Mason's First Kiss and other exciting stuff

Some of you might have already heard the story of Mason's first kiss. I just thought it was so precious! And to be able to catch it on camera, scrapbooking here I come! Actually I haven't really scrapbooked much for Mason's "official" scrapbook, just been doing lots of smaller projects. Anyway some other cute stuff that Mason has done recently, he sits on the couch with a book and "reads" it to himself. He turn the pages and babbles to himself and even giggles. It is so adorable. He really loves books right now and just wants us to read them to him over and over. We got some Dora ones at the library and those would have to be some of his favorite. He still loves to watch Dora and even has started saying "Backpack" and "Map" when these two characters come on! His newest word is "Excellente" he learned it from Mommy and repeats it whenever he hears me say it. I think it is his longest word so far. He has really become a little echo, copying all the words we say. On Saturday he rode on Laura and Skip's go-cart with Daddy. He had so much fun, smiling and saying "wee wee wee" the whole time. He didn't want to get off!! He is trying to learn how to jump, when he practices he squats down and then pushes up, throwing his hands high into the air and goes up on his tiptoes, it is so cute and he is so proud of himself. He is working on getting some more teeth in, one in the front and one of his back bottom molars. Yesterday we did Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes and this is one of his favorite new things. He also loves Row Row Row Your Boat, thanks to the Nursery Rhyme book from Nana Shauna, he goes to the book shelf and pulls out all the books until he finds it, saying, "row row" all the while and then brings us the book. He loves when Todd and I sing it to him in a round! We sure love our little guy, he brings us so much joy and laughter!!!

My Little Peter Pan

I just have to share a few cute things Mason has done in the past week. On Wednesday night we were sitting in the recliner watching Benji (YEA!!!) win the So You Think You Can Dance Finale and Mason noticed his shadow on the wall. He said, "Hi, Hi" and started trying to play with it. It was so cute and it reminded me of a little Peter Pan chasing his shadow. That night while the contestants were performing he also danced along with them, bouncing up and down with the cutest smile. We went to the duck pond on Tuesday night with Laura and Braxton and Mason was sitting in Laura's lap feeding Cherrios to the ducks and swans. He loves birdies and was having a ton of fun. When one of the swans came up close he reached out his hand to try to touch it. Luckily the swan didn't reach right back and bit him like the duck at the fair did! He also hit the swans in the head with some cherrios a few times, but I don't think his aim is good enough that he was doing it on purpose. After we were done feeding the ducks we took the boys to the park. I realized just how big my little boy is getting when he manuvered the entire play structure by himself, climbing the stairs, going across the bridge and up another set of stairs and then down the big slide. He would say, "weeee" as he went down and then would run back to the stairs for another trip. They didn't have baby swings at the park so when it was time to swing I sat in the swing with Mason and we went together. He loved it, saying, "weeee" over and over. But he liked it even better when I sat him on the swing and very gently pushed him all by himself. He held on oh so tight and had the cutest I'm a big boy now face on. On Monday I was checking out a website for a train ride we are going to take at the coast tomorrow. Mason came in the room and saw the picture of the train on the computer and said, "train." I asked him if he wanted to go ride a train at the beach on Saturday and he said, "uh-hu," grabbed my finger and pulled me to the door. I told him that we couldn't go right now and he pulled me again, but eventually understood that we weren't going just yet. Last night I was watching Chase and he and Mason were just so cute together. Mason is finally getting to the point where he plays with Chase and Braxton, not just next to them. They played trains the whole night with the exception of when they were eating dinner at the kids table and I looked over and Mason was eating the Mac and Cheese out of Chase's bowl and when they were chasing each other around the kitchen and screaming and laughing and talking to each other in the language only the two of them understand! I am glad that Mason has cousins so close that he can learn and grow with. Some days I wish that Mason could stay this age forever, but then I think about all the cute stuff he is bound to do as he grows and look forward to the new ways he will charm me each day!

Well yesterday I tried to add a picture from our trip to the Santiam River, but for some reason it wouldn't let me. Maybe the post was too big, I don't know. Here it is. Enjoy!

Beauty at the Beach

It has been a while since my last post, mostly because we have been out at the beach house without access to a computer. It was a wonderful week out at the coast. We enjoyed lots of walks on the beach and time to relax. Mason had a lot of firsts this week too. He played his first bowling game, he found his first shell on the beach, and he touched his first starfish at the tidepools at Haystack Rock. He had so much fun out on the beach. Todd would take him in the water a little way and he just loved splashing in the waves. Although he wouldn't want to stay in the water too long, it was very cold!! He loved seeing the birds flying around at the beach and there are tons of seagulls down by Haystack rock so he would point them all out to us and say, "Birdie!!!" Todd's friend JJ was visiting for part of the week so we went to lots of different places including the Tillamook Cheese Factory and a jetty, the Astoria Column, Fort Stevens State Park, Indian Beach and the look out at Ecola State Park, and of cousre for walks on the beach. Todd and JJ even attempted boogie boarding, but decided the water was, "not just cold but take your breath away, butt-numbing cold" as JJ put it! By tuesday everyone had gone home and we had the rest of the week to enjoy by ourselves. It was a much needed week off, especially for Todd who just finished his classes July 28th, bytheway he got straight A's this quarter, all his hard work paid off and I am so proud of him. He is already registered for next term, but we are looking forward to having him home in the mornings until it starts in September. We took Mason into Seaside and he got to ride on a little train with me and had his first carousel ride with Daddy. He like both a ton. I knew he would like the train, but wasn't sure what he would think of the carousel, but he loved it. We had to come home on Friday but we had a ton of fun. Yesterday we went down to a family reunion near Salem and I just had to share this adorable picture of Mason and Todd in the Santiam River. It has been a very eventful week and we are working on getting back into schedule, especially since Mason hasn't been sleeping throught the night recently. Last Thursday night we slept for about 3 1/2 hours because Mason was up all night crying because he is teething really bad. On Friday his mouth was super swollen and he was drooling everywhere, I almost had to pull his bibs back out! He didn't sleep well Friday night either, Saturday night was a little better, and last night he actually slept the whole night through. He won't let us get our fingers in his mouth to check things out, but I think he got some more of his back teeth in, maybe even so molars. We can see some stuff when he laughs. We are just totally enjoying our sweet little man.