{Two and a Half Years Old}

Okay, so I am a little behind on this. I wanted to have Mason's exact measurements before I posted this...but here we are a month later and I still haven't gotten exacts! 

Mason turned 2.5 years old on November 25th. 

Two and a half years old!!! How is that even possible my sweet boy?? But you know what? Sometimes it feels like he has been a part of our family forever. And other times I cannot fathom that it's been 2 and a half years since I first met this amazing little boy!

He will still tell you that he's four though. Sometimes it's three and sometimes its five, but never two!

 

Stats/Sizes

Weigh 34ish lbs {Daddy weighed himself and then you with him}

Approx 36/36.5 inches tall

Size 3t bottoms

Size 3/4t shirts - depends on the brand

Size 8 shoes

Size 6 diapers/pull ups

Eating - still don't care much about food. You'd rather drink than eat. We have to make you eat on most occasions. You love bananas, yogurt, grilled cheese, funyuns and of course milk. You'd drink milk 24/7 if we'd let you.
Sleeping - still sleeping great at night. On week nights you're usually in bed by 7:30-8:00 and asleep by 8:00. Weekends you're up a little later. Bed time is pretty much ridiculous! You talk and talk and tell story after story to avoid going to sleep. You have always been able to fight sleep like a pro! You still nap well at school {a little over 2 hours a day}, but weekends are hit and miss. Most times you are too busy for a nap. Sometimes it's good because you will go to bed early and stay on schedule...but some times not good because you'll throw fits from being tired!
Talking - there's not much you don't say! You're a talker. For sure. You tell us that you love to talk, but you really don't have to. It's obvious! ha. I do love being able to communicate with you, though. You also ask a lot of questions about everything under the sun! We get complimented often about how well and clear you talk! 

Potty Training - not going as well as I'd like...but I guess when you're ready it will happen. Before the Christmas break you were doing really great at school. You've never done as well at home as you do at school, though. I think it's a number of reasons. You go at school because all the other kids are going, it's a different room, etc. At home you know that mommy will just change your diaper, you're too busy to tell us, and our bathroom just isn't as fun. I think I may introduce a sticker chart or something at home. 

Imagination - here lately your imagination has gone through the roof! Your dad and I just look at each other and grin! It's amazing some of the things that you come up with. I just love it. It's neat to hear all of the different scenarios you come up with when driving your trucks/tractors. 

Learning - you can now count to 20.  You catch us off guard all the time with things you know and have learned. At your recent Christmas program we learned that you know the Pledge of Allegiance, most of the Christmas Pledge and the Pledge to the Bible. Made this Mama so proud!! At Random times you will blurt out with something like "Mama, a spider has 8 legs." Every day is something different. 

Mason, my sweet love, you are crazy hilarious and stubborn as a mule! You are constantly cracking us up with the things you say or the faces you make. And boy do you love to make faces!! You are also very smart. Your brain is seriously like a little sponge and even when we think you aren't paying attention, you are! Mommy and Daddy surely have to watch what we say these days!!

You still love tractors, monster trucks and jeeps. In fact, riding your Power Wheel jeep all around the yard is your absolute favorite. And you drive it really well; even over hills and through mud puddles. And when it comes to mud...you are ALL boy! You're so funny, though, if there is a touch of water anywhere around you have to put on your rain boots. 

Mason, you still have a very compassionate heart and a sweet, sweet soul. You make Mama look up to you and want to be more like you. Your heart really is as big as they come. Daddy and I love to see things through your eyes!

 Masonbug, you are growing up entirely too fast. Please slow down baby! Stay little forever!! 

I love you to the moon and back sweet boy!!

 

 

{Christmas Eve}

It is Christmas Eve night and we are heading home to get ready for Santa. There's a tower somewhere in the distance with a red light on. Mason thinks it's Rudolph and that he's getting close to our house! He's getting so excited!! I can't even contain his cuteness right now!

It's now 10:38pm and I am laying in bed with Mason. He keeps doing everything under the moon to keep himself awake. I can't even get upset with him because I remember these days and being too excited & anxious for Santa that I couldn't sleep. It's beyond amazing to see it through your his eyes. I'm so excited for him that I can't sleep. Or don't want to sleep. I just want to stay awake and watch him. I want to remember every single thing about tonight. This is the first Christmas that he's actually "getting" it. He is soaking up all things Christmas. I've been trying to teach him that Christmas isn't only about Santa, presents, and Reindeer and that it's also Jesus' Birthday. He get's it somewhat. 

He's now singing Ol' McDonald over and over and twisting from back-to-front/front-to-back like crazy. He can't lie still for anything! Nathan is in the garage assembling his "Santa" and it's kind of loud. Every time Mason hears a noise he asks me if it's Santa and the Reindeer on the roof! 

11:25 - He's finally drifted off to sleep and I am right behind him! I just can't wait for morning.

............................

Reading the night before Christmas with Nana

{Christmas Cookies}

Sunday before we left for The North Pole Express {post here} Mason and I baked some cookies. I let him help with everything and it was a blast. I admit though, I had to put my OCD tendencies aside and just let him have at it...   - It's okay if he leaves half the batter on the rolling pin - It's okay if the shapes aren't cut out perfectly - It's okay if he wants to keep rolling over and over the dough - It's okay if he wants to play with the shapes after they are cut   It's all about the memories we are making!! 
And? That we did.  He's already asked a few times to make more cookies.  And we will.

How cute is he?!

Merry Christmas Eve!

{Bringing back that Christmas feeling}

Before we had Mason things were different this time of year. Christmas just didn't exactly "feel" like Christmas. I guess it was just another sign of us getting older. Not that we didn't celebrate the true meaning of Christmas...that was never lost. Just the whole "magical" feeling of Christmas went wayward over the years.    I missed that feeling. Longed for it.
Then we had Mason.
And the enchanting feeling of Christmas came back and in a whole new way. It's so amazing to see "Christmas" through his eyes and each year just gets better and better.
He is 2.5 now and he's starting to get the whole Christmas thing. It's so much fun. Anything that has lights he adds "Christmas" before it. Like driving home from school we saw a truck with running lights on the top - Mason says, "Look Mommy, it's a Christmas truck."    I know. Cute, right?
He makes me so so so excited for the holidays. 

{Mason's First Christmas Program}

Last night {12/18/12} Mason had his first ever Christmas Program. Going into it I honestly wasn't sure if he would get on stage and sing or not. I could only envision him running back to me once on stage. And on our way to the program Nate and I talked about it and agreed that if he participated GREAT, but if he didn't? Fine. We weren't going to push or persuade him one way or the other. This was his program, his night and his decision.   That morning on the way to school I asked Mason about the program and if he was going to sing. This was our conversation:   Me - Mason, are you going to sing on stage tonight with your class?
Mason - No, I don't need my class. I can do it by myself. I just need my clothes and a Christmas hat.
ha!   The program was the church {FBA} that our school is a part of. The sanctuary is pretty large and our tiny little school just about filled it up! That was awesome in itself. My family came, Nate's family came; it was just lovely! We were so grateful to have them as a part of Mason's special night. We walked into the sanctuary and Mason points to the Piano {he calls it a Patano} and says, "I need that." This boy has a thing for music!
The teachers and students all sat in the same area - the first 3-4 pews to the right of us. Mason saw his teachers and told us, "I need to go sit with my class." And he did. Here we are in a church full of strangers and Mason leaves his comfort zone and goes with his class. A few of the kids were crying and wanting their mommies. Mason studied them a bit and you could tell he didn't know what to think. But, he didn't let it stop him. He bounced from lap to lap of all his teachers and talked and visited with his friends. We were so proud of him!
The program started and the Director of our school opened with a great message!!! For us to all remember the Reason for the Season. Our Savior, Jesus Christ. It was amazing. Then up was Mason's class. The 2's are the youngest group that participates in the program. It took them just about forever to get on stage. Their tiny little legs were almost too small to climb the steps and most of them bear crawled. Adorable. Once they took their places you could tell that Mason was trying to find us. He was looking and looking and then tells his teacher, "I want my Mama." It was the cutest thing! Then his other teacher told him they were about to sing and then he was all good! You can see that in the video below. Love!

The first song they sang was the B-I-B-L-E. It was as precious as could be. Mason was having a grand ol' time!!! Nathan and I were in tears with pride.

Cute right? Next up they sang The Lord's Army. Mason got into this one with full-on motions. Mason's friend next to him thought he was trying to hit him {and I think he may have bumped his shoulder}, and he slaps Mason in the face. Sigh! I'm just thankful that Mason didn't deck him or push him off stage!! And the screenshot of the video below looks like he's totally about to whack his friend!

It was so hard not to ugly cry! I was that proud and happy that my baby was on stage, performing his sweet little heart out. Next up they did Jingle Bells. At one point in the video Mason notices that his teacher is holding some bells and gets so excited. I love his expression!!

Awww! Oh, this Mommy's heart was was so full!!
The three's were next, then the fours, then the schoolers. Throughout the rest of the play Mason sat with all his teachers. It made me feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing group of people. My baby loves his teachers. The after-schoolers closed it with the most moving act. They started with Joseph, Mary &; Baby Jesus on the stage and the rest came in one by one down the aisle of the church. They dimmed the lights and it was just amazing. Touching. Loved every second of it.   

    Then they called all of the kids back on stage to close with Silent Night. Just beautiful! And then the Pastor came up to say a few words. He spoke about the CT shootings and how we are all blessed to have our sweet babies on stage. I had been thinking that all night long. And we truly are. It was so raw and so real coming from a Pastor that knows first hand the pain of losing a child. He lost a baby girl to cancer back in 2006, I believe.    The CT shootings have been so hard on my heart. Since Friday there hasn't been a moment that I haven't thought about all of those sweet babies and those brave adults that went home that day. It has rocked me to my very core. Every time I squeeze Mason close I feel a bit of guilt and my heart goes out to those Mama's that will never hold their babies again here on Earth. I've tried to stay away from the news and the Internet because it really is too much. I just want to believe it never happened. It's something I'll never understand, but I put my faith in Jesus Christ. And knowing that Jesus welcomed those sweet babies with the biggest hug gives my heart some peace. My thoughts and prayers go out to each and every one of those families. 

I love how Mason is holding the hand of one of his sweet friends in this video. 
After the program I saw Mason and one of his teachers walking to the piano. He had talked her into taking him over there. Well, it just so happened that we knew the pianist!! She was so sweet to take Mason up and let him play. He was over the moon excited!! 
Such a great night. My soul needed this. 
///pictures from the night\\\

After the program Mason serenaded us with more singing on the ride home! He was so tired and having trouble not falling asleep in the car. We told him a million times how proud we were of him and how great he did. He said he had a blast and that he loves his school.   And to hear my husband tell his son over and over how proud he was of him with so much emotion behind it just about pushed my heart over! I'm so blessed to have such a loving husband and daddy to our son.

{Another trip to Children's Hospital}

Saturday morning Nathan and I had planned to get out and complete all of our Christmas shopping. Nate's mom had agreed to keep Mason for the morning/afternoon. We woke up on Saturday and Mason was great, a little croupy, but great. He was playful and silly and eager to go to Nana and Papas. Nathan took Mason to get donuts while I finished getting ready. Then we took him to Nate's mom and dad's. Still good. 
We went to Toys R Us first. I think we got there at 9:45. We had just enough time to get Mason's "Santa" gift before we got a call that he had thrown up pretty bad.  That was around 10:30. He was in the bathtub and saying that he was feeling better. They said he acted fine and that it might have been just a one time thing. He had some drainage, so we all started praying it was just that.    We headed back that way. I couldn't just hear that he was "okay", I had to see him. Hug him and kiss him. When we got there he was playing and acted fine. He ate and entire gatorade-type popsicle. We hung out for another hour or so and decided to take Mason home to get a nap. On our way to the car Mason got sick again. Luckily we were outside.   We went home and he played for a little bit and then Nate got him to lay down for a few. He slept for about 30-45 minutes and then woke up. I could see it in his face he was about to get sick again. And he did. And it was a lot. And it was our deciding factor to take him straight to Children's. He wasn't taking in enough for the amount that was coming out. We were scared of dehydration and what happened last year. Read about that here.
We checked into the ER at 3:45 and were introduced to the not so glamorous side of Children's. The last time we were there it was by ambulance, so our care was a little nicer. We sat in a filthy waiting room with 5-10 people with masks on. It was obvious it's flu season! Mason wanted to get up and play on the toys but we wouldn't let him. I felt bad, but I didn't want him to get any sicker. He had a full lesson of germs during that wait! 
After an hour and half or so later they finally called us back. They took Mason's vitals and then put us in a room. Mason threw up again right when we got in there. That was 5:30. We told the nurse and she laid a towel over it said she would notify housekeeping. We sat in this room for what seemed like forever. The housekeeper finally came about an hour and a half later to clean up the mess on the floor. And at 7:30 we finally saw the doctor. She checked him over and he wasn't dehydrated at that point. She ordered him a Zofran tablet and wanted to give it 30 minutes to set in. The nurse brought it in and then took us to an "internal waiting room". Again, filty, lots of really really sick people. I kept Mason in my lap and tried to cover his mouth as best I could. At this point I was so ready to get out of there! Mason drank apple juice and gatorade and held them down. About an hour later the doctor checked him and he was doing great. She got our discharge papers ready and we went to a room for one last round of vitals. They prescribed him Zofran.

We left the hospital and headed to get his prescription and a few other essentials. We let Mason pick out a toy because he had been so well behaved at the hospital. Throughout the whole sick day he was so sweet and patient and kind.    We finally got home and Nate's parents met us there with food. Nathan and I hadn't eaten all day and were starving. But of course at that point we were just exhausted and too tired to eat. We had a few bites and that was it.    Mason was so tired. It was around 11:30pm and he was upset that he couldn't have any milk. He fell asleep in my lap watching Toy Story around 11:45.    We took it easy on Sunday. Mason was great and starving! That boy asked for everything we had in the house, plus some. He did great all day! Nate took off Monday to be with him. We wanted to give him another day to rest. I took him to school on Tuesday, but picked him up early. We wanted to ease back into it!    He's been great ever since. Praise the Lord!!!

{Texas Tuesday - North Pole Express}

Mason's absolute favorite movie right now is Polar Express. The boy loves trains, so it's no wonder he loves the movie. I bought him the dvd off Amazon and a week later he lost it somehow in the transfer from the living room to his bedroom. We are on our 2nd dvd of the movie now. I'd say we've watched it no less than a dozen and a half times in the last 3.5 weeks. Which is a lot for someone that normally doesn't like to watch t.v.   So, Sunday night we took a one hour drive to Grapevine, TX to take Mason on the North Pole Express. It was a complete blast. Mason has been once before, but he was just 6.5ish months old. I know he doesn't remember it, but I certainly do. I cried like a big baby. It was just so magical. It was my baby's first Christmas and the "feeling" {post coming on that soon} of Christmas returned to his daddy, Nana and me.

Getting ready to leave for Grapevin

 This year was just as great. Mason was much more involved and excited about what was going on.  He wore some cute little Christmas pajamas and a festive Christmas hat. The anticipation of the train ride and seeing Santa was shown on his sweet little face from the moment we got there.
The first thing he did was ride the little ride on toys they have sectioned off. What did he choose? Thomas the Train, of course.

He played for a while and then we noticed that you could take pictures with Santa in one of the buildings. So, we headed that way. Again, Mason was so excited and not the least bit scared of Santa. He was so anxious in line and kept asking, "is it my turn now?" And when the kid in front of him climbed off Santa's lap Mason didn't hesitate one moment and took off running to Santa. It was the sweetest and cutest thing! 

Mason and Santa had a good chat and we bought the outrageous $20 picture package for (3) 4x6 - 2 of them had their logos plastered all over it. But, It was worth it to see Mason so excited about Santa. After Santa we walked around and took a few more pictures.

Mason rode the rides for a little more until it was time to go into the tent for the pre-show. They let you in a good 30 minutes before the show actually starts...so needless to say there are a lot of anxious, restless kids! Mason being one of them. They played clips of various different Christmas movies on the big screen while we waited.

Classic!

 Finally the show started and they sang a few Christmas songs and put on a little skit. Mason says, "Mommy, I want to go on stage and sing." I'm sure if I would have said yes he would have gone right on up there! I love that he's so fearless!!!
After a 15 or so minute show a conductor came out and said a few lines off the movie. Mason's eyes lit up and he knew that it was time! They started boarding the train, but of course we were the last section to go! We found our seats and the train was off!  

  

The conductor came by and punched all the kids tickets. Mason was excited because it was just like the show. 

 

   Santa came out and the train went crazy! Mason was screaming "Hi Santa"!! Santa made his way down the train and people were pulling him right and left to take pictures. And somewhere in that chaos he skipped right over Mason. It made me so sad! Luckily, Uncle T-Ty was in the row in front of us and directed him back to Mason. He gave Mason an awesome Christmas bell and Mase was pretty excited. He wouldn't even look at the camera he was so focused on the bell!  

  We had such a great time! I love seeing the excitement on Mason's face. I think this will be a yearly tradition with the Hall family. Nate's mom talked about making a weekend out of it next year and staying at the Gaylord! I can't wait...

The next morning Mason told me, "Mommy, I wanna go back to the Polar Express. It was so bunch of fun. I so essited for Christmas."    - I think it's safe to say he loved it!!!
What is Texas Tuesday? A chance for you to show off the awesomeness that is TEXAS!! You can blog about anything; restaurants, vacation spots, venues, concerts, your hometown, shops, fashion, sports, etc. The linkup is not limited to Texans, we just ask that the post is about Texas.