Snips and Snails...

I have nothing else interesting to write about so I thought I'd tell a story from last year. It was an invasion. We had snails eating every inch of the garden, breading, and they were eating whatever was left. Big snails, small snails, I'm calling all snails :) They even invaded our fruit trees. Have you ever even heard of that? I hadn't- but apparently they like citrus trees. Crazy! So I went though the yard with the "Snail Death" and covered everything. We were under fire and had to defend ourselves and our fruit!!!

This was around the time we started allowing Mason to wander freely, semi-unsupervised in the back yard. Granted there are things he could get into- but he was never interested in those things so we felt fairly safe about it. One morning I was in the shower and Nate opened the back door to let Mason go wandering in the back. Nate walked inside for a minute and then returned to the backyard to oversee Mason's boy-ish backyard adventures. As Nate walks into the backyard, all of the sudden I hear "Mason, oh god, MASON, UGH! Get that out of your mouth, Oh GOD, Gross! Mason, UGH, gross!! Spit it out!!" HAHAHAAAA- I'm sure by now you are putting 2 and 2 together- wondering why I was rambling on and on about the snails in our yard...but yes, it's true...yours and my worst fears...Mason had a snail in his mouth. Oh my goodness, we were just waiting for the "crunch". Thankfully, it never came- but it's one of my most vivid memories from Mason's first year. I hope you got just as much of a giggle out of it as I do.

Tantrums and terrible twos

Boy, oh boy, was it an afternoon. One tantrum after another and I was ready to drive us all off the Golden Gate in search of a peaceful place in the clouds. Everyone has their limits and I guess Mason reached his- but I definitely reached mine shortly thereafter. He's just at an age that is impossible- it's a constant battle with him over every little thing. And I question everything- what am I doing wrong- why is my precious adorable child acting like a person belonging to a straight jacket? Do I need to call Nanny 911? Did I miss this chapter in the How to raise a respectible, well-behaved child book? The problem is there is no answer-just the one you find through trial and ERROR, lots of error. I just have to tell myself everyday that, I am doing my best- my very best, 110% of my effort. That is what I have to give. That is all I have to give. And through that, I just hope, beyond all hopes, that I can manage to give him the tools to succeed in society and for us both to survive the process...

Missing out

As part of the package of parenting, you get giggles, goofs, pride, child-like excitement for things like Christmas-being able to experience those joys through the eyes of your child...

In addition to all those awesome things, you get

The Flu
Tantrums
Whining
Messes
and NEVER-ending laundry...among other things.

Today we got the flu- well, not all of us, but my darling little one has had diarrhea all day. Seriously, I've changed about 12 diarrhea diapers today alone...I'm SO over it!!!! Gross. Not only do I feel awful for him but Treven's New Years Eve Eve party was tonight and for the last 4 years, we have missed it. I've said this a hundred times to my friends, but becoming a parent is such a learning experience. I used to think that people had kids and miraculously became homebodies. Well, it's just not true-it's not that we all WANT to stay home with a kid with diarrhea, but what other choice is there? We don't plan for these things- they happen and we react. Here's the bottom line- Our priorities have changed not our personalities- Mason's well-being is #1 top priority. To all those of you, out there & single, bumming on your friends with kids because they're no fun anymore- give em a break. They don't want to miss out on all the fun- they're just trying their best to be good parents and do what they think is necessary...

Ahhhh, Christmas!

Well another holiday season is closing and it's really been an amazing one. I was giddy with excitement, like a little girl, for Christmas morning this year. Mason, of course, awoke early @ 5:30 am-UGH. SO I laid in bed with him until 6:15 when he climbed over me, out of bed and opened his bedroom door for the first time. Pretty cool, he must have been as excited as me for those presents under the tree. Christmas eve I set up a city rug with a train set on it in the very center of the living room so it was the first thing he'd see when he got up. He screamed "choo, choo!" when he saw it and was engulfed in playing with that for a good 45 minutes when we were begging him to open the rest of his presents. Some were things for him to get excited about, some were boring- like a whole box of shoes I got a good deal on at Nordstrom rack, 5 pairs in 1 box. He did ask me to put them on, but it was 5 seconds before something more interesting caught his eye and he was back to opening presents. He did get a pretty cool pair of rain boots which he wanted to wear for the remainder of his present opening. THen he got the golden gift, a vacuum from Pottery Barn kids- everytime we go in the store he would push it all over the store for at least an hour and cry when he was forced to leave it there. After that, came a shopping cart which Grammy later filled with over 100 pieces of fake food- hehe, it is so cool! I was also excited for Nate's presents. I got him a Burberry watch, it has a square face and a shiny silver finish. It's super nice and he totally didn't expect it. I also got him a mandolin, a bunch of clothes, a few books and a few other fun things. He got me a new cell phone, the Centro- which I LOVE, a beautiful white wool coat (which was too small, dang it!) a couple pairs of jammies and good make-up brushes. It was such an awesome christmas! We saw dad and Aurora Christmas morning, then headed back home so we could start getting dinner ready. It was a nice dinner, but WAY WAY WAY more food than we needed!!! Time for that DIET New Years resolution. My goal is to lose 8 lbs in 3 weeks....because after that I have a NEW new Years resolution...rock-a-bye who???????????

Not a survivor

Ok, seriously, I'm watching the Survivor finale tonight and there is no amount of money you could pay me to be on this show. The bugs, the challenges, the sleeping on bamboo- no freaking way!!!!

In other news, I learned to make Limoncello tonight! My friend Tracy came over and I had such an awesome time learning and chatting and drinking homemade, fresh squeezed lemon DROPS! YUM!! Basically it's going to take a week, then I can add sugar and then wait another week and we can strain it and bottle it for friends. I'm so stoked!!! And we still have hundreds of lemons on the tree. Anyone want to come over for lemon drops??? YUMMO!!!

As for Mason, boy is he teething today- and MAN is he a GRUMP! I know he's in pain, but boy is it painful for all of us when he's in a mood.

Well, I'm over and out- exhausted from the day- love to all

j

So, I suck, give me a break!

There are always so many things I want to write about. There is always so much going on, and so many cool stories to tell- and we all know I have no shortage of things to say..but I just suck at this blogging thing. What it really comes down to is that I just don't think about it. When I sit down after a long day with Mason, blogging is probably one of the very last things that comes to mind.

Other than that, what's going on here? I'm sick- again. I'm so sick and tired of getting every freakin thing that comes around. I've never been a sickly person but it just seems like this last 2 years has been horrendous for me. I even started using hand sanitizer like 15 times a day. It was getting so bad, my hands were so dry, they were cracking- and then I have to do all this hand therapy crap to counter all the hand sanitizer. UGH! I even got a flu shot this year!! Granted it didn't hit me as hard as my dad and others that I think I got it from- but jeeeeez! I've even been a good girl about taking my vitamins!

What else...Mason is a monkey, climbing every little ledge (and big ledge) he can find. He climbs on the armchair and goes "surfing". Ya know this whole Little Gym thing is a crock! Granted it's given him confidence...but COME ON!!! This is getting ridiculous! It's just not safe! Now it's even more work for me to be watching him every second. All I can say is thank God he can't open doors yet!

He's been super cute lately though, if you ask him what Santa Says he answers "Ho Ho HO". We stole that from Evan- mason's little buddy. Hes also recently started saying "whoa, cool, look" when he sees something neat. He's definitely communicating a lot better but I can still only understand about 20% of what he says. I feel for him ,it must be so frustrating trying to tell someone something and they give you that blank stare back. It would be like me going to Germany- never having spoken a word of german. I try to work with him, but he just repeats the wrong syllables over and over, not realizing he's saying it wrong.

He's sleeping good at least- although he did wake up at 5:30 again this morning- which was a bummer for Nate who slept (didn't sleep actually...) on the couch hoping to avoid my flu bug. I was still out of it this morning and useless. So now the house is even messier than normal...and I want to have another kid?? seriously??? ARGH! Gotta run, naptime is over-

Fires in SD

We're back and settled in since we returned from San Diego Monday. San Diego was craziness- the house under construction, Nate in pain (I'll explain later), and the FIRES, OH MY!! My younger brother Jared came with us this time but it really was a hell of a trip- and not necessarily in the good way. The worst of all was Monday morning at 8 am when Stacy called Susie's cell phone to tell us to evacuate. Come to find out, not only was our power out, but the phone lines were down too so there was no way for authorities to reach us in the reverse 911 system they use to evacuate. Anyway, the fires had been crazy burning all night and there was so much ash in the air you had to close your eyes even for a second outside. In the end everyone was safe, but we frantically woke everybody up, packed the car, and jammed to get out of that awfulness.

As for Nate- he has a cyst on his tailbone and was MISERABLE all week. After an 8 hour drive there and back he was in real misery. He's better now though- awaiting a new doctor adn insurance so he can get it taken care of properly.