Camp Showbiz!

Cameron spent the last two weeks at Magik Theatre Camp with her friend Morgan.  They were there every weekday from 9 - 3 and learned all about costumes and backdrops and learning to say your lines.  (Mostly she would just tell us if she liked the snack for the day and how they played outside....)  This was Cam's first camp experience and we had a feeling that she would enjoy getting to dress up and be loud in front of an audience.  I was sad to have to miss seeing her play today since I was still in the hospital, but she had a bunch of family and friends to cheer her on!

She had to get all gussied up to play Jasmine in their "Llama Llama" play.  Makeup done by Aunt Rachael!

The Mowrey Crew and their superstar Morgan

Cameron with her proud Daddy and Brother

Morgan and Cameron

 

We are so thankful that she got to be with Morgan for this experience!  They have many more years of fun ahead of them. 

Today the angels threw a party!

Cameron,
You are a smart girl that can retain a LOT of information.  You have learned dozens of bible verses, songs, stories and concepts from the Bible.  You are the one that always wants to speak up and answer questions (and I can attest from teaching your Sunday School class on occasion).  We have had discussions together before about how to ask Jesus into your heart and you already seemed to understand it all.

Your daddy and I wanted to be sure that you weren't just repeating back what you had heard your teachers say.  You are still a little girl in our eyes and we never want to make you feel pressured to do or say something just because you think we want it.  So each time we would approach the subject, we would back off as soon as you seemed distracted or you wanted to move onto something else.

But we had the discussion with you again tonight.  Our church will be hosting a baptism party in early August and we knew that you would be very excited to participate.  We wanted to make sure that you understand that baptism was not what made you a Christian and that it is only a symbol of the change Jesus made in your heart when you asked him to forgive your sins and be the Lord of your life.

Our church had given us some cards a long time ago to walk through the different topics and bible verses that explain salvation.  We asked you questions and had you put things into your own words.  You blew us away with how much you were honest and clearly understood.  Then the three of us, all sitting together on your bed, prayed together and you asked Jesus into your heart.

And Mommy told you that the Bible says that the angels threw a party for you today.  We told you how proud we were of you and that we knew Jesus loves you so much.  Even though we will all still make mistakes, we know that he will always be with us and forgive us when we ask Him to.  What a gift it was for both Daddy and I to be there with you and be part of that conversation.  Now we can look forward with great joy to the baptism ceremony in just a few weeks!

All my love,
Mama

Luke 15:10 "In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels

when even one sinner repents."

Party of Two

Cameron & Rhys,

I am so proud of the way that you two are becoming such good friends.  You love to laugh at one another being silly, you are kind and share things, and you seem to understand each other so well.  Cameron is still memorizing lots of books rather than really reading the words, but that doesn't stop her from sitting down and "reading" them to Rhys.  I absolutely love when he brings a little board book to me and backs himself right up and sits in my lap.  He will happily let you read 4 or 5 books in a row before bed every night if you let him.  His continual favorites are Busy Chickens, Little Blue Truck, and Chugga-Chugga Choo Choo. (Apparently he and Grammy have the same taste in books since she bought them all for him!)

Bathtime is occasionally a rushed thing, but it brings my heart joy when these two sweethearts manage to fit together in our little tub and play together.  Rhys loves his submarine and turtle bath toys, and Cameron is actually pretty good and washing his hair for him, so it's a win-win!  It is quite a challenge to get Rhys to actually get out when he is done… I make the mistake of asking him if he wants to get "up" (since he calls everything up rather than down or out) and he always sweetly replies no.

Cameron thinks she is also Rhys' personal speech therapist.  She practices words with him all the time!  He has gotten pretty good at saying "Sissy" but Cameron is too hard.  He has his own little sounds for a  lot of things like pizza, cheerios, and even dinosaur.  I guess we are in the phase where we can interpret things and explain them to everybody else.  :)

I am so grateful for both of you and your sweet spirits.  Thank you for filling our home with laughter and joy.  In the words of the beautiful Psalms, "My cup runneth over."

Love,
Mama

If I don't say it enough....

My beautiful Cameron,

If I don't say it enough, you are growing into such a wonderful young lady.  You have started to see what it is like to have some independence and have challenges.  You have made new friends and shown yourself to have an open and giving heart.  You have started to see the consequences of the choices that you make, and you are quick to rebound and ask for forgiveness.  If I don't say it enough, we discipline you because we love you and want you to continue to become a girl that reflects God's love. 

 You are a generous big sister, quick to offer a distraction to your brother when Mommy is trying to finish a task around the house.  You love to see his big smile when you use your funny voice or dance around.  He gazes at you with wonder and love in his eyes.  My heart just melted when I snuck around the corner just the other day and  you were sitting in your brother's room showing him books and making him laugh.  I want to treasure these days before he is on the move and will inevitably be invading "your space" and taking off with your things.  If I don't say it enough, thank you for loving our family and being such a big helper.  You have a desire to please and honor us and I hope you know how grateful we are for you.

Your daddy has been so proud of you and your growing interest in sports.  After he went to a coaching conference in College Station, he brought you back your first cheerleader uniform.  You are still a bit of a fairweather fan for most things, just waiting to see who Daddy roots for and then joining in.  But he took you to a few basketball games this past month and said you were absolutely adorable with your passionate cheering.  At one point you yelled to the opposing team, "San Marcos, DON'T DO GOOD!"  He said he was happy to have a buddy to go with and that the real cheerleaders were quite taken with you.  So much for his efforts to show you the perks of actually playing sports... You were pretty excited about the possibility of just cheering!

But you are a strong athlete and quick learner!  You started gymnastics about a month ago and are doing great.  You are great at following instructions and you try not to take shortcuts.  Your teacher was impressed with your quick progression and said you will be fine to promote up to the next age group soon.  We just want you to have fun and be confident that you are capable doing things that may be different or even scary at first.  If I don't say it enough, you should keep your body healthy and be proud that God loves you just the way you are, a brilliant girl who can take on anything you want.

Not only that, but you are branching out into soccer too!  Our sweet friends the Davis family have organized a Wednesday group for a bunch of kids around your age that meets in their neighborhood park.  Most weeks you do fun practice drills and work on basic ball-handling skills, but you did have a few "scrimmages" where you were divided into teams and actually kept score.  It was a bit of a free-for-all, but you had a great time.  You actually scored 3 goals for your own team and 1 for the other team too!  My favorite part is when you had scored the first goal of the game and then another little boy from the other team scored.  You told him that he should be on your team, like you were forming a strategic alliance!  What a big thinker you are.  :)

 If I don't say it enough, I will try to do a better job.  We love, love, love you and are so lucky to be your family.  Thanks for being my best girl.

Hugs and Kisses,
Mama

Tired of Me

Cameron,
It was a very long week with you being sick.  You wore me down and watched WAY too much television, which meant that I was subjected to every episode of Dora the Explorer that we could find. And as much as it embarrasses me to tell everyone this, I am gonna do it anyway.

You had been complaining that your tummy was hurting, so we tried two different kinds of medicine and thought it had done the trick.  Then you started coughing, so we got some cough medicine and figured it would go away.  Then you started running a low grade fever which would go away once you had some ibuprofen.  And after all that, I still didn't think you were terribly sick.  I kept you home from school because of the fever, but I was really exhausted having you and your brother to take care of all day.

Then your daddy asked how long your cough had been going on... I said maybe 4 or 5 days, but you sounded like it was productive and weren't acting like you felt awful.  He thought he would ask our dear Dr. Keith just to be sure... And when he described the symptoms, Keith said it could be something more serious than just a cough and that we should get you in to see a doctor.  He even mentioned that he had seen a bunch of cases of walking pneumonia.  So Daddy loaded you up on Tuesday night and took you to the walk-in pediatric clinic.

And sure enough, you were diagnosed with walking pneumonia.  I felt so terrible.  Even though my friends reassured me afterwards that they wouldn't have been freaked out by your symptoms either, I still had some mommy guilt working on me big time.  Apparently since your brother came along, you are just left to fend for yourself!  Ugh.  I was so thankful that your daddy took the time to analyze the situation better than me.  Thankfully it didn't go on too long and make you even more sick.

So the doctor gave you a strong antibiotic and said you should follow up with our regular pediatrician in 2 days.  Then you had to get a nebulizer treatment (mercifully short) and use an inhaler for the next week or so until your cough went away.  You weren't too keen on the idea but we had many conversations about how medicine isn't going to taste good or be wonderful, but we just do it fast and get it over with.

I knew the week had been wearing on you as well when you had a bit of a meltdown on Thursday night.  Daddy has been coming home late because of football and you looked at me with big teary eyes and said, "I miss Daddy!" I said I do too.  Then you said, "I'm tired of you!"  And thankfully I held my tongue and didn't say that I was tired of you too.... I just said, "I know."  I just keep reminding myself that we made it through football season last year and we can do it again.  Certainly with the help of medicine and Dora on TV.

Love,
Mama

A Little Resemblance?

Rhys' Feet

Cameron's Feet

Rhys at Four Weeks Old

Cameron at Three Weeks

Getting to Know Your Big Sister

Hi handsome guy,
Mommy and Daddy were so happy to do another sonogram at the doctor this week so we could see how perfectly you are growing.  At just before 37 weeks, we got to see your little heart beating, your organs growing just right, your spine curved as you were curled up.  You looked a little squished in my tummy since you have grown to just under 7 lbs.  Your measurements all said that you were right on track for your age in weeks, and that you are somewhere in the 64% for growth.  Daddy seemed really fascinated with you, and he told me the other night that he feels like Mommy has had you mostly to myself for all these months and he can't wait to hold you in his arms.

And speaking of someone ready to meet you, your big sister has told me quite frequently that she wants to help give you a bottle and help you go to sleep, but definitely not change stinky diapers!  She hopes that you won't eat all her toys, which I assured her that you would not (although it is a very real possibility).  She thinks your little clothes are very cute and she might want to dress you up as if you were a Build-a-Bear.

I hope that you will learn to love her personality and wit as much as we do.  She is very much a Daddy's girl, but since you and I will be hanging out quite a bit when you are really little, I think that will work out just fine.  By the time you are a big guy and want to play rough with Dad, she may be in a super girly phase and want more time with me.  She does certainly talk (and sing and ask questions) alot, so I wonder if you will learn to talk just as much or go the opposite route and never get a word in.

When I asked her three things that she would want you to know about her, here's what she said:
1.  She likes to play dress-up.  You can play with her when you get bigger and you can have costumes like Woody and Buzz Lightyear.  And you definitely need wings.
2.  She likes to eat pizza and cheeseburgers.  Daddy helpfully reminded her that she even likes to eat octopus, but she thought that sounded gross.  So maybe we shouldn't plan on having calamari too frequently.
3.  She says she will be nice to you.  (There's hope!)

I can't wait to see all the ways that you are similar and different.  There are so many things that I have been thinking about in the past few weeks, both as memories of when Cameron was born and questions  of what you will look like and things you prefer.  In my mind, I guess I am preparing for you to be the total opposite of her, so any similarities will be a pleasant surprise.  Something tells me that you will keep us on our toes.

Just a few more weeks and you will be here!  (And according to Cameron, I will have a belly button again.)  We sure do love you, Rhys Man.

Hugs and Kisses,
Mama