I have a serious problem taking pictures and videos. You see, I like to live in the moment. When we are out doing something fun or my kids are being especially cute the last thing I'm thinking is, "go get the camera". I just want to enjoy what's happening instead of trying to capture it. I have been trying to take more pictures, but the forced effort makes most our pictures feel staged and unnatural. I am worse with videos. Brynn has been crawling for 5 months and walking for nearly a month and I have yet to get a good video documenting either of these milestones. I've tried a couple times, but as soon as the camera comes out the kids are right in my face, climbing all over me trying to get the camera. It doesn't make for the best footage. Today, Mason was playing with his Toy Story toys and without any prompting he went and got these little buzz and woody figures we have so Brynn could play with him. It was so fun to watch them play together. They were both so happy and Brynn was walking, jabbering, and laughing like crazy. I thought this was my chance to get a good video and ran to get the camera. Once again, as soon as the camera was out Brynn stopped playing and got whiney. This was the best clip I got of her walking, so I guess it will have to do for now. Brynn has hit the point where she is not just capable of walking, but actually prefers it over crawling. She walks the majority of the time. If she falls, she doesn't just crawl the rest of the way, she picks herself up and finishes walking. I have only posted two videos on my blog prior to this and one of those was Mason walking. I went back and watched
this video and it made me smile and laugh remembering my crazy 11-month-old boy. Once again I think these videos do a good job displaying the drastic difference in Brynn and Mason's personalities at this age. Mason was a crazy and wild little boy and Brynn is much more careful, deliberate, and of course emotional :)
There you have it. That's one milestone I have documented.
Mason went to the dentist for the first time last week. Am I late taking him? Our family dentist and pediatrician said to start at 3, but now other people are telling me they take their kids to a pediatric dentist a lot younger. I guess I don't feel too bad because Mason got an A+ for great teeth. He amazed me with how good he was to sit in the chair, open his mouth really big, and let them clean his teeth. I was so proud of him. He acted so calm and cooperative but every muscle in his arms and legs were flexed the entire time showing how nervous he really was. He was excited to show the dentist where his tooth fell out. I was glad to hear that everything looks perfect in his mouth and he shouldn't have any residual damage from his accident. The dentist did ask if Mason had any trouble talking....uhh, definitely not...because apparently he is slightly tongue tied, meaning the cord underneath his tongue attaches too close to the tip of his tongue making it difficult to form certain sounds. He doesn't seem to be having a problem but we will most likely be getting that clipped before he starts preschool. The best part is both kids got new toothbrushes which renews their excitement for brushing their teeth. Mason likes to brush his own teeth, but it's often a battle for him to let us have our turn brushing them with the "spicy (minty) big boy toothpaste". But he always caves in the end when we tell him his teeth are yellow and we need to make them sparkly white. Brynn absolutely loves us to brush her teeth. Anytime we get Mason's toothbrush out Brynn goes crazy until it's her turn. And it's a good thing since she already has 8 teeth with 2 more ready to pop through any day now. 
Quick story to explain the ugly cake. I quickly decorated the cake Sunday after church while Brynn was napping and Scott and Mason were playing downstairs. It didn't take as much time as I planned so I decided to go sneek a quick nap before we had to leave for the party. Mason wanted to come and see what I was doing and Scott didn't know I was laying down so he just sent Mason up. On his way to find me he found the cake on the counter and proceeded to lick all the frosting off the cake. I woke up and came out to find my birthday boy's face, hands, and shirt covered in black frosting and a bare cake. I can only blame myself since I had let him have at his dinosaur train cake remains after the party and I hadn't set new limits with this cake yet. I barely had any frosting left and only about 10 minutes until we needed to leave so I slapped some frosting on and called it good. Not my finest work, but a memory none-the-less. 
I asked him if he had gone potty all by himself, assuming it had just been a routine bathroom run. He hung his head as he confessed, "yeah, I got some poop on my underwear. But it's okay, I put the poop in the toilet and washed my underwear and got clean Lightning McQueen underwear on, see". He lifted his shirt to reveal a pair of clean underwear around his waist with both of his legs through one hole. The little stinker had pooped in his underwear and had tried to destroy all the evidence so he wouldn't get in trouble, and had it not been for some backward pants and a pair of soaking wet underwear on the laundry room floor, he might have gotten away with it.
This year was Mason's first official friend birthday party, and it's no surprise he wanted it to be a Dinosaur Train party. Mason has been counting down the days until his party for weeks. We made invitations that were tickets for the Dinosaur Train and delivered them to a few of his friends. 
Mason was very excited about having a train cake and I think it was better than he imagined. 
As I was getting the party started I found Mason acting out his own episode of Dinosaur Train with the cake. It was too cute to even make me care the frosting looked completely mangled by the time the guests arrived. .
I made these cardboard box trains for each of the kids to decorate with dinosaur stickers and markers to make their own dinosaur train. 
The kids loved chugging around and blowing their train whistles while hunting for hidden dinosaurs around the yard.
Mason was so distracted by all the presents waiting to be opened that he was not having fun participating in the party, so we stopped the party, opened presents, ate cake, and then played some more games in our trains. It worked out great. 
Mason's cousin, Kennedy, loves Toy Story and has introduced Mason to it. He loves playing with her Buzz and Woody toys and asked for his own Buzz and Woody for his birthday. So we gave him Toy Story toys along with Toy Story 2, which he's never seen. He carries Buzz, Woody, Bullseye, and Rex everywhere with him. Surprisingly, he has actually been excited to share them with his friends. He is finally getting old enough that he likes playing with other kids and so each person can be a character. He begged for Cannon and Kennedy to stay after the party so they could play Toy Story with him. 
Mason was genuinely so grateful for his birthday party and all of his presents. He sill keeps coming up to me and saying, "Mom, I wuved my birthday party. Thank you for my presents." He is such a sweet 3-year-old boy and I am glad he had a special day. 
Anytime there is a Jazz game on, of course Scott wants to watch it. Scott being the awesome dad he is doesn't just sit and watch the game, but has invented a game called Jazz Ball that he and Mason can play together while watching basketball games. Jazz Ball basically consists of getting on their Jazz uniforms (yes, Scott's is several sizes too small. if you know anything about the Bandits then you understand) and play around on Mason's little hoop. 
There is a lot of running, chasing, and laughing involved in Jazz ball, but the most important part of the game is every time you go in for a shot you have to say, "Jazz Ball, Jazz Ball", hence the name. Even Brynnie gets in on the action. 
Jazz Ball is a silly thing we do around our house, but I have a feeling the game will evolve as Mason and Brynn get older and some version of it will always be around our house. I'm writing this now so one day when our kids ask us where we got the game Jazz Ball from we will remember this is exactly where it all started.