Happy Birthday, Cameron!!

Well, it's official... SEVEN years ago, my life changed. Isn't it amazing what a child does to your life? How things change in ways you never thought they could? I was one of those, Oh I won't let my life change just because we have a baby! We'll still do all the same old stuff and hang out with the same old people, they'll just be three of us! Uh huh. ;) Thankfully, my life has changed much for the better and I wouldn't go back for a second.

LOL, I was looking for baby pictures to share and found this composite I did for one of his other birthdays. A then and now from about 4 months old and about 4 years...
and now my brave and strong elfling hero...

Ah, he's going to kill me in a few years for that. ;)

But anyway.... sorry I've been so scarce. Most of last week was spent in preparation for the big birthday party on Saturday. What I thought was going to be just my dad and a few family friends turned out to be a huge to-do with about 25 guests! We BBQed and made cardboard and aluminum foil swords but the hit of the party was the marshmallow shooting contest. At Cassia's party, Cameron received a bow that shoots mini-marshmallows so we took full advantage of that one! We set up an archery target on our back fence and lined up all 15 kids for target practice. Surprisingly, three of the smallest participants got the best scores and one of them was Cassia! Even more surprising was that Cameron and R12, both self-proclaimed combat champions, got some of the worst scores. It was great fun and I was glad to see the grand prize, a water balloon shooting sling shot, out of the house.

Sunday we went to another fabulous party. There was a GIANT bounce house... need I say more? OK, there was some other great stuff too like sun catchers and really good food (and really good wine for the adults) and snacks and cupcakes and balloons and great friends. It was a good day. It was a great weekend.

Monday, Cameron's actual birthday was a busy, busy, busy day. We started out with a follow-up appointment for Greyson with the pediatric GI specialist. I was expecting a pretty boring, "He seems to be doing fine, just keep up what you're doing and he'll probably grow out of this in a year or two," but what I got was, "He hasn't gained any weight since the last time he was here (3 months ago) and his symptoms are asynchronous with his lab results. Let's do more tests." Apparently, his body reacts as if he has a lactose intolerance but many of the foods he reacts to shouldn't have enough lactose to cause such a sudden and dramatic reaction. The other option would be if he were having an anaphylactic reaction but his labs didn't indicate that at all. Hmmmmm. So, they're sending him for a breath test for lactose intolerance and recommending that he see an allergist to figure out what exactly it is that he's reacting to. She's not that concerned, because he does appear to be happy and healthy and proportionate for his age, but he is putting on weight more slowly than he probably should and she wants to make sure that the food he is eating is actually sticking around long enough to give him the nutrition he needs. She also recommended, again, that I give him a fiber supplement. Ugh. So there's that update.

Next was gymnastics where both kids did fabulously. Actually, all three of them did fabulously and for the first time in about a month, we didn't have to go sit in the car. Yeah! I was talking to one of Cameron's coaches afterward and we were musing back to how far he's come. This particular coach was the preschool director way back when and we were reminiscing about 2-yr old Cameron who would do nothing but run in circles during the free play class. LOL. And then slightly older Cameron who would run in circles during the demonstrations of the more structured classes. And then the Cameron of just last year who said it was too hard and didn't want to bother trying. The Cameron of today though has completed the Roller level of his Rollers & Twisters class in less than a year and was being used as an example of how to do many of the skills for the other boys. You've come a long way baby! Coach Steve said that Cameron is a testament to the fact that crazy boys DO mature. ;) In fact, he was quite impressed that we all survived seven years at all, lol.

And to top off the day, we had Cameron's first soccer practice. Lots of things annoy me about soccer and I should refrain.... but here goes. First off, he misses the cut-off by four days. You need to be "the age" by July 31st, so my seven-year-old, second grade boy, who is tall for his age anyway, is playing the U7 league with a bunch of six-year-old first graders. And the majority of his team this year is girls. Not that I have anything against girls, but he just towers over the lot of them. He doesn't seem to mind though. It was the same last year, but at least last year the coach's son was in the same predicament so it was more of a mixed team.

And then there are the parents. Oh my. There was this one couple there with a little girl who was something between 1-1/2 and 2 who was whining and crying a bit. It was late in the afternoon and you could tell she was just exhausted and didn't want to be there. I could totally sympathize, lol. Well the lovely parents just kept yelling at her and telling her that she had to stop crying or she was "going to be sent to the principal's office" or that she'd have to go "sit on the naughty stool" or in the car and finally that she needed to stop because she was embarrassing her mother. Oh, please. Honestly, I found the parents' behavior embarrassing, not the child's. Finally, the poor girl fell asleep in her mother's arms and then, in between intellectually stimulating conversations about beer commercials and not being able to wait for the kids to be back in school, they kept waking her up so she would be able to sleep later. Sheesh. I really felt sorry for that poor baby. She obviously needed a break and her parents obviously didn't want to deal with her so what does it matter if she naps through 45 minutes of soccer practice? And then, this was the kicker for me, they start talking about their vacations this year. "Well, we went to Disney twice, but I don't count that as a vacation. That's work! We went to the Bahamas for a week and the kids were with so-and-so and oh, that was just heaven." Disney twice in one year is no vacation?? Why go then? What is wrong with these people? Why did they even bother to have kids? Ugh. Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy our 3 days ALONE on Catalina Island for our 10th anniversary - but I think that's the only time we've ever vacationed away from them aside from the occasional one night away for Knott's Scary Farm or something. Weird. It's just a different mindset, I guess. Anyway, I need to find different parents to sit near next time before that couple drives me insane. ;)

Tuesday we thankfully have nothing planned. Day of laundry awaits. :) And for one final time...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAMERON!!!