A New Resolution for 2012 BLOG MORE!

When my little sweetie pie/monster does something really cute, I think "I'll never forget this", but I have been! I go back and read entries I've made in his baby book and think "that is so adorable, he did that?!" So thank you 2012, for motivating me to blog more. As a sufferer of procrastination... here goes my attempt to overcome and put things into words before I forget them.

Here's what he loves these days:

• "dactors" (tractors): real ones, pictures, even the reality show Gol#d Rus%h, Alaska@ because they use lots of tractors, but his favorite is the one daddy found on the side of the road the night before trash pick-up. It had a bad battery but the "choo choo" we have in our sun room (summer)/living room(winter) used the same battery so now we have to switch the battery out back and forth between the two because he loves his train too! (The train was a garage sale splurge from auntie Shannon, $35 well spent).
• "snack snack": Fruit snacks are so important right now that I hardly buy them anymore because when I do, they are gone in a couple of days and I have to hear Mason say "snack, snack" or "I wa snack snack, I wa snack snack" over and over! He's stubborn and does not forget.
• stuffed animals and "BB" (blankets): no particular blanket, just anything soft. He will find a small, half yard of minke fabric in my sewing room and carry it around for a few days calling it "BB". He loves the isle at Joanns fabric store that has all the fleece. I have to push the cart up against the fabrics for him to lay his head on them and rub them. I'm laughing to myself, picturing him going nuts over the bolts of fabric! On bla*ck Friday* I bought myself a "bb" so that Mason would stop stealing his from me when I wanted to lay on the couch and be warm. It's really soft and fluffy like lambs wool and velvety on the other side. That didn't stay mama's for long. He still stole it from me, even though it was mine! It's in his crib right now, as we speak.
• opening presents: he opened all the presents he could reach. They were all up in the window seat where he couldn't get to them, rather than under the tree. We wrapped and rewrapped a lot this Christmas.
• Matchb&ox cars: he insists on having one every time we go to the store. They are only a dollar so I always let him pick one out.
• "bop": (pop). Rediculous. He opens the fridge and says pop! He does the same thing grandma Cece does, he takes a sip, makes a funny/miserable face like he hates it and then takes another sip.
• tools: he loves to be in the garage with dada too. He is always fixing things.
• Food: bananas, asparagus, cooked carrots, grandpa's corn, tomatoes, spaghetti, grandma Cece's applesauce and pears, mandarin oranges, pomegranates, kiwi, strawberries, etc. (NOT Mexican, which is funny because Adam's side of the family LOVE love love Mexican). He's at a funny stage, where even if he doesn't eat his supper, he will always eat the vegetables.
• motorcycles: real ones and toys. He had a blast at the motorcycle show and now daddy wants to buy him a dirt bike this summer. He's big enough, but mentally, not so sure but a few months makes all the difference when they are this young. They progress soo fast.
• waffle Wednesday: we go to the shop to see daddy every Wednesday morning and make waffles for the office. He runs around like he owns the place. As soon as we pull up he says "papa!" (grandpa). He loves his papa. He loves his cousin Jack too. When we stayed at their house for a week with the kids, while Rach and Derrick were in Ukraine, Mason and Jack hung out all the time. He was so sweet to Mason even when he was whiny and being difficult.
• "ball ball": footballs, volleyballs, anything resembling a ball.
• "Ellll-uh": Ellie, he loves the cat. He thinks all cats are named "elll-uh". Any time he sees a cat he yells "Elll-uh"! He's an animal lover, unlike dada. He gets that from mama. If it were up to dada, we wouldn't have Ellie or Stanley but he would never get rid of them because he sees how much Mason loves them. Dada likes to do anything for Mason that makes him happy, even if it's not what's best for him. He bends over backwards for his little buddy. Mama too, but I see the whole picture a little better than dada. I don't let him have all the candy, or skip his naps, etc.
• Christmas lights!: he loved them!! he would point and say "oooooooooooooo" in a really excited voice and he'd say that for every single house. When we drove down regular roads that didn't have christmas lights he'd say "more, more, more". And a few times he even got angry when there weren't any more. We got into the routine of letting him out of his car seat to drive down the short distance of our street so he could get a better look. He would go from ooo-ing and awe-ing to pushing all the buttons he could get his hands on and then back to ooo-ing and awe-ing. I hope he enjoys them next year just as much.

One Year Old

According to my last post, I thought the first 6 months of Mason's life went fast, but wow, the second half has flown! He is so big and so much fun. Mason still isn't walking but he stands on his own and is taking about 3-5 steps before losing his balance. I suspect he'll be walking in a week or so. Mason and I love staying home together. Dad always tries to make us clean the house while we're here "all day, doing nothing" but there's never enough time for that! Between the pots and pans Mason is constantly pulling out of the cabinets and naughty Stanley, I just couldn't make time for cleaning! Mason likes to go through the tupperware drawer too. He pulls one piece out at a time, throwing it over his shoulder until he gets to the bottom, then he moves on to the next drawer.

My boy is definitely an eater, him and Stanley both. All fruits and vegetables, oatmeal, salsa, you name it, they'll both eat it. They even share the common interest of raw hides and puppy chow. I try not to let Mason eat the raw hides, but he's faster than I am.

For Mason's extra special, first birthday we had a Monster Party at a really fun, indoor jungle gym. Most of his cousins and some of the neighbor kids came too. Grandma Cece, Grandpa Bob and Madeline drove all the way from New York to be there. Even more importantly than the birthday party, was Mason's dedication. Grandpa did the dedication at our church and Auntie Francie sang a song. She did such a good job! Everything turned out great. We handed out cookies and balloons to all the kids on their way out the door after church. Balloons are a huge hit when it comes to kids.

There is so much more about my sweet boy I'd like to document to remember but I'd end up going on and on. Here are just a couple of his 12 month pictures.

6 Months

Mason is 6 months old! Where does the time go? He's in the 85th percentile for height and 75 for weight. He's so much fun to have around. He sits up on his bottom and claps, showing his two pearly whites. He can roll over both ways but rarely does so. He's far too content just sitting up or laying on his back. I don't see him crawling anytime soon. He's quite the traveler too. He's been to Canada, the UP multiple times, Oklahoma, Florida and Las Vegas and been there for the 10,000 miles I put on my car in 4 months. He's got New York, Disney world and a cruise coming up in the next few weeks. He is a little guy with a busy schedule. It's been a really fun 6 months, but also a sad one. My grandma Annie died, and we lost our dog to AIHA disease. It made me sad to think Mason would never know either one. My grandma died a couple days before my sisters wedding and Walter died a week after. On a brighter note, my sister Francie's wedding went smoothly and turned out beautiful. Mason was a trooper through all of that. He hung out with his dad the whole day. Adam tried to make me think he actually changed a diaper that day but recently confessed he hadn't exactly been truthful. He's yet to change one. About an hour before the wedding started, while the wedding party and families were taking pictures, Mason decided it was a good time to spit up his entire meal. Thankfully it was just milk, but it drenched the front of my dress. I had to go the rest of the day, including the ceremony, as the maid-of-honor, (3rd most important person there, of course) with a large streak down the front of me. But the photographer swears she can photoshop it out. I suspect life is only going to get more exciting!

Oklahoma

This summer my siblings, parents and I decided to go to Oklahoma to see Grandma Annie aka: Grandma Scrooge, who is in a nursing home now and terribly lonesome. Mom and Bob were smart and flew. The rest of us drove. Me, Shannon, Kristen and Mason in my car; Ryan and Lisa, Hannah, Grace and Madeline in Ryan's car leading the way. Rachael, Lori, Bella, Tony, Jack, Ben and Katya to follow the next day in Rachael's car. My brother said we could make the 16 hour drive with only 4 stops if we stayed focused and only stopped for gas. That didn't happen. Not even close. We stopped 9 times. Ridiculous, I know! By the time we made the long trip we were still on speaking terms! Be shocked.

We stopped first in Muskogee for 2 days to visit my dad's side of the family, or should I say the rednecks? Nothing wrong with rednecks, they just dress and talk a little funny. My redneck comes out once in awhile as badly as I try to suppress it. We went to see the fireworks at the local festival this weekend with my husbands family and it wasn't until we got there and I jumped out of the car that I realize I was totally barefoot. Soo embarrassing!

The two days in Muskogee went well, and then we were off to the city; only a two hour trip, that's nothing. Lori and I rode together with her two kids and Mason. My boy is not perfect, but he's still pretty easy to please. Lori's kids however, were a little more of a challenge. They hated being in the car... the result: three screaming kids for 30 minutes. Yikes! I was soo happy when they all fell asleep. We stopped to see Grandma at the home on the way, which was about 45 minutes from where we were staying. She was not expecting us. She was under the impression we were to come the week before, so she thought she'd been stood up. How sad! We convinced her to let us pick her up in the morning and bring her to the house we were staying at for the day, which is what we ended up doing each day. She's so stubborn, she never would have done something like that in the past. She must have been really lonely. We stayed at my cousins house while they were in Hawaii and watched their two little girls. There were 12 kids in the house during the day! Thank goodness they have a humongous house and all the kids got along well.

It was a long, stressful week with all the commotion but it was totally worth it for Grandma's sake. She had such a good time! She ate like a horse. She's on a puree diet and still managed to eat 4 pieces of pizza for dinner one night and three bowls of potato soup another night; ice cream, snacks and lots of pie in between. All she had to do was say something and we would all jump. She was treated like a queen. There were lots of memorable events but I'm going to leave that up to my sister to tell, because she's a better story teller than I am.

Grandma Annie is on hospice, but unlike MI, where hospice means you are expected to live at best, 6 mo, in Oklahoma it's more like 2 years. So pretty much any old lady might qualify for hospice. We all thought it might be the last time we see her, but she was doing so well, there might be next summer. I'll be flying!

2 Months

At Mason's two month check up he weighed in at a hefty 13 pounds.

• 93rd percentile for height


• 81st percentile for weight

And he got 4 immunizations via needle and one orally. He was such a champ. All the shots were in before he even realized what was going on. He only cried for a few seconds. He would have been fine from the shots the rest of the day, but he got a really bad cold and a sore throat with ulcers. He and mommy had a rough week! We tried to go to Vacation Bible School but the doctor wouldn't let us go back after the first day once we found out Mason's throat sickness was highly contagious to other little kids. That first day was lots of fun though. I can't wait for him to get a little older to really enjoy it more. Right now Mason's favorite thing to do is go to the beach. He sleeps like a rock in the heat under his umbrella. He also got his first hair cut last week. I trimmed the hair that stood up in the air but couldn't bring myself to trim the hair in the back. It's so soft and cute.

What I've Learned from Motherhood

Only six and a half weeks into motherhood and I already feel like I've learned so much. Looking after my nieces Madeline and Kristen a little when I they were younger made me think I already knew everything there was to know, but that's certainly not the case. Here's are just a few things I've learned so far:

• Being a mother is the most rewarding thing I'll ever do.
• I couldn't love anything more than my own child.
• Getting up in the middle of the night multiple times isn't so bad (especially when you don't have to get up and go to work at 5:30am).
• Baby wipes removes eye make-up.
• Dried out pacifier wipes laying around in my car make better tissues-on-the-run than receipts.
• 30 pounds are easier to loose than ten.
• Being a stay home mom is soo much fun!
• Cover up the baby's face a little, to block surrounding stimulation while rocking him and he'll go right to sleep. I just learned this one today.. thanks Rach!
  

(Mason's first day at the beach)

Who's he look like?

MommyBaby
Daddy