Cousin Love!

We had a great visit with Cameron's grandparents and cousin.  It was really sweet to see how Cameron treated his cousin differently from other five-year-old girls.  They snuggled and bickered like siblings :)

Cute antics:

• when the chess master noticed Cameron standing up on the monkey bars and got him back down, Cameron wanted to know why.  The master said that bars weren't designed for that and my child pondered that a moment and answered, "Monkey bars weren't not designed for that." (We're working on that line of thinking for himself and understanding reasons while being respectful of authority and generally pleasant company!)

• inviting "Lets go to the stairs so we can have our battle!" 

• his statement of our jobs:
Mom
To make him happy and teach
Dad
To make him happy when he can and work and make us a successful family 
(Hmmm, interesting what was the top for both parents in his view!)

• after patting my head he told me that that means comfort 
( We had a fun chat about that being more for animals, not people, and I talked about patting shoulders.)

• getting into the car with his me, his grandma and his cousin and inviting, "How about listening to Hobbit, gals?"

• deciding to retrieve his draft from the printer as if he were blind (he groped his way up/down stairs and around the house)

• deciding the garage was the best place for privacy when changing with a houseful of people

• He kept saying, "Rats! Another period!" while editing his story.  I caught this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGum_WukSTs&feature=youtu.be

I love the explanation which is classic Cameron.
"I'm trying to find mistakes and I want it to be exciting!"

• choosing to color a geography map while naked, hiding in front of Andrew's car in the garage, in a dirty corner, near where we'd seen a scorpion.  (?!?!?!?  I brought him pajamas so he could do the map inside, but he didn't have an explanation for why he chose to hide in the garage instead of clothing himself… he had his room and pajamas available.)

• after one of his exuberant hugs and energetic nuzzles that was lasting awhile, I mentioned that we really should get a dog and he informed me, "You're better than any dog would be."

• trying to print 135 copies of his latest story so he'd have back up  

• randomly commenting at 9:15pm as he looked down,"Hooray, I'm wearing my pants correctly. [Pause]  Hooray, I'm wearing my shirt correctly too."

• mishearing my "wait a second" when he wanted my attention and forlornly repeating, "On August second?"

• sending his grandma "hugs as big as rockets" when she was sad about losing an old tree to lightening

• Cameron's flow of  who's next in history… he paused in listening to the ancient history class to make it clear how world history works.  He rattled off:

"So, what happened is, Egypt starts and then Mesopotamia conquers and becomes next and then Persia conquers Mesopotamia and becomes next and then Greece conquers Persia and becomes next and then the Romans conquer the Greeks and they become next and then the European barbarians conquer the Romans and they're next and then the European barbarians become Renaissance-men, civilized Europeans, and then they're next, and then the Europeans discovered America and then Americans rebelled and then America became the world's super power and that's where we're at now."

Cousin Love: Update From 2013
Update For Holidays 2015-
Cousin love is still going strong and it's such a delight to see them :)
Belly Bash Dance