getting ready to plant

i'm using the mom's tactic and just posting pictures.

vaughn is helping grandpa change the plates on the planter

mason is picking up last year's beans

vaughn and mason are putting their vice grips in their pockets

facebook's fault

i feel awful that i've abandoned my blog. i hardly posted anything, and now i post nothing. and i blame facebook. i can just post something cute and fast that the boys said or did, and everyone can see it. it isn't as hard to write as a blog entry. but i'm trying to do better. at least for mason's sake. i've written quite a few posts about vaughn, and i don't want mason to think i didn't take the time to write his story, too. especially when my sister rachel can find the time and she has two children as well. so my faithful followers, if any still remain. i resolve to post more often. know i just have to have the follow through.

a month of firsts

it's hard for me to believe that mason's eight months old today, and that i'm actually getting the post written the same day is even more unbelievable. mason's really started to crawl this month. he's actually managed to get his tummy up off the floor before he moves his arms and legs. this has led to turning over during diaper changes and getting dressed making both tasks difficult without something to put in his hands to distract him. with this new movement, he's also become more of a nuisance to vaughn. he wants to do everything vaughn is doing, much to vaughn's outrage. vaughn will take a toy, book, or whatever mason is chewing on, and say 'mason doesn't chew on that!' because this results in screaming, we've been working on toy trading, and i was glad this evening when vaughn managed an adequate trade with mason.

it seems that mason has finally gotten into more of a sleep routine. he usually takes two naps, and if we're very lucky, one will be at the same time as vaughn's. he will drink his bottle, and then turn on his side, or fuss until i put him on my chest to tell me he's ready for sleep. he is sleeping fairly well through the night, waking up usually once or not at all for a mid-night bottle. we've had to start giving him some ibuprofen since he's finally gotten some teeth. the bottom two came in a few weeks ago, and he's working on the top two now.

now he's working on standing up and trying to walk like the rest of us. often we'll find him in his crib standing at the railing and crying for someone to come and rescue him. he also raises his arms to be picked up, then wiggles around to my hip so he has a better view of the world.

all about vaughn

i've chosen the title in reference to 'all about eve' since this post will detail the cunning of my 'eve.' also i've been posting about mason lately, and don't want to leave vaughn out. vaughn says something new and hilarious almost every day. it's funny to hear words and phrases that josh and i use come out of his mouth. when he says things like 'you don't spank me, that not nice!' it's almost impossible not to laugh. he's also adopted our facial expressions which find a little scary that he can imitate us so perfectly. we've moved toward time outs and away from spankings, because he'd just take a quick spank and get on with whatever he was doing. he finds sitting on his bed by himself much more irritating. we make him apologize for what he did wrong and give a hug before he can get up, which is probably a mistake since now he thinks a quick 'sorry' and a big hug fixes everything.

he's still attached to his blue pillow and brings it with him into our room in the wee hours of the morning. he was doing really well at staying in his bed all night. but has regressed to coming in almost every morning. i must confess i have mixed feelings about this pattern. i do think he should stay in his bed during the night for fear i'll soon have a teenager snuggling next to me. but i know that this time is precious and all too soon he won't love me most anymore, so i'm willing to put up with the size 10 feet in my back or sleeping on the very edge of the bed because he's sleeping parallel to the headboard. i like to think he likes sleeping with us, but i think he just prefers our bed. when we try to put him down for a nap, he fights a lot in his bed, but when we concede to put him in our bed, he has no problems (well, he's better about) falling asleep.

he continues to get along really well with mason. he always wants to include him in his activities whether it's watching george, or playing trains. he's also very attentive when mason cries. he will still sometimes climb into mason's crib or tell me 'i get mason, mommy.'

his logic and reasoning have also much improved. he knows i'm a sucker and will almost always give in when he asks for one more story or for me to scratch his back or another cup of milk. josh has started making a little bed on the floor in mason's room so they can all sleep together at naptime. josh and mason will fall asleep in the recliner, and vaughn on the floor.

mason's six month check

mason is now six months old! well, he's a little older since i'm always late on these postings. he's 18 lbs and 28 inches long. i actually expected him to be heavier, since he eats like a hog. he loves his solid foods. peaches still seem to be his favorite, although he scarfs down just about everything except peas and green beans. we've added yogurt to his diet and he loves that, too. josh has been loading him up with food before bed and he's extended mason's sleeping to six hours at a stretch. he's also getting better at napping. he'll usually sleep for an hour twice a day, instead of the usual ten minutes. he hasn't started crawling yet, but he's been trying. he'll lie on the floor and lift his arms and legs up in the air. he's gotten so good at rolling over he does it when we are trying to change his diaper, much to his parents' annoyance.

mason continues to be a very happy baby. he's almost always smiling or laughing. he especially finds vaughn particularly entertaining. he giggles at just about everything vaughn does, and vaughn is more than willing to perform for mason. no teeth yet, which is surprising since he's been chewing like mad on everything for several months now. he can sit up by himself for longer, too. i still make a mini-barricade behind him since he does fall back occasionally. he's interested in just about everything now. he loves to grab and chew on books, toys, fingers, and my necklace. he's also an expert hair puller. not only mine, but vaughn's as well. and its difficult to get his little fingers out of vaughn's hair.

security pillow

last christmas mom gave vaughn a really cute stuffed cat, and vaughn really loved it. he'd snuggle with it almost every night and even carry it around after he got up from his nap. josh has started to let him sleep with one of our 'soft' pillows, and vaughn has become extremely attached to it. two of the three soft pillows are in yellow cases, and vaughn's is in a blue one. he won't sleep without his 'blue pill.' when he gets out of bed at night he carries the pillow down the hall to out bed with him. he also gets upset when mason is on his pillow, although he's become more lax about that. when we went to alabama for a wedding i took it with me, and vaughn had a huge smile on his face when he saw it in the car, and exclaimed, 'blue pill!'

being the selfish mommy i am, i wanted my soft pillow back in my bed. i ordered two pillows from company store and put them both on his bed. he wasn't fooled. so i put the blue pillow case on one of them. he knew it wasn't the same pillow, but he accepted it anyway. i had a spare blue pillow case that i put on the original pillow and but it back in our bed under the blanket. vaughn took a nap in there one day and pulled back the covers to discover it. 'blue pill! where was it?' i don't know how he knew that it was his original pillow even without feeling it. now all the soft pillows on my bed have yellow pillowcases on them, and vaughn is content with his fake.

five month old

it's hard to believe that it's only been five months since mason was born. it usually seems like a lot longer. he's started to roll over from tummy to back, and i expect him to go from back to tummy very soon. he's been on solids for a month now, and he likes everything i've given him except peas and green beans. i can't say i blame him. i like both those vegetables, but the smell of the baby food versions make me want to gag. he's still chewing on everything he can get in his mouth, with fingers and mortimer the moose being his favorite. vaughn never really liked that moose, so i'm glad mason is getting some use out of those giant antlers.

when mason is tired and i'm feeding him a bottle, he'll spit it out and turn his body toward me so he's in his usual sleep position. he seems like he's instantly sleeping and ready for a nap at the drop of a hat. but i think he's like that with all his demands. 'i'm hungry, now! i need a new diaper, now!' so sometimes it's difficult to anticipate his next requirement. he is getting better at sitting up by himself. i think that his bumpo has helped with that. josh likes to fly him around in the air while singing the superman theme. mason loves it so much that he smiles and giggles in anticipation when ever josh starts singing the song. mason loves vaughn, and everything vaughn does, too. sometimes if mason wakes up from a nap and vaughn is still sleeping, he will cry until he wakes vaughn up. he's still sleeping only three to four hours at a strech at night. his naps are still short, sometimes only consisting of a cat nap during a bottle. just when josh it getting ready to pull the bottle out of mason's mouth and put him in the crib, he pops his eyes open and is awake for hours.

even with his apparent lack of sleep his is still a very happy baby. he only cries if he's hungry, needs a new diaper, or sleepy. sometimes his cry is more like a shriek that i find very disturbing, but i suppose that's the intent. he makes that noise when i'm feeding him solids, since he can't wait for me to reload the spoon in between bites.

i'm a real dragon!

vaughn has been really interested in dragons since mom took him to see 'how to train your dragon' earlier this year. he loves the dragon part in shrek and has to watch it at least three times whenever we watch it. and he's asked to watch hiccup almost everyday. so i thought the perfect costumes for the boys would be a dragon and a knight. we found the dragon costume online and mom volunteered to make the knight costume for mason. i found a velveteen hooded sweat suit at once upon a child, and got some red fabric for a tunic which mom painted a gold dragon on the front. we were planning on making a shield, but thought since mason has started to move his hands a lot more we would skip them. i think they look great!

josh and i had a small party on saturday. catherine and mom were a tremendous help with the preparation. catherine make her signature cheese mummy, but was forbidden from making her paper crafts (stupid rachel). but i think even without mice the house looked pretty creepy. josh hung spider webs all over, including over half the front doorway. vaughn even helped put fake spiders in the webs. catherine made leaf filled ghosts that josh hung from the trees. i think the party went well. it was cold enough to really enjoy the bonfire and i bought the giant marshmallows to make s'mores.

after the party it was off to bed in their striped jammies!

3 months and 3 days of mason

mason is already three months old. he's started to smile a lot more and even laugh when we make silly faces at him. he still clutches at fingers, but has started to include my necklace, shirts, and even the dreaded tiny hairs on the back of my neck. we've had to put away all of his three month clothes since he's been growing like crazy. he still eats about every three hours and drinks six ounces at almost every feeding. he was sleeping through the night, but now he needs a late night/early morning snack during the night. he's also started sitting up, but we still have the boppy or pillows around him for support.

trip to DC

it's only been three weeks since our trip to washington, dc to see josh's cousin mike and my cousin abby. so i thought i should write a post about it. mamsis watched the boys so josh could pack up the car and we left directly after work on thursday. thank goodness we have the sub, because it was pretty full. both boys were asleep when we left, and didn't wake up until we were almost in ohio. they were both pretty good on the first leg of the trip. we brought the laptop so vaughn could watch movies. he really like watching shrek, and wanted to watch the 'dagon' part over and over again. it also led to him saying this during the gingerbread man part:

"where that cookie? it bad cookie, throw in trashcan."

vaughn and josh went swimming at the hotel, but i don't think vaughn liked it very much. here he is in his new spiderman swimsuit.

we borrowed my father-in-law's tomtom, and that got us to mike's apartment without incident friday afternoon. we pretty much vegged the rest of the day. on saturday we went to the national zoo. there were no giraffes, which was of course what vaughn really wanted to see, and the 'underts' were no where to be found either. we did see an alligator which vaughn loved, and a cheetah. but the best was the panda. the keeper was throwing pears to him, so he was really close to us. vaughn was so excited he kept touching the arm of a girl next to him and pointing out the panda to her. i did get to hear a woman quizzing the keeper all about panda reproduction if anyone wants to learn too, just let me know.

sunday we walked around to see all the monuments. i didn't bring milk for vaughn, and he was pretty cranky for most of the day. every time we asked if he wanted to do something, he would reply, 'no, i don't.' we saw the capital building, where mike worked, the white house, and both the lincoln, and washington monuments. the distance between those monuments is a lot longer than it seems on tv, especially with a crabby two-year-old.

abby was out of town for the weekend, but she was willing to come over sunday night for some pizza. it was nice to see her, i just wish we'd had a longer visit. on the way back home, we surprised aunt carol with a visit, only giving her a half an hour warning. we had to sleep on un-pressed sheets as a result of it, so i suppose i should have given her more more advanced notice ;). she was an excellent hostess, even for the short time we were there, and i think vaughn enjoyed playing with his cousin robert. we'll just have to plan a longer trip to see her.

tuesday morning giggling

this is the first time that mason has laughed, and we were lucky enough to capture it on film. and yes, he's wearing a baby hoodie.

duck wrangler

since mom has an over abundance of duck eggs, we we're going to try to sell some ducks at the sale next week. i was only getting four eggs from seven ducks, so josh and vaughn quarantined a few to see which ones weren't laying. today, however, we got six eggs! i think they know that they might be headed for the chop and have increased production. vaughn was helping to move them around today.

philadelphia

mason has been with us for six weeks now, and i'm really surprised how well vaughn has reacted to him. the other day the boys were in my bed, and i made mason a bottle and put it on the bed. then vaughn wanted milk, too, so i went to get that. i heard mason start to cry, and then stop. i ran in expecting a pillow over his face. vaughn had put the bottle in mason's mouth, and told me, 'vaughn help mason, not crying.' vaughn makes sure i know when mason is crying, saying, 'poor mason, not happy.' or 'mason need pas-ire.' he's even figured out how to climb into mason's crib and put the pacifier in mason's mouth, or put more blankets on when, 'put covers on mason.' (that one really scared me!) but vaughn also says, 'aw, mason cute,' and 'i wuv mason.' so i don't think he was trying to smother his brother.

and she almost trips...

the garden has been growing (mostly the weeds) like crazy. i decided to plant watermelon and pumpkins this year, but i really should have followed the planting guides in regards to spacing. the pumpkins invaded the gourds, sweetcorn, and even through the fence and into the beans. we've already had quite a few that are ready, and many more that are coming. mom and i are going to freeze the puree so we can make pies. tell me which 'punkin' (as vaughn says) looks like two children sleeping under a blanket?

past his primes

vaughn can count to all the way to twelve, but he always skips five, seven, and eleven. seems like he doesn't like prime numbers. he also can say the alphabet to f, but skips d and e. he still loves trains. often stealing cars and engines from mom's house and sharing his dinner with them. he knows the difference between steam and diesel engines, and most of the names of the thomas the tank trains (percy and james are his favorites).

vaughn's vocab and grammar are getting better, too. he has starting using pronouns. when vaughn pretends to be a baby elephant and mom will grab his the bottom of his shirt, vaughn will say 'let go my tail.' we went blueberry picking the other day, but vaughn did most of his picking out of everyone else's buckets. when dad protested, vaughn replied, 'let me have those berries.' i fear we didn't pick enough since vaughn has to have berries almost every day.

mason is two weeks old now. he's a pretty good baby, only fussing when he's hungry. he even sleeps in four and five hour stretches at night. it's surprising how well he sleeps during the day since vaughn is always talking loudly or trying to kiss him. he can already hold his head up for a little bit, and i've had to clip his fingernails a second time.

nakes!

josh and i got some sidewalk chalk for vaughn a few months ago, and he really liked drawing with it. so much in fact that he's drawn on doors and a rug of mom's with it. when aunt carol came to visit last week, she thoughtfully brought vaughn a present of sidewalk chalk. not only did he love it because it was chalk, he also loved the 'wittle box' in which it came. it was small and light enough for him to carry and even had a handle. vaughn has inherited his mother's (sadly not his grandmother's) talent for drawing. after i draw something for him, usually elephants and cows, he draws the only thing he can on top of it. after mom drew a picture of mason, vaughn covered it in 'nakes.' thank you for the chalk aunt carol, vaughn insists almost everyday that we, 'draw vaughn chalk.' and thank you and aunt beth for the delicious coffee cake that was delivered early yesterday morning by fed ex. there's nothing like having breakfast waiting for you on the doorstep at 8 am.

boys in hats

vaughn continues to be very attentive to mason. yesterday he insisted that mason needed to wear a hat. so he got one out of the drawer, and while i was putting it on mason, vaughn got another one (the exact same kind from when he was in the hospital) and had me help him put it on. he then exclaimed 'one two boys in hats.' i was really surprised that it still sort-of fit him.

catherine and rachel sent us a package yesterday, and it was filled with handmade gifts for mason. catherine made him a baby quilt with a flannel backing. it's so soft and warm, i may have to steal it from him. and rachel made him an adorable winnie the pooh and christopher robin birth announcement.

little bad wolf

vaughn has been watching the three little pigs. now when asked what the big, bad wolf says, he responds with this:

mason cole

mason was born on thursday afternoon, only a day overdue. i must admit that i thought he would never come, considering vaughn was so early. even though he was a day late, he made up for lost time by being born, cord cut, and dried off before the doctor came in the room. i felt bad for the nurse, apparently she'd never had a woman go from 7 to 10cm in only 15 minutes. and she was the one who told me i could start pushing. it was pretty amazing to see how quickly five more nurses came into the room after they realized the baby was ready to be born.

he weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz, and is 21 inches long. and had several visitors over the two days we were in the hospital. we were at the new st. e, which was pretty nice. they let you stay in the same room from check-in until check-out, so you can unpack and not worry about changing rooms in a few hours.

so far vaughn seems to really like his brother. each time he'd come into the room, he'd ask, "where mason be?" he wants to hold him most of the time, and is pretty gentle when he's touching him, plus he got to spend several days being spoiled by josh's parents. this is the second night we've all been in the house together, and so far so good. although i think vaughn is starting to realize that mommy has to spend more time with little brother and less time with him. luckily mom is next door and more than willing to play with vaughn or hold mason for me, so i can spend some time with vaughn. vaughn has been regressing back to baby-hood though, sucking on the pacifier and stealing the boppy when i'm trying to use it. he also tries to climb in the infant car seat. he looks enormous compared to mason, and it's hard to believe that vaughn was ever that small.

walls of insanity

i wanted to paint the walls of the nursery gingham, but the paint just looked like checks on the wall. josh and i stupidly decided to paint plaid on the wall. josh came up with the pattern and i helped him and mom chalk, tape, and paint. after about two weeks of having our house in a shambles, staring at all of the mistakes, and then deciding that sleep and sanity were more important that having the lines completely straight, we finally finished the walls and got the furniture moved in and all the pictures hung on the wall. josh, orrin, and dad even made a new door.