Wild Animal Park with Aunt Britt

One thing Brittany really wanted to do while she was here was take Mason to the Wild Animal Park.  So, we obliged!  I took a day off of work, and we headed over nice and early to beat the Spring Break crowds.  

Checking out the ducks before we head to the big animals.

Love this view!

LIONS!  Britt got this awesome shot on her camera.  Mason looks a little worried...

We went on the Safari tram for the first time - so much fun!  

We got really close to a giraffe, so cool!

And of course spent some time spelling out the sign in front of him.  We do a lot of that these days, it's pretty remarkable how well he does!

Mason do it!

Last stop, gorillas!

As usual, it was a great day at the wild animal park!  Love how close it is :)

Tristan's Birthday

Tristan's birthday was Friday April 6th, and keeping with our RB Winery Fridays tradition, that's where we celebrated.  This time we invited a bunch of friends, and had everyone over to our house after for some of Tristan's mom's amazing lasagne and some awesome Pinterest-inspired sides & apps!

Some of the girls, hanging out with Ava. 

So happy my little sister was able to be there!  Do you think we look alike??

James & Chris

This swing is a weekly occurrence.  All the kids love to line up on it and swing - and Opa is usually right there with them.

Miss Bella entertaining herself while her parents socialize

Bella & Anderson, who are a week apart - both one next month!

They sure do love their Opa

One of my favorites - these two are buddies!

Tristan & Laura started a pretty intense game of tag with all the kids - they were having a blast!!  See, who said you have to be 21 to enjoy a winery??

I didn't take any pictures back at the house b/c I was busy entertaining - oops!  But I did find this gem.  Dan was sporting a sweet zip-up and Brittany mentioned she had the same one...which turned into a photo shoot.

Now that I'm posting these pictures, I realize that I also didn't get ANY pictures of the birthday boy, let alone me and Mason with the birthday boy.  Oops!  I'll just chalk it up to, we were having too much fun to notice at the time! 

First Official Haircut

Well, despite the fact Mason doesn't exactly have a FULL head of hair yet, it was high time for a hair cut.  His head was full-on party in the back, business in the front - mullet and a pro-ceeding hairline all at once!  We want his hair to eventually be a little more shaggy, but first we need to get it all to grow in...so in the meantime it was time to clean it up!

There's a cute kid's cut place in RB that was recommended by family, so I made an appointment with very low expectations.  If his reaction to his nice doctor was any indication, we were going to be the people with the screaming child.  Well, we were VERY pleasantly surprised!  

They let the kids sit on their parents lap if they're a little apprehensive, so daddy was right there with him.  As you can see, Mason was a little unsure about what was happening, despite his nice stylist, Lisa.

But he didn't freak out our pull away when she started cutting his hair...

 

Still pretty unsure, but aware that what Lisa is doing isn't hurting...so it can't be too bad...

They have TVs in front of every chair, and we picked Cars for him to watch.  It was a great distraction (along with the truck in his hands).

Lookin handsome!

The whole thing took only 15 minutes or so, and he did great!  No tears, and sat quietly as Lisa cut his hair.  Since he was so good, he got a lollipop.

Hey mom, that wasn't so bad!  And I got a lollipop!!

We were so proud of our patient little guy.  And look at that handsome little man haircut!

White Boy Dancing

Mason takes carseat dancing VERY seriously.  Either that or it just requires a lot of concentration to move his arms so skillfully.

We're going to have to work on that some before his first school dance :)

Beach Birthday Party

Last weekend we went to our little friend Talia's 5th birthday party.  Her grandparents live in one of the most amazing neighborhoods on the ocean we've ever been to.  And in true mommy-brain fashion, I left not only our camera, but Talia's present at home.  Good thing she lives across the street from us, and my handy-dandy iPhone takes decent pictures!

It was a pirate party and they'd buried "treasure" around the playground.  Check out that view!

Gorgeous view

We had to go play in the sand and with the waves for a bit!

Yum, hot dog!

Ok, that bun was too big!

Once dinner was done, it was time for the pinata!  Mason had his first "go" at it, and he had a blast!

Woo hoo check out the treats that came out of the pinata!!!

Uncle Chris helping keep Cal toasty warm by the fire

Once the sun set and it got cold, some of us headed back to Talia's grandparent's house...which was amazing.  They had a wonderful view of the ocean, and an unbelievable home.  They have 3 grandkids so their backyard was well-equipped for our little boys.  Check out this plane!

Then they brought out Mason's FAVORITE - balls!  The three little boys had a blast throwing balls all over their backyard.  These are Talia's adorable grandparents, who just sat in these awesome oversized rockers for over an hour, just watching and laughing at the boys, enjoying their excitement.

 

It was such a fun evening!  I've got tons more to blog about soon - Auntie Britt was here last week and we went to the Wild Animal Park and celebrated Tristan's birthday.  Gigi is here now, so when I have time I'll start to update you with last week's pictures.

Month 21

So I'm not sure where the time is going, but apparently it's not being spent working on the blog :)  To be honest, it's less a lack of time thing, and more of a lack of content these days.  We've been a pretty busy little family with two working parents and a little boy bouncing between his nanny, Opa and BG, and because of that every minute together is so precious we end up enjoying the moment rather than trying to capture videos and pictures :)

That said, Mason's 21 month was not uneventful!  I'll start with the "sad" stuff first...last week was a full week of boo-boos in our house.  Over the course of the weekend he gave himself a fat lip, a cut up his leg, and two skinned knees.  After he skinned his knees, I took him into our bathroom to clean him up.  Through his tears, he kept saying "teeth!  teeth" and reaching up for Tristan's toothbrush.  Good to know...my kid doesn't like band-aids, but prefers clean teeth after an accident :)

Check out those sad little knees and cut up his leg!

Now here's the REALLY sad part...two days later, he took a big fall off a playground bridge while playing with his cousin Addie under his BG's watch.  Well, friends, this fall caused our little boy's very first BROKEN BONE.  Poor baby broke his collar bone from the fall!

It was a pretty terrible day for both of us, I rushed home from work to get him to the doctor, where we spent 2 (hungry/tired/bored) hours getting poked and prodded.  We were both completely exhausted and over it, and THEN we still had to go get the X-Rays, which was by far the most traumatic experience in either of our lives.  Me and three technicians were having to hold a screaming, hurting little boy down to get the right shots.  Once I finally got him home and settled down, I think he thought he wanted to have some fun before napping but decided he was too pooped...this was where I found him.

I'm happy to report that the fall was a week ago and he is back to his old happy, playful self again.  As you may know about collar bones, there's not a whole lot that can be done when they're broken, so we gave him Motrin for the pain, and within about 4-5 days he was running around.  He definitely still favors his left side some to protect it, but it should be healed within the next few weeks and all signs are pointing to a positive recovery.

Now on to the fun stuff!  Every Friday I have a half day at work.  Once the weather warmed up we had the great idea to check out the Rancho Bernardo Winery just down the street from us.  We went 3 weeks ago, and it has now become our Friday tradition!  It is a cute, quaint little winery with some adorable shops and beautiful settings.  It's always quiet when we're there, and has fast become our favorite way to unwind after a long work week.  We've been 3 weeks in a row now - first week as a family, second with Todd, Laura, Opa and the 3 cousins, and last week with some good friends and their kids.  We pack up a bunch of snacks, the adults purchase a few bottles of wine and grab a table out on the veranda overlooking the cottages and a water fountain, and the kids spend hours running around and eating the snacks.  I'm pretty sure if you're ever looking for us on a Friday through the summer, you will find us here!

With little Ava at RB Winery

Mason is still doing great at his nanny's house.  She has quickly become like family to him - she truly cares about him and her whole family is so inviting to Mason.  In the 3 months he's been there he has not once cried when I dropped him off, and most days we have to lure him out of the house to go home.  The best part about him being at an in-home daycare is the fact she takes the time to text me updates and pictures.  Here are a few cute ones she's sent recently.

The shirt is a Pinterest find/Etsy purchase.  And yes, that's a Sunny D...I gave approval but it DOESN'T happen often :)

With his buddy Oliver, one of the other kids his nanny watches.

She's putting them to work early :)

Like I said earlier, Mason loves to brush his teeth!  Here's another cute one from last weekend.

We had friends over for St. Patty's.  I wasn't feeling well and didn't take my camera out, here's the one picture I caught that night.  I made corned beef & cabbage for the adults, and organic chicken fingers/fries for the little ones.

That's about Mason's last month in a nutshell!  I'll leave you with a few awesome videos I took tonight - he is learning like crazy these days.  Just last night we discovered that he can actually read letters from some of his bath toys.  We knew that he knows his ABC's, but it's fascinating to watch him apply what he's learned.  We also learned that he can not only count to 10, but can count backwards from 10 to 1.  The video below doesn't capture that well, I think he was over the video camera, so I'll keep trying to catch it.

I know everyone says this about their kids, and we're no exception...we think he's a pretty smart kid for barely 22 months!!!