Sunday, May 28, 2017

Happy 12th Birthday Cameron!


To start the celebrations, we had family dinner on Sunday.



 Then on his birthday, he played hooky from school.  We worked out at the Y.


 We went to lunch at Zupas.  


We spent a lot of time at the Lego Store.  C finally decided on two small Lego sets.


And that evening, he was inducted into the National Junior Honors Society.

Following the induction, Chuck took Cameron and Hannah to the batting cages since C had to miss baseball practice to attend the induction.  Christian did not get to go because of his behavior that morning.  In fact, it is probably a birthday Cameron will not forget.  Christian was being really rude and disrespectful in the morning so he was told that he could not go to the batting cages.  That did not make him happy and he started refusing to get ready for school.  I lost my temper and had to go to my room because I was so upset.  (A kid telling you that he hates his life and that he wants to kill himself will do that to you.)  Christian realized how upset I was and that it was because of him and he finally got ready for school.  Once I got H and Christian to school, Cameron and I had a very nice day together.

At 12 years old, Cameron continues to become more independent and more confident.  He excels at all he does, but unfortunately that is usually without much effort.  We hope one day he will realize what he can accomplish if he puts forth more effort.  He has so much potential!  He continues to explore new things like playing basketball, participating in an after-school science program, serving in the NJHS, working on merit badges and playing Little League baseball.  He likes to be busy and active.  The mere suggestion of quiet time sends him into a downward spiral.  He doesn't like to work and would never voluntarily work but when given a task, he often surprises me with what a great job he will do with it.  He does like to watch TV but doesn't play on his PlayStation as much as I thought he would.  And he still gets obsessed with things.  He is still obsessed with football, but I will say maybe not as much as the last year.  Cameron loves to be playing with the neighborhood boys and often spends time with his friends Carson and Curtis.  His band teacher told me he loved having Cameron in class because "he gets my jokes."  And that is true of Cameron, he has a very witty and mature sense of humor.  At 12 years old C is almost 5 feet tall and weighs 87 pounds.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Kartchner Caverns

Our Spring Break was fairly uneventful with the exception of a short trip to Kartchner Caverns State Park in Southern Arizona.  Kartchner Caverns is a huge cave open for public tours.  There is a camp ground right there with 4 small cabins.  The cabins are new this year and there just happened to be one available for when we wanted to go.  A cabin is much preferred over a tent!  We drove to the caverns on Thursday, stopping for lunch in Tucson at our favorite restaurant, Beyond Bread.  Once we got to the caverns, we spent quite a bit of time in the visitor's center working on the Junior Ranger program. We went for a short, easy, 2.5 mile hike before dinner.  That was not the highlight of the trip considering that Christian complained the entire time.  The cabin was very cute, with a queen bed, small table, and two bunk beds.  There was a small fridge and microwave but no bathroom.  However, the bathrooms, complete with showers, were very close.  The kids had the best time opening and closing the windows, doors, and blinds.  By the time we had dinner, it was late and everyone was pretty tired, so we went to bed.  The night was not great, but was not horrible.  The next morning we spent more time in the visitor's center and then we toured the cave.  We went on the longer tour to the Big Room.  It was really quite spectacular and interesting.  However, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the cave. After the tour we ate some lunch and headed home.  Overall, it was an interesting, educational and fun trip.





Monday, February 27, 2017

We are Spartan!

Kid's Spartan Race - Hannah 1 mile, Christian 1/2 mile and Cameron 2 mile.  Hannah had so much fun with the 1 mile she decided to race the 1/2 mile also. And Cameron said Christian could have totally handled the 1 mile.  It was so fun watching the kids.  They had a really good time.













Happy 7th Birthday Christian!

I can't believe my baby is 7!  To celebrate, Christian had a party at the house with some of his buddies.  They played with balls, nerf guns, light sabers, you name it and they played with it.  We enjoyed red velvet cake with ice cream. His guests included: Jackson, Benson, Nicholas, Joey, Kaidan and Dominque (not all are shown in the picture).  



At 7 years old, Christian is 3 ft 11 inches tall and weighs 49 pounds.  He is a very active, adventurous kid.  He loves to ride his bike, play with weapons of any sort, play with Legos, and watch TV.  He recently started playing soccer and he loves it.  He plays with such enthusiasm and determination.  It is so fun to watch him.  He also likes to shoot hoops and can throw a better football spiral than most people, including me.  He can be a little grumpy when woken up in the morning and he can be quite difficult when he doesn't get his way. In fact recently when he didn't get his way and I got upset with him, he accused me of hating him.  I assured him I did not hate him but I was not happy with his behavior.  He had quite the melt down and it was all on the way to school.  He was threatening to turn around and not go to school, etc.  But as we were riding home after school, he was very pleasant and said he'd had a good day.  We talked about him thinking I hate him and he said, "I know you don't hate me, I was just being over dramatic."  I definitely don't hate Christian.  I love him more than anything in the world!



Sunday, February 26, 2017

"If you continue to let your kid ride his bike, I am calling CPS."

As a family, we like to ride our bikes.  And our kids KNOW how to ride a bike (safety, courtesy, rules of the road, etc.) Of all the kids, Christian probably likes to ride the most. And as a health professional, I encourage physical activity.  We live about 2 miles from the elementary school where our kids attend, so we ride our bikes. We have to cross a major street, but we are able to cross at the canal where there is a pedestrian crosswalk and light.  When coming home, we cross the street and get on the sidewalk where we ride against traffic for about 30 feet before turning left on our street. We don't normally ride against traffic, or on the sidewalk, but in this case it's really the safest thing we can do.  Well, one day there was a car stopped on our street at the stop sign getting ready to turn onto the major road.  Christian wasn't sure what to do, so he rode in front of the car and turned left after he passed him.  Well, at the same time, a car was turning onto our street from the major street and nearly hit Christian.  Christian did not seem concerned a tall.  But of course, I talked to him about what he should have done different.  The guy driving the car (we will call him Howard because that is his name) stopped at the stop sign, left a note on my door the next day wanting to talk about the incident.  So, I called him.  He said that he did not see Christian until he was in front of his car and that the guy turning onto our street (we will call him Paul because that is his name) did not see him either and they were very shaken up.  Honestly, I do no know how neither one of them saw us.  After all, traffic stopped for us and there were three of us.  But I thanked Howard for his concern and assured him I had talked to Christian.  He then proceeded to tell me that Christian was too young to be riding his bike on the street (even in the neighborhood), that he (Christian) was not going to listen to me, and that if I continued to let Christian ride his bike he was going to call CPS.  I basically said he should do what he felt like he needed to do and I hung up.  I went to talk to Paul and he was totally cool and did not place any of the blame on Christian and thought that Howard was out of line. Several days later, we were stopped at the stop sign just as Howard was and a guy who lives in our neighborhood did the exact same thing Christian did (rode right in front of me and turned left after riding past me) and Christian said "Hey, he just did what I did."  Needless to say, we didn't make Christian stop riding his bike and CPS has not been called.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Spelling B

H (age 9) was one of two kids in her class to advance to the school spelling bee. After school the day of the bee, she was very excited about how she did. But her excitement was short lived when a boy came over to me and told me she did not do very good. Of course, I told this boy that H did well and that he was not being very nice. And I consoled H. As we were walking away, H told me she wanted me to call his mom. I said I would not because I don't like tattle telling and I certainly wasn't going to tattle on a kid. I also said I had told him that he was not being nice and H said, "Yeah, but you were too nice when you said it." So, she came home and wrote him a note. (see the picture). Originally, the note said B not bee and peace, not piece. It was too cute to change, but since we were talking about a spelling bee, I had her change it. She also wrote, "Please stop or you WILL be sorry". I told her that wasn't very nice, so she changed it to the golden rule part. I wasn't sure if I should let her give it to him, but I decided to let them work it out. And she did give it to him. And she told him he better show it to his mom. Oh, and on the front there is just an X. I said why did you put an X and she said, "Well, I wasn't going to draw him a pretty picture."


It says, "Hugo, I got far into the school spelling bee so you can't say I did bad because I got farther  than you.  I do not like the way you treat me and if you do not stop, I will give you a piece of my  mind.  Please stop or you will be given a poster of the golden rule.  Please stop.  from Hannah Royalty PS I hope you know what the golden rule is.