Keeping Up With the Joneses

Mason was grumpy the other day and I was trying to get him out of his bad mood. I asked him what he was going to say when daddy came home and this was our conversation: Mason: say hi daddy Me: Then what? Mason: say love you daddy Me: Then what? Mason: say bye-bye daddy Me: Then where will you go? Mason: see Santa Claus Me: what will you say to Santa Claus? Mason: hi Santa Claus Me: Then what? Mason: say love you Santa Claus Me: Then what? Mason: say bye-bye Santa Claus Me: Then what? Mason: Go home Me: Then what? Mason: Say hi daddy Me: Then what? Mason: Say love you daddy Me: Then what? Mason: Say bye-bye daddy? Me: Then what? Mason: See Santa Claus? Me: Then what Mason: say hi Santa Claus REPEAT 3 times--you get the picture. I swear this kid's life revolves around his daddy and visits to Santa Claus

This morning at about 4 AM I woke up to Mason screaming hysterically "sit mommy! sit mommy!". I went into his room and he was absolutely bawling. He stood up when I came in but didn't want to be picked up. Instead he pointed to the rocking chair and cried for me to "sit there mommy." I asked him what was wrong and he said "scared" and did the sign for scared. I sat in the rocking chair and he lay back down and said "mommy, sing night-night baby" which is a lullaby from his Signing Time videos and CD. When I was done the song I asked him if he was okay and he said "yeah, night night mommy" and I left him to sleep.

I occasionally give Mason time-outs when he is being purposely disobedient and stubborn. What we do is sit him on the stairs, make him fold his arms, and I count to ten. When I am done I tell him to say sorry to whoever he was mean to and then his time out is over. Well, Mason has been refusing to take a nap today (he slept for 5 minutes in the car and thinks he is done), so I told him he could get up for a little while if he promised to stay on the carpet while I washed the kitchen floor. He was really good about it until the very end when he came into the kitchen. I told him to get back on the carpet and he stubbornly said "no!". I said "then you're in trouble young man" and he ran to the stairs, sat down, folded his arms, and said "one, two, three, four, ten. . . sorry mommy" and went back onto the carpet.

On the way to drop Mason off at Kira's today, he was so cute talking to his little Thomas in the back seat. He was saying "Thomas, you're cold. Thomas, hat on? Thomas, we go play trains with Kira and John, okay?". It was so cute. Then he turned Thomas over and pointed at his undercarriage and said "Mommy, Thomas have a baby?" (he's into babies being in tummies lately). Then he started saying that he wanted Emily (another train) and I said we didn't have it, but maybe Kira had Emily. Mason said "silly mommy, Kira has John" (John is Kira's husband).

Yesterday was one of the handful of times Mason has been quiet enough in church that we haven't had to take him in the foyer. But yesterday he was quietly entertaining. His friend Annalise and his parents sat in front of us, and they were talking to each other before church started. When they said the opening prayer, Mason obediently folded his arms and closed his eyes, but Annalise was still trying to get his attention. About 2/3 of the way through the prayer, Annalise was still blabbering "Mason, Mason", and Mason, with his eyes closed and one hand folded, leaned in to me and whispered "Annalise silly" while doing the sign for silly with his one hand. He then immediately folded his arms again for the rest of the prayer. One tactic we use during sacrament meeting to keep him quiet is to bring lots of snacks. Yesterday we had animal crackers, and the first one we gave him was a horse. He said "horsey" and enjoyed crunching off all the horse's l...

It has been a rough past few days for Mason. He had his daddy all to himself all weekend and when Marshall had to go back to work today, he was really upset. I slept in this morning and Mason and daddy got ready for the day together. Around 7:15 they came in to wake me up and Mason was furious! He wanted me to stay in bed and daddy to take him downstairs to play trains. When daddy was putting on his coat, Mason was crying and hanging on to him, saying "daddy, stay, please". We finally convinced him that daddy would be back tonight to play trains with him and he wasn't leaving for a few days like he has been. Mason finally said, "okay daddy, go to work" but had to give him a million kisses and hugs before he left. The cutest was that he spontaneously said "love you daddy" and it just melted our hearts. All day driving around today Mason said "mommy, I love daddy. Mommy, you love daddy?".

Mason was playing the other day and just started screaming "Thomas" hysterically. Sometimes he gets upset when he can't find Thomas, so I assumed he had just lost him. From where I was sitting I could see Thomas just lying a few feet away from him and I told him to go get him. Mason ran to the other side of the room, backed up against the wall, and was just crying "Thomas, Thomas". So I went and picked up Thomas and realized that Thomas' head had fallen off. I couldn't believe Mason was so upset. I put Thomas' head back on, wiped Mason's tears away, and he happily went back to playing. Fortunately, I had bought a replacement Thomas whose head does not fall off. The next morning when he asked for Thomas I gave him the new one, and for a few minutes he was a little skeptical that it was still Thomas (it wasn't scratched up like his old one), but I think now he is okay with his best friend.

For dinner today, we decided to clean out the leftovers from the fridge, but Mason didn't want anything we were having, so we warmed him up a hot dog. He loves Costco hot dogs, so we thought he would enjoy this one and boy did he ever! Before we even finished warming up our food, he was done his entire hot dog. We sat down and said the prayer, and then Mason started asking for "more puppies please". Marshall was laughing hysterically and I couldn't figure out what he was asking for. Finally he said "more puppy doggies please" and I realized he wanted more hot dogs!!

On Saturday we went sledding at the bowl in Provo. It was Mason's first time playing in the snow and he had a blast. He loved being dragged in the sled like in the first picture. He and his daddy went down the hill many times, and at the end of each ride Mason would say "more please" or "sit daddy".

Yesterday Mason had his cousins William, Elizabeth, and Megan over for the day. While I was making lunch for them, they were playing "church". They would sit on the stairs in the congregation and they would take turns standing in front of the others and either give a talk or sing a song. I asked if Mason was getting a turn, and William said no because he was too little and didn't understand. A few minutes later Mason came to me upstairs and said "Mommy, my turn" while doing the sign for my turn. He kept saying that he wanted a turn, so I convinced the kids to let him do something really quick. So they all sat down and he stood in front of them and sang "Once I was a Snowman" all by himself! Afterwards, Mason clapped for himself and went and sat down and said to Megan "your turn". William was quite appalled that Mason clapped in church, and used that as proof that Mason was too young to play the game properly.

Marshall has been travelling for work a lot lately, and the other day a few minutes after Marshall left, Mason asked "where daddy go?". I told him that daddy had to go to work and Mason have me an understanding look and said "on, need more money." Now whenever I tell him that someone can't play because they are at work (he asks often about his grandpa's especially), he says "need more money".

After Christmas, Mason and I headed up to Canada for grandpa Hall's 100th birthday party.

We had Christmas dinner at Aunt Marilyn's and it was wonderful. After dinner, both kids were exhausted (and so were their dads).

This is Christmas morning with our family. Mason's grandma and grandpa Goates, Aunt Jessica, Uncle Daniel, Aunt Annie, and Uncle Scott were there. Mason had a blast and insisted he put on his new Thomas clothes over his pjs.

Christmas Eve was fun. We had 27 people over for dinner and a program, and Mason enjoyed having his cousins Elizabeth, Lincoln, and Megan over to play with. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I was pretty busy!

This is us getting ready for Christmas eve dinner. Mason was hungry and couldn't wait for dinner. Mason loves Jessica's new dog Coda. He kept trying to give the puppy his train and couldn't understand why the dog wasn't more appreciative!

I'm definately going to post Christmas pictures, but the funniest thing happened this morning I need to post it first. Marshall has been gone a lot lately for work, and this week he is in Park City for a company retreat. Often during the day, Mason asks where daddy is, and when he left the other day and I said he was going to work Mason said "oh, need more money!" But this morning we were getting ready to take him to the babysitters and I was upstairs doing my hair. Mason was in the living room and all of a sudden I heard him talking to a male voice. I couldn't imagine who he was talking to, so I ran downstairs and he was talking to his daddy on the speaker phone! Somehow he must have pressed the speaker phone button, caller id, scrolled down a few numbers, and selected his daddy. He and daddy were just talking about his morning and his trains. So we either have a really smart boy or a really lucky one!