Happy 18 Months!

Happy 18 months to my sweet little man!  My, how the time has flown!  One year ago, this was you:

And now here you are - a walking, talking (rear-facing) bundle of trouble!  =)

To celebrate your half birthday, we bought you the Elmo balloon you spotted from across the store, and played with it all night!

You were in awe of its amazing ability to bounce off the ceiling fan...

 And then you cracked me up as you climbed into the cabinet saying "Bye! Bye!"

You are so funny and you are developing such a little personality!  I feel so lucky to be your mommy!

Whistle Stop Playground

The weather this morning was so nice, we just had to get out and go to the park!  We went to Whistle Stop, even though it's the farthest you can get from our house.  It's definitely the neatest, most "toddler friendly" playground around!  Mason had so much fun today!  We stayed for over an hour and he just ran and played the whole time.  There were 3 other kids there close to his age (another little boy named Mason!) and he really enjoyed watching and playing with them. 

 He loves to go through the tunnel - he giggles and screams every time he does.

 LOVE this picture!  He's such a handsome little guy!

 He really hates the baby swing, but today he loved this swing.  I thought he looked so cute (not counting the snot coming out of his nose) and he was so excited!

Of course the best part was when I was singing "I'm Gonna Catch You" (by the Laurie Berkner band - they are awesome by the way!) and I was chasing him.  I was going pretty fast when I slammed my head into a wood post that I somehow didn't see.  It stopped me dead in my tracks, and Mason just looked at me like "Hey, why did you stop??"  Thankfully there's no bruise!

 

We had a great day today, and we are so thankful for this nice weather!

 

Belly button!!!

Daycare Update

Mason has now completed four weeks of daycare.  Things are finally starting to get better - he still cries when I drop him off, and whines when I pick him up, but they say the morning crying never last longer than a few seconds, and he's usually cheerful for the rest of the day!  It definitely does a mommy's heart good to know that her baby is cheerful even without her! 

One difficult thing that we've been dealing with is illnesses - I was prepared for him to be sick, but it's been crazy!  His second week in, he ended up with a cold, which all three of us got.  As soon as we finally got over that, he spent a whole weekend with a fever (this past weekend.)  His fever finally went away, but he got a horrible rash all over his chest and back that really worried us.  We took him to the doctor Wednesday and she said it was roseola, and that he wasn't contagious anymore, and it would go away on its own.  I stayed home with him on Wednesday, and we literally spent the entire day on the couch napping and watching TV - I could tell my poor kid just felt awful, since he never even pulled out a toy or a book. Thursday, my wonderful parents kept him so he wouldn't have to go back to daycare just yet, and by Friday he seemed pretty much back to normal.

Yesterday, our daycare had "Grandparent's Day" and they had a party for all the grandparents at 4:00.  My parents went and took some pictures for me.  It seems that Mason was a little grouchy and clingy by the time they got there, but that's pretty normal and expected after such a long day!

What a grouchy face! 

We love our daycare, and I'm so glad that they let Mason's grandparents be involved too!  Now let's hope for an illness-free week next week!

A Book!

One of Mason's very favorite things to do is read books.  When he's ready to read, he'll come wave his book in my face (rather dangerously, I might add!) and say "A book! A book!" until I scoop him up onto my lap and read to him. 

His favorite books are anything involving Sesame Street (he LOVES Elmo!) and just about anything that rhymes.

I am SO glad that my baby loves to read, and I hope he continues to love it as much as I do!

Park Fun

It's been a busy couple of weeks, as usual!  Two weeks ago, we had some absolutely gorgeous weather (AKA less than 105 degrees), and we took advantage of it by spending some time at the park, two days in a row.  Saturday morning, we went to Heritage Park, and Mason decided that he loved to slide!  Grammy and Grandpa met us there, and Mason had so much fun!

After spending some time at the park, Mason got to "ride" his Grandpa's motorcycle.  He thought he was too cool...

On Sunday, Mason and I went to Harris Park by ourselves for a while to enjoy the cool weather.

Of course now it's back up to almost 100 degrees again.  We can't wait to get some more of that cooler weather so we can get out more!

My baby is growing up...

Tonight, I gave Mason his bedtime bottle like always (shhhh, it's our little secret!) and then tried to rock him to sleep, like always.  I rocked him for about 20 minutes, and he just fidgeted and squirmed the entire time.  I finally decided to lay him in his bed and let Terry have a shot at getting him to sleep, since he's had a lot of luck lately.  I laid Mason down, and he immediately curled up and didn't make a sound as I walked out of the room and closed the door...he went to sleep all by himself and I haven't heard a peep since then.  I was totally shocked - normally if he wakes up while I'm leaving the room, he has a complete meltdown, and now it doesn't even phase him!  It makes me a little sad that my baby is growing up so fast - I feel like the bottle and rocking were the last bit of "baby" I had to hold on to.  I'm so proud of him for going to sleep on his own, but I'm sad too.  =(

Daycare this week has been better - he still cries when I drop him off, but today they went on and on about what a great day he had!  I'm so glad it's starting to get a little easier!