Glacious

Mason has Spanish class at school every week and is starting to speak Spanish a bit more. Rob has always worked on them counting in Spanish. Mason is getting close to rolling his "r's", a skill I have never mastered. Thanks to my loving and caring husband I will never forget nor will I ever not be encouraged to keep trying! Mason was telling everyone how to say thank you in Spanish and he is convinced it is Glacious not Gracias.

ABC

This little man loves playing the ABC song along with moving to the beat! He doesn't say mama or dada, but he attempts to sing the ABC's?

14, 15, 21

We don't work with Ellery like we did Mason, we just assume she is picking up what we are teaching him. Clearly we need to work with her a bit more.

Potty Words Extended

Oh my, the potty words have evolved into "bad" words. Mason had a play date with my good friend Anne and her son Sam. Mason and Sam were playing and Mason repeatedly kept saying "Damn It". According to Anne, Sam kept telling Mason that it was a bad word and to stop saying it, but Mason kept saying it over and over. Anne finally intervened and told Mason that we don't use that word, and he listened and stopped saying it. I have never heard him use that word at home. Isn't it funny he decided to try a new word out, and I am not around to use my great parenting skills. Anne got to use hers. After Anne filled me in on the events and we went home Mason and I had a talk about saying that word. I originally called it a potty word and explained it is a word we don't use. Mason told me he understood and apologized for using it, and then immediately asked since it was a potty word if he could still use it in the bathroom. I then had to explain that it wasn't a word we used ever and not even in the bathroom. Our potty words are still used only in the bathroom, but we now have bad words we don't use ever.

Fast forward a few days later when Mason looks at me straight faced and asked if he could use the word "crap". "Mom is crap a potty word?" We then had to add another word to our bad word list we don't ever say.

Potty Words

Oh, the words kids find humor in saying. We have deemed fart, but, poop, and burp "potty words". Words one can only say in the bathroom now. When we go the bathroom Mason can't stop talking about farts and one day he looked at me and asked me why I wasn't talking about farts and reminded me that we are in the bathroom so I can talk and say fart all I wanted. Our poop parties still happen, but now songs are being sung with the word fart in them. I found it only fitting to pull out a book I bought Rob after we got Hudson called "Walter The Farting Dog". The kids LOVE IT!

Also, Mason had a play date with one of his friends from school. We are sitting around the table having lunch when G decided to make a statement about three kids in his class being on "the dark side". I am thinking we have a kid who is a Star Wars fan and I asked what being on the dark side meant. He said it is using "potty words and not following directions." Mason without missing a beat looks at his friend and says "yeah, that is just like licking toilet seats." It was a hilarious conversation.

A Mom's Worry

Mom's will obsess over the craziest things and I have been obsessing over Ellery's speech. One knows you shouldn't compare children, but I am guilty. Mason was slow to talk and he is fine and I realize this, but Ellery is even slower. At two she was hard to understand, but then she started trying to say more words and it looked like she was going to take off, but then she stopped excelling. I then started to think I should take her to a speech therapist blah blah blah. Poor Rob had to console me and keep reminding me she is right on track. She grasps concepts and will mimic, but getting the words out for someone other than me to understand was a challenge. Why did I worry so much because clearly she is starting to talk and say more and more and others can understand her. Of course my favorite is hearing her say Mandi, I think it is adorable.

Does Vs Dos

Mason needs a grammar lesson in when he should use does over do. It makes me smile every time he reiterates something to me and says "yes, he dos" rather than yes he does.

Lounging

Not a day goes by that I don't chuckle about something my kids do. Mason is usually the culprit, Ellery is cute but Mason just says the funniest thing and watching him figure something out fascinates me. I was telling him he was my sweet prince the other day and he informs me "I'm not a sweet prince, I'm a boy."
The last two mornings Mason has decided to come downstairs rather than taking a pit stop in our room first. He helps himself to some toast and milk and then comes upstairs and lounges in bed with us. I came downstairs and found him sitting in the corner kitchen chairs. We occasionally will have a snack in these chairs while I read a book or magazine and I guess he finds them as comfy and cozy as I do.

Hello

I tried to capture Ellery talking into the phone, but she isn't actually talking, just moving her lips like she is mimicking me. She says Hello, but I will keep trying for a better video, but it was too cute not to share.

Let the How's Begin

Mason is becoming more and more inquisitive. We haven't hit the why stage, but we are in the "how's it work" stage. He first response when something isn't working is "it needs batteries". He thinks everything runs on batteries these days and after he is done with thinking about the batteries he then goes for the "hows it work" question. I am sure I give him a much more elaborate response on how it works but my responses answer his question and he then says "ohhhhh" and carries about his business. Today's business walking around naked in mommies shoes!

Uno Dos Tres

Rob taught Mason to count to 10 in Spanish over a month ago and I never got around to capturing it on video. I am amazed at how fast he catches on. He does give Grandma Debbie credit for teaching him although it was his daddy who taught him. We don't know where the comment came from, but it came out of left field. He tends to focus on one person each day and that is who he calls on the phone and talks about. He spends a lot of time on the phone with Great Great Grandma Gray and Grandma Ellen. He couldn't stop talking about Nana and her dog Toto a few days ago and every time he plays with his thomas the train he says "thank you Papaw". Moral to the story the kid is loved by lots of people and I think he knows it!

Bye Bye

Ellery started waving hello and bye bye the other day and it is just precious. She waves backwards toward herself, but she is trying. She is also trying to talk more and mimic us a bit. She is always enthralled with Mason, she follows him every where. Some days he is ok with it and other days it is a different story.
I finally caught her hitting herself. We can't quite figure out what she is thinking when she does it. She recognizes that it hurts but still doesn't stop. Who knows, we probably shouldn't find it funny but we do.

Oh My Goodness

We are sitting at the table and we suddenly hear Mason say "Ohh My Goodness" for no apparent reason, he is just talking to himself at the table. We look at each other and say where did he get that? We were clueless until we were at the Apple Store latter that evening when the expert showed me how to do something on the computer and I was impressed and enthusiastic and I said "Ohhh My Goodness".

Stairs

If you asked Mason what he did today he will tell you he fell down the stairs and did a flip. We were getting ready to leave for the Children's Museum and was upstairs playing and coming down for his shoes. I think he was a little excited to go to the museum and came down the stairs a bit too fast. I heard the crash and rushed around the corner to see him going head over heels down. Nothing was hurt but his pride. We ended up having a great time at the museum and one would never know he fell down the stairs except he tells you.
This is also our second fall in the past few weeks. He was sitting at the top of the stairs and dropped his beloved stuffed animal and when he went to reach for it he fell forward and I caught him by his ankle before he went down the rest of the stairs. Thank goodness they are carpeted.

What's Up

Mason greeted me the other morning with a "what's up". I thought it was cute and funny and was curios where he picked up this saying. He also greeted Ellery when she woke up, a neighbor riding her bike down the street, his favorite stuffed animal, and the dog with a "what's up". I have tried to capture it on video but I have been unsuccessful. I did however conclude my investigation where he got the saying. Rob called me on the phone and his first question he asked me was "what's up".

Fire Truck

We just couldn't resist getting this one on video and we know it is terrible.

He is talking a lot and usually does very well. He gets into trouble in his pronunciations when he talks fast. We shouldn't encourage it, but we just couldn't resit sharing a laugh with everyone. It all started when we went to the store today and the firemen were collecting change in boots in front of their "fire frucks". Mason then came home and found his puzzle that had a fire truck in it and wanted to play with it.

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