Houston, We Have A Problem!

Just a quick note to tell you that my computer died again so I'll update as soon as I can. My dear friend, Alisha, has her husband on the case. The poor man has fixed my computer two other times already. He's such a saint! She text msg'd me tonight and said that according to the software it would be 17,000 hrs before my computer was fixed. I wrote her back and asked her if that was a cleaver way of saying that it would be fixed when hell froze over. I have the feeling that I'm going to need to shell out some cha-ching soon to get another computer. Oy vey! Until then... over and out!h

A New Room For Mason!

Mason's room was once this lovely, bright, cheery shade of orange. I knew it would need to be changed at some point. I was really enthusiastic about changing the color, changing it from a nursery into a big boy room.... but when the time came to actually start doing the work - I won't lie - it broke my heart. I found myself peeling the decorations off the wall and shedding more than a tear or two.
As I got further into the process, I found myself getting a little more enthusiastic and reviving a tradition I used to have... writing a message on the wall before painting. I was pretty close to being done with painting at this point. I probably should have used pencil or maybe even a pen to write my message, but it was late. I chose Sharpie. That set me back a few coats to cover my message! D'oh!

The end result of two days' hard work (please observe the ceiling... once also a bright orange has also been painted) is a beautiful room in Americana. The room still isn't finished, but at this point it's been painted and we've put together Mason's gorgeous boat bed. It was an amazing Craigslist find! It was in pretty well perfect condition and a verrrrrrry small fraction of the retail cost. It has storage in the front and a trundle that we can use when Mason gets old enough to have little friends over! (Or in the rare event that Houston gets hit with a hurricane again and my relatives end up here... the more beds the better!) We got Mason a new comforter. He didn't have anything twin size. I did splurge a little since I had a Pottery Barn gift certificate, but I absolutely love it. I love everything about it! Well, almost everything. I do hate the fact that it was on backorder for quite a while... and I hate that I spent a small fortune on a quilt for Mason that was made in China. I mean, really?! Pottery Barn? Et tu? Oh well.... I guess if I wanted it made here I should have gone to a craft show or just paid someone I know to copy the quilt. Surely there wouldn't have been much of a price difference. I'll have to remember that in the future. Anyway - hopefully this week we'll be able to get a little more work done on his room. I'm really excited to decorate it! That bed provided such great inspiration!

Ice Skating Fiasco 2010

Joseph has never seen me ice skate. He has talked about it, but we've never gone skating. Now that Mason is getting old enough to skate (I started when I was 4) we decided to put that dream into action and take a family trip to the local rink. Mason has seen the kids skating at the mall and he's been really interested. It seems like every trip he gets a little more interested and he's been asking to go... so I thought that this would be a pretty successful trip. Boy, was I wrong!

• Mistake #1: We went in the afternoon. Mason was tired - as you can see in the picture above. Unfortunately, the skating rink's family deal doesn't start until the afternoon. He fell asleep in the car. It's pretty critical to the success of an operation that you get him where you're going BEFORE he falls asleep. And IF he falls asleep, let him sleep until he wakes up on his own. Do not - I repeat, do NOT - try to get him up no matter what your time constraints! He wakes up from an interrupted nap the way the rest of us do... only he doesn't have a filter on his emotions yet!

• Mistake #2: We went to the mall skating rink. Since they were having this family deal (4 people for $20 - including skates if you need them.... but don't try to come with less than 4 people b/c they won't give you the deal and you'll pay more as we found out!) it was reaaaaallly crowded. There were tons of people standing in front of the entrance to the actual rink. Mason was less than thrilled by having to wait around walking in skates to get to the ice.

It did not go well at all. Mason was not happy about not instinctively knowing how to skate perfectly. Joseph never even made it onto the ice. I tried to get Mason to skate for a little bit thinking once he felt the freedom of the ice (even while holding onto me), he'd love it... but no. He threw a world class hissy fit and required the assistance of a skate guard to get him off the ice! Then he threw a fit b/c he wanted to go back on the ice. Let's just say it will be another 6 months before we attempt this! I'm not giving up hope, though... He has talked about it atleast 4 times a week since then. I am pretty sure that - like most things - he'll come around when he's ready!

Our Beach...

This summer Mason and I spent quite a bit of time at our little beach this summer. I wanted to build in times when we could be around the water, but not PUSH what we'd been learning in swim lessons. Besides, the beach is just plain FUN! We can swim in a pool year round thanks to the gym, but we CAN'T swim at the beach year round! A park fairly close to our home has a kid-friendly protected area sectioned off, so it's nice and safe for family fun. It certainly lets mom relax a little more and gives Mason a tiiiiiiny bit of independence at the beach! Something that certainly would NOT exist if it was just an open beach on the lake. And Mason LOVES it. He can't get enough... in fact, there are times when that's a problem. He doesn't want to leave! We'll miss it when the weather changes, but for now we can probably sneak in another trip or two before the weather changes for good!

Caton's First Birthday Party

Mason had the exciting opportunity to attend Caton's birthday party this summer in Austin. Caton is the daughter of my business partner, Stephanie. When Caton was born Mason & I went down to help Stephanie and her husband, Jim, for a few days. I'm not really sure how much help I was with my noisy 2 yr old (at the time), but they seemed glad to have us and we were certainly honored to be there.

Caton's 1st birthday was an affair the likes of which I have never seen! There was something for everyone. Stephanie had set up a play area in the house (since it was typical Texas summer weather), cupcakes, a selection of fancy grilled cheese sandwiches, and a TRAIN! Oh my! Mason was thrilled. I really wish Joseph had been able to make it to the party b/c Mason was beside himself with joy on that train. He kept looking at me and saying, "Just like Percy, Mommy! It's just like Percy!!!!!". Oh, my heart melted! He had a blast at the party and was a surprisingly good boy considering that we made the drive down and back in one day... and that we shared the ride with another friend and her newborn. It was a long trip, but worth every bit of effort! Sometimes life reminds you that you get out of it what you put in!

Sunday Mornings...

This summer I started regularly cooking with Mason on Sunday mornings. Sunday mornings in our home are historically pancake mornings. Pancakes are the perfect food for kids to help cook. There are plenty of ingredients to add. There's lots of measuring, pouring, and stirring. It's good busy work. Inevitably, the time will come to actually cook the pancakes on the griddle and Mason will cry, "Mommy! I want to cook more! I want to cook more! More cooking, Mommy! More!". That's when dump flour, water, egg yolks, raisins, food coloring... whatever!... into a bowl and let him stir to his heart's content. Because, while there are alot of great lessons that a kid can learn from cooking (besides how to do something other than boil water when he gets to college), the most importan thing that we get from cooking on Sunday mornings is SILENCE. This is Mommy's sneaky little way to let Daddy get a little shut eye on Sunday morning!

Swim Lessons

August brought 3 weeks of swim lessons. I had seen an article in a local interest magazine about a local woman who runs her own swim school specializing in private and semi-private lessons. She had been doing this for quite some time and had a background in swim and education. More specifically, she had a background in special education. I thought that might be helpful for Mason since he'd been diagnosed with expressive-recessive language disorder. It doesn't really seem to pose a huge issue most of the time (he appears to listen about as well as a 3 yr old!), but when it comes to the water you can't be safe enough! The first week of classes Mason had Miss Tabby teaching him (seen in the pictures). He absolutely loved her. There was one other kid in his class - a little girl who cried and screamed the entire class until the last day. The last 2 wks of class he had Miss Pat teaching him. She pushed him far harder. Mason liked her for most of the first week while the other little girl that was in this class cried and refused to do what she was told... then one day she decided to behave and Mason decided he'd throw fits and pretend he had to pee to get out of the pool! I can't say that the whole experience was a complete waste, though. I kept taking Mason to the pool and practicing with him. He slowly started to let me work on some drills with him... and I noticed that he would go off on his own and practice his skills in different ways than we'd worked with him. He refused for weeks to put his whole face in the water and blow bubbles - which makes it very difficult to get him swimming b/c his body isn't in the right position. I bribed him by taking his to Target to pick out Troublesome Trucks from Thomas (his current obsession) and told him I'd bring him back to get them when he would do "Starfish Face Down". We visited them and talked about them frequently... but he sternly refused until he made up his mind to do it one night in the bathtub. He has also started playing "swim lessons" with his ducks in the tub. He orders them to do different drills and go to the side of the pool. When his "lessons" are done he tells them "Good job! Now go get a lolly pop!" b/c he used to get a lolly pop after every class for his efforts! While I wish we could give lessons another attempt right now, I am glad to have a break from my afternoon ritual of sitting around in 100 degree heat every afternoon!

Top Sail Trip

This past summer Joseph and I had the rare opportunity to go away for a few days together with a few friends of ours. This group, The Haute Mommas (and their haute counterparts), is a group of women I've known online since I was pregnant with the boys. We met on Babycenter.com in a group for people having twins in the same month and have managed to keep in touch over the years. Last year the ladies met up in Hot Springs for a girls' weekend. This year we decided to bring the guys along and hit the beach in North Carolina. We spent 4 glorious days enjoying the (fairly rough) surf, sun (a wee bit too much for some of us!), naps, food, and a certain blue chair. :o) We rented a house on the beach and, though, it was very close quarters, we all got along famously! The weather was fantastic - early 90's with a fair amount of wind. It's fair to say that we never wanted to leave, but we were all ready to see our children by the end of the trip!

Mason Under The Magnifying Glass

June brought our epic trip to Houston. We were gone for the better part of a week. Smack in the middle of potty training I wasn't sure what to expect. Mason had refused to potty on anyone else's potty than ours up until this point, but I brought along the seat adaptor just in case. As fate would have it this was the trip when Mason decided he was done with diapers.... He stayed dry the whole trip. In addition to that bit of luck - we just had a great time. He was just better behaved than I could have ever expected from a kid his age... and so much fun. We swam and swam and just soaked up all the best stuff summer had to offer!