My comedian

Mason had me laughing so hard tonight that my stomach had cramps.  Check out these funny pictures - I wish I were a better photographer - but hopefully they convey the crazy personality that this boy has.

Which one is your favorite?

What a weekend!

Now this is what weekends are supposed to be like!  The weather is perfect, everyone's healthy and happy, and we are doing fun stuff!  We just got back from a fabulous walk and breakfast.  Now if my dad would get out of the hospital things would be just perfect.  He broke his rib a couple weeks back and punctured his lung.  Yikes!  After nearly a week in the hospital he went home, but the lung partially collapsed again, so back to the hospital.  Hopefully he gets out today, but he was told - don't hold your breath - Ha!  No, I just made that up to be funny.  Did it work?

He should be ok, but what a blow to your regularly scheduled life - you know?

Happy Easter

We went out to a little family farm a couple weeks ago in 50 mph winds to get easter pictures taken.  This was the same day Alex had his breakdown at the modeling pictures.  He refused to be put down again for sweet pictures with the bunny, so I had to sit with him.  I don't know why it didn't occur to me to just get Mason's pictures taken...Anyway, here are a couple.

I think the windy day and Alex's allergies were just a little to much for the little guy to take.  Look at those red eyes.

Random kite picture...

Easter really snuck up on me this year.  I went to Costco the other day and did a double take on the egg display that was four times as large as it usually is, and I honestly wondered why every had eggs in their baskets.  I figured that they were just on sale or something.  The next day it finally occurred to me that Easter is coming.  I will have to go back and get some eggs so Mason doesn't feel neglected.  I can always go for an egg salad sandwich too!  We are planning on a flashlight egg hunt this year.  It is on Friday night and sounds like fun.  I am hoping that it will be a little less crowded than all the other crazy easter events.  I can't stand the crowds at times like this.

Anyway, I don't have much more to say.  Time to clean the house before lunch with a friend and then a playdate later!  Yeah!

Stuff

I am sick.  I don't exactly know what it is, but it sucks.  It started with pink eye on Thursday morning.  Then my throat got real sore.  My eye area is really puffy and goes down with a decongestant.  I have no fever, no aches, but white spots in the back of my throat.  That always means strep throat every time I have ever gone to the dr. before.  I did a no-no and took Steve's left over antibiotics last night.  I am such a rule-follower that it really makes me nervous.  I feel like a doctor is going to come knock on my door and scold me.

I will take it over the kids being sick though.  They seem to both have gotten over their sickness last week. At least I can wash my hands and keep them out of my mouth and eyes (usually).

But Steve is working today, so it is going to be a really long day.  Mason is going to be playing Angry Birds much longer than he should, and luckily Alex has started to really play with toys.  He has been going for about 20 minutes straight with a frisbee and blocks.  I think there will be a lot of tv watching going on too.  Luckily Mason really likes watching golf, so that is where we will be this afternoon while Alex naps.

Grandpa Blaine, I think he is ready for a putter!

I will just keep spewing random thoughts until one of the kids needs me...

Alex has learned how to clap.  It is cute!  He has been making a bee-line for the top of the stairs every second he finds himself free upstairs.  He loves that someone comes and runs after him and swoops him up the second before peril.  Even Mason will run over and grab his foot.  Mason screams, "Mom, I've got him!"  I don't know if I should be using my 4 year old as a form of baby-proofing, but there have been no tragedies (yet).  I really despise baby gates, so this morning we tried going up and down the stairs.  He was very scared going down because he lost his balance a couple of times, and i just let him fall (relax, it is only a couple of inches).  I just wanted him to experience the fall so he would stop trying to rush head first down the stairs.  He loves going up the stairs though.  He got so proud of himself when he got to the top!

I broke down and bought Mason the real Angry Birds game.  I did this on Friday night so that I could take a bath.  This game has 63 levels.  Within 24 hours he has passed 51 of the levels!  He is working on the last ones today.  He did get stuck a couple times and Dad had to pass a couple.  This definitely is not a good thing, but for this weekend, I needed the down time.  He also has been getting over a cold, so it helped to keep him calm, and the weather was absolutely terrible anyway, so we couldn't do anything outside.  He does the whole fist pump "YES!" routine when he passes a level.  The only good thing I see from this game, is that he gets frustrated and then over-comes the frustration after a while.  I think that is a good sign that he doesn't a) give up or b) get so upset that he has a tantrum or throws things.

That is one of Mason's interesting traits that I see is different than other kids his age.  He challenges himself and doesn't get down if he looses.  He wants to win, and keeps trying, but it is not the end of the world if he doesn't win.  I remember one day he was in the backyard (I hope I haven't said this story before) and he had a tennis ball about ten feet in front of him and then another one in his hand.  He was throwing the tennis ball and trying to hit the one on the ground.  He kept missing it, saying, "Aw, man" and then retrieving it, going back to the starting point and did it over and over and over.  I was watching from inside and amazed that he never walked closer to the ball or just simply gave up.  He did hit it a couple of times, and then just reset and did it all over again.  I am not sure how this will play out as he gets older, but I am sure this is a great personality trait to have.

Uh Oh.  I have a munchkin at my feet now.  I better give him a change of scenery.  Oh wait, he got distracted by a toy octopus.  Cool!

I have been researching a lot more about preschools.  My plan of attack is 1) Parent-teacher conference at his school on Tuesday 2) observe his class for an hour or two the following week 3) visit the school over spring break to verify that it isn't a good environment (with 60 kids age 4-12!) 4) over the fridays in May visit a) Montessori b) Merryhill, c) Challenger, d) Alexander Dawson.  Alexander Dawson is really too expensive for preschool, but I just want to see how different they are.  Could it really be worth the money?  Ok, more on all that later.  I really have to go pay attention to these kids now.

We Did It!

We finished the long 365 Stories and Rhymes for Boys!

Mason graduated from "baby" books a couple months ago and we have been reading longer stories with a more complex story line.  This one we worked on almost every night for the past two months (382 pages).  The stories were all stand-alone about 2-3 pages, but often the characters continued from one story to the other.  It is a nice change for me.

Next he wants me to read a book called, "About Me" which is a school text book about the human body from around the 60s.  His daycare lady gave it to him.  Have a mentioned that he is obsessed with Human Anatomy.  It is rather strange, but I love that he has found a passion.

Then he wants to read a series of three Beverly Cleary books that Steve had.  We'll see if he stays interested in that long of a book.  They are about 200 pages (large font though) and one continuous story.  There are very few pictures so I am not as sure if he is ready for these yet.  He still follows along by looking at the pictures while I read.  I think he will get distracted if there is nothing for him to look at.

11 months

Alex is 11 months old today!  He has been terribly uncomfortable with severe allergies.  I never knew that babies can have allergies.  This sucks.  He is miserable and there is very little we can do to make him comfortable.  Mason was also sick this weekend and it has been a long and tiring week...and it is only Wednesday.  I feel like I am getting sick now (of course).

Two tidbits:

Alex has developed a new game.  He likes to hand you something (a spoon or something) and then if you hand it back to him, he laughs as if that is the funniest thing he has ever seen.  It is really cute.

Mason has a crossword game on the ipad where he spells three letter words.  CAT, MUG, PEN, etc.  When you get a word right it turns into this really cool page that has shooting stars or bouncing balls or something equally as fun for him to watch.  (It is hard to describe, but he loves getting to these screens).  I was semi-watching him do this from the couch the other day, and noticed he was doing really well.  He finished like 10 words in a couple of minutes.  I usually have to prompt him for the vowel, like I will say ah, ah, ah, and then he figures out it is an a.  I was impressed that he was doing so good.  I came closer and realized he figured out how to get the answer to show!  Cheater!  Dad says he is just working smarter.

That's all I have the energy for.  I am going to take a bath.

Mason's first tennis lesson

I waited ever so patiently for Mason to turn four so that he could start tennis lessons.  They actually offer them earlier (at 3), but I didn't think he would have appreciated like he would at the ripe old age of four (yes, I do know how crazy I sound).

No pressure boys, but when I can't sleep at night, I lay there dreaming about traveling around the country (sometime the world) watching you boys play tennis.

I am not really serious (well I do dream, but I don't believe that is reality), because I know the dangers of forcing my dreams onto my children, but it is a great sport and I am at least going to do anything in my power to introduce the sport to them...you never know.

So the first lesson went a little like this:
The coach called the class together (there were 6 kids, 3 first-timers and 3 returners) where they all introduced themselves and said what they really like besides tennis.  The Coach said, I'm Coach Eric and I really like hamburgers.  Mason said, "I'm Mason and I really like throwing the ball really high in the air."  The next boy actually said that he really likes Angry Birds...Oh no, that conversation luckily got cut short by the coach.

Then they ran around the court a couple of times and started with some foot drills.

Then they practiced ball control with holding a ball on the racket, moving the ball around the racket, walking with the ball on the racket, and then "walking the dog":

Now it was time to hit some balls!  They learned ready position, split-step, pivot, and swing.  I really got much more out of the lesson than he did (now I can do those things with him on our own).

They ended with volleys "high five the ball":

And that was 30 minutes.  It went fast, but I am sure much longer would have been too much.  This particular class is 4 weeks long, and then we'll see if he wants to sign up again.  He said he liked it and that he wanted to come back next week, so I am happy with that.

Go Away To College!

The purpose for this blog is so that I can make it into a book so that it can sit on a shelf for the next 15-20 years and when my then grown boys want to reminisce, it will be there for them.  So listen up, Mason and Alex, you must GO AWAY TO COLLEGE.  It was my biggest regret in life, and I won't let you make the same one.  I just got done reading a great book, The Unlikely Disciple, and I suppose I should have walked away from that book with all sorts of religious thoughts, but the main one was the pure awesomeness of being on your own for the first time.  How cool is it to live in a dorm, have little to no responsibilities beyond your own self, discovering new freedoms, thoughts, friends.  It all must be so amazing and life changing.  My college was a suitable education and I surely made the best financial decision, but to do it over again, I would gladly be carrying around a huge student loan if it meant also having gained all that experience.  No other time in your life will you have the freedom, time, money, youth, etc. to re-live a college experience in a dorm with thousands of other people in your same position.  Don't be afraid, everyone's afraid.  Don't worry about money - nobody will have enough.  Don't worry about school - that is not even what it is about.  It is about living life and experiencing different people and learning new things.  Just immerse yourselves in that and you will get a great education.

If ever I step in your way of leaving and experiencing your own lives and passions, please present this book to me, and tell me (kindly) to step aside.

Love,
Mom