A typical hibernation day thanks to the rain...

Can I tell you how much I would not do well in the Pacific Northwest where it rains quite a bit? Well, I wouldn't do well and I'll just leave it at that.

Today, thanks to the rain, we spent the day inside. We were able to have some fun and memorable moments. I got a chance to try out Space Bags. For those of you who are not infomercial watchers you place clothing in these bags and attach a vacuum hose and it takes out all of the air. When you unzip it the clothes go back to their normal state. We're thinking of saving space when we go on vacation of using these bags and hopefully on need 1 car this year. That will be another story for another time. Anyway the bag works very well and we are looking forward to the space savings.

On the kid front we had fun playing inside all kinds of different games. I will admit the humidity can get the better of the fun at times but we just need to deal with it.

Tonight we sat down and watch a potty training video featuring Bear of "Bear and the Big Blue House" fame. The video should have been up for an Academy Award but the Academy is just jealous of 7 foot bears who talk. The good side was the fact that Child2 wanted to sit on the potty like Ojo. It is a start!

Child1 learned how to play Sudoku tonight. I got to admit it was fun to watch Child1's brain process the puzzle. Even though the puzzles were 2 x 2 Child1 was able to navigate their way through the puzzles. We look at some ones further back in the book and Child1 was excited about giving them a try. It will be nice when we want to do our own puzzle books that we can let Child1 do their own puzzle.

Our late afternoon was hooked to our TV set as we watched the Red Sox blow the lead, fight back and come from behind to win the game. For the kids it was frustrating because they wanted the game to be over to continue their night time activities but we didn't want to miss a potential game winning hit (like we did Saturday). Thankfully Papi made our evening less stressful by hitting the game winning single scoring Youk.

All in all this is probably the kind of day we are going to have when the weather doesn't cooperate. I want everyone to do what they need to do to help us change the weather and have summer return sooner rather than later.

Summer HIbernation Goals

Now that the whole CamMad family is on summer hibernation I can outline the goals I have for myself as well as CamMad.

Goals for CamMad:

1. Enjoy sleeping during the overnight hours
2. Playing independently
3. Cheer on the Red Sox
4. Countdown the days until Opening Day for the Patriots
5. Not drive the parents insane
6. Keep up with the family chores
7. Stay cool

My personal goals:

1. Only work on work-related stuff when I'm motivated and/or inspired
2. Try to take time to enjoy life
3. Learn how to make homemade donuts (that's from Parent2)
4. Catch up on the reading I've been putting off for the last few months
5. Enjoy the HDTV and DVR services
6. Allow the vacation to re-charge my batteries
7. Make sure that I'm ready to be an agent of change when hibernation is over
8. Play some golf!

By no means am I going to obligate people to create lists but I'm curious what others have for goals.

Almost everyone in the Cammad family is on summer hibernation

It's been a while since my last posting but I've been putting almost all of my energy and time into getting projects done at work so I can enjoy my summer hibernation.

Child1 is now officially a first grader. Wednesday Child1's class had their big celebration. I had a hand in it as I was asked to make a slideshow of their memories and accomplishments. I had a whole lot of fun doing it plus it gave me the excuse to try some features of iDVD and Garageband that I hadn't tried yet. The end result was predictable: parents loved it and the kids thought it was too long but enjoyable. Afterwards quite a few parents asked me for a copy but as a school we couldn't due to permissions to publish photos.

Enough about me, Child1's teacher and her counterpart spent a lot of time documenting all of the accomplishments of the children. Each child was presented with a canvas bag chalk full of memories. Thank you!

Child2 has been talking up a storm over the last couple of weeks. But now we are starting a new phase with the little one. We want to get rid of the investment we've made with Pampers for the last 6+ years. Early results are showing a curiosity but not a commitment. Yesterday we went to Wally-world and picked out some Dora underwear to help motivate Child2. We are also starting to see a stubborn streak. I will just leave it at that.

I forgot to mention it earlier but the thumbnail fell off for Child1 on Wednesday. The new nail is more defined than I thought it would have at this stage. The summer hibernation and all that goes with should be normal for Child1 and the thumb, which is great news.

The reason why I titled today's post the way I did was due to the fact that Parent2 still has 1 more day of school (Sheepish, how many days do you have left?) and 3 days of a class. I'm sorry but we're all here to support you.

This weekend you can expect posts on Father's Day and Summer Hibernation Goals. Until then...

And so it goes

Nothing really new to report on the life of CamMad.

We are just counting down the days until we can say Child1 is a first grader. People lately have come up to me and remarked how much Child1 has grown as well as grown up this year. It will be interesting to take a picture on the last day of school and compare it to the first day. There will definitely be some comparisions to be made. I'm very proud of all that you have accomplished this year.

Child2 seems to take after Parent2 on the gracefullness and coordination. Today the little one ran into a door and left a nice little bump and scratch (no not like the one on the nose). I was promised there was no abuse here. If it wasn't coming from my mom I might question it but in this case I won't.

We got to see a turkey in Grammy's yard today. This was one of those rare times I could point it out to the kids and not hear "Where is it?" "I didn't see it!". The turkey looked like it had a little limp to it, we hope it is okay.

I hope everyone enjoyed the sun today as it looks like the clouds and rain will return. Until next time...