future talent show contestant

I love it when Mason sings. It's funny to listen to him sing and make up words or hum along with the radio. I was finally able to get a little on video tonight. It's pretty dark because I took it while we were reading his bedtime books, but it's the singing that's rad anyway so it's alright.  



and there you got it...a bunny hat

Matt has been working on his balloon animal skills, and apparently Andrew has been watching.

He has been using YouTube to get ideas - Andrew has noticed this as well. Andrew wanted to do a video and asked me to put it on the computer so people could know how to do a bunny hat. : ) Enjoy.

In case you can't hear it, he says:

Today we’re going to...

… I'm a kid and I'm named Andrew

And this time were going to show you how to make a bunny hat.

Put the two here… twist, and there you got it - a bunny hat

(What does it look like? Put it on so we can see it)

And there! And now you have yourself a bunny hat.

diaper free house?

Mason has been asking to use the toilet about once a day for a while now. I keep telling him no because I find diapers to be very convenient and the thought of potty training very annoying. But, then I realized this is about how old Andrew was when he showed interest (although I waited because I was about to have Mason) and we have another friend the same age working on it too. So then I decided I'd do it as soon as I had a few days at home. Thanks to the snow, that happened yesterday. It's actually really annoying that we had a whole week off due to the snow - I could've had him trained for sure, but instead I decided to wait until the last minute. But whatever.

I'm using the same technique I used with Andrew which means all I'm doing is talking about potty and poop, cheering for every win, cleaning up the misses, keeping sticker charts, bribing, and setting timers all day for the next few days. The one good thing about round two is I know what to expect so it's not nearly as frustrating as it was the first time.

For the record - Mason is rockin' the potty part but not the other part. He has 5 (out of 6) stars and even woke up dry this morning! Tomorrow (day 3) I'm going to try something different for #2's and hope for the best. If I don't have any luck, I'll have to reevaluate the plan.

Matt wishing Mason good luck before heading out for work.

Mason getting excited about his new unders.

: )

Another benefit to round two is that my fear of toilet germs has gone way down. I think it has something to do with that statistic about cell phones being dirtier than a public toilet. I think the point was to get you to wash your phone but it just made me realize toilets aren't so bad. : ) Anyway, my point is I don't think I let Andrew read books while he was learning because I didn't want anything to touch anything. Big mistake! Reading has been a huge hit for Mason. And they're all board books, so it's nothing a Lysol wipe can't fix...

Here's a video of him reading 8 Silly Monkeys. I didn't get the camera in time to catch him really getting into it, but with a little prodding from me he repeated some of it... still cute.

Mason's got it covered

Today was Andrew's last day with his soccer team. No pictures of Andrew, but here's Mason enjoying the game.

And today is also my dad's birthday. He's old enough to get senior discounts now!! : ) Sorry, no pictures of him, but Mason has this one covered too, with his attempt to say happy birthday. I love how pleased with himself he looks.

birthday

I love the way Mason says birthday. And I love this little video.

he's a good fall-er

I could never fall like this - I remember practicing. I always bent before landing.

memory verse

Andrew was given his first memory verse on Sunday. If he memorizes it he gets a piece of candy. Apparently candy is a good motivator! : )

After I recorded Andrew, Mason let me know he wanted a turn. It made Andrew laugh so hard he could hardly catch his breath. It was awesome.

tricked you

Andrew's latest thing is to 'trick' us. Every.single.thing is a trick. This is evidence of just how much he says 'tricked you' -- Mason has even started saying it. Mason has had a huge leap in his vocabulary over the last few weeks, but "tricked you" doesn't seem like the logical next step (other than the fact that he isn't happy unless he is doing whatever Andrew is doing).

yellow

Mason has taken an interest in learning colors lately. The way he says yellow is cute, so I tried to get it on video. Usually he adds a couple extra syllables, but of course once I finally get the camera out, he said it almost perfectly. Still cute.

enjoying bath time

sing

Mason loves to sing. I caught him at the very end of his performance - the video is only about 5 seconds long - but I think it's hilarious and if I don't put it on here it'll be forever lost in the files...

The best part is my parents bedroom door is on the other side of the TV stand and when I showed them this video they said they heard him. :)

Mary changed her profile picture

I love this!

concert time!

Tonight was Andrew's Christmas concert. He took his spot in the back and stayed there the whole time. He sang some, but we couldn't hear him and at times couldn't even really see him. That's okay though - it was still the cutest thing ever.

Here's Andrew hanging out with his friends, Ashton and Koen, before the show.

Mason snuck his way into the show. :0) His class isn't part of this but I grabbed him so he could watch Andrew and have dinner with us. The kids were all just dancing around so he joined in. Then when they did Jingle Bells, they passed out bells to all the little kids and Mason snuck one of those too!

After their concert we had a potluck dinner. Andrew asked me to bring something yummy so I made crock pot mac & cheese. It turns out that noodles + 4 cups of cheddar = yummy!

carols

Tonight's activity was to Skype a couple Christmas carols for our family. Andrew has been practicing for his Christmas program and loves to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, so I was hoping he'd do it tonight and he did!! He even did it for all three of our lucky carol recipients, I couldn't believe it.

To get ready, we got dressed up in the sweaters from grandma Cindy. She got them after Christmas last year and when I saw size 2T and 6, I was nervous. Apparently I didn't need to be... I can't believe they fit. :(

I wasn't sure how tonight would go, so just to be sure, I recorded Andrew singing in the car. :)

Christmas in Seattle

We went to Seattle today. It was originally going to be a busy day and then we added an additional five hours to it in order to be at Nordstrom for the awesome flash mob!! We ended up being in Seattle from 11 - 7. There were a few meltdowns, but we made it, and that's what counts...

I realize this picture doesn't seem awesome, but it is! Once the mob of singers started singing, we realized we were surrounded by them. The three people behind us in this picture were part of it! It was so cool! (thanks Brooke!)

Next we went to look at all the gingerbread houses. I took a bunch of pictures but not many turned out. So, no evidence that Brooke and the Miller family were there too.

Next on the list - the carousel.

Then, because we got there earlier than we planned, we decided to go watch Tangled. We couldn't have planned the timing better if we had tried! We all enjoyed the movie and Mason finally got to take his nap.

Then we headed straight to dinner. This was a stressful decision because we were cutting it very close to the start of the snowfall. We finished just in time and got to enjoy 4 songs worth of snow inside Pacific Place.

Here are two videos of the the flash mob. The first is a short clip to show how cool it was! The second is a longer version in case you didn't get enough with round one.

dragons

The boys love to play dragons with Matt. Matt will hide in one of the rooms and the boys walk down the hall and get scared to death when he jumps out. It's a fun little game...

A quick video of their fun.

brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug

I think we're lucky to have boys that get along so well. Even at daycare they comment on how cute they are together and that we're lucky (usually followed by 'enjoy it while it lasts' but I chose to ignore that part). Anyway, I love these pictures of them being cute together.

Andrew likes to talk for Mason a lot. And he's usually right. He told me Mason wanted to sit with him and watch a show. :) He doesn't care about TV yet, but he definitely liked sitting by Andrew.

Andrew also does things to Mason that I think are going to upset him, but instead make him smile or laugh. Basically he can do anything and Mason just loves that he's playing with him.

Here they are playing dragons with Matt. It's so fun to watch because Mason is actually scared but also can't stop laughing. The game usually starts with me holding him and then he warms up and will brave the dragon.

And here's a little video of them dancing to the Wiggles. I'm glad to see Mason is a fan! :)

full body rash - no problem

Mason got a rash last night that took over his whole body. Since daycare doesn't allow you to be there with a rash, plus it was weird looking, we decided to go see the doc. Thankfully it's nothing to worry about. And it doesn't seem to bother him, so other than him looking a bit crazy, he's fine.

You can kind of see the rash in these pictures. It's a bunch tiny red dots over every inch of his body. The doctor's best guess is that it is a lingering effect from his cold.

Since doctor appointments always take forever, I took Andrew to school so he wouldn't have to hang out with us. It was fun to have a little time with Mason. And I picked a great day - he was doing all sorts of new stuff today. Seriously, every hour he was pulling out a new trick. The best is he has started to nod yes now. And he clearly understands the difference between yes and no! He also told me after he went poo. It was crazy. He also said a few new words - he's starting to have too many to keep track of. It's awesome!

We ended the night with a little hot cocoa. I decided Mason was ready for a mug. :) How cute is he? Andrew chose the kind that had marshmallows then asked for extra marshmallows. He doesn't mess around!

This is just a little video I took of Mason playing today. I've been trying to catch his dance moves and finally caught a bit.

that's a big fish

Matt got to go out on a chartered fishing boat on the Columbia with Tim on Monday. He caught this monster! And there's a rumor he's going to be on TV! :) Stay tuned for the exciting update as soon as the story runs on Tim's station in Portland. I know - it's exciting!!

Here's the news story!

and he's off

On Saturday, Mason decided it was time to get serious about walking.



By Sunday, he was multi-tasking. :0)