Happy 10th Birthday Camden Godfrey
Double digits! What a milestone — for you AND me! Seems like only yesterday you were this tiny dude with goofy hair, stumbling around and trying to beat up your big brother. And now look at you! A more medium-sized little dude with crazy bangs, running around and trying to drop-kick your big brother. Barely recognizable. Thankfully we have all these historical birthday posts to look back on (like this one from when you turned five!)
But enough about the distant past (from your perspective), let’s focus on the more recent and glorious past — the 10th year of your life!
Grandma:
Every year (sans covid) we visit Grandma in July. And every year she finds a new way to surprise you. This year, upon your arrival you were greeted with a giant stuffie. How giant? Giant enough that we had to buy a new suitcase in order to get it home. Because buying additional luggage to transport a stuffed animal is exactly the sort of thing that sane, reasonable adults do.
Highlights of the trip included water fights in the yard, short walks to Little Caesar's and Dairy Queen, and a visit to the Catapult Adventure Park. You can be tough to please, but when there’s an indoor tubing ramp, parenting is easy. You and Colt did lap after lap after lap, trying out new tricks and turning wipeouts into an art form. It might be the first and only time I was sad to leave an indoor park.
And if that wasn’t good enough, Grandma had one more surprise up her sleeve — an overnight trip to the Great Wolf Lodge!
Indoor tubing is great. But indoor waterslides? Bet!! As long as you ignore the crowds, strong chemical smell, and disgusting water, an indoor water park is pretty great. You and Colt got in line before the park even opened, ensuring you’d be first through the door and could loop through the biggest slides as many times as possible. Priorities.
Summer/Fall Baseball:
Later in the summer, you decided to go to a Feds workout. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but afterwards you ran off the field saying “I want to do that again!” Your favorite station was with Jason, learning to lead off and steal. The following workouts didn’t excite you quite as much, as every other group rotated while yours mostly stayed in one spot and, per Colton, “just played catch for two hours.”
Well, whatever it was, it seemed to work. The next time you and I played catch your throwing motion was so much cleaner. The elbow was up, and you threw downhill instead of just kinda flicking it with your wrist and elbow (which was scary to watch). We played catch more often, and started having very productive pitching sessions. And you were excited about it!!
That translated into a productive fall season. I rarely got to watch your games as they all seemed to conflict with Clara’s soccer, but by all accounts you pitched several times and hit well. And you got to play for coach Jon and with your buddies.
School:
For the 2nd straight year, you were in a class with Alex Loew. And for our family’s 3rd straight year, we got to have Mrs. Givens as a teacher. You’ve always been a voracious reader, and this past year your writing has taken a big leap (at least when we can get you to write more than a few sentences).
One of your regular assignments was a “Daily Quick Write”, where I guess you’d pontificate on whatever topic was top of mind. My favorite is shown below. While I do love the idea of you dropping by my house to give me “a couple billion dollars”, Friday has to be my favorite:
“I would rather waddle like a duck because I respect ducks more than bunnies.” I think Mrs. Givens said it best when she replied with “Why?” (and docked you a point).
And if you have a little more time to settle in for a short story, I highly recommend “Camden and the Banana from Ohio.” Your fascination with bananas is well-documented. But why Ohio? Why not.
More conventionally, you got to devise, conduct, and present an experiment at the science fair. Your topic? Baseball obviously. More specifically — the impact launch angle has on the speed reading of a radar gun. Your partners? Laz and Alex (just as obviously).
Vegetables:
You still hate vegetables. I’m running out of ideas. And patience. And optimism. The only thing I’m not running out of is vegetables.
On the plus side, we went out for lunch yesterday, and while you plowed through your burger and sweet potato fries, you declined to get a frozen yogurt (instead just sampling Colt and Clara’s). So I guess you’re sorta kinda starting to think about healthy eating. Or at least about avoiding the worst foods. So there’s that.
Lake Tahoe — Summer:
We did our usual Labor Day weekend trip to Tahoe, although without Colton and Mom (at a Feds baseball tourney). The activity I was most looking forward to was the one you were most dreading. The Pontoon boat.
You: “Will we be on there for an hour?”
Me: “Probably longer.”
You (in a very whiney voice): “What will we do?”
Me: “You’re always bored anyway, so it’ll be just like that but on a boat.”
You: [audible groan]
But once we got on the boat, you started to really enjoy it. Uncle Joey let you help him drive, and you even got in the water. And then you got in again. And a 3rd time!
“I’m actually not regretting getting on this boat.”
That’s high praise coming from you.
Lake Tahoe — Winter
We made two winter trips to Tahoe this year — just before Thanksgiving, and over New Years. Unfortunately, that only led to three total days of skiing, but you made the most of it. At the top of each run you’d zoom off while I was working with Clara, and I’d worry whether you’d get lost or lose a ski or get eaten by a bear. Of course there was little worry about, as you’d always be patiently waiting for us at the bottom.
When we weren’t skiing, you kept busy make snow tunnels & forts, building jumps, and trying to pummel Colt with snow balls. And begging for iPad time. Because screen time is the foundation of any enjoyable vacation.
Rick Rolling:
You like to “Rick Roll” people. In case you’ve forgotten, Rick Rolling is when you unexpectedly make someone listen to the Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. But you took it a step further, carrying around an actual photo of Rick Astley that you could present to people as part of the Rick Roll. And even taping a photo of Rick Astley to your water bottle. It should be noted that I’ve seen multiple other Rick Astley water bottles at Baywood, so you’re not the only weirdo.
Not sure if this is more or less weird than everyone at Baywood singing along to Backstreet Boys at full volume. But I definitely didn’t have either of those on my “how will my kids appropriate the music of my youth?” bingo card. And now I have both “Never Gonna Give You Up” AND “I Want it That Way” stuck in my head. And so do you.
Hair:
You love growing out your bangs, and get sullen every time we make you cut them. Of course, if you didn’t insist on covering your eyes with your hair, and instead styled it up into a cool mohawk, then we’d let you grow it as long as you want. But when we’re in the batting cage and it’s swooping over one eye as you whiff at pitch after pitch, well, you leave me no choice.
Taekwondo:
You’ve given up on soccer and basketball, which is frankly OK by me. But it made your schedule a little lite at times. You’ tried a taekwondo class and enjoyed it from the start. In fact, I floated the idea of buying Warriors playoff tickets, but you decided you’d rather go to taekwondo class. Which both showed your dedication, and saved me a couple grand. A classic win-win.
After two months as a white belt (albeit with lots of colored tape from completing different fight sequences), you were ready to test for your yellow belt. You demonstrated your skills, and even kicked a board into thirds! (Anyone can break a board in half. Three pieces is special). I can’t wait to see everything you’re going to learn over the next year. And once you’re able to beat up your dad, just remember how nice I am to you (most of the time).
Reading:
You still love to read, but unfortunately remain very stubborn about trying new books. So possibly your most exciting moment of the past year was when the newest book in the Warriors series book arrived. I handed it to you at 8:20pm, and in less than one hour you’d read 80+ pages. The next morning you finished the book in less than two hours.
292 pages in total. Boredom staved off for about 2.5 hours.
Affection:
You were definitely the snuggliest of all three kids when you were little. Happy to sit on my lap, or just cozy up next to me. Then somewhere along the way you got more distant, at least to me. You’d fight off hugs at all cost and certainly never expressed any verbal affection. But right around your 9th birthday, you flipped. Now at bedtime, you go out of your way to give me the biggest, tightest hug you can manage. I even get the occasional “I love you”, which is really all this dad needs.
Mom:
You and Mom have always had a very special relationship. Lots of cuddling, even if often it’s just so you can get a better look at whatever she’s doing on her phone. But my favorite Mom moment from the past year is the Mother’s Day card you gave her. Ever the pragmatist, you found a way to thank her for “only getting mad at me for reasons I deserve to be yelled at.” That’s love.
Growing up (sort of):
You had your first pimple recently, which lead to this interesting conversation:
You: “Dad, what is this”
Me: “It’s a pimple”
You: “What’s that?”
Me: “You have these pores in your skin, and sometimes oil clogs them up.”
You: “When does this go away?”
Me: “20 years? Maybe 30.”
Don’t grow up too fast bud.
One other little aside about being in a hurry to grow up. When we go for a drive, Colton, despite being two years older, still goes to the back seat by default. You, by contrast, will ALWAYS try to sit in the front seat (until I kick you out). Be patient dude, your time will come.
Career ambitions:
Speaking of getting old, we’d never really discussed what you wanted to be when you grew up. But I know you’d at least contemplated the virtue of being a professional football player. So it was a bit surprising to hear the following conversation between you and your buddy Zach on the drive to your overnight field trip:
Zach: “I want to play college baseball, but maybe not MLB.”
Cam: “I definitely want to play high school football. Maybe baseball. But when I grow up I want to be an Electrical Engineer.”
Do you even know what an Electrical Engineer does? Hell, I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering and I don’t know what EEs do. But I do know they have to have pretty good grades. So study up!
Sierra Outdoor School:
The aforementioned overnight trip was to the Sierra Outdoor School. It seemed to be mostly “free time”, which is at least consistent with your regular school. But you did learn about how the 49ers prospected for gold, lived in primitive tents, and exploited both the land and native people. A very uplifting experience.
And when the hard work was done, you learned to unwind with some traditional miner’s dances. Which quickly devolved from dancing to violent spinning, before settling into an apathetic ‘I’ll walk through the paces, but refuse to link arms, make eye contact, or smile’ routine. Ah, to be young and cynical…
Unsurprisingly, your favorite part of the trip ended up being food-related. Breakfast was a biscuit and sausage patty. When they announced they had some extra food, you grabbed another sausage. And another. And another. By the time I knew what was happening, you were already on patty number five. Temperance is apparently not yet your virtue, as evidenced by your food selection at the Mother’s Day brunch:
All the major food groups: bacon, sausage, eggs, and sweets. What could go wrong?
Hawaii
Usually we spend our spring breaks hanging around San Mateo, arguing over who is the most bored. This year, we instead flew all the way to Kauai to argue over who is still the most bored. Although, with Alex along on the trip, your arguments fell pretty flat.
You spent hours in the pool and lazy river, and even tried boogie-boarding in the ocean. A torrential downpour cancelled our scheduling boating adventure, which was fine by you. You did your best to pooh-pooh many of the activities, and almost always had a sour face prepared for any photo. But even you had to admit that our tubing trip was pretty great. Now if we could just get you to ditch the tights when we’re on a tropical vacation…
The Major Metros:
For our less exotic travels, you got to visit both Chicago and New York over the past year. Chicago was a blast as we hit up a Cubs game at Wrigley, did the river cruise, and feasted on pizza and pasta. You showed no fear, doing handstands and jumping on the glass floor of the Sears Tower skydeck, and just a little fear on the ‘tilt’. But the best part was getting to spend time with your cousins, aunts and uncles. Once a year is not enough.
New York was great as well. We again ate pizza and pasta, but also mixed in a nice steakhouse. The Yankees were on the road, so we headed to Shea Stadium to catch the Mets. After an hour-long subway ride, 45 minutes waiting for the stadium to open, 2 hours of unsuccessfully trying to get a ball during warmups, and a 4 hour rain delay, it was time to PLAY BALL! Worth it.
And no trip to NY is complete without knocking off the tourist traps. Times Square, Statue of Liberty, and Mom’s guided tour of all the places she used to work/eat/drink/live. Riveting! You even indulged me (albeit unwillingly) by going to some museums. Which, I’d argue, you did actually enjoy. Even if you don’t realize it yet. And, of course, we had to go see Hamilton live.
Piano:
Unlike your siblings, you actually enjoy piano. And are even willing to admit it! I got you to play on the outdoor street piano in Truckee, and you performed for a full Memorial Day party on a friend’s grand piano. But what I loved most is when you partnered with Alex to perform at the Baywood Talent show. Hundreds of spectators got to watch Alex sing Lil Nas X’s “Panini” while you provided the accompanying music.
Full performance is here — it’s worth your time
Siblings:
No recap of your 10th year would be complete without talking about your siblings. Colt is you best friend and biggest adversary. The Yin to your Yang. One minute you’re giggling and playfully wrestling and singing some terrible song or commercial jingle. The next, someone is in tears and you’re punching and screaming at each other. But when you’re tired, you call a truce and snuggle into a mutually beneficial shared resting space. In other words, a near perfect brotherhood.
Your relationship with Clara is more nuanced. Colton mostly ignores her (or at least tries to), leaving you to act as a mentor and guide. You’ll help with her piano — sometimes without even being asked. And if I had a nickel for every time I caught you guys on a screen together, well, let’s just say I’d be pretty flush with nickels. But you’re still her primary torturer, and she drives you crazier than Colton ever could. So when you’re reading this 30 years from now, with kids of your own who fight and claw and scream incessantly, just remember — karma is a b!+<#
Flag football:
Your team came back to earth after last year’s championship season, finishing around the middle of the pack. Which makes sense since you moved up to the top league. You played well, scoring a few touchdowns and continuing to play great defense in locking down your side of the field and grabbing an occasional interception. Any time I looked up you’d be knocking down a pass or making a diving flag pull.
I’m proud of your intensity and focus, but most of all I just love that you get to play one of your favorite sports with so many of your best friends. You guys support each other, play hard together, and win or lose have a great attitude.
Little League Baseball:
Much like flag football, your little league season was more defined by the kids you got to play with than the results on the field. Your team finished 3rd, followed by a 1–1 record in the playoffs. But again, the teammates made the season special. And the postseason made it even better as you were selected (along with a few of your friends) to play on the Minors Superbowl team!
The tournament is still a week away, but we’ve had two weeks of practices and the team is progressing quickly. Come back for next year’s blog post to see how it went!
What a crazy year! And who would have guessed that the longest section of this recap would be about school? Certainly not me. I’m just constantly blown away by how much you grow and change from year to year. And am most impressed by how comfortable you are dancing to the beat of your own drum (you might need to google that phrase to make sense of it, but trust me, it’s a good thing).
I love you son. Welcome to age 10!
