We got this great toy when Mason was about 2 and we played with it non-stop for about a year. We had to put it away when Alex was born for fear that he would choke on the marbles. Alex hasn't been putting things in his mouth for a few months now, so I thought I would give it a try again this morning.
He loved it so much! He played for a good hour, and only stopped because of a good old-fashioned stinky poop. I am happy to have found another toy to keep him entertained for long periods of time (that is not the ipad!).
Friday, February 24, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Random Mason Sayings
So now that I am driving the kiddos in the morning again, I get to hear his little talkative voice babble on and on. He has always been very energetic in the morning and the strangest things come out of his mouth.
(lack of punctuation intended):
Mom, I love Doritos. I love Nacho Cheese Doritos the best the red bag. I could eat a whole bag of doritos no a whole grocery store no a whole delivery truck full of doritos the red bag.
Did you realize that if you don't bend your knees a lot when you get older your butt will get big.
Mom, what does cottage cheese mean? (Mom: Ummm, I have no idea - a cottage is usually referring to a type of house. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, Mason). Oh, so it's like a house made of cheese so that when you are hungry you can just eat the walls.
(Driving past the Summerlin Parkway/Rainbow bridge getting built...) Man they sure work hard on that bridge. They work every night and every day. I wonder when they get to sleep and read books. (The road construction awareness definitely comes from me, but the horror of not being able to read is all Mason.)
Mom, when can I have my own iphone (What?!?! - Mom doesn't even have an iphone)
Mom: Not until you are much older - a least 10. But good news you are half way there.
Mason: NO!!!! I am 4. That is not half way to 10.
Mom: Well, 2 weeks until you are 5 and that is half way to 10.
Mason: NO!!!!!! (Even more shocked that I could make such a big mistake...) 13 days until I am 5.
(lack of punctuation intended):
Mom, I love Doritos. I love Nacho Cheese Doritos the best the red bag. I could eat a whole bag of doritos no a whole grocery store no a whole delivery truck full of doritos the red bag.
Did you realize that if you don't bend your knees a lot when you get older your butt will get big.
Mom, what does cottage cheese mean? (Mom: Ummm, I have no idea - a cottage is usually referring to a type of house. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, Mason). Oh, so it's like a house made of cheese so that when you are hungry you can just eat the walls.
(Driving past the Summerlin Parkway/Rainbow bridge getting built...) Man they sure work hard on that bridge. They work every night and every day. I wonder when they get to sleep and read books. (The road construction awareness definitely comes from me, but the horror of not being able to read is all Mason.)
Mom, when can I have my own iphone (What?!?! - Mom doesn't even have an iphone)
Mom: Not until you are much older - a least 10. But good news you are half way there.
Mason: NO!!!! I am 4. That is not half way to 10.
Mom: Well, 2 weeks until you are 5 and that is half way to 10.
Mason: NO!!!!!! (Even more shocked that I could make such a big mistake...) 13 days until I am 5.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
MINI-STARS!
So last week at tennis, Coach Vicki came up to me after his pee-wee tennis class and said that Mason should be moved up to beginners tennis and/or can join Mini-Stars. Both classes are for 6 to 10 year olds, but she said he was definitely ready. Mini-stars is where the kids play out points and even play actual games against each other. The Beginners class would be just like the pee-wee class but older kids. They do lots of drills, and only hitting the ball at the end of the class. Mini-Stars was at 9:30 and Beginners was at 10:30.
We talked about it all week. I told him that the other kids might be a lot better than he is, but that is because they had been playing for a lot longer than he had, and so on. He was just super excited that the kids would be older and that he would be able to hit over the net a lot. He didn't have any hesitation and not the least bit of anxiety about it.
The Mini-stars class was AWESOME! It was the perfect mix of kids - 3 boys and 3 girls. The boys seemed to be all 6, maybe one was 7. The girls were 6, 7, and 8 (with the 8 year old being the weakest of the players). They play "10 and under" tennis at this place, which is the reason I am there. I think I blogged about the 10 and under business a while ago.
After the normal warm up and ball drills, they got to hit a ton of balls back and forth. That is exactly what Mason wanted. He did amazing. Not that he was the best player - he was the worst actually - but he never once got frustrated or mad that he wasn't doing better. I have actually seen him play much better in the past, but he was concentrating so much on if it was his turn or not, or exactly which side the backhand was, that he really wasn't as concerned with a good hit.
Mini-stars is designed to play 3 days per week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) and it is $126/month. That is a lot of time and money at this point. I think we will just keep "dropping in" on Saturday's. The drop in rate is $12.50/hour, and that works well for us.
The beginners class turned out to be twelve 10 year olds on the court. It was not for him at all. I let him warm up with the class because he said he really wanted to stay. It was comical seeing little Mason standing in line with all those older kids. I called him over to get a drink of water and then asked him to just sit with me and watch the other kids for a bit. He gladly did and seemed so tired at that point. I told him that maybe we should just stick with the one class, and he agreed. I didn't want him to get frustrated (especially because he was more tired at that point) with the older kids. They were much too old for it to work.
I was thrilled with the way it turned out. Here are the pictures, and hopefully the youtube will work on the end.
We talked about it all week. I told him that the other kids might be a lot better than he is, but that is because they had been playing for a lot longer than he had, and so on. He was just super excited that the kids would be older and that he would be able to hit over the net a lot. He didn't have any hesitation and not the least bit of anxiety about it.
The Mini-stars class was AWESOME! It was the perfect mix of kids - 3 boys and 3 girls. The boys seemed to be all 6, maybe one was 7. The girls were 6, 7, and 8 (with the 8 year old being the weakest of the players). They play "10 and under" tennis at this place, which is the reason I am there. I think I blogged about the 10 and under business a while ago.
After the normal warm up and ball drills, they got to hit a ton of balls back and forth. That is exactly what Mason wanted. He did amazing. Not that he was the best player - he was the worst actually - but he never once got frustrated or mad that he wasn't doing better. I have actually seen him play much better in the past, but he was concentrating so much on if it was his turn or not, or exactly which side the backhand was, that he really wasn't as concerned with a good hit.
Mini-stars is designed to play 3 days per week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) and it is $126/month. That is a lot of time and money at this point. I think we will just keep "dropping in" on Saturday's. The drop in rate is $12.50/hour, and that works well for us.
The beginners class turned out to be twelve 10 year olds on the court. It was not for him at all. I let him warm up with the class because he said he really wanted to stay. It was comical seeing little Mason standing in line with all those older kids. I called him over to get a drink of water and then asked him to just sit with me and watch the other kids for a bit. He gladly did and seemed so tired at that point. I told him that maybe we should just stick with the one class, and he agreed. I didn't want him to get frustrated (especially because he was more tired at that point) with the older kids. They were much too old for it to work.
I was thrilled with the way it turned out. Here are the pictures, and hopefully the youtube will work on the end.
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| Shuffling |
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| Learning which side is the backhand |
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| Playing out points |
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| Nice eye on the ball! |
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| Wicked spin on that one! |
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| King of the Court! |
Learn to Dance in the Rain
Steve came to pick up Mason this morning and I had decided to take a long walk in the beautiful weather with my baby. I love to take walks and have been missing them so badly over the winter. I was expecting the nice sunny day that we had yesterday, but it was really cold out there. I saw the sun peeking through the clouds and thought it will warm up in no time. Well it just got colder and colder and I started feeling a little sad and sorry for myself. And wouldn't you know it - it started to rain! I got a little teary eyed about the irony of it all. I started talking myself into enjoying it just like I said I would. I thought about all the good things in my life. About forgiveness. About good health. About my comfortable house and security. I really do have it good.
But I was still cold. I stopped for a second under the bridge, took a deep breath and decided to run up the hill. Yes I could do it! I still do want to get out of the rain. I don't want this bad time to last one second longer than it has to. I will run. My body was tired and my heart was pounding and I am realizing just how badly I have been treating myself. No sleep, not eating, barely even drinking water. I have got to turn the corner fast on that front. I wanted to stop just short of what my goal was (to the grass area), but I knew I could do it, just like I know I will be fine (even better) in this new life. It might be a struggle and harder, but then the rewards should be that much sweeter - right?
You know what...it stopped raining. In that short time while I was running, it stopped raining. I am choosing forgiveness and happiness.
From one of the best blogs I have found: www.marcandagel.com
"Forgive people and move forward. – Don’t live your life with hate in your heart. You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate. Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.” It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.” Forgiveness is the remedy. It doesn’t mean you’re erasing the past, or forgetting what happened. It means you’re letting go of the resentment and pain, and instead choosing to learn from the incident and move on with your life. Remember, the less time you spend hating the people who hurt you, the more time you’ll have to love the people who love you."
Friday, February 10, 2012
Mason's First Movie (rewind)
I forgot to blog about this awesome experience with Mason. It was Owen's birthday and we were going to see a movie! It was his first movie in a theatre - The Chipmunks Movie. It was a lot of fun. I knew that his favorite part would be the popcorn and I knew that he would get restless after about 45 minutes and I knew that he would want to see another movie the minute this one was over. I know my son very well! He did all of those things. (UGH! Pictures are not uploading!) I will try later.
It was a very fun party and I am glad he got to have his first movie experience with his cousins. He loves those guys soooo much!
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| He was so excited to be at the movies! |
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| The whole gang |
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| Everyone eyeing the popcorn! |
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| Doesn't he look happy! |
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| It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves |
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| Birthday Boy |
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| His face is just beautiful to me. |
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| The popcorn was gone before the movie even started |
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| He kept trying to reach his feet to the bars like all the other kids were doing. He was basically laying flat to reach it, but he got it done, and was very proud that he was like the big kids. |
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| The party room after |
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| He wanted a cake with skulls. |
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Now for some happy!
Both of the boys wrap themselves up like this every night (just like their Daddy).
I love it!
Knock Knock
Mason is curiously looking at me just playing with my food.
Momma, what's wrong?
Oh, Momma's just sad...
He cocks his head up in thought, and says, "I know...Knock Knock!"
Who's there?
Poo Poo head.
Poo Poo head who?
Poo Poo head eats your eye.
And he laughs hysterically and I smile with the most amount of gratitude for this amazingly compassionate boy that I have. It helps to have a super cute oblivious one too. I am tremendously lucky to have my two boys.
I know this is cryptic, but I will explain when I can. Borrowing from my virtual best friend Heather Armstrong, I will be the valedictorian of co-parenting.
Momma, what's wrong?
Oh, Momma's just sad...
He cocks his head up in thought, and says, "I know...Knock Knock!"
Who's there?
Poo Poo head.
Poo Poo head who?
Poo Poo head eats your eye.
And he laughs hysterically and I smile with the most amount of gratitude for this amazingly compassionate boy that I have. It helps to have a super cute oblivious one too. I am tremendously lucky to have my two boys.
I know this is cryptic, but I will explain when I can. Borrowing from my virtual best friend Heather Armstrong, I will be the valedictorian of co-parenting.
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