Cameron’s teacher was so sweet to send Cam these AWESOME 2010 pair of glasses to help us celebrate the new year. Cam wrapped up the year with a four-day soccer/swimming camp that kept him active, busy and exhausted. I guess that was my goal for him – have as much fun and activity possible while he’s out of school. His plans for his first day of 2010? Build a new Lego Star Wars project, play on his DS or Wii and stay in his PJ’s all day. It sounds fantastic.
Happy New Year to everyone!!

Cameron had an awesome Christmas with his family. We all went to Western Kentucky… And to make things even more fun, the kids got to go a few days earlier than their parents. So they got to really soak in the Poppy and Grandma love. By the time Randy and I got there, Cam was DYING for Christmas to happen. He had scoped out all of the gifts under the tree. He was CERTAIN that he knew at least one of the gifts – a large red bag that felt and sounded like a box of Legos. So Randy and Uncle Barry decided to pull a trick on Cam. While the kids were asleep, Randy and Barry took the Lego box out of the bag and replaced it with a box full of plastic silverware. I begged them to have the real gift nearby when he discovered the switcheroo so he wouldn’t freak out. So… Here’s a little picture step by step of that experience:

Opening the bag.

This is not a Lego box.

What the heck? Plastic silverware?

Oh! It really is a box of Legos!!

Victory!!

Cam got a new bed!! it’s a bunk bed with shelving and all kinds of cool stuff. Cam’s grandparents got it for him after at least a year of asking his Poppy to build him one. instead they bought this amazing steel bed. it will live with him for a really long time. I’m clearly excited for him and I know he’s thrilled. He and a friend a good portion of the afternoon playing in it. So fun!

Mr. Cameron just completed his first official piano recital. He did SUCH a great job. I was a little nervous for him… He was the 12th performer and he was feeling really tired. But you know what? He nailed it. Nailed it:

(If you can’t see it, you can go here.)

You know… I thought I was 100% sure that Cameron didn’t believe in Santa… But in the last couple of days, I’m starting to think that he’s doubting Santa and yet kind of believing. So when I introduced the idea of calling up Santa and reminding of the kids’ wish lists, Cam totally bought into it.

We went to TelSanta.com and this is what Cam had to say:

If he gets everything he asks for, he’s one heck of a lucky kid. By the way, Cameron is doing really well in school. He had an awesome report sent home on Friday. We’re really happy for him! I’ll leave you with a picture Cam drew on the chalkboard the kids have in the newsly minted “kids room” in the basement. (That’s right, the man cave is over… for now)

Cam performed in his after school program’s talent show… And he did great!! Just think, he still had another week before he performs the same song at his first official piano recital. The best part of this video? How Cam’s not sure what to do after he’s done performing (and my little wahoo since I was shooting the video and couldn’t clap).

Cameron has voiced concerns about the Santa thing. You know what I’m talking about. But we had a discussion about belief and disbelief and he quickly learned that you MUST believe to enjoy Santa’s gifts on Christmas Day. And that discussion worked. We visited Santa this past weekend and Cam had a great time.

A cool part of our Santa visit was how it was part of a local high school’s Breakfast with Santa event. We got to eat doughnuts and then while we waited to see the jolly guy, the kids got to write out their Santa List. Cameron wrote that he wants a Nintendo DS and Mario Kart. After delivering his list to Santa, Cam and his sister got gifts! He won a checker board and he promptly kicked his Dad’s butt in a game. Cameron has clearly been playing a lot at school lately. He’s also started learning about chess!

Later in the day Cameron and his sister pitched in and decorated the tree. They were really good at it this year. I’m going to be able to hand off the job to the kids soon! While I was getting the tree prepared, Cameron spent a lot of time practicing his piano by playing Jingle Bells. He’s thinking about playing that song for his first piano recital in a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to it. He’s really interested in music and I’ve been fascinated seeing how he’s taken to understanding music a bit!

The highlight of decorating – we learned that Cam is VERY close to getting that Christmas tree star to the top all by himself. In the end, his Dad needed to give him an extra lift.

When Cameron is into something, he’s really into it. He loves Star Wars Legos. He loves playing it on the Will. He loves playing with real Legos and creating all kinds of ships. He can seriously spend hours tinkers with his rocket ships and little Lego men. So after he went to the movie Where The Wild Things Are, I knew he’d get excited. The book is great. He and his dad say the movie was awesome. (I couldn’t go since his sister is too young for that movie)

Fast forward a week after he saw the movie and we were at a craft store. He got to play with Crayola’s Model Magic clay at school and he was dying to get some of his own. It had to be white because he knew you can draw on it with marker. So when we brought it home, he decided to create characters from the movie. I don’t remember all of the names, but you can obviously tell which one is Max if you’ve ever read the book.

Along with creative moments, Cameron is REALLY digging math. He has the task of taking numbers each day at school and creating interesting math equations to come up with that number. So 59 could be 10×10-60+10+9. While Cameron has played with numbers he’s really starting to understand multiplication. We’re not talking multiplication tables that you memorize. I’m talking multiplication that makes sense to him. His understanding of numbers just amazes me. Another amazing thing: piano. He asked to start taking piano lessons and he has yet to complain about it. He even memorized his first song: Ode To Joy. I’m so proud. I even caught a little moment in one of his piano lessons where he got to play a little and see how a piano works.

I didn’t even get into how Cam is playing soccer and starting to really get focused on how he kicks and throws the ball. It’s like he’s just discovering a little bit more of his inner focus… It makes me quite proud.

He looks so big!! You know, he really is big. Cameron is growing up in so many ways. The glasses make him look grown. The confident look in his face makes him look old. The fact that he’s grown a size and a half in shoe size… AND is close to growing out of all of his long pants makes him look grown.

But you know what? He still loves a good cuddle. Cameron loves to hang out and listen to me read. He loves to write short notes to me that says how much he loves me. (He also leaves me online messages on his kid-friends web browser) He can’t wait to take a stuffed animal to school tomorrow. He sleeps with five stuffed animals each night and they all have names.

He talks like he’s 12 years old. He loves to analyze numbers and equations (even though he doesn’t know he’s talking about equations). He loves that his sister is interested in letters and numbers so he has a chance to help teach her everything he knows. He’s not afraid to tell someone he cried when he bumped his head at this past weekend’s tailgate (and we’re talking bump – he had a huge lump there for a while).

I know people talk about the awkward time when kids are a tween age… Cameron isn’t in an awkward phase. He’s coming into his own. I’m so glad he’s finding his way. I am so proud of him for finding his self focus at times (when he had no idea where to find it not long ago). I am so thrilled to see him excited about many things in his life: soccer, piano, math, science and even gardening club in his afterschool program.

One quick story: Last week I was helping Cam clean up all of the Legos on his floor at school. At some point, I started helping him build droids and suddenly, we were just playing with Star Wars Legos. We were both in the zone. That boy zone that Cam falls into regularly.

I suddenly snapped out of our Lego zone and realized it was late! It was a school night! I looked at Cam and told him he had to go to bed… And he smiled and announced that we had just played with Legos instead of reading a book. He thought that was the coolest thing in the whole world.

It was pretty cool.

There are so many highs and lows to life… And Cameron feels them so deeply. So Halloween ranked a super huge high. He got to hang out with his grandparents who came to town to enjoy the fun weekend. He also got to eat COPIOUS amounts of candy and play with his friends. What kind of kid could ask for more? Not too much. The trouble with all that fun? It can lead to a bit of involuntary insanity: