He's 1!!!!!!!!!

Well, it's official, I have thrown my last first birthday party (at least as far as we have planned, lol). It was actually a lot of fun planning a party and decorating a cake for a boy, even though there were no princesses or fairies required. I had come across this picture of a cake when I was looking at cakes for Emme's birthday and knew that I was going to attempt it for Mason, so I was pretty excited to actually try it out. I managed to decorate his cake, wrap his gift, clean the house, and survive the party without any tears, which I know means I have just put them off until I have time to absorb the fact that I am moving out of baby mode and into the final years of toddlerhood. Oh boy, here they come, sniff, sniff. I can't believe he's ONE already, I swear this past year has gone by faster then all the others. I don't know if was because Cheyanne entered school, or because I was trying so hard to will it to slow down, but for whatever reason it seems like a blur. It doesn't seem like a year ago today I was still trying to come to terms with the fact that I was bringing a baby boy home from the hospital instead of a girl, and now I can't imagine life without this little boy. Good thing God knows best! The changes in the first year are so profound, so amazing, I don't know think there is another stage where one year makes such a difference than that of newborn to one year old. They go from this helpless little blob that can't even control their heads to talking, pointing, standing, even trying to walk. I think it is such a beautiful example of intelligent design, there's no way the universe could spontaneously create such an intricate being!

  

Mason is such a sweet heart! He cuddles just long enough to make you sigh and feel like you could sit and hold him forever, and then he lifts his head off your shoulder, looks at you, smiles with a big toothy grin and squirms down to get into mischief. Mason is a content little guy. He will just sit happily in his high chair watching the girls as they noisily run around the house. Already he enjoys wandering the house and will entertain himself for fairly long periods of time, although, if it is too long he tends to be up to something. I have found him playing in the toilet, the garbage, the girls' barbie house, our bedroom, and his favourite place, the pantry. He seems to have a radar for when a door has been left open to a room that he's not supposed to be in and manages to get himself into trouble faster than any of us realize. It is amazing to watch how different each kid is. He is so busy and active that it reminds me of Emmersen, and yet he's so laid back and content that he reminds me of my nephew Brodie. If you know either of these two, I don't think there could be more polar opposites then Emme and Brodie, and yet for some reason Mason reminds me of them both. His giggle is infectious and I love how easy it is to get him going, even after being up for hours with him in the middle of the night his giggle melts my heart, it has even made me attempt to video tape him at 2am because he was so wired. Mason has figured out how to point at what he wants and it's so cute to watch him point and coo at something, it's pretty hard to resist so he usually gets what he wants. I have a feeling he might be just a tad bit spoiled as he grows up! I have also noticed that he has started to have an opinion about what he eats and will no longer eat a healthy alternative when the rest of us are eating pizza. He has also discovered dessert and Michael and I can't get away with not sharing with him anymore while we sit and have our morning coffee together. Mason is a huge game player. He loves peek-a-boo. When we have our coffee in the living room in the morning Mason crawls over to the curtains, sits beside them and wraps them around his face popping out from behind them long enough for us to make a goofy facial expression of surprise while he sits and laughs, sometimes hard enough to knock himself over. He also can turn meal time into a game by biting the spoon hard enough so that I can't get it out of his mouth after giving him a bite or by quickly putting his hand over his mouth right before you go to put the spoon in then taking it away long enough for you to think that you can get the spoon in but he quickly puts his hand there again and giggles. Another favourite game of his is mimicking. He loves to make a goofy sound and then have us copy him, he just shrieks, and looks at us and smiles to make sure we will play with him. He has taken to dancing to music lately or to his own singing. His dance moves remind me of Stevie Wonder, he's all head and shoulders when he dances. Mason is standing on furniture and walking behind everything, sometimes he will even stand on his own for a brief second or two but I am happy to report he still isn't attempting to take steps, and doesn't show any desire to do so, nor am I encouraging him to start, lol. His crawl is quick but sometimes turns into something that looks like the way a three legged dog would move, it's hard to explain unless you see it, and I haven't managed to be quick enough to video tape it, but it is definitely unique to him, none of the girls crawled like that. He always has his tounge out, especially when he is focused on something, which is apparently a Haak thing, hehehe. The other unique thing about Mason is that he has an extra tooth, yup, his toothy grin is even toothier than it should be, good thing he's a boy, hahaha. He still doesn't sleep through the night despite the fact that every night I go to bed thinking "tonight's the night" but usually that is far from the truth, however, he has on occasion, had a night where he sleeps through or only gets up once, but the norm is two or three times, with a few nights a week that he decides to be up for three to four hours solid. At one years old he still has not spent a single night in his crib, instead he still sleeps in the ensuite bathroom. We have thought about moving him many times but the fact that he gets up so often, and Bella isn't a great sleeper has just kept us from doing it. I did try it one night and he was so freaked out about being in another bed that I ended up putting him back in the bathroom.

Over all, I don't think I can express just how much I love this little guy and that ooey gooey feeling inside I get when I hug him and squeeze him and just don't ever want to let him go. The best word that I have found to explain the warm gooshy feeling hugging your own little baby gives you comes from another language, I heard it first on my cousin Jessica's blog, the word is Gheegle it's a Filipino word that means the urge to pinch or squeeze something that is unbearably cute. That pretty much sums up the way I feel every time I look at my precious little gift from God! We love you Mason, can't wait to see the way you grow up, even though I am sad that it seems to be happening so quickly!

happy to watch life from the best seat in the house!

getting ready to go watch skating.

can you find him hiding in there?

he just crawled right in and made himself at home.

getting into the flour in the pantry.

getting a candle in your toast is a birthday tradition

at our house. Mason was pretty excited about it, and

seeings how he wasn't really getting the hang of blowing out the

candle, Michael figured we should give him a spoon to try and

knock the flame out, it didn't work.

The Birthday Boy all ready for his party. He looks all

grown up in that shirt.

The cake, it was so much fun to make!!

Michael helped out by constructing the fences for me.

Cows, pigs, and chickens, looks like the ideal farm to me!

He went for the little pig right away!

loving the icing!

He ate the cupcake so fast that we had to give him a

 little more cake while everyone else was eating theirs.

He actually did a great job opening his gifts, when his sisters

would leave him alone long enough to do it, probably the

story of his life, lol.

Future Canuck fan, and I put fan because I am hoping he

never desires to actually play hockey, fingers crossed.