Random

I have some time, so I thought I would blog.  It's been a while since I just listed some of Mason's random sayings.  The first one was hilarious:

We were getting ready for bath time and Mason was undressing.  I was in the hall watching Alex - the crazy boy (another story) - in the bath.  He comes up to me with no pants or underwear on and has one hand behind his back.  He gives me a great big smile and says I love you!  He then gives me a one-armed hug and calls that a love hug.  I am just loving on him back - until - he brings his hand from behind his back, holding his underwear and says, "I'm sorry what I did to my new underwear."  That little stinker!  He knew I couldn't be mad after he sweet-talked me like that.

I love how he says actually - he says Alexally.  I think it is in honor of his brother.

I love how he says - I have a plan...  Countless interesting stories come after, I have a plan.

He was laying on the couch with the ipad.  It started to slowly slip off the couch.  He quickly jumped up to grab the ipad before it would fall, and he said, "Whoosh! I grabbed it with my left hook."  As if the ipad falling would have been devastating.  Do you think it is time for martial arts?

He is asking to do homework now.

And now I am drawing a blank.  I have to write these down right away.  At least I have this blog to go back to and reminisce.

Alex is babbling up a storm all of a sudden.  He seems to say Hello now.  Sounds like eh-o.  Laurence swears that he asks for Scooby Doo by name.  I haven't heard it yet, but she says he brings her over to the tv by her hand and points to it saying, "dididi doo."  He grunts the same for milk, hungry, and more.  He is becoming more fun by the day - but also into every drawer that he is not supposed to be in!  Nothing makes him more happy than rummaging through my drawer in the bathroom and pulling out random things.  Why does he want a tube of toothpaste so much?  Don't worry, I took everything dangerous out.

I am off to watch tennis now!  YEAH!!  I just love this tournament that comes every year.  It looks like the weather is going to be absolutely perfect toady.  The players are a mix of lower-ranked pro players and then a lot of up and coming teenagers, mixed with some college players.  I love how this small tournament can be somebody's breakthrough - or another's consolation prize trying to get the ranking points back up.  I will write more later.

Dank Doo

Mr. Alex is going to be a very polite little man, because his first word is officially THANK YOU!  He has been saying it all weekend, every time I give him something.  I called it official when he started handing me things and saying, "Dank Do" over and over again.  He figured it out!!!  I am so happy.

Right now he is playing with a Barrel of Monkeys right by my feet.  He loves these kinds of toys where he can just sit quietly and move them in and out of the barrel.  It makes just the right amount of noise.  He can play for 20 minutes or so without getting bored.   He is quite "chill" as Aunt Wendy would say.

The other thing he is doing all the time is closing doors.  It is quite annoying because he is constantly locking himself in rooms.  Most of the time he will just play in whatever room he just closed himself in, but this isn't always the safest thing.  I need to go get some child proofing door closers before someone's finger gets chopped.

Have I mentioned the size of Alex's feet?  They are huge!!  This weekend I retired the shoes that he has been wearing.  These are hand-me-down shoes from Mason (just like every article of clothes and every other toy he owns) that Mason wore at his second birthday.  And his feet are wide and everything about him is just solid.  I think we have a monster on our hands.  Mason was very big until about 9 months and then he started averaging out.  I predict Alex is going to be a lot bigger than Mason.

Time to start the day!  We are going back to the Art Festival (we went yesterday too) and then there is professional tennis at Red Rock this week.  YEAH!!! I am in heaven.

Disneyland!

Since Dad is available again - my first request was getting back to Disneyland!!!  I love that place!  Remember we got annual passes for Mason's birthday, so it was a completely free trip minus the gas.  We left on Thursday night to hopefully have some sleeping kids for most of the trip.

We take the toll roads into Orange County and every time we are approaching them, we start complaining about getting the Saqajuia dollars as change for the toll roads.  What are we ever going to do with Saqajuia dollars?  I am so self conscious about that stuff, they also end up in our coin jar at home, never to be used again.  I guess one of these days we should go cash all the coins in.  Anyway, so we are driving up and happy that we at least have a $5 bill so that we will only get 2 Saqajuia dollars in change.  Steve puts his hand in to get the change and IT WAS FULL!  Someone had left all their change from a $20 bill in the change thing.  SCORE!

We immediately said we should play the lottery with that money.  We always talk about winning the lottery and what we would do with the money and how it would so not ruin us like you often here about from other winners.  Steve says that when he is trying to fall asleep at night he thinks about organizing his dream gun room.  Then we always say, well you have to play the lottery to win - which we have never actually done.  So, here was our chance to actually play the lottery with LUCKY money.  (I will skip ahead now...On our way back home we made a point to stop by some run down 76 station (because you never here of someone winning from a nice place in Orange County) and bought our $17 worth of quick-pick lottery tickets.  I had no idea what I was doing, but I managed to do it, and then we spent the next 3 hours on the road dreaming of things to do with the money).  Oh yeah...didn't win.  poop.

Back to Disneyland.  I always try to go on days when Disney opens at 8 am since we have kids that wake up at the butt-crack of dawn.  Actually that is giving them a lot of credit.  I would be thrilled if I woke up at the sunrise.  No, we usually beat the sunrise by at least one hour.  So we drive into the parking lot just before 8 and we are the 4th car in line.  I roll down my window to fork out the $15 freaking dollars just to park  before an average family is about to drop $500 in the park - a little bitter - and the parking attendant says, "sorry the computers are down, I can't take your money."  SCORE!!
Heck yeah!

Since we were so early we had the run of the place for a good two hours.  We rushed to the Matterhorn and didn't even have to wait for one person.  The ride was actually waiting for us.  I told Mason that it would be scary, but he would be safe.  He seemed excited, but kept asking about the monsters.  I told him that there would be two white snow monsters inside.  The ride was fun - one of my favorites - but Mason was pretty scared.  He asked me over and over if the monsters were real.

(Mason distraction - he just walked up to me (when he was supposed to be sleeping) and looked very guilty.  He had his hand up his shirt - Mason - what do you have in your shirt.  He pulls out a bar of soap, and immediately says "sorry, but I won't put it in my mouth."  He is so weird.  Does any other kids like to play with soap?  Whatever.)

Back to Disneyland - we then headed over to Star Tours because that is a great ride and usually has really long lines.  We waited for about 10 minutes.  Mason doesn't quite no Star Wars yet - and really neither do I.  I think I saw one of the movies when I was 10 or so and have never had a desire to see the rest.  Part of me thinks that I am really depriving my son of this whole genre of movies though.  I could see how little boys would be so into Star Wars.  Anyway, he loved it.  You know how there really is a R2D2 in the "space shuttle" (sorry if I am butchering these names); he saw that and he turned to me and said, "This is REALLY REAL!!!"  Nice touch Disney.

Then we headed over to the Buzz Lightyear ride - which I had never been on before.  Steve had a blast with this one because you shoot a laser gun at targets all around the ride.  He had like 100,000 points and Mason had like 13,000.  I thought they were going to give him a prize or something at the end.

We almost got in line for Space Mountain, but decided against it.  I don't want to push Mason too far.  He probably would have liked it, but the darkness is pretty bad in that one.  I still remember the first time I went on that ride.  I was 6 and I still remember how excited I was when I found out that I was tall enough.  My dad took me on, and that first part when the lights go zooming by you in the tunnel will forever be imprinted in my memory.  I honestly believe if I ever see "my life flash before my eyes" this scene will surely be part of my life.  Then I remember hearing my dad curse for the first time in my life because he was scared.  Then I came bounding off the ride and tattle telling on him that he said a bad word and he was scared and I was not and I probably talked about that for the rest of the day.  Rumor has it that I was a very talkative little girl.  I think I used up all my words because I am relatively quiet now.

Then we headed over to toon town - and went on Mason's favorite ride "Goofy's Go Coaster" about 4 times.  Again, no line.

Toon Town is the best!

Then we hopped on the train to go on the Haunted Mansion.  This was the first day of all the Halloween decorations up at Disneyland, so the Haunted Mansion was a must see.  They change it out during the holiday to be based on "The Nightmare Before Christmas."  It was really neat.

I always get a kick out of these

This is my favorite.  Look at how worried Mason looks.  Steve always makes that stupid face when I point a camera at him.

Then we headed over to California Adventure - which I had never been to yet.

I really wanted to ride this ferris wheel, but really - not worth it.  It looks a lot more fun than it is.  Time is of the essence when I am at Disneyland.  The flagship ride was not running this day (the big white one in the back).  We went on Soaring over California - which I loved. Then we hit the boardwalk games.  These are usually a waste of money, but I thought we should do a couple of games.  The first one was my favorite where you shoot the water into a bullseye.  There were six players (Mason and Dad and 4 others) so we were playing for the big Dumbo.  I helped Mason keep the stream steady.  Guess what?  He won!  Of course, now we have to carry this big Dumbo, but he was so excited to see that he won, that it was worth it.  Then we went to the skee ball one.  Guess what? Dad won a Woody doll!  Then we went to the fishing won - this is one where everyone is a winner, but it just depends on what fish you get to see the prize.  Guess what!  Mason got the biggest Mickey doll you can get!

Mason fishing

Mason winning

 We should have stopped right there, because the only game left was a baseball throwing one, and I knew this was too hard for Mason.  But we had money left on our card and he really wanted to play.  He didn't win, and he almost had a melt-down.  I can't believe how competitive he is.  He would have thrown balls all day until he won if we let him.

You can get a glimpse of the winning loot on the left.

All said a done, a dumbo, a woody doll, a Mickey mouse, and a lobster (Dad's consolation prize for fishing) for $20!  We would have spent $20 for one of those in a gift shop.

Almost had a meltdown. Needed to take a deep breath and Dad had to gently explain why he can't win everything.

After the near-meltdown, we thought it was probably time to leave.  This would be a great time to head back to the room, take a big nap, and get back out there.  The rooms are like $250/night right there in the park!  Crazy!  And never going to happen when Grandma lives 15 minutes away.  We hit a couple more rides on the way out - still very little lines at this point - and Mason got to dance with Goofy a little:

Cotton Candy (Yuck!) But he loves it!

Asleep within 10 minutes

Grandma's surprise cake - isn't it great!

Well that was Disneyland.  The next day we went to the beach, but I am tired of writing, and you probably already stopped reading, so I will just add some pictures.  Alex LOVED it and had not one ounce of hesitation from running right into the ocean.  Most kids find it at least a little bit intimidating, not him!  I was WORN OUT by the end of that excursion.

And, I can barely ever get a picture of him, because he is always running away from me as fast as he can.

September Update

I just went to organize my pictures and realized I didn't take a single picture other than our Disneyland trip in September. Major fail.  I love to document the daily happenings, and I surely didn't do a good job this month.  I guess we had a lot of stress going on around the house though.  I give myself a pass.

Again, I will start with the current stuff because I hate feeling like I am behind.  Last night we had a parent night at school.  I was very eager to go because I was worried about how much actual learning was going on with the pre-school age group compared to the Kindergarteners.  I left feeling better than going in, so I guess that was good.  My apprehension was that I was worried the pre-school group were singled out as not ready, not as good, the "b" group, etc. as compared to the Kindergarteners.  Ms. Margot is the teacher for the pre-schoolers, and she assured me that was not the case at all.  She said she would stay cognizant of that feeling and make sure that the kids do not feel bad about being taken out of the class.  She said that Mason was very smart and ready for much of the kindergarten concepts but his attention span is not there yet.  If the kindergarteners are doing reading for 30 minutes, he is done with that concept after about 10 minutes.  Ms. Margot says that she just watches for those clues that shows the pre-schoolers are not paying attention anymore, and then they all go as a group to the kitchen to do other activities.  She says, they are usually happy to be doing something different, because they are bored.

I was proud that she said Mason was a really good influence on the rest of the preschoolers because of his advanced language and social skills.  She says he is sort of like the leader of the kids, and they learn from Mason.  She says he always answers questions when the teacher asks things, he always participates, and he always seems to be happy.  That sounds just like my son, so I guess he is doing good.  There are a huge number of boys in the class - I think only 3 girls - and she says the challenge is to get them to want to do anything besides legos and trucks.  I don't see much wrong with legos and trucks though.

His reading is going really well.  He truly amazes me every time we sit down to read.  He just gets it and reads so well.  We have a spelling/phonics game on the ipad that we haven't played for a few months.  We started it again last night and I wondered if he was ready for the the 2nd level.  The first is all three letter words: pen, hat, lid, hug, etc.  The second level is with consonant blends.  I started it up and the first word that came up was thumb, and I thought no way, too hard.  But he right away knew that it was th. Then the vowels are always the hardest and I usually have to say ugh, ugh, ugh and he knows that it is u. And he knew right away that the m comes next.  He didn't know what the last letter was, but when I helped him, he said right away, "oh, it's a silent b."  He just shocks me on how fast he picks up on this stuff.  It is a really good app if anyone wants to download it: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/montessori-crosswords-teach/id384334005?mt=8

Now on to Alex.  He is the king of the leg hug.  He loves to waddle up to you and just give you the biggest squeeze around your legs.  He loves to have his head rubbed and back scratched.  It is so sweet.  I love that he is a hugger!  He is pointing and grunting all the time.  I swear he did say thank you one time last week.  I had given him something, and I said "say thank you" (like I always do), and finally he said, "dank do".  It only happened this one time, but I will take it.  The doctor is still a little worried about him,  but I am not anymore.  I think he will catch up in his own time.  He is obviously a very quiet child, but I refuse to think that is a negative thing.  He plays so well with Mason.  They are starting to wrestle just a little and poor Alex always gets pinned.  He just lays perfectly still until Mason gets up.  Actually he does that every time he falls.  He just freezes in whatever position he fell.  He will stay there for quite a while.  It is as if he is thinks nobody will notice what just happened if he doesn't move at all.  Now that I am writing this all down, he is reminding me very much like a small puppy dog.

I guess it is time to get on with all the chores for the day, but I promise that tonight I will write about our fun Disneyland trip.  Bye!

First Day of School

The FIrst day was a little lack luster since it was the same place that he spent all summer.  He is still in pre-K, but it is a combined class with 4-6 year olds.  There are 8 in the actual Kindergarten class and seven pre-K.

I am little upset to see that only the 8 kindergarteners have a place at the tables.  When she does actual teaching lessons (like reading or writing or math) the pre-k kids go to the "centers."  There is a parent teacher night in a couple weeks, so I will find out more details then.  I am probably making more out of this than I should, but I just feel that he must feel excluded.  Paired with the fact that he is more than ready to be learning the kindergarten stuff, I just feel like he is being short changed.  Now that Steve is available for drop off and pick up, I can move him wherever I want him.  We just have to fork up the extra $500-1,000 per month.  Is that really worth it for pre-k?  I am leaning towards waiting for kindergarten next year, but possibly I will move it during winter break.

His lunch was in a big boy spiderman lunch box.

  But look what came home at the end of the day:

Why do I even try?  He ate two cookies and drank the Capri-Sun.  They give him way too many snacks at school.  He often refuses to eat breakfast because he wants school breakfast - which is usually a granola bar or something.  Oh well.

Here are a few more pictures:

Driving to school

He loves to "do the door" and Addison and him fight over it every day

He still has his blanket and pillow

The weekly lesson plans

Well, Dad's back for good...

Funny how the last post was so positive about having Dad back for the weekend.  I guess the good weekend made a really lasting impression on Steve because he decided to quit the academy on Tuesday.  It was probably the right decision, but I am still coming to terms with it.  He just didn't want to be a firefighter.  Plain and simple.  He was doing just fine.  It was unbelievably hard, but he got through everything even when he thought he would collapse.  The industry is kind of all consuming, and you start down this path and then he just got sucked farther and farther in.  When they tell you there are hundreds of people wanting every one spot in the academy, it is kinda hard to turn your back to that.  He wanted to prove to himself that he could do it, and he did that.  He knows that he would have made it through, but finally realized that he just didn't really want it.  To many others (almost all others) this was a job that they had dreamed of for their entire lives.  For Steve, it was intriguing and had the right schedule.  In the end, that was not enough to counter the downsides to the job.  Our marriage would have suffered, the kids would have suffered, his health would have really suffered...

I am happy, yet a little perturbed that he didn't make this decision years ago.  He is finally able to fully concentrate on making his consulting business actually successful.  He has tons of ideas on how to make it work, and I know that he can do it - now that he doesn't have other distractions.  He is going to be able to be there for our family all the time.  I think it is so tremendously important for a parent to be home when the kids are done with school.  The before care/after care business is just terrible.  Kids need more down time and parent time, and now our boys will have that.  I don't know if we will be able to afford the very best schools now, but the second tier school and a dad at home, is definitely better!

Dad's Back!

Whoo Hoo!  We had dad back this weekend.  He actually got the entire three day weekend off!  They even relieved them of all homework and everything, so they could truly get a well-deserved rest.  It was just like old times!  We took our walk this morning, I heard his one-sided conversation about gun stuff to who knows on the phone (no gun speak for 8 weeks makes daddy crazy), there was a trip to Home Depot, yard work, etc.  Just like normal.  I love normal.  

Make believe

Mason has never had any make believe friends, but there are two make believe stories that I wanted to tell. First, he has really been into basketball, basically since he started his school last March.  There is a sports court with two size baskets and then a net for tennis too.  Whenever it is set up for basketball, he always tells me that he goes for the big hoop.

At home, we don't have anything for basketball (yet) - but that doesn't stop Mason.  He started imagining that there was a hoop, lets say near the doorway.  He will then throw any ball up into where he is visualizing the basket.  What I think is remarkable is that most of the time he "misses" the hoop.  He says, "aw, man..." and retrieves the ball to shoot again.  When he gets it in, he cheers and then tries again.  I love that he is honest with himself if he really threw the ball where he was trying to.

We owe the second story to the beloved ipad.  A couple of months ago I bought Monopoly on the ipad.  We both love it and we played it every day for about one month.  We had a real board game for Monopoly stuffed away in a drawer somewhere (can you believe I have anything that old-fashioned?).  I pulled it out, blew off the dust, and was pleasantly surprised to see that he did like the real thing too.  He doesn't play the entire game, but he loves to roll the dice and move the tokens around the board however many places you are supposed to go.  His favorite spot is jail.  So he was playing tonight, and I noticed he was just staring at the board.  I obviously had a puzzled look on my face, because he looked up at me, and said, "it's computer's turn."  Oh, of course it is.  What was I thinking?  Later he said that he had all the money "because computer is not here."  I am still laughing about that one.

One year ago

Duck Creek Days 2010, followed by Duck Creek Days 2011.  The only two times he has had a snow cone.

No paternity test needed

Genetics are so cool!  I would have actually been fooled if the old picture wasn't in black and white.