Mason's It!

Mason got 'tagged' by his cousin Ethan, via Aunt Lolo (Lori). So... here are 5 things about Mason you probably didn't know (because I didn't keep a current blog very well the 2nd half of this year).

1. Mason likes to put things in his mouth, and sometimes he'll carry them around the house when he crawls, kind of how a cat carries her kittens from place to place.

2. Mason likes to play at Daddy's desk in the office. He will push the power key on and off on the computer (which is why 2 weeks ago we moved the computer tower on top of the desk), grab for whatever his hand can reach on the desk and pull it off, sit under the desk and play with whatever CDs or CD jewel cases are down there, etc. Lately, he has goes to where the empty jewel cases are pulls them off one by one and then stacks some of them back up again. I really think this kid is a techno geek. Gee.... I wonder which parent he gets that from!



3. He discovered that he likes peaches - even unwashed peaches with the fuzzy skin still on it. He got teeth and nothing is going to keep him from trying everything out by biting into it.

4. Remember the book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? Well Mason had one of those days - well, it was actually all within a 24 hour period from 3 or 4 pm on the 21 September through to about the same time the next day.
We had gone up to Great-Grandpa's cabin to help them close it up for the winter. We were all done and just working on little things while Great-Grandma got lunch ready. Mason was pulling himself up and standing next to the furniture, and all weekend I had done a really good job of keeping him off the huge petrified wood coffee table. But this time I thought he was okay and I kept doing what I was doing, even though I had a prompting to grab him and pull him back. I didn't listen to that 'voice' or prompting and sure enough, Mason lost his grip and his forehead smacked a protrusion on the table. His forehead developed a really good-sized goose-egg very quickly from the fall and turned very purple & red. Poor baby! I felt so bad and it took us quite a while to calm him down. Thankfully the swelling went down quite a bit by the next morning. Here is a picture of what his forehead looked like 24 hours later.

Unfortunately for Mason, that was just the beginning of his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 24 + hour experience. The next afternoon Kelly came over to play and I was in the kitchen cleaning out the fridge. Kelly was 'helping' me and Mason was playing in the living room with his toys. All of a sudden, I hear Mason crying and screaming and crawling over to me as fast as he can - he really sounded like he was distressed. I picked him up and held him but I couldn't see what was wrong with him and I tried to comfort him which wasn't working. I couldn't figure out what was wrong.... until I saw the BUMBLE BEE crawling across my kitchen floor. I realized that the bee must have flown in through the kitchen door when it was open and I didn't see it. I started looking for the stinger and couldn't find it, all the meanwhile Mason was getting very red! I called the pediatrician and the nurse told me how much benadryl to give him (and I still couldn't find the stinger!) and then Marc came home. When Marc checked him again, he found the stinger in Mason's index finger on his right hand. The bee must have ended up on the floor in the living room, and since Mason grabs everything small, he must have picked up the bumbling, slow-moving bee in his right hand, it stung him and so he started crawling towards me with the bee still in his hand until he got to me and opened his hand and the bee fell out. Which explains why the stinger was in Mason's hand so far. I put the bumble bee in a cup and stuck it in the freezer before Marc got home so I could show it to Marc - and then I decided to take a picture.

So here is Mason with all his rashy, red face, head, shoulders and right arm - with his right hand all wrapped up so that he doesn't take off the bandage with the baking soda paste on it. He's a pretty happy baby for recovering from a bee sting!

5. Mason can do the splits!!!!

6. There is really only 5 things you need to share, but since he just did some of these things in the last week, I thought I'd add them in. Ever since we got back from Germany, Mason has been really good at pulling himself up while holding onto the furniture and walking along the furniture. Today (Friday the 19th) he was standing next to the coffee table at Aunt Rita's house (Aunt Rita is cousins Joe & Andrew's other grandma) and he let go of the table and stood all by himself! He will walk while pushing his toddler cart from IKEA that we got Thanksgiving weekend (and early Christmas present) and just yesterday (Thursday) he grabbed onto the back of both my pant legs and walked behind me. Also today, he clapped by himself for the first time (I of course was out in Aunt Rita's garage painting his birthday present, but he did it again for me when I got back into the house). Why does it seem I keep missing a lot of his firsts when he doesn't do any of these things when he is home with me all day, but then does them for other people???

Mason can't tag any more of his cousins because their mommies either don't maintain a blog - or they are the ones that tagged him! So Mason tags his friends Katryn, Kelly, Robbie, Little Man, Morgan, Brooklyn, Carli and Kyla. Well see if any of their mommies ever read his mommie's blog since she hasn't ever gotten that many comments and still doesn't get that many comments!

This baby can sleep almost anywhere!

Mason's first birthday is upon us, so since I took ever so many pictures of him sleeping, I thought I would make a little slideshow of all of them so you can see all of the funny positions he's fallen asleep in and also how he's 'peacefully' grown. He's almost like his mother in that he can fall asleep almost anywhere.

I still can't believe it's been almost a year since he was born - this year really has flown by and I am amazed at how fast little babies really do grow. Just in the last 6 weeks it's like he's stopped being a baby and became a little boy.

Leaving Germany :(

So we weren't in the best of moods as we drove back to Memmingen - but it was so good to get back to Annika & Florian's! Mason was so happy to get out of that car seat and crawl around! Annika had a present for us to open that Sunday night. It is the German translation of a book by Astrid Lindgren (the Swedish author of Pippi Longstocking - which I didn't realize at the time when Annika gave us the book) - anyway, it's to help me keep up my German by reading it to Mason. Maybe I can keep his attention if I read him one or two pages a day - he's not that good for much longer than that. Here is Mason 'opening' the present, he was very fascinated by the ribbons.


Grandpa was exhausted and fell asleep on the floor.

The next morning I heard a noise outside the window (we were on the top floor of their flat) and looked to see a pigeon hanging out on the window sill.

We went to the Ferk's for lunch - and for some of Charlotte's apple cake (Lecker!!!)
Mason really liked to get out and crawl as much as he could. He never wasted an opportunity to crawl around and get into things.

And be as cute as ever!

Charlotte, Hans, Mason, Grandma and Grandpa

That evening we went to visit my sister Dantzel's host parents, the Sauters. They were so kind - I see now why Dantzel loved them so much!


Since I lost all the pictures I took the first week we were in Germany, I didn't have any pictures of Bert & Rosie Froehlich- so Monday I convinced them to let me take some pictures of them with Mason again. So here is Rosie, Mason, me and my mom.
And here is Bert and Mason - I think they really want some of their own grandchildren now. They will be fantastic grandparents when that day comes!

Mason is so excited to be crawling around - he really got good at crawling while we were there. He started out with the 'army crawl' or 'swimming crawl' like the Germans called it - but by the end of our two weeks, he was an expert hands and knees crawler - and pulling himself up!

Mason at the terminal in Munich.
I had decided 2 weeks earlier when we arrived in Munich (after having spent 3 hours in Chicago for our layover) that I didn't mind having Mason crawl around on the floor at the Munich airport - it was VCT (vinyl composite tile) that was super shiny. That means that it is cleaned and buffed everyday to be as shiny as it was. I can't say the same for the Chicago airport - nasty looking carpet was all over our terminal there that I didn't really trust to have Mason crawling around on that floor - but crawling around in the Munich airport was totally alright by me.

On the airplane with Grandma! He was so happy I let him stand up in his seat and move around as much as he did. It was a much better flight going back to the States than it was flying to Germany - for him at least. I, on the other hand, hadn't slept that much the night before we flew back to the States (or the previous two weeks during our trip for that matter) and since Mason was so active and alert on the flight from Munich, I wasn't able to get more than 20 minutes of a nap.
Mason in Chicago.

By the time we got to Chicago, got through customs (and security again) and back to our terminal, I was exhausted. I felt sick to my stomach I was so tired. Mason was tired (since it was midnight Germany time) and hungry (about 20 minutes after I took this picture). I made up a little bed on the floor (right where Mason is in this picture) by putting my coat down first and then Mason's blanket on top of that. He would start to fall asleep, but then wake up everytime the stupid loudspeaker came on (why is it so much louder in the terminal than anywhere else in the airport?) I forced him to take a children's benadryl fast melt (his pediatrician told me it was okay to give it to him about a week before we left for Germany) and strapped him into the carrier and went to the women's restroom to charge my cell phone (the only outlet I could find that wasn't being used and that worked) and rock him in the carrier. I lasted about 30 minutes and then I had to go back, I was too tired. I laid him down and this time he stayed asleep! I laid now next to him and we slept for about an hour and a half - until I became conscious enough to hear my parents discussing how they were going to wake me up and get us on the plane because we were getting ready to board. So I woke myself up the rest of the way and started packing our things up. Thankfully, Mason stayed asleep as I picked him back up and put him in the carrier again and got the rest of my stuff and he stayed asleep when we got on the plane and got his carseat in and him buckled in. He partially woke up partway through the flight, but I held him and he went back to sleep (as did I on that flight back to Salt Lake). He didn't wake up until we got back to Salt Lake and had gone outside to Marc waiting in the car, but I think that was because the cold Utah air woke him up. Although he was still kind of out of it and it didn't really register that he was back with Daddy. It was such a blessing to have that benadryl in Chicago though. I don't think I would have been able to cope if I couldn't sleep and had a very tired baby that couldn't sleep either.

It was a great trip (not a vacation for me) and I was so glad to see my friends and their families again - and to make new friends! I am so thankful for all their hospitality and generosity that they extended to Mason, my parents and I. Fond memories are priceless.