Tuesday, November 22, 2011

He's Watching...

If I wasn't aware before, I now know exactly how much Mason absorbs/watches these days.  This past weekend I was putting on my makeup while Mason played on our bed, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw him playing with my makeup.  As I watched closer, I realized he was doing exactly what I do during my makeup routine!!!

Saying "cheese" right after I caught him using this brush on his face, the same way I do.

Putting on his mascara

And my absolute favorite - he was actually using the eyelash curler correctly!! 

I was absolutely dying as I watched him doing all of this.  Tristan on the other hand wasn't QUITE as amused, but I reminded him that he's just mimicking what I do every morning...no need to get worried yet :)

On another note, can you believe I still have this crappy phone after almost a year of complaining about the pictures it takes?  They're absolutely terrible I know...maybe December will be the month I actually get a new one!??  I just keep finding way more important things to spend $250 on :)

Friday, November 18, 2011

18 Month Update

I can't believe I'm saying this...my son is 18 months old.  That's a year & a half old, friends!  What...the...heck!  We're halfway to TWO already!  As hard as it is to believe this at times, it's also so easy to see what a big boy we've got these days.  In the months since I've last really updated on his latest "tricks", he has grown leaps and bounds.  As in - he's almost 30 pounds, wearing 2T clothes, talking, running, signing, and even reading!

Sign language has continued to help us with his ever-growing frustration not fully being able to communicate what he wants.  His favorite sign is "more" which has also turned into his sign for "I want".  Most of the time, with a quick "more" sign and a point in a general direction we're able to figure out what he wants/needs.  Here's Mason in action: 

However, I think our biggest saving grace sign-wise has been "help".  Any time we sense him getting frustrated with a toy or activity, all we have to do is ask him if he needs help while signing the word, and he immediately calms down and reciprocates the sign.  This has alleviated many sitautions that may have otherwise turned into tantrums...and have actually resulted in us never actually experiencing a tantrum (yet)! 


He is also saying a ton of words, his favorites being family members and his favorite objects.  He can now say Mama, Dada, Gigi, Pop, Grace (Gace), Addi (Ay-ya), Laura (A-wa), Todd, Opa (Pa), hi, ball, bubble, truck, duck, banana (nana), Cheerios (ey-os), cheese (for the food and when he see a camera), up, down, TV (one I don't particularly like). 
However, my two very favorite words he says are "yeah" and "uh-oh".  Anytime we ask him a question of any sort, his immediate response is, "yeah!"  And anytime something breaks/falls/stops working/etc, his arms go out and he says "uh-oh!" in a very concerned tone.  This includes things he actually throws himself (ex: sippy cup overboard from high chair), and we're trying to explain to him that it isn't an "uh-oh" if you do it intentionally.  Not working so far :)

Not sure if it gets much cuter than a Puma tracksuit & Nikes!

Mason loves playing a game I call "can you say..."  We play it daily, and we go through the list of all the above words - I say "Can you say mama?", and Mason says "mama!", and so on.  The funny part is when we get to body parts and animals.  He knows almost every single body part, including:  hair, head, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, cheeks, chin, shoulders, belly, bellybutton, arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes.  He also knows the following animals:  sheep, horse, cow, dog, cat, pig, duck, rooster, spider, snake, bee, bird, frog, elephant, lion, monkey.  However, when we get to the body parts during "can you say", he immediately stops repeating, and starts pointing to all the body parts as I ask him to say them.  Then when we get to the animals, instead of repeating the animal name after me, he tells me what noise they make.  It's so funny  how quickly he switches gears when we play that game - he's so smart too - he barely hesitates at each word.

(My favorite picture of these two, ever!  Describes their relationship to a T!)

He definitely takes after both of his parents in his quiet and almost shy demeanor, and is happiest when he's reading books in our laps.  His second favorite at-home activity is toddler puzzles.  We are amazed at how good he is at them - Tristan recently bought him 4 big wooden puzzles, two of which are pretty complicated, and he can do them all on his own.  He can figure out which shapes & colors go together, and fits them perfectly into the correct spots.  One has the entire alphabet with animals that correspond, and he meticulously finds the correct places for each piece one at a time.

He also loves playing with his extensive car/truck collection.  If it has 4 wheels and can zoom across our wood floors, he'll sit across the room from us for an hour, pushing them back & forth.

He looks up to his cousin Grace so much!  She's his favorite :)

I started a new job 6 weeks ago, which means Mason started daycare for the first time.  He only goes 3x/week because we're so blessed that Tristan's parents help us the other 2 days.  He had a VERY rough first few weeks, but I'm so happy to report that both of us have fallen into our new routines beautifully.  I absolutely LOVE his daycare.  It's a very small school, with only about 15 children total.  In Mason's class (under 2 year olds) there are only 4 kids and they don't all go every day.  They're accredited through the Poway Unified School District, which means they're doing the same curriculum as the local preschools, so he'll be learning as much if not more at a younger age than the kids who start preschool at 3 or 4.

With new baby cousin, Ava.  He's very curious about her, think he'll be an excellent big brother some day!

The first few weeks of daycare were very rough and included me dropping Mason off sobbing, and I know he spent most of the days in a fairly sad state. However, it's the one place we allow him to have monkey all day (at home he stays IN the crib at all times), and with that added assurance he now walks in next to me, asks for his monkey (which he calls his "ah-ah", his sound for what a monkey makes), and runs back to his classroom with his teacher. She has given me glowing reports that he's been happy, napping & eating great. She also asked me the other day exactly how old he was - when I told her she said she thought he was closer to 2, and said he's ahead of some of the 2 year olds at the school. Yay for my little smarty-pants!


He sleeps 12 hours every night, and takes a full 3 hour nap every day. He wakes up happy and usually doesn't even want to get out of his crib for up to 15 minutes after we've opened his door. Along with his "ah-ah", he sleeps with a blanket, another big monkey, an alligator and the newest addition, a little dog who I have no idea where he came from! I think Gace or Ay-ya left it here the other day, and since it's a plush toy Mason assumed it was for cuddling in bed with! Every night he gathers them all up at the head of his bed and lays on top of them all, saying "aaawwww" as he snuggles.


He's running everywhere and doesn't fall or trip nearly as much as he used to.  He's actually doing a great job at kicking balls around, and we see soccer in his near future for sure.  He also loves to play catch with balls, and has been known to actually catch one or two!  He loves to jump, which still looks like the video I posted a few months ago, and his BG recently taught him how to march.


And lastly...THIS is the reason why you may not see a video from us in a while.  I'm dying to get a video of him doing the puzzles or marching, but every time a camera turns on, here's what happens.  He actually can hear the Flip video from across the house, and immediately stops what he's doing because he wants to watch videos :)


He's the love of our lives, and although each new stage brings new challenges, he is such an easy little man.  We're almost afraid to have another...there's no way we'll have two easy kids!!!  All joking aside, maybe sometime before he turns 3 he'll have a little brother or sister to play with :)

Saturday, November 12, 2011

The Baaahhh-bas!

I have been friends with Dana for about 7 years now, and Mike for about 5.  They met when we all worked at a company called Mercury Media in Santa Monica before Tristan & I moved to San Diego.  Dana is one of my good LA girlfriends who I love keeping in touch with and seeing whenever I can, and I used to enjoy "Fat Friday" lunches with Mike and some of our mutual friends when we worked together.  Shortly after I moved to San Diego they started dating, and I guess you can say the rest is history!

Their wedding was last weekend in Pasadena, and I was so happy to be a part of the festivities.  Unfortunately Tristan was preparing for their biggest rivalry game of the season, so I went up solo.  I missed Tristan terribly, but I was so glad to be there and celebrate such an amazing night with such an amazing couple!

Waiting for the bride with Ahmanise

Ahm's husband Ken, Chris, Meagan & Ray, who are next to get married :)

The beautiful Karen, or as I call her, Kern :)

Maureen, writer of the best bridesmaids speech I've ever heard.  Ever.

Dana & Mike (almost) Barber


Listening to Olga's amazing reading

Some of my favorite ladies.  Susan, Lauren, Jessica & Olga

Me & Kern! 

Kern & her boyfriend Chris, who also met through work hehe.

The soon to be Eriksons!

The only pic I got of me & Dana.  Not sure why I never pinned her & Mike down for a group shot!

Just a glimpse of the dancefloor fun.  We danced the whole night!  I think my feet are still a little numb!!


Maureen spinning some tracks at the end of the reception.  This girl is the best - not only did she have the whole room rolling with laughter during her speech, she actually wrote a rap song about Dana & Mike.  It was amazing.

Congrats, Mr & Mrs Barber!  (Or, as Mike's Boston family pronounces it....Bahhhh-ba!)

Monday, November 7, 2011

Pumpkin Patch Part II & Pumpkin Carving

Since Gigi & Pop were in town, we headed back to the pumpkin patch so they could experience it with Mason as well.

Mason showing Pop his favorite part - the tractor.  He ran right to it saying "tra!", or "tractor" in Mason speak and wanted to get right up.



Gigi & Pop splurged the $1 each for the hayride.




Mason loved it, pointing out the pumpkins, flowers, trucks and trees.

Mason can now say "Gigi" and "Pop" perfectly, and he walks around all day saying their names :)

Pop helping Mason carve his first pumpkin!




It was a great week-long visit with Gigi & Pop, and Mason loves them so much.  They've been gone a week, and he still will randomly say "Gigi!" or "Pop!"  Grandparents are the best!

Happy (very belated) Halloween!

Wow!  So...in case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty absent from blogging.  Even though the computer is up and running, it's also football season which means Tristan is watching film/working pretty much every waking moment.  And, being the wonderful wife I am, I have not pitched a fit that his little football gig is getting in the way of my blogging :)  The good news is, we are a mere 2-3 weeks away from the END OF SEASON!!   Yippee!  Anywhoo...in the meantime...

As we all know, last week was Halloween - Mason's second.  Gigi & Pop came in for the festivities as they have the past few years, and man did we have a great day!  Mason was a spider this year - he is completely obsessed with the Itsy Bitsy Spider song.  So obsessed, that I think he actually gets it stuck in his head - I'll catch him silently doing all of he hand motions by himself all the time.  It's pretty much the cutest.  And...so was Mason as a spider :)

At first, he was pretty unhappy with us for putting him in his costume.

What are you DOING to me???

I was finally able to distract him with MY spider, on my shirt.

We walked up the street to cousin Grace, Addie & Ava's house, and had a great time taking pictures.  This whole time he's saying "cheese!!" to the cameras. 


Once he was armed with grapes, we decided to try to get some shots with the hat on.  We were convinced he wouldn't keep it on for longer than 1 picture, because he won't EVER wear hats or sunglasses.

Apparently, we were wrong...he wore the hat almost all night!! 




Yay, daddy made it home from football practice with minutes to spare before heading out for our trick-or-treating!

His first house - he did GREAT!


And then he was done.  This was how he spent the rest of the night - happy as a clam, chillin in the stroller. 


But I mean really, why WOULD he walk up to all the doors if he had Pop to wheel him up??  By the end of the night, Mason was holding his hand out for the candy, and dropping it into his bag.

Getting some love from cousin Grace, aka Rio from some kid's cartoon I've never heard of :)

Mason's brand new cousin, Ava, wearing the outfit we bought her

After an awesome night of trick-or-treating, we of course had to go home and check out the loot!


We let him have ONE tiny 3 Musketeers.  He said "mmmmmm!" at every bite, so cute.  The rest of the candy went to work with daddy the next day :)

All in all, it was an awesome time - he got the hang of it so quickly we know he'll be all over it next year, running door to door with his cousins!