After a long long time of trying to get Mason to drink out of a straw he finally did it on his own tonight! We've been trying on and off for about a month and more rigorously over the past 2 weeks. Thanks to all the family and friends who gave us suggestions! The things that worked for us were to let Mason play with a straw, watch us use straws and have him watch as we put his orange juice into a cup with a straw in it.

As we ate dinner tonight he saw the OJ go into his cup and without really any prompting from us he started using the straw! We both had to double take and look at each other to make sure, but then we gave him some encouragement and he did it again! We kept encouraging him and he kept doing it! Now we just have to hope he keeps it up!

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Mason has recently been in a reading binge. He's always been into reading but for the past week he's really wanted to be read to and he likes to be read the same book multiple times! his 2 favorite books are

Mommy Loves Her Baby/Daddy Loves His Baby by Tara Jaye Morrow. You can find it Amazon.com, I randomly found this book on Amazon before Mason was born. It's a nice book that has something for Mums and Dads. You flip it over and read the story as the other parent. The most I've read Mason this book is 5 times in a row, different voices and rhythms, but he still doesn't get bored of it.

The other book he loves is one he got from his Auntie Kay and Uncle Richard. It's Cat Balloon by Paul Morgan. You can also get this on Amazon.com and the weird part is that our version which came from Australia has the author as Palo Morgan so I dunno if the Amazon changed his name to make him more acceptable to Americas?

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So Tues we decided to start to wean Mason off his binky. We weren't sure how easy it would be as Mason loves his binky! We didn't think we could simply ask him to trade his binky in for something he really wanted or have him throw his binky out in the garbage like my parents did to me as he has so many binkys. So we decided to have him go cold turkey, yes we're mean parents :-) And so far he hasn't really missed it, there was a couple of times Wed night where he wanted his binky in the middle of the night, but we gave him his water bottle and he was good with it. He's also stuck his fingers in his mouth, but we ask him to take them out of his mouth when we catch him and he does. So hopefully he's past the binky stage!

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This week Lien taught Mason how to pinch his nose when something smells funny. We were using it to indicate when someone farted or something smelled bad. Today Mason used that sign to tell us he pooed in his diaper! Yay!! Mason's a morning pooper and as Mason was playing in our room he got up and pinched his nose and I thought he might be telling us he pooed and lo and behold he did!

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When we first heard American Boy by Estelle feat Kanye West we thought it would be a pretty appropriate song for Mason as he is an American Boy. Now Mason loves this song too, he grooves and dances to it when he hears it in the car or at home.

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So to celebrate the 17th anniversary of our first date Lien and I decided to catch dinner and a movie, by ourselves. We asked our friends Lorna and Omz to babysit for us. Now we've gone out and left Mason with others before, but this was the first time it was with anyone, but family. Lorna and Omz are Zoe's parents and Zoe is Mason's best friend. She's a week older than him and they are playdate buddies and love to hang out together so we were pretty sure he'd do well with them. We dropped Mason off at 5ish and returned back at around 9:30ish. And what did we find when we came back? A really happy Mason! He was playing with them all in Zoe's room having a grand time. When Mason saw us he was super excited and practically jumped off the bed he was so happy to see us! Mason was great with them the whole time and now we know we can trade baby sitting times with them so more date nights for us in the future!!!

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While I was goofing around with Mason he actually walked backwards. I know weird milestone, but a milestone nonetheless. He was holding my hand and we walked through the dining room to the door to the backyard and I pretended that I bumped into the door and goofed it up. Mason thought this was funny that he wanted to see it again so while still holding hands we started to walk backwards so that we could then take another walk and he could watch me bump into the door! Cheeky monkey haha!

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We took Mason to the aquarium today. This was his 2nd trip, but first time since he started walking on his own. We went with Lorna, Omz and Zoe Vellasco. Mason had lots of fun when he could play with the water. The fish and other marine life was somewhat interesting. When he saw some of the larger fish he got a little scared when they moved toward him even though they were behind the glass, Mason's self-preservation instincts are strong haha! He liked seeing exhibits like the Jellyfish exhibit where the animals were a lot more slow moving and gentle like. He tried touching kelp, sea cucumber and starfish and they all paled in comparison to just playing with the water! We'll have to take Mason back again!

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Ok maybe he didn't learn to colour, but Lien got him his first colouring book and crayons today and he's been having a blast with it. She got him a Cars colouring book and it came with 4 crayons (blue, red, yellow and green). So far he hasn't tried to draw on the walls, but definitely on his little picnic table when he goes off the paper. He's tried to taste the crayons, but we've told him not to so we think he's learned that now.

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Mason's Mac & CHeese

Tonight Mason tried and liked Macaroni and Cheese! Another eating milestone! He's always loved fruits and veggies, carbs to some extent and proteins to a lesser extent.

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