Motivation

Todd has been sending me pics of Mason and things they are up to back home. One pic he sent me was of Mason at his preschool. They put on a mini Heart Run last week and Todd went to watch the "race". This picture is now going to be the one that I use when this gets really hard or when I feel like "why did I do this" to remind myself exactly what I am here for. I would give anything to be able to run with my boy.

My new running buddy

Who could resist that smile?

Waiting is the hardest part

Mason was so excited for Christmas this year, and I think his level of excitement is just going to keep increasing each year. Even with his advent calendar to help him count down (it's the kind that you velcro and ornament on a tree for 24 days) he still would ask "Is today Christmas?" or "When will it be Christmas morning?"

Christmas Eve did finally arrive, and putting Mason to bed that night was a real treat. He did finally fall asleep, but almost 2 hours later than normal! He kept "needing" things...my favorite need was chapstick. Anyway, Santa was able to come once we were all in bed and boy did this kid get spoiled! It's a good thing Todd and I recently went through a bunch of old toys and books to donate so we had room for the new stuff.

This year was the first Christmas morning in my entire 32 years that I didn't go to my parents house for Christmas morning. Everyone came to our house, which is probably how it's going to be since we have the "Santa house" (i.e. house with a kid). Guess this means I'm really a grown up now.

We also lit the menorah and played dreidel this year. Mason amazed me the first night of Hanukkah when I lit the candle and he looked at me with a puzzled look and asked if it was Shabbat, then proceeded to cover his eyes and say (almost) the entire Shabbet blessing in Hebrew! It was so cute, I wished I had my camera out to record it.

Showing off his stocking

Having fun with the tree ornaments

We had to "make it snow" downstairs in his playroom
so I hung paper snowflakes from the ceiling

The gingerbread house we decorated

Looking at his new gifts from Santa

A snow globe of Jingle the Husky Pup

I love how much he's concentrating here

A new shovel, just Mason's size

And a new green sled

We made a little hill in the yard, but I think
he's ready for the sledding hill at the school now.

Lunch Date

Mason and I had a whole day off together last Tuesday, which hasn't happened in a LONG time. We had so much fun. We went to Petco so Mason could pick out a new toy for each of his dog-siblings. Then we went to get Mason's haircut, which he LOVES doing because there are toys there and he gets a lollipop after. After the haircut we went to the Sears Mall to see Santa (he's the best one in Anchorage, I think). Mason was so excited to see him and sat right up there and told Santa he wanted Legos (which, luckily, Santa had already thought of a bought since this was the first I'd heard of wanting more Legos).

Once the Santa visit was over it was about time for lunch, so I asked what he wanted to do for lunch, home or a restaurant. He, of course, chose restaurant so we headed across the street to Table 6.

He was so much fun to hang out with all day, and a great lunch date, too. After all that excitement he took a really good nap, too. To keep the excitement of the day going, after nap and dinner we went over to see some friends and exchange gifts. Haily and Ashton are so good with Mason, they love playing with him and he thinks it's so fun to be around the "big kids" and see their rooms and toys.

Long hair is good for bath tub mohawks but not much else

Showing off his new quilt his Aunt made him. This
picture also shows how long I had let his hair get.

Post haircut (and Santa) at Table 6

He had to wear the reindeer antlers Santa's elf gave him

Playing his new game that Haily and Ashton got for him

The elephant shoots butterflies out his trunk, and
you have to catch them with your net

Or, when catching them with the net doesn't work, just
put it on your head and look cute

Things that go bump in the night

Mason woke up last night from what I can only assume was a nightmare. He was crying and so disoriented, I just felt awful for him. He was trying to tell me, between his cries, something about daddy and a truck and something was gone...I really have no idea. Todd and I pieced together it must have been about him being left somewhere. Whatever it was was clearly awful for him. It was the first time in a long time that I held him and rocked him and he just let me. It was also one of those times where I'm not sure what else to do but cry a little with him.

Fun with Mac

Mason was in a pretty cranky mood tonight. He's typically pretty tired by the time Friday rolls around each week, but he also didn't take a nap at daycare today, so he was beyond tired tonight. Anyway, he asked to look at pictures on my laptop, and instead of clicking on iPhoto I accidentally opened Photo Booth instead. Mason thought it was really funny, and we ended up playing around with the different "effects" for a while.

Big Day for the Big Guy

Warning: This post will be solely about Mason and me being a proud Mama

Mason will officially be 2 and a half this week, and today he had his well child check up with the pediatrician. I decided to take this opportunity to get rid of Mason's "me me" (pacifier).

He actually only gets his me me when he goes to bed at night. It isn't allowed to leave the top of his dresser any other time, not even for nap. Considering some other kids I've seen around town, who are WAY older than Mason I might add, this seems pretty harmless. I know, I'm such a meanie, but it's time for the thing to go.

We started talking last week about Mason being almost 2 and a half, and that we were going to see Dr. Elliott. He LOVES his pediatrician, so this was pretty exciting news to him. Then I brought up that he needed to give his me me's away, maybe to a baby that needed them. He actually was ok with this idea. So I combined the two events, and we decided he would give the me me's to Dr. Elliott since she knows a lot of babies that might need them.

There were only a couple times that Mason informed me "I not doing that" when we talked about it, but last night he put them all in a gift bag and went to bed without one for the first time since he was a baby! Today was also no problem. He gave them to Dr. Elliott with no problem, and was actually very proud of himself that he packed them up for her. It was awesome! Tonight, I put him to bed and he didn't even ASK for one! I really hope this is not a fluke.

One slightly unexpected thing at his check up today was that he needed to have a bunch of blood drawn.  Mason is definitely small for his age, and while it may just be genetics (neither Todd or I are tall) but it could also be because of a metabolic problem. Better to find out now, either way. The last time he had to have blood drawn (other than his 1yr finger poke) was when we had our awful ER visit at 5 weeks old...and I did it myself! I didn't do it this time, but I did "hand pick" the person in the lab I wanted to do it. I even called my mom to meet us in the lab (she works there) for moral support.

Turns out, I was the only one needing the moral support. Mason was a total rock star! He held perfectly still, only winced for a second right when the needle went in, and then THANKED the girl who drew his blood for the bandaid after it was over. Now we just have to wait for the results.

Other little things today that were just icing on the cake...we had a totally dry underwear day, even nap time and a poop on the potty (sorry, this is what happens when you become a parent)! To celebrate, and also to share our day with Daddy, we went to the fire station after it was all over (where he was excited to find a potty there to pee on as well). As an extra special treat, Daddy even took him up on the ladder truck.

It was a big day for Mason in many ways. But he handled it all like a pro and I am definitely one very proud Mama!

A Trip to the Big City

As I write this, I'm in a hotel room in Klamath Falls, OR. For those of you who don't know where that is, don't worry, no one else does either. It's in southern Oregon, about an hour and a half east of Medford. There really isn't much here to speak of, other than the Oregon Institute of Technology. Work sent me down for the Clinical Instructor Workshop, and I also had the opportunity to meet the new student that will being coming to Providence for their clinical rotation.

It seemed a little crazy to fly all the way down here for just a one day workshop, but I am SO glad I came! It was a lot of really useful information, and I really feel like I will take a lot of things I learned today back home. It was nice to meet other CIs and hear about their struggles. I'm definitely not the only one out there who expects a lot out of their students, and it's so nice that OIT supports that! It's also helpful to understand how OIT runs their program, and what the expectation is here, especially considering all I'm used to is having students from UAA. Without getting too into it, and probably getting myself into trouble, there are some pretty huge differences between the two programs!

SIDE NOTE: The student isn't from Anchorage and is stressed out trying to find a place to rent while she's there (it will be a year long rotation). She and her boyfriend need to find a place...and the catch is that they have an 80 pound dog. Please let me know if you know of anything that may work. Thanks!

I'm heading back home tomorrow, so for tonight I ordered a pizza and will probably watch a movie in the room. As nice as some "alone time" is, it's always hard to leave my little man. As he gets older, he definitely understands that mommy is gone! As I was tucking him in Wednesday night, I was telling him that I was going bye-bye on an airplane and that after he went to sleep THREE times, I would be back. He got pretty quiet, and I was worried he was going to start crying, but he looked at me and said "The airplane bring you back, Mama?" My heart just melted. Yes, baby, Mama will always come back!

A Little More Human

I have been sick all this week. It actually started a little over a week ago, just the scratchy throat feeling like my sinuses were acting up. Mason had been sick the week before, so I wasn't really surprised. Then on Monday at work, my voice started to crack and sound something like a 12 year old boy sounds like, and by Monday night it was pretty bad. Tuesday morning I woke up with no voice at all, but I actually didn't feel too terrible.

By Thursday when I still didn't have a voice, and was starting to feel like complete garbage, I went to the doctor. She put me on antibiotics, gave me some super strong cough syrup, and sent me on my way. Today is Saturday and I'm just barely starting to feel a little better. My voice is back, although it still sounds deep and nasally. I'm not sure if the antibiotics are doing anything yet or not, but they sure do make me feel sick to my stomach.

All I really want to do is stay in bed and sleep, maybe wake up long enough to catch up on some Real Housewives drama on Bravo. My reality, unfortunately, is that Todd is at work all weekend so I'm left at home with Mason. Luckily, he's been fun and happy...and he's of course thrilled when I let him watch a movie at night (little does he know it's actually for my own lazy benefit)...but he isn't very sensitive to the fact that Mommy feels like crap! He can always manage to make me smile, though, like earlier this week when he was rather interested with where Mommy's voice went, and tried to find it for me.

Breaking my heart, kid

I know he doesn't know what he's reading, but this seriously broke my heart tonight. Mason always "reads" in his car seat and I had honestly forgotten this was in my car.

As much as I've come to terms with my MS diagnosis, I HATE that Mason has a mommy with MS.

This blog post brought to you by the letter C

I posted this on Twitter today, but needed to share it again. Mason and I would like to formally thank the makers of the movie Cars as well as the MacBook Pro for allowing Mommy the time this morning to shower, shave my legs, dry AND straighten my hair.

And as my shoe shopping BFF Amanda (yes, seriously, we have the same name, I'm not talking about myself) pointed out, only my child would be watching his movie with the laptop sitting on a shoebox.

I should probably clarify as well that in mine and Todd's bathroom, it's kind of a walk-in closet/bathroom combined so while he is sitting in the "closet" he wasn't in there alone. This is probably more important to me because I already feel slightly guilty that I plopped him in front of a movie. I swore I would never do that...and then I had a 2 year old and needed to shave my legs.

But wait, there's more!

I know I just posted Mason's farting story...well, there's more...ALREADY!

First of all, Mason was taking a bath a couple nights ago at my parent's house. He and Nana were having a good old time, and I was in the living room. I could hear Mason laughing, and not just laughing, but that deep belly laugh that kids get when they're really excited. Next I hear, "Papa, come look at this!" and my dad goes into the bathroom, which is followed by more hysterical laughing. Apparently, Mason was a little gassy that night and had farted in the tub a few times...then he was making himself fart more to make more bubbles. It was so exciting to him, he just had to share it with Papa.

This next interaction was today as I was getting Mason up from his nap and I needed to get a new diaper on him. We are still using his changing table to save our backs, even though he really is too big for it now.

Mason: (laying down on the changing table) I getting bigger.
Me: Yes, you are growing.
Mason: I get long.
Me: Yes, your legs are getting too long for this table. You're getting bigger.
Mason: Ya, my pee pee get bigger, too.

What in the hell are you supposed to say to that?!? Um, why, yes, I suppose it is.

Wisdom of a 2 year old

Here's a recent conversation between Mason and Todd...

M: Um, Daddy, I fart.
T: What do you say?
M: Excuse me.
(then a little bit later)
M: I fart. That like burp, only out my butt.

Lord help me, the male potty humor has started already.

Wherein we become THOSE parents

It has finally happened. My sweet, beautiful son has been possessed by an alien. A screaming, tantrum-throwing, pissed off alien.

Case 1: We are in Mexico. We take Mason back to ride on the train again. We get on the bus (which he loves) and he rides on the train (which he loves even more). Then it's dinner time, so we go to a restaurant where he proceeds to throw the HUGEST fit I've ever seen. Seriously, we are talking a rolling on the floor, crying, inconsolable tantrum. Todd and I are now THOSE parents with THAT kid at the restaurant. Needless to say, we took dinner to go and took a cab back to the resort where we put Mason straight to bed.

A lot of Mason's attitude in Mexico I attribute to being so exhausted the entire time we were there. But now we're home and have had a week to catch up, right?

Case 2: Monday afternoon, Mason wakes up happy as can be from his nap. He wants juice, so we go to the kitchen to get some. Something (still not sure what) sets the kid off and he just LOSES it! We're talking screaming and crying for AN ENTIRE HOUR!!! I finally put him back in his bed, where he quickly calmed down and recovered. By the end of this episode, I was crying as well.

He's two. And we have officially reached the terrible twos. Lord, give me strength.

Happy Baby, Happy Mama

Have I told you all how much I love this little boy?

And, by the way, where the hell was Mexico when I had post-partum depression? Seriously, this place is the cure!

The one in which Mason realizes one of life's greatest pleasures

On Friday I picked Mason up from daycare, and he asked to go to the bookstore. Actually, to be more accurate, he said "Go bookstore, get new Curious George book". He has been obsessed with Curious George lately, and I was growing increasingly tired of the same two books we had...I had no problem heading to TitleWave to get a couple of new ones.

We had a fun time picking out three "new" (it's a used bookstore) Curious George books to take home. It was getting pretty close to dinner and Mason asked to eat at the bookstore. I explained that there wasn't any food there, but that we could probably go to a restaurant to eat dinner.

We soon found ourselves at City Diner in a booth. I was listing the items off the children's menu for Mason, and he chose blueberry pancakes. I'm not 100% sure what he thought was going to be on his plate, but when they came he was so happy. "Mama, blueberry is IN there!" A few bites later, he also told me "This exciting!" He was so happy to be eating out and I was so proud of how well he was behaving. Then came the funniest part of our night's conversation. Mason starts giggling a little and tells me "This funny, Mama." When I asked him what was funny, he looks at me with those wide, blue eyes and says "Breakfast at dinner. That funny!"

Welcome to one of life's greatest pleasures, my son...breakfast for dinner. Yum! I can't wait until our next "date night", little man.

One more for the road

I need to add a number eleven to my top ten. As I was telling Todd tonight about my list, he mentioned one that I can't even believe I didn't include...Mason's awesome daycare!!! It's hard to believe that he has been at JEC for a year now (he started last January), it just seems like we've always known the people there.

So, number 11 is definitely Mason being at the Joy Greisen Jewish Education Center (JEC) daycare. I searched this town, going to many, many daycare centers before finding them. It's everything we wanted in a daycare...small, friendly, part-time...and as an added bonus we all get to learn a little more about the Jewish culture/faith while Mason is there.

It started out as two days a week (we now go three) to get Mason socialized and also for us to have a little break. Mason has blossomed so much there. He is such a social little guy and it is so much fun listening to him tell us about all his friends at school and what he did that day.

Thank you, Santa!

Christmas was an overall success. Being that Mason just turned two, goes to a Jewish daycare, and has fairly non-religious parents, I was amazed that he even knew who Santa was at all...but, of course, he knows. Or at least knows enough to count. The week before Christmas, Todd and I took Mason to see Santa at the Sears Mall (he is apparently the best Santa in town). The whole way there all Mason could talk about was Santa this and Santa that...and of course when we get there Santa is feeding his freaking reindeer. So we walked around the Sears Mall for 20 minutes or so to waste time before Santa came back.

Mason surprised us all. I really thought he would be the typical two year old that is so excited and then bursts into tears the moment he sees Santa. There was a moment of hesitation as we walked up to sit on his lap, but that was soon over and Mason chatted the poor man up like they were old friends. Up til this point, all Mason could talk about has been trains...but ask Santa for a train? No...that would be too simple. He asks for a dump truck.

I know exactly the dump truck he wants, even though he isn't old enough to verbalize it. For his birthday his great-grandparents gave him a Lego Duplo set that has a mixer and a loader with this crane thing...and there is a picture with it of the dump truck that you can buy separately. This is the dump truck of which he speaks...and it is also the dump truck that is no where to be found in Anchorage. So, being the good mother I am, I immediately get online and order it with express shipping.

I just couldn't have his first Christmas asking Santa for something turn out to be a bust. I promised Todd, and myself, that this wouldn't happen every year. But how can I say no to this face?

Christmas Eve Todd had to work, so after I put Mason to bed I set up the stockings. Along with the dump truck, Santa also brought Mason Tidmouth Sheds (Thomas the Tank Engine's home) and some train tracks. Let me tell you, setting up those tracks was a pain in the ass! I am by no means and engineer, and I just kept growing more and more frustrated! I did manage to get them together in a decent pattern eventually and off to bed I went. I think it turned out ok...

Christmas morning we went to my parent's house and had breakfast and Mason opened his gifts from the family. Then we came home to see if Santa had come to the house. Oh my goodness, was that kid excited! I'm surprised he went down for a nap as easy as he did! Christmas dinner was at our house, which was fun and also worked out perfect for Mason, who was able to play with and show off all his new toys.

The next day Mason was still so excited about Santa and all his new toys. He went around to every piece of track saying "Santa bring this, Santa bring this". Then he went over to the window and screamed as loud as he could "THANK YOU, SANTA!"

Terrific Two!

Ok, I know, it's normally the "terrible twos", which some days is definitely more accurate, but today I feel like celebrating all that is terrific about Mason being two. He is such an amazing little boy, and every day I feel so incredibly lucky and blessed to have him in my life. He is going to be quite a character as he gets older, I can already tell he has such a personality and fun sense of humor. I'm eternally thankful that he is (generally) healthy, and hope to never take this for granted. He is kind and sweet, but definitely all boy!

It's crazy to think that it has already been two years. Time really does fly by (although, to be honest, there are days now and then that one day can feel like two years). It seems so cliche, but it is so true! Everyone told be how fast it would go, but now I really know for myself. It honestly feels like yesterday that I was pregnant and counting down the days until my c-section, when I would finally meet Mason. What an awesome day. I thought my heart would burst I loved him so much, and that feeling has only grown since then. (Click on the links to see me super preggo and also pics of Mason's grand entrance)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Mason! I am so amazed and awed by you every day, and I am so thankful that you were brought into my life. If you were the only thing I had to call my own, I would be, by far, the richest person in the world!

 In the car he is now very aware of everyone having their seat belt on. And now, as you can see, his friends have to wear their seat belt as well.

Dr. McCutie here, getting ready to listen to his thump thump. Having asthma has to have some perks, right? Lucky for us he still thinks the stethoscope is cool.

Open Bed

A few days ago Todd and I decided to be brave and take the tall rail off the side of Mason's crib. He hasn't decided to climb out of the crib, but I know that day is totally coming. So, to try to avoid injury, we decided to move toward a toddler bed. This scares the crap out of both Todd and myself. Mason has always been so incredibly easy to put to bed, we have been SOOOOOOOOOOO lucky with this! Our fear is that once he isn't contained in his crib this will be over, at least for a period of adjustment.

Anyhow, I ventured to Babies R Us and picked up a side rail to put on the crib. This allows Mason to get in and out on his own (EEK) but keeps him from actually rolling out of bed in the middle of the night.

So far, knock on wood, it's been going really good. He is super excited that his bed is "open", although the first night he did ask Todd to close it and we had to explain that it doesn't close any more. My little man is growing up!

Here's what his crib looks like now. It's kind of hard to explain what it looks like now.

A Mother's Journey

This is one of the most heart wrenching things I've seen in a long time. I am so thankful every day that Mason is a happy, healthy boy. I looked at these photos for a long time today and just cried. I know it's depressing, but I felt like it was important to share.

A Mother’s Journey