Oh No...

He took his own diaper off. How the heck did he do that?

Luckily, that one was just a pee dipe. I guess it's pants for this kid from here on out.

Sunshine Makes Us Happy

Yesterday was beautiful. Today is too... and after getting our first snowfall a few days ago, it was a huge relief to see the sun shining again. It's not winter, yet.




All this sunshine combined with my ELEVEN STRAIGHT HOURS of sleep last night has both Mason and I in amazing moods. As for the ladybugs on our porch... well... I don't think they're quite as happy.

Do Not Open 'til X-Mas

With two months and five days left until Christmas, a very disgruntled UPS man dropped Mason's present off this afternoon. Luckily Mason was napping, so I grabbed the box, carried it into the apartment and hid it on the top shelf in the closet.

Just kidding. I didn't carry it anywhere. That box was HUGE. No wonder the UPS man was looking so salty after climbing all those stairs. Estimated weight in box = 70 pounds. I drug the thing inside the door and, well, that's where it sits.



Mason sat on and climbed over that box all afternoon but, thankfully, didn't seem to recognize it as anything other than a cardboard box. What is it, you ask?


I suppose I may have gotten a little ahead of myself. I mean, Mase is too young to start snooping for presents yet... but how am I going to keep myself from at least peeking into the box for sixty-five more days?! I should have waited 'til at least November.

Haven't You Always Wanted a MonKEY?!

New trick of the week (besides growing teeth, that is.. this kid's had four teeth pop through in the past two weeks!) climbing EVERYTHING.






This can't be good.

Tubby Time for Two

Aimee, Jeff, and Mads watched Mase for me on Friday night while I worked. Bath time was the highlight of the evening.


Apparently everything was going great until Mason started sporting the permanent kissy-face he's been flashing around lately...

And Madelynn... well, Madelynn did what any sensible girl would do. She kissed him. Which made Mason slightly upset.


Which led to hugging and consoling and probably near-drowning and, ultimately, separation. Which made Mads really upset.

Those babies definitely love each other.

Water Sports

I take Mason into the shower with me every morning now so I don't have to risk another Toilet Flushing Extravaganza. He loves it, and honestly I'd rather have shampoo bottles dropped on my toes for ten minutes than have another overflowing mess to deal with.

But anyway, remember my post from two days ago? The floaters in the bathtub? Well this morning Mason left a turd on the shower floor. And then, during bath tonight - yep, another poop.

And this time it was a soft one. Nothing like brown bath water. Eww*.


*Which, by the way, was Mason's new word of the day:
"Ewww", directed at a Daddy Long Legs.

Irony

And those aren't pieces of chocolate.

Mase and Hay

I told Krissy I'd babysit Haylie for a couple hours the other afternoon, and I figured while I had them together I'd take them outside and get some cute fall pictures sitting in the leaves or something.

The kiddos had other ideas.








Okay, so they're cute anyway. But trying to get a 16-month-old and a 25-month-old to sit still and look at the camera at the same time is pretty much impossible. And yikes, after only three hours of trying to keep up with his big cousin, Mason's running. He's so fast, too. This can't be good for me.

The Toilet Saga and Why You Should Always Be Nice to Maintenance

Two weeks ago, when my toilet was overflowing all over the floor every time I flushed, maintenance came over and extracted a toothbrush from the depths of the pipes. Luckily, Denny the Maintenance Man knows us by name and calls Mason his "little buddy", so we didn't get charged for Mase's toothbrush/flushing experiment.

I swear, a toilet lock has been on my Walmart list for weeks.

Unfortunately, they don't have them. Neither does Target. Or Home Depot. I was still on the hunt for them when, last Wednesday, my toilet mysteriously stopped flushing again. I almost cried. God, Denny was going to think I was the worst, most inattentive mom in the world, and what's worse than people who are practically strangers thinking you can't even keep an eye on your own kid? I used the other bathroom for two days before I finally got up the courage to tell Denny my toilet was broken again (after I tried to reach into the pipes myself - seriously, I was up to my elbows in toilet water - I was that desperate). He said he'd be over after the weekend, so I put Mason's new bathtub crayons to use and didn't let that baby within ten feet of the toilet.


Well, except long enough to take this picture:

Denny arrived early this morning with the little snake tool that easily got the toothbrush out in five minutes last time. He went into the bathroom, and after about twenty-five minutes passed and I hadn't heard from him, I started to get worried. He came out looking slightly annoyed, and when he went out to his van, Mase and I took a peek at what was going on in the bathroom.

Oh. my. gosh.

In case you were wondering, the toilet doesn't usually sit in the middle of the room like that.

Ten minutes later, Denny reemerged with these:


Apparently there were about seven pennies and a nickel involved, too. I still don't think he charged us.

Someone please remind me to get Denny a Christmas present.

Too Fast, Too Cold, and Too Smart

I haven't read the manual for my new lens yet, but I'm still trying to get the hang of it. I'm pretty sure the shutter speed is a little faster than my old one, because I keep getting pictures of Mase that look like this:


and this:


and my personal favorite:

Yesterday it was cold outside. Freezing. And I kept telling Mase, "It's so cold out here!" and "brrrr!" Next thing I knew, every time I said the word cold, he'd say, "brrr!" That's not just repeating a word I say. That's... saying something and getting it and conversing... just genius.