Kids Teach You the Most Important Lessons.

Kids. They are amazing, amazing people. I'm sure I've said it before, but I am constantly in awe of Mason. He kindness, his silliness, his carefree-ness, everything. I love seeing life through his eyes. And a couple weeks ago, he taught me one of the most important lessons.

Photo is of Mason about a couple weeks ago after he got his new Blaze (from Blaze and the Monster Machines). He won't go anywhere without Blaze now!

It was the Thursday night the weekend before Valentine's Day. We had just eaten dinner and were watching Flip or Flop on TV before I gave Mason a bath. His toe grazed me and it felt sharp so I knew I needed to cut it... my LEAST favorite activity (for a reason), which also happens to be Mason's LEAST favorite activity (<-- reason).

Mason HATES getting his toe nails cut.

Like H A T E.

He cries, he screams, he kicks. You name it, he does it. So imagine my delight when I realized that this was probably going to happen again tonight. I keep hoping that it will get better, but it hasn't yet.

I know it's probably some sort of sensory thing like maybe he feels trapped when I'm holding his foot? I don't know. But I'm sure it has something to do with that. (Side note : He doesn't mind getting his finger nails cut. He doesn't mind me touching his feet in the bath when I clean them. He doesn't mind wearing socks or shoes or having them put on. None of those things are a struggle, which I think is why this is so confusing.)

It's SO frustrating to me. I tend to get overly frustrated and lose my patience. I know that it could be over in two minutes if he were to just sit still, but that never happens. So I struggle with him, I fight with him, I try to hold his leg down and hold his foot so he doesn't move, but it never works. I never try to be mean to him, but I just don't know how to cut his nails any other way, and sometimes? Sometimes you just need your nails cut so you won't cut yourself with their sharpness.

That Thursday night though... something seemed different. He immediately started kicking and screaming and nothing that Seth or I would do would calm him down. Seth tried to play with him. We gave him the iPad. Nothing.

I was still determined to cut his nails though so I tried as hard as I could to hold his leg and foot still and cut his toe nails. But he kept moving. And I couldn't cut because I was afraid of cutting him with how much he was moving.

I was able to get one foot done but by this time he was CRYING and SCREAMING. Like tears streaming down his face. I took off his shirt because he seemed to be getting really worked up. I thought I could continue on though, just one more foot, five more toes and we're free!

I got one toe done and then I couldn't do it anymore. I felt too bad. I felt like a horrible person and horrible mother for putting him through something that he had no control over.

I immediately picked him up and took him upstairs. He was still crying at this point, but he put his head on my shoulder. I knocked off all the stuffed animals and pillows on his rocking chair and sat down with him and just held him and rocked.

I told him over and over again how much I love him. I told him that I didn't mean to be mean or to hurt him. I told him I was sorry. So sorry. I told him again how much I love him.

He laid there, with his head on my shoulder, much, much more calm now, just hugging me. I don't know how I held it together, but I didn't cry.

I told him again "Mommy wasn't trying to hurt you. Mommy wasn't trying to be mean. Mommy was just trying to help you. You know that, right?" And all he said was "yeah" and I melted into a puddle.

He knew I wasn't trying to hurt him or be mean. He knew I was trying to help him. He wasn't trying to be frustrating to me. He wasn't trying to hurt me or prevent me from helping him. He just couldn't help it. That night he taught me patience. He taught me forgiveness. And most important, he taught me that a mother and son's love is unconditional.

After he fully calmed down and we had rocked for a few minutes, I asked him if he wanted to take a bath and he was back to his normal, happy self and yelled "YEAH!". So off we went. We had the best time, just the two of us, splashing away, getting clean, dumping water outside of the bath tub, and making sure that (Paw Patrol) Chase was clean too.

And that night, before he went to bed, I squeezed him a little tighter and gave him an extra kiss (or twenty). He looked at me with those eyes as Seth carried him up the stairs and I blew him one final kiss and he blew one right back and I knew in that very moment, that it all was going to be ok.

[It's the Little Things] Being Thankful for Quick Reflexes

It was Saturday morning, August 29, 2015, around 11:15am. Mason was at his ABA class and Seth and I were on our way to go to the bank and then to Seth's mom's house to drop off some snacks for her to take when she picked Mason up that afternoon. Seth and I had plans to go out to lunch and do some beer tasting for our friend's birthday. The car ride started off normal. We stopped at the stoplight off our street, waiting to turn left to head down the street to Seth's moms. Seth was driving my car and I was scrolling through Instagram or something on my phone. The radio was on. The light must have turned green and Seth started going and then IMMEDIATELY slammed on the brakes. I hadn't been paying attention since I was on my phone, but this alerted me and I immediately looked up. And what did I see? A car go ZOOMING extremely fast RIGHT in front of us. Keep in mind, our light had been green for a couple seconds now, which was why Seth started going. I am just SO SO THANKFUL that he happened to look to the side or happened to see out of the corner of his eye that the car coming from our left wasn't stopping. Their light was full on RED and they were not stopping.

Him jamming on the breaks shook the car a little since he had just started going and then slammed on the brakes so hard. I took a moment to process what happened and immediately asked him if he was ok. He said he was. I looked to my right and saw the car driving down the road, they appeared to be braking now (umm a little too late lady) and maybe just realized what happened. At this point, we started driving and heading down the road like we had planned. Seth was visibly shaken, completely understandably. And now, at this point, I think I fully processed what just happened and what COULD have happened and I got upset. Seth asked me if I was ok and I said I was, but the more I thought about it, the more I started to freak out and think about what could have just happened, and I started to tear up. Thankfully I was wearing sunglasses so Seth didn't even know (until now). All I could think about was "we could have died". I think I even said that out loud and Seth said that no, we wouldn't have. But seriously, we could have. And all I could think about was Mason. BOTH of his parents would be in the car and would be gone. AND we have no will. And that's when I really started freaking out. We could have died and what would have happened to Mason?

Needless to say, I plan on getting us a will soon (speaking of, if anyone has advice on how to do this, that would be appreciated. Do I need a lawyer? Are there kits? How do I get started?).

It just boggles my mind the things that people do while driving. I mean, I'm no angel, I'll admit that. But when you're going 40+ mph down the street, I don't think that's a good time to be texting, looking for something in your purse, or changing the radio station. I've done all of the above but WHILE AT A STOP LIGHT (which, yes, I know, doing anything on your phone no matter where you are, if you're driving, is illegal). I asked Seth if he could tell if she was texting or not and basically all he knew was that it was a youngish looking girl. But I'd have to assume she was doing something in order to just blow through a red stop light like that.

Anyway, I don't want to be Debbie Downer here in this post, but I did want to document -- I am SO SO SO THANKFUL for whatever made Seth look to the side or whatever made him see that that car was coming and that he slammed on the brakes. I always try to look both ways and make sure I see the cars stopping because I've seen one too many people blow through red lights before, but for some reason this one just hit me a little harder.

SO. THANKFUL. that I am the one here typing this and telling you about what could have happened rather than you reading somewhere about what did happen. It can only take a second to really put your life into perspective.

ps I promise to be back tomorrow with happier news :)

[It's the Little Things] Exploring in Your Own Backyard

I use the term 'backyard' loosely seeing as how we don't really have a backyard, but we do have a nice patch of grass off to the side kinda near our carport... it's hard to explain, so hopefully you get the idea.

Anyway, we came home from running errands and Costco the other day and were unloading the car when Mason decided he wanted to go exploring. Usually I am wanting to go inside and sit down and relax when we get home (or have lunch on this particular day) and whenever Mason runs off (in the wrong direction), I just go grab him and bring him inside. And he's usually fine with it.

But on this day, I decided to let him be and see what he would do. So I let Seth do the heavy lifting and bring all the groceries inside and I wandered off to follow Mason. We literally were out there for almost 30 minutes when Seth texted me to find out where we went.

There really are no words needed when you are watching your kids explore so I will let the pictures do the talking for themselves.

Sometimes you just need to let your kids be kids and let them explore the great outdoors.

#letthembelittle

[It's the Little Things] Lowe's Build and Grow... with mom!

This past weekend, Seth had to work which meant that it was just me and Mason all weekend.

After the last Lowe's Build and Grow that we did on Valentine's Day, I knew I wanted to try to go to another one. The next one was scheduled for Saturday, February 28th (a super cool Monster Truck!) and at first I wasn't sure if I would sign up since Seth had to work and I thought that would be "their thing" to do together. But alas, I decided that I could always go pick it up and bring it home and they could do it together after Seth got home from work. The Build and Grows fill up crazy quick so I set my alarm to remind me to register on the morning of the day that registration opened. I hopped online at 7am and was able to secure a spot.

I had scheduled Mason for a hair cut on Saturday morning at 9am because his hair was getting out of control. I figured that would give us enough time to get there, get the hair cut and get back in time. If you are not at the Build and Grow by 10am, they give away your kit (the horror!) so I wanted to give us plenty of time. We arrived at 10:00am on the dot.

The whole way there, I was talking to Mason about going. I kept asking him if he wanted to build a Monster Truck with me and he seemed really excited. At this point, I had still planned on getting the kit to go because I remembered what a hard time we had wrangling the toldder with two of us so I was not planning to try on my own. I kept talking it up and asking if he wanted to build with me and he was still acting excited. Even when we got there, I asked if he wanted to build and he threw his hands in the air and yelled "ya!". So build we did!

Mason was obsessed with holding the hammer this time vs last time when he wanted nothing to do with it. It's amazing what a little snack BEFORE the activity can do for his mood! I tried to show him how to actually hammer the nail, but all he really wanted to do was lay down on the dirty floor and hold the hammer (#toddlersareweird). Overall, we had a great time together, he didn't try to run away from me and down the aisle, and he loved the finished product.

It was perfect.

[It's the Little Things] Boys with Strollers.

I'm not gonna lie. I used to stereotype "boy toys" and "girl toys". Blue toys are for boys and pink toys are for girls. Jake and the Neverland Pirates are for boys and Sofia the First is for girls.

I'm not really sure why since I have a younger brother and he often played Barbie's with me and I often played with hot wheels cars with him. But for some reason, I always had this idea in my head of what kind of toys Mason, as a boy, should play with.

That being said, I LOVE that he LOVES this little pink stroller so much.

LOVE. LOVE. LOVE.

It is often the first toy in the toy room that he picks out to play with when we go to Nanny's house. There is a combination of "boy toys" and "girl toys" in the playroom since my nieces often come over to play too.

I will note though that it is pretty funny to see how different boys and girls play with the same toy.

Girls with strollers : put the baby doll in, make sure the baby is strapped in and safe, and then slowly push the stroller around while carrying a diaper bag/purse on their shoulder and pretend they are taking the baby shopping.

Boys with strollers : is there a baby doll in the stroller? Not anymore. Tosses baby doll on the floor and runs down the hallway at crazy fast speeds and shoves the stroller off the stair.

{Needless to say, please do not ask Mason to babysit your child anytime in the near future.}

The stroller could just as easily be a shopping cart and Mason would be just as happy. I love him for his imagination and for the fact that he sees a toy as a toy. I don't want him to judge a toy (or a person or anything for that matter) by it's looks or by it's color or by the fact that something might typically be for one gender or another. All toys can be played with and should be played with by everyone.

The stroller is simply a vehicle for taking something from point A to point B. Nothing more. Nothing less.

But I know one day, in the FARRRRRR future, Mason will make an amazing husband and father and I think the experience he has pushing around this stroller will come in to play. And the thought of him being as amazing of a husband and father as Seth is to him makes me heart explode with joy.

{but remember, in the FARRRRRR future, Mason!}

Linking up with Jess here.

[It's the Little Things] A Lazy Weekend.

This past weekend, we had a lazy weekend. You know, the kind where you don't have plans and you just get to do whatever you want. Ahh, yes, that kind. I mean we had our regular grocery shopping on the agenda but that's about all. And it was GLORIOUS.

Saturday was our first weekend morning of being on the Whole30 and I must admit... we ate like a king and queen (and a prince)! Seriously. I wish we had more time in the mornings on the weekdays because our meal was delicious. We had a couple leftover sweet potato and sausage cups leftover from the week that we mashed up into a sort of sweet potato hash and then had some prosciutto, a fried egg, and lots of fruit on the side. I paired mine with some hot black tea with lemon and Seth had coffee.

After breakfast, Seth and I quickly took showers and got ready and then we decided to head to a new park before heading to Whole Foods so Mason could get his wiggles out before having to sit in a cart for an undetermined amount of time.

It was crazy windy outside (those Santa Ana winds are no joke) but beautifully warm and we had a blast running around and checking out the new climbing structure. The park was a little smaller than I thought it would be, seeing as how it was in a neighborhood with super expensive houses. Nevertheless, we had a blast playing.

Once Mason seemed like he was over it, we packed up and got back in the car, gave him a snack, and headed to Whole Foods. I was looking for a few new things for our pantry staples but we only successful on buying one thing. We headed home, had lunch, and Mason took a nap. About an hour into his nap, the power went out. We were guessing because of the wind (knocked over a power line maybe?) or maybe because people were using the AC and it was super windy and something just overloaded. I'm no electrician, so I have no idea what happened, but it was out for almost two hours. The power outage interrupted Seth watching TV and me blogging (the horror!) so I took the opportunity to clean up a little around the house and Seth ran a couple errands.

I feel so bad saying this (total #firstworldproblems) but when the power first went out, we had no idea what we were going to do. In this day and age, we have become so dependent upon technology to entertain us that we don't know what to do without it. I will admit, that was my first thought, what are we going to do?? And then I realized that I had been procrastinating filing away some papers and sorting through the mail from the week an reading magazines (that go back to November) that I took this opportunity to do so. I made a positive out of what some might think of a negative.

Mason woke up about a half hour after the power came back on, we played, made and had dinner, and then watched some TV and played with blocks.

We got these blocks in our last Citrus Lane box and this is the first time we really played with them. I don't know why I'd never pulled them out before because Mason LOVES them and loved helping to stack the blocks and then of course, he loved knocking them down too.

Sunday morning, we had a lazy morning, leisurely eating breakfast and getting ready for swim class. Swim was at 10am and though he is enrolled in a parent and me class and there's usually as many as 6 kids (and parents) in the class, Mason was lucky enough to have a private lesson (since nobody else showed up). We LOVE his teacher Miss Ashley and she is so good with him. He got bumped up to intermediate a couple weeks ago and they do a lot of back floating... which he HATES. Sunday he did SO SO good though and made awesome progress. I was seriously so proud.

#allthehearteyeemojis

After swim, I wanted to check out the farmer's market at the Great Park. We've gone a few times and I really like it. Swim is right by it so I wanted to stop by real quick after class. "Real quick"... that's what I told Seth but we ended up being there for almost two hours!

The Great Park also happens to be the location of "The Orange" - a hot air balloon in the shape of an orange. It was super windy so it wasn't flying, so we got to see it on it's landing pad. I've only ever seen it in the sky before (from afar) and I have to admit, it was a LOT bigger up close than I thought.

Over by the hot air balloon area were two airplanes. The Great Park is the former El Toro Airforce Base and so they had the airplanes on display to commemorate the history. I thought Mason would be super into them because he has been obsessed with airplanes recently but he was perfectly content sitting in the stroller. Bummer. Either way, I was super into them and went to take a closer look.

N3N-3 Canary

SNJ-5 Texan

Next to the planes was a carousel and a small playground. We went to investigate both and when Mason seemed too tired, we put him back in the stroller and headed to the farmer's market to get some fruit.

By this point, Mason was getting pretty tired (a combo of waking up before the crack of dawn, a swim lesson, and running around) so we headed home for lunch and a nap. Mason slept for almost four hours (cue the angels in heaven singing!) and then we went over to Seth's mom's house for family dinner Sunday.

Overall it was the perfect, no plans, no obligations weekend we've had in a long time!

Is it Friday yet?

Linking up with Jess.

[Co-Hosting! : It's the Little Things] Dating Your Spouse

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday! Today is a special edition of the "It's the Little Things" link up because I am co-hosting the link up with Jess this week! I've loved being able to share and link up some of the little things that make an ordinary day extraordinary and I'm loving being able to bring the link up to you all today as well.

Today I wanted to share a little bit more about the present that I got Seth for Christmas : A Year of Dates.

I seriously cannot take credit for this genius idea. I must admit that I totally stole it (with her knowledge and permission!) from Meghan at The Adventure Starts Here. Last year she talked about the year of dates that she planned for her husband and I absolutely LOVED the idea and thought that that was the perfect gift to give : the gift of time with each other. After having Mason, I will admit, I feel like Seth and I have gotten so wrapped up in spending time with him and doing things with and for him that we forgot about "us". When he was a newborn, everything was new and we were learning so much and so, so tired all the time. Then as he got older, our world just became about him and while we went out with each other... Mason was there too. And that's not a bad thing! I LOVE spending time with both of my boys, but there's just something about having adult only time that is needed and special. Regardless of if the topic of conversation is Mason the whole time, it is nice to be able to enjoy our meal while the food is still hot and not have to worry about entertaining a two year old while trying to eat our dinner.

So, this year, I decided to steal her genius idea and give the gift of time to Seth in the form of a year's worth of dates. Plus, when you get to be our age (*cough* not a day over 21 *cough*) you kind of just buy yourself the things that you need, so come Christmas time, it's hard to come up with gift ideas. I thought this was perfect! Not only was it the perfect Christmas present and it get us out of the house alone once a month.
Win - win!

About the dates :

Some are planned already and some are not.

Some are fancy and some are not.

Some are expensive and some are not.

But regardless of the type of date, we will be with each other, just the two of us, and that's all that matters. We don't need fancy to enjoy each other's company.

Over the next twelve months, Seth and I will be dating each other at least once a month. Dates range from simple dates like dinner and a movie or trying a new restaurant to an Angels baseball game or my personal favorite (and the one I am most excited about)... the Kenny Chesney concert in July!

Our first date is scheduled for this Friday night.

And the only thing I can tell you about it is... that you will have to check back next week to find out what we did! :)

***

Now link up with Jess and I below and tell us what "little things" you have been up to!

An InLinkz Link-up

[It's the Little Things] Temporarily Being a Stay at Home Mom.

This Christmas I was lucky enough to get SIX WHOLE DAYS off of work! SIX. That's like nearly impossible with my job, but Christmas fell on the right day and my boss was kind enough to let me have 2 additional days off to stay home with Mason.

You see, Mason's preschool is closed for TWO WEEKS during Christmas. TWO. That is a lot of time for either Seth or I to take off work ourselves or to try to find someone to watch Mason. Thankfully both of our jobs were flexible and we had family who could watch him part of the time to make it easier on us. Papa took Monday and Tuesday of the first week, Seth was off Wednesday, Thursday was Christmas, and my work had a "floating holiday" for Friday. Monday and Tuesday of the second week I was off, Wednesday was Seth, Thursday was New Year's Day, and Friday was Seth's regular Friday off. So out of 10 days, we each only had to take 2 vacation days. Score!

For me, this was like heaven. I was off for 6 days with my little man and I was trying to figure out what fun we would have. Because, let me tell you, if I didn't plan something, I knew we would go stir crazy. And, also let me tell you, being a stay at home mom is HARD. I don't know how you all do it day in and day out so I give you total props! I mean, I assume if I was home all the time I would come up with some sort of routine and it would be more 'normal' for me, but still. TOTAL props!

My first day off (Thursday) was Christmas so that day was pretty much planned for us. Presents with just the 3 of us in the morning followed by family presents followed by nap time followed by dinner time.

Friday Seth was off to work and it was me and the little man : day 1. We started off the day with a fancy breakfast of milk and an Eggo waffle for Mason and some cereal for me. After breakfast, I built his new Little People Wheelies ramp, we went to the grocery store to get a couple things, to the park, ate lunch, I took down the Christmas tree and decorations, he napped, I built his new kitchen and we watched the new Planes movie that he got in his stocking (Planes : Fire and Rescue). 

Then Daddy came home and we went to the mall to meet our in-town and out-of-town family for dinner.

Saturday Mason had a make up swim lesson, we went to the mall to exchange some things and get him some new shoes, he napped, and we went over to our friends' house for dinner and a play date.

Sunday was our typical Sunday : swim lessons, Starbucks, lunch, laundry, grocery shopping, and all that jazz.

I planned a play date with my friend Lauren and her son Logan for Monday morning. And let. me. tell. you. It was GLORIOUS. (Seriously, if I was a SAHM all the time, I would plan a playdate for every morning. We were with them for maybe 3-ish hours and Mason was so tired that he took the most wonderful nap when we got home.) We met around 8am, walked about a mile down the street to Starbucks and a bakery where we got a coffee and a danish for breakfast. We chatted for a while, ate breakfast, and tried to coax the boys into sitting still in a chair for more than 2.7 seconds. Once we knew we had run out of time, we strapped the boys back into their strollers, headed down the street, and to the park. The boys ran and ran and played and played for at least an hour and I only had about 3 heart attacks making sure that Mason didn't fall off the play structure. 

We headed back to her house, let the boys play for about a half hour more, and then Mason and I headed home. It was almost nap time but he seemed to be doing ok so I ran to the grocery store to pick up a couple things and then we headed home for lunch and nap time. We watched Planes : Fire and Rescue for the tenth time since he got it and waited for Daddy to come home.

Tuesday morning was our errand running time. We ate breakfast and then headed out the door. Our first stop was Trader Joe's and the bakery next door to pick up some challah bread. It was my lucky day and the challah was on sale and it was Mason's lucky day because the nice, nice lady gave him a cookie for free (at 8am no less!). He chowed down on his cookie while I wandered through Trader Joe's. We headed home for a few and then were out again to run to Costco before it started raining. We ate our way through Costco and then were back home for lunch (like we needed it after all the free samples!) and nap time. While Mason napped, I caught up on the bill paying, some blog reading, and some planner note taking... and checked on Mason a million times on the monitor to make sure he didn't fall out of the bed.

When he woke up after his nap, I deemed it jammie day and we sat on the couch and cuddled and watched Planes : Fire and Rescue (yes, again) until Daddy got home from work.

And thus ended my stay-at-home-mom-dom.

it. was. PERFECT.

I wish I could have a day like this at least once a month! While I do enjoy my job and going to work on a daily basis, I do thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy my days off with Mason. Just me and my boy. I know it's good for me. It's good for him. And it makes us both SO happy! 

I do not take these days for granted!

Until next time...

***

Linking up with Jess.

And Tawnya.

[It's the Little Things] A family photo.

So that family picture that I said that we took on Christmas, were you wondering why I didn't include it in yesterday's Christmas recap?

I didn't forget it. I purposely left it out because I wanted to share it today.

It's blurry.

And Mason isn't smiling.

But I don't care.

I wanted to take a family picture and Mason wasn't cooperating. He wanted down. He wanted to run. We took about 10 pictures before we got this one. And then this happened. Mason put his arms around Seth and I (you can't see his arm around me but you can see it around Seth's neck) and squeezed us in tight and our photographer snapped the perfect picture. This is Mason's new thing. A family hug. He pulls us in tight and has the BIGGEST smile on his face (usually) and then pushes us away. And then pulls us in tight and pushes us away. And it goes on for 5 or so times. It makes me so happy!

The picture might not look perfect but it is perfect to me and it is a perfect representation of our Christmas and our love for each other. I don't care that it's blurry and that Mason isn't smiling. I'm just so happy we were able to capture our "family hug" on Christmas.

***

Linking up with Jess.