Nap time

Mason's newest trick is playing games at nap time.  Every time I put him in his bed, he gets up and opens the door, laughs at me, and goes to play.  At first I thought he was just done with needing naps, which I was NOT happy about (I need naps too!) but then the first day he did it, he pooped out on the couch around 5 and slept there for an hour and a half.  Not the most convenient place for a nap when I need to cook dinner and he's a light sleeper.

So, reluctantly, we started locking him in his room at nap time.  Just took one of the child safety locks and stuck it on his bedroom door.  I really didn't want to do it, but he needs his naps (and so do I) and when he started doing it at bedtime too, it became even more important.  This isn't the kind of thing I ever thought I'd do, but you do what you have to.

One thing about it, I always take the lock off once he's fallen asleep so he can get out when he wakes up.  This is especially important since we've started sleeping with a fan in our room, because with his door closed, and the fan on, I can hardly hear him crying when I'm awake. I don't want him thinking I won't be there for him when he needs me, and I don't want him thinking of his room as a prison.  He usually wakes up before me, and Mike often forgets to open his door before he leaves for work, so I take the lock off once he's really asleep.  That's the only thing that makes it not so mean in my book:  we aren't locking him permanently, we are just making it clear the bedtime means you stay in your room.  I hope he grows out of this stage quickly though, I don't like having to lock him in.  He seems to be learning, I just put him down a little bit ago, and he didn't fuss or try the door when he saw the lock on it.

Funny thing from a couple nights ago, he woke up around 11 really upset and ran into our room before I could get to him.  But he was heading for Mike's side of the bed, which is very unusual.  I grabbed him (since Mike wasn't even in the room yet, he was in his "office"), and tried to calm him down, but nothing would do it until Mike came and cuddled him, and put him back in bed.  Then, we were standing int he living room discussing the situation, when we heard a SLAM!  Mason had gotten up and tried to slam his door because we were talking and it was apparently disturbing him.  I say tried, because his door is messed up somehow and it won't latch unless you give it an extra tug, so slamming doesn't work very well.  It was pretty funny though, it sounds like the kind of thing I would do if I was trying to sleep and people were making too much noise in the middle of the night.

Boys and girls

I was reading an article earlier today, and the author mentioned the belief that boys and girls are born exactly the same beyond physical differences: ie boys don't inherently prefer trucks and and toy guns and girls don't prefer dolls.  The author didn't buy it and neither do I.  If my little man is any indication, that is so not true.

When Mason was born, we got a lot of toys for him, toys of all kinds.  We got stuffed animals galore, rattles, two different blanket toys, etc.  When he was tiny, he liked the rattles and his Tigger-head blanket and Tigger stuffed animal.  As he got older, we put all the age appropriate toys on shelves that were easily accessible so he could choose his own toys.  It quickly became clear that the thing he absolutely adored was cars.

Any kind of toy car.  Toy trucks, cars, cars with the big balls in them, Hot Wheels cars, he just loves cars.  As I said, this isn't something we pushed on him, he picked it up on his own.  Up until recently cars were the only toys he really cared about.  He has recently regained an interest in stuffed animals to a point, but his favorites are the Tigger from when he was tiny, and a Buzz Lightyear that his aunties bought him a couple of weeks ago.  The main thing he does with them is sleep with them.  He carries them around a bit from time to time, but he mainly just sleeps with them.  And I've been working on getting him interested in the little toy animals he has, trying to teach him the names of the animals and the sounds they make.  But his main love is cars.

Of course he's still young, so anything with wheels counts.  When we visit his friend, he is more likely to play with her doll's stroller than the doll itself.  And I have a little Cabbage Patch doll I borrowed from my mother-in-law that I am using to try to teach him to be gentle with babies.  He finds the doll fascinating and loves to hold it, and stroke it's head, and occasionally kiss it, but his interest lasts about 2 minutes, then he gives it back to be put in the crib, and runs off to his cars again.  He doesn't care about toy guns yet though, not really, which I am fine with.  My grandma has some water guns, and he likes them because they are brightly colored, but has no idea what to do with them.  Though that may be because he is an only, so far, and we don't watch a lot of cartoons with violence in them.

Also, he could care less about his clothes.  I have to hold him down to get him dressed, whereas I have it on good authority from the moms of two little girls his same age that their daughters are clothes horses already.  They love their clothes and their shoes.  Mason only cares about shoes because he can't go outside without them, so he will run and get them when I tell him, knowing that means he gets to go outside.

So boys and girls born alike?  I don't believe it.  Equal, yes, but not liking the same things.  I am sure that there are exceptions, we've all heard of tomboys, but they are the exceptions that prove the rule.

6 am

It is 6 in the morning and I can't sleep.

We went to the garden Friday night for a serious weeding session which was WAY overdue, and I realized too late, that the only way I could really weed was to sit down.  In the grass. In Missouri.  I hadn't brought a blanket or anything to sit on, so I didn't have a buffer, and bending over isn't a very feasible option with this giant baby belly of mine.  So I did it and now I am reaping the consequences.  Next time I'll let Mike do all the work, he got a lot more done than I did anyway.

I now have 16-20 bug bites spread over my belly, another 16-20 on my legs, and one (so far) on my arm.  New ones keep appearing, so the tally may rise.  You can guess how conducive this is to sleep.  I've tried the anti-itch gel we have, both alone and with Band-aides over it to try to keep them from getting itched by my clothes, but it doesn't seem to be helping.  Clear nail polish helped me last time I got bug bites, but I had to borrow that from my neighbor and I haven't gotten around to buying any yet.  And I didn't think that waking her up in the middle of the night would be good for neighbor relations.

On a side note, does anyone else have trouble breathing through their nose when they are great with child?  I keep waking up with my mouth bone dry, because I can't seem to breath properly with my mouth shut right now.

I've had about 2 hours of sleep and kind of doubt I'll get much more.  Mason will be up before 8, if he sticks to his normal routine, then we have church at 9.  I'm glad I got in a decent nap today (technically yesterday).  And since it is Sunday, I tend to take naps anyway, so hopefully the itching will have gone down by then.

Oh, random thought, this is my 100th blog post.  Yay me!

Mason's new favorite toy

 I broke down and we went and bought a fan on Tuesday because I was TOO FREAKING HOT at night.  It's bad when you can't sleep when you are lying on top of the covers and the thermostat is set at 75 degrees.  We had a fan, but it's in Mason's room, and I didn't want to mess up his sleeping by stealing it.  So we went and bought another one, and I have been much happier.

Anyway, the point of the post is Mason loves the box.

It's his favorite thing.

 The last two days, he has insisted on climbing around in it while Daddy tickles him and flops it around.

 He's gotten pretty good at making it do what he wants.

Today, Auntie Shawna took him to Hobby Lobby, and bought him some little rubber duckies.  In these videos, that's what's rattling around in the box with him.  I ended up making the second video, because watching the box rattle around on it's own, with the sounds he was making just killed us both.  I love the scream that ends in "thank you" at the end.

Any ideas?

I never intended for this blog to become all about my kids, but it is sure leaning that way, so I am trying to think of a new name for it that reflects what it is.  I may start a different blog where I can talk about other things.  Anyway, anyone have any ideas about what to call this blog now?  Something to do with Mason and maybe the new baby, who will probably be Aiden.

Memorial Day

Tutu was still here on Memorial Day until around noon.  My mother-in-law/ auntie's ward were having a pancake breakfast and invited us all to come, so we were at the park by 8:30 that morning.

We were lazy and didn't get him dressed before we went, but he didn't mind.  He had fun with all the different aunties and Tutu and Grandma and Grandpas!

After breakfast, Mason had lots of fun playing on the toddler play area.

While the adults stood (or sat) around and watched.

After the park, Tutu and Grandpa Eric wanted to show Auntie Lizzy how to geocache, so we went to a different park nearby that had a cache and found ti.  It was fun, but HOT!

Then we drove home, and Tutu and Grandpa Eric left, so they could get back before the sunset. After nap, we went over to Grandma's house and played.  Auntie Missa blew bubbles for Mason.

Once he realized what she was doing, he had fun with them.  He likes bubbles.

Then we all went to the dollar theater to see The Lorax. Mason liked it a lot, he sat quietly on Auntie April the whole time.  We went for ice cream afterwards, so Mason got to bed after 10, but he had fun!

Tutu's first day visiting!

Tutu came to visit Mason for the Memorial Day weekend!  It's the first time she's seen Mason in person since Auntie April's wedding, when he was 5 months old. A lot has changed since then.  Tutu drove and got in early, early Saturday morning.  She stayed with my grandmother, and as soon as they were awake, they called us to come over.   When we got there, Mason wanted to play upstairs, so we all went up to the playroom

And as a last minute addition, Uncle Todd came too!  It's the first time he really got to spend time with Mason, at the wedding we were only in the same place for four hours or so.

Grandpa Eric was a hit too, Mason was kissing him on the lips before the end of the first day.  Mommy is the only person he usually does that to, it was really cute! No pictures, unfortunately, no one had a camera handy until he was done.

The floor wasn't terribly comfortable, so we finally went downstairs with some toys for Mason.  May have been a mistake though, Mason ran into my grandpa's exercise equipment and scraped up the side of his face.  That was the first of many head injuries that weekend.  After that, we came back to our apartment and had bbq.  Here are some cute pictures I took while Mason was posing in our living room.

This is my favorite!

Tiffany's graduation

Auntie Tiffany graduated from high school!  She was valedictorian, so we all went to the ceremony to hear her speech.

Mason spent much of the time on Grandpa and Grandma's laps.

Here's a shot of Tiffany on the stand not from the screen.

Here is a shot of the whole family who came.

It was a looooong ceremony, and when it was over we sat and waited for most of the crowds to clear out.  Mason enjoyed exploring the stands a bit.