Months of the Year and more

Mason has been obsessively singing a song named, Months of the Year, and you guesses it, he sings the months from January to December, followed by: "months of the year, boop." I will have to get it on video to truly translate.  He will sing this song about 20-30 times per night.  He wants to know what month everyone's birthday is, every holiday is, etc.  He finally figured out that after December comes January, and that will be 2012; but then that revelation makes the song repeat and repeat, like This is the Song That Never Ends...(do you know that one - if so, please don't teach it to Mason).

The other phrase that popped up about one month ago and is still going strong, is "I love you." Maybe he should have always been saying this, but he didn't.  He would only repeat it if someone told him that they loved him.  Now at any random moment in the day, he will stop everything and say, "Mom, I love you." Of course, he always gets a nice reaction from me (or dad) and so I think that is why he keeps doing it.  It is just strange at how often he does it.  Right now, I can overhear Mason and Dad downstairs and he has already said it two times in the past 5 minutes.  On a related note, he will ask me if I love him.  I always answer that I will always love him.  Then the testing begins...Will you love me if I climb up the 'frigerator; Will you love me if I drill a hole in the floor; Will you love me if I fart on your head; Will you love me if I drive you crazy?

Also, there is the times when he wants to know how much I love him.  That conversation goes something like:
Mason: I love you one thousand.
Mom: I love you one thousand and one
Mason: I love you two thousand and eleven
Mom: I love you two thousand and twelve
Mason: I love you one thousand and one million.
I think you get the idea.

May I...
He has always been very polite, but lately everything has been "May I..." instead of "Can I." Then if the answer is positive, he replies, "That is very kind of you." It literally melts my heart.

"There is an I in Mason."
That is what he told me on the way to school one day.  I tried to correct him but he was positive that there was indeed an I.  He said, Mom listen, "MM - AA - SSS - IN" (I don't know how to type sounds). In has an I in it.  I really couldn't explain this, but basically I said that we pronounce it different that it is spelled.  A couple of days after this he came to me and said that only Laurence says his name right because she says MASOOONNN.  She does.  She has a thick French accent and she always calls him, Mason, like Mace-on, with an emphasis on the -on.

Consequences.
One morning we had a deep conversation about what would happen if we stuck our head into a shark's mouth.  This kind of conversation is pretty normal around here.  There is a lot of zombie talk too.  Anyway, he looked up at me, hands raised, and said, "You would get your head bitten off, and then, YOU WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO READ!" He seemed horrified to now have to live in a world where he couldn't read.

Speaking of Zombies...We have had our struggles with the ipad, but he does love it so much that we use it as a reward, and I think it is working out ok.  He is limited to two 30 minute sessions on the weekends, and he gets to play from when he gets home from school, until I get home (also about 30 minutes).  But I was still concerned with the obsession of Angry Birds.  It does actually take some skill to learn the trajectory of the birds and all, but isn't it a little violent?  Well, what do you know, Dad introduces him to a new game, Stupid Zombies.  He was trying to convince me that this was a good puzzle game too because you have to learn angles.  See, you bounce the bullets off walls and obstructions in order to kill the zombies.  I said that there is probably a perfectly acceptable game of pool that we could have Mason play to learn angles, but I gave in.  Mason is now as obsessed with Stupid Zombies as he was with Angry Birds.  I think this is a loosing battle for me.

Ok, that is all the Mason stories I have for this week.  We are off to the gym!

Mason B

I have been meaning to blog every day this week with little Mason stories, but the French Open is on, so end of story.  So this post may be quite long, because there are a lot of stories to share.

Mason B is loving school.  He is upset when it is the weekend.  He is learning a lot both academically and socially.  One great story came from an email my boss sent me about his daughter.  Katie is eight years old and attends Bright Horizons because she is home-schooled, via internet.  They set her up with a computer and she basically works at her own pace.  She interacts with the kindergarteners at recess and before and after the actual school hours.  So his email reads:


My daughter is writing a book about her experiences at Schools Out. She is very excited about this project and tells everyone proudly of her plans. 

She talks about your son, 'Mason B' in her 2nd chapter. She likes playing basketball with him because he takes on 'the big hoop'. Apparently most kids want to play at the little hoop. She says she likes him because he is the bravest boy she has ever met. When I asked her about that she says he isn't intimidated by anything and will try anything. 

Thought you would like to know. 

He sounds like a great young man!


He did tell me all about this big hoop.  He made a basket in the big hoop and he said that even "six kids" can't even do that.  He means the six year olds.  When I dropped him one morning (usually we car-pool and I don't drop off) he made sure to show me how big the big hoop was.  


Ironically, my brave boy fell off the jungle gym the next day at school.  He fell on his ankle pretty bad and was limping for two days.  He seems ok now and it never got swollen or bruised, so I am sure it is fine.  It is heart-breaking to see your child in pain.  He would always say that it doesn't hurt with the fear that I would have made him sit down or take medicine.  I could tell it hurt him, because a 4 year old wouldn't know to limp.  


I think I will write the other stories in another post.  I am about to "slurp" the blog into a book via www.blurb.com since we are at the one year mark.  I think I did pretty good blogging!

Swim Lessons

Mason had his first swim lesson today.  He did pretty good considering he doesn't like to get his face wet.  Does everyone have as much trouble as we do about bath time.  He seriously asks at least 10 times between when he gets home from school and when it is bath time if he has to take a bath that night.  And then if the answer is yes (every other night that is the answer), he asks if he has to wash his hair.  It is as if we are torturing him.  He fights and screams and cries just to lean his head back in the water.  So, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this today:

He did great!  He seemed to like it even though he had water in his eyes.  And don't ask me why I didn't bring him goggles.  I just bought new nice ones too, and I forgot them.  With goggles, I am sure he is going to float on his belly next week.

At one point he slipped off the little stand that they were sitting on and went straight under.  I thought he would freak out, but the instructor just picked him up and really had no reaction, so neither did Mason.  We are going to do this twice a week through the summer.  Our goal is that he will be able to go down the big water slide.  After the first lesson, he said, "Ok, now can I go down the big slide?"

That is so cool

I need to brag a little bit.  Feel free to move on if you just rolled your eyes.  Mason is learning to read at a pace that I did not think was possible.  It started from our tour of Merryhill, where the teacher said that the goal was to finish the first set of Bob books by the end of the year (16 books, about 10 pages each).  Directly after that I was at Coscto, and whaddaya know, they had the Bob sets for sale - $9.99/set.  Of course, being the obsessive parent that I am, I bought the first two sets.  He finished reading the first set in two weeks!  He is truly reading too.  He is not memorizing.  He is sounding out all of the words, so much so that he sees Zack and says ZA-AA-CC-CC.  

We are on book 10 of the second series and I bought the third series yesterday.  He sat with that new red box at Costco just begging to open it and have new books to read.  You have no idea how happy this makes Steve and I.  We were both obsessive readers as children, and he still is.  I seem to be a little busy for reading, but it is the single most thing that I dream about when I think about a relaxing vacation or something.  

Two funny stories that I have to get written down about reading.  First, the page read "Ten kids did a jig."  The picture had ten clear kid heads and 20 clear kid feet but their bodies were just squiggle lines indicating movement.  Mason first asked about what a jig was and he was clearly upset that it was drawn so poorly.  He looked at me with an annoyed look on his face and said, "The illustrator did that?"  

I just immediately laughed because the tone of his voice was on the lines of "Even I could do that."  Then I thought illustrator is a word that I surely don't remember telling him, so obviously it was from school.  Yeah.  One point for school!  But even then, I am sure it came across, Title, Written By:, and Illustrated By: ...

So he made the jump from "Illustrated by:" means that there was an Illustrator, and that person drew the pictures in the book.  I was impressed.  

Second, he walked in to the bedroom, and I was silently reading to myself.  He said, inquisitively, "Are you brain reading?"  Again this made me laugh, and then I said yes.  He asked if I could teach him to do that, and of course I did.  Once he read one word that way, he looked up and said, "Oh wow, I did it" and then the second word, he repeated the phrase, until he read the whole page.  Then he looked up and, "That is so cool!"  Yes, baby, reading is the coolest thing.

random updates

We have had a busy week!  The new Lifetime Fitness opened up and it is gorgeous!  I went to yoga today and yesterday we worked out together and let Mason play in the Child's area.  Then he had a swim assessment to see what class he should be in.  Swim lessons will be every week from here on out until he is a strong swimmer.  He has a huge incentive though; there is a ginormous water slide and you have to be able to swim about 10 yards to get to the rope before they will let you on the slide.  Tomorrow we will go again, but this time with Alex for the first time.  I hope he does ok.  I think he will be fine with Mason with him.

This afternoon we had friends over to swim and it is so nice to do that.  We rarely entertain, and both have a great time when it happens, so why is it so infrequent?  Hmmm.

Mason and I also went to a birthday party this morning and he had a blast playing at the park.  I really wish I wasn't such a hovering parent though.  I just can't help it.  I am sure that Mason would have done just fine with me sitting at the table with all the other parents, but the minute I can't see his little orange shorts (and yes, I always dress him in bright colors to ease my insanity) I instantly panic.  Full on panic.  Heart beating fast, sick to my stomach, a little bit dizzy, panic.  I hope I am not messing him up too much.  I just wish these parks would have fences around them so I could chill out just a little bit.

On Friday we went to the Jim Gill concert and had an absolute blast!  He is a children's book author and musician.  I had a lot of fun being silly and singing really badly.  Mason loved that he could scream as loud as he wanted.  He was dancing a little, but kept saying he wanted to "dance up there" (on stage).  I have got to put him in some drama classes.  He is just a natural born star.

Also on Friday I took Alex to his one year check up.  He is healthy, but the doctor is worried about him being so quiet.  I am not all that worried about it (and I worry about everything).  I just think Alex is a quiet kind of kid.  You can tell he is understanding, but the doctor said he should be much more vocal and responding to my commands (like peekaboo and such).  He doesn't do that, so he wants Alex to be see by an Early Intervention and hearing specialist.  I don't mind doing this, but I really don't think he needs it.  But now that he suggested it, and if I didn't follow through, I would feel like a crappy parent if something did turn up wrong.  The doctor wasn't too worried either, he kept saying it was really good that he looks in your eyes and laughs and smiles, but it wouldn't hurt to get checked out.

The other thing he wants us to do is get a blood test to test for random things in his blood.  I remember the doctor saying Mason had to also at one year, but we never did it.  I just think it is cruel to put a little baby through a blood test unless there was a reason that something seemed off.  He is perfectly healthy and a blood test is going to show that, so why get it?  Has anyone else skipped this routine test?

As far as the stats go, he is still on the same curves - 31 inches (85 percentile) and 22 pounds (35 percentile).  He can stand by himself (if I place him in a standing position) but he sits and crawls if he wants to move.

We are getting pictures done tomorrow and it is going to be a "lifestyle" shoot.  I am excited!  Tina is just coming over and going to take pictures of them in their element.  I will probably still dress them up and comb their hair, so it is not true reality, but close enough.  Sorry for no pictures right now, I am just lazy and tired right now.

On the reading front, Mason finished the first series in the Bob Books tonight.  These are the books that the Merryhill preschool told me is the goal to complete by the end of their year.  He finished them in 2 weeks.  That is making me realize that it is probably not a good idea to pour lots of money into a school that is already too easy for him.  I still haven't made up my mind, but I do know that I will always have to supplement at home to keep him progressing.  I just wish I had a crystal ball to let me see into the future on what the best path would be.

That is about all I have energy for tonight.  Bye.

Happy Birthday Baby Alex!

Right about this exact hour 365 days ago, I was getting VERY impatient.  I was just given the decision to go home from the hospital because I wasn't making any progress and I was very vocal about not wanting a c-section.  Obviously, I didn't leave; Only a couple hours later things started moving along pretty quick and very painfully.  Why exactly do we celebrate the child on the birthday?  I would like some cake for me - thank you very much!

In other news...

• I heard on the radio today that last year on May 6th was the worst Stock Market crash in one hour.  It was called the Flash Crash.  I have no recollection of this ever occurring.  I guess I was busy having a baby.
• He was also born a couple weeks after the Gulf oil spill.  The oil spill was the worst man-made environmental disaster we have ever had.  It was absolutely terrible.  Google it for details.  
• I remember that the first hurricane of the season was named Alexander.  Strange coincidence.
• Alex was born in the era of smartphones and ipads.  I know that they are not teaching cursive in schools anymore; by the time he is in school, I wonder if people will even be printing.  

Back to my baby...He is just absolutely wonderful.  I really can't express what an angel he really is.  He rarely cries or is hard to deal with.  He goes from super easy going to very serious and observant to playful and funny.  If he gets overly tired he laughs.  I am being totally serious.  You know how people just get the giggles and then everything makes them giggle almost uncontrollably?  That is Alex when he is over tired.  What more can I ask for?  He is just perfect!

He is playing much more now.  He loves to flip through board books or stack objects on top of each other.  He has an Elmo doll (hand-me-down from Mason) that makes kissing sounds and phrases if you move Elmo's hand to his lips (as if blowing a kiss).  He just LOVES this toy.  He sleeps with it and I know he is awake when I hear, "Elmo loves you!"  from the crib.  Speaking of the crib, I always just put him down in his crib at about 7 pm.  He snuggles his face into his blanket as hard as he can and then flips over and I say goodnight and leave.  He plays for a few minutes and then eventually falls asleep on his own.  Normally he will go through this hands and feet rocking/lunging motion and he grunts while he is doing it.  That lasts for 2-3 minutes and then he falls asleep.  It is pretty funny.  I will try to get it on video sometime.  When he wakes up he wants to grab his own diaper.  He always says, "Da" when he gets the diaper.  He is still very quiet though.  There are not very many times during the day that he babbles.  It does happen, so I am not worried, but he just chooses to be quiet.  That's ok, Mason talks enough for the both of them.

What else...he has 7 teeth.  I am not sure how much he weighs, but I will find out next week.  He loves to eat and his favorite are Aussie Bites and Couscous.  I started with the real milk this week, and there doesn't seem to be any issues with that.  Yeah!  No more yucky formula.  He stands and cruises real well, but hasn't made any attempt to walk yet.  I think he is coordinated enough to do it, but crawling is just faster.  I can't really think of anything else.  If anyone wants to know something, just leave a comment.  Bye!

Preschool saga

Real quick, I wanted to get these simple stories or phrases written down before I forgot them...

• Alex was babbling yizzzzz, yizzzzzz, yizzzzz, and Mason said, "Alex is saying a word with y and z." (so smart!)

• Mason, holding a hot wheels car, "When we get rid of our gold van, can we get this one?"
• Mason informed me that his teacher always says, "this is not the Mason show."  That doesn't surprise me one bit.

Now on to the real post...

I continue to be obsessed with preschools.  However, Bright Horizons is growing on me.  Mason really seems to love it there, so I have made one decision: He will stay right where he is through summer.  I toured Montessori (twice) and decided against it.  This is the school that is on Rancho and Charleston, and really that is the main reason that we won't be going there.  It might be safe, but it doesn't feel safe to me, and I don't want to worry about him all day.  There is a bus stop literally right outside the door and right in the view of the playground, and I can just see some crazy who happens to have the bus route at the same time as recess everyday...I just can't do it.

I still like the Montessori philosophy, so I will tour one more school and see if I fall in love with it.  This school isn't convenient for me, but I just want to weigh all my options.  I just love how they can continue to excel in topics that they are advanced in and not have to stay in their grade level.  

We also toured Merryhill and I loved the teacher that I talked too.  It seemed great for preschool.  My only hesitation is that it isn't advanced enough for Mason.  He already knows a lot of the things she told me that they learn.  She said they would teach to his level and I trusted her on that.  He is not advanced in everything; he needs lots of help with fine motor control, but as far as reading and any kind of memorization, he picks it up in one setting.  It's amazing.  

One problem I am going to have with any school is the hours.  I have to assume Steve will not be able to do drop off or pick up at all if he gets his fire job.  ALL preschools are open a maximum of 7 am to 6 pm, which believe me, should be adequate, but even with my reduced schedule, that will be hard to do.  Oh, and your child can only attend for 10 hours per day within those hours.  Can someone please inform my work of this????  I talked to someone today that gave me the possibility of hiring a morning nanny.  I don't think that would fly with Steve, but that would be ideal for me.  They could come in at 5:30, I could go to work at 6, get the kids dressed and fed and at school at a more respectable 8:30 am.  But paying for a nanny would probably equate to me taking another hour off work and I can just work 4 - 8's.  I don't really want to do that, because I don't think I could get my work done, and I certainly wouldn't be able to ever be promoted on that schedule, but it is an option.  

Anyway, next on the agenda is Challenger school, the second Montessori, and Alexander Dawson.  Just for comparison sake.  I can't see paying that much money for preschool or kindergarten, but I want to see why they think they can charge that much money.  Maybe it is worth it?  They do give financial aid.  We'll see.  The teacher I spoke with at Merryhill said that the first 3-4 years of school are the most important.  She said if she only had a limited income she would do the best private school up until third grade and then transfer to public.  I agree with her.  

But, Bright Horizons, where he is now, seems more and more acceptable.  Their philosophy is actually much like Merryhill with the "centers."  The main difference is student to teacher ratio.  If their weren't so many kids at this school I think it would be just fine for Preschool and Kindergarten.  Oh well, blah blah.  I am getting tried of talking about this.  A couple more weeks and I should have it all figured out.