!

xoxo Tracy 

PS: Goose is very close to crawling ... she gets up on all 4's and rocks back and forth and takes a few "steps" forward and then usually collapses to her tummy!  I've also found her sitting up in her crib a few times this week!  She's growing and changing so fast!!

PPS: Emerson is kind of potty training!  She asks to put underwear on and we let her.  She's done #1 in the potty a lot but has had accidents too!  We really need to concentrate on her potty training one day soon ... one day when we can stay home for a few days, we just need to plan for it!! 

 

Summer fun!!

We've had some great times these past few weeks!!  Here are some highlights:

- The kids and I spent a fun-filled day with the Stony Plain Cameron's (minus Gerry!)!  It started out with a visit to Cafe O'Play, followed by lunch at Wendy's and ending with Capital Ex!  We had a wonderful time, lots of fun and laughs!!  The kids were so well-behaved, even though the girls missed nap time ;)  It was nice to spend some time with them and hopefully we'll squeeze in another "date" before September!

- A day trip to Battleford, Saskatchewan to surprise my Grandma Kelley with an 80th birthday party at the Legion!!!  It was a nice gathering!  We seen a lot of relatives who we haven't seen in years - cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.  Great to catch up with everyone and so nice to see my Grandma enjoying herself!  She's a hard worker (still working at 80!!) and I worry she doesn't take much down time, so it was great for her to have some fun and visit :) 

- A visit to the Strathcona Farmer's Market!  It was full of wonderful vendors - we could have spent a fortune, but only walked away with fresh baked oatmeal raisin cookies, pesto, and perogies!!  Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm ... 

- A visit to United Cycle!  We needed to get Blake's skates repaired and sized and check the fit of some of his hockey equipment.  And the boys were (both) extremely excited to pick out matching Flyers hats!!!

- Many trips to local parks!  One of our favorites is the CD park.  They have recently renovated this park and it is SO awesome!  The kids love the spray park, but also have fun on all the playground equipment :)
- Dinner with Cal's Mom and his Grandparents.  Grandma and Grandpa Alstad hadn't met Reese yet, so it was nice to introduce them to her!!  We had a nice dinner and visit, it was great to catch up :) 

- An overnight stay at the Krywiak cabin at Skeleton Lake.  And I use the term "cabin" loosely ... it's more a house then a cabin, very nice with all the modern day conveniences!!  The weather wasn't the greatest, but at least it didn't rain!  The kids had fun playing in the bouncy house, swinging and we visited the public beach and park.  The boys took a quick fishing trip Sunday morning, but didn't catch anything.  Reese was averse to sleeping, which always stresses me out for some silly reason :S  But at least they all slept in!!  We're looking forward to spending some more time out there next year with the Parenteau's :)

- Blake started his hockey camp this Monday.  It is 45 min. and focuses mostly on skating and basic hockey skills!  Blake's has improved greatly from his first time on the ice (less then a year ago) and continues to enjoy himself!!  He's shuffling along a little faster this year, but he seemed to have this idea in his head that because he took skating lessons this Spring and is older now that he would step on the ice and fly!!! 

- Reese had her 9 month check up today!  She is doing great and is now 20 lbs (75th %tile), 27.5" (50th %tile) and her head circumference is in the 50th %tile as well :)  She's a strong, healthy little girl!  She is still rolling all over the place and can really get going fast!  She tries to get up onto her knees to crawl, but hasn't figured out crawling quite yet.  She loves standing and tries to pull herself up when you're holding onto her hands - once she stands up she grins and grins and is so happy to be standing!!  She has a good appetite and loves finger foods!  She prefers soft veggies and fruits to pureed, but still eats a lot of pureed when we're on the go!!  She has 7 teeth (all 7 came through within 1 month) with an 8th that has popped out and today is back in!   

We're doing some work around home this weekend (need to hang pictures and shelves in the house, paint our deck, build a sandbox under the play set, and fix our trailer!  Not sure we'll get all of that done?!) and hopefully visit the St. Albert Farmer's Market.

Next week we don't have too many plans.  On Saturday Reese and I are flying to Saskatoon for my cousin Aaron's wedding.  I wish we could all go, but I am looking forward to seeing my relatives again and hopefully relaxing a little more then usual, being I'll only have 1 child under my care ;)  I'm sure Cal and the other 2 kidlets will also have a nice weekend!  

We hope you are all having a fantastic summer!!!  ttyl :)

Tracy 

Great Weekend!

We've had a fun weekend!  Saturday we headed to Spruce Grove to watch our nephew Dylan play ball.  It was a close game, but they won!  Today they played in the final and came out victorious ... Provincial Champs!!  I'm guessing the team must be on cloud 9!  Watching Dylan play ball, brought Cal and I back to our ball playing days as kids!!  I hope our kids will want to play ball in the summers :)  I loved playing and miss it still!!  Nothing like stealing home plate ;)  The kids had fun watching their cousin play ball and Em also enjoyed sitting and keeping score with Auntie Carmen!  From the game we came back to Edmonton, to a 35th birthday party.  Cal's friend and co-worker Norah, invited us to a party that her and her best friend were co-hosting.  We weren't sure what to expect as there were numerous games planned, but we all had a blast!!!  There were quite a few people there (I'd say around 50, with 15 to 20 of those being kids!) and I knew no one and Cal only knew Norah, but everyone was so friendly!  They were a really great group of people!  The kids enjoyed a reptile show ... tarantula (I know, not a reptile!), scorpion, 3 snakes, bearded dragon, gecko's, all of which Blake thought were pretty cool!  Emerson's attention wavered and she left the show 1/2 way through to play in another room!  After the reptile show there was the Highland games and the kids played in a bouncy house!  It was a really fun afternoon and I'm glad I finally met Norah, her husband Matt and their son Tylor! 

Sunday morning the girls were up super early (product of missing nap time on Saturday :S ).  Reese went for a nap at 6:30 am and it was just Em and I until Blake got up at 8 (he seems to be able to sleep in after a busy day/later night, thank goodness!!).  Although I was totally exhausted, I really enjoyed that hour and a half with Em!  We read books, talked and cuddled on the couch.  It was nice to have time just with her, I can't remember the last time that happened.  She was so cute and sweet and I loved hearing her opinions on the previous day's events and her memories of the cabin :)  When Blake and Cal got up, I packed a lunch and Cal headed to the park with Blake and Em to play and have a picnic lunch!  They had a great time and the merry-go-round was the big hit this time!!  After Em got up from her afternoon nap, she and I headed out for some more girl time!!  We did some shopping :)  Then my Mom and Dad came over with groceries for supper!!  The seafood linguini and strawberry shortcake was delish!  I wish I would have captured Emerson's reaction to hearing that we were having strawberry shortcake for desert ... it was priceless and had us ALL laughing so hard!!!!  I know she was thinking of Strawberry Shortcake from the cartoon :)  It was SO funny!!  And then her reaction to the spray whipping cream was almost as priceless!!

Blake had a fantastic time last week at his Jitter Bugs camp!  On Friday we went early to play in the playgym before picking him up and saw him swimming in the pool.  He had the biggest grin on his face, doggie paddling around!  It was so great to see!!!  I love seeing my kids having fun and enjoying themselves, makes me the happiest Mom in the world :)

This week I'm hoping to take a trip to the zoo and a spray park.  Crossing our fingers that today's weather holds up! 

Hope you all had a great weekend too :)

xoxo Tracy

Growing like weeds!!!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how fast time is going (actually I think about this a lot, which is not always a good thing)!  I feel like I have to make the absolute most of my time with Blake, because in 1 year we'll be preparing for his first day of kindergarten and my week days with him will be coming to an end :S  I was thinking last night that next summer Reese will most likely not be taking a morning nap, which will be nice for Blake's last few months before Kindergarten begins!!

Blake has definitely sprouted up again these past few months!  In June he was still wearing his size 4 jeans, although they were starting to look more like clam diggers then full length jeans!  Lately he's been wearing shorts or sweats every day, but today he went to put jeans on and the size 4 jeans were way too short!!!  Sometimes when we peak in on the kids before we go to bed, we are amazed at how big they look in their beds ... they grow so fast and time just flies!!  Blake is in a YMCA summer camp this week, called Jitter Bugs.  It's from 9 to noon and he is having a blast!  Yesterday they went swimming, which he was very excited about!  There were 3 different camps he could have attended, 1 was an all day camp and the other was 9 to 2.  Maybe next year he'll try one of the others!  He's having so much fun, that we've registered him for another week at the end of August :) 

Emerson would love to stay with Blake at camp, but you have to be 3!  I promised her she could try a camp next summer if she wants, which I'm pretty sure she'll be up for!!  Today the girls and I met friends at a play gym, which was really nice!  Nice to hang out with just the girls once in a while :)  Emerson is enjoying summer and loves being outside as much as Blake!  She LOVES to swing!  The higher the better!  She can swing for a very long time ... as long as someone is there to push her!  For the most part, Blake and Emerson play SO well together, which we are very grateful for!  I absolutely adore listening to them when they are playing and hearing their conversations :)  Especially about their "jobs!"  Blake builds houses still and takes Em to her job (via train), which is at Costco!  Too funny, love their imaginations!!

Reese is growing up so fast and changing everyday!  She now has 3 teeth on the bottom and 3 very close to breaking through on the top.  She is a good little eater (3 meals a day now) and particularly enjoys fruit!!  She also enjoys feeding herself and tonight had some soft peas!  I adore watching her pick up cheerio's, peas, etc ... such an amazing sight to see a child learn the coordination involved in getting a cheerio to their mouth :)  Reese has started talking more, vs. screaming!!!  The screaming was quite cute and funny (although ear piercing at times!!) but the new consonant and vowel sounds are adorable too!  She is very interactive and when I repeat the sounds to her she is quick to "talk" back!!!  She is rolling all over the place to get what she wants, but hasn't gotten up on all fours yet.  Maybe we should show her!  She also enjoys "standing" with our assistance.  She is a pretty content little girl and spends quite a lot of time rolling around or sitting and playing by herself and with Blake and Em.  There is no shortage of love between those 2 and their baby sister!!!  Reese is definitely well loved!  Reese started waving while we were at the cabin and I sometimes see her waving her fingers and staring at her hand!!!  She also gives me kisses now, which I adore!  I say, "Kiss?" and make lip smacking noises and if she wants to give me a kiss, she leans in with a wide open mouth :) 

I hope everyone is having a great summer!  The mosquito's are keeping us inside a little bit more then we'd like to be, but I have noticed they seem to be getting less and less these past few days! 

Take care, talk to you again soon!

Luv Tracy

Reese's Baptism

Today (July 17th) Reese was baptised at Pilgrim United Church in Edmonton. It was a very nice service and a wonderful day. Church began at 11 am and the Baptism was at the end of the service. We always get a bit nervous towards the end of the service, as the kids usually start getting tired of sitting!!  Blake was unbelievable ... he sat so still and quiet for most of the service.  My Dad asked me if I'd read him the riot act, but all I asked him to do was to be quiet and listen!  And he was actually listening and paying attention :)  Afterwards he told us we should come more often, which made me feel guilty because we really don't go often enough!!  Emerson did good too!  She wondered around between us, Grandma and Grandpa D and Grandpa Bruce, but kept pretty quiet!  They've hired 2 new Sunday school staff, who start in September so I promised Blake and Em we'd make a better effort to attend Church!  Reese did great too!  She gave a little squeak during the ceremony and Rev. Wasyk apologized for the cold water ;)  We were given the Baptismal Candle and everyone who attended church today signed an "I witnessed your Baptism" sheet for us to have as a keepsake. After church everyone came back to our house for lunch.  We missed a few of our family and friends as everyone is busy with summer activities and weddings, but thank everyone who came and those who sent well wishes and gifts :) 

XOXOX
Tracy