Alex update

Alex is my little climber.  This past week it has been a constant battle keeping him off the tables.

He just wants to climb and be up higher I think.  He does get into things so we have to be careful.  It is the cause of many disagreements.  I let Alex climb on the table downstairs because I see no harm in it.  Steve feels that he shouldn't climb on anything and believes you should discipline just to discipline so that he learns.  I know that Steve is probably right, but it is not in my nature to be strict.  Again, this is the reason that everyone needs two parents to balance each other out.

Did I tell you he is 34 1/2 inches tall!  I kept telling Mason that we can do to Legoland when Alex is 36 inches tall, thinking that would be next year (is that weird?  you have to be 36 inches to ride most of the rides - I don't think that is weird but everyone laughs at me when I tell them this.)  That is probably going to be next month!  I think we will go to Legoland for Alex's second birthday (May).  We probably have one more trip to Disneyland because of our annual passes before March - but I will leave Alex with grandma again.

For those of you that like stats (me!): At 18 months, Alex weighed 25.5 pounds (44%), 34.5 inches (95%) and his poor head is still only 40.5 cm (16%).

Mason was pretty sick last week, but it looks like Alex is going to escape it.  He does have a cough, but it hasn't turned into the croupy cough that Mason had.  I hope this next week is better...

Don't worry

Whenever we are in a building, Mason always looks for and points out every smoke detector, fire alarm, fire extinguisher, and emergency exit.  He is wanting to learn how to dial 9-1-1 in case I have a stroke.  He sleeps with a big sheet all the way over him to keep him safe from zombies.  He always checks to see if I have enough gas in the car.

I am constantly telling him not to worry about this or that.  How did he get this way?  The smoke detector things has been going on since he was 2.  It comes and goes, but right now he is constantly checking for fire.

We went to see the hot air balloons take off today.

I had to constantly reassure him that the fire was safe and nobody was going to get hurt.  He asked over and over if the fire alarm was going to go off.  I wish nothing more than to take his worry away.  I just want him to be young and happy and carefree.  I can't remember the last time I felt care free, and oh, how I long for it.  His worry is not paralyzing to him.  He still would have jumped in that basket if he could have.  It is almost more of a wanting to know every possible outcome so that he can be prepared.

When we drove back home we had a 10 minute conversation about the air bags in the car.  Where they are, what they are for, why cars crash, why do people get hurt, when will he be in a crash?  I usually tell him the truth.  But I think I should be sugar coating things a little more now that the worry is starting to show.

Children's Book Festival

I love this event every year.  This is the third time we have gone.  This year Mason picked all big books.  The first table we went to, the volunteer pointed him to the little kids table, and he reluctantly picked one.  Then he say Abby and Owen go to the bigger kids table, and he immediately asked if he could get one of those.  I said he could, so he put that baby book down and ran over to grab the same book Owen had - Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot.  I flipped through it, and thought he could probably read it, so that is the one we picked.

At another booth, you can read to some animals.  If you read to them, they gave you a certificate and a beanie baby (that you are supposed to read to every night).  The helpers all coaxed Mason over to try to read to the animals.  They said, it's ok if you just point to the pictures.  He picked a book and started reading it.  The lady was so surprised that he could read.  He gets stuck on some harder words, but he tries to sound them out, and then usually gets them right.  I was so proud of him.

I can't believe how quickly his reading has come along.  He can pretty much read whatever he tries to now.  I am not sure how much comprehension is going on, but it is start.  I hope his teacher keeps letting him pick harder books so that he doesn't get bored.

18 months

Wow.  The first year went by slow, but the last 6 months went so fast that I keep having to count on my fingers to believe that 6 whole months went by.

The one thing I miss most about my new schedule is that I can't see my little baby in the morning.  I am out of the house at 5:30 am now, so he is still sleeping.  I miss the morning hug and him picking out the diaper.  I miss walking him over to the light switch to turn it off and then on and then back off.  I know Dad doesn't take the time to do those little things that I know he loves so much.  I can tell that he misses it because when he sees me in the morning on Friday, he smiles bigger than any other time.  He gives me an extra big squeeze and hangs on for a long time.  I recently decided that I am never going to end a hug.  I will just stay right there and accept his warmth as long as he is comfortable.  Mason never snuggled with me, and Alex just started to really hug over the last couple of months.  I am treasuring every single minute that he wants me to hold him.  He will be my last baby and I want the cuddle stage to last a long time.

Some things he likes to do:

• Play in drawers - which results in lots of crying because he is not allowed to play in drawers.
• Eat! He will eat and eat and eat without slowing.  He pretty much eats anything - unless he is sick.
• Cuddle and rock - He will rock with me on the chair for a long time.  He is very content.
• His favorite toy is probably the Hot Wheels track.  He can't do it by himself, but if Mason turns it on, he immediately runs over to be inches away from the speeding cars.
• Have someone chase him, or he chase someone else.  Nothing makes him laugh harder than this game.

He is definitely a momma's boy.  He will cry and cry until I come to rescue him.  He had his first tantrum last Wednesday.  He was trying to climb into the rocking chair which is just a little challenging for him.  He can do it if he tries really hard, but it certainly was frustrating him.  I suppose I could have given him a little nudge, but I am kinda mean like that.  He needs to figure it out.  Well he fell down, flipped to his stomach and started to wail.  I could see him peeking at me, expecting me to come to his rescue, but I didn't.  I kept telling him he was OK and he needed to come to me.  

He cried and cried for a long time (your sense of time is drastically warped when a baby is crying).  I refused to get him.  I finally got up and walked over him - still crying.  Then I pretended to walk out the garage while Dad said, Bye Mom.  He immediately jumped up and stopped crying.  Funny how quickly he stopped.  Then I came back and picked him up.  Crises was over.  Hopefully we won't have too many more tantrums before he can talk.

The talking is coming along, slowly but surely.  He certainly babbles a lot now.  The only consistent word he says is Thank you, but many more words are right on the cusp of developing.  He says Hi and Bye and All Gone, but nobody would recognize them except me.

He is starting to run a bit now, but boy is he clumsy!  He walks like he is drunk sometimes and when he is tired - forget about it.  He falls over and over again.  I am glad the weather is getting cooler so I can protect his poor knees with pants.

Mason loves him very much still.  There is very little jealousy from either one of them.  Mason calls him his chubby chubby cheeks baby and squeezes those cheeks just like the stereotypical grandma.  He tells me that this "is exactly the baby that I wanted."  Isn't that the sweetest?

That is all I can think of right now.  Alex says Bye!

Field Trip

Mason had another field trip yesterday and I went along to chaperone.  Steve was supposed to go, but he caught a nasty cold.  I was debating on going because three hours away from work is really a lot with the projects I have right now.  But, work will be there on Monday, and he will not have another field trip at four and a half - when he still really wants me around.

The trip was relatively uneventful, but I knew I made the right choice to go when Mason very sternly said, "Get behind my Mom!  She is the Line Leader!"  I think he was really happy that I was there, and it is so fun to see him interact with his friends.  He is a social bug.  Everyone wants to be around him.  They are constantly calling out "Mason B."  At one head count, he jumped up and down, "Don't forget me!"  Miss Jaime replied, "We could never forget you Mason B."  His best friend (besides Addison, but really they are more like siblings than friends) is Angel.  He loves Angel.  He is constantly telling me the things that he did and how they played together.  Angel is five, which is a big deal to Mason.  Because of that, I figured the relationship was one-sided, but Angel's Dad also was on the field trip, and when I introduced myself as Mason's mom, he immediately said Mason B?  He explained how Angel can't stop talking about Mason B.  BTW, there is no other Mason now, but the B stuck.

The other thing I learned is that angel is a foster child, and I can't stop thinking about that.  His foster family is trying to adopt him.  It just floors me that such a wonderful child has obviously had some sort of rough start to life.  I didn't ask any questions, but I sure am curious.

The typical Halloween post

Everyone wants to know what we did on Halloween, right?  Same thing as about 90% of the rest of the country.

Here are some pictures:

Carving the pumpkin

Getting the guts out

Ewwww

Ewwwww

Let me try another bite

Yummmm

Did someone just ask if I am cute?

Almost done

My cute elephant

Thomas....again

 So the story goes something like this...Mason had a costume party at school.  He had been talking about his spiderman costume for months, and loved it.  He was Spiderman at school and we had a nice little party.  Well when I came home that night he was so ready to go trick or treating.  I said, "Well, where's your costume?"  His reply, very dryly, "In my cubby."  (BTW, we carpool and don't pick up from school) Well then I guess you'll have to be Buzz Lightyear after all.  So we go to get the Buzz costume from the costume bin, and Thomas was right on top.  He screamed, THOMAS!  See Thomas is a little too babyish for him now.  I think the boys teased him at school abut Thomas - even though they all still like Thomas too.  I think he did the whole thing on purpose -  Big tough guy on campus (spiderman) and then sweet, loving boy at home (Thomas).

Alex didn't cry the whole time.  I promise.

One is ready to go and the other is ready for bed.

Alex did cheer up, and was as snug as a bug all night. 

The first house.  I did stand Alex up to receive the first piece of candy to see if he would get into it.  He just stood there like a statue, so I kept him in the stroller for the rest of the night.  He seemed happier that way.

So that was our night.  Another Halloween in the books.

Here are Halloweens past:

I forgot he was a skeleton this year, but leading up to this day he had been wearing the Thomas costume a lot

Legos

Mason has been bugging me and bugging me to get him a "little Legos" set for a few months now.  I keep telling him that Legos are for bigger kids and Alex will eat the pieces.  It all started with 2 lego sets from Dad that he had when he was a kid.  Dad refuses to let Mason touch them.  He is very territorial about them which I think is just crazy.  Really, what are you saving them for?  I can see how Legos need to be respected and cared for, which Mason is not really ready for.  He is not good at putting things away when he is done playing with them.  So no Legos for Mason yet...

Well...I couldn't resist at the store last weekend, and I picked up one of those $4 packs of Legos that are about 20 pieces or so.  I thought it would be good to see how he handled them.  He was soooo excited!  We put it together right away, and he did just as I expected.  He had quite a bit of trouble putting the pieces together but he could follow the instructions and told me where to put each piece.  This has always been the case with Mason.  He is so smart with puzzles and figuring things out, but his fine motor control is lacking.  So, Legos are probably the perfect toy for him.  I was very encouraged.

He played with the helicopter all day.  I kept telling him that he had to keep it away from Alex, so he hid behind the couch to play...

Still so encouraging!  I was sold on the Legos - best toy ever!!!  He was pretending and role playing just like little kids are supposed to.  And no plug or batteries on this toy - big plus!  We even sat down to watch a Scooby Doo movie and after about 3 minutes of watching the movie, he jumped up and said, "I just have to play with my legos!"

So the rules were, all the pieces had to be in the bucket, he couldn't play around Alex, and he had to save the instructions.  He knew that if he took good care of this set he would be able to get more for Christmas.  He "promised" (side note: he promises everything now - something we need to work on, because he basically never keeps his promises) that he would be responsible.

That night he asked to sleep with the helicopter.  I told him that wasn't a good idea because he might break a piece off while he was sleeping and then it would be hard to find.  He decided to place it right on the edge of his bed where he "could see it and dream about it."  When he woke up the next morning (at 4:50 am!) he had it in his hand and so proud that he hadn't broke it over night.  I wouldn't let him take it to school, but the minute he got home, Steve said he grabbed it right away.  But this was Halloween, so the Halloween excitement took over.  I saw that he put the helicopter on the stair - and it vanished.

I really have no idea where it could be.  We all looked everywhere.  I still have a sneaky suspicion that Dad took it since Mason didn't put it where he was supposed to.  He says he didn't, but where could it have gone?  Mason's theory: "One of the customers stole it on Halloween."  Really?  First, he got customers from a sign on a bowl of candy when we were out Trick or Treating.  The sign said, "One or two pieces per Customer."  Very sterile sign.  Whatever happened to Happy Halloween -  Take one please!  Mason (and I) was confused on what customers were.  Now the word is in his vocabulary.  But second, I was surprised at his knowledge of stealing.  Why would he assume someone stole it?  I guess it is part of the maturing process.  For some reason it made me sad.  Most likely, Alex picked it up and put it in some random spot.  He will probably find it in the pantry or the dresser drawer after awhile.

So now I have mixed feelings on the Legos.  He probably isn't ready to be responsible for them - and they are wickedly expensive.  Much too expensive to just lose the pieces after a couple of days.  But they are such a good learning toy - especially to help with his fine motor control.  Hmmm...I guess I just try again later.  Things do change really fast with kids.