Resolutions... or Something Like Them

I don't think I've ever made New Year's Resolutions before. And actually, I'm not even going to call them resolutions, because then I'll be disappointed in myself if I don't follow through with them. So...

Gentle Suggestions for 2010:

1. Become a little more patient. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to negotiate a diaper change with my stubborn little toddler. Except maybe finding the entire dinner I just slaved over for twenty whole minutes tossed on the floor and Mase sitting in his highchair in a fit of giggles. Take deep breaths.

2. Worry less and try to focus on the big picture. Because if I don't stop freaking out now, I'll be gray before I'm thirty.

3. Put my ice cream in a bowl, rather than eating it right out of the container. I don't know why... it just seems like the right thing to do.

4. Try to stop hating my job. Spending five nights a week waiting on drunken frat boys isn't my ideal career, but it's all I've got to work with right now, and it pays the bills (almost, anyway). Next time I get a table of ten kids having a wing-eating competition I'll do my best to smile and not curse them out in my head on my millionth trip down the stairs to the kitchen.

5. Spend more time being me. There are dozens of unread books under my bed and I haven't scrapbooked since Mase was three months old. I can't remember the last time I went out to lunch with a friend alone and I spend little time doing anything but coloring and pretending to be a sheep/elephant/cow/dog. How did this happen??

6. Shave my legs once a week. Self-explanitory and very much needed.

7. Get out of pajamas on my days off. This includes showering, wearing jeans, and maybe (maybe) even putting on a little makeup. At the very least, I want to be presentable enough to not be completely embarrassed when the Fed-Ex man knocks on the door.

8. Get Mase involved and out of the house. I hate being cooped up in the winter, and as soon as I get my license back (hopefully by the end of January!) I want to sign Mase up for swimming lessons again, maybe do Kindermusik, and spend a bunch of time at the library.

9. Travel. Take Mason to at least three new states in 2010.

10. Stop beating myself up. I'm not a perfect mom and I probably never will be. I work 40 hours a week, most of the time 'til 1AM, and I'm in charge of keeping myself and another human alive twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I sleep a maximum of six hours a night, so if I pass out before the toys are picked up or the dinner dishes are done, I'd like to be able to cut myself some slack. If I get frustrated with Mase or feel like taking a nose-dive off the balcony, I don't want to be up all night feeling guilty. I'm human.

The Eve

This year, we followed through with the same thing we did last year - opening two presents on Christmas Eve. Mase's night-before-Christmas packages contained the same thing they did a year ago, too: jammies and a Christmas story.


Carefully, Mase unwrapped his first two gifts of the year, making sure to hand me every scrap of paper he tore off.

After bath, Mase jumped into (okay, I wrestled him into) his brand new jammies and sat through the ENTIRE Night Before Christmas.


Looks like we have our own little Christmas Eve tradition.

Yikes, Christmas (and Stripes)!

I was doing so good about blogging this month, and then the holidays crept up on me ridiculously fast. I stayed up until 1AM on Tuesday putting together a play kitchen, I shopped on Christmas Eve, and I wrapped presents into the wee hours of this morning.

Aaaanyway.. I'll try to recap everything that's gone on this week. Well, what I have pictures of anyway. Most of it is just a blur..

Found Pictures II

Little Dipper

Mase is really into dipping lately. Toast into dippy eggs, chicken into honey, sandwiches into soup. The kid will dip anything. "Dip" is even one of his new words this week (along with turtle!).

Today, I cut up some yellow peppers and gave him some baby carrots and let him have at a (gasp!) container of ranch veggie dip.

There are no words to express how excited he was.

I've heard that letting a kid dip everything can lead to bad eating habits later in life. I didn't really see the logic... until Mase decided to forget about the veggies and dip his fingers.

I was forced to stop taking pictures when he submerged his entire hand in ranch.

There's More Than One Way to Eat a Grape

... because bowls are way too boring.

I Wish it Had Been My Face

This morning I had to go to a serving alcohol training session at work and, since George worked too, I had to take Mase. The thing was three hours long - from nine until twelve - and it was going to be completely boring, especially for an eighteen-month-old. I spent the morning packing everything I could think of that would stand a chance at keeping him occupied and semi-quiet and ended up running out of the house with a backpack full of toys, a bag of snacks, a sippy cup, Piggy, and my purse. I put Mase on my hip and headed out to the cab waiting in the driveway.

Little did I know, it had just started to freezing rain. I took one step onto the sidewalk and lost it. With all that crap in my hands, there was no way I could catch us. I went down first, landing hard on the ground. Mase went down next, landing even harder, and his little head bashed off the ice-covered sidewalk. He burst into tears, I burst into tears, and the cab driver flew out to help us up. Mason's little dome instantly swelled up and he's now sporting a giant, purple, scraped up bruise above his eye, compliments of his own mama. He cried for two minutes. I cried all afternoon long. I worried about him having a concussion, obviously, but he's been acting like himself ever since, so I think he's gonna make it.

I feel horrible though. Beyond horrible. Especially since I walked away with only a bruised knee, hip, and elbow. Bad, bad Mommy. :(

No Baby Like a Snow Baby

When we got our first real snow last week, Mason stood at the window yelling "snow!". The kid was dying to investigate this new phenomenon. I don't think he realized what going out to play in the snow required, and by the time I got him into his snow pants, coat, hat, mittens, and boots I was so exhausted I wished it was nap time and he was not too happy.

When we got outside, though, his grumpiness disappeared in exchange for complete fascination.

Usually, I don't like the snow but I think this year might be a little different. Now, if only I could figure out a way to get him to keep his mittens on....

Found Pictures

I love finding random pictures on my camera that I didn't take... proof of whatever it is that George and Mason do together when I'm at work.

I Crack Myself Up

Thanks, Jessie!

'Tis the Season

for posed pictures at the mall.

Christmas cards coming soon...

Words

Christian and Brianne brought River over today. I haven't seen River (besides on his blog) since he was just a couple months old. It was great having them over (Brianne - why didn't we get pictures?!) and hopefully we'll do it again soon.

Anyway, Christian asked how many words Mase knew. I guessed thirty, but now I'm curious as to exactly how many he knows.

Let's see...

ball, bath, bird, boat, boob, boog (as in booger), book, brr (as in cold - and yes, I'm counting that as a word), bug, bus, bye, cat, cheese, dada, dipe, dog, duck, ears, eyes, fish, hair, hot, juice, Mads, mama, Mase, nap, no, nose, peace, pee, pig, poop, sausage, shoes, snack, snow, socks, teeth, toes, trash, tree, truck.

Now, most of the time ball sounds a lot like bus and dog and duck are basically interchangable, but he knows what he means and so do I. So yeah... forty-three words. Oh, wait, forty-four. He learned to say River today, too.

At Least it's Only Up For a Month

I spent the morning after we got the tree pointing to it (still undecorated) and telling Mason "tree". It wasn't long before he got it ("turrrrr!"). He went for a nap, and I decorated:


Christmas artwork by Mason:

I don't know how I expected Mason to just wander past the bright, sparkly, shiny new pine tree in our living room. I mean, how could he resist? Yeah... he couldn't. When he woke up from his nap, I spent the afternoon dragging him out from under the tree, rescuing ornaments from his little fingers, and extracting pine needles from his mouth.... all while he yelled "turrrrr!" at me. Oy.

His favorite ornament to dive for when I'm not looking?

His baby's first Christmas ornament. He points at his picture and says "meee". Ahh! He was so small last year!

And a lot easier to keep away from the tree.

Trees

When Halloween and Thanksgiving are over, the pumpkin patch transforms into a Christmas tree farm. Last Thursday, we went to check it out so Mason could help choose the perfect tree. I didn't get nearly as many pictures as the last time we were there, but it was way colder this time.

Pizza and a Nap

Personally, I prefer to have lunch then take a nap. Mason, the little go-getter that he is, would rather be able to cross 'em both off the list at once.

Gobble Gobble

Mason spent Thanksgiving with George's family and like I said, I was expecting to get to see hundreds of pictures of their father-son adventures since I let them take my camera. Nope. George took three.

And me? I mostly laid around the house, thinking about cleaning but not really doing much of anything. By five o'clock I was so lonely and bored I wandered over to Champs for a free turkey sandwich and a peanut butter milkshake. When Mase finally got home around nine, I didn't want to put him to bed... I missed that baby so much. Ridiculous.

I'm just thankful I won't have to be away from him again 'til next year..

Happy Thanksgiving.

Puddle Jumpers

It rained most of the afternoon on Mason's eighteen-monthiversary last Wednesday. When it stopped, we went outside to jump in some puddles in order to celebrate a year and a half of his being alive and happy. My baby was thrilled.

We were both having a blast... until Mason puddle-jumped right onto his face.

Happy half-birthday, tough guy.

Do Not Open 'til X-Mas

I pulled some Christmas decorations out of the closet this afternoon (since I plan on getting the tree tomorrow!) and noticed a warning label on the inside of the storage bin lid.

In case you weren't sure...


Whew. Glad that got cleared up. I was wondering where I was going to store Mase for the next couple months.

A Moment in My Shoes

"Shoes" is one of Mason's best words. He really exaggerates it, like, "shhhhhoooozz!" and he does it when he sees footwear by the door, on peoples' feet, or on the shelves at the mall. Mase doesn't just like to talk about shoes though, he likes to wear them. His own, George's, mine. He'll slip his little feet inside and clomp around, tripping and falling and cracking up. I helped him out with these:

This baby cracks me up every day.