Merry Christmas

Mason,

Today we celebrated your second Christmas!

For some reason, you had a hard time falling asleep on Christmas Eve, but we had to wake you on Christmas morning. We took your picture at the bottom of our steps--a tradition we started last year--before showing you the tree.

Santa left two gifts near the tree. Initially interested, you toddled over to them.

But you immediately lost interest, and took off to find your familiar books and toys, so Daddy and I opened your gifts for you.

I made goose this year for Christmas dinner, a first for our family. You're not a meat lover, but you ate it anyway. We enjoyed our meal and spending most of the day with Grammy, Grandpa, and Auntie.

Merry Christmas, Mason! Lord willing, we look forward to celebrating many more with you!

XOXO,

Mommy

holiday fun

Mason,

Grandma and Grandpa drove to DC to celebrate Christmas with us, and we had a blast doing all sorts of holiday-related activities with them.

I made Christmas cookies and you helped decorate them.

We went to National Harbor and looked at the pretty decorations at the Gaylord.

We literally chased you around the gargantuan Gaylord hotel, which resulted in a lengthy afternoon nap for you.

We admired the poinsettias and other plants at the U.S. Botanic Garden.

Then, it was off to see the trees. The Christmas tree in front of the U.S. Capitol is our favorite.

At the National Christmas Tree site, we found your home state tree: District of Columbia.

The National Christmas tree is a little chintzy, but we braved the scarce parking and massive crowds to see it anyway.

We returned to the U.S. Botanic Garden to see their famous train exhibit. It was worth the long, cold wait in line. You loved it! (We did, too! This outing seemed to be everyone's favorite and we plan to make it an annual tradition from now on.)

Grandma and Grandpa played with you and read you lots of books. They even allowed Daddy and me an escape so we could see Les Miserables when it opened on Christmas Day.

You may have met your energy match having Grammy and Grandpa around for several days. They can go and go and go, just like you can. I'm not sure who won, but I know you all had a great time trying to wear the other one out!

Love you!

Mommy

life at 15 months

Mason,

At 15 months, you are in constant motion.

What would we do without nearby parks to stroll to each day? Spending time outdoors trumps any toy you have.

You can now pick up items in the middle of the floor without grasping anything for support. You also recently learned how to stand up independently, without using people or furniture to pull yourself up. Watch out, world--Mason's fully mobile!

You were too busy to stand still for a picture when we picked out our Christmas tree over Thanksgiving weekend.

We captured you for about five seconds before you yelled to get down.

At home, after multiple attempts to take your picture in front of the tree, this was the best we could do. We adore this picture though because it perfectly captures other characteristics of life at 15 months: disobedience and temper tantrums.

Speaking of tantrums, you had a fit when Daddy passed you over to Santa Claus.

Rather than continue to cry and carry on like a baby, you instead turned your back and ignored the man in the red suit. You'll smarten up in a year or two if you continue to snub Santa.

In the last couple of weeks, you've begun making a concerted effort to talk. You're now up to about 12 words that you use in the appropriate context. Two of our favorites, besides Mama and Dada of course, are read (ree-ree) and night night (nut-nut). You also learned to sign the word please and you've begun putting two words together in sign language.

At your 15-month checkup, you weighed 23 pounds, 12 ounces and were 32 inches long. You're still in the same percentile ranges as the last couple of appointments, 25th-50th for weight and 75th for height. We're thankful for your good health and consistent growth!

Unfortunately, carsickness has begun, so your rear-facing days in the carseat are numbered. We hope, for your sake as well as our sakes, that turning your seat around will help.

Even on no-nap days, you go and go and go. Your energy knows no bounds. We suspect you get these traits from Mama, and the two of you compete with each other every day to see who can wear out the other one first. You win a lot, but Mommy's a pretty good match for you. Daddy recently acknowledged how exhausting it was for the two most important people in his life to need such little down time.:)

Through these stages of running, talking, kissing, discovering, learning, disobeying, throwing fits, getting into everything, and destroying most things in sight, you continue to be the light of our lives. We love you, sweet Mason!

XOXO,

Mommy and Daddy