Cameron Lo

The Gymboree near our house is always trying out new equipment and reconfiguring their setup, which makes it really fun for the kids. Today they built a swing and everyone wanted a turn. When it was finally our turn, Cameron tried to stand up in it, which scared me for a second. Soon after I told him to sit back down, he was done with the swing—guess he only wanted to swing standing up?

I’ve posted Cameron’s singing and dancing to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in Mandarin a couple times already, so it’s time for his rendition in English. 🙂 I actually tried to video him a couple days ago but since we’re always sitting under the big Gymboree parachute (to create the starry sky) for this song, it was hard to do in the tight space and without getting in other people’s way. So today I decided to video Cameron while he’s sitting in my lap. He didn’t sing as much as I’d like, but I’m still so glad I caught a bit of this “routine”. It’s easy to think we’re at Gymboree yet again, doing the same thing each class until he graduates to the next level (and then it’s the same thing for that new class), but he really is growing up so fast and if I don’t have these videos, I won’t remember his baby looks, movements, and moments.

Since the last video of Cameron in his mommy-and-me Mandarin class, he thinks he has mastered the singing part, so he’s adding more dancing to it. 😉

Cameron’s not as familiar with the next song “Head and Shoulders”. Coincidentally, I also recorded Darren when he was the same age as Cameron here—at 2 years and 1-2 months—doing the same song! Well, big brother didn’t produce the right motions back then either! 😉

Another song Cameron likes a lot is 兩隻老虎 (Two Tigers). I love the way he runs with his two little fists swinging back and forth—he looks so cute and funny.

Today he said “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” over and over again and “Chip and Dale” once. It’s probably because we’ve been reading Mickey Mouse books—Cameron LOVES Mickey Mouse. Little does he know we’re going to Disneyland next week—it’ll be his first time to the Disneyland here!

Several weeks ago, at Cameron’s weekly swim class, he all of a sudden got it figured out. He was kicking and kicking and holding his breath. I kept backing up away from him and realized he could swim really far! From that day on, I had my eye on the first achievement award he could get—the green ribbon, which requires swimming six feet in a horizontal body position, using paddling arms and proper breath control. It took us a while—the biggest reason was Cameron had to learn to paddle as well besides just kicking, but then the teacher would be out sick and the substitute teacher wouldn’t be in the position to grant awards or Cameron would be gun shy and underperform when the teacher tested him. But two or three weeks ago, even a mom in Cameron’s swim class said, “Give it to Cameron already!”

Well, today Cameron finally got it!

I can’t remember exactly when Darren got his green ribbon, but judging by the post on Darren’s blog, he was probably 27 months old. Cameron is 25 months old. Actually when I told Darren that Cameron got his green ribbon, even Darren said “Whoa!” Congratulations Cameron!

At Gymboree, they like to make do with what they have and pretend-play. Today they pretended they have a train, which was right up Cameron’s alley because, like Darren, he loves choo-choos and riding on them. What’s funny was Cameron’s solid as a rock during the whole ride and had no intentions of ending his ride—other kids were falling, getting off—even as another kid fell on Cameron, he still didn’t budge!

Since Darren started school in the city last fall, Cameron has been going to both the Gymboree near home and the “original” Gymboree in the city that Darren used to go to before we moved. The two Gymborees are set up a bit differently, so Cameron gets to mix it up. For example, he seems to play with the balls more at this “original” Gymboree:

Also, since the staff at this Gymboree remembers Darren (and me), Cameron is well-loved and a bit of a teacher’s pet—not that he isn’t at our “home” Gymboree! (Please note: I must have accidentally covered the speaker several seconds into recording this—I tried to fix it in iMovie, but couldn’t figure it out, so please turn up the volume after 5-6 seconds in order to hear the song—sorry!)

Cameron never tires of playing at Gymboree and I never tire of watching him play. Here’s a sampling of what he’ll do at Gymboree—he loves pretending to drive with the little wheels and knobs:

He also enjoys, while lying on his back, touching and kicking the big parachute with his feet:

Last but not least, the call for stamps at the end is not to be missed!

Little Cameron wants to do a lot of things by himself now that he’s two, including handling his pair of scissors! I always carry them when we go out to eat because Cameron is a bit of a vegetarian, but if we cut up his protein small enough, he’s willing to eat it sometimes along with his favorite food groups—carbs and vegetables(/fruits—this his absolute all-time favorite!) Sometimes we use the scissors to cut short his straws though, so he could drink more easily. Today Cameron decided to take charge and Vincent not only let him, but also documented his motor skills—no harm, no foul!

Cameron is too young to go skiing, so I took him tubing yesterday. Cameron tends to be more conservative, so I wasn’t sure if he’d find tubing too exciting for his taste. To my surprise and delight, he loved the two types of tubing available! One’s a merry-go-round, which Cameron is content to sit in for many many rounds, alone by himself or together with a bunch of other kids.

The other’s simply tubing down a bunny slope. When Darren heard that Cameron tubed all morning and after lunch as well, he wanted to go too the next day. Even though we rented skis for Darren to practice his turning and stopping, he’d rather tube with little brother!

I’ve been taking Cameron to weekly mommy-and-me Mandarin classes for 3 months now. The teacher we had in the beginning was very nice but our class was all boys and she got really flustered and commented the other class was much easier to handle since it had a lot of girls. The next thing we knew, she quit! I thought to myself she hadn’t even seen Darren yet. When Darren used to take mommy-and-me Mandarin classes, he would run around, try to leave the room, and in general not follow instructions and not pay attention. Cameron is already much better-behaved! Thankfully our second and current teacher is just as nice and she feels much more comfortable teaching boys. Turns out she has a boy of her own. She also really likes Cameron and told me once that he looks like a little Korean movie star! 🙂 Cameron enjoys the classes too, especially songs that he’s already familiar with, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!