Yup it’s true. I have 4 new friends. They are  Julius, Randy (not dad), Chris and Max. Julius warmed up to me on his 1st day at school at Russell. He’s really nice. Randy and Chris are best friends. I met Chris in baseball in the Spring and Randy on the 1st day of school this year. I’ve known Max since kindergarten but we were never really friends back then. So that is that.

[MOM NOTE: Of course, Cam and Michael are the best of friends and are in class together again this year. I included an awesome picture I took of them on the first day of school.]

Cam played the "Old Worm" in his class play

Cameron has a short attention span in a classroom full of 25 kids. So most of the school year we’ve struggled with keeping him on task without his teacher needing to remind him every second. When it felt like we reached the last straw, I asked Cam’s teacher for a way so I can find out how Cam did each day.

She came up with a grid idea where there’s a list of what they do each day (it’s doesn’t vary much through the week) and Cameron has to put an X or a check mark for things he completes or doesn’t complete. At the end of the day, Cam has to get his teacher to look through the list to see if he told the truth and then she signs it. (And she leaves a message if needed) Then Cam has to bring it home so I or his Dad can sign it. Since we’ve put him in charge of self-regulating his work, he’s made really big improvements in his academic work.

It’s a relief to have found a key to reaching the boy.

Another awesome development, Cameron’s really gotten interested in reading “boy” books. That’s books like Harry Potter (we’re on book 5), Stink, Magic Treehouse and Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I think he’s read so many books with enjoyable dialogue, he’s transitioned that reading into the way he writes in school. He has an incredibly conversational writing style. He doesn’t always write simple descriptive sentences to set the scene. He still needs to remember capital letters and punctuation. But seriously, I’m so thrilled with his writing.

Here’s an example of his take on running in the St. Louis Kids Fun Run:

The Run
By Cameron
4-15-10

“Ready set GO!” Wait. That’s the middle. Ok. Here’s how it started.

“Yawn! Buh boggly bop?” AHH? Yeah horrible but funny start.

1 hour later we were at Forest Park. 1 hour later my sister Jordan was running a 50 yard dash. It only took 30 seconds. 2 more minutes later that guy who says “ready set go” he said the 3 words.

I started a little too fast because in the middle I took a break. Then about 1 minute later I finished. My mom was SO happy.

That was my amazing run.

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.