Camden's New Haircut and Non-Valentine's Day

So, I finally cut Camden’s hair. I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and I finally did it. I thought his hair was cute since I cut it last time, but not nearly as cute as it was with all his curls before I cut it last. So, I decided to take the advice that my friend Rachel gave me a while ago of using texturizing scissors on his hair. I picked some up at WalMart today and decided to try them out. I cut it a little short in the back, but it doesn’t look too bad and it will grow out before too long. I was going for a similar look to Isaac’s hair when his is all curly, and I think it turned out pretty well. So, here's a cute picture of Camden with his new hair-do:

Oh, and here’s something totally unrelated that I thought was a little odd: I got a letter from Kolby’s and Eli's preschool class saying that on February 12th (their last day of class before the weekend of Valentine’s Day) they will be celebrating Friendship Day and the kids are welcome to bring cards or treats for the other kids in the class. So, here’s my question, “When did Valentine’s Day become politically incorrect?” Why do they need to call it Friendship Day? I don’t really get it. Oh well, now I just have to think about preparing 42 cards and treats (21 for each boy) to celebrate non-Valentine’s day.

Pictures from the Children's Museum

We went a couple weeks ago to the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum downtown for playgroup, and the boys had a blast. The indoor sand box is always a favorite, and Kolby especially liked the conveyor belt in the Curious George exhibit. Afterwards we walked over and our friend took our picture in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum. Since then, whenever Kolby sees commercials for the Curious George exhibit at the children’s museum on the PBS channel, he says, “Mom, we really need to go there again before we move!”

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Curls

For any of you who’s children have curly hair and you don’t know what to do with it, I finally figured it out. I love Camden’s hair, but if I don’t put any products in it, it just gets all fuzzy. So I’ve been putting gel in his hair for a while now, which makes it stay nice and curly, but the thing I didn’t like about the gel is that it made his curls kind of hard and crunchy. My friend, Rachel Roberts, who is a hairdresser, suggested mixing some conditioner with the gel. I tried it a while ago, and it works great. His hair is much softer, but the gel still keeps it from getting fuzzy. Plus, for some reason it seems like the gel-conditioner mixture holds the curls a lot longer than just gel alone. I just had to share this info for any of you who might be wondering what to do with your kid’s curly hair. Thanks, Rachel!

Kolby's Haircut

So, Kolby got a haircut. I was going to try to do it myself, but the hair clippers I borrowed didn't have the right sized attachments that I needed, and Debbie offered to pay for Kolby to go have his hair cut at a place down the street. It was kind of a big deal, since I have always cut his hair before. When I asked him how he wanted his hair cut, he said he wanted it to be like Talmage's. His friend from church, Talmage Roberts, has hair that is spiked, and Kolby was so excited to have his done like that too. He sat very still and did well while the girl cut his hair, and I think it turned out really cute. While the girl was cutting his hair, I kept thinking that Kolby looked so much like my little brother, Aaron (even though Aaron never had spiked hair as a child). But he does look a lot older. We'll see how Daddy likes it when he gets home tonight.

But the cutest thing was how excited Kolby was when his haircut was done. He kept asking me if it looked like Talmage's, and then he would move his head and ask if it still looked like Talmage's. It was raining outside when we left, and he said that he didn't want to go out in the rain because it would mess up his hair. I told him we could put up the hood of his coat to cover his hair, and he let me do that after I assured him that the hood wouldn't mess up his hair. Then he quickly took the hood back down and asked me if it still looked like Talmage's. Once we got out to the car, he told me that I needed to tell him not to lean back in his seat or touch his hair at all because it would mess it up. And later when I put him down for his nap he was worried that if he went to sleep his hair would get messed up, so I had to reassure him that I could fix his hair, even if it did get messed up. Pretty cute!

That's a Little Better . . .

Well, I figured out last night that if I put mousse in Camden’s hair, it keeps the curls in a little better. (I know – how silly to put mousse in a 1-year-old boy’s hair). But when I put it in his hair last night and he had his curls back again, Michael saw him and said, “Oh, there you are, Camden.” I agreed – our baby was back. And my friend, Rachel, who is a hairdresser gave us some hope when she said that if his hair still curls when it gets wet, it will likely still grow back in curly as it gets a little longer. We’ll see. But I think he looks pretty cute like this for now:

A Long Weekend

This week has been wonderful! Michael finished his trauma surgery rotation and had his test on Thursday, which he felt good about after he took it. We are both so relieved to be done with this rotation – and on to better things. (Wow – Michael’s now a 4th year – one more year of medical school to go!)

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, we all went over to the church and Camden and I went to an enrichment activity about family history. Most of the evening was an introduction to genealogy, so I just went to help out, but they also scheduled a time once a month when a group of us will be going to the family history center during the day and we can trade off babysitting so we can have some time to work on our research. I am excited because this should allow me to find the time to get some more names ready for temple work. While I was in doing that, Michael and the older boys went outside and helped as a group of church members pulled weeds around the church grounds. Michael said that they will still need to get together again because it didn’t all get done, but about ten families showed up to help so that is a pretty decent turn-out, I think.

Wednesday was a busy day. Camden had his 9-month-old doctor’s check-up in the morning, and he looks healthy and right on track with his growth. He now weighs 20 pounds 4 ounces and is just over 29 inches tall. A few hours later I dropped the boys off with Rachel Roberts and went for my first physical therapy appointment. I liked the physical therapist and she gave me some good information. Since then I have been doing several different stretches for about half an hour two times a day, and the pain that I had in my hip for the last week has gone away. My knee pain is still there, but hopefully it will go away soon too. Then that evening I took Kolby and watched while he had his swimming lesson. He has done so well this session with listening and doing just what the teacher asks. He did an especially good job of floating on his back this week.

On Thursday morning I took the boys to their art class, which they always enjoy. After Michael got home from taking his test and the boys took their nap, we went and got some fireworks. We found a good deal on a big pack of fireworks that was buy 1, get 2 free. When we got home, we took Eli to his swim lesson. Michael got to swim with him while I watched. And afterwards we went to a BBQ for the students who were all on the same track with Michael to celebrate the end of 3rd year. I only knew two couples there – the Cortezes and the Jays – but it was nice to meet some of the people Michael has been working with and have some time to socialize and play at the park.

On Friday we were thinking about going camping overnight because Michael had the day off, but then decided that it would be less expensive to just take a day trip. We ended up going to swim at the Lake Pewaukee beach, and it was a lot of fun (although I still find it a little difficult to call anything that is not on an ocean a “beach.”) But we all enjoyed ourselves there.

On Saturday evening we had our annual pre-4th of July BBQ and fireworks. There was a very good turn-out – there were over 20 adults there and tons of little kids. I love the summer time when you can do stuff like this and you don’t have to worry about how many people you can fit into your apartment. After eating, we gave sparklers to all the kids and they had a blast. Some of the little girls kept running around waving the sparklers like magic wands and saying, “Bibbity bobbity boo!” Afterwards Michael and Matt Vernon put on a fun fireworks show. Lots of the people ended up heading home before the fireworks were done, just because their kids were tired because we had to wait so long to start the fireworks because it doesn’t get dark until after 9:00pm in the summer. But it was a fun show – especially since the boys enjoyed it so much. Kolby kept naming all the different colors of sparks he saw, Camden watched with a smile from his stroller for the first little while until he got tired, and at one point Eli was so excited that he was jumping up and down and shaking Camden’s stroller. It was pretty cute.

This morning Kolby was kind of grumpy when he got up and he said that he didn’t want to go to church. I was telling him the fun things that we would get to do, like going to his sunbeam class and taking the bread and water for the Sacrament. When I told him about the Sacrament, he seemed to be happy to go to church. So, this morning we went early to set up chairs at church, but someone had already done it before we got there, so Michael played a few hymns on the piano until it was time to start. Everything was going pretty well until the young men went up to the front of the chapel to help pass the Sacrament, and then Kolby wouldn’t calm down. He said that he needed to go help, and when Michael told him he needed to stay in his seat, he said that Mommy told him he could. So, when I told him about taking the Sacrament in church, he thought that I meant he could be one of the young men who got to go help pass out the bread and the water to everyone in the congregation. He finally calmed down some when we told him that he could pass the bread and water to us after it was passed to our row. But he still wanted to go up to the front and help. The rest of the meetings went like normal. This is the fourth week in a row that Camden has been happy right up until the third hour of church, when he acts so tired and fussy that we have to take him out in the hall. Michael took him for me the last few weeks when he did this, so this week I said I could stay out with him. I did get to meet another new family in the ward while I was out there, so that was nice. After church Kolby’s sunbeam teacher told me that during primary there was a family visiting who’s son had recently been baptized. The boy was baptized in the Susquehanna River, which happens to be a significant location in the history of our church, so the primary leader was asking the children to guess where the boy had been baptized. So, his teacher told me that Kolby raised his hand right away and answered, “At a garage sale.” She said that he was very proud of his answer.

This afternoon we came home and water was leaking from the light fixture and wood work above our kitchen sink. We finally got a hold of the apartment maintenance worker, and he came and said that he will have a plumber come tomorrow, since it seems that it leaks more in our apartment every time our upstairs neighbors use their sink or dishwasher. Luckily, the majority of the water is dripping into our sink, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

This next week should be a lot of fun too. Tomorrow Michael has the day off because in his dermatology rotation they are training new interns tomorrow, so they aren’t going to have the students start until Tuesday. So we are planning on taking the boys to the zoo in the morning. And then Michael gets Wednesday off for the 4th of July, so we will take the boys to the parade in the morning, then to the annual ward party at the Twelmyer’s house, and then to see the fireworks in the evening. Hopefully the nice weather holds out. Well, we hope you all have a happy 4th of July!