Mason, my sweet son!

 I have been meaning to write this post for a long time, since we went camping in the summer actually. Life got hectic and busy and it got put off, and now I have continued to put it off as I haven't known if I could actually capture my sweet little boy's personality with my words, however he's past 18months now and due for an update so I am going to try. For spending as much time as he does wearing a dress, a crown, a pink headband, and playing with barbies, he really is such a little BOY! I must say I am shocked at how much it is obviously nature that shapes little boys, cuz if it was nurture he would be far more interested in princess games and would do far less crashing and banging!

He also loves wearing my six inch heals, and can walk pretty good in them too!

Mason really is the cutest boy you will ever meet, lol, I know all moms say that about their kids, so those with boys are welcome to disagree, but he is the cutest, both in looks and personality. I know God gave me this little sweet heart to ease my fears of raising a boy, and to show me just how much fun they can be. I really had never thought about having a boy, or what they were like to raise, never planned on having one really, haha, like I had any say, so when Mason came I was a little surprised and terrified. I can see though now, that God didn't just randomly decide for me to have a boy, he chose Mason, just for us, and he gave me a little sweet heart that will be such a blessing to our family. He is teaching me how much fun little boys can be, and I am sure that in the teenage years I will be thanking God everyday for the extra dose of testosterone in the house, instead of another bought of estrogen, haha. People were always asking me if I noticed a difference between Mason and the girls. For a long time I wasn't really sure, all of the girls had such different personalities that it was hard for me to judge whether the differences I had noticed were gender based or just personality. This summer however, while camping, I really began to see the difference in Mason and the girls! He would follow his dad everywhere we went, this is also something the girls would do, however, they were in it for relationship, for spending time with dad. Mason I am sure enjoyed this too, but his main focus was to be like dad, he would copy Michael and do whatever Michael was doing. His favourite activity camping was to help with the firewood. When Michael would chop a block of wood, Mason would bring him the next chunk to chop, he even found himself a play axe and would cut his own firewood. If we weren't careful he would try and use Michael's axe too. He is so like his daddy already, always wanting to help out, quick to watch and learn. If there is a bag of garbage sitting on the floor he will grab it and start dragging it to the back door, he loves to help unload the dishwasher, and even knows where everything goes. He has the cutest expressions, and will give you the funniest little wrinkled nose grin when he's being silly. When he wants something he just comes over, pats your leg and grunts, and if you take too long to figure it out he starts hitting harder and grunting more urgently.

Helping to rearrange our campsite

Loading up the wagon for campfire

setting up the wood to be chopped

cutting firewood on his own :)

He's spent a lot of time watching daddy :) (it's empty btw)

The other difference I have noticed is that he's so rough and noisy! My girls are loud too, and they never stop talking, but Mason's noises are different. He's always doing sound effects and crashing and banging things. He finds the nosiest truck in our house and drives as fast as he can with it, then runs it into the walls, or doors, repeatedly. If the girls ran into things it was an accident and only happened once, but not him, it's like the crash is the goal of driving a truck! When he isn't crashing into doors he tries to run over his sisters and thinks it's hilarious when they run away squealing. Everything is a hammer and can be used to bang and make noise, kitchen utensils, barbies, etc. I have also seen him steal my cookie press and use it as a gun to shoot Bella with. I can't get over how little boys can turn things into guns, especially when he's surrounded by girls!

This is the noisy truck that he chases the girls with, it is so loud!!

The farm is Mason's favourite place in the world. He loves it down there, and would spend everyday with Michael if he could. When we come home from town he will yell at me and point to the barns if I head straight for our house instead of driving to the farm. The girls have always loved hanging out at the barn too, but it's different with Mason. The girls enjoyed it when we were there, but out of sight out of mind, Mason on the other hand, is always asking about the cows and making mooing noises or chicken sounds. He follows along and tries to help, and gets so upset when it's time to go home. He also loves the quad, and gets so excited when he gets to go on a ride that he squeals and dances and jumps up and down then runs to the door to find his boots and coat. It has happened more then once where he has misheard "car ride" as "quad ride" and has been very devastated when he realized he was being buckled into the car seat instead of the quad. 

The only way I could get him to smile for his photo shoot was to sit him on the quad, the picture at the top of the post was taken with him on the quad, and we only got a smile by promising him he could have a ride!

Mason has the goofiest sense of humour, and thinks it's hilarious to pretend to be a baby, or to wear a dress and have the girls push him in their stroller, he even pretends to cry for them. He is a total showoff and will do almost anything to get a laugh. Sometimes he is sweet and gentle with the girls and snuggles in for cartoons, other times he just loves to make them mad by turning off the TV and running away giggling while they yell at him. He loves to cause trouble and has even started to groan when he's done something bad because that's what I usually do when I catch him. He's just so full of mischief it's hard to keep up with at times, which has earned him the nickname turd! He's daring and will climb on everything! He's fallen off our table chairs, the table itself, the playground in the yard, and a million other things, but he still keeps climbing, and now he's starting to think about jumping off these things! He figured out how to make it to the top of our big playground set this summer, long before the girls would have done it, and just hurls himself down the slide. He doesn't care if he's head first, backwards, or right way around, he just flings himself down giggling all the way.

He is quick to get into the flour if the pantry is left open!

showing off for his sisters

showing off again ;)

In all of this Mason has truly blessed me, he's such a cutie and I love my snuggles with him. He has to be able to play with my hair when he wants, especially if he's tired, and gets quite upset when it's up if I won't take it out for him to run his hands through. He does break my heart a little too when I watch him doing his quirky little things. I know what a kick Don would have gotten out of him. Sometimes when Mason does something I actually hear Don laughing the way he always did when we told him a story about something silly the kids would do. I really miss talking with him about the kids, and especially the joy he always showed when they were around! Don really would have loved watching the way Mason loves being at the barns or the way he chases the girls with that big dump truck they got him for his birthday. I am so sad that we won't get  a picture of the two of them in their Harley gear and their biker jackets, but Mason wears them in grandpa's memory, and we will need to be satisfied with that.

Grandpa and Mason at his first birthday!

There is so much more I could say, and I know this post doesn't even come close to capturing my little son, and the joy he brings us, but hopefully it will be enough to remind me in the years to come what his little personality was like.

This is the goofy smile he gives when he gets caught doing something wrong!

His first time on the big boy swings!

more being silly!

hiking with daddy around the campground

showing off again!

our little rock star