The Camden list

The Camden list might be shorter than Rory's - mostly because 5 year olds aren't developing and changing quite as much as a 23 month old!

• There's very little baby left in him, which is good since he's 5 I guess although he stills calls a bathing suit a "babin' suit" and I can't bear to correct him.

• The look of pure joy on his face when someone on his team makes a goal in soccer practice or in a game is just priceless.

• The child can throw a serious temper tantrum. Seriously. We're talking screaming, kicking, rolling around on the floor in his room for an hour on a bad day. Thank goodness those days don't come often.
  

• He can sit for hours at the kitchen table with a package of play dough, or one of our games that he is playing with and making into his own game. This is pretty new; he's never been much for independent play.

• He wants breakfast the moment he wakes up.
  

• When he's being sweet to Rory, his voice goes up 3 octaves and he speaks to her in this very high sweet voice. Maybe we sound like this to him and he's just imitating us. Oh, and many times in the car we'll hear, "Rory, what do you want? Rory, what toy do you want. RORY, WHAT DO YOU WANT???" It's like he can only be sweet for so long.
  

• He can pester Rory endlessly (of course, she's pretty easy to pester).

• He's finally overcoming his fear of water in his face. Showers are a regular part of his schedule these days.

• He has a weird nervous energy and adjusts his clothes constantly - messes with the waist of his pants so that they're in the exact right place; pulls at his shirt, etc. He also can't stand for his lips to be wet so he is always slurping the spit out of his mouth (very annoying!).

• He has always been an affectionate child, and wants to be touching you at all times (which, to be honest, at age 5 isn't quite as fun as it was when he was 2). He would still let us carry him around or sit on our laps at all times if we let him. We have to constantly tell him to keep his hands to himself; not necessarily with us so much but with Rory, his friends at school, soccer practice, etc.

• He asks endless questions. Many times obvious questions, questions that he already knows the answer to. Sometimes had questions.

• He wasn't interested in TV at all until about 2.5, and then he only was interested in Veggie Tales and the Little Einsteins. Now, I can't even have the news on because if the TV is on, he is glued to it. Sometimes when I want to watch the Today show or Fox News, I have to just make him leave the room because he is so fascinated by it, even the commercials.

• He's very much a boy in his playtime. It's all about soldiers and Batman and Power Rangers (even though we've never let him watch either of those). He fights and shoots things constantly with any kind of "weapon" he can make around the house.

• No matter how many games of Sorry, Uno, Yahtzee, etc. we play with him, it's never enough. He asks us to play games with him CONSTANTLY and will pull out the old "but you never play with me" card much too often considering the amount of time I spend on the floor playing board games.

• Instead of saying, I want to play with whatever, he says, "I don't care if I . . . "

Rachel Young/Jaime Young/Tiff Brady: Whimsical Woodland

Amanda Rockwell: Backyard Whimsy