Five for Friday

But, one day late. :)

1. I love how I can use peas, green peppers, and romaine lettuce to bribe my kids to eat their dinner. And with Camden, tomatoes as well.  Silly kids!

2. Nate become obsessed with/passionate about letters.  He won't let me read to him at all right now--he just points to each letter and wants to know the sound.  He picked them up so fast--I think I started O in January, and now he knows probably 15 letter/sounds confidently, and another 3-4 when reminded.  I'm really hoping he'll start saying a few more words as he can say the sounds.

3.  Camden can read simple words.  It's really fun when he points to a word on a sign and without any prompting, says, "That says, ...."  and he's right!

4.  I have about 13 weeks until Baby 3 makes his appearance.  According to my weekly emails, Baby weighs about 2 pounds now. We still are stuck on what to name him.  Camden likes to talk to the baby.  He also likes to pretend he's a baby horse or a baby Iguanadon or a baby Despletasaurus (a little cousin of t-rex).  He is excited for the baby to come. Nate just looks at me with a very confused expression when I tell him a baby is inside.

5.  Nate has had 4 days now of no temper tantrum during prayer time.  Sometimes, he even folded his arms.  Serious improvement from full out hysterics at the mention of the word "prayer."   

I lost a tooth!

Imagine our surprise when Camden announced, "I lost a tooth!"
He's only 3, after all!  None of his teeth have been wiggly.

He was looking in the mirror.  See that tiny gap between his two bottom teeth?  Yep.  That's where he "lost a tooth". 

Michelle: Where did it go?
Camden: I don't know.  It just got lost.  It was a tiny tooth.  

(Blogger picture formatting is a mystery to me. It looks off-center, but if you click on it, you'll get the whole thing.)

Disneyland!

We decided to take Camden to Disneyland before baby brother is born and before I get big enough that the workers would give me dirty looks for riding the rides while I'm pregnant.  We left Nate with Grandma for the day and went.
The sun was shining and the longest wait was probably 20 minutes, even without using fast passes.  What a perfect day to go!  We definitely had fun, but not everything went as I expected.  So many of the rides are very dark and very loud, or have scary things in them.  Camden is a fairly cautious boy, and the rides scared him more than I expected.
A few pictures--- 

 Jedi training was so cool! The Jedi masters pick about 20 kids to come to Jedi training, but we got there about 10 seconds too late for Camden to be picked.  Now I'm glad we were late!  See those tiny girls in the front?  They couldn't have been much taller than Nate.   I'm so impressed they didn't break down in tears.  The stage popped out of the ground and Darth Vader and Darth Maul (sp?) came to convince all the "Jedi" trainees to join them.  Each kid had to fight one of them.  Darth Maul was making me nervous!  I can just imagine the terror on Camden's face if he had had to fight either one of them.  SOOO glad we were 10 seconds late!  I do think this was one of Camden's favorite things, though.  He choose a Mickey Mouse light saber for a souvenir, anyway!

 

Camden also really liked Star Tours.  

On to the rockets!  This was a much happier ride than Space Mountain.

 Hmm...how do I get this out? 

 Let's try two hands...Nope!  It's stuck.

 Playing with Dad in line. Camden kept trying to eat Brian's face.  It was pretty funny. :)

 Tarzan tree house

 Jungle Cruise.  This was one of Camden's favorite rides, and he requested to do it again.

 Later, we went over to the Winnie the Pooh ride, and we were so lucky to be there just in time to meet...

Tigger!

 and Eeyore!

 And, of course, Winnie the Pooh!

Camden was so happy to see these guys.  Not afraid in the least.  This was one of the "magical" Disneyland experiences I was hoping to have today.   

 Another favorite for Camden was the carousel.  I don't know what it is about carousels, but Camden loves them!  We got to do it twice.  You can't quite see it, but he's sitting on a "Captain America" horse--it had white stars through the blue and red parts.  Who knew we'd find Captain America at Disneyland?

 We stayed to watch Mickey's Parade, and found a place without many other people. Camden was just thrilled when Pluto came and gave him a high five.  He liked Peter Pan, "nice" Captain Hook, and the Lion King float.  But, when the Princess float came by, each princess waved and smiled at him.  He did everything he could to watch without making eye contact. It was so funny!  Snow White especially tried to give him some personal attention, but he didn't want anything to do with her.  I was laughing so hard.  How many little girls would be ecstatic if any princess waved and smiled at her?  Ariel, Tiana, Aurora, Cinderella--they all tried to get his attention.  I'm glad Pluto came earlier.  :)
We  followed the parade to the entrance of the park, but Camden was sleeping (with light saber firm in grasp) before we got to Main Street.  So much excitement for one day. 

Rides Camden definitely didn't like: Haunted Mansion--there really are some creepy things in there.  I tucked his head in my arms and covered him up.  Space Mountain-- too dark and too fast.  Should have started him with a roller coaster in which he could see where he was going.  Pinocchio--this one is in Fantasyland? It is very dark, loud, and creepy!  Pirates was pretty dark, and he didn't want to do it again. 

Overall, a happy day!