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!

Hochstein Update

I just realized I haven't talked much about what Justin and I have been up to lately. Justin is working 70+ hour weeks as the OFFICER OF THE YEAR in the USAF Honor Guard. His days vary in activity. One day he could be in the pentagon, the next in Arlington Cemetery doing either funerals or wreath-laying ceremonies, and the next day could be in his office. He's been doing all sorts of retirement and promotion ceremonies for the big-shot military folks in this area. He's briefed Generals like General Schwartz (the Chief of Staff/#1 guy in the AF) a couple times. He comes home with coins from most of these guys and gals. Coins are cool in the military, I guess. Personal souvenirs or something. He also gets to babysit adult men who don't know how to control themselves and get into trouble. It will all soon be changing as his assignment is changing to the Drill Team. More on that later. He begins when we get back from the south.
Justin is also the 2nd Councilor in the Bishopric at church, which doesn't take up as much time as we'd thought; it's a cool opportunity for him. When he's home, he's the DADDY OF THE YEAR, and the center of attention for our little Mason. Mason can't get enough of his daddy. I'm pretty sure Daddy feels the same way about Mason.

I have been working as the key spouse for the Honor Guard here, and it's been fun. Busy, but fun. I help the spouses of the Honor Guard members get to know each other, get involved in service and activities, and I'm a point of contact when they run into problems. There's about 120 spouses. In my first week, three girls had babies=15 dinners to arrange. Most of the spouses are in their 20s-30s, so there are many babies on their way.
Speaking of babies on the way, I am 17 weeks pregnant, and I honestly forget at least once a day that I'm pregnant at all. I feel great! I have a bump making my shirts a little snug around the belly, but I'm not into maternity clothes yet. I just heard the heartbeat again yesterday, and everything seems to be going fine!

We had a cold go around our family last week, and little Mason suffered the most. Poor boy was so tired, he would fall asleep anywhere. Justin got one picture of him sleeping in my lap- this never happens. I can count on my hand the number of times he's slept outside of his crib or carseat in the last year of his life. Three of them were last week. I have to admit I thoroughly enjoyed snuggling my sleeping baby again. Mommy doesn't look so hot in this pic... we had a few long nights prior to this photo. We're all as healthy and happy as ever now!Here's a few pics at the playground. Note the big boy swing. Oh my.
Yay for warm weather!


We're so excited to see the folks in GA next week!! Woohoo!

A few moments of Mason

This entry is for those who just want a little taste of Masonry.

We had some snow. A friend of mine called and said she was sledding with her 6-month old and invited us to join! Mason wasn't too happy when I was holding still, but he loved the sled! We didn't have any hills where we were, so I just ran and ran and ran. It was a fun morning!
And here is a snippet from dinner. He was being really adorable and I wanted to share. Once the camera came out we had to pry the cuteness out of him a bit, but Justin and I could watch this video a dozen times.

Announcing. . . .

The next Baby Hochstein! !!
Due July 30.

I think he looks like his dad.
JK. I'm not sure why they printed out the measuring line, but that's what I have, so that's what I'll show.
I have to admit, it's been a pretty easy pregnancy thus far. Only a bit of exhaustion in the evenings. Mason has no idea. I'm debating buying him a baby doll to practice being gentle. Maybe I'll get one that cries so he can practice not crying with the baby...

POST SCRIPT: I just checked Mason's first ultra sounds from the same time (11 weeks), and the quality of Mason's civilian doctor's equipment and my current military/universal healthcare equipment is not quite equal.

White Christmas in Georgia

I should have posted this in December, but I sure didn't think about it till yesterday. We spent Christmas in Georgia and they had a white Christmas! That never happens! Had I not just been in a blizzard in South Dakota and had snow all over in DC, I may have been really excited, but instead I just began to wonder if I had a little snow cloud following me around. We just realized we took very few pics while we were down there, but my dad took a bunch, so maybe I'll get some from him and do another post.
Santa was super nice to us this year! My dad gave me the coolest present! He made copies of all the home videos from just about my whole life! He always has his camera out, so there was a lot of footage. It was fun (and sometimes painful) to remember the good ol' times. Justin got to see me in all my glory back in those awkward years, meet some old boyfriends, etc.


My Uncle Jim works as Santa Clause sometimes and grows out his beard and has a killer suit! He makes a great Santa, in my opinion. We were lucky that he brought his Santa suit out to Georgia so Mason could sit on his lap! Mason didn't even cry this year!
Mason got his first haircut while he was down there. It was much-needed. I waited so long because I couldn't imagine cutting off his perfect curls!! It is still cute after Grandma cut it, even with his thrashing through the whole process. How does Grandma do it?! No tears from Momma. His curls are still there. Whew!
Mason is talking like crazy! He calls Grandpa "Pampa" and started calling Grandma "Ninny," but she wasn't a fan of that one. I thought it was hilarious! So Grandma worked really hard at getting him to say something else, and he now says something like "Mamaw." I liked Ninny.


We also had a nice game of tennis. Fun times! ! ! Mason even enjoyed the evening on the courts. I'll bet Federer didn't look this good at 21 months.



Thanks for the good times, Georgia folk! Can't wait to see yall again!
We drove back to DC on New Years Eve, so we weren't exactly in the mood to party all night. We woke up to fireworks, wished each other Happy New Year, and then passed out again. The year 2010 was fast-- full of challenges, transition, and happy adventure. We're excited to see what 2011 holds.

South Dakota Surprise!

Two days after we returned from Georgia, we turned around and flew to South Dakota to surprise Justin's mom. It was very relaxing for Justin and I, but Mason spent every waking hour playing and vacuuming (His new favorite thing to do. He seriously vacuumed for hours!)We spent a little more time there than planned, due to a lovely blizzard. Justin's dad literally dug through a 3ft. wall of snow to allow us to drive to the airport. But that's what happens when you visit South Dakota in December! It was worth it!
Mason liked the rolly bag as much, if not more than the train!

Happy Birthday, Sarah!
Of course, Mason got cake.




Back in DC, enjoying a good book and a good drink (white grape juice).
Some "just because" flowers Justin bought me back in November. I just want them to be remembered. I loved them. What a perfect husband I have!