in with the new

20 Months Old!!!

Another fun month in the house of Mason! And another very busy month.

We started the month with a lot of lasts. Last night in the St. Pete house, last Wednesday morning at Panera with our girlfriends, last Toddler Play class, last trip to the zoo with our girlfriends, last swing on the swings at Crescent Lake Park. We started with a lot of firsts, too. First night in our new house in NC, first time to class at the "Little Gym", first time to several new playgrounds, first time to the new doctor (ear infection #3).

We saw all grandparents this month. Plus an aunt, a great grandma and great aunt and uncle and cousins! Plus a long-lost high school friend of mommy's.

There are a lot of new words this month. On our walks around our block, Mason has learned mailbox ("muh-muh"), lawn mower ("muh-muh" but different than mailbox), garage ("zha-zha"), door and door bell ("doe-doe"). We have been playing with sidewalk chalk a lot, he likes to draw (it's a guttural sound kind of like "zha"). He knows what a circle ("yu-yu"), triangle ("nee-nee") and star ("doe") are. He can identify boys ("bee") and girls ("doe").

Mason is getting better with his shape sorter toy. He no longer tries to put a shape in only one hole. If it doesn't work in one, he moves on to the next. He still hasn't made the "this shape goes in the same shaped hole" connection, but he will!

He loves to throw balls! I thought we'd have to teach him, because he just wasn't getting it. But he got it! He and I had a GREAT time in Old Navy this month. I gave him a ball from their bin, and he went crazy with it all over the store! He had so much fun. I bought him 2 balls that day (one from ON and one from Target).

He is still making up funny words for things:

• he makes a growl sound for our neighbor John's name
• "gggg-yoooo" for grandma, motorcycle, music
• "doe" for girl
• "hahahaha" for banana
• he clucks his tongue to mean cake, egg, leg and TV

He requests food now. He asks for or identifies "mee" (milk), "hahahaha" (bananas), "ah-mah" (macaroni and cheese), "a-blah" (pizza), "gzaa" (grapes), "ba" (berries), "dgooo" (juice), "ah-mee" (ice cream). When he sees a bag from Starbucks (you know, the skinny ones they put pastries in?) he points and tells us it's cake.

Will has taken Mason on many exciting day trips! There are so many places to go here! They have driven on the Blue Ridge Parkway, strolled through the NC Arboretum, and walked through the NC Botanical Gardens!

Mason can identify several sports, which I'm sure I've typed before. His newest addition to his sports cache is saying Goooooooooal! ("doooooooooooowwwww!") with his fingers pointed in the air. He's known for a while how to do touchdown and homerun.

Will taught Mas to smile this month. Yes, he was doing it before, but not when you asked! It's a big, funny, cheesy smile! He also will do a yawn if you ask.

He is starting to learn colors! He knows blue ("boo") and a lot of times knows orange ("ah-yuh"), purple ("yuh-yuh"), yellow (sounds like orange, I think), and green ("doe"). And he is starting to recognize numbers! When we count down the ladybugs in "10 Little Ladybugs", a handful of the numbers sound the same when he says them (I let him say them first) but five is "iy-uh", four is "ooo" (like the "o" in "or"), three is "ah-yee" and two is "ah-yoo".

Speaking of "ah-yoo", that's what Mas says when we sneeze or blow our noses! Bless yoooooooooooooou! Fun month!

Eeeeeek!

Guess what was in our garage on Sunday? And guess what jumped down our back door today? And guess what my neighbor saw in his dog-poo "toilet" that he dug? If you guessed three different ginormous spiders, you would be correct.

Garage spider is below. Her cephalothorax and abdomen (I looked that up, but I was close) combined were bigger than a quarter. She got to live because I was afraid to kill her. My back door spider today was smaller, furry and black. I killed it. My neighbor's poo spider was a Black Widow! Lovely.

I can't believe I have traded disgusting Palmetto bugs for scary spiders. Spiders make me SCREAM! I am so afraid of spiders. Oh, EEK!

Push

This morning, Will and I were hugging. Mason came over and pushed Will away from me! Then I picked Mason up so we three could have a group hug, and he pushed Will away again!

He did a similar thing last week. Will was in the doorway to the office and I was inside. Mason pushed him out of the office, down the hall, and into the guest bedroom. Then Mason came back into the office and closed the door!

He wants me all to himself!

Blue Ridge Drive

We took a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway this morning. We didn't drive far, about 15 miles out and back. There are so many scenic stops along the way, and each one was higher than the next! There were a lot of tunnels dug into the mountain. Mason craned his neck to see each one as Will announced them. Here are some pictures!

He Identified a Color!!

Last night in the bath, I was using the blue stackable cup to play. Mason likes when I hold it up and the water sprinkles out on him from the holes. Then I spill the remainder on him and he laughs hysterically. (The blue cup is the biggest and has the most holes - four.) He told me "Boo" when I held up the blue cup! Tonight he reinforced that color ID by telling me the same thing!

Mason knows his first color! How many do you know?!?

Circle

When we were in the FL house, I drew circles on the moving boxes for Mason and he'd say "Yu-Yu" (a soft "u", like in "butt"). I'm sure he was IDing his first shape. Now he will point to circles and tell us they are circles. In addition, any time we draw anything, a line, a triangle, a square, he tells us it's a yu-yu. So a yu-yu is a circle or a drawing. Yay! More words!!!!

Last Three Eye Teeth

Mason has 16 teeth now! His remaining eye teeth poked through. I hope he stops eating his hands soon. I'm certain that's the reason for the colds which I'm certain is the reason for the frequent ear infections.

Some New and Some Old Words

Here is a new video of Mason saying new and old words.

He has so many new sounds, which is really exciting. He's always telling us when he sees things he recognizes (which is often). Sometimes my clogged brain forgets the translation of a specific "Masonese" word. He uses several words for a lot of things. Like in that video, he said, "Ggggggggggg-yo" for motorcycle. He also uses that for Grandma and music. He clucks his tongue in the roof of his mouth for egg, leg, cake and one other thing. He says "Ba" for a TON of things.

Yesterday I took him for a walk around the block. A woman was outside doing gardening. She was my age-ish. He kept pointing to her saying, "dow, dow, dow, dow" until I told him he was right, she IS a girl. Then he waved like a madman at her. He's pretty good at determining "dows" from "bees". I'd say he has a 75% success rate.

He also has started to tell us when he has taken a #2. He points at his butt and says "dee-dee". But if we don't acknowledge it or we don't see him do it right away, he forgets and then he has a stinky diaper until one of us smells him.

Ear Infection Number THREE!

Mason has his third ear infection! We're back on the Amoxicillin.

Some good news in all this, we like his new doctor a lot. We went today and the doctor was so great with Mason. Yay!

Day Seven in the New House

Our House In Progress

Here are photos of the house! It has been a tiring, fun, exciting week for us. We found a great shopping center with everything a new home owner could need: Lowes, Best Buy, Pet Smart, Target, Linens and Things, World Market (such a cool store!!!!). We've been to those stores four out of the last seven days!

We have met some nice neighbors. A father and daughter came from around the corner to greet us. They gave us banana bread that was still warm (so good!). We met our next door neighbors yesterday. Basher had a good time running around the yard with their dogs. And we have met a handful of people while taking Basher and Mason around the block for walks. People are friendly and open to standing and talking to their new neighbors.

We made sure Mason's room was livable on day one, so that he would be comfortable and feel  like he had his own place. We're still working on our room...

We found a couple of nice restaurants, a year-round farmers' market, a great organic grocery (Earth Fare), a nice regular grocery, a Little Gym, and swings. We are going to explore the NC Arboretum as soon as we can.

I hope to get some back entries up about Mason's 18th/19th month report and other fun stuff. I just need to hunker down and do it!