Mason at 16 months

Mason turned 16 months old on Monday which was also the one year anniversary of our sealing.  I got to go to the temple last weekend and all of those amazing, strong feelings of, "This is right!," and, "This was the way he was supposed to come!" came back to me.  I will never get over my awe and gratitude for Mason's courageous birth mother and Heavenly Father's plan for our family.

Mason has been changing and growing so fast lately!!  He is definitely a toddler verses a baby now and it's very bittersweet.  I miss my little baby, but watching a toddler discover the world is so much fun!  Even if Mason is so, so busy and is constantly getting into mischief!  He is very different from Spencer so the next few years are going to be challenging and exciting.  Thankfully, Mason still likes to snuggle.  He comes running for Alan or I when ever he gets a bonk or is sad and just wants us to hold him while he sucks his fingers.  I hope that doesn't stop for a long time!

At his last check-up at 15.5 months, Mason weighed 22.63 lbs (22%tile) and was 31.25 inches long (52%tile).  Long and thin.  That is like Spencer.  He is growing well and is a very healthy little boy.  I had to cut his hair again last week.  It grows fast!  His nails do too, but it's almost impossible to cut those these days.

Mason is still an excellent night sleeper (when he's not teething).  He sleeps for about 12 hours every night.  His naps have been good too lately: 2 hours in the morning and 30-60 minutes in the late afternoon.  Although he has refused his 2nd nap several times now and I think he's ready to transition to one.  I haven't decided if I'm happy about that or not yet.  I will have more flexibility in my schedule, but it will be a lot harder to make dinner.

Mason is a much pickier eater than Spencer was.  I still puree vegetables and mix them in homemade cereal, yogurt, or cottage cheese because that's the only way I can get him to eat them.  Except for peas and green beans - he loves those!  Mason is just starting to learn how to use a spoon.  That is good because he doesn't really like to be spoon fed by me anymore.

Watching Mason play and run around are some of my favorite things to do these days.  He is so funny!  Tonight, he liked the sound his bare feet made on our laminate floor so he just ran around watching his feet and moving his socks from one surface to another.  He can now put things "in" instead of just dumping out and is getting good at following simple instructions (i.e.: put the book away, bring me your socks, go to the garage, etc.)  Mason love, loves to play outside and in the garage.  He never gets tired of carrying around toy golf clubs and sticks.  He's getting a little more sure-footed, but he still falls and gets wet and muddy a lot.

Mason has learned how to climb and now everything I thought was safe is no longer safe!  Spencer never climbed on anything so this is a new one for me.  It's scary!

First time playing in a puddle!

He's already beating up Spencer!

Mason can barely squeeze his little bum into this walker toy and wants us to push him around in it all the time.  He just relaxes and sucks his fingers during the ride.

He likes to climb into boxes and tubs now.  Yesterday, he tried to get both feet into a small tupper ware dish.

Santa left bubble bath in Mason's stocking so baths are way more fun now.  It's hard to keep him from drinking the bubbles though. :)

"Look how big I am - eating by myself!"

I love having this energetic, cute, little buddy to hang out with every day!

Spencer gets glasses!

A few months ago, Alan and I started noticing that Spencer was having trouble seeing far away.  I got glasses when I was eight so it wasn't surprising, but I had hoped that Spencer had inherited Alan's perfect eyes instead of mine. 

He had his first eye exam at the beginning of December and the Optometrist confirmed that Spencer could use glasses for seeing at a distance, but his near vision was just fine for now.  She recommended glasses for when he was sitting in the back of the classroom, sporting events, and any other time he might need to see far away.

This was Spencer's first reaction to trying on glasses:

His words were, "My appearance is not acceptable to me!"  Alan and I decided not too push it too hard and to let him have some time to get used to the idea.  I told him to start noticing what kinds of frames other kids wore and that helped some.  

He was able to find a tolerable pair of frames when we went back to the doctor a few weeks later.  And this his him wearing them at home:

 
Much happier!  (And, his frames are so much better than the gigantic pink ones I had in 3rd grade!)  Although we've had them for a week and he hasn't worn them other than trying them on yet.  We don't want to make it a negative experience and figure that he will wear them when he sees the need himself. 

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is always pretty low-key around here.  I value my sleep more than partying.  :)  We celebrated with an hors d'oeurve dinner and a balloon countdown.  Spencer got to pop the balloons one by one.  Each balloon contained a small piece of paper with an activity written on it.  This year's activities were: play balloon volleyball, drink hot chocolate, read the rest of the Christmas stories, have a dance party, and play Ring Around the Rosies.  Mason loved the balloons and Spencer loved everything except for Ring Around the Rosies.  hehe!

Here's to a new year filled with less primary stress, fewer migraines, and lots of family time!

Christmas Break

We really didn't do anything awesome over Christmas Break this year.  Alan worked a lot and I had a lot of migraines so we chose spend a lot of time at home and doing simple, inexpensive things with the boys.

We went to the Church building to shoot hoops the day after Christmas.  That is something we almost always do when we're in St. Johns for Christmas, but we had never done it here.

Mason had fun for awhile and rested when he got tired. 

Alan was a little surprised that Spencer could shoot his ball into the high hoops.  Standard height hoops have been too high for him in the past.

These two had a lot of fun goofing off together!

Mason is a climber now and climbed onto this shelf in Staples.

"Washing" the fridge.

Critter Cabana is a cool pet store in Wilsonville.  They have lots of puppies to hold and a big tortise that's free to roam the store. 

Spencer's first time ever holding a puppy.  He claims that he loves dogs (mostly because of the Puppy Place books he read last fall), but he has always been too scared to hold one.

Mason was over the moon about the puppies and was very curious about Winston the tortise.

Spencer read a TON over the break!  His teacher challenged his class to read 1,000 minutes over the 2.5 weeks they had off school.  I made Spencer a bar graph to keep track of his minutes and he went to town.  He wound up with 2,033 minutes and was first place in his class!  He earned a bag of gummy worms and a coupon for a Buddy Lunch (he gets to eat lunch in the classroom with his teacher and a buddy and can watch a movie if he wants)!  Alan and I were proud of him too so he got to stay up until 8:30 to play games with us.

We celebrated the last day of the break at Big Al's for some more arcade games (courtesy of the gift cards they gave Uberthons for holding packet pick-ups there).  It's a bit of a sensory overload for Mason (and me!), but Spencer and Alan had a lot of fun.

Spencer was really excited to get back to school.  I hope that lasts forever!

Christmas Day

Surprisingly, Mason was the one who woke us up early on Christmas morning.  Lately, he's been sleeping until after 7:00, but he woke up at 6:15 on Christmas.  Alan was nice to get up with him so I could sleep a little longer.  I'm sure Spencer was already awake, but we had told him he couldn't come get us until 7:00.  He's such a good kid!

Santa doesn't wrap his gifts at our house so the boys got to play with those as soon as we went downstairs.  They both got bikes!

Darwin and Debbie came over at 7:30 to join us for breakfast and opening presents.  Debbie brought her yummy Christmas eggs and I made cinnamon rolls and orange rolls.  I was glad they came in their pjs because we certainly we're dressed!

After breakfast, it was present time!  Both boys got spoiled by their Grandmas!  It was fun to watch Mason figure out how to open presents.  He probably liked playing with the wrapping paper just as much as his new toys.  At least until he started eating the paper and we had to take it away.  :)

 

Spencer's haul:

We didn't get a white Christmas, but at least we got some sun.  It was a welcome change to the wettest December on record for Oregon!  It was cold, but warm enough for Spencer to try out his new bike.  It's a lot bigger and heavier than his old one and he's still getting used to it.
 

Mason had fun chasing after Spencer and exploring the yard.

We had hoped to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Larsen in the afternoon, but Alan had a cough and we decided it would be better not to expose them to our germs.  Hopefully we'll get over there soon!

We drove over to Darwin and Debbie's for Christmas dinner later in the afternoon.  The ham, cheesy potatoes, rolls, salad, and Chasten's cheese and pineapple casserole were all delicious. 

I forgot to take a picture of Alan with his present from his parents - a drone!  Definitely not something that was on his radar, but I think he'll have a lot of fun with it.

After the boys went to bed that night, Alan watched a sappy Christmas movie with me.  (We actually watched one almost every night the week before Christmas and it was fun.  Alan is good that way.)  And then Christmas was over.  There is so much fun and anticipation leading up to Christmas that it's always sad when it's over.

Even though we missed seeing more family this Christmas, it was still a very nice day.  We are so grateful for each other and for our Savior whom we celebrate!