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.