Christmas and New Year's

Was an absolute blast! I'd tell you more but Andy keeps telling me that he needs the computer for a lesson plan so I will have to update tomor....

Andy's dream come true...

Nope, not a new guitar but rather a vampire baby! For those of you who don't already know, Andy is a bit of a Twilight freak. "I'm not a Twilight freak," is what Andy just said after I read what I wrote.

Sometimes I feel like I need to compete with Jacob. *sigh*

The sigh was from Andy...

Passing the time...

With so much snow keeping us inside, our little toddler got curious and creative...





Boy, you try to do one little thing that takes all of twenty seconds and return to this...


I'm still trying to figure out how he got in!

Blizzards and the best treat in the world!

We have had TWO snow storms already and Mason has loved watching and eating the frozen precipitation. As far as playing in it, when you're only a little over two feet tall, twenty inches of snow can be a bit much.

Daddy and Mason having a moment. Ahhh...

Mason helped protect the trees by hitting the snow off of their branches. You could almost hear the trees breathing a sigh of relief, "Thanks, Mason."


And finally, Andy and I stumbled upon the BEST toddler distraction ever, snow-in-a-bowl (or cup, as this video shows).


Mason would actually sit in his high chair for about ten minutes simply enjoying his frozen treat which in return was a huge treat for Mom and Dad.

Dear Andy,

I hope your grad school class went well tonight. While you were gone Mason did multiple laps around the house instead of putting on his jammies, he learned that he could take off his diaper and he also had a grand time STANDING on Mr. Zebra. We miss you and will try to survive alone.

Turkey, turkey and MORE TURKEY!

Yay, poultry! We had a grand time at Dana and Darren's house for Thanksgiving with lots of cooking, eating and drinking (Darren just put in a kegerator in the basement, yum yum). The house was beautiful and as always it was lovely to spend time with family. On Saturday, the three of us headed out to a local tree farm so we could cut our own Christmas tree. I'll be honest, it's a little challenging to decorate a tree with a curious one year old hovering about.

This is literally a Mason sized Christmas tree, so cute! We went with one a bit taller.

John Popper?

I think my favorite part is the super tiny dance move at second 30.



Now if we could just learn more than the one note...

In and out

When Mason and I get home in the evening, I open the back door so he can go in and out of the house. It's awesome when Mason comes back inside with presents like rocks and flowers. He hand delivers them with a huge smile. Me likie.
Today however, I had a brand new present. A baby slug! He kept saying, "Ba, BA!" No buddy, not a bug. Just really, really gross.
This video was taken after the slug incident but I thought it would be a good one to post. Look how much better Mason is walking!



Speaking of gross...Mason pooped in the bathtub tonight. I have no words.

Lady Bug, Lady Bug...

Go away! Our house is once again the home to many lady bugs (they are not actually lady bugs but they look pretty much identical to the aphid-eating, gardener loving species. Oh no, these are in fact an invasive Asian beetle) Anyway...it has been the perfect opportunity to teach Mason a new word, "Bug." Due to the number of non-ladybugs in our home, we've had lots of practice. This is not the most exciting video but you do get to hear our little guy's attempt at communicating.

Sorry strangers!

The grocery store has recently been the location for some uncomfortable moments. When spoken to by pretty much anyone Mason responds with the following expression...

We truly did not encourage this until after a few weeks of witnessing it. If you ever get the stink-eye, we apologize!

My Little Lion

For Halloween the three of us headed to Burke and enjoyed the day with the Gormans, Pappy, Mama and Gram. Mason played at a fall festival dressed as a lion. It took him a little while to get comfortable in the costume but once he did he was running around enjoying the slide and dirt. At the end of the day Mason was able to give a little "rar" when prompted. I haven't called him Little Lion since we brought him home from the hospital...isn't time a crazy thing?

Evening Fun Part II

So the father/son evening wrestling has begun. Don't most people wrestle on carpet instead of the tile kitchen floor? Mason then decided it was time to play a version of Hide in the Dining Room only tonight is was Hide in the Bathroom. This proved to be a much more dangerous game...listen carefully around second 28.

It just makes me laugh...

So I had to post it. This video is from Mason and Mommy's day at home when the car seat was with Andy.

Evening Fun

I think the happiest part of Mason's day is the moment his feet touch the driveway once we get home in the evening. He immediately takes off running to go pick flowers, gather acorns, point at the tractor and demand a ride as well as explore the fire shed, look for airplanes, relocate leaves and attempt to break into the barn.


The three of us enjoyed playing Mason's newest game which I call Hide in the Dining Room. It is a very complicated game and we played about twenty times.



Mason's bath toy additions have included a pumpkin and an old juice carton. Just trying to keep things new and exciting! It was a sad time for Mason when he was not allowed to play with my orange puff thing which I'm pretty sure he also thought was a pumpkin. Poor kid.

After Mason's bath we let him run a round for a bit upstairs without his diaper. Not a good idea. We found him peeing in our bedroom on the carpet.

Andy's Birthday

Was super fun! We had a nice weekend spending time with family at Jim's house in Basye (take a look at those pics! Haven't Jim and Andy come a long way with the house?!) and with Nancy in Sperryville for lunch on Sunday. Mason was a trooper at the restaurant and enjoyed sucking on a cloth napkin stuffed with an ice cube. It was the perfect fall weather weekend which would make anyone fall in love with Virginia.

Birthday Card for Daddy

Is anyone else noticing a trend?

One of those days...

This morning I turned the car on early because it was 31 degrees outside. I went back inside to wake up Mason and get him ready for the day. It was going to be a big day at work with a field trip. I still needed to organize my class into groups for the chaperons. Mason and I bundled up and walked out to the car only to realize that Mason's car seat was unfortunately in Andy's car...which was in Manassas...about 45 minutes away. The panic slowly started to creep in. "How am I going to get to work in time before the buses leave for our field trip?" "What am I suppose to do?!" I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!"

So I called Andy and there was no creep to the panic in his voice. It was immediate. "I just got to school! I've been out for two days and need to get things taken care of! I don't know what to do! #%@!"

Because I am usually a calm and logical person, the answer came with a lovely, serene feeling. I would take a personal day. YAY! It ended up being a gorgeous day and Mason and I have had a grand time playing outside. Here is some footage from our day.

Barn Fun

Mason found these in Daddy's barn and we couldn't resist.

Airplanes, socks and shoes

or rather "ocks" and "ews."

Our weekdays are pretty busy with work and playgrounds but we find time to enjoy the smaller things in life, like putting acorns in cups and rocks in ketchup bottles. Mason had the unfortunate experience today of learning that Mommy will under no circumstances let him walk into the street. There were tears. Lots of them. And the hiccup breathing but Mason was eventually distracted by reddish colored rocks that appeared to be quite fascinating.

We have an outdoor baby who wants nothing more than to have his butt in the grass, his toes in the dirt, and fingers wrapped around anything that grows out of the ground (including Gram's pretty flowers, sorry Nancy!).

Your food storage problems...

SOLVED! Mason has a plan...



A messy plan, but still a plan.