Swimming time

God bless kiddie pools in the summer time. Mason has had a ball in his pool this year. He's turned into our outdoor water-baby. We've made several trips to the backyard paradise and finally remembered to post some pictures from the last few. And by the way, the dogs are carried away by the large watering hole that they firmly believe is theirs.

Going, going, gone

All I can say, like mother like son.


You'll have to ask my parents for the story behind how I fell asleep in the mashed potatoes when I was a baby. As for Mason, we were having dinner. JP and I were talking about our day and started to notice our "peanut gallery" was getting quiet. And before us, we had a front-row seat for a slow-motion melting of our son. He started out with this cup as a support and half sitting up. Then when I took the cup away, he slowly melted down to the tray. Was it wrong of us to laugh?!?!?!

Second-hand nest

I've been known to decorate with all kinds of things, including bird nests. About two weeks ago, we had a dramatic storm pass through with all of the usual suspects...thunder, lightening, rain and WIND. The next morning, I noticed a birds nest that blew out of our oak tree by our back porch. So I picked up the next and placed it in our monster fern.


Fast forward a few days and much to my shock and surprise, I noticed an egg in the fern-nest. I have always been under the impression that a bird won't come near a nest if it has the scent of a human. Matter of fact I can still hear Granny instructing me "don't touch". But in spite my handling of the nest, a bird has laid an egg in that nest. Sad to say, I've not seen the bird since I've noticed the egg, but we are taking the hands-off, wait-and-see approach, just in case the egg hatches.

Father's Day came early

Meet the latest addition to our backyard. You would have thought JP won the lottery, and in all actuality he kind of did. As many know, one of the unusual perks of being a real estate agent is happening upon unique opportunities. Long story short, JP was able to trade some yard work for this pit...talk about a deal. He spent hours with his new pit and he actually cooked a pork tenderloin the night he and Clifton installed it...we ate at 9:30 that night. And talk about needing to peel him off of the ceiling...he was over-the-moon-excited. Congrats honey, I'm glad this one fell in your lap!!!

He's walking now!!!

And everything we've known to be normal is over now. Mason has been walking while holding one hand for a while now. We were at a friend's birthday party today and while walking around in the backyard, Mason just let go and started walking by himself...no tears, little fear, and not just 1 or 2 steps. He just started walking until he fell, reached up for help standing and took off again. I was taken by surprise that I just watched for 5 minutes before realizing I had the camera to catch this moment and finally started filming. He walked for the next 30 minutes. To say that we are SO PROUD would be an understatement!!