Time for a Cam Spam photo shoot.  No pretty head bands.  Or cute hats.  Or leggings.  

Just Cam being the Spam.

And yes I took these pictures because I feel guilty that I take so many of Liv.

Also whoever coined the term "terrible twos" obviously never met a three year old.

Here is what I will hear from Cam on a daily basis.

"I hate you.  But I still love you."

"I hate Livvy.  But I still love her."

"I can do it by myself."

"I caaaaaaaaaaaan't do it."

"You're mean mean mean."

"You're the bestest."  (Which he usually says while I'm waiting for him to finish pooping so I can wipe his butt.)

"Can you find my angry bird?"

"FIND MY ANGRY BIRD!"

This angry bird is going to be the death of me.  Cam is always losing it.  And he is always throwing fits when he can't find it.  And I can choose to either listen to the rage or look for it.  I usually cave after ten minutes of the fit.  I'm weak.

He is an adorable wild child.

In case anyone was dying of curiosity here is what was we settled on for Jace's hundred day of school shirt.  Not too shabby.  And really easy.  The button are hot glued on so I'm pretty sure the shirt isn't washable but that's okay.  We'll just hang it up somewhere and treasure it always.

He painted a slingshot on the back too.  Because he came home from school the day I did it and said, "Hey I was supposed to help."  And I said, "You did help.  You picked out the buttons."  

But that wasn't good enough for him.  I felt kinda bad, but not bad enough to allow him and the hot glue gun to be anywhere near each other while the gun was on.  Accident waiting to happen.

So then he painted the slingshot and felt satisfied. 

And here's the desperate conversation I had with him when he came home after school.

"So how was your day?"

"Good."

"Did you have tons of fun?"

"Yeah."

"Did everyone have cool shirts?"

"Yeah."

"Well what kind?"

"Just cool ones."

"Did they like your shirt."

"Yeah."

"Well did anyone say anything about it?" (I know, geez what a crazy mom fishing for compliments about a kindergarten shirt)

"I don't know."

"Did your teachers like it?"

"Yeah?"

"Well what did they say?"

"MOOOOM."

What?  So I liked the shirt.  I wanted to know if every one else liked it.  I'm only human.  Unfortunately Jace gives me nothing to go on, so for all I know he could have worn his coat the whole day.  I was just mostly proud of myself for using something other than beads.

I have like thousands of beads from a project I did when I was teaching.  And so whenever Jace has an assignment to decorate something creative (snowman, christmas tree, cut out of himself, poster) I always just pull out the beads and we Elmer's glue some on in no particular order.  But I pulled out the big guns with buttons this time.  So there. 

Also today he came home from school and said, "Why do we never do anything fun after school?"

And I said, "Because I have to cook dinner and clean up the house and get everything ready for tomorrow.  Maybe if you clean up the house for me then we can do something fun while dinner is cooking."

And surprisingly enough he DID clean up the house.  So we made brownies.  Fun.

And Cam Spam only joined us for the spoon licking part because I caved.  While Jace was cleaning up Cam was definitely not helping and perhaps even making more of a mess.  So we told him that if he didn't help he couldn't make brownies with us.  

Of course when the time came to make the brownies he had a melt down and threw a huge fit because I stuck to my threat.  He was in his room sobbing until we were done.  So I let him come out and lick a spoon.  Because I felt sorry for him.  And because he was yelling things like, "You're not letting me help and THAT'S RUDE!"

Which is pretty funny.

It's the January slump time again.

But January is almost over, hooray!  

I know it's probably bad to wish away time, but I tend to always want to wish away January.  Because it's cloudy more than it's sunny.  And it's been really cold and wet and cold and dreary and cold.

So for a bit of a pick me up the other day I took some pictures of who else?  Livvy Liv.  And I tried putting her hair in pig tails, which is really cute.  Even though I don't actually know how to a) part hair or b) get a squirmy little girl to sit still while I try to part her hair.

So it will take some practice, but we'll get there.

And earlier that day Cameron was supposed to be settling in for a nap and I had the camera out.  So I put a ball down Livvy's pajamas to see what that would get me.

Then just for fun I stuck on a hat.  And took these two, very over-edited pictures.  Which didn't start over edited.  But ended up that way because I was most likely procrastinating doing the dishes.

And also Cam Spam made an appearance from his bed where I thought he was napping.  So as punishment I made him wear the hat.  But he didn't mind.

And Liv loves to try and get in the washer when I'm switching laundry.  Even though it stinks in there.

And here is my view laying on my back while Liv tries to climb through my knees.

Also Jace's 100th day of school is Wednesday.  And I need to make a shirt for him.  That has 100 things on it.  Pinterest has a lot of ideas.  They mostly all seem like a lot of work.

And another also is I went to a parent/teacher conference for him today.  I'm so glad to announce that he is loving school and doing well and not really getting into that much trouble anymore.  If you don't count today when he kept pulling a girls loose sweater thread during carpet time, until he made a hole.  Whoops.

This morning I took Cam to have his allergies tested.  To perhaps give us a clue as to why he is always getting the runny nose and congestion, which causes his asthma to flare up.  

Which leads to emergency room trips and hospital visits.

Which cost $14,000.  For two nights.  That's more than having a baby costs.  That is crazy.

Obviously that is not what we actually have to pay, otherwise I wouldn't be typing this right now.

I would be curled up on the floor in the fetal position, probably hyperventilating.  In my own vomit, most likely.

For once we are making the insurance company work for US this year.  

How do they like them apples?  

But anyway here is how his back looked right after they poked him.

He had asked me if he was going to have to get a shot.  I lied and told him no.  I mean I couldn't actually say, "No. . . more like thirty shots."

He was laying on his belly enjoying the Kindle when they started the first few pokes.  And he quickly started crying and by the fifth or sixth started screaming, "Stop touching me!"  Poor little guy.  But he didn't throw a huge fit, and he didn't squirm around too much.  He was a champ.  I was very proud of him.

Also the nurse was VERY quick.  Gotta love a good nurse.

It helped calm him down to see a picture of what his back looked like.  He started playing up the sympathy cards immediately.

"I'm gonna show Jace, okay?"

"You show him okay?"

"Because I got lots of pokes and it hurt."

"So we'll show Dad, too, okay?"

So the result is that he is basically allergic to EVERYTHING in nature.  ALL trees, grass, dogs, cats, probably other animals. . . dust mites.  Mold.

Not cockroaches.  So that's something?

He is too young for allergy shots.  So we'll just have to keep doing what we're doing.  Give him daily allergy medicine.  Watch the pollen counts.  Get an air purifier for his room. . . pull up ALLLLLL the ugly carpet (I should have made the doctor put that in writing so I could show it to Brice).

Luckily we can let the cockroaches run free.

Totally joking about the cockroach part.  A cockroach sighting in the house would call for a full on evacuation.  Bleh.  

My sweet Livvy is one 1 year old!!  So if you thought that I posted a lot of pictures of her in other posts. . . be prepared.  This one has a lot.

   

I took pictures of her in the tub on her birthday.  And then some of these were on her birthday and some were actually just this morning.  Because I'm a crocheting crazy person right now so I wanted her to wear what I made her and model them.  And she looks adorable.  And I can't possibly ever take enough pictures of her.

And some of these pictures are the same one, just one in black and white and one in color.  Because I couldn't decide what I liked better.  And it's my blog so I can put whatever pictures I want on here.

Little Livvy is a super fast crawler.  She loves to be chased.  And the boys love to chase her.  Especially Jace.  Because he still cannot get enough of her.

She is eating a lot better but she still has a weird thing with textures.  She doesn't like anything crumb-y like bread, cake, cookies (besides oreos) brownies, toast, etc.  But she does love mac and cheese, spaghetti, anything with potatoes. . . It's a relief that she's eating better.

But I still am giving her bottles two or three times a day.  Mostly because she still wants her "ba ba" and also because I don't want to give up the after "ba ba" cuddles.

When I started taking pictures of her in her leg warmers and hat, I sat her in this chair.  Because I thought that would be cute.  But she was either a) terrified or b) annoyed.  Or maybe both.  She burst into tears and would not be consoled.  So I just let her crawl around the room, instead.

My Liv Loo is an angel baby.  Really.  She is so sweet, and happy, and easy.  She loves her brothers, she loves her daddy, and she loves her mommy.  She loves saying "hi" and "hey" to anyone and everyone.  She got some new baby dolls for her birthday and she will hug them and give them kisses.

She has started this new thing in the car, only when Brice is in there.  She leans forward and slams her head back against her car seat.  I guess not hard enough to hurt herself, or she wouldn't do it, right?  As soon as she does it she tries to turn her head around to see Brice's reaction.  And she is usually not disappointed as he can't stand it.

And she thinks it's a funny joke when I tell her to "stop playing with your earrings".  She just keeps doing it with a big grin on her face.  And in fact, whenever I tell her to stop doing anything, she immediately reach up to twist her earrings.  Luckily, they have still stayed clean and healed nice and neat.

We gave her a little cake to eat on her birthday.  I thought about making two little cakes so that she could eat one at home during the day when the light was better and I could take cute pictures. . . but then I remembered that she would probably not even eat the cake.  Which she didn't.  She poked at a little, but when she actually even got a taste of it, she was not a fan.

But she did seem to really enjoy the random spoon.  Silly girl.

Livvy Loo loves dogs.  She makes her puppy barking sound whenever she sees one, or when you ask her what a puppy says.  

She wants every single toy that Cameron has, but not when he finally gives it to her.  But he is still so sweet with her.  I wonder how long that will last?

I can't believe it's been a year since this baby girl joined our family.  I don't think any of us could imagine life without her.  She is precious and perfect.  I love the personality she's starting to develop and I can't wait to see her growing more and more into herself.  

I love you, my Livvy!!