Did I Do That???

Who would have thought that a 7 month old kid could actually make a mess. I surely didn't, and don't call me Shirley! Man I don't know how this kid does it but within just minutes, no maybe even seconds, he can have all his toys all over the floor. The fun game now is I don't take him to the toys anymore, I make him go and get them. Yes this is encouraging him to become more mobile, but alas, it is going to happen sooner rather than later. Also I only clean up the toys twice during the day so that he doesn't get mad at me, because once I start cleaning, all over the floor they go again!

It is fun watching him do his crawling figuring out thing because he does yoga and he kicks my butt at it! He can do superman's all day long, planks like nobody's business and rock out pushups. Now he has added cobra, and downward dog to the mix. And yes he rocks downward dog like nothing else! He is definitely trying to crawl. I am so proud of him and he is getting so strong and so big already. He is going to have fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house with all the new tile to slide around on!

I also took some pix of the snow that we got this past Sunday. We got a whole whopping 5 inches here, yes it is not a lot but frankly it is too much for this AZ native! The funny and crazy thing about Virginny is that today, Friday, it is 79 degrees outside and we are having heavy rain storms with thunder. This is not winter weather this is more like spring weather. I love todays weather and I have been enjoying the rain. I will say that I enjoyed the snow on Sunday too because it was a heavy wet snow, but I didn't have to shovel any of it because by the next morning by mid morning it was already melted on the sidewalk and my driveway! PERFECT SNOW IF YOU ASK ME. And there was still snow all over the lawn and houses so it looked pretty too!

~Did I do that?~

 ~Yep, I did~

 ~Super tuckered out little guy!~

 ~Our first official snow storm of the winter~

 ~Surprisingly, Archer loves to jump around in the snow~

7 Months

Tomorrow Mace will be 7 months old! Jan-Feb flew by and I am hoping that March does the same. I love this time that I have with Mason and I wish I could stop time but I wish Matt was here. If he was than I would be ok if time just stopped to cherish this time together. I do love all the time I get to spend with Mason all day long. Just the 2 of us and I will never have this time again like this with our next kids because I will have other children to tend to.

I don't think Mason has grown much this past month. His weight seems to have stalled which is great because he was growing so fast! Mason is creeping still but starting to move all over the house. I have installed the gates and I am ready for him to start crawling all over the place.

Mason is learning what he is allowed to touch and play with and what he is not allowed. He is already testing me, the little squirt! He is obviously smart because he remembers what I say no to and tries to touch it again, and when I say no, he just grins at me like it is a game. ARGH! Cute but ARGH!

Mason is a pro at eating his solid foods. Just getting them to come out is still the problem. But he really does like my cooking. I have been making all of his food, except for the rice cereal. I use a boxed organic kind that he really enjoys. I am also using it to help thicken up some of the really thin purees that I have made.

Mason loves to wiggle and do planks and has started doing Downward dogs now! He is learning how strong his body is in his own way. I honestly thought that he would be crawling by this week but it will probably be a couple more weeks before he figures out the hand leg coordination thing. Anyhew here are his amazingly great 7 month pix. I am having so much fun taking pix of him. He responds so well to the camera, except when he doesn't like the flash. It is great, though!

~He is getting so BIG!!!~

~His vest says, "Brave Like Daddy"~

 ~I love this picture! So cute!!!~

 ~Mason talking, more like squealing at Archer!~

 ~After all the pix were taken. Mace kept turning himself in circles and each time was pulling on the blanket!~

Mr. Independent

I have a baby who thinks he can do everything by himself, already! Mace got his first sippy cup yesterday. As I was trying to hold it for him to teach him how to use it he started batting my hand away and was grabbing onto the handles and wanted to do it all by himself. And anytime now I try to help him with it he throws a fit with me. Silly kid. At least he likes the sippy cup. He hasn't figured out how to get the water out on his own but he sure likes to bite it and man handle it. Archer is quite intrigued with it too. He understands that there is something yummy inside the drink and every time Mason throws it on the ground Archer comes a running to lap up what dropped. But thankfully the cup is spill proof. So here are some pix of Mace enjoying his new toy, I mean cup. (And yes, the pix above is blurry because my kid likes to move around a lot but it was just so dang cute I couldn't not post it!)

Mason is also getting his 3rd and 4th tooth. His bottom front teeth are in, and it is almost impossible to get a pix of them, but I have been able to capture his upper teeth along with a great shot of up his nose! But I was really going for getting the shot of his teeth. Because of his new teeth, he has been chewing on everything, and his sleep cycle, well is not at all what it used to be. He is waking me up about every hour at night to whimper and then goes back to sleep. Sometimes he just whimpers but he also starts screaming and will only be consoled with feeding. All I want is to sleep. So here are his upper 2 teeth.

On to me. Well I have been trying to get back into the working out thing and all trying to get back to my hot bod I had prior to my little miracle. It just isn't working. I finally decided to work out at 6 am while Mace takes his final stretch of sleeping thru the night but with the teeth, and the cold, and keeping me up half the night, it just isn't working. I finally told Matt that he will just have to deal with having a plump wife until he comes home and then he is going to be Daddy day care while Mommy works out. I am starting to lose some inches but not weight. And this happened last time. I lost a ton of inches before I lost any weight, and when I did lose weight it fell off very quickly. So hopefully that will happen again. I might be a Super Mom but I am not Super Woman and can not do everything. Mace comes first and I will squeeze me in when I can. Daddy will be home soon enough and then I can work on me. For now, my goal is not to gain weight and keep eating really well.

I am excited to say that Mace and I will be visiting AZ this spring. I am so excited to see my friends and family and show off my beautiful little boy to everyone back home and of course to EAT MEXICAN FOOD!!! AND A LOT OF IT!!! I need to get my fill of mex food. It has been a year since I had some decent food and I won't bet getting it again till this Christmas. I am so excited to visit and see everyone!

Matt is doing well. We finally have a date that he is leaving Kuwait to come back to the states. June 30th. We are hopeful that he will be home, here at the house, by Mason's first birthday. I am already starting to plan a Welcome Home and Birthday Celebration for the same day after Matt gets home. I am so excited for Matt to come home and get to know this little guy!

My Little Cherubim

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!!

My Little Valentine

Tomorrow is the most "romantic" day of the year, according to the media. It is nice to be able to spend the day with someone you love, your significant other, but seeing in how mine is not available this year, I will spend it with my little guy. I miss Matt so much, especially around holidays. I am so excited for him to return home to us in just a few short months now. And since months seem to be flying past me at this point it will come sooner than I think.

Mace is 7 months old this week. And time seems to be flying by more and more everyday. It seems like yesterday was mid Jan and here we are mid Feb. I am starting to get my gardening bug right now, as some of my plants are starting to bud and are readying themselves for spring. I have been finding myself thinking about what I am going to plant and when to prune bushes and such and I look forward to digging my hands in the dirt and trying to grow something edible.

Mason is "creeping" along now. He is mobile but he basically pulls or pushes himself around the room. He is doing the wiggle and it seems that as he is on his knees with the wiggle he is trying to jump himself into movement. I do have the gates up in the house now, except at the top of the stairs which that gate will go up later this year. Archer understands the gates and how they work. He is dealing with them better than I thought that he would which is good. He is also going near Mason on a much more regular basis. He is also bringing him his toy quite often now and is very gentle and nice to Mason.

I feel like I am getting the nesting bug all over again. Every speck of dirt that I find on my floor is driving me crazy, knowing now that Mason can pick up anything and put it in his mouth. Pretty soon I am sure that I will be vacuuming everyday because yes I really am that OCD. I don't mind the dishes pile up but having dirt on the ground apparently drives me nuts.

I will post this week Mason's 7 month old photos but here are some cute other pix for your enjoyment. 

Good-bye-Daisy:( Hello Hyacinth.

 It was time to say good bye to my little Mini Cooper, Daisy. Yes I named her. She was the first car that I ever picked out. And I picked out everything on her. I also watched her get made in England. Every process. I was glued to my computer everyday to see what was going on. One day she was being built, the next was paint, then the interior. I even knew when she was being shipped overseas. Daisy was my graduation gift to myself when I got my degree from ASU. She was my baby. Until I had a real baby. A Mini cooper is not the ideal car for a family. My poor back would kill me when I would get Mace in and out of the Coop. I had to climb in the back just to get him in the back seat. I was surprised that I was still that flexible after having him. I did feel super safe driving Mace in the car but sadly only the 2 of us could be in the car as the passenger seat was pushed all the way forward and yeah. You get the pix. I had a wonderful 6 years and 4 months with my girl, but the needs of our family, which hopefully will be growing more when Matt gets home, out way the needs of a small car. She was getting to the point that something was going to need to be fixed or replaced and it was going to cost us a lot of money when that happened. So it was a good time to say Good-bye to my girl. So we decided that if we were going to get a new car it might as well last us a while and serve a purpose. And since I want 2 more kids it needed to be big enough for a family of 5. So Hello Hyacinth. My new Chrysler Town and Country MINIVAN! Yes I said it MINIVAN! Trust me. I am having a hard enough time telling myself that I now drive a MINIVAN but man it is weird.

So my dad came up with the name. It is a plant, see top pix, but it is also the name for the Hippo that is a beautiful ballerina in Fantasia. (See below) So I now have a van that is as big as a hippo but is super graceful. And it is HUGE compared to Daisy. So here is to a new chapter in my life. No more sports car, racing on the curvy back roads around here. Later in life I am sure that we will return to smaller cars but for now, this is it and it is what it is. I love being a mom and I sacrificed my beautiful little car for a big family vehicle.