Here are just a few of our family pictures we just had taken. They turned out pretty well I think. Do you agree?

Peyton Manning Jr.

Mason was loving all of the attention.

This one is our favorite.

Mason is a go-getter. At first we were wondering if he would freak out on this moo cow train ride, but he seemed to be soaking it in. In fact, when we went to take him out, he didn’t want to go. We had to pry his hands off of the barrel-converted cow .

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This past weekend marked our first trip to a pumpkin patch with Mason. Last year we could have taken him…but honestly it would have been more for us than him as he was only 8 months old and was only crawling. We probably would have taken a quick photo, grabbed our pumpkins, and left. This year, however, was a blast! We went to Maris Farms with some very good friends of ours who have a 2 year old little girl. First we picked out our pumpkins and then we went to play on different activities the place offered (at a very reasonable price.) Below are some pictures of our fun day. Matt will also be posting some videos later, so check back in for those.

                                                                                       Mason and Amy-Lynn riding in the wheel barrow..we’re looking for the perfect pumpkins.

                                                                                         Scott family pic

                                                                                          This was a barn full of corn that the kids could swim in…you sank down into it right away. They loved it!

                                                                                                         Tractor races…Mason’s legs weren’t long enough to reach the pedals, so he required some assistance.

                                                                                       Mason driving the big tractor-he looked so serious and intent while doing it…he took his job very seriously.

We’ve been working with Mason for over a year now on his sign language. He didn’t start picking it up until about 7 months ago however. This is a very useful thing to teach babies so they can start communicating with you earlier than when it takes to learn how to talk. We say the words as we sign them so he picks up on how to speak the words at his own pace. We are very proud of our little boy and would like to show him off… well even more :). 

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So with the pictures already getting you excited about the video, here it is. Mason, the fish, Scott (who has to have his dad hold him under the arms lest he sink ). He even takes a little dunk. What a daring boy. 

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Here are some pictures from one of our lessons:

1.Mason and Daddy are both excited to be in the water

2.Mason is swimming to his ducky toy.

3.Our fearless little man is jumping into the water. He knows Daddy will catch him.

4.Here Mason is washing his arms (this helps them to get used to the water at the beginning of the lesson)

5.A picture of the instructor…what do you think, is he creepy?

6.My two favorite boys in the whole world!

  Playing in the dirt

  This is the face he makes when you say “Smile.”

We have now had 2 swimming lessons with Mason. Last night was the first night where the whole family got to go to them together (I was sick the first lesson.) Mason LOVES swimming! When we walked into the pool area Mason started jumping up and down and squealing with excitement. He started pulling on his clothes, anxious for us to take them off so he could GO GO GO! As soon as he was ready, he went right into the water with no fear. He especially loves to splash. Mason is the only boy in our group of 9 or 10 babies/toddlers ranging in age from 6 months-2 years +.

The first thing we did was put some water on different parts of our bodies. I sat with Mason on my lap and helped him put water on his arms, legs, shoulders, etc. Next we splashed around. Then, we went to the deeper water where we swam to a floaty toy. Mason was supposed to either practice moving his arms in a swimming motion or kicking his legs. He doesn’t get the arms part at all, but he is a good kicker! He got bored with this pretty quickly only because he would rather play with the toy then keep swimming to it. Then we practiced jumping into the pool from the side. Mason LOVED this. I would count to 3 and then he would jump. Most kids sat on the side and then kind of fell in, but Mason had no fear and stood up and jumped right in! Can we say Daredevil and emergency room visits are in our future? Then we practiced holding onto the side of the pool while in the water. Mason can actually hold himself up for quite awhile. To finish up, we sang songs in the water that involved motions and moved the babies with the motions. Example-Ring around the Rosey where we twirled in circles while holding the babies.

All in all it was a good experience, if only for the fact that Mason LOVED most of it. Just the fact that he loves to be in the water is reason enough for us to get him lessons. Some things that I noticed though and things you might look out for if you want to take your child swimming- 1.It is way to big of an age gap. The things that a 6 month old and a 2 year old can do are COMPLETELY different. The next swimming lesson class available starts at age 3. Just like Mason didn’t understand the swimming arm motion, the couple of 6 month old babies in our group didn’t really understand anything. And for the older kids in our group, I think they could probably do more if they had older kids to learn from. 2. Our lessons start at 7 pm. For those of you who know that Mason goes to bed at 6, this has been a bit of a problem. Unfortunately that was the only time this group was offered. So, we have started moving Mason back to a 7 pm bedtime, which is working okay so far, but I can tell he is tired in the morning when I have to wake him up. He also gets very tired during his lesson. 3. Our instructor is CREEPY. I’m sure he is a great guy-he seems to like kids and handles them pretty well. I say pretty well because the majority of the kids in our group cry when he comes close. Mason does not cry, but just stares at him. Even I find something oddly weird about him…but I couldn’t tell you what it was. All I know is if I were in charge of staffing a teacher for the parents/tots swimming class, I probably wouldn’t have chosen him.

Next week we hope to take some pictures our cute little swimmer boy for everyone to see!

Hi everybody!

We have been working hard to keep the videos coming to you all because we know that is a great way to see Mason’s growing up from far away (like Indiana or Florida). I also just wanted to give an update with words to share with you what a smart, sweet, and excited little boy we have. Mason loves to be outside, especially if he can do whatever we are doing. Our big project this summer has been redoing our front walkway and it is almost done (yay!) Mason loved to be out in the dirt with his Daddy using his own special “Mason-sized” tools. We have a video of that, so if you saw it, you know exactly what I mean. Another example is mowing the lawn with Daddy with his bubble mower (there’s also a video of this.) The bubbles don’t work too well, but that doesn’t even phase Mason. He just loves to be out there copying his Daddy. The smile that brings to his face melts your heart.  He loves to swim…the weather here hasn’t been the warmest this summer, so he hasn’t been swimming as much as I would like, but we are going to start swim lessons here soon and I think we will have a little fish on our hands.  His other big love right now is music-he likes to sing, dance, and play music on Daddy’s guitar (also on video) or his drums.  

Mason’s favorite foods are waffles, dried cherries, and chicken nuggets. I think he would eat waffles everyday for breakfast and dinner if we let him. He goes to the freezer and waits for us to open it, reaches in to get the waffles, walks to the toaster and waits for us to pick him up so he can put his waffle in there, and then loves to watch it cook. He gets VERY excited when it pops up. He’s also starting to feed himself with a fork or spoon. It’s usually pretty messy but you can tell he is very proud of himself!

He has a very sweet personality (yes, I know I’m his mother and OF course I would say that) but he really does. He hates to see people cry or get upset. One Sunday at church one of the other kids in his classroom got in trouble and had to be put in timeout (his mom was the teacher so this is okay). The little boy started crying because he was in trouble. Mason didn’t like him to be sad, so he picked up this little boy’s Lightening McQueen toy he had brought from home and handed it to him to make him happy. This happened two different times. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was sad to see my parents leave after their visit and Mason started crying-he didn’t like to see me sad. Of course, he also has this big stinker grin when he knows he is doing something wrong. He will look you in the eyes with that grin and it is all that we can do NOT to crack up because it is so ornery.

He is still signing quite a bit-usually please, all done, thank you, tired (one he made up), crazy (thanks Papa), and he just “learned” exfoliate this weekend. I was washing my face and Mason was watching me, so I told him that I was exfoliating, and afterwards anytime I said that word, he took his hands over his face like he was washing it and then blew out with his mouth (I must have looked pretty silly when I was doing it.) I have no idea if there is even a sign for exfoliate…but if you want to teach your child this wonderful sign, please feel free to borrow our version. He is also saying more words now too. He says-ball, mama (Baba usually), dada, papa, thank you, all done, waffle (boffle), cherry, baby, and byebye. He will repeat other words after you, but those are the big ones that he does without prompting. He shakes his head no if he doesn’t want something and his version of yes is a very cute whole body nod. When you tell him “smile” or even bring out the camera he gets this big cheesy grin on his face and this weekend started sticking out his tongue.

Okay-I know this is really long and yay for you if you read it all. I love the videos and trust me, we will keep them coming, but I want to try to do these little updates every now and then too. Mason is growing and learning so much so quickly that the videos just can’t capture it all! Matt and I love our little boy so much (can you tell?) and love to share all of the cute and funny (and sometimes naughty) things that he does. Thank you for allowing us to share him with you!

Mason seems to be musically inclined. I hope he takes first place at the talent show one day :).

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