Daddy's new toy, and flexible boy!

Daddy was given a giant Playstation 2 controller for a birthday present by his brother yesterday, and Mason thought it was great!

He got to play with it with Daddy for awhile, and had a good time.


Then we noticed that he was practically doing the splits against it. And Mike wondered if he could do the splits all the way.


Well, maybe we should keep him limber like this, then he can be a gymnast or an acrobat!

Shipping?

I really wanted a pastry mat for rolling out dough, because I didn't have a good place in my kitchen. The table is big enough but it is wood, and old so there are cracks and places for germs to hide. So I looked for a pastry mat at Wal-Mart on my shopping day this week but didn't have any luck. I was a little frustrated about it, but then it occurred to me: Why not buy it on Amazon?

I have an Amazon Mom membership, which gives me a free Amazon Prime membership, which means I get free shipping on anything, and free two day delivery as well. I really should start taking advantage of this!

So I went onto Amazon and found a pastry mat. Actually I found lots, which is another nice thing about Amazon versus Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart isn't going to have a big selection of that kind of thing. I ordered the one I wanted on Thursday and got an email saying it should arrive today (Saturday).

It came yesterday, sent by next day air. I was surprised by that, I didn't expect it so soon. But that isn't what got to me.

Here is the pastry mat I ordered, still in the box:

Here is the box it was shipped in:


Let me show you just how messed up this is:


My one year old fits in the box with the pastry mat in it! Not only that, but they put a bunch of paper in the box. Here is what my living room now looks like:


I'm not really complaining, I mean Mason got free toys that are easy to clean up (he's already broken the box) and at least they didn't put those styrofoam popcorn things in them. But did they really need such a big box to ship this one item to me?

Oh well, I didn't pay for the shipping. And I am really happy to have a nice pastry mat for making sandwich loaf!

The zoo

We went to the zoo on Monday (Mason and I) with Auntie April and Uncle Jeremy (the ones who live here), Auntie Missa and friend, Jessica. It was an ominous looking day, and sure enough, it started raining about five minutes after we got there. Well, we had paid $10 a piece to be there (except for Mason, he was free) and it was better than scorching heat, so we stuck to it. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures because of the rain. But then around about two hours in, the rain stopped and by the time we left, it was sweltering, hot and muggy. So I didn't take too many pictures after the rain, because I was too tired.

Anyway, the trip was a chance to try out Mason's new wheels that Auntie April bought for him.


It's a two-seater, but he was in it by himself most of the time. Jessica brought her two year old sister, Emily, but she was shy and wouldn't get in it til near the end of the trip. It was really nice though, it kept him happy so I didn't have to carry him the whole time, and it was convenient for the bags too.

We saw elephants.

Mason was impressed with how big they were.

There were cool little squirrel monkeys (or were they spider monkeys? I forget. Anyway they were cool. They were wall jumping and being cute.)

But Mason was more interested in playing with his wagon, or as Uncle Jeremy put it, "The Tech."

Jeremy seems to think Mason did well, ignoring the animals and the girl (for the most part anyway) in favor of the "The Tech."

We also saw hippos. It always surprises me to see them out of water, they are so big! I'm amazed they can stand up!

We had fun. But we were tired when we came home and took a nice nap together.

Anniversary day

Mike and I went on a little trip the weekend after our two-year anniversary to celebrate it, mainly because last year we didn't really do anything since Mason was ten days old on our first anniversary. We left Mason with his grandma and went to St Louis. We went to the temple Friday night and had a good experience. It'll probably be our last visit this year, at least together, since it is a four hour drive and Mike's school and work don't give us the time to visit. Oh well, one more semester and then he'll be done! And then we'll have a closer temple to go to next year!

We stayed in a hotel overnight, and then went to Forest Park the next day. I don't have many pictures because we left the camera in the car Friday night and the battery died the next day before we got anywhere but the art museum. But we also went to the science museum by way of the planetarium. We thought about going to the zoo, but there were way too many families going and we only had a few hours before we needed to head on home.

This is a cool sculpture at the entrance of the park.
And here are a couple pictures of the view in front of the art museum, with me in it.

We had a really nice time, it was the first night away from Mason since he was about three months old, and it was nice to have some time together. But I really missed my baby, and was happy to get him back. He seemed to miss us too, but he had had a fun time with grandma and grandpa. Such a good happy boy!

Macaroni boy!

I've mentioned how adept Mason has become at eating? Well, he is now to the point where I can give him a plate and he won't throw it on the floor. I am using plastic ones still of course, no point risking my nice Corel, even though they are hard to break. But that isn't to say he is a tidy eater.

No, I wouldn't say that at all. Rather the opposite actually.


This is homemade macaroni and cheese Mike and I made for dinner the other day. Mason liked it a lot. But he was also very tired. So the stuff got all over his face as he rubbed his eyes with dirty hands.

He stuck his fingers up his nose too, but I don't have a picture of that.
YUM!

How to Baby-proof a TV

We have one of those big old boxy analog TVs with buttons on the front. Mason likes to play with it. He used to press the buttons like crazy, so I put a big piece of cardboard over them. It kept him off them for awhile, because it was the feel of the buttons he liked, but he learned recently that if he pushes on the cardboard in different places, he could change the channel, the volume, turn on the menu, and turn off the TV. It was getting annoying, especially when I was playing video games. So I came up with a new plan.

For this, I needed heavy duty scissors, packing tape, and the lid from a Chinese takeout container.

I measured the lid against the TV and cut a decent sized piece using the scissors. Then I held it against the TV and taped it down firmly with the packing tape. Especially along the cut part, since had a bit of an edge. I did it wrong the first time, he could still turn off the TV without hardly touching it, so I had to reposition the lid, but now it covers the buttons, and Mason can bang on the TV all he wants without doing anything. That makes for a happy Mommy!

Happy Birthday Mason-man!

Almost two weeks ago we had a birthday party for Mason. We made a cake with Cool Whip frosting. We used some dyed yellow to decorate it.

Not exactly professional, but Mason doesn't know the difference.

The party was nuts! Mike's immediate family were here and so was my aunt and uncle and their kids. 17 people in our little apartment.

I ended up opening most of the presents, Mason was just too overwhelmed.

And then he started to bawl when we started singing happy birthday. So I had to take him into our quiet (cool!) bedroom to calm him down. Then we gave him the cake. It took him a couple minutes to figure out what was going on, then he went to town on it.

The cake was two layer, and almost immediately, he pushed the top layer off on me. I got almost as much stuff on me as he did.

There wasn't much left.

Later, he got more presents from packages and from people who just bought them late. Tutu sent a baby laptop.

Auntie Amber sent a bathrobe (it would have been on time, but I was silly and gave her the wrong address.)

Uncle Jeff came over yesterday with a present. It was a hit!

It also came with giant legos, which I have put away until he can use them. I don't want them thrown all over the living room. He had a good birthday!