Thirsty??

Camden recently discovered how to screw the lids onto watter bottles (he's still working on taking them off). And once one comes out, he can't get his hands on it fast enough. Normally, I'll give him my empty bottles and let him go to town. (I've decided we're not buying anymore toys...odds and ends around the house will do just fine)



After our morning walk I was sipping on a bottle of water when Camden came running and pointing to the bottle. After a few more sips, I gave Camden the bottle, lid and remaining water.
After taking a few big boy sips he poured the water onto the patio and proceeded to walk though it, splash it around, sit in it and make a little mud puddle. Once it was empty he put the lid back on and immediately starting whining because he couldn't get it off. Hilarious! :)
Needless to say he was a bit messy but it was so much fun to watch him! Who knew a a water bottle could provide hours of fun!?!?

A New House, Table and Chairs

Last Sunday Brian and I made a run to Toys R Us to buy Camden a play house. We've wanted to get him one for a while and finally decided that he "needed" it. (He is playing outside more) After utilizing Camden's nap time to assemble the the few plastic pieces, it was ready for use! The price was definitely worth every penny after seeing his expression when we took him outside. He spent close to two hours playing outside that night.
Can you tell how much he loved it???






(worth every penny...like I said)

We also made a purchase for Mommy and Daddy as well.
We've been talking for a while about buying patio furniture and finally found a couple of wrought iron chairs and small table that would fit perfectly on the patio.







We made the most of a beautiful Sunday afternoon with play time and dinner outside! It was the perfect ending to what began
as a very wet and dreary weekend.

A Little Flood

Is there such a thing?

Since my first post this is what our front and back yard look like:
(and it's still raining cats and dogs!!)

Water Front Property

It's Raining It's Pouring!
Our Back Yard is Flooding!
(you have to sing it or it's not as cute)


We have been blessed with rain for the last two days but it's running out of places to go...at least in our backyard it is. Our patio has always collected water, even when it sprinkles, but last night it turned into a mini lake. (I guess you'd call that a pond...oh well)
The yard doesn't slope away from the house enough, one of the tubes that extends the gutter runoff wasn't attached and our back gutter dumps water directly next to the house.
All perfect ingredients for a backyard mini lake!

Easter Goodies

Easter was almost a week ago and I'm just now sitting down to
post pictures. Ready for the excuse??
The few pictures I took weren't that great.
I'm the "horrible" mother who didn't take pictures of him dressed up Easter morning. Instead I caught him digging into his
Easter basket and eating candy.
I must say though, his expression when he pulled
out his pinwheel was priceless!

The Happiest Place On Earth

Last week we made the close to 2200 mile round trip to Florida to visit Brian's family and go to Disney World. We broke the drive up into three days and spent more than we usually do to stay in nice hotel. (No offense to Motel 6...our usual hotel of choice) Camden did surprising well in the car thanks to a little help from the DVD player we purchased midway through our first day's drive. After three days in the car we made it to Holiday, Florida on Sunday afternoon.

We spent Sunday and most of Monday day at Brian's Grandmother's house before driving to Orlando. Brian's sister, Christine and her husband, David have a timeshare that they graciously shared with us. Tuesday we visited downtown Disney, hung out around the house and just enjoyed watching the kids play together. Wednesday was the big Magic Kingdom day that started when the park opened...8 am. We had bold ambitions of making an entire day of it but called it quites after 9 hours. We were able to squeeze in all of the rides and sightseeing we wanted Camden to experience. He loved "It's a Small World" and flying with Dumbo. Thursday we took some time to do a little sightseeing and sit down to enjoy a yummy Irish lunch. Friday we packed up and headed back home. We figured that we spent just as much time, if not more, in the car than we did out of it....but it was worth it.

I took over 275 pictures.
These are some of my favorites:

Independent Reading

Yesterday morning I was switching loads of laundry around while Camden was playing with toys in his room. The laundry room is right next to Camden's room so I could easily hear him chatting away and clanking things around. After a few minutes I noticed that he had become very quite, which usually means he's getting into trouble.
I turn the corner into his room and find this:

Camden had crawled up into the rocking chair, pulled books out of the book baskets on the top shelf of the toy cabinet next to the chair and sat down to "read." (notice every book is upside down) It was the cutest thing ever! I was even more surprised that he was still there after I ran to get the camera. He sat there for fifteen minutes or more just looking through the various books that we read before bedtime.

We read together at least three times a day and he's just recently started showing a high interest in his books. He's always liked to be read to but now he's pointing at the pictures, "requesting" specific books and sitting for longer or multiple stories.
I suppose can add independent reading to that list now.