Halloween, Halloween: Trick or Treat

On a typical posting about Halloween, you may expect to see pictures of someone trick or treating. Well, I don't have any of those pictures because my kid didn't want to go trick or treating! We did go to the trunk or treat at church. Allen and I were farmers, Liz was a chicken, and Allison was an ear of corn. (Farm theme.) I didn't worry about taking pictures (my dad and sister took some, but I haven't gotten those yet) because I thought we would trick or treat on Halloween. But once the day rolled around, Liz didn't want to. I asked her several times.

"You want to go trick or treating?" "No. I want to stay home."

"You want to go trick or treating and get some candy?" "No."

"You want to put on your costume and go trick or treating." "No."

She had been trying on her costumes for weeks before Halloween, so I guess between that and the candy she had already gotten, she was done with Halloween. We were a little bummed, but at the same time, I was glad that my kid is not motivated by the quest for candy. I'm going to enjoy that while it lasts.

In the weeks since Halloween, however, she sometimes asks if she can go trick or treating and go get candy. We've had to explain to her a few times that we only do that on Halloween and that Halloween is over and we have to wait until next year. Some things don't quite compute for my 2 1/2 year old. She also now seems to think that you need costumes for every holiday. She has been asking us, "Mommy, what are you going to be for Christmas? Are you going to be a farmer like daddy?"

Baby Update

With all the hub-bub of having a baby and caring for her and my toddler, I have neglected keeping this thing updated. I am in awe of the moms that actually keep these things current and interesting. I will try to mimic them as best as I can.

 Here is Allison Jean Camp. She was born at 1:31 am on October 9. I was in labor for about ten hours. With Elizabeth I was in labor for 15. Some people I tell that to say, "Oh. So it was easier this time." My answer is NO. No. Faster does not mean it is easier. But she is totally worth the wait, the challenging pregnancy and the not easy labor. She is an awesome baby. I will continue to expound upon her awesomeness as we progress.

 Here she is at about a week old. She is a very good tummy-timer. She gets pretty mad about it after about five minutes, but she is good at it. She's been lifting her head and looking both directions since she was new. Now she is just more awesome at it.

 This was our first outing after we brought her home. My girls and I went to a pumpkin patch with my mom, my sister, her kids and some other people. It was a good practice run. Allison stayed bundled up in the carrier the whole time, but Liz had fun looking at all the pumpkins. She did some good commentary on the colors and sizes of the pumpkins. Most of it involved her opinion on the green pumpkins.

Liz LOVES her baby sister. She hugs her and kisses her and gives her a pacifier when she is fussing. (The first time, she really freaked me out because I didn't think she could do it without hurting Allison, but she is actually really good at it.) It comes in handy when I am occupied. (Example: Cooking and having raw chicken or other meat on my hands.)

Here, Allison is ONE MONTH OLD. I decided to take a picture of her in this outfit in a similar pose as I have a picture of Elizabeth. What do you think?

Elizabeth at about a month and a half.

Even though Lizzie loves her little sister, she definitely is having trouble adjusting to having to share mom and dad's attention. We've been trying to give her some one on one time whenever we can. She has become a very good helper in the kitchen. Whenever we are making anything, she likes to climb up on the counter and help. Here we are making some homemade pizza.

Elizabeth is the warden for what we should or should not do as parents, especially when it comes to Allison. Here she is telling me not to do something. I believe it was something like, "Don't shine the light in her eyes!" (The flash from the camera.)

So, here is Allison today. She is seven weeks old. We've had some adjusting to do, but we are loving our family and our time with her. She is a really good baby. She is very smiley, sweet and snuggly. I didn't think that Elizabeth was a difficult baby. I didn't think she was easy either. But by comparison, Allison is definitely easier. I'm afraid to jinx it though....She usually sleeps for 2-3 hours during the day and 3-5 hours at night. Last night she slept through the night for the first time! She slept from 10:30 until about 6:15!!! I am definitely not going to expect that again, but it was awesome!

I still have about another month and a half before I go back to work, so I am trying to soak it all in. My students and some of my students parents keep asking me to come back earlier, but my kids are only going to be this age once, and I am not going to miss any more than I have to. Allen's business has slowed down a lot, so he is home a lot more. It's nice having him around and for him to be able to witness the cute things our kids do every day. During the summer he misses out on a lot. :( It's nice that he gets to be home during this time of Allison's life. When Elizabeth was this age, it was Spring/Summer and Allen was busy and was pretty much just home when she was sleeping and only really got to see her on Sundays. He is really enjoying his time with both girls. They both light up when he comes home. He's an awesome dad. My kids are awesome.

End of Summer Update

I haven't blogged in a long time, so I thought I should at least update the summer events. We mostly just hung out. Lizzy spent a lot of time riding her bike at our house and the neighbor's house (they are kind enough to let her play with all their toys). Poor Liz was stuck at home a lot because pregnant mom was too tired to do a lot of things we normally do. Despite that, we did get out to do some special things.

#1-We went to Silverwood! It's something Allen and I have wanted to do for a while, and we thought it would be a special thing for Elizabeth to do while she's still an only child.

We got to stay at a hotel (Sleep Inn), and I'm not sure what this says about my home, but when we got in the room she said "Wow! Nice room!" She and daddy really enjoyed the continentabl breakfast. You can't see it very well, but her face is covered in powder from donuts.

 One of the first things we did was take a train ride around the park. I had forgotten that it's a train ride and a little show, so it got kind of boring, but Liz LOVES trains, so she was pretty happy.

#2-Lizzy and Allen went on a Daddy - Daughter camping trip!

I really had a hard time being left alone without my family, but it was a really special thing for them. Lizzy caught butterflies and played with other kids. She is a real daddy's girl. She wants to do whatever he does. Every night Allen gets home early enough, the go play in the yard, he drives her around in the wheel barrow, and we go pick "peases" (peas) in the garden. No night is complete without peas before bed time.

#3-We went to the lake-swimming and FISHING!!

 She was very into fishing. She got a Dora fishing pool-which is of course a big deal. Allen had a great idea and he tied a Dora star to the end of her line, so she was catching STARS when she was fishing. She has gotten pretty good at casting and reeling in. I have gotten pretty good at untangling line.

 Allen and Lizzy had a nice nap in a hammock. I think that is a special daddy/daughter summer moment. Somewhere there is a picture of me snuggling my dad in a hammock, so this made me really happy.

#4-I got HUGE!



Random Fun Stuff

Lizzy likes to fly. The ideal way is to have mommy or daddy run around with her in the air saying "whee". Otherwise she runs around with her arms spread out making a swooshing sound. Big fun around the Camp house.


The Children's Place was having a sale and Elizabeth wound up with this lovely ensemble. They weren't purchased to be worn together, but she had to wear them to show daddy.

Elizabeth loves to swing. Every day when we get home, she says "I want to swing please". And if the weather permits, we do swing.

Here she is bundled up to go get the mail. The sunglasses and hat were her idea.

My sleeping beauty.

Family Pictures

In honor of this holiest time of year (the month of Elizabeth's birth), we decided to go get family pictures. I grew up with the tradition in my family of getting family pictures taken every year around Thanksgiving. I haven't been doing very well with the Thanksgiving part, but I have with the family picture part. Elizabeth was awesome getting pictures taken. She was totally into the ladies doing the pictures. They were putting a teddy bear on their heads and having her blow it off. (She blows and they knock it off their own heads.) She thought it was hilarious. We got some really good pictures. I was a little embarrassed by her fidgetiness, and then I remembered that she is a two year old and she is not accumstomed to sitting in a forced pose for any duration of time. Also, another family brought in a two year old after us, and they had to carricade him in the room to keep him from running away, so I felt pretty good about my daughter who just had to be moved an inch or two or have mom sit near her. She's so awesome. Here are some of the results of our Sears Portrait experience. (We bought the CD that comes with copyrights, so I am not breaking any laws, FYI.)

Camp Family 2011

Elizabeth's Birthday!

My daughter is now two years old which is shocking and exciting. She is a fantastic little girl and I feel really fortunate that I get to be her mom. Considering how "terrible" she should be at this point, I think we are getting off pretty easy. The few fits she throws can be dealt with by reasoning with her (Yes, you can reason with her. I know it's hard to believe), giving her a very stern look, or if all else fails, the dreaded "time out." We have so much fun with her every day. She is a sweet, silly, funny, happy little girl and she is super awesome. Just so ya know.


This is the quilt I made for her which I started in November or so, but got stuck on the quilting phase, so I had to get some help from Grandma (in New Mexico), so I got it back in time for her birthday. She loves it. I explained to her that it was "special blanket" that mommy made her and grandma helped. So at bed time she will either ask for her Dora blanket or her "special" blanket. Usually the "special" blanket wins. Take that Dora.
Birthday party: We just had a small party with family and a couple close friends. It went really well. I attempted to make her look like Dora. This is as close as I could get to orange shorts. A week after her party I saw the "Dora" bracelet in a store. Too late.

Her Dora "Fiesta" decorations. There were more balloons scattered about and that is a Dora tablecloth on that table down there. Yeah, I went all out. (She loves Dora, for those of you who don't know.)

Playing with the vacuum she got from Grandma and Grandpa Camp. When we clean or vacuum she brings it along and helps. If the training keeps going this well, she will be the primary cleaner of the house by the time she is 5.

Here is her cake. It of course didn't turn out exactly as I wanted. I got Elizabeth's opinion and she told me she wanted a soccer ball-Dora cake and she wanted it to be purple, so here is my interpretation of that.

Christmas

It has been pointed out to me by several people that I haven't blogged in a while, so I am playing catch up today. I'm going to stick to the highlights.
I always do the pictures weird, so these are in no particular order....


Here is Elizabeth Christmas morning. She got a pretty good haul. There is more on the couch, but I didn't take a picture of that for some reason. Don't worry. She got plenty.

Going out to play in the snow with her new Christmas hat.

Opening presents on the Dora couch that Santa got her. You can see part of the present opening carnage in the background.

Opening her Christmas Eve pajamas from Grandma Williams with daddy and his brief beard. (He shaved it a couple days later.)