Can you spoil a baby?

Someone once said that you can never spoil a baby by holding them or loving them too much. I agree on the loving part but not so sure about holding them. Morgan is now 9 months old and each day she is becoming harder and harder to seperate her from Rich and I. If either one of us leaves the room she starts to push out her lower lip and starts crying until we come back. She seems to be okay with other people holding her other than Rich and I as long as somebody is holding and loving on her. Tonight seemed to be one of the worst nights we have had, Rich is at class so it is just me and the kids on Tuesday nights. Tonight Morgan would not let me put her down for one second. Finally I had to set her down and let her cry it out. While she is crying I run to use the restroom, and after a moment she quits crying, I think that was easy. Until I go in there and Cameron has her on his lap telling her its going to be okay, mommy will be back. What an awesome big brother, he loves her sooooo much. How can you not want to hold this cute little face all day long!!!

A Child's Accomplishments

Seeing your child get excited and showing off their pride over an accomplishment is an great feeling and experience. I think they learn these emotions in stages. When they are little they are proud of themselves for clapping, standing, crawling, everything they do for the first time. When you see there face you see this light in their eyes where it all of a sudden make sense, and little smile on their face. As they got older the accomplishments become bigger and they become more proud of themselves. They are aware of the people around them and how they are proud of them as well. They figure out if they keep practicing that they do get better and it pays off. They learn repetition is important to succeed in certain things. Nothing happens over night.
Cameron had a baseball game this weekend and he did absolutely unbelievable. The coach had him playing first base, and he stopped almost everything that came to him, made awesome throws to the pitcher. And his hitting was even better. He was on fire this weekend. He got two awesome hits, and one was a line drive just over third base, and as he crossed the plate he comes running up to me and gives me the biggest hug and has the biggest grin on his face and says "did you see that hit, that was so cool" he was so proud of himself the way he played. The coach and all the parents were telling him what a great job he did, he definitely felt pretty special after the game. He couldn't wait to get home so we could go down to the park for some catch and batting practice.
Lately it seems like we are having a lot of these little moments in Cameron's life. He is learning so much and is like a little sponge. Tonight we were reading stories and he started picking out some of his spelling words that he has had, and looks at me and says "I am going to tell Mrs Flanagan that I saw my words in my stories". He is just so proud of himself that he is starting to read and can recognize words. My little man is growing up.

RACERS...START YOUR ENGINES

This year I had no idea what to get Rich for his birthday, it was back in March. I wanted to do something different this year, so I bought tickets to the NASCAR Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR). I bought 3 tickets, one for Rich, myself and Cameron. I thought this is going to be so much fun, and we have never done anything like it before. We don't even watch the races on television. The race was this past weekend

We got to the track around 4:00, and there were all walks of people everywhere. There were well over 100,000 people at the track. There were your families, dads and sons, friends and then your true NASCAR race fans. These were the ones who camped out all weekend at the track with their favorite drivers flag flying high, the barbecues off to the side and the endless coolers of beer. I am from Oklahoma so when it comes to Rednecks I have seen them all or so I thought. I never saw so many men without their shirt on and wearing cut off jean shorts, and they had big bellies. It was such a sight to see. But once we got past the amazement of the crowd we had a blast. Everyone was so nice and friendly, they were ready to strike up a conversation with you no matter if you couldn't hear what they were saying. Our seats were located on the 4th turn, the Petty Section, we were row 16.

Our seats sat right in front of pit row which was pretty cool. As the cars are doing the warm up laps and they make that turn to start the race, to listen to the engines rev and the crowd go wild was just amazing and so much fun. Cameron picked out number 88, which is Dale Earnhardt Jr. for his driver.

He waved his flag proud, and people would give him high fives and say things to him and he had no idea how to respond to them. He would shout go 88, go 88 throughout the race. The people around us just fell in love with him, thank goodness. The poor guy in front of us ended up wearing everything Cameron ate or drank, but didn't mind a bit and was super nice about it.

Cameron made it to lap 250 or so and was ready to go home. I will admit I was ready to go as well, not because I wasn't having a blast but this was the first time that Morgan has been away from Rich and I for longer than an hour or so. All evening long Cameron kept saying "I miss Morgan, can we go get her" she stayed with my sister. Which I know they had a blast, Morgan got her toenails painted for the first time, she looks sooo cute. If I could get her toes to sit still long enough for a picture I will take one, I am trying to get one while she is sleeping.

You can say we have been somewhat converted to NASCAR fans. We won't watch it on TV much but we are certainly heading back to the races in November.

Even if your having the worst day ever....

Before having two children I never had a problem getting to work before 8:00, and now 2 kids later I am lucky if I make it by 8:30. I honestly try to get there on time, but something always interferes with getting out of the house on time. This automatically starts you off on the wrong foot and for me the day usually goes down hill from there. My job can be very stressful at times, and unfortunately we are in one of those times right now, so I am being pulled in a million directions and feel completely mentally warn down, and feel I have almost reached my limitations. Usually by the end of the day I am dragging because I am tired and just ready to go home. The minute I pick up Cameron from school and see how happy he is to see me and how he runs up to me and kisses me on the cheek and gives me hugs, this replaces any ting that happened that day. I no longer care about what happened at work. We talk about his day on the way home and once we get home Morgan is so happy to see the both of us She just has this smile that warms your heart, and her playing shy is the cutest thing. She reminds me of how innocent she really is but also have fast she is growing up. My husband is always waiting for me as well. I can count on him to listen to the saga of my day but I must say that he is not a box buddy at all, but I love every moment we spend together. I still can't wait to get home and see him and learn about his day. I love that our family is always together and that we love each other in so many ways

Uneventful weekend

As always the weekend flys by too fast and I never get anything completed that I wanted to. I always have high hopes come friday but by saturday morning they have all gone out the window and the kids lead the way. I realized that we have only 5 weeks until Cameron's birthday and I need to get planning his party. We decided to have it at the house this year which means we actually have to do something with our backyard. We have really done nothing with it since we moved in. So Cameron and I got out there and started pulling the weeds out of the garden area, Rich mowed the yard and then later helped us pull weeds and small trees that were growing in the garden area. We are far from done, but at least we got it started. I should have taken some before and after pictures but didn't so you will just have to take my word on it and know that we worked really hard.

Cameron had a baseball game on Saturday and did SOOOO AWESOME!!! He got 3 hits and never had to use the tee this game. Morgan did awesome and loved being outside. We bought a lighter bat for him and I think it makes all the difference. Later that evening we got home did some stuff around the house and then Cameron and Dad headed down to the park too hit some more baseballs. We are beyond playing ball in the backyard for right now.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day. Did the laundry, cleaned the bathrooms, went to the grocery store and pulled some more weeds. We did have a marathon of Nintendo this weekend. We must have played for hours and hours, throughout the weekend. We were trying to rescue the princess but it never happened.
I hope everyone had a great weekend and off to a good week!!!

BOWLING with his cousins

When we were in Missouri I took 2 of my nephews and Cameron bowling. We had so much fun. My dad went with us and he bowled as well. The boys had lots of fun that day.