Little Chef

Adam calls it the worst time of the evening. The time before I get home, when he's trying to get dinner around. Mason wants nothing to do with sitting in his high chair, nor will be play nice all on his own. Our kitchen is not baby proofed, so Mason isn't allowed to wander in an out while Adam's cooking. And when we gate the room off, he can't see Adam in his prep area so won't go play out of daddy's sight. As a special treat this week (mostly because he wasn't using the stove or oven), Adam pulled up a chair and let Mason help with the "cooking." He loves using tongs, as you can tell from this picture. I hope that he continues to love cooking with daddy. Too bad the Cafe is gone... I could see Mason following in his daddy's footsteps - manning the grill and "babysitting the pitas."

Snow-Mow-Mow

Mason spent all summer mowing the lawn with Daddy. When we pulled the snow blower out for the first time, Mason thought it was the mow-mow again. We tried to explain that this is the snow blower, it's for the snow. Mason, in the most honest voice only a child could have, said "oh, snow-mow-mow." And so it has remained the snow-mow-mow all winter. He gets so frustrated with me when I make him stay in the house and watch Daddy snow-mow-mow in the evening. But sometimes Adam will do it during the day, so we'll all bundle up and snow-mow-mow together. Mason grabs his mow-mow (which has miraculously converted itself into a snow-mow-mow too) and goes up and down the driveway next to Daddy.

This past weekend, after snow-mow-mowing, we headed across the street to the sled hill. Mason wasn't nearly as excited about sledding as he was last year, so we took him over to the park and let him go up and down the slide. He seemed so happy to be doing this - like it was something he missed about the warm weather. Afterward we came inside and made some hot cocoa. Mason beamed from ear to ear and looked so grown up with his very own "hot cup". We'll try sledding again this weekend with a bigger sled that fits both Mason and Daddy, and hopefully get more fun pictures.

The New Years Post

New Years has become an annual tradition of heading over to Plainwell and celebrating with Adam's cousins. This year was quite strange in that Mason mostly played with his second cousins and didn't need much oversight from us. I kept hovering for a while until I realized he didn't need me around, and that the big cousins would let me know if he was up to no good. I mentioned as much to a tipsy Adam, and we sort of reveled in the temporary freedom.

Mason was quite the trooper again this year, staying up till midnight to watch the ball drop. He even blew his own tooter. He and I hit the pillows by 12:30 - though he wasn't too happy about it since the other kids were still just getting ready for bed.

New Years Day is also quite a tradition - but all about football instead of family. We got home from Plainwell with just enough time to set up some snacks and turn the tv on to watch MSU take the field in the Capital One Bowl. In spite of all our green and white, take the field was about all the Spartans did right this day. The game was over quickly (when will there be a mercy rule?) but we had Nana and Papa over to keep our spirits up. What a bad day for the Big Ten this turned out to be, but at least the Rose Bowl was worth watching until the end. All well, it's just a game right? And there's always basketball season... oh wait, that's not going so well either. Okay, so maybe there's always next year.

The Christmas Post

As with every Christmas, we end up taking a lightening fast family tour. We began this year by spending Christmas Eve in Bridgeport. Mason finally began saying Gramma and Grapa, which was an improvement over "Ding Dong." We had Great-Grandma Welsh's egg-bake for dinner, went to Grandpa's new church, and wrapped up with the night by opening gifts. Mason loved his Elmo camera from Uncle Colin, and his Tickle Me Elmo from Aunt Meme and Uncle Dan, and his "store" (shopping cart) from Grandma and Grandpa. You can't tell from his smile how much he enjoyed these gifts can you?

When it was bedtime, we packed up the car and headed back home. Adam likes waking up at our house on Christmas morning, so that's what we did. I didn't include this picture, but when we first woke up, Mason wanted nothing to do with his gifts and mostly cried whenever we sat him down near the tree. Eventually he figured out what was going on, and had fun opening his Melissa & Doug wooden puzzle and wooden kebab set to cook on his birthday grill. He seemed to take the most pleasure in the little gifts in his stocking though. A slinky, of all things, seemed to be his favorite. Who needs expensive gifts when you can give a kid a slinky?

After a big breakfast, we headed over to Nana and Papa's house for more family, food, and presents. Mason got a Sit and Spin, some Playdough, and Chuck the Truck over there. And what does he do? He plays with Nana's new magnetic measuring cups and his favorite pots and pans. After a long day, we all headed home again, ready to start the process over again the next day with the Mattens Family Christmas over in Plainwell. We woke up with a feverish little guy so Adam was the lone BC Mattens that went. Thankfully he was fully recovered for New Years...