Down on the Farm

A few weeks ago we had a fun time with our friends Chad, Jennifer and Hudson! They had been living in PA for the last few years - so we had yet to meet their newest addition Hudson. Her parents live here in town and so they invited us over while they were in town for the weekend. We had hamburgers and went swimming and even got to feed cows! Yes, I did feel slightly guilty eating hamburgers and then going to hang out with cows. But I got over it. Hamburgers are too tasty not to.
Mason and Hudson had a blast running around the yard and watching Mike throw the kong for the dogs. Here are some pics from the farm!

Mason, Hudson and the dogs

Mike throwing the kong for the dog. I LOVE Hudson's arms in this one. He is so excited!

Running after the dog. SO CUTE.

Ridin' in the back of the gator to go feed some cows!

Cows. They were hungry!

Mason checkin out the bull. Or maybe it was the bull who was checkin out Mason.

Due to some slight negligible parenting (I'm not naming names. But if I were it would start with an M and end with an ike), Mason shared some dinner with the cows. Yes, he munched on one of the pellets they have for cow food. He survived.

And, last but certainly not least... a temper tantrum. I wanted to get a picture of Mason and Hudson. Mason did not want to get a picture of Mason and Hudson. I won (as is always the rule in our house). Even though it is not an attractive picture. I did get the picture. haha.

Hudson is looking at Mason like, "dude, get a grip." Which is often what I mumble under my breath to Mason.

9-1-1

Well, I knew this day would come. I made my first 9-1-1 call. With all of the shenanigans boys seem to get into, I knew it was only a matter of time before Mason would so something that would warrant the Fire Department. I just didn't think it would happen this soon!

Let's back up. It was only a week or so after we got moved into our new house. Mason was in his bathroom playing and I was tackling the never ending job of unpacking and organizing. While he was playing, he shut the door to the bathroom. No big deal, he shuts doors all the time. When I went to open the door to check on him, I couldn't get the door open. The sink is right there by the bathroom door, and when Mason had closed the door, he had also opened a drawer on the vanity - thereby creating an amazingly strong barricade. Great.

I was able to open the door less than a quarter of an inch. I was brainstorming harder than I have ever before. I thought if I could get a knife through the gap, I might be able to stab the side of the drawer and slowly work it closed. I called Mike (who was 45 minutes away) and told him what was going on. After 10 minutes of trying almost everything we could think of - AND 10 minutes of hearing my precious baby boy screaming on the other side of the door, Mike told me to call the Fire Department.

I made the call to 9-1-1 and the Firemen were on their way. I felt like such a dork standing there with a handful Firemen in my house trying to figure out how to get my child out of the bathroom. After 10 minutes of them trying to figure things out, they finally were able to free Mason (no pun intended). One of the men leaned on the door to create a wider gap, and the other one used the knife I had to close the drawer (just like I had tried to!). When they opened the door and Mason came toddling out - face full of tears and snot - they all gave a collective "Awwwwwww!" and he ran to my arms. And that was my first call to 9-1-1. Let's hope it's the last.

Fun with Words

I thought I would take a minute to chronicle some of Mason's favorite words to say. He is jibber-jabbering all the time, but still loves to use words as well! I know I will forget the cute way he says words once he is all grown up, so I wanted to write about it now to remember it.

His true first word was "Up" (or "ut" as he says it). Not surprising since he wants me to hold him all the time!

His second word was "More" (or "mah mah mah").

But by far, his favorite word, and the one I hear almost constantly all day long is "Bird" (bahd). I never noticed how many of those grackles are EVERYWHERE until Mason started saying bird. They are here at the house, at parking lots, on the side of the road, even flying next to the car apparently. Those things are out of control. He also says "Cat" and "Dog" quite a bit.

His vocabulary has really taken off over the last week or so. Here are some new words he is saying:

"Alright", "Shorts", "Shoes", "Eight" (I guess it's his favorite number!), "Fish", "Duck", "Bye Bye", "Out", and "Yeah".

He says "pah pah pah" for please, and "bah bah" for baby. He constantly watches us and tries to immitate just about every thing we do. The picture at the top of the page is one I took a couple of weeks ago. I always put that grey headband on to keep my hair out of my face when I wash my face. Mason got a hold of the headband and stuck it on his head. He wore it for over 30 minutes! It was so funny. Mason, you are such a blessing and we love you more than words can express. We can't wait for the day you can say "I love you" back to us! You are the best!

Our New Pool!

I decided to get Mason a small inflatable swimming pool because he LOVES to be outside and it is just to hot to stay outside without water. I found one on sale at Target and spent the better part of an afternoon inflating it. Good times. We waited for a Saturday evening when Dad would be home so he could swim with Mason. They had a blast! It took Mason a little while to warm up to the idea of being in the pool, but once he did he had so much fun.

Here he is all ready to swim. Oh and please ignore the huge mound of boxes in the background. The emtpy-box-fairy seems to keep skipping our house. I may need to put out a plate of cookies or some loose change to entice her to come collect all those boxes.

Time to swim!!

Finally having fun

Splish Splash

Swinging after a swim

Here is a short video of Mason playing in the pool. Hope everyone else is staying cool in this hot weather!

Toes, Toads and a Face Plant

I am finding it a bit difficult to post about the past (mainly the move and all that took place around that) while keeping up to date with the present! I apologize if you feel as confused as I do. I guess it will be like that until I get all caught up to date with what's going on.
This week has been a bit better than the last few. We are starting to settle in a bit more and feel like it is home here - even though we miss Mike a lot! He works some SUPER long hours 7 days a week. But we did get to see him on Sunday for a few hours, which was great!
Yesterday the moms from the play group I am in had a toe painting party!! Leslie did a great job painting every one's toes - she is so artistic and creative! We let the kids run-a-muck while we visited and got pampered. Mason screamed for the first 30 minutes we were there (he always thinks I am going to leave him) but then had fun playing with the rest of the kids.
Here are my toes!! Great job Leslie!



We also have a new neighbor. This AMAZING toad hopped out at dusk to munch on some bugs. The pictures don't do him justice. He is TWICE the size of my fist. He (or she) is the biggest toad I have ever seen. Needless to say Jake won't be going out at night without supervision. I would be so heartbroken if he got ahold of our toad friend.

We hope to have the boxes out of here soon! haha. Ugh. Boxes.

And last but certainly not least. A face plant. Mason, I'm sorry, but this was just TOO funny not to post. This is a video of Mason playing soccer at MeMaw and DeDaw's house - and he bites it. HARD. Enjoy.

Mason Has One Chore...

and it is to take the lint from the dryer and put it in the trash. He does it so well! I love how he tells Jake to get out of his way using jibberish - and then Jake does. Ha ha. I guess it's all in the inflection.

Leaving CA Part 1

Our last few days as residents of California were taken up with fun, friends and LOTS of boxes. The Marine Corps Silent Drill Team comes to perform at the Recruit Depot every Spring. We knew this might be our last chance to see them so we decided to go. They didn't disappoint! It was an awesome show. The Marine Corps Band also performed, and we got to stick around and mingle with them after the show. Here are some pics!

Here is the band coming in

Getting ready to play

Here comes the Silent Drill Team. It was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop!

After the show: taking pictures with a member of the silent drill team (Mason does own shoes, he just can't seem to keep them on!)

Mom and Mason with the Drum Major (Mason is thinking, "that is one BIG stick")

Dad and Mason with the Drum Line

We had the immense pleasure of making friends to last a lifetime while we lived in SD. We said goodbye in shifts to our various groups of friends - but this group deserves a special mention. The Smith family was our first group of friends. They knew Mike long before I even did! He met them when he was first stationed in SD right after joining the Marines. They were sweet enough to give Mike a place to crash when he first moved out there before deploying to Iraq - and when they heard of the fire they were quick to give us all kinds of things to help us start over. You guys are the best!!

Goodbye dinner with the Smiths at Oggi's (a famous local SD pizzeria. SOOOO good!)

Mason and Mackenzie. He really did like her...he just seems confused in this picture, haha.

More to come! There are a lot more friends, goodbyes and BOXES yet to be seen!