This time last year - Breakfast at Perkins

After back-to-back sickness in our house that's taken over for the last three weeks (thankfully more of the cold/upper respiratory variety and not the flu, knock on wood) and the snow and cold temperatures that have finally arrived, we've got a serious case of the winter blahs going on around here.

When we get home in the afternoon, Mason demands two things - crackers and choo choos. If it were up to him, he would sit and do nothing all night long but watch his train video (I'm assuming that Cole's Mom knew that Real Trains for Kids might as well be called "Video Crack for Toddlers" when she gave it to Mason for Christmas LOL)

Zombie child

I intentionally put stuff on TV that he's not interested in (which quite frankly, is everything but trains and Yo Gabba Gabba) so he will do other things. And don't worry, I'm not totally clueless, I would leave the TV OFF entirely if it was an option, but that just results in him standing in front of it going "TV Broken! TV Broken!" and pushing all the buttons. So yeah, I would rather have it playing Food Network in the background than having him crying for hours about it being off. Ugh.

Other than his "puter" and his kitchen, most of his new Christmas toys are already old news and he bores quickly these days. Probably just the age, huh? One thing that remains a favorite activity is to put on Mom & Dad's clothes.

Here, he decided he was ready to go out and play. Note that he's got socks on as mittens, SuperDad's hat, and my snow boots. That was all entirely his doing! He stood like this for 5 minutes waiting to go outside.

All things considered, this is the shortest winter in Wisconsin history (we've barely had any snow this year), but I'm already so sick of it! I can't wait until the snow is gone and we can play outside again. I'm more than ready to run in the grass with this little man and he is too!

This time last year - Happy Boy

The one nice thing about our daycare is that while there is some turn over, many of the kids have been going there since they were tiny babies, and so far, Mason has had several of the same classmates since he was just 10 weeks old. He calls these kids by name and I love watching them play together.

But none of these interactions tops those with his friend Aaron. Mason is totally head over heels in like with this boy. I'm talking "Face lights up as he jumps up and down squealing and screaming Aaron's name" in love.  So. very. excited. It's quite possibly the cutest thing ever.

The four of us (Mason and I along with Aarron and his mom) took swimming lessons together back when Mason was only 6 months old and then took them again this past fall and now we try to take the boys swimming every other week. They love throwing the ball to one another and racing down the hall and getting into general mischief together. It's so freaking adorable!

Mason and Aaron use to play together all day long at school too, but in early November, Aaron graduated to the 2 year old room, where he made new friends. He's not nearly as excited to see Mason as Mason is to see him, which is a bit heartbreaking (especially when he cowers as Mason claps and screams his name *gulp*) One of the daycare teachers said the other day "Yeah, Aaron use to be "Mason this, Mason that" all the time but now it's "Ty Ty! Ty Ty!" which kind of broke my heart a little. Who would have thought I would be this concerned about friendships at not even age 2!? LOL

From what I can tell, Mason only really plays with one other kid in his current class (other than one kid, they're all at least 4 months younger than him), so I can't wait until he moves up to the two year old room in March and gets around the older kids again. In the meantime, we'll keep getting the boys together outside of school so I can hear the delighted screams of "RayRon!!" and get to use great motivators "Can you wear your hat nice like Aaron does?" while dishing a bit of Mommy gossip.

Yay for friends.

This time last year - 10 Month Pictures

In December, we got together with SuperDad's extended family for our annual Christmas gathering, which includes lots of good food, a great crazy dice White Elephant Gift Swap, and now, since having Mason, lots of time for him to get to play with his cousins! He has a cousin that is a year older than him and a year younger than him, so I predict a lot of fun to be had in upcoming years between this gang!

A relative asking Mason what's on his shirt

Checking out the playroom with his cousin Nicholas

Showing off his mad slinky skills

Getting all ready to play the dice game

Picking a present out of the pile

Quality time with Grandpa

This time last year - Helmet Days 1 & 2

I was just looking through the photos on my camera and realized there was a bunch of Christmas stuff I didn't post. So let's just ignore the fact that these are Christmas-y and ooh and ahh about how cute Mason is, okay?

Walking down the light tunnel with his Daddy

Posing with Christmas Caroling Critters

Opening his stocking a week later right before bedtime

Considering the stocking contained this light,  a fruit pouch, some diaper creme, the light was by far his favorite....

This time last year - We Have Lift Off / Crawler!