Happy Father's Day

Two blogs in seven days?! Say WHAT??? Man, I am on it! I am going to copy what my older Sissy did and tribute tonight's blog to the greatest man that walks this earth. My Daddy. (Hop on over to The Baum Squad to read her tribute) I know, I know. Your Dad is pretty great, too! But here's why my Dad is the best:

Parenting Skills: This man is awesome. Need more proof? I'll break it down for you.

Look at the spectacular ant-burners (lenses) and mustache on that man. 

• Morning Bird - I have very fond memories of eating breakfast on Saturday mornings at this place called Mom's in Pineville. Come to find out the reason why it was always Dad and I - never with my mother and sister (this was pre-Syd) - was because we ate breakfast at 6:00 am. As I got older, I changed and was not so much a morning person. He has never changed. You know those Jimmy Dean commercials where there is a sun and everyone else is floating around not awake yet? That is my father. Every.single.morning. Man gets up at 4:30-5:00 am every morning to start the day we'll leave out that he is also tends to be loud sometimes in an attempt to wake up others so he can have some company. He will drink his coffee and then make us all breakfast. There are very few mornings that I don't remember having a full course breakfast before school. I'm talking pancakes, bacon, grits, eggs, sausage, french toast. He did it all. 
• Master of the Steamroll - I swear sometimes I think Dad would count down the minutes to when it was time to wake us up. He would give us a wake up call which would sometimes be singing to us loudly through the speaker system in the house. If we didn't wake up after that... he would come in with the steam roll. Now, if you have no clue what this is, allow me to explain. A steamroll is when he comes running in to your room, jumping on the bed, then rolling over top of you back and forth until you beg for mercy. Trust me, it is not a pleasant experience. Need to get your kid out of bed? This is the best! 
• No Pain, No Gain - Most parents worry about their children getting hurt. Whenever we got hurt, Dad would calmly walk over to us and say, "It will feel better when it quits hurting" or another favorite, "Do we need to chop it off?" I seriously could not stand these words. But do you know what I catch myself saying every time one of my kids at work get hurt? Yes, both of those. 
• Reach for the Sky - You get the gist of how Dad was never one to hover over us when we were little. Looking back at it, I remember a lot of situations we were put in dealt with heights. My Mother once told us that one day she came home from work to find my Dad working on the roof. No problem, right? Well, he was actually on Daddy Duty for Sarah who was at the age where she could sit up by herself. Mom got out of the car to ask him where Sarah was when she noticed this little blob sitting about 5 feet away from him. ON.THE.ROOF. He had NAILED her diaper down to the roof so she wouldn't fall off! Seriously, I can't make this up. His explanation? Nothing, he didn't know what the big deal was. It wasn't like she was going anywhere. Flashing forward several years, I remember him teaching us all these cool little tricks on the playground. For instance, he taught us how to swing really high - as high as the swing would let you - and once you were at the highest point you would jump out and fly through the air. FLY! This was the coolest thing ever. That is, until Sarah blew it by breaking her arm and then we were never allowed to do it again. Way to blow it, Sister. 
• School Projects - The benefits of your Dad being a General Contractor is that you have the best school projects. Whenever we came home with things that we needed to do, Dad would go all out on finding the best and coolest way to make the projects. I remember one time we (I say "we" but sometimes these projects were so advance that it took a while for him to build before the kids could actually help) made a 3D solar system out of wood & Styrofoam that looked so real my teacher asked if she could keep it in her room. 
• Gender Confusion - I like to joke around that I just turned into a girl 3.5 years ago. What does this mean? I had no fashion, dressed in sweatpants and t-shirts, no makeup and most of the time did not brush my hair. It was never a priority to me. I was a disgrace and fashion failure to my older, fashionista sister. I was the tom boy, I didn't need any of that. Most of my friends were guys and to them I was "one of the guys." And then I found out why as I was going through old home videos several years ago. It was one Christmas when Sarah and I came in Christmas morning to see that Santa had left our presents in our allotted areas. Sarah had this huge Barbie House & Pool set complete with new Barbies & a bright pink Barbie car convertible along with some other girly presents. My pile was a bike, helmet, roller skates, safety equipment and some other sports gear. Dad was so excited about it that he was showing me all the sports stuff as he sat me down on the bicycle. I looked over at Sarah's toys and said, "Can I go over and play with that?" Dad looked at me and said, "no, honey, that stuff is for girls." WHAT?! 

  

  Need more evidence?

• Better Than Birth Control - My father does not meet a stranger. He can talk to anyone! And when I say anyone, I am not exaggerating. My friends and I once waited in the car after a long day of playing softball games while he went in to see if they were still open. Thirty minutes - yes, that's right, 30 MINUTES - later he came out to tell us that they were closed. He is just very friendly. BUT when it came to boys or "friends that were boys" he was relentless. All of our boyfriends or guy friends were scared to death of him. He would completely change when they came around. My sisters first boyfriend came over for Sunday lunch and ended up leaving early without even eating with us Dad was so rude. (Don't worry, JJ straightened him out... a little bit.) When Sarah's first prom date came to pick her up he was met with a front porch full of men in overalls with shotguns perched next to their rocking chairs. Think that's bad? On my first date he thought it was an ideal time to clean his crossbow in front of the poor guy. And they wondered why I didn't bring home anyone for a very.long.time.

Best Gift Giver

• The Bat Cage - Most of you know that I played softball growing up. I am a firm believer that my Dad is the reason I got a scholarship for softball. Trust me, I didn't make it easy on him. As "my" 10th birthday present, he got us a batting cage. This thing was my best friend and worst enemy. All I could see was how many hours that I was going to have to be in that thing. It was a cage. Some of my best memories were in that cage just playing catch with my Dad. I also remember several times my Mother being mortified as she got out of her car saying she could hear us yelling at each other at the road (from our driveway to the road is a pretty good distance away). Whoops! Looking back, there couldn't have been a better present than that at the time (see below for the best gift ever). I would never admit it to him but the day that he took that batting cage down, I cried like a little girl. 
• Matilda Jean - One Christmas, I begged and begged for a dog. When I say begged, I mean I talked about wanting a dog 24/7. I brought it up in every conversation possible. So when he told me I wasn't getting a d@mn dog for Christmas I told him that I was going above him and telling Santa so I know I would get one. His response? He forbade me to ask Santa because I was not getting a dog! My response? I told Santa of course. As me and Sydney sat there on Santa's lap at Carolina Place Mall I told Santa - in my most innocent voice - that the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a puppy. I swear, if Dad didn't think he would be reported to social services by the other 45 people in line he would have beat the living crap out of me in front of the entire Santa's Workshop. The entire week before Christmas, I went through every nook and cranny of that house looking to see where they were hiding that dog then went into a depression Christmas Eve because I realized they didn't get me one. That night I was so bummed I had a sleepover in Syd's room to cheer me up. Early Christmas morning something furry kept tickling me and trying to wake me up out of my coma sleep. Then I heard the sweetest little voice from Sydney saying, "look Kate, a puppy!" When I opened my eyes, I saw Dad holding the most beautiful dog in the world and my new best friend, Matilda Jean. And I know that even those times where he wanted to murder that dog (chewing 32 holes in the batting cage net) and was constantly reminding her that "a bullet is a nickel" when he got the vet bills, I know that he loved her just as much as I did. 
  

• The Little Things - I can't really top those presents mentioned above. Instead, I can tell you about how many sweet, little things that my Daddy did/does for us. Every Valentine's Day he always made sure to make us dinner and then would get us a little present or flowers for all of his girls. He even started liking Rap music because his little riding buddy, Sydney, wanted to listen to it (how she was able to do that I will never know). Whenever we had a birthday, holiday, or if we were going through a difficult time instead of buying us cards he would always make these little funny cards for us. See below: 
  
  
  
  
• Little Things Contd: It was the pats on the head like dogs as he told us "it will be okay" after we got our first periods because he didn't know what else to do. It's the hugs followed by "I Love You" when our feelings got hurt. It's riding in a car with 10 girls after a 4 game day to get dinner without constantly complaining about how bad our feet -and bodies- smelled. It's coming to our rescue when something needs to be fixed or made. It was working the extra hours during the week so that you didn't have to miss any of my games. I can never remember a vacation where he didn't take time out of his free day to catch for me - now that is dedication!
  

How to Be a Husband:

• Marriage is Fun - We have been so fortunate in growing up in a house filled with love. Dad always said that we were "killing him" or blaming us girls for losing his hair at an early age. Nice try, buddy. But I always remember him doing the sweetest things for my mom. For instance, for their 18th anniversary he planted her 18 rose bushes outside because she had mentioned one day in passing that she had always wanted rose bushes. I also remember times when we were growing up that I would watch them Shagging to beach music in the kitchen while they cooked. My Mom used to travel a lot when we were younger. He would always step up to the plate in helping her out without complaints, letting her know that he had these handled and not to worry. **Side Note: I will also point out that he chose that opportunity to put all of our outfits on backwards with underwear on our heads as a way to play jokes on the ladies at our preschool. We also had beans & dogs every single night for dinner - no complaints here! And when we were still in diapers and we had pooped, he would take us over to my Gramma's for her to change it.**But whenever she got home he was always the first one at the door to give her a hug and kiss. When I was younger, I found it disgusting that they did this every day. In front of us! Didn't matter if either one of them were coming back from a trip or just coming home from work. They always met each other with at least a kiss and 'I love you'. He taught us that marriage is not always happy and in order for it to be successful you both have to work at it. He was always showing us that it's the little things that mean the most.

By now you are getting it that my Dad is the best. Let's be honest, he has been dealing with 4 females for all these years - you're welcome, Daddy! These are just a few of the billions of reasons why. Above all of these, he is our biggest supporter. He has been there through all the tears, arguments, talks about boys, heartbreaks, losses, and gains. He has never deserted us - even when some of us have pushed him to his limits (I'm talking to you Sarah & Sydney, I was the angel) and would have deserved everything we had gotten in return. And this man's greatness doesn't stop with family. He is the most caring man to everyone he meets- even if he doesn't always express it best. He is so willing to help out anyone that needs it. And believe it or not, once you get past the grumpiness he's really fun to be around.

People say that my father and I are just alike. This is the highest form of compliment anyone has ever given me because I can't think of a better person on this earth. If anyone ever dares to say differently, I will gladly put them in their place. 

Daddy, I am so proud to call you my father and even prouder for Mason to have you as a Paw Paw. We thank you for sticking with us women even when we grossed you out with our unladylike actions, foul conversations (talking to you two again, Sarah and Sydney), when we made your hair fall out (still sticking with that one?), our drama, all the "Daddy"s in our innocent voice that will most likely result in you doing something that you don't want to do for us, helping us get on our feet, and all the other trials we have put you through. And as a 'thank you' to you, we will make sure to find you a good home when it's time and then tell the docs that "a bullet's a nickel" when dealing with all your expensive old-people meds. We love you to the moon and back, Grumpy Man!

I know what you're thinking. And yes, it only takes getting your face broken twice to get the face of perfection. Dad, it should be illegal for us to look this good. 

A One Month Catch Up

Hey, two blogs in two weeks! WOOT WOOT!! I am on it! Should I try two blogs in one week???? Let's not get crazy, friends! Get ready for the longest blog of your life a long one! I'm going to attempt to do a brief summary of the things that we have done in the past month and catching everyone up.

We'll start with Mother's Day. That week, I worked SO hard on my Mother's Day gifts and ended up hating every one of them. I was thinking about making something from the heart instead of buying something this year as a sentimental gesture and since my weekly allowance is usually spent by Day 2 (I need a raise Joshy!!). Having that said, I thought it would be nice to make the picture plant pot holders. It was easy, but then I can't figure out what went wrong because the paint and glue started bubbling. And that's why I hate them. But here are the pics anyways:

This one was for Grannie. I put a pic of her and Mase on one side and his handprint on the other side. I had made 2 other pots for the grandparents. Those had collages of the grandchildren on them. When all else fails, stick with something about the grandkids. You can't go wrong.

That weekend we went to Hickory to spend the weekend with the Kellers. Here are some pics of our weekend there:

Grandma Debbie & Pop Pops just got done redoing their kitchen/bathroom/laundry area. For their bathroom, they wanted the kids to paint them a picture to hang.

Of course the child tries to eat it. 

Redneck bathtub anyone?

On Saturday we went over to Aunt Leah & Uncle David's new swimming pool.

Skipping around, Joshy and I spent our first weekend away from Mase at a wedding in Mocksville, NC. Although we missed our little guy, we had a blast! Congrats to Hill & Keely Hudson!!

Yes, I'm skipping around. Whoops! Mase also had his first adventure to Carowinds in the month of May. I know this may come as a shock but he LOVED all the rides he was able to go on. Seriously, he cried when he had to get off of them. Can you say daredevil??

Flashing forward to June, here is our little guy climbing under the table. He loves to climb over the table part underneath but he kept pausing and putting his head on the floor like he was watching his legs on the other side. Silly kid!

This is him playing in bed and not sleeping. 

Sunday we went to my friend Rachel's house to do some wedding planning and for Mase to meet Baby Kayden. Isn't she so cute?!

 One day this week Mason and Grannie went over to her youngest son's house. While they were there, they took the opportunity to take family pictures with Mase in them. These just crack me up!! Be careful, if he's in the family photos then that means you have to keep him!!

Here are some more random videos that we have taken this and last month:

Swimming at the pool. My kid would be playing with the hose. 

Daddy was letting Mase play with the mirror and he kept giving himself kisses or staring at himself. He definitely gets this from his father. 

Again with the climbing

BLAHAHAHAHA!! This just makes me laugh. The day before this he did something SO hilarious that I still kick myself for not having my camera ready. Josh and I were nowhere near him when he crawled to the end of the foot stool and jumped off of it like he was doing a belly flop in the pool. Thank goodness Josh had just put pillows down or else it could have been bad! It was hilarious!

Try watching this without at least smiling

Jumping off the side of the pool

Swimming with Grannie (& Dundee)

We got this new floatie for Mase to use at the pool. Whenever it is not in the pool he loves bouncing on it all the time, ha!

Okay kids. I know I missed 854309859453 things that happened last night but that's all I have tonight! Now that we are caught up, I'm looking forward to blogging on time in the next couple of weeks! Fingers crossed! Happy Hump Day! 

11 Months Old

So I'm going to save my excuses for not being on in a month. All I can say is: sorry bout it! I will post a 1 month round up at some point but I wanted to get this one out of the way before another month goes by. Can you believe Mase is 11 months old today??? I CANNOT! Time has just flown by with my little guy! We have had a lot of updates so I'm going to get right into it after these short cute pics of my big boy:

As you can see, he hates me he won't sit still long enough to let me get a good one!

Weight/Length: Not a clue. We're thinking somewhere around 25 lbs? Considering he is now in 18 month clothing, it's safe to say he is extremely tall! His 12 month clothing still fit but they always ride up his belly and legs.

Sleep: We've been having a little bit of trouble lately. Mase has always gone to bed around 8. Sometimes if he naps later then we will hold him off until around 8:30 pm to lay him down. Lately he has started crying out in the middle of the night. Most of the time he is dreaming but about one time every other week he will be awake crying. We have been really good about staying strong and not going in there because we have found if we do the end result is the same which consists of him screaming it out anyways. After about 3 minutes he will fall back asleep. He usually sleeps until around 5-6 am then he wakes up for an early morning bottle. He has always done this. I can only think of a couple of occasions where he has slept through the night until 8:30 am or so. At this point we give him a bottle, change his diaper, and lay him back down. He will usually finish the bottle, play for a few minutes, then go back to sleep until 8:15 or when I have to wake him up to leave for work.

At our 9 month appointment the doctor gave us the okay to give him whole milk. Since then we have been working on adding it in. However, this week we are starting to wean him off of the formula. Granny (Ms. Dawn) gave us a great tip of giving him milk in his sippy cup at his 6:00 am feeding because a lot of times when they realize it isn't the formula bottle, then they don't want it. We tried this Tuesday morning and he didn't even drink it. He just looked at it then went straight back to sleep. This morning when he woke up, he looked like he was playing in his crib but was whining every few minutes. So I put some milk in his cup and waited outside his door to see if he would go back to sleep. I should have just waited it out but I figured that the second I laid my head down on the pillow he would start screaming for a bottle/milk so I went in there to give it to him. I had not even shut the door when I head this "clunk" which sounded like something hitting the floor. The little sucker had thrown his cup out of his crib like, "Screw you Mom! You know this isn't my milk." He ended up crying it out for a few minutes then went back to sleep until 7:30. We'll see how tomorrow goes..

Wish me luck with this. I'll keep you updated!

Feeding: Can I please tell you that this child is going to eat me out of house and home? I am not exaggerating. Granny took him out to eat breakfast with Mrs. Laura this week and she reported to me that he ate 2 whole biscuits with gravy, a cup of grapes, and 6 pieces of sausage. Then he ate another huge meal at lunch too. We went out to dinner the other night where he ate 4 of the biggest strawberries I have ever seen, 3 big chicken strips, fries, and some of my pasta. Where does he put it??? Need more proof? Watch this video for yourself:

He ate the.entire.thing. Don't believe me??

Don't worry, his friend Jayda cleaned hers too!

Firsts/Developments: I'm lumping these together because at this point it's basically the same thing. Get ready friends, there are A LOT! You know I love having my camera out for everything so I will show you most of them.

Mason's new favorite game is to chase/run. We will walk like we're going into another room and if he's not paying attention we will call for him while we hide behind an object (usually a fridge or bookshelf). When he comes around the corner we pretend to chase him and he will turn around booking it the other way. Sometimes he will even chase you then book it when you turn around. Like, so:

He also is obsessed with climbing things. He climbs the stairs, pillows, couches, his car, furniture, baby gates, people, everything. If it's something that he can climb on or over he will do it. I swear he gave Grandma Debbie a heart attack when we went to visit because he climbed from the ottoman to the chair, over the arm rest of the chair onto a table, from the table to the couch, from the couch to another table, then turned around and wanted to head back! I will add that part of the heart attack comes from him climbing head first into everything. I'm pretty sure he needs a helmet. See below:

Josh was trying to tap him on the shoulder to ask what he was doing but M kept ignoring him. This kid is hilar.

M is now more comfortable with standing on his own. In the beginning it's like he didn't know what he was doing and would immediately sink back to the floor if he saw that he was standing. Having that said, he is now starting to take a few steps here and there. Look at this big boy!!

And with the walking.. here comes this....

Mother of the Year right here! Yes, he is fine. He only cried for a minute... or so.

As you have seen in previous pictures, we have this little push car that Mase loves to ride in. But he really likes the steering wheel. Since we don't have a long street and Granny does, I decided to let Mase drive one morning when we got in here neighborhood:

Multi-tasking at its finest. We were literally going 3 mph - calm down Mi Mi!

He's mastered the "driving with your eyes closed"

Great. He drives like his father. Eyes are everywhere but on the road.

Here lately he is obsessed with blowing air out of his mouth/making fart noises. If you do it to him he thinks it's hilarious too!

Since it has been so warm out, we have been LIVING at the pool. Granny takes him over a lot during the week, too. He has learned how to kick his feet, blow bubbles, and slowly swimming to the sides of the pool: 

Granny has also taught him to "roll over", ha! Our little puppy boy!

We are currently working on "blowing kisses."

And then there's the "clap"/"big clap" - he LOVES doing this. Every time he does something good or he hears "good job" he will start doing this =cutest.

Special thanks to Nae Nae for getting this CUTE outfit for me. 

We got this one yesterday where he is pushing the car by himself:

His favorite thing to do here lately is to throw things. (Sigh) He throws food, toys, sippy cup, pacifiers, his Bear he sleeps with, rocks, grass, everything! Just this week he would throw things just to watch them fall. Yesterday we watched him throw almost all of his toys over his baby-gate into the kitchen. Then he cried because he decided he wanted them. I know what you're thinking: left or right arm? Both. I guess it's still up in the air!

**Side note for this next part: You know how kids will test you? Mase is the KING of this. If he knows he's not supposed to do something, he will pretend like he's doing something else just to make sure you're watching. He is constantly pushing the lines. For instance, he knows he's not allowed to climb on the stairs. However, he will crawl over in the direction of the stairs and pretend like he's interested in something over there - like playing in the dirt or something so silly that we know will not occupy his time - and slowly inch his way toward the bottom stair. Then he'll casually put his hands around the stairs for a few seconds before putting one hand on one of them. When he tell him "no" he looks at us like, "what?? I'm not doing anything!" Or another one of my favorites is he will play around the stairs and pretend like he's using the higher stair as a prop to pull himself up, wait a few seconds to see if he can get away with it, then start climbing on them. This kid!**<-- End of longest.side.note.EVER.

Back to throwing. I have to tell you about the phone call I got from Granny on Friday telling me what this rotten child did. You know those moments where kids do something they shouldn't but it's so funny/unexpected you're at a loss for words or you just end up laughing instead of disciplining? It happens to me often. This was one of these moments. You see these angels??

Notice the flip flops beside the angels.

Mason knows he is not allowed to touch them. Granny said that he started crawling over there towards them. When he got over to the angels, he stuck out his hand to touch one and Granny said, "Mason" in a stern voice. Well he did this a few more times then crawled a few feet away to pretend like he was playing with a sandal nearby. A minute later, with one sandal in hand, he crawled back over to the angels. He then proceeded to put his hand over towards an angel when Granny said, "Mason, no!" As soon as he heard "no!" he threw the sandal he was holding into the angels and looked at Granny with a half grin like he was saying, "I'll show you old lady!" Then he immediately booked it over to the trash can across the room. REALLY child?? I agree with Granny, sometimes you just can't help but laugh. What was the most important thing of this story? He threw it with his left hand, ha! This kid is hilar, I tell you. 

Mase is doing something new every day. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff but that's what next month is for, right??

Likes: he still loves eating rocks, eating in general, bath time, throwing, swimming, I swear he likes pooping since he does it 843290483 times a day, sleeping, throwing temper tantrums, climbing, giggling, chasing, playing peek-a-boo, clapping, waving, everything. He's really a great kid and very easy! We are so spoiled ;-)

Dislikes: putting on sunscreen, being hungry (which is all the time), changing his diaper, putting on clothes (as you can tell since he never has any on in the pics I post), being told "no". 

What I'm Thankful For: the life I have. For those of you that know me, you know I stress/worry about things. Lately, I've been stepping back to be grateful for everything that God has given us because He has given us SO much. Would it be nice if money trees existed? Yes and I am still hunting for the person that told me that this was real when I was younger and you will get the beating of your life when I find you. Would it be nice to have a bigger house? Yes. A new car? Yes. Be able to take a pee (or poop) in peace without my child coming in, climbing all over me, or banging on the door (this includes my husband asking what I am doing as well. I mean, really, I'm in the bathroom. Can a woman take a poop in peace???)? Yes. Spend more time with my kid? Absolutely. These things would be nice but I realized that God has given me a great husband, the best kid in the world, family, friends, a job, and SO much more. He has given me everything I need. For that I am beyond thankful. 

What I'm Looking Forward To: Mase's first birthday coming up! WOOT WOOT! With that, Uncle Tracy is coming in for it, YAYYYY!!! We're having his birthday party the Saturday before his birthday then we're spending his birthday weekend in Hickory having a weekend party!!! SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES!! Then there is nothing on our plate and I plan to keep it that way ;-) 

Next Appointment: Monday, July 7th

Well friends, I am off! I will try to write something again soon! Happy Friday Eve!