Stalling Tactics

So lately Mason has been trying anything he can think of to get out of going to bed (and sometimes going down for naps). We decided to compile a list of all of the things he has tried in order to stay up later. Here they are.

The top 10 things Mason does to put off going to bed.


10. Eats dinner very slowly

9. Requests a snack at the last minute

8. Requests another drink after one sat in front of him at the table untouched for the duration of dinner. He is suddenly thirsty at bedtime.

7. Brushes teeth very slowly or simply refuses to brush them

6. Asks for another song

5. Asks for anther book

4. Refuses a diaper change

3. Insists he pooped and needs another diaper change after refusing the first one. He has yet to actually be poopy after such a claim.

2. Insists on another family prayer

1. Puts himself in time out. He plops down on the time out stool and says "two minutes" or "don't move"



My favorite ones are the time out and asking for more prayer.

Cheese Trains and Wet Socks

So, this post will be pretty random. I try not to do random posts but I didn't feel like doing 4 to 6 posts tonight.

We could not get Mason to eat anything tonight, and it was getting closer to bedtime. As many of you know, he is obsessed with trains. I suggested a cheese train. He liked the idea. Travis cut the cheese into a train. It's funny to watch (or listen to) Mason while someone is doing some type of train art. He gets pretty excited and does this delightful squeal/giggle/laugh.

I was getting Mason ready for a bath Saturday night and totally forgot to take his socks off. He was so concerned that he still had his socks on and that they were wet.I should have taken a picture of the whole park. It was closed off all summer. They finally finished it in September so we put our jackets on and went to play at the park for home evening one night. If you look at Mason's nose he has a car "sticker" (band aid) on. I don't really remember how he got the sore but he loved wearing the stickers.Travis hates when I post stuff like this but this is the work of Mason. He likes to put us down for naps. He goes to his room and get a blanket and usually a few other things. He makes sure you have a pillow and will not let you get up until he is satisfied that you have taken a decent nap.We are finally to the Halloween pictures. We decorated cupcakes tonight.I was surprised when Mason put the skull and pumpkin on the cupcake instead of in his mouth. He did eat one of each and was a little upset when we said no to more. These are the cupcakes that Mason decorated.

Here are all of them that we did.

We went to a primary Halloween activity Wednesday night and Mason was a little soldier. (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the outfit.) He had a lot of fun playing the games and seeing the other children in their costumes.

The Missing Tortillas

Mason and I went grocery shopping this morning and got home just in time for lunch. Travis was getting stuff out for a quesadilla for Mason and told him to give the tortillas to Mommy (or he thought he did). Meanwhile, I was in the bedroom changing into something more comfortable (I love wearing lounge pants around the apartment). I came back out to the kitchen and Travis was looking for the tortillas. He asked me if Mason gave them to me. He hadn't. We looked everywhere. We asked Mason to take us to the tortillas. We looked in the cabinets and drawers, the garbage, and under pillows and blankets in the living room. I ended up making Mason cheesy bread for lunch instead of the intended quesadilla.

About 1:00 Travis went back to work and I was left with Mason and lunch cleanup. As I was putting the cheese back in the bottom drawer in the fridge I saw something that didn't belong there. The tortillas were in the back of the drawer under some other cheese. I think Travis intended to give the tortillas to Mason to give to me but put them in the drawer where the cheese was. We know that Mason didn't put them there because Travis said he was in the fridge still getting things out when Mason walked away and what would posess a 2 year old to bury the tortillas as far down and back in the fridge as he could get? We had a good laugh and apologies were made to Mason for blaming him for the missing tortillas.

Shush!

Lately Mason has started crying and screaming when we leave his bedroom at night after putting him down. He goes through this phase every once in a while. For a week and a half we put up with it, letting him cry and checking on him every ten or fifteen minutes. On Sunday, I was tired of listening to him. As I was losing patience, rather than yelling I gave him a stern "Shush!" He stopped almost instantly and that was the end of it. The next night when he started crying Annie tried it. It worked again. It has worked every night this week.

On a few of these past nights while crying Mason stops long enough to shush himself and then continues crying until we go and shush him.

Cleaning

Mason likes to run around with a water gun/bottle and spray us, himself or the furniture. Anything really. Then he points to whatever it is he sprayed and says "wet". We decided to take the opportunity to teach him a little cleaning. He kind of got into it too. He would spray the coffee table or the TV just to wipe them off. If only all of life's lessons were that easy to teach to your children.

Excuse Me

A few weeks ago before church Mason was having Travis march around the coffee table with him to a CD of church music. At first they were just marching but then I sat down and put my foot up on the coffee table. They marched around several times and Mason kept saying "'scue me" so I just left my foot down. The next time they came around he stood there until I put my foot up so he could say "'scue me" again and continue marching.

Jonamac

Last Saturday we went to Jonamac Orchard. We are a family of chickens though. It was sprinkling when we got there around 9:30am, but soon it was pouring. We thought we would just wait it out in the their store. It started to lighten up, but we decided that we didn't trust the weather and would try again next week. As soon as we got home the rain had stopped completely so we talked ourselves into going back. We were really glad that we did. The weather was great for the rest of the day. It was cloudy and I think there was a breeze so it wasn't too hot and didn't feel too muggy.

We had a lot of fun. I think Travis and I decided that the best part was watching Mason get so excited over different things.

We let Mason pick what direction to go in the corn maze a few times and got lost more than a few times.

Mason loves tractors. We couldn't pass up this photo opportunity.

Is this not the BIGGEST rocking chair you have ever seen? I don't think Mason liked it though because he couldn't get down by himself.

We played in a silo FULL of corn kernels. It was easy to see how working in one of these things could be so dangerous. You just sink in. Mason didn't like to walk in it but he really liked the toys they had for the kids to play with.

Mason LOVED the straw fort. I don't know how long he played in it but he had a blast.

It was really funny to see him with the animals at the petting zoo. He kept his hands in fists and I think the animals thought he had food in them because they would not leave him alone.

Pick of the day.
I love his little expressions.

I didn't take a picture but in the store they had apple doughnuts which I've never had or heard of, for that matter. We got a half dozen of them and they were so yummy and fresh. I had to stop myself from eating them so Travis could have a couple. I'll have a hard time not going back just for a dozen doughnuts to bring home.

Aside from a little sunburn that I got, I think it was a perfect family day. I was really glad that we went and had the camera to capture some of it so we could share what we could of our family outing.