Well, it finally happened. Mason has hit yet another milestone…he turned three. What was an entire year for Mason seemed like a snapshot for his parents. Does not seem like he should be three yet, but unfortunately time marches on whether we want it to or not. We have not yet had enough time to give him a proper birthday party as we have been very busy the last couple weeks. Fortunately for us, he is not quite old enough to realize that it is his birthday and what that really means. At least that what we tell ourselves as he very often surprises us with what he does know. “When did he learn to do that?!” is becoming a common phrase in our house.
For example, Laura’s niece stayed with us for a few days and she learned that if she asked Mason to “shake your butt” he would turn around, bend over and shake his rear end. Laura or I had never seen him do that before and had quite a laugh about it, which by the way, encourages him to shake his rear end every time he sees you. It’s funny at home, a little embarrassing at the store when a seasoned citizen asks him what is name is and he turns around and shakes his rear. Sigh. At least most of them find it funny.
I now have to watch what I do and say around him. He is a little sponge that soaks up nearly everything I do. One evening, I was putting a motorcycle engine back together in the garage. Of course, Mason needed to be right there with me running off with my tools to “fix” everything in the garage, just like dad. I do enjoy having him in the garage though. On one hand, Laura likes Mason spending time in the garage with me because it gives her a much needed break, on the other hand she does not like some of the things he learns. As Mason’s vocabulary continues to grow, he will repeat words that he finds interesting. Generally, the ones he likes repeating the most are the ones I shout when I drop an engine block on my fingers. With his newly discovered word, he just has to go inside and tell mom what he has learned, followed up shortly by a visit to the garage from mom. “What are you teaching him in here?”
Of all the things that Mason has learned, I think my favorite is the temper tantrum. Apparently, those are hereditary. As a child growing up, I was the master of temper tantrums, just ask my mother. I even got us kicked out of a children’s clothing store, you read right, a children’s clothing store for throwing a monumental tantrum. What can I say, I HATE shopping, just ask my wife! Anyway, Mason has been practicing his tantrums and is getting quite good at them. It started out as just crying then evolved into stomping and crying. Then one day he started his stomping and crying routine and added a special ingredient to make it perfect…throwing himself on the ground thrashing around pitching a complete fit…in the middle of Wal-Mart. Awesome. Of course I don’t put up with that kind of behavior and continue walking down the isle. This prompts him to temporarily stop, get up, run ahead of me, throw himself down again, and start all over. Growing up I frequently heard the phrase “I hope you have a child just like you someday”. Crap, that seems to be boomeranging on me.
I have enjoyed watching Mason grow and develop over the last year and look forward to see what he has is store for us in the next year. I’m sure we won’t be disappointed.
