Mason gets new pillowcases...and a new hairstyle.

I made the matching Michael Miller pillowcases last night for Mason's bed and he immediately wanted to try them out. No joke - he went running to his "big boy bed" to hop in and await his new dump truck pillows. This new room thing has actually been great for naps and bedtime - Mason ASKS to go to bed now! Pretty cool, as mason would say.

And no, Mason didn't get that much needed haircut, but discovered something much more fun when we were cleaning out the closet in his room:

Success! ...so far.

Well, Mason is 2/3 of the way to being a "Big Boy". The 1/3 left of course is saying goodbye to diapers - but we certainly aren't there yet!
We are instead talking about saying goodbye to his crib.

He's done it. One full day of complete success. Coupled with one full night of parental worry as to how he would do all alone on the other side of the house, in his brand new room, and brand new (to him) queen sized bed. I was worried. We were worried. Mason showed very little signs of worry. Except that he wanted the light on. My success with his blackout shades may have been a little too successful :) But he made it the whole night - he didn't get out of bed and he didn't make a peep and he even slept a bit later as a result of a nice, dark, cozy room. Success!

Next up...nap time. Mason at almost 23 months still takes two naps and still NEEDS two naps. I thought for sure we were going to be forgoing at least one nap, if not both, because this whole bed situation. With no way to keep him contained, how was I ever going to get him to sleep there? Worry that was totally unfounded. Both naps were taken, with complete success! So day 1 goes down in the books - we feel like we may have issues in the future for sure but for now we are rejoicing in the fact that so far, the transition has worked; the nursery is now open for a new resident and Mason is settling in quite nicely to his brand new room.

It must be noted that there has been an important casualty: "Uncle Tommy's Turtle"( a nightlight in the shape of a turtle that projects stars on the wall in three different colors has) refused to make the transition. Every nap and every night, part of our ritual is to turn on Uncle Tommy's Turtle for Mason in the color of his choosing...every night that is, until the one night we really needed him. And he's dunzo. Maybe he felt he was only a nursery toy or he had better things to do than help mason make the switch to the new room, whatever his reasoning - we'll never know. So RIP uncle tommy's turtle, you will be missed.

Here's some pictures of Mason's very first night and sneak pics of his still yet unfinished new room (please ignore the pink bedskirt - the new one hasn't arrived yet!):

Back to the hair...

Really, with hair this cute, should Mason's mom have to cut it?

Wow, we are not good at this blogging thing!

I see five weeks have gone by and, judging by the last picture posted, a lot has changed in Mason's life. He no longer sits in the baby highchair - he was too cocky of an escape artist and we got tired of turning around to see him standing on his tray, balancing on one foot, about to execute the perfect swan dive on to the floor. OK, so it never got thaaaaaaaat far, but we are POSITIVE that outcome was right around the corner at the rate he was going. He's yet to have a haircut - that hasn't changed. Although, it becoming more and more talked about as the days go on. He just has the cutest curls in the back when it's wet and dries naturally - mom has been hesitant to see those go. Although in an effort of full disclosure, most of the time, those cute curls disappear when he takes a nap...and are replaced with a big, bad fro in the back when he wakes up. Not quite as cute, more homeless if anything :)

I'll have some more recent pictures up soon - but until then, here is an update of what's new in Mason's Life:

Loves:
Cars, the movie. Anything and everything to do with the movie. Sally, Mater, and Lightning McQueen are the constant focus of our daily lives. Constant. Although, they have helped mason learn his colors and count to ten...so I guess that's not all bad. Ka-chow!

Tag Blankey and Tag Doggie - must haves STILL. Tag Doggie is a favorite accessory to go on trips with us.

Anything Trains as recently evidenced by a book sent by Grandpa Swinton, The Goodnight Train. It's been in constant rotation since we opened the package last Friday.

"Fabric New Room" - I'm attempting to design Mason's new Big Boy room out of our plain white spare room and purchased some truck fabric for it (see it here). Turns out it was a big hit - Mason constantly talks about "fabric new room" and wants to hold it. Now let's see if I can finish the room before baby comes...updates soon.

Current Cute saying: 'cause it's sunny outside!
This takes some background...we've had a lot of storms here of late and the thunder started to really get to mason. He talked about it A LOT. He'd even think it was about to thunder when there were no storm clouds to be seen. So we started telling him, it wasn't going to thunder because it was sunny outside. Mason took this to heart and whenever he asks if it is going to thunder we say no and why isn't it going to thunder? Mason says "cause it's sunny outside!"

Status check - 22 months:
More and more opinionated everyday. All his teeth are now present and accounted for. Can count to 10..and sometime 11. Knows his colors pretty well. Still trying to jump - and has attempted some somersaults on his own. Loves Zoboo from Zoboomafoo and a huge fan of blueberries, mac n cheese, and hot dogs.

First dentist checkup is tomorrow - during nap time - wish us luck!

Cool Hair Pic of the Day

Think it's time for a haircut?

You may have noticed

The scant trace of a black eye in our last post. It was much, much worse. Just in time for us to take him on a plane ride to Vegas. Model parents. It reached it's peak over the weekend in Vegas - we think this picture says it all:

So it's been four weeks...

Since we posted last ...and I now see our ticker is under 100 days (89!) and wow, if I can't post things to Mason's blog now - how am I ever going to do it with two babes running around? Yikes. I'll try to do better.

So Mason just turned 21 months yesterday and is talking up a storm. His favorite book, courtesy of Grandpa & Grandma Swinton, is The Very Noisy Night. We think he likes it because it provides him with all sorts of excuses as to how to avoid going to bed. But it's a cute book and we've read it enough to him that he now finishes the sentences when we read. We'll have to get video of it - it's too cute.

As for the talking though, he really is our little parrot. We have to start watching what we say around him a little better because he repeats EVERYTHING. He's really getting good at communicating and surprises us everyday with new words he's picked up. Yesterday it was "children" as he was telling me he had "fun playing with the children".

Anyhow, what he is big into recently is HIDING. And the kid is good at it too. He has no problem sitting still and quiet in dark places if it means his hiding is a success. It's become a "must-play" game before bed. Here are some pictures of him in action: