my first "official" play date

mason plays with other kids all the time - at school, at church, at small group gatherings, but none of these events are fancy enough to warrant an invitation. so when dash sent out an official e-vite to come play at his house, mason begged me to go. i happily obliged, knowing i would get to catch up with dash's mommy lauren.


we had a blast. dash has really cool toys, including a new playground/playset that they set up in the living room for our benefit (lauren assured us it wasn't a permanent feature, although i'm sure dash wouldn't object!)

the host

jaxson

olivia

reese

i think mason tried out every toy dash owns - and dash has a LOT of toys! here's are a couple of pictures from the day

(you'll note, of course, that i didn't manage to capture many smiles - we were inside, so my flash went crazy causing all smiles to disappear by the time the shutter went off... typical!)

thanks for inviting us, dash! we had a great time!

like father, like son

in 1979, little tikes introduced the "cozy coupe." brad's mom says it was one of brad's favorite toys when he was two years old.

for mason's first birthday, brad's mom and dad (aka granny and papa) bought mason the 30th anniversary edition of the cozy coupe. it is now one of mason's favorite toys. like father, like son...

12 month update!

with mason's party and then our vacation, we didn't have the 12-month well baby check-up until today. i must say, it was probably the best trip to the doctor's office we've ever had! mason was in such a great mood and played happily until they called us back. we quickly did the height check, weight check, and head measurement without incident.

this is a big deal as mason normally doesn't sit very still - he tries to sit up during the height check, climb up the scale when weighing, and then doesn't want to lay back down to put his diaper on. he doesn't pitch a fit or anything, but nevertheless, he's VERY busy. today, however, he was perfect. which means i didn't break a sweat during the process (definite bonus!)

he walked all around the exam room while we waited for the doctor to come in, read a few books (ok, mason flipped pages and i attempted to read the words on the page before he turned it).

the stats:

• height: 31 1/2 inches (90th percentile)
• weight: 24 pounds (70th percentile)
• head circumference: 18 inches (25th percentile)

developmentally he's right on track. a few highlights:

• he's exclusively walking, and getting faster every day. he now realizes how much more he can reach & his new favorite game is pulling stuff off of countertops and other formerly-out-of-reach surfaces.
• mason is transitioning well to table food. he loves chicken, red beans and rice, and he had his first hot dog this week (i know, not the healthiest option, but he ate the WHOLE thing - cut into tiny pieces of course).
• he loves milk. we're currently switching from formula to whole milk and he is sucking it down. he seems to particularly like it cold.
• we're phasing out bottles for sippy cups. for six months or so, he's been drinking water out of sippy cups, so we're hoping it won't be a traumatic change to say bye-bye to the bottles.
• he hides things. he is constantly sticking things into nooks and crannies that brad and i may or may not know about! he hides pacifiers, his toy cow, my hairbrush, cars, etc.
• he babbles a lot. mason's vocabularly is still pretty limited, but he "talks" a lot (and quite loudly)! mama, dada, and bye-bye are the only intelligible ones we recognize...
• he still loves peek-a-boo. he now initiates games on his own instead of just playing along with us.
• he loves to chase cassie and gets really excited when we chase him.
• he graduated to the "wobbler" class at school and now sleeps on a nap mat!
• his smile lights up his whole face (and ours!)

we love you, mason. what a fun year!

swiffer-man

mason hasn't yet decided what he wants to be for halloween, but in the meantime he's channeling the terrific superhero known as "swiffer-man."

"i hate the vaccuum, but i'm down with the swiffer!"

"work it... own it..."

"this thing is as big as me!"

"that was so hard, i had to stick my tongue out!"

my new trick

before our beach trip, mason was toddling around everywhere. but he hadn't quite mastered what to do when he fell down. as you might have noticed, we do not have the most cautious child in the world, so the falls were pretty frequent. prior to destin, a fall would be followed by a grunt of frustration, then mason would crawl over to something to pull himself back up.

about halfway through our trip, we noticed mason had a new trick...

we haven't seen him crawl in days. although he still gets frustrated when he falls, he now pops right back up!

bye bye beach

dear florida,

your powder white sand and crystal blue waters brought much joy this week. we hope to see you again soon. until then, bye bye beach.


we were out the door at 4:13 am this morning for our journey home. ten hours and 53 minutes later, we pulled into our driveway (that includes 2 food stops and picking up cassie-dog). it's good to be home, but a little sad to leave the vacation behind.

mason was very excited to be back in his house... he walked from room to room squealing for the first 10 minutes, then ran straight to his cozy coupe and climbed inside (you'd think after the long ride, he'd steer clear of any type of car, but i guess some toys are fun no matter what!)

surf's up

careful foot placement

cool hand gesture...

mason says "surf's up dude!"

more fun in seaside

we are family

family vacation 2009

seaside smiles...

we ventured down the road from our beach to seaside, florida, a quaint little beach town with great architecture and lots of "photo ops" for smiling little people - or cranky ones - whichever you happen to have with you!

to mason's credit, we left the condo later than we planned and we were cutting it close on dinnertime... we managed a few smiles, but everyone was pretty worn out by the time we made it to the beach (next time we'll start there first!) mommy also underestimated how quickly the sun would set, so we had two strikes against us.

without further adieu, here are the "best of" from the evening...

the sunshine of my life

as we were walking back to the car after our bass pro shop adventure, there was a slight break in the rain. mason spotted a water fountain like the one on market street. at first, brad just ran the stroller in between the shooting jets, but once we stopped, mason toddled his way on over. once again we were caught without a swimsuit, swim diaper, or towel. once again, we decided to let the fun reign the day.

if i walk a little faster, maybe i can catch the water!

wet clothes are heavy - i prefer just my big, puffy diaper!

low clearance... gotta duck!

peek-a-boo

whee!

this is so much fun!

it's raining, it's pouring...

we woke up monday to a huge rainstorm. we tried to wait it out, but by lunchtime it was clear that the rain wasn't going anywhere. so we did what every other family in destin did - went to the hard rock cafe and the bass pro shop! (seriously, both places were packed!)

checking out each other... and the fish, too!

"daddy, can i have a boat?"

i'm up a creek - but i found a paddle!

whoa! big fish!

cool view...