The Many Names and Faces of Campbell Clive

Partially in response to Matt and Mimi's post about how many nicknames Matt has for Joshua, and partially because I've been meaning to post about how adorable and funny my little Camster is.

1. Cam
2. Cammi
3. Camby (Cadence came up with this one and uses it frequently)
4. Cam Cam (as in "Bam Bam" from Flinstones or "Pam Pam" from Office)
5. Cambo
6. Camboni
7. Campblo (I actually think this is what Cadence thought was her real name at first)
8. The Great Campbino
9. Porkchop (sorta messes up my flow here, but one of Spencer's top choices) var.: Poikchop (Cadence's version)
10. Campbell-oni
11. Cambone
12. Cam 'n Cheese (this debatably counts as two because Trevor* points out that it can refer to either "ham and cheese" or "Mac and cheese" with the mac backwords).Every once in a while I make the mistake of leaving one of the kids alone with Uncle Trevor. This time he happened to be equipped with some eye-liner. Whoops.

13. Campbellina (like "Thumbelina", a movie we watch often)
14. Camtastic
15. Campbell Ca-Bampbell
16. Campbell-bo-bampbell
17. Campbulence
18. Camcorder
19. Cammers
20. Bean-Machine (apparently this is from the root-word Campbino, "and she is shaped like a bean" Trevor adds)

The Great Campbino is a funnier baby than your average cutie-patootie. Not only is her head large and bald, her thighs laughably rolly-polly, and her face often serious and soul-searching. She has a sense of humor, too. It just took a while to develop and what it developed into was something....special.

Ye olde Bean Machine laughed for the first time at six months of age. From three to six months I humiliated myself in as many ways as I could think of to try to get this girl to laugh. She laughed once and then I spend two more months of humiliation. And then she laughed again at 8 months. Once.

Since the most recent recognizable laugh she's been doing this thing. Well, we finally realized she IS laughing. She opens up and lets out a loud throat-cough kind of a sound. I know I need to just record it and put it up here. I know she can laugh for real, but she prefers this throaty sound for now. It sounds more like she is choking. It's so funny.

Also, if she is pinned down, for instance, in a high chair or the changing table, and she sees Cadence, she has what I call a "happy seizure". Her body spasms and her head starts shaking from side to side really fast and she smiles really big. It always makes me worried and makes me laugh at the same time. It's pretty intense.

And then, of course, let's not underestimate how adorable her nakey little body is. If I have to keep getting up every night to feed her to maintain her squishable bod, I'll do it.

And by way of update/babybooking, Cammi J has started crawling right at about 8 months and she is all over the place now (almost 9 months). She pulls herself up on everything and she can stand on her own for a few seconds. Today at the tot lot she crawled through the play tunnel (like a tent tunnel) with absolutely no fear. I was proud. She says, "bah bah bah" and "doh doh doh" all day long. She is very attentive and will entertain herself forever as long as I am sitting right there with her. If I expect her to entertain herself while I change Cadence's clothes or make lunch....forget it. She's so funny and so much her own little person.

*For those of you who don't know, Trevor is Spencer's brother who has been living with us for the past couple of months, and who will live with us until June, when we are moving to Texas for an internship. Trevor is in the process of redirecting his life (was about to go to Grad school to study Psych and decided that wasn't what he wanted), and so for that time we get to have him around. He is oh-so-helpful and the kids love him. I call him my "Manny".

26 going on 30.

It is possible that this is partially in response to my sister's post about still looking like a teenager even though she is going on 30 this year. But mostly it's in response to looking into the mirror a few minutes ago (not my choice-forced because I had to wash my hands).

Merica and I. I'm workin' the anti-aging mask and Merica's is an "aging mask". You wish, Mer. (Okay, it's not really us. The hair should have really given it away. and the bare shoulders).

I've always had a love/hate relationship with my skin. On the one hand, it seems blotchy, blushes and sunburns easily (but not evenly), has a handful of moles and freckles, and is picky about moisturizers. On the other, it is relatively hair-less, soft and smooth, looks good with red hair, and is probably my most complimented upon feature (other than my hair, but we don't need to talk about why that doesn't count, right?)

You can't really see how bad my skin has gotten here, but you can see my cute new hair cut that my cousin Kim did. She's awesome and charges $25! And why can't I ever just not look awkward in a picture? That's a topic for another narcissistic post.

Ah, here's one that will make you see things my way. Just not pleasant. And again, just can't take a non-awkward picture. Still.

So here's the deal. Between being on the "wrong side of 25", being in the harsh Chicago environment, and maybe my recently intensified sweet tooth, and lack of sleep (remember my post about Campbell's sleep?) my skin has become quite a problem. When winter hit my friend gave me some all natural facial soap that is extremely mild, and I bought Cetaphil to moisturize since my usual stuff wasn't cutting it for the winter skin. My face burns when I moisturize, my pores are huge, I have zits (not pregnant, by the way), and my wrinkles seem exaggerated.

Okay, I'm not just fishing for some validation. I'm fishing for some product or treatment recommendations. Any products that you have found that really help your skin? I want to look like I'm 16, like Merica. :) No, actually I just want to not hate looking at my own face.

TAKE THAT, CALIFORNIA!!!

Wisconsin Dells Count-down (up?):

One night ($55!),
Two days,
Three babies,
Four families,
Five kids,
Six hours driving (3 there, 3 back),
Seven adults,
Eight bucks for a pretzel and chicken fingers at the resort cafe (LAME! but it's okay because...),
Nine free admissions to the waterpark,
Ten o'clock bedtime,
100% AWESOMENESS!

That's right, all you who think a Midwesterner can't wear swimwear for Spring Break! We can, did, and didn't have to worry about tanning first, because DON'T NOBODY GOT A TAN around here yet:
Last week we drove to the Wisconsin Dells with some of our other Business School friends. We got there around noon and went straight to CULVER'S. Culver's is the reason that Midwesterners are so happy, but also the reason that they are also maybe less trim than the rest of the country. My personal favorite is the kids' meal: a full sized butter-burger with cheese, adult-sized serving of fries, medium soda, and a helping of frozen custard (much better and higher fat content than ice cream) that is about four times bigger than what I would personally alott to my child. That's about $4.00. So good.
After filling our guts at Culver's, we headed to the New Concord Inn where we had reservations. We were able to check into our rooms early, jump into our suits (grateful that we could squeeze into them after our satisfying lunch) and hit the pool!














The kids loved the little waterplay area. We could have just stayed there for days, I think. We played and played and played. We had dinner in the conference room--pizza, salad, clementines, chips, cookies...yum. Exactly what you're hungry for after a day in the pool, right?
We headed off to bed and while the kids got to bed a little later than their normal bedtime, I think all of the adults were grateful that we were forced to go to bed earlier than we normally do.

Let me shout out to the sweet sweetness that is the NEW CONCORD INN in the Wisconsin Dells. Each family stayed for $55/night, and that included a clean room with a microwave and small fridge and two queen beds. The staff was as friendly and helpful as any I've ever stayed with, and the deal couldn't be better. The hotel includes an indoor pool with small waterplay area perfect for kids about 7 and under. This hotel gets raving reviews from me! I will never need another hotel when staying at the Dells.




The next morning the plan was to go to Chula Vista's indoor waterpark and pay $30 admission for each child over two. As I ought to have expected, Robyn, Queen of the Good Deal, found a coupon. A two-for-one coupon to the waterpark! Then the hotel Manager (Joseph) called the resort and asked them to 'take good care of us'. That provided Robyn with one less ticket to pay for, too! (they would have had to pay for Jacob).
The waterpark was great fun. Most of the slides the kids could go on, the kids water play area was safe, not over crowded, and fun. Cadence had a blast, and Campbell enjoyed it, too, once she got used to it. The lazy river (actually, it was called the "Action River", ha ha) was too shallow and not much fun, but otherwise, it was a great park for a day.

Thanks to everybody who came along and made it a memorable experience. If everybody hadn't been so low maintenance it wouldn't have been so stress-free. Thanks to the Fella's for having a week off of school. And thanks again to the New Concord Inn for making it so dang affordable!

*

Enough is Too Much

It's 6:00 AM. That translates to "middle of the night" to me. I've been up for 30 minutes and will probably be up for 30 more, or maybe I'll just be up for the day. Campbell is 8 months old and still wakes up to eat. But she doesn't just wake, eat, and sleep. She wakes, eats, and then talks, plays, and whines for at least an hour, sometimes 90 minutes. And she doesn't have her own room, so I can't just put her down and let her deal with it. Normally it happens from about 4:30 to 5:30.
But what gives? Is it normal that she won't go back to sleep after eating? I don't hang out and play with her, I don't give her extra love and attention. I leave the lights off. In fact, a lot of times she has a stuffy nose so she sleeps in her car seat (the upright position helps breathing), so I just grab the carseat and take it out of the room, give her the bottle and stay out of sight....but the point is I just leave her in the carseat...aaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh. What to do?

Mom, I want some more Yucky Germs.

I tried to correct her. "LLLLucky CHAAARMS", I said. But twenty minutes later she had eaten all the marshmallows, none of the regular cereal, and was asking for more, "Yucky Germs".

Considering all the condemning talk we've had about germs and yuckiness lately (as we recover from a stomach virus that has been the latest epidemic in our neighborhood), I would think that a name like that would give her pause. Nope.

Oh, Joy!

We've been doing Joy School for about six or seven weeks, now. That means I've taught four lessons. While it feels like teaching kittens, sometimes (just imagine yourself with a flannel board and little puppets and your audience is three kittens. You'll get the picture.), it is also really fun. The kids love it, that's for sure.
The class consists of Jacob:

Molly:

And Cadence:

Here are some pictures from my lessons last week:

After Cadence and Jacob got soaked playing "What Floats?" (A game where I give them random household items--earrings, receipts, tin foil, fridge magnets, etc--and they put it in a bowl of water and see what happens...), I wised up and the next time, they played in their skivvies.


Above: Cadence and Jacob making dishsoap paintings: one cup dishsoap and one cup water, beaten with a hand mixer. They loved it. This took me SOOOO long to mop up (can you imagine?) but my floor has NEVER been cleaner, I'm sure!
Molly chose to do her own experiment instead of paint with soap: She had to know how each shoe fit, how it fit with socks on/off, and how each shoe looked with each other shoe. It was a big project.

Below: Molly is busy with the Pretend Play Corner. She's changing the doll's diaper. So cute.

And, of course, my personal favorite of every Joy School Day: rest time. The kids love to get down with their blankets and pillows and pretend to rest. They don't really, but at least they are sort of quiet....it's so sweet.

It really has been a joy to teach these kids the little joys in life. Especially Interest and Curiosity (which was my topic last week), which taught them to ask questions, enjoy learning and experimenting, and experiencing. It reminds me to take myself less seriously and just enjoy being a part of this great adventure called Cadence's Life.

What?!?

Thanks, Eryn. I just found this through Eryn's blog.
Okay, who can recreate an anthropologie piece and only spend $6? Some of us just dream about having enough money to spend over 100 on a cardigan. She makes her own and then gives it away? I want to be friends with you, grosgrain!
Anthropolification Boyer Cream Cardi GIVEAWAY!!!! GIVEAWAY!!!!