december highlights...

This month has FLOWN. Here we are on Christmas Eve's Eve....unreal! It's been busy as ever! We had Joe's work Christmas party at Granit City a few weeks ago and then my co-worker's daycare was having a parents night out at her center near our work, so we took advantage for a date night! Although taking a nap is always at the top of my list, we decided to catch a movie instead. We went to Twilight...OMG. I only got through books 1-3, never got around to reading the fourth so I didn't know what to expect. And that resulted in me not breathing for 20 minutes during the big fight scene. Wow...it was such a good movie, I loved it! And it was really nice to get out for a night too.

We also visited the doctor's office 3 times in a week. Mason had an ear infection a few weeks ago and had some eye gunk, which our doctor thought it was residual from the sinus infection we battled for a month and said the antibiotic would take care of it. Even though the gunk improved, it never went away. After 2 weeks without any improvement and a sleepless night of screaming every time he laid down, Joe took him in. It was a double ear infection and was pretty severe that they gave him the antibiotic with a shot. We went back in 2 days later to check the improvement, it looked better but still infected. So after another shot, he was also give a 5 day antibiotic. If this continues, we are pretty sure we are looking at tubes, UGH. I know it would make our life easier afterwords but I don't want to deal with the actual procedure...but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there. At least he's back to normal now and we are enjoying the last week of health. It's been a while since we've seen a healthy and sick free Mason!

My parents visited us last weekend and we had a nice visit. We had lunch at Acapulco, which is always delicious! And we are home in Wisconsin this weekend. We had planned to only be able to stay through today but at 3:15 on Friday, Joe called and said he got Monday off so we are staying through Tuesday now. It's been so nice to be at home...but I've been eating WAY too much...it's hard to not snack on all the goodies in the house, while also sitting on your bum all day :) Tis the reason right?

I will have a full update of our christmas weekend and pictures later this week. From our family to yours, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Hoping your holiday is filled with lots of love, food and laughter!

Meeting Santa & First Snow!

Mason met Santa this weekend! On Saturday, we headed to Northtown right when it opened at 10am and still ended up waiting in line for 1.5 hours. We thought we'd beat the crowd, HA! That didn't happen...but Mason did SO good. He hung out in his stroller almost the entire time and was content playing with his toys or munching on cheerios.

However, once he was in Santa's lap, it was a completely different story! Here are the pictures from Mason's first encounter with the jolly elf himself!

After visiting with Santa, we did a little shopping and grabbed lunch at the food court. When we walked out around 1pm, there was NO line. Lesson learned...go after lunch next time!

The only thing that kept Mason from screaming his head off was a dancing and singing tree. It was on the counter as we got closer to the front of the line and Mason was mesmerized by it, waving and saying hi to it as it danced. We ended up grabbing it while he was on Santa's lap and it was the only thing that made him stop crying. On our way out at the checkout, we asked the clerk where they got it. He said Walgreens. So we stopped at a few Walgreens on the way home and were told it was actually from last Christmas and not available. Being pretty bummed, we stopped by the Walgreens by our house to pickup a few redbox movies we had reserved and Joe went in just to check...and got the LAST one! So excited, we pressed his foot to start him and Mason bawled his eyes out. He was now terrified of him. He doesn't cry anymore but hasn't warmed up to him either. He will avoid any area the tree is in, unless he is clutched to me. We just can't win with this little boy :) And here is the new addition to our Christmas decor:

On Sunday, we had an epic snow storm. Here is the final measurement from our house!

And with the first snow of the season, also came Mason's first encounter with snow. He LOVED it. Here are some pictures from our adventure.

I'll leave you with a picture of Mason's new favorite sleeping spot...yep, that's our bed. Le sigh....we were able to hold out for a year but somehow we've fallen into the black hole of co-sleeping. He will usually spend the first half of the night in his crib but ends up with us during the middle of the night. It's a horrible habit we've gotten into but we also secretly love having him with us, snuggling up all cute during the night. And it's future Laura & Joe's problem, right? I know we'll live to regret this decision but that battle will be for another day...right now we are just enjoying our little man because he is growing up right before our eyes and we only get him this little for such a short period of time!

14 months

My baby boy is 14 months...I can't believe it. What's even harder to believe is a month from now, we will be starting his transition to the TODDLER room. While I'm looking forward the tuition decrease and my Target discount will finally kick in, saving us nearly $300/month...I'm also sad that I really won't have an infant anymore. I know he's technically a toddler already but he's still in the infant room and I'm in denial that those days are numbered :(

Mason changes every day. He is into everything he's not supposed to. I think he's tired of his toys already and now just wants to get into trouble. I've said it a million times already and I'll say it again, we are going to have our hands full with him!

Mason is ALL about mama these days. He has to be near me at all times, if I leave the room he either cries or follows me to the next room. I can't set him down for long when we get home at night, he just needs to be held all the time. So far, he does well at school and doesn't get upset when I leave in the mornings. But when I pick him up, he runs to me and doesn't go back and play like he's done since he's been able to crawl/walk to me when I get there.

He LOVES to put his toys into our garbage and recycling cans. I found a redbox sleeve in the recycling and knew it was time to buy the safety straps for our kitchen. So now that he can't get into the garbages or drawers, he's moved on to pulling at the vertical blinds on our patio door. Le sigh. He's trouble I tell you :)

Mason is also trying to talk up a storm. Most of the time its still jibber jabber but the words he repeats/ says now are (adding on to the list from before):

yes
no
uh oh
all done
touchdown
wow / oh wow
oh boy
nanas (bananas)
hi
bye bye
ball
ba (book & bottle)
gentle
thank you
puppy

Last night when I was getting him into his car seat after picking him up from daycare, I gave him a kiss and said "love you" like I do every time I put him in his seat. And he mimicked me and said "love you"...and my heart melted right then and there and I started crying. I never knew two little words would fill me with such joy. Of course we've been trying ever since to get him to repeat it but hasn't yet.

Another funny story, he's just recently started to say the word puppy. He now chases Shiloh around the house, saying "puppy, puppy". I guess today at school he was chasing his friend Celia around and was saying "puppy, puppy"...his teachers just cracked up laughing. He also got a small cut on his finger and they put a spiderman band-aid on his hand and he walked around the room afterwords showing and pointing at his band-aid. He was SO proud of it, such a little ham-bone, that son of mine :)

And now for his 14 month pictures!

updates

I've been slacking in the blogging department lately and I apologize! Also I've had a couple of glasses of wine tonight so I also apologize if this post ends up being kinda random :) We are all doing great, just been super busy the last month. Work has been insanely busy for me as the holiday season is ramping up (aka the crazy retail season is amongst us). Work is going good, it's hard to believe it's been almost 9 months. As I look back at how I felt 6 months ago, I think I'm finally starting to "get it." It's been a humbling, challenging, scary, nerve-wracking and exciting experience...going from knowing it all and the comforts of working in the same place for 8 years to starting completely over. I still miss my GD peeps every day but I worked with an amazing group of people there, of course I will always miss them :)

Joe is loving his job with State Farm. He's still working late 3 nights/week which makes my evenings busy trying to feed Mason, bath and get him to sleep while still trying to keep up with the laundry and housework (and trying to stay sane :). Trying to find the silver lining in this not-so-ideal work arrangement, I've been lucky to experience a tiny glimpse of the life of a single mom. Seriously, I don't know how they do it. And it makes me appreciate Joe even more and reminds me how blessed I am to have such an amazing, hands-on father for my child.

Another new and exciting chapter in my life is I decided to become a Scentsy consultant. I know, pretty random, huh?!? I never envisioned myself ever becoming a independent consultant of anything. It just never interested me. However, a few months ago my co-worker had a Scentsy catalog party and after getting my warmer and Scentsy bars, I was HOOKED. I started to poke around their website and realized how simple it was to be a consultant. No crazy monthly quotas you need to fill, no inventory to store or haul around, etc. I contacted a few Scentsy consultants and the same theme was throughout their responses, they couldn't believe how easy it was. So I bit the bullet and I'm loving it. I'm not out to have parties every weekend or make a butt load of money (because honestly I don't have the time or energy to do that) but why not have a fun side job/hobby. I have warmers in every room now, which makes me happy because my house smells awesome...but most of all, I did this for ME. I love my life, don't get me wrong...but I sometimes feel like I've lost myself. Especially after becoming a mom...I feel like that's all I think, sleep, dream and talk about. This is my way to find Laura again...just Laura. Not wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, co-worker or employee. Just Laura. So...if you are every interested in the products or hosting a party, let me know. You can shop and buy online as well:
laurapeterson10.scentsy.us

We also decided to list our house. We've been so busy trying to finish up a few projects to get it ready to list. We had to finish the dropped ceiling in our basement, paint the downstairs bedroom and finish the bathroom in our basement. We also had to organize our storage, along with de-cluttering our house and finding space for it all. Joe's mom came over one Saturday and that's all Joe and I did all day, was organize the basement. We are SO thankful to Wanda and Dick for helping us get ready. Joe's step-dad Dick installed the dropped ceiling and Wanda painted for us. We couldn't have done this without you!! So far we've had 2 showings, the first wasn't very positive (although I think the realtor was just a jerk) and the 2nd came back positive, our house was just too small and close to the highway for them. It's only been 2 weeks so I guess time will tell. We aren't getting too excited since we know the market isn't the best but we are hopeful that something will eventually come along. I'd really like to be in a new house before a second child comes around but that's still at least a year away, so we have time to wait for the right buyer.

Want a good laugh? Check out my moves in this short video:
http://www.jibjab.com/view/2DDDVdTKYmSNzF32jiWZ

And now for some random Mason pictures over the past month!

This poor kid always has a bruise on his head!

Mommy & Mason time!

Hanging out at Lookout Ridge in Woodbury with friends Ben and Sam!

Talking on the phone....

This looks like a good place to rest....