Move over A-Rod!

This little guy is prepping for his T-ball season!

Guess we're just not meant to be swimmers...

Mason failed his first level swimming lessons...again!!!
I have to admit, part of me knew it (this is the fourth time afterall) but after seeing him today doing his "bobs" I got pretty excited and really thought he had a chance.

Unfortunately today didn't count and he will be doing the same lessons all over again..for the fifth time. Well I guess we could look at the bright side and hope that the fifth time is a charm?

His teacher did say some really nice encouraging things about him though. I hope he gets the same instructor next lesson because they work really well together.

Now that he's asleep...

I have a snail dilemma but I think I figured it out on my own. I really need to know if this is a good idea and how long I can keep it on for...

Mason is obsessed with snails. The kid would let them sleep in his bed and slime all over him if he could. After having a snail fiasco this weekend where he a) forgot to close the lid on his snail catcher and b) snuck the same into the house where the snails all escaped and climbed all over his walls...I have to say I'm a little grossed out by his latest obsession.

I talked him into taking all the snails back to the garden....or so I thought. Reading e-mails, I look over my shoulder and what do I see sitting on the step? A stray snail. I ordered him to take it outside right away, but after tears and arguing he got his way again and now the snail is looking at me from inside the diego bug catcher...he looks so sad and pathetic.

I hate keeping little animals trapped in an environment that is so not suitable. I did look up how to keep a snail as a pet but found it to be a bit of a strange thing so I have decided this.

Everytime I can sneak the snail away I will take him out and trade him for a newer snail, that way the snails don't have to suffer. The most they will spend in captivity is approximately 24 hours. Not so bad for a snail I would think? Not like they can travel that far in 24 hours anyway!! ;)

Weekend in the sun...

We had a really nice weekend. We spent most of the time outside. I'm really glad we did because today it feels like winter again.

My mom and my aunt came to visit and we pretty much just visited and did some gardening and Mason showed off all his outdoor toys.

Now that it's Monday it's dreary and cold and we both have colds and sore throats. Ohh I wish it were the weekend again.

In my opinion...

The flowers in my garden are the prettiest. I tell them that all the time to make them grow up real nice!

Three long years...

Every year on this date I try to write down what I am feeling so I can go back and compare to how I was feeling the year before. I can look back and see how things were looking 1 year past, 2 years past and now 3 years. This year it was a lot harder to write. I'm not so sure if that means things are blowing over, that I'm forgetting everything happened or if I am just forgetting him.

I do know that this year is the first year that I haven't felt as angry or resentful towards other people. I still have my moments, I'm not going to lie, I get very jealous and get this hate on for people when things are going good for them because something so terrible has happened to us and sometimes I feel that more good things should be happening to make up for it.

This past year has been a little difficult because it was the first year that Mason noticed that he didn't have a dad like the other kids. It's been very hard to explain that he does have a dad when he is not here physically, but we're working on it. In fact, that is the theme of this year's letter. Even though he is not here physically, we still have our memories. Unfortunately for Mason that is pretty much limited to the first 15 months of his life so it is very important for everybody that knew his dad to share all they can with him.

When I thought of keeping someone's memories, I thought of a poem that has become pretty popular in movies and TV shows lately but still pretty deep and beautiful... (I'm really not one for poetry but this one really stands out...)

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)

I am never without it (anywhere I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling).

I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)

I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you.

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart.

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart).

-ee cummings.

Usually on this day Mason and I will do something special and we usually end up at the cemetary. I think we skipped going there last year for some reason, but this year we were there. Mason is really starting to understand what has happened. He still did ask some pretty outrageous questions (is my dad coming out [of the ground] soon? Is my dad at the hospital? Is he staying down there because he is cold?) but he really does have this sad understanding part of him that comes out every once in a while. Today that showed when he turned around and said "bye dad...I love you forever and ever" and then asked if we could go back on Saturday to see his dad again.

Still working on the full sun thing...

Squint much?

Mean Vs. Nice of nature....

(mean.)

(Nice.)

Another year...

(Top left -clockwise: 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 - Storybook Gardens London, Ontario)

The fire drill...

It's swimming lesson day (oh joy..) and for some reason today Mason just wouldn't listen. I got tired of him swimming away and not listening so I was the crazy mom who opened the door and yelled at her kid to get listening or else he's out of the pool....someone had to do it, right?

Just then the fire alarm went off. All the swimming instructors looked around like they just got hit with the stupid stick saying over and over again how this never happens. I always think that If I were to be in a fire I would be the dumb one who goes back to get all her things. It would be wait I forgot my camera, all my pictures, wait I forgot my iPod, wait the cat is in there, don't forget the lizards and the fish, my bear, that pair of underwear that I really really like... yeah that would probably be me.

I thought about scooping up my kid and making my way to the closest exit but then I remembered that my cellphone and my iPod were in my coat pocket in the locker room. I would have to take him outside, find someone to leave him with and go back for my precious phone and iPod.

Who am I kidding?? If I had even sensed a bit of smoke in that building I would be doing a George Costanza. I would want to say that I would help old people and stuff but to be honest I think I would be like this....

Just wrong...

The plan was all set. Mason would play and run around at the park and I would chase him around with the camera bossing him around (he loves it...really). We got to the park and I realized I had forgotten the camera card in my computer. Great....and for some reason I haven't put a back-up card in my camera case (even though I have 3!).

Is it bad that I desperately wanted to go home at that point?? I felt so...naked being at the park without my camera. What happened to having fun at the park?

Happy Birthday Dawson

I can't believe it's been three years already!

We had a great time, thanks for having us at your party!

Dear Mason...

I am so sorry I spoke with the bus driver for 4 minutes this morning. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings for not speaking with you on the way to daycare. I also apologize for making you say holy cow over and over again as I was speaking with the nice bus driver. I did apologize in person after the fact when you pointed out to me that you had to say holy cow over and over the whole bus ride and I truly am sorry.

Love,

Your mom.

How thoughtful...

Oh to live in a day and age when your 4-year-old shouts across the busy McDonald's Restaurant "Don't worry mom, nobody will steal me" when you leave the table to pick up your order. The best part...I think he's right, with a mouth like that they would bring him back pretty quickly! ;)

Adding to my wish list....

...because sometimes you want a chair that you can sit back in and say "Just Phuket"

I got a billion of these...

Mr. "fishlips" trying to blow a bubble...I probably have a billion of these pictures on my card right now. It was just too funny the way his face went when he blew the bubbles.

A boy and his bus...

It's amazing how such a simple toy as a little metal school bus can make a kid so happy.

He's a growing boy...

Here is Mason playing on the climber/slide that I bought him when he was just a little guy. Although you can't see much of the slide at all, I just really liked the picture!

If you look closely though you can see that he is now officially as tall as the climber/slide so it has to go. $25 is a good price I would think but I'm getting a lot of low offers....go figure. I will be kind of sad to see it go, it has been a nice addition to the backyard for a few years now.

Something I need to work on...

Shooting in full sun!!! Arrrgh I forgot how hard it is :/

Mommy don't leave me!

Mason is going through a phase where he doesn't want to walk down the street unless he's holding my hand. Sometimes I look at him with his little grubby hands outstretched toward me waiting to be held and begin to imagine what kind of dirt and how many germs are living on that little grubby hand of his.

For some reason I hesitate....until he says "Mommy, don't leave me or I will get run over by a car on that road". How could you NOT grab that little grubby hand when he puts it that way!

Cousins

Mason loved having his cousin Xander over on Saturday for a visit...except when Xander made lots of noise and hurt Mason's "hearing".

The big park...

For some reason, Mason thinks going to the big park is going to be part of our everyday routine. He has asked about 10 people today if they want to come to the big park with us tomorrow.

Sometimes kids are funny...

While raking the front yard today I found a dead (half skeletonized) mouse. Worried about how Mason would react to something that had been so decomposed, I tried to hide it from him. He was too quick and saw me trying to hide something and was very curious.

I had to explain to him that the mouse had died and that he went to mouse heaven...

His reaction: Can I colour on it with my chalk?

Look what I found...

I thought these pictures were lost forever...so glad I found that back-up CD that was missing (I think). Mason's new word of the day...ENORMOUS. Huh...fits well with this picture I think !

Quite possibly...

The first people at the ghetto park this spring!

(taken with my Sony P&S *gasp*)

Not the greatest right??

But check out what the pole says!! It says Mason...someone scratched that in there and I didn't even notice until I got home and started editing the pics.

I swear I didn't do that!!! Even stranger is that it snuck into our pictures! Straaaaaaaaaaange!