Mommy, I need my bib.

Tonight, we were heading to dinner at Mama Fu's -- one of Camryn's favorite places to eat. She loves the chicken fried rice (with broccoli added) and edamame. On the way there, as we were passing other stores, she was calling them out to us. "There's Home Depot...There's Target..."

At dinner, she grabbed her napkin and started wrapping it around her finger. I asked her what she was doing and she said "It's Camryn's Band-Aid." Not remembering any recent injury, I asked her, "Oh...did you hurt your finger?" She looked at me as if to say No, you moron, but instead said "No. I am pretending I hurt my finger." Silly me.

After being instructed on the finer points of the meal, ("Mommy, I need my bib now," "Mommy, don't put my fortune cookie on my rice"), she noticed someone sitting a few tables away. I had seen the lady, too, but couldn't quite place where I knew her. Camryn said "That lady works at starbucks. She gives Camryn her blueberry coffee cake. She makes Mommy's mocha." Silly me.

I need a napkin!

Tonight, we went over to my parent's house for dinner. Camryn had no problem letting us know who she wanted to play with and who would, by process of elimination, be doing the cooking. "G-Mama go and play with Camryn with the school bus and Ernie while Mommy cooks spaghetti." Thanks. I see where I rate...

During dinner, Camryn showed us again that she is much more civilized than we are when it comes to dining. When we gave her her plate of spaghetti and told her to begin eating, she let us know that "I need a napkin." When I moved her plate away to wipe something up, she let me know that "I want my spaghetti back" (I suppose it WAS rude of me to just move it). When we had all finished, she showed her mastry of pronouns by stating that "Camryn finished all her spaghetti. Mommy finished all her spaghetti. Pop Pop finished all his. G-Mama finished all hers." That's my girl... : )

After dinner, she tried to finagle some dessert out of my mom (go figure, trying to get sweets and dessert out of a grandparent). "G-Mama go and see if Connor and Kaiden left a box of Nilla Wafers in the pantry." That little stinker. She remembered that her cousins had some Nilla Wafers here the last time they visited and left them in the pantry. She got some, of course. Can grandparents EVER say no???

Ringo...Bingo...

Here's an example of how I start my day...Camryn had just gotten up and was in the bathroom going potty. I was sitting on the floor in front of her and she noticed that my hair was not parted where it usually is. As she began to sweep sections of my hair into going the right direction, she said "Camryn get off the potty and fix Mommy's hair. It's a wreck." And my day begins...

After getting her dressed and myself kind of minimally put together (I had on jeans and a sweatshirt), I said to her "OK. Let's go!" She said "No. Mommy still has her pajama shirt on." I had to explain to her that it was not my pajama shirt, but a sweatshirt, and even though she sees me wearing it OVER my pajamas at night and in the morning sometimes, it is not my pajama shirt. I can't imagine how much I'm going to have to defend myself when she's two and a half...

After dinner tonight, we were on our way back home and G-Mama was in the back seat riding with Camryn. Camryn had wrapped her Minnie Mouse in a blanket and was rocking it and singing it lullabys. Then she decided that she wanted to rhyme. She went through several different rhyming sequences (go, no, blow, grow, so, toe, then on to soap, dope, mope, nope, etc.) then came out with "Ringo." G-Mama repeated it. Then Camryn said "Bingo." G-Mama repeated that. Then Camryn said "Flamingo." G-Mama said "OK. I'm impressed."

No Pop Pop. It's Salsarita's...

Ok. This is going to be tough. I started trying to pay attention today to all of the things that Camryn was doing and saying so that I could put them into this entry, and by the time she was up for a half hour, there were already too many things to remember. So I am going to attempt the highlights...

Today is Monday and Mondays are Pop Pop days. Camryn goes with Pop Pop to McDonald's for breakfast (where on the way there, she informed him that she wanted to eat eggs, biscuits, yogurt with blueberries and strawberries and pancakes -- and she did eat every bite of it). After that, they usually go to the Library for Story Time, but since it was a holiday, the Library was closed. (Yesterday she informed me that "Tomorow is a holiday. Tomorrow all the schools are closed. Tomorrow is Columbus time." This she got from Daddy, as he was telling me earlier in the day that they didn't get off tomorrow because it was a holiday LIKE Columbus day. She then proceeded to tell me that "Cole's name is Columbus. Miss Dreya's Cole." And she is right. Miss Dreya was her art teacher at Gymboree and is now a nanny for a little boy named Cole. At least a month ago, Miss Dreya mentioned that she found out that Cole's full name was Columbus and Camryn, of course, remembered the conversation and brought it up.)

Back to Pop Pop time...instead of the Library, they went to the Inflatable Wonderland at the Mall and played for awhile. When they were going to meet us at lunch, Pop Pop said they were going to meet us at Salsalito's. Camryn said "No Pop Pop. It's called Salsarita's." Again, she's right.

Skip to the end of the day.

Camryn was going pee-pee on the big potty (wow...I can't believe I just typed that phrase) and I rubbed her legs because she didn't have any clothes on and I was afraid that she was cold. She said "Mommy's hands are hot. Mommy be very careful with Camryn. Be very careful with Mommy's hot hands." Then she told me to "Blow on them before you touch Camryn." So I did.

Getting ready for bed, she gave me a blow-by-blow of her evening with Pop Pop and G-Mama. They took her back to the bouncy place after dinner (where she ate her weight in Edimame at Mama Fu's....with chopsticks, mind you). She told me how "Camryn went up and down the escalator. Camryn went on the big slides at the bouncy place." She also told me that "Camryn cried at the red slide. G-Mama said when Camryn is older Camryn can go on the red slide. G-Mama said when Camryn and Connor and Kaiden (her cousins) are older, Camryn and Connor and Kaiden can all go on the red slide." I asked my mom about it and she said "She's right." (Big surprise there.) She said that Camryn wanted to go on it but wasn't big enough so she cried for a second, then as soon as G-Mama explained to her that she could go on it when she was older, and the boys too (Connor and Kaiden), she was OK with it.

So here goes...

This is my first attempt at a blog.

I'm trying it because I'd like to document some of the amazing things that Camryn is doing on a daily basis.

Every time I tell my parents or Christopher what she has said or done that day, they immediately ask "Are you writing this all down?" The answer has consistently been "No." And the concern, of course, is that we will all forget all of the wonderful little things she does and says. Notice

I did not say that SHE would forget. She has the memory of an elephant. She does not forget ANYTHING. It's always fun when your 2 year old (and even when she was less-than-2 year old) brings up a conversation about something that happened 6 months ago and can tell you every detail of the event.