Sandwich please

This morning I got up early with Jason when he went to work but then fell back asleep on the couch. At 6:30 I heard Mason coming up the stairs. He found me and in the sweetest most polite voice (and with dramatic hand gestures) he said, "Mom may I please have a pedut budda and shewly sanwish (this really is how he says it and I adore it) on a small roll? My stomach is very hungry" (patting his belly with wide expressive eyes). How do you say no to that?

Smiling I got up and made his early morning request, thinking that he'd probably he asleep by the time I got back. He was still awake, patiently waiting, looking like that most innocent and darling child in the whole world. He ate his sandwich, the whole thing, in silence. He drank some milk. Then he cuddled up and fell asleep.

It was a darling way to start the day.

another classic prayer

Please bless Daddy to feel better.
Bless he will come home soon and play with me and wrestle.
Bless me to be a missionary... and a firefighter.
Please bless Eli to stop screaming all the time and giving me a headache.

blessing

I only have a few precious days left with Little Mason. Next week he's turning four and is officially a big boy.  It hard to express how it feels to see your first little baby sprout into a little person. He's been a great blessing (and challenge) to us. Oh how we've grown together.

Here's his big boy prayer from yesterday:
Hev Dee Fa Der,
Tank tu for this food.
Tank tu for our house
and that we all live in America.
Please bless I can learn to eat with chopsticks real soon.
And how we love each other?
And how we are nice to our brothers and sisters sometimes?
ELI! SHHHHHH!
And how we are happy?
Please bless I can turn four real soon.

Trying a new path

Sometimes Mason stays in his bed all night. Most of the time, he doesn't. For a while we had success bribing him with gum. If he stayed in his bed all night (so that mom could stay in hers) then he could have a piece of gum in the morning. This worked okay, except I noticed he would often ask if he'd done it or not. It made me realize he didn't always have awareness about what was going on at night.

Here's where poor parenting has made things worse. Sometimes we get lazy.
When he comes in at night, it's often easier to just let him stay. I swear Mason has some sort of sixth sense about when we're the most tired and out of it and that's when he makes his move.

Also, when Eli has gone to bed and we're wrapping up the day, it's nice to spend some one on one time with Mason. The negative effect of it is that he doesn't always fall asleep in his bed. Sometimes it will be on the couch as we read or visit. Sometimes it's watching sports or documentaries with Dad. I know that he needs to be in his bed to stay in his bed. I'm admitting here that we don't always do the best thing.

And here's the kicker. Little brother Eli is opposite. He has a set bedtime, a predictable routine, and sleeps pretty great. Shocker! but Eli has always been like that so it's been easy to stick with the pattern. Mason has always struggled with sleep. Their personalities are different and I know that has something to do with it, but it seems obvious that our little habits have produced predictable results, one on each end of the spectrum.

Here's our latest idea. We've been talking a lot about roads and paths lately, as in "I hope you choose a happy path" or "Let's find a way to get off this bumpy grumpy road". I made Mace a chart for bedtime. We put it on magnetic board and he can move his little head along the path as we go. It feels like a lot of steps to walk him through but the first thing that changed was that he was excited to keep working towards bedtime instead of dreading and complaining the closer bedtime got. By the end of the road he was in bed, without an accompanying parent, and staying there!

It hasn't been perfect, but certainly so much better. When we put in the time and effort to go through the process with him, we see results.

Johnny Law and The Peacemaker

Once, after Jason received an unfair (and pricey) ticket, I said I don't like cops. That's confusing to Mason so I borrowed the Johnny Law concept from my brother. I don't know exactly what Ben tells his kids but I think the general idea is that Johnny Law is the cop we don't like. He's the one that pulls over nice people and gives them tickets. Other police men are great and helpful but you gotta watch out for that Johnny Law. In typical sensitive Mason fashion, Mason always worries about the bad guy (including Laban and Satan). He's always asking about Johnny Law. Does he have a family? Is he happy? Why doesn't he want to be a good guy?

When we see police cars Mason asks if it's Johnny Law. If he doesn't want to sit in his car seat, we tell him Johnny Law will get us. Anyway, Jason and the boys came to help me set up at the Preparedness Expo. One of the other booths was my former employer, Lifetouch. They took this picture of Mason with an officer. I can't tell from his funny expression how he feels about this situation.

Lately I've been teaching Mason about being a peacemaker. He's grown up enough to understand choosing the right and being fair. It's a more complex idea to teach him to be a good person even when other people (ahem Eli) aren't being nice or when things aren't fair. There have been some great moments though, when I see him choosing to be a peacemaker. Usually anything Eli has, Mason thinks he should get. These two boys really get battling for toys just because they think the other brother wants it. On Sunday Mason gave the toy he was playing with to Eli to help him be happy and quiet in church. It was a small action but I can see how Mason is learning and growing up.

Today I got a call from Mason's teacher. She wanted to let me know there had been a fight at school involving Mason. She wasn't sure what all had happened and it was over quickly. She said Mason had been hit in the face pretty hard . I anxiously waited for his bus to arrive and ran out to meet him. No blood, bruises, or broken bones.

I asked him what happend. (By the way, Mason never tells me about school. Sometimes I bribe him for information. However, he'll tell Jason all sorts of details. Sometimes I eves drop from the other room so I can feel informed.) Mason said a boy named Atticus punched him in the nose.

What did you do?
When I asked Mason this question, I was torn as to what I wanted the answer to be. I know how I really want him to act. That's why I teach him about Jesus and reinforce his good behavior. I will also admit that if I heard he hit the boy back I wouldn't have been mad. Is that horrible? I know fighting isn't the answer, but I want him to know he doesn't have to take it. I want him to stand up for himself. I want him to stand up for others. I don't know how to teach him how to appropriately do that, especially when he's such a tender kid naturally. 

The answer was: Nothing. I asked him if he cried and he said yes. I asked him if he will still be nice to Atticus and he said yes with a look that said "why wouldn't I?"

I'm not dead yet

Last week, while cleaning out the fish tank, I was worried I may have hurt the fish. After putting Spazz back in my fears were confirmed. He floated, sideways, for the longest time. We kept finding him in this position and many times warned Mason that his fish wasn't doing well. But day after day that funky little fish just kept swimming. We'd find him "playing dead" until we tapped on the glass or fed him and which time he'd come to. I was starting to think we could capitalize on his strange trick when low and behold today, he didn't snap out of it.

I could tell Mason thought he was supposed to feel bad but he seemed more curious. He wanted to be the one to dump Spazz in the toilet and the one to flush. He also wanted to hold my hand while we sang "I had a little turtle". Glub glub.

Later when Miss D was over she asked if she could feed the fish. We had to tell her the unfortunate news. Mason explained "He ran out of batteries".

Daddy and Me

 

St. Patrick's Day!

Mason celebrated the holiday by eating Lucky Charms with green milk, making a cereal rainbow, painting rocks like gold to fool the leprechauns, and of course, wearing green.

We were at the store last week and I saw the the Lucky Charms were on sale. We don't usually get that cereal but I thought it would be a fun treat. I said "I think we should get some of this for St. Patrick's day." He replied "THAT'S WHAT I WAS THINKING!"

We had different projects and crafts throughout the week. When he came home from preschool on Tuesday he asked to do a stake conference project. I was so confused until I realized he had confused "stake conference" with "St. Patrick's". I guess they sort of sound the same.  

Homework

Mason likes all aspects of school (except waking up early). He likes the bus, the backpack, the teachers, the snacks. The only thing preschool doesn't have is homework. So Mason makes up his own. He traces his letters and numbers almost every day. Some days he gets really particular and will erase and erase until the letter is satisfactory. I noticed that occasionally he won't turn the book around to do the other page and actually traces the opposite page upside down.

 

I'm otay!

If ever Mason falls or trips and isn't hurt, he'll holler "I'm otay!". Sometimes I don't even know anything has happened but I hear him yelling that from across the house.

Ha. I just went to type this one and realized he must get the phrase from me since I just typed it above. He often says "here's a toy if ever you need it" or "I will play that with you if ever you want".

Mason like to fill in Eli's side of conversations. For example:
Mason: Eli do you want to go with us?
Mason (in squeaky high baby voice): Yes, I want to go.
Mason (back in Mason voice): Oh good. Come on.

Mason likes to add "really really super" or "super duper" to his descriptions. He wants me to wake him up really really super early so he can get ready and watch cartoons before the bus. (Yes, we bribe him but the morning fits have almost disappeared). Or he'll ask for water from the fridge that is super duper super duper cold.

That's our Mace Face:
 

school pics

Mason (finally) brought home his class picture today which reminded me I never posted his First Ever Official School Picture. It was taken this past fall. Isn't he cute? It's sort of his "nervous but this seems cool" smile.

Ah, times have changed. Instead of an actual class picture they just put each student's individual shot all together on one 8X10. Also, I got a cd with a digital copy. Which is cool, but I can't find it, so here's a poor scanned copy.

HE LOOKS 18! or at least 8. 

his job

Mason was struggling to get his PEZ into his Death Star PEZ dispenser. That sentence alone makes me very happy. He came and asked me to help him because "I just don't know how". I told him that my job, as his mom, is to teach him everything I can. His job is to learn as much as he can. Mason responded, "No, my job is to take care of Eli."

That too.

Oh what a Valentines Day!

Mason came home from preschool with a bag full of valentines from his classmates. I am not fast enough, nor is my camera to capture his delighted expressions. Each one made him so happy. He couldn't believe his friends were so nice. Mace was just happy all day.

We ran around door bell ditching and dropping off Valentines for friends and cousins until he fell asleep. He thought running around with his dad was pretty fun. Good thing Dad held his hand so well to keep the excited boy on his feet. Grandma and Grandpa Heaton stopped by with some treats and then... wouldn't you know... Cupid  (an old Heaton tradition) himself door bell ditched us and left more goodies.  We ate the cookies and put the rest up for rewards.

I have to include these pictures of Mason decorating the house. He kept asking "I can put them ANYWHERE?"  and "I can use up the WHOLE THING?"

 

 

 

 

 

On being Incredible

Mason was given a set of long pajamas from one of his cousins (I'm guessing Ryan). They have the Incredible Hulk on them. Also they are size 7 or something which makes for a lot of rolling. But he loves them.  Mason was asking who this guy was so I've tried to tell him, but I honestly don't remember much about this character.

It has actually been a good opportunity to talk about tempers and anger and what happens when we lose control. Mason tells me all the time that we don't want to act mean or crazy like the Incredible Hulk. Also when we are cleaning up we like to act like different things (spies, tornado's, robots) while we pick up and adding the Incredible Hulk to our repertoire has added some fun variety.

The other day Jason let Mason watch a short clip on YouTube. Since then Mason has walked around with a furrowed brow and instructing us how to also look like the Hulk. He and I took these pictures of each other and he was quite pleased to see us turn mean and green.

When Mason says it, it sounds like "An Edible Hult".

The Book of Mason and other funny sayings

Mason is now in primary. He has been asking me for a week when he gets to have his own scriptures. Yesterday before church I gave him a copy of The Book Of Mormon. He recognized enough letters to think it said "The Book of Mason" and was very excited. I showed him where the front has a few pictures of Christ, Joseph Smith, Nephi, and others. When Jason walked in the room Mason grabbed his scriptures and said "Hey Dad! Want to hear about Joseph Smith?" Suddenly I'm having visions of him as a 19 year old missionary, walking up to strangers and asking them the same question.

***

Mason was playing in one of the kitchen drawers and found a sheet of twist ties. (Side note: when Mason finds twist ties in the produce section of the grocery store he makes them into rings to give to me. I ask him what it means to give someone a ring and he answers "that I love you forever". ) He asked if he could have some and I said "three, since you are three". He replied "When I'm 18 I'm going to have 18 and make a big mess."

***

Mason loves pajamas. When he comes home from preschool he often changes back into jammies before I can stop him. It can be a pain if we're going out and he needs to change back into play clothes. One day I even took his entire drawer out and put it up on my closet shelf just to keep him in his clothes. He has a bunch of hand me down tank tops (okay, wife beaters) that he prefers over any other top. And he has a favorite pair of jammie pants that I have a hard time washing often enough since he's usually wearing them when I'm doing laundry. The other night I was helping Mason get ready for bed and retrieved those special pants out of the dryer. His response? "Daddy couldn't find my special jammies but you found my special jammies because you are a great jammie finder."

***

Mason was sick and having a really hard night. We'd been up several times and I was exhausted. Around 3am he came to my room again and we fell asleep on the floor. I woke up after a few minutes and told him to come crawl into bed with me. He asked "Is Jason up there?" I said yes and he said "Mo-om!" meaning he knows he's not supposed to get in the parent's bed until his dad has gone to work. I told him it would be okay this one time and Mason said "Oh, thank you so very much."

other silly lines:

I don't like monsters, bad guys, or Satan. Satan is a mean guy.

Holy flip! What did I just do?

(when told he can't have any more Otter Pops) But my hands are warm and my mouth is warm and my body is warm. I need something to cool me off.