HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMERON!

It's hard to believe that 8 years ago today, I (and quite a few others!) were anxiously awaiting Baby Boy Peterson's arrival! At 3:10 Cameron Alexander blessed this world and it hasn't been the same since. He's growing up fast, but will always be my baby!! Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Skateboard Party!

Cameron had his birthday party on Saturday at our house: pizza, skateboarding, swimming, video games, movies - and A LOT of Mountain Dew. Wow. It was certainly eventful. He had 5 other friends come over and then spend the night. Six (almost) 8-year olds? Probably not going to happen again, but I suppose as a parent we all have to experience that once, right? And then we learn our lesson? A year from now, I'll probably have another post that reads similar .... :) A few of them finally fell asleep around 1:00, and I had to convince the others to turn the video games off and maybe just watch some TV while they were in their sleeping bags. Bryan and I finally went to bed, he woke up around 4:00 and one of them was STILL watching TV. Hello!? The "sugar them up and wear them out" theory did NOT work for this one! They were all up around 6:30 to start things over again. Yeah. Add the "couple" of gin and tonics I had to the mix, and it was a fantastic morning. At any rate, they all had a blast ... and the Peterson's had a nice 3 hour family nap on Sunday. :)

Bryan in charge of the skateboarding shenanigans ... VERY scary!



Santino and Brady

Mom! Seriously. You're starting to embarass me.




A new skateboard!



Opening presents - a new Challenger. (And as Cam said - "Hey Dad ... I got one before you!")

Connor and Cameron - showing off his new helmet and board




Trying out the new gear




Tyler and Chase



Cam giving a few pointers

Dad's not looking ... if I reach to my left just a tad bit I bet I can snag one ...




Who said the Mommies couldn't have fun? :)




All the boards stacked and ready to hit the ramp in the morning ... (Oh - Cam thought I was being mean when I wouldn't let them skateboard in the backyard at 7:00 Sunday morning.)

#10

I feel like we're living the 12 days of Christmas, only with lizards. For about the past month, Hayden has generously been showering us with gifts - from the yard. Now at first, we praised him, because after all, he is proudly bringing back his prey. Now it's getting out of control. #10 was under the vacuum cleaner downstairs. Thought it was dead until I scooped it in the newspaper and it turned it's head at me. Talk about going into mild cardiac arrest. I'm really getting nervous to "move" things around for fear of finding yet another gift.

Some tidbits of the last few days ...

Bryan proudly shared his newest found website farts.com with the family this weekend, and apparently one statistic stuck with Cameron. (Most people fart an average of 14 times per day. Share THAT one at the dinner table.) So the other night Cam asks us if "average" is the same as normal, and if above average means better than normal. Confirmed this with him, and then he proudly announces that he is above average. He farted 22 times yesterday. He counted. Nice. Gotta be proud.

Cameron wondered how anyone could not know how to use the internet. He explained that he heard "that one guy running for President" doesn't know how to use it. And "how does someone not know how many houses he has?" Wow. Seems he actually does read some of the headlines on the Yahoo! page. His remark? "Come on! I've been using the internet since I was 5." Hmm. Makes you think.

One of Cameron's requirements for this quarter is to read 200 pages in a book of his choice. He can either read 200 pages in one book, or a couple, so long as the minimum page number of the books are 75. He also has to write a book report for each one - a long report, and then a half page short report if there is more than one book read. So he picked to read Henry and the Clubhouse - good 'ol Beverly Cleary. The book has 208 pages and he informed us that he is NOT going to read the last 8 pages because it goes over the requirement. :)

About a week or so ago, a monsoon storm was brewing. The entire sky was covered in dark black clouds, except for one small opening. The picture doesn't do it justice, but at one point it was the perfect heart shape showing the colors of the sunset. Cameron said it looked like an angel hovering above us. :)

Wednesday Funnies

AND THEN THE FIGHT STARTED . . .

When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her someplace expensive ... so, I took her to a gas station. And then the fight started ...

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After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's license to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.

The woman said, "Unbutton your shirt." So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, "That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me," and she processed my Social Security application.

When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, "You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too."

And then the fight started ...

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My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table.

My wife asked, "Do you know her?"

"Yes," I sighed. "She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago. I hear she hasn't been sober since."

"My Goodness!" says my wife. "Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?"

And then the fight started ...

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I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car.

You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny?

Yeah, well I couldn't believe it ... he was a DWARF!!!

He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, "I AM NOT HAPPY!!!"

So, I looked down at him and said, "Well, then which one are you?"

And then the fight started ...

Weekly recap

Not a whole lot going on here - but that's a good thing! Cam is doing absolutely fantastic in school. He is loving every minute of it. We have really noticed a difference in his entire attitude and outlook on things. Especially during his skateboarding - he is enjoying it more, and not as frustrated when he can't get the first or second time. He laughs things off, whereas before, he would become angry. He talks about his day, what he did, gives us details of things they did in class, etc., all of which we could not pry out of him before. Even though he is in 3rd grade, he is doing 4th grade work. The school works an entire year ahead. Really, he was at this level in his old school, but the format is so different than what he was used to. It took a couple of days, but he's doing great. He's challenged, but still knows how to do the work. Parent involvement is definitely a requirement - we're signing off acknowledgements of due dates for book reports, homework assignments each night, folders once a week with previous weeks' work, etc. But it is worth it. So far so good! I'm glad we made the decision to move him. It was tough, and I second guessed our decision to do so on several occasions. However, I am now confident that he is where he needs to be. He's made several friends at school and even one that knows how to kick-flip! (It's a skateboard move ... I know, isn't that the GREATEST?!)

We decided to enjoy our Friday night and hit the movie theatre. We saw The Longshots last night, and it was great. We all really liked it - highly recommended!

Poop - Interesting topic for today's blog entry, don't you think? Poop is human nature. Everyone does it. So what makes it is so dang fascinating - to some? Not sure. Maybe it's a guy thing. Maybe it's just my family. But Cameron came out of the bathroom the other day and told me I had to take a look at what was in the toilet. I politely refrained, and then he warned me not to flush. He wanted to "keep it there until Dad could come home and see it." Now some of you may know the inside joke regarding the snakelight. If you don't, consider yourself blessed. If you do, then this incident would be right up there with it. Many times a "witness" has been called in to verify the size, similar to that of a fishing contest. Whatever. Hope you're not eating.

Hayden brought us our 7th present of the month ... a lizard. They're not big, probably no more than a couple of inches. But come on, as Cameron told him "couldn't you surprise us with some money or something?" They have been left in various rooms of the houses, only 3 have been alive. My office, the living room, the game room, and a couple in Cam's room. Hayden brought in two lizards, two nights in a row and we determined these were specifically for Cameron. Hayden had slept with Cam both of the nights and both mornings, there was a little surprise! It could be worse ...

Let's see ... that's really about it! Have been busy this past week with homework, skate practices, birthday parties (Cam's third one since last Friday is today) and just livin' the life!

*NOTE - I showed the below pictures of dad's "roast" to Cameron ... and here was his reaction to the 2nd pic ...

"I thought these were all of Papa? Who's that?"
"That is Papa."
"Is he wearing a wig?"
"No."
"It's a perm, isn't it?"
"No honey - that was just how his hair was - this picture is from a long time ago."
"Weird."