Thursday, September 3, 2009

One Year

I am not quite done with the Dear Mason post, so if you have some time, take a looky at the last year in photos.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Dear Mason - One Year

One Year
Dear Mason,

Where do I even begin? I have been thinking about writing this post for what seems like forever but alas, I still cannot come up with the appropriate words. What can I possibly say about you that I haven't said before? You should know everything by now. You should know how much I love you, my lingering guilt over the first couple months of your life, how you are the love of my life, my sunshine, my rain, my heart.
Your personality is still the same. You are a ball of fire and a breath of fresh air all at the same time. You melt not only my heart, but everyone else's around you. You are wonderful, beautiful and every other adjective that could possibly describe LOVE and BEAUTY. I read over all of the Dear Mason posts. Every single one of them. It is amazing to see the transformation in you and in myself. You changed who I am and I will never be that same. You made me a mother.
Even when you push me away and bite and scratch and pull my hair in frustration, I am still bursting with love. Even when I call you a "little shit" or yell "no no no no no NO!" for a straight hour my insides are melting with love.You are the only thing in my life that is absolutely perfect in every way. And this is what I want to tell you: Your life will not be perfect. Your relationships, dreams, marriage, house, car, bank account, family, etc etc...they will never be exactly like you imagined them. Do not let this take you under. Do not even for one second dwell on any of it. Please be happy. Be the best person you can be. Be yourself and speak your mind. Put 110% into everything you do, even if it is someone else's 10%. That's all I will ever ask of you. I just want you to be you because that is the most important thing you can be. I will always be your mother and you will always be my Mason. No matter what.
This is officially the last post here. Head on over to my new blog for a good time.






Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Whirlwind

Lesson 13 - BUSY

Adding people to your family, especially little people only makes your life busier, people. I could have sworn that SOMEWHERE SOMEONE must have told me it makes life slow down.

No?

Really?

We have been so busy lately with all the football drafts, friends, friends sprouting multiple babies at once, working, getting ready for the BIG birthday. ::Shock:: my baby is only going to be a baby for one more day. One more day! Then he officially enters toddlerhood. I have a toddler. My God, who let this happen? We took one year photos today with cake and all and it was soooo difficult for a couple reasons. First, he crawls. Everywhere. You cannot stop him. He wants his truck, not the stuffed football. Damnit. Then the cake. Oh the cake. Whoever started this ridiculously cute trend must be found and hugged. And then shot. I will of course be including the results (the not so wonderful results, but whatevs) in his Dear Mason post.

To end, look at some cute twins. Oh my gosh. They smelled like roses and candy and yumyumyum. My uterus moved a little when I held them. Then I smacked myself and told myself to, "Get it together, lady".

Saturday, August 29, 2009

They want S'mores!

I will be blogging over at Learning Two Reed today because THE TWINS ARE COMING!!!

Friday, August 28, 2009

A Teaser

Lesson 12 - What spinach? I think a lot of moms will agree with me in saying that the health and nutrition of your child is probably THE most important thing in the first year. You are pretty much setting the standard for the rest of their life. I would much rather get him used to eating healthy things now than arguing with him about eating the good stuff later.
Mealtime has definitely been a challenge lately since my GREAT eater off all things pureed has turned into a picky eater. Enter Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious. Works like a freaking charm. I am finding new ways to hide veggies in EVERYTHING. This even makes life easier for me because I prepare the purees ahead of time, freeze and then mix into whatever I am making.

Look for recipes, stories and outcomes on the new blog coming soon! Sorry to be a tease but I am SUPER busy this week!!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Conspiracy Theory

Lesson 11 - Save your money.

Babies totally don't care about toys that were actually made for them. Okay, sometimes they do, but most of the time? Most of the time they think that every day items are waaaay better. Take the remote for example. Do you think Mason plays with his Elmo remote? Hells no. He would much rather change the channel and mess up our input settings on the regular remotes. Paper bags? HOURS of entertainment. Keys, water bottles, trash cans, coasters, cell phones, nail files, etc etc etc.

I have a theory. What if we played with all of their baby toys from the beginning and ignored our everyday "toys"? Would they think that their toys were cool again? I mean, I don't know about you but I get down right giddy in the toy aisles at Target and Toys R Us. There are so many cool toys out there for kids. Maybe that's the point. Maybe the toy manufacturers are onto something. Maybe they are making the toys for the parents. Maybe I need to take my medication now.

Friday, August 21, 2009

The non-bubble baby.

Lesson 10 - As I told my friend Jessica, babies bounce.

I think the first time was when Mason was VERY young. Like, still carrying him like a baby young. I slipped on the stairs and almost dropped him, but he was saved from hitting the ground...that time. The next time was when he started rolling. You know how when your baby gets to THAT age and every time you go to the doctor for a well check-up she says, "Make sure you don't leave him alone on the changing table, he might roll off."? It was somewhere around there. I turned to get a onesie out of his closet and like a dream, slow motion rolling happened. I caught him mid air, but I still think he tasted a little bit of the ground.

We had a break for a while, minus all of the "learning to sit" toppling with little bumped heads here and there. Next up was Mason vs. the stairs. Twice. One incident you all witnessed in the chicken abuse video, the next was a mere two weeks later when Mason decided to climb up three stairs and practice standing by himself. You can imagine the outcome of that one. Let's see, ah yes, next was what we lovingly refer to as "The Bed Dive". Every morning, we bring Mason into bed with us while we work on getting our eyes to stay open for the day. Usually, Mason can see the foot board of the bed, but today it was covered by our comforter. Which happens to be silk. Awesomeness. On this particular day, Mason crawled to the end of the bed and kept on going. All I saw were legs straight up in the air.

Most recently, like this morning, stupid me forgot to fasten the straps on my dear Maclaren stroller. We were browsing in a book store and Mason evidently wanted to check out a book on the nearest shelf he could reach. He fell right out of the stroller, head first onto the ground. He now has a lovely carpet burn on his forehead. After I showed him a nearby stuffed elephant he was completely fine.

Luckily, we haven't had any serious injuries yet. Most of the time, he is watched very closely. As many of you moms know, you cannot be everywhere at once and sometimes things happen. Not even the best babyproofers are completely, well, babyproofed. Do not beat yourself up over it. Shit happens and it will continue to happen. Maybe worse! Maybe you will have to go to the emergency room a time or two. Everyone does. Who wants a bubble baby?