Two Years of Mason

How blessed we are to have had this angel in our home for the last two years! We took these pictures this morning after his wellness check, so it's as close to two years as we could get without it being 5:12 a.m.
I wanted to make a note of who he is today for memory. I know it might be a bit dry for most to read; we just want it documented.

Age: 2 years
Weight: 31 lbs. (86th %ile)
Height: 38 in. (100th %ile) it's actually off the charts. lol.
Hair color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Shoe size: 7.5
Diaper size: Pampers 5
Pants size: 2T
Shirt size: 3-4T

Development Skills:

• Eats with a fork and spoon, but still makes a crazy funny mess.
• Drinks from a "big boy cup" well, but prefers a sippy cup.
• Walks up and down stairs by himself, insists on doing it alone lately.
• Word vocab =?? He says everything we say in single word phrases. He uses occasional 2-3 word phrases like "I want that."
• Pronounces "r" well. "S" has a lisp. "L" is "W" (Pweeeeese!). "Ch,""Sh," and "J" are still trapped somewhere in his nasal cavity. Pronounces all other sounds clearly.
  
• Recognizes most of the alphabet, in no certain order. Letters he knows: A, B, C, D, F, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, X, Y
• Recognizes body parts: Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, tongue, teeth, lips, chin, cheeks, eyebrows, eye lashes, neck, hair, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand, knuckle, finger, nail, chest, belly, bottom, legs, ankle, feet, toes, toenails, and freckles.
• Names he knows (written how he pronounces them): Maymon (himself), Daddy, Momma, Granma, Pampaw, Granny, Kris, Ohn, Weesa, Pete, Opa, Babi, Nick, Osh, Arah, Nikki, Meggers, Ack, Eus (The dogs Jack and Zeus), Mewissa, Dean, Atalie, Pencer, (Stace, we need to work on your name more, sorry)
  
• Holds a pen correctly. Not sure how he learned that, we sure didn't teach him on purpose. He knows the difference between a pen, marker, pencil, and crayon, and prefers different writing utensils on different days.
  
• Builds towers with blocks, but prefers to line things up in a row on the ground in a perfect line.
  
• Knows the names of colors, but we aren't convinced that he knows the differences between them. He may just be guessing right sometimes. Colors he knows the names of: black, red, pink, purple, brown, yellow, blue, green, and sometimes orange.
• Throws overhand and kicks a ball.
• Likes to suck on his toothbrush to brush his teeth, but hates when I actually brush his teeth for him.
• LOVES to clean. We got him a duster, and he uses it on everything. He also helps with sweeping and mopping. He is sometimes traumatized by a messy room. "Oh no! A messss!" (yippee! That definitely did not come from my blood.)
• He loves to pretend to cook. Sometimes he uses my pots and spoons, but he creates a kitchen anywhere from his car seat to the bathtub.
  
• Playground time: Likes slides and swings, but usually prefers the little game boards on the ground with twisty knobs and steering wheels.
  
• Obsessed with trucks, cars, and buses, and can distinguish between all of them. I think I called all automobiles "cars" until well into adulthood.
  
• Favorite foods: Spaghetti, fruit of all kinds, peas, corn, carrots, pancakes (when he cooks by imagination, he always makes "cake"), pork chops, plain cheerios, applesauce, ice cream, and yogurt.
  
• Loves the bath, hates getting his hair washed.
• He does not dress himself yet. He'll start to do it himself, but then just asks us to do it for him. I'm sure that stage is nearing an end soon.
• Still in diapers, though he asks to sit on the potty sometimes, and will stand and pretend to go potty like daddy.
  
• Sleeps 10-14 hours each night, with a 2-4 hour nap in the day.
• Still in a crib, though we extended crib use due to lots of travel, but the crib is soon to convert to a toddler bed.
• Favorite sleep toys: Scout, oversized football pillow.
  
• Loves books. He does not recognize words, but he remembers the story and will help us tell it as we read. Favorite books: P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother?, Al Perkins' Hand Hand Fingers Thumb.
• Songs he likes to sing: "I'm a Child of God," "There Was a Little House in the Middle of the Woods," "Rocco and Roll" (from Sesame Street. Sings it all the time.), "The Wheels on the Bus." He likes other songs, but he just listens to those. These are the only ones he sings along with.
• Favorite Movies: Cars, Toy Story, Robin Hood, Robots, The Incredibles
• Favorite TV Shows: Sesame Street, Backyardigans, Word World, Clifford the Big Red Dog (Thank you PBS)
• Favorite Toys: Cars, trains, sports balls, duster
• Likes to play with older kids and adults, but gets nervous and fussy around babies and toddlers younger than he. Hopefully this will be overcome before the end of July.
• Hates the doctors office. He starts to cry as soon as we walk in the room and does not stop until the doctor leaves.
  
• Otherwise a very happy boy who smiles and laughs often. Very comfortable around strangers who do not remind him of doctors.
  
• 100% Daddy's Boy
  

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll get back on to add or change a thing or two.
Note how the cars are lined up in the picture below. I love my Mason.

SOS and Georgia

Justin was sent to Montgomery, AL for training last month, so Mason and I joined him! Well, we joined him on the drive down to the south and then we stopped at my parents' house in GA. I love being home. The weather was perfect, the people are wonderfully familiar, and the shopping is right around the corner. Mason is now bff with his Aunt Kristi (aka Kris) and Uncle John (aka Ohn) after playing with them everyday. Of course he loved living with Grandma and Grandpa and Granny. And it will take me weeks to unspoil this little boy with all the love and sweets and attention he received down there. I'm okay with that.
Here are some pics of what we did while we were down there:

Justin and I visited the Birmingham, AL temple with my mom and dad. We attempted to take a pic of ourselves. . .
We visited my dear friend, Merle Bean, who just turned 102 in February. I love this woman! She is still cracking jokes and playing the piano. There is one century and one month's age difference between Mason and Merle. I hit 20 weeks on my pregnancy, so we took a halfway pic. I think I'm wearing the same outfit as my halfway pic of Mason's pregnancy. . .
We took a trip to Yellow River Game Ranch. I used to go here all the time as a kid and LOVED it. I'm not sure it's as fun as an adult, but Mason seemed to like it! Justin braved feeding the animals and getting all slobbery and gross. I held the camera.
Mason found a little girlfriend (Becca Paige Bartlett).
We went swimming with Aunt Lisa, Uncle Pete, and cousin Zeus. The water was freezing, but Mason didn't seem to mind. I'm grateful that Lisa and Pete were willing to splash around that freezing water with Mason, because his mama was in shock with the cold temps.
We celebrated both Mason's and Justin's birthdays with friends. My granny helped make this Mater cake and it was so fun! Well, I must say it was long and maybe a bit stressful, too, but I had a blast working with my granny. I took pics of the process just to remind myself what a miracle fondant is and also what a cake master my granny is!
Here's the bday party. My Dad and Jessie took some better pics, but this is what we captured on our camera. We had a pinata and we pinned some tails on a donkey (not our neighbor's obnoxious donkey, just a plastic picture). It's so fun to see my friends' adorable kids growing up! !!
Uncle Nick came to visit! So glad he made the drive for such a short stay, but Mason loved playing with him! (The picture doesn't really reflect that, but he really did have fun with him.)
So now we are back in DC. The trip home was great, thanks to the help of our new portable DVD player (why did we take so long to buy one? Must be craziness). I got to listen to Mason's new 40 Years of Sunny Days Sesame Street DVD, and it was fun to remember all those old songs.
Now we are trying to unpack, restock our house, and clean away all the dust. Justin is taking the week off since we only got to see him on the weekends for most of the stay. Mason missed his daddy so much during the week, it was hard to watch. But the reunions were priceless! It was a long trip, but I'm so grateful we got to stay with family for so long.
LOVE YALL!