Mason’s Birthday and Talking Boxes

There was a link error in today’s (07/18) issue. The correct link to “Frank’s Boo Boo is Healing Nicely, but…” is here.

In just two days, Mason will be turning one year old. We can’t believe a whole year has gone by! The days when he was in intensive care seem so very long ago, thank heavens. I wanted to give you an update on how he’s doing.

Mason is quite a chubby little fellow, despite the fact that he HATES baby food. Each day, we sit down and attempt to spoon baby food into his mouth and, each time we do it, it turns into a wrestling match…that Mason usually wins. Mason clamps his mouth shut and shakes his head from side to side while we try to catch his mouth with the little spoon. Baby food ends up everywhere! If something catches his attention across the room, he might forget we’re playing the “eating game” and his mouth might open just a smidgeon and we’ll dive in with the spoon. He swallows it, but not without giving you that “you tricked me!” glare. He still gets the majority of his nourishment from mommy’s milk (his “num nums”). He enjoys teething biscuits but those are no better than cookies so we don’t give them to him very often. We’re going to try popsicles this week that contain real fruit. I remember Max being picky about real food, too, and he’s just fine so I’m going to stop worrying about Mason…just as soon as the doctor confirms he’s perfectly healthy at his one-year check-up on Friday. (Yes, I’m always the worry wart!)

He’s walking more than crawling now, doing the Frankenstein Shuffle – walking tentatively with his arms outstretched. I guess it’ll soon be time to buy him a real pair of shoes. His baby booty days are over (sniff).

He has eight teeth that I can see. They’re pretty sharp and I’m afraid to stick my fingers in there to see if there are anymore right now. He loves to brush them. He thinks the electric toothbrush is a wonderful thing. I’m sure it feels good on his gums.

He loves to give Percy things to chew on. I think he thinks Percy is his hairy brother. He worships Max (age 5) and they play wonderfully together. He said “Max” the other night for the first time. He’s already said Dada, Mama and Zach. He says a few other words and he rambles on in long paragraphs (that we all pretend to understand). He plays “I’m Gonna Get You” with Max and he tries to say the words all together.

He likes to play with Max’s Thomas the Train toys. Too bad they had that huge recall last week. I have to ship some trains back because they have lead in them (primarily ones with red paint). In case you missed the recall, the information is HERE.

Mason’s favorite show is Sesame Street and his favorite character is Cookie Monster. I bought him one for his birthday that says, “Me love cookie.” Sssh! Don’t tell! We ordered his other toys (almost all Sesame Street toys) from ToysRUs.com.

Our UPS guy, whose name I know, but will not mention here, is a real sweetie (we’ve known him for years), but comes across as having a personality like the packages he carries – cardboard. His voice is always in a monotone and he is very quick and efficient with his business. It’s become a game for me. I try to make him smile. The last time I managed was when I gave him a bag of homemade candy and cookies during the holidays.

Last week, he brought several boxes in our front door and laid them down in the hall. I said, “Thanks!”

He replied, in his monotone voice, “There’s more.”

“Oh! Okay!” I love packages and, between Mason’s birthday and packages from our printer, we were getting quite a few that day.

When he carried in the last pile, he monotoned, “One of your packages has been talking to me all morning.” He bent over and let the box drop just a few inches to the floor. When the box hit the floor, it said, quite loudly, “ELMO LOVES YOU!”

Our UPS guy turned and left, but not before I noticed just the hint of a smile at the left corner of his mouth.

This week’s Maxism: “We should clean our trashcans…and paint them gold so they’ll be nice and shiny.”

Hugs to all!

Ang

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