Hi gang. This is Jake. I just wanted to brighten your Holiday spirits by providing this little video. Mason can be so cute sometimes he just makes me laugh out loud. When I laugh, he laughs back and says "money" (his version of funny).

I don't even know where he is picking up all these words now. Often Steph and I will look to each other as if to ask, "did you teach him that?" So far it has never been a bad word but some words seem a bit rare for him to just learn on his own.

I am trying to teach him ornament now. He says "nunamimn". Oh yes and poinsettia too. There are no letter to describe the word he states back to me for that one. We will keep trying.

Mason is much more interested in snow now. We went out and shoveled the walk together. Well, I shoveled and he ran into the garage and got a broom. He then pushed it all over the snow in the driveway. Then he jumped in the slush and got all wet. We made snowballs and threw them till our hands were cold (translation: My hands were cold).

He seems to be waking up every morning saying "Kuhlure" (Color) like a million times in a row. It would seem that he wants to color with markers and crayons every waking moment and probably every sleeping moment as well. He really likes it when I take his hand, put a crayon in it, and help him draw something like letters, shapes or numbers. We keep a very close eye on him when he has his coloring stuff. He will try to hide it because he wants desperately to color on the walls but he can never do it while we around. He is very forward thinking. He plots. That is scary. :( He thinks about 3-6 hours ahead for now but soon it might be days in advance. I don't know if I can keep up with that.

Thats all for now. I hope everyone has a fantastic Holiday.

Peace

Fun with Dad

Every year Jake gets Omaha Steaks for his birthday and every year he gets ridiculous amounts of joy out of filling the kitchen with the "smoke" that dry ice emits when in water. This year he got to share this pleasure with his son and found out that this already enjoyable adventure is made even more enjoyable and funny when you add a 1 year old. Mason loved every second of it until the end when he started yelling "Eye! Eye!" That's when we wondered if maybe having him a foot from the dry ice might be a bad idea. Not to worry though, we did what all good parents would do. We backed him up a little.

Is it too late for a Thanksgiving post?

Our Thanksgiving was awesome this year. We only had to drive 8 miles, I only had to make deviled eggs, and the company was great. Favorite cousin in the world hosted it at her house and we had a small group of our two families and our parents. She posted pics of the festivities here.
Mad props to Jen for pulling off a beautifully decorated and tasty meal.

The day after Thanksgiving also happened to be Jake's birthday. We sure did celebrate it this year! Yep, we got up and went shopping at home decor places and then we hit a matinee of Twilight, which he loved even more than shopping. To assert his masculinity he chose Outback Steakhouse for his birthday meal. We watched Boise State finish a perfect season and then went home to fresh apple pie.

On Saturday we went downtown to Festival of Trees, which Mason really enjoyed. Since I canceled Christmas last year he really hasn't seen many decorated trees so he was pretty impressed. I will say that we have put our own tree up this year and aside from the initial fascination, he has left the ornaments alone.

It seems like December is just flying by. It's always hectic for us at the end of a semester because Jake has to study more than usual but he does have the encouragement of this being his last semester in a very long time to get him through. 2 more weeks!

I can't get pictures to load and Jake has gone to bed so it looks like this will be a photoless post.

Haircut

I decided we should get Mason's pictures professionally done again since he is the big one and one half. Convincing Jake that this would be a good idea was a little more difficult than I expected. If you'll recall we had a ridiculous time trying to get him to stay still for his one year pictures and Jake wasn't looking forward to the workout. I had a great coupon for Kiddie Kandids so we took a little trip to the mall. I had never been to this particular Kiddie Kandids and let me just say it sure does help to have a photographer who at least pretends to like kids. She had Mason laughing so hard that we actually had to wait for him to calm down a bit to get a picture because he would throw his head back and laugh so hard he just looked crazy.

One problem I had was his hair, I can't believe how fast it grows and that I now have to budget 2 boys' haircuts every month. I would love to just buzz it, but all stylists I have consulted with say that might not be such a good idea. Plus he's a little scared of clippers and I try to minimize things that traumatize him. So right after we got these pictures taken I got him an appointment for a haircut. I called Jake and said "Mason has a haircut at 6:30 tonight". Jake says "Uh, no, he won't be able to get his hair cut this evening". I say "Why?" Jake says "Well, because he climbed on top of his changing table and got the Vaseline". It should be known that the Vaseline jar was of the industrial Costco size and he managed to get more than half of it out and onto his body, his hair, his changing table, the carpet, his clothes...

When Jake found him in his bedroom he stood in the doorway stunned at what he was looking at, never saying a word. Mason immediately started crying and handed the Vaseline to Jake. He's a very sensitive boy. I'm pretty sure he would have a complete breakdown if we ever raised our voices at him.

I googled "Vaseline in baby hair" and saw that baking soda and dish soap were the preferred methods of removal. Back into the bath he went (Jake had already given him 2) where Jake made a nice baking soda paste on his head. No dice. At this point I came home and had to take him to get his hair cut. I tried to rationalize that it didn't look that bad but secretly he looked like John Travolta in Grease. The stylist said "Oh did you just wash his hair?" Uh no, it's actually dry with a whole lot of Vaseline in it. She said we should have used dish soap. I will file that tip away for next time. Anyway, she cut most of it out and now he looks like a clean cut little boy, albeit a naughty one.

Such A Clever Boy

Hello everyone, Jake here. I have noticed that Mason is growing up so fast that it takes several videos to show it all. He is speaking more these days. He said to me today, "stinky" and then promptly pointed to his bum. He was very... VERY correct. It was the first time he had ever said "stinky" but he used it correctly when he did choose to say it. That is how most every word goes. It feels like he is listening to get the meaning of a word before he try's to say it out loud.

This seems backwards to me. It seems logical to say the word when you hear it over and over; this lets you get comfortable sounding it out before you try to use it. This just isn't Mason's style.

He is very contemplative. He is thinking all the time. When he sees new people he will look them up and down and not make a sound, just looks them up and down. Then he usually decides to go do something else or play with this new person. I think it might be weird to be on the receiving end of that kind of scrutiny. Once, at a restaurant, he did it to the waitress. It looks exactly like some creepy guy leering at a pretty girl. It was funny.

We will tell him to do stuff and he will pause and just look at you. Then, off he goes to do what you told him. I would say he successfully completes tasks given to him 60% of the time. Well, unless you tell him to throw something away, then it is 100% successful. Conversely, if you ask him to pick up the flashlight and bring it to you, it is 0% successful. I think he just does not want to go get it. He can be stubborn that one.

He is clever to the point of shocking me. He is now showing problem solving skills that are awesome to behold. I don't know if this is normal for 18 month old babies but I think it is pretty advanced stuff. Watch the video and judge for yourself. He gets into things that I would have thought impossible before I witnessed it first hand.

We have to take extra precautions with the treadmill now. You'll see why.

Happy 1.5 Bobo!

You can click on the picture to make it bigger. I would also like to add that his word list is not all inclusive but we had to cut a few out to fit on the page. Jake and I collaborated on this little digital scrapbook page and I must say that he is definitely the more artistic of the two of us. I just kept saying "Symmetry Symmetry Symmetry!" Anyway, I think it will perfectly memorialize Mason at 18 months. Enjoy!

Halloween... 2nd Post!

Hello everyone. This is Jake. I am posting the video of Mason's Halloween. Great stuff.