Mason's New Tricks & A Baby Competition

Mason's New Tricks!


There were two new milestones today:

1. Mason can now get himself to a standing position all by himself.

2. Mason has worked out how velcro works

The second one unfortunately means that he can now remove his nappy, which he decided to do whilst he was supposed to be sleeping in his cot! I'm thanking my lucky stars that he didn't do anything in the cot while the nappy was off. He certainly loved his nappy free time 



A Baby Competition

With over 50,000 entries it looks like the Bonds Baby Search is pretty popular.

I've decided to enter Mason, despite the slim chances of winning, so yesterday I tried to get a good photo of him in a Bonds outfit.

Mason has always been incredibly photogenic (in my somewhat biased opinion), but now that he's moving around so much and doesn't like to sit still it is much harder to get a good photo of him. Most photos these days tend to be of him eating, as he's confined to the high chair and has no choice but to let me take the photo!

Thought I'd give you a bit of a laugh at some of our attempts:

The "outdoors, because we're so natural" shots:

The "indoor faux photography studio" shots:

   

The "look at me - I can play and be cute at the same time" shots:

The "mummy can't control the zoom" extreme close up shot:

The "not looking at the camera like a Calvin Klein model" shots:

And finally:

The "I'm way too tired for this mum" shots:

And to see the shot we chose head on over to the Bond's Baby Search (and if you like you can vote for him while you're there!)

Old Habits Really DO Die Hard!

On January 7th I wrote a post about my resolutions for this year. The main goal was to break the procrastination cycle so I could stop spending so much time online and get my house in order.

In that same post I also wrote the following about what happens to people who make New Year's Resolutions:

1. They get burnt out from trying to do too much, or
2. Their new found motivation slowly dwindles away to nothing.

I think I am currently suffering from a bit of both, but mostly number 2!

This blog hasn't been updated since the 5th of February (but I have been online every day since then - often for hours at a time!), I have stalled on my 2011 in 2011 mission, none of the Fly Lady suggestions have been followed and I am surrounded by mess.

So here is (again) another pledge to do right by myself and my family. The procrastination achieves very little and I don't want to waste away my days. I need to be present for my son and he needs a safe environment to live and play in - especially now that he is pulling himself up onto his knees and is oh so close to standing!

My 2011 in 2011 tally stands at 241, averaging 4 items a day. (Target is 5.5.) I have some catching up to do, but as there is still another 10 months of the year to go there is plenty of time to catch up (and plenty of time to make good on the resolutions!).

Mere Male Moments…

One of the memories I have of going to visit my Babcia (Grandma) when I was younger is reading her magazines. I had no interest in many of the articles, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading the mere male and the children's world columns. This was where people wrote in with anecdotes about what funny things the men or children in their lives had done.

Already in 2011 my delightful husband has given me a few moments of his own!

Mere Male Moment Number 1


Our first ever family holiday was taken at the end of January, and, because I had a meeting on the day we had to leave, it was up to Mark to pack the car.

I tried to make it easy for him - I packed my own bag and I also stacked all of Mason's belongings in one pile for easy transfer to the car. The pile had disposable nappies at the bottom, with towels, spew rags, bedding and clothes piled on top.

Also in piles near our front door were things from my 2011 in 2011 decluttering that were waiting to leave our house. One of those things was a bag that I have slowly been contributing to for our friends who are expecting their first child. It had newborn disposable nappies, flannelette nappies, snibs, some clothes and some baby carriers. The night before we left for our holidays I was still contributing more belongings to this bag, and made a point of explaining to Mark what this second bag was for. He nodded to indicate his understanding… or so I thought.

Fast forward to the next day and Mark picks Mason and I up from my meeting and there in the boot was the bag for our friends. I asked Mark why he had packed it.

"It has the nappies". 

"Did you pack the disposable nappies I had in Mason's pile?"

"No."

"Why Not?" 

"Because I assumed you'd doubled up and decided to just pack the bag instead". 

At this point I pulled them out of the bag and showed him how tiny they were. Did he really think they were going to fit Mason? 

"I didn't look that closely"

And why on earth would I have packed flannelette nappies? 

"I don't know". 

And why would I have packed two baby carriers? 

"I don't know, I took those out because I didn't think we'd need them". 

Humph. 

Cue trip to supermarket to buy more nappies. Note to self: a nod does not necessarily indicate understanding.

Edit 06/02/11: Mark has now read the above and would like to point out that the bag for our friends and the pile for our holiday were adjacent to each other, hence the confusion. I in turn would like to point out that I asked Mark to get a bag out of the garage the night before so I could pack Mason's things, but the bag never appeared. I would also like to reiterate that I explained that the bag next to Mason's pile was for our friends, not for the car. I would also like to ponder how absurd it would have been for me to half pack a bag and then make a pile next to it. Supreme laziness would be the only explanation, and, while I admit I can be lazy at times, to make a pile next to a bag rather than just put the things in the bag is crazy. Lastly there is the fact that Mark looked through the bag and removed things from said bag that he knew we didn't need prior to packing it in the car. Why would I have packed those things in the first place if we didn't need them?!!!! Males and females think very differently...


Second Edit 06/02/11: Mark would now like to point out that there was time pressure on the day and that he was at home alone doing the packing. I won't mention that I had made him a checklist to follow and he had 4 hrs (and actually took 5 and was almost 2 hrs late picking me up from my meeting!) I will mention that he did clean the kitchen though so that it didn't stink when we returned from our holiday. That was not on the list and was an excellent decision. 


I wonder if I will have to make any more edits to this?!


Mere Male Moment Number 2


Today we had Mason's first swimming lesson for the year. I got myself ready and packed the nappy bag for after the swim while Mark packed the swimming bag and got himself ready (he goes in the water with Mason for the lessons). We leave in a hurry (as is standard for us!) and when we arrive at the pool Mark looks around the car and says "don't tell me I forgot the swimming bag." 

He hadn't put it in the car. 

So we have no swim nappy for Mason and Mark has no change of clothes for after the swim. We had no time to go home and get the bag, as it is a 20 - 30 minute round trip, so we had to improvise. 

We still had a beach towel and a bathroom towel in the car from our holiday (YAY! Our laziness pays off for once!). I then asked at the pool whether they had swim nappies for sale - they did. Disposable for $2 or reusable for $20, but they were out of disposable. I decided to ask random strangers on pool deck if they had spare swim nappies, which they didn't, and many looked at me like I was daft. In the end Mason made it into the water 10 minutes late wearing a brand new and very pretty swim nappy in a delightful pale pink that we bought from the pool! 

Mark is on his own next week, as I start work next Saturday. Needless to say I don't think the swim bag will be forgotten. Ever again!

He is his daddy's boy!

Mason takes after his dad. Already.

For breakfast today he devoured toast. His dad is someone who will eat multiple pieces of toast/bread for dessert.

For lunch Mason devoured weetbix. His dad ate weetbix for dinner tonight.

Here is the video of Mason eating the weetbix. I made it a little bit soggy for him, but still semi solid so he could pick it up and eat it himself. He made a lot of mess, but that is half the fun!

See the zucchini and the pumpkin on his tray? They were once his favourite foods. Unfortunately I learnt the hard way that Mason will not eat vegetables that are roasted with garlic! Hopefully he'll eat them next time and won't be scarred by the taste experience (the faces he pulled were priceless!)