What Has Mason Been Up To Lately!

Wow, it is hard to believe that my baby is almost 17 months old. The time is definitely going by way to fast for me. I just want to hold on to every minute with him. He has gone from being a dependent baby to being a toddler that wants his independence. While I have enjoyed every milestone and stage of his little life thus far, this stage is by far the best yet. His little personality is developing more and more each day. He is talking up a storm and just curious about everything. He is like a sponge and is just learning so much so quickly. I am just amazed at how much he comprehends.

What new words is Mason saying these days.  tree, ho ho, hello, wow, poop, wah wah (water), jew (juice), Gi Gi, Tay Tay (Aunt Stacey), May May (Mason we think), melmo (Elmo), stuck, red, snow, hat and two. Funny story about the word two. Today, Mason climbed onto the chair at the table. He wanted to stand up in the chair. Dawn told him to sit down. He did but then proceeded to stand up again. She told him that chairs were for sitting not for standing and that he needed to sit down. He did but then stood up again. She said sit down and started counting. She said one and he immediately said "two". It was hilarious. We both laughed out loud which of course didn't help matters.  I know we aren't supposed to laugh but....

What else has Mason been doing these days.

1. He has started telling us when he has peed or pooped in his diaper. He is very interested in sitting on the potty and will even walk to the bathroom door and say poop. We have been trying to sit him on the potty each time he tells us so he will get used to doing it so hopefully he will associate the two together and will start telling us before he has pooped or peed in his diaper. Hopefully this will mean that potty training will be easy with him.
2. He enjoys playing with blocks, puzzles, trucks, looking at books, watching the Sprout channel, cooking with Dawn and playing with the pots and pans.

3. Climbing - He is one little dare devil. He loves to climb on the coffee table which helps him get onto the couch. Once he is on the couch, he likes to roll around and jump from end to end. He has no concept of fear at this point. He also likes climbing onto the chairs at the table. He wants to stand in the chair once he gets in it so he has to get down which makes him mad.
4. Throwing temper tantrums. Yes this in one thing that I am not exactly happy about but I know it is all a part of his development. He will get so angry that he throws himself backwards and usually ends up banging his head on the floor. While we try to watch him and be sure he doesn't hurt himself sometimes he is just too fast and we can't get to him quick enough before he falls out. Once he has fallen out, we usually try to ignore him which works most of the time. Usually we try to redirect him to something else that will take his mind off of whatever made him upset.

There is so much more that he is doing but this post is getting long so I'll post more on the rest of those things later.  As you can see, he is a smart, healthy toddler that we love more and more every day.

Until next time......

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas. It was great watching Mason when we came down to see what Santa had brought him. He immediately walked towards the Christmas tree and said "truck" and started pointing to all of his toys. He may not understand the concept quite yet but he knew that there were new toys for him under the tree. Santa brought Mason a Tonka dump truck and backhoe, a basketball goal, a basketball, football, chunky puzzles, Crayola Doodler and lots of clothes. After checking everything out, he picked up the basketball and slammed it in the goal! That's my boy. Watch out Tarheels, we have a future star budding here! Below are a few pictures from Christmas.

After enjoying our 2nd Christmas together, we had to leave to go Gi Gi and Poppa's to have Christmas with them as well as all of Mason's cousins on my side of the family. We were looking forward to it because we have not seen them since September. They only live 4.5 hours away but they have been busy with working at the deer house so we have not been able to visit. Hopefully we will be able to visit more in 2011. Christmas with them was wonderful. Of course, they all spoiled Mason and were so amazed at how big he has gotten and how super cute he is!

We enjoyed our time away but were happy to get back to our house. Mason doesn't sleep well when we are traveling. He had two really rough nights which meant mommy had two very rough nights as well. We were all glad to get home and get Mason back in his comfy crib. The first night back, he slept from 7:30pm - 8:00am. He meant business and was making up for lost sleep.

We are home for several days then leave to go to Hampstead, NC to visit Nana and Grandpa Glenn. We will have Christmas with them and celebrate New Years as well. It will be more fun and lots more food. Just what we need to add to the pounds we have already gained.

Overall our Christmas was great. I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas as well.

Until next time......

Snowy Surprise

We received quite the surprise on Saturday afternoon - 2.5 inches of snow. This was a surprise in that all of the weather channels were saying that we would see some "flurries" and that would be about it. Well, I'd say we got more than a few flurries.

All of the snow fell within a couple of hours and was beautiful. We did not venture out in the snow Satuday afternoon since is was sooo cold but wanted to be sure that we got a few pictures of Mason in the snow before it melted on Sunday so we dressed him in several layers and took him out.

First snow of the 2010 - 2011 winter

He wasn't quite sure what to do once we put him down so he just stood there reaching for us. It was cute. The wind was blowing really hard so we only stayed out for a few minutes but we accomplished our only goal and that was to get a few pictures of the little guy in the snow.

Until next time......

Brunch with Santa

This past Saturday, one of our Y's program sites held a Brunch with Santa special event so we took Mason to see Santa. He could not be convinced to sit on Santa's lap by himself long enough for me to get a good picture of him. After several attempts, we decided he had had enough so gave up on getting the perfect picture. We enjoyed some muffins and fellowship with some of the people that attended and just hung out for awhile. Just before leaving, Santa got up to walk around to talk to everyone. Seeing that Santa's chair was vacant, Mason decided he would climb up in his chair to "rock" for a few minutes. While he was enjoying himself in Santa's chair, Santa came back over and snuck up behind him and gave us a great opportunity to snap a few awesome pictures.

Shhhh!!!

Yeah, that's right, I stole your chair!

We had a really good time at the brunch and hope that Santa isn't too upset with Mason for taking over his chair. 

Until next time......

Investigating the Christmas Tree

Last weekend we pulled out all of our Christmas decorations and had a great time putting everything out. This is Mason's 2nd Christmas but the first that he is old enough to understand at least a little bit. We had not put anything out before he went to bed so when he woke up, he had quite a surprise. We had decorated the mantle, the end tables and the kitchen with all of our snowmen. Well almost all of them. Some of them we decided not to put out since Mason still doesn't quite understand he has to be gentle with delicate things. When Mason saw everthing his mouth dropped open wide and he said oooohhhh snowman! It was awesome. The next day we took out our tree and set it up just before he went to bed. (Yes, we have an artificial tree. Several years ago we decided to buy a pre-lit tree since we both despise putting the lights on the tree) Dawn and I decorated the tree while he was asleep. When he came down the next morning it was all decorated and as soon as I put him down he ran for it. He was fascinated with everything that was on it. It was too cute.
The tree has been up for a week and Mason has been very good about not messing with the ornaments. He has been very curious and has been touching things more often. Today, I decided to let him touch some of the ornaments so he could really see what they were all about. It was great. Below is a video of him exploring.



We are looking forward to this Christmas with Mason. He may not comprehend everything that is going on but we are sure he gets some of it. At any rate, it is going to be wonderful. 

Until next time......