Touch-A-Truck

We took Mason to Touch-A-Truck this year. He wasn't quite sure what to think when we first started walking around. We started with the construction trucks...Mason did not like sitting in the first one...he basically cried the whole time his mom made him sit there while she tried to take pictures :)

After a little while and lots of encouragement from Brad, Mason calmed down a little bit. He would sit in the cars as long as someone was holding him...Here they are in a limo

Mason climbed in the back of a U-haul truck. They had little cardboard U-haul shaped trucks that were banks. Mason thought this was pretty cool.

The only truck Mason would get in without us was the fire truck. He thought that was the coolest one...After he spent a little time in the truck we snapped a picture in front.

We had a lot of fun. Maybe next year Mason will be a little bit braver and venture into a few more trucks!

Mason and the Duck

While we were eating lunch at Sea World, one duck realized that Mason was a good source of food. Mason loves ducks so he was really excited about this duck. Mason would break off pieces of his breadstick and throw them to the duck.

Mason was really entertained by this...

Then the duck realized that a little boy is holding this food right in front of him and the duck jumped up and grabbed the rest of the breadstick from Mason's hand. Mason wasn't sure what to think. He his not really good at sharing food. So he whined a little bit...and then he saw the duck eating the bread and he started giggling...

Even though he liked to watch the duck eat the bread, he was still not happy that the duck stole his food so he decided to chase that duck around to try to get it back. The duck outsmarted Mason though, and ran under the bush. The bush didn't stop Mason from trying to get to the duck though!

Sea World

Yesterday we went to Sea World. We started out the day checking out the dolphins. Mason loved to watch them swim. He was even close enough that he got splashed when the dolphins swam by.

Can you tell by his face that he didn't want to stop for a picture?

Then we walked through the aquariums. All of the fish were so colorful. Some were HUGE! Mason loved them all, of course. Then we went to the tide pool. I wouldn't touch the starfish but Kristin picked one up so Mason could see it. He thought it was pretty cool but I had to watch him close because he would start to squeeze the poor fish.

We spent a little time in the Sesame Street area. There are a few little rides. Mason was so excited until the ride started moving, then he cried.

Mason really loved the polar bears and penguins. He kept roaring at the bear and trying to clim through the glass.

Doesn't Mason look so big in this picture?

Of course we had to let Mason have a little treat. He eats like we never give him anything sweet.

Finally, we had to check out the Shamu show. It is not nearly as exciting when they can't get in the water but Mason still pointed and clapped when Shamu did tricks. There is the one cheesy part of the show where they get the whole crowd cheering for Shamu as he splashes the crowd. They have everyone put their arms up and clap. Well, Mason was getting into the arm waving and clapping until he saw that we were watching him and then he stopped.

Sea World was so fun. I am glad we had the chance to go. Mason absolutely loved it and we loved watching him get into it.

Beach!!

Today we drove to San Diego for a couple of days. After we checked into

the hotel, we decided to go to the beach. I wasn't sure how Mason would like it, but he LOVED it! He could not get enough of the sand. He was running all over the place. And he learned how to say "beach." It is totally cute.

Here he is picking up some sea shells.

Building a sand castle

Mason even tried to eat some sand...it didn't seem to bother him though...weird kid.

Tomorrow we are going to go to Sea World!

Who is this kid?

Who is this kid? and how come he never has clothes on?

18 Months!!

Mason is officially 18 months. On Sunday he went to his first day of nursery! Yay! I think he had a blast because he fell asleep on the way home and slept for 3 hours! The leaders said he was really good and played well with the other kids. He came home with an art project but it had no coloring on it. They said he wasn't very good at coloring on the paper- just the table...oops!

We have a pediatrician appointment in a couple days and we will see how big he is...my guess is about 28 pounds, maybe more, so we will see on Wednesday.

He has been learning lots of new words. He makes me laugh because he is really good at saying thing with 'sh' or 'th'. Basically all the sounds that are harder to learn he has down but he won't say the simple words like more. Some of his favorite words to say are baby (he always says this in a high pitch voice and anyone under the age of 7 classifies as a baby to him), shoes, socks, this (when he wants to eat he will point at the cupboard and say "this"), watch, spoon, truck and some other words. He can do lots of animal sounds but my favorite is cat because he sounds nothing like a cat. Let me try to explain it. He says "Pi kow"( just sound it out and thats what he sounds like) but he always does it in a super high pitch. Its pretty funny.

He is super good at making messes. Kind of good at cleaning up. Loves to read books and do puzzles. His favorite toys are trucks and dinosaurs.

Here is an example of one of his messes. We make him eat in the kitchen in his high chair because I will not let him anywhere near the carpet. When he is finished eating, he will dump his plate and then rub the plate on his head. He will then pick up any little crumbs he can find and very carefully balance them on his head. He is not fun to clean up after. So the other night we had spaghetti and this is how Mason ended up.

He was so dirty that I didn't even want to carry him upstairs so he ended up in the kitchen sink. He didn't really like the sink so maybe he will learn that if he gets filthy, he doesn't get his real bath with toys.

Even though Mason makes all kinds of trouble, we sure do love this little boy!

We have all been keeping very busy with work and school. I have work or school every day except Friday, which usually turns into a catch up day on laundry and housework. But I am just about at midterm so the semester is half over. My lab class just ended for the semester so that will lighten my load a little. I still have plenty to do before the semester is over though! Brad has been working a ton and has worked the past 6 weekends. We are lucky to have Kristin around to entertain Mason. He loves to sneak into her bedroom in the morning and hand her her glasses. I think that is his way of saying "Get up and play with me!"

Ok, I have lots of new cute pictures of Mason! But they are still on my camera...

so stay tuned because I have my lab final on Thursday and then I will have a little free time to catch up...

Until then, enjoy this photo (It's a few months old but it still cracks me up!)