It's An Elmo's World For Us

Cameron LOVES him some Elmo. Consider the following examples:

• Cameron has started to categorize and label items as "Elmo" or "Not Elmo." If Elmo's not in the opening sketch of "Sesame Street" long enough for his liking, he will furiously shake his head and say, "Not Elmo, not Elmo, not Elmo!" Mike and I like to think these terms are synonymous with good versus bad, so we've started to give each other topics like gun control and the legalization of drugs and ask, "Elmo or Not Elmo?"
  


• Last week, we realized we had created a monster. Mike likes his Lucky Charms and he would occasionally give Cameron a few of the cereal pieces. That turned into a few of the marshmallows and before you knew it, we had a marshmallow addict on our hands. If you gave him a small bowl, he would only pick out the marshmallows to eat and then ask for more. Anyways, Cameron woke up angry one day last week, and he was insistent on eating marshmallows - and just marshmallows - for breakfast. When Mike refused to give him any, he threw a temper tantrum that involved throwing things across the kitchen and banging his head on the floor. The only thing that could console him was - you guessed it, Elmo. Mike turned on Elmo's World, and Cameron was able to talk himself down. Thank goodness for Elmo.
  


• Yesterday, we took our family portraits. I knew it would be more challenging to wrangle Cameron this year, so my dad came along to help. In order to get Cam to look in the general direction of the camera, my dad had to hold up my phone while it played an Elmo video. He did a really good job, and I can't wait to see how the pictures turned out.


• It was Wear Your PJs to School Day at daycare on Friday, so Cameron got to wear his Elmo jammies and slippers to school, which he LOVES. He looked fairly ridiculous but definitely very cute. All he needed to complete his head-to-toe Elmo look is a furry Elmo hat. I'm sure Heidi, Michael, and Nina would all agree that this look is too matchy-matchy and over-styled, but I think he looks monster fierce.

If you're not sure who Elmo is, I thought I'd include one of Cameron's favorite videos below so you could see why he is so beloved. There are over 8.25 million views, and I think the Graves household is responsible for at least 100 of them. (By the way, I noticed that there are 715 dislikes - who is feeling strongly enough about this video to dislike it?!?) Watch the very end for Adam Sandler's awkward and hilarious goodbye.

Guess Who's Back

We're baaaacckk! I'm not really sure why it's been so long since we've last blogged (almost four months to the day), but it's been a long time. I guess we unintentionally took a break, and then it seemed too daunting to have to catch up on everything, so I kept procrastinating until I had enough time to give a proper update. And here we are, four months later. But don't worry - I'm only going to start with recent happenings. I will also try to convince Mike to post something again.

As it is Halloween time, we did what every suburban parent does: we took Cameron to a pumpkin patch to take pictures. Of course, every parent at this particular pumpkin patch had a camera, and I even saw one dad with a two-foot telescopic lens...and his kid was less than three feet from him. Not an exaggeration. I'm sure you could see every pore in that extreme close-up. Anyways, we met up with the Hoards, and we valiantly tried to get Kevin and Cameron to take a picture together. We found out it was extremely challenging to get them to be in the same place at the same time, let alone sitting and looking at the camera at the same time! In the end, all it took was either: A) snacks or B) sunglasses to get them to willingly cooperate. Here are two of my favorite pics from our photo shoot:

In other news, we realized that the big chunk of money that goes to daycare every month is not for nought. A few weeks ago, Cameron was standing on a chair, so I told him I was going to take it away if he was still standing on it by the time I counted to three. I counted to three and he sat down at the last minute of course, but as I turned away, I heard him quietly say, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6..." I had no idea he could count!?! We've been counting a lot since then, and it usually goes something like this, "4, 5, 6...4, 5, 6...4, 5, 6, seben, 8, 9, DEN! YAY!" with profuse hand clapping.

In another aha! moment, Cameron and I went grocery shopping this weekend. I told him we had to go get some bottled water for Daddy, and he looked up at me, and said, "Agua." Amazing. I had no idea our child is bilingual!

Finally, in closing, I thought I would share a humorous story that happened at Soccer Tots this weekend. There was an Asian couple there with their son. Mike and I watched as Cameron came running up to the Asian mom, stopped when he got to her legs and started to hold his arms up to her, but then he looked up and saw it wasn't me. He gave her a half-smile and stood next to her for a second, and then came running over to me with a sheepish smile on his face, like he was a little embarrassed. It was hilarious. I guess he thinks we all look the same?!? Mike said he should have marked my arm (reference from Michael Scott on "The Office")!

P.S. For those of you who care, I promise we will do a better job about blogging in the future.