Walk with the Animals for Caleb

On Saturday we went to the Milwaukee Zoo for the Blood Center of WI - Walk with the animals. Caleb, our friend Luke and Bev's son has von Wildebrants - a type of blood disorder. So we all walked to help raise money for the Blood Center.

We had a great time at the zoo and it wiped Mason so he slept almost all afternoon!

Bev, Caleb, me and Mason.


A slightly better picture if Mason wasn't grabbing Caleb!


Mason loves the "big cats". I think he likes them so much because they are larger and come up so close to the window.

Mason and Karlie eating lunch together!

Being shy... and cute!

Mason and Dad.

1st pair of shoes!

Mason is officially walking now!! (As of last week.) So it was time for his official first pair of shoes! He wore them to daycare last Monday and when I put them on in the morning he was soo excited! He kept picking up his feet to look at them and was bouncing up and down.

I tried to get a few pictures of him, but this was the best I could do - he doesn't stand still for very long these days!


(Yes, this one is pretty blurry, but it was the best one I could get so I couldn't bring myself to delete it!)


Man on a mission.... towards the blinds...

Mason's house

Mason loves his play house and it provides hours of entertainment for him, opening and closing the door - over and over and over again!

Go Packers!

Mason tried to cheer the Pack on for a win last weekend, but it didn't quite happen. He did enjoy playing with Uncle Neil's football though... another ball to add to his birthday list :)

Who needs toys?

Mason loves to walk around and will use anything he can to push to get around the house. If his walker isn't handy - he'll find anything he can to get around. We think it's pretty darn funny seeing him push the laundry baskets around the house!



He's getting very close to walking on his own - he's up to about 10 steps that he can take before he gets too excited and falls down. He's also starting to take off on his own when Mom and Dad aren't watching... it won't be long!

Daycare

Mason's babysitter had her baby almost a month ago now, so Mason's been at the Daycare at my work. It was a little rough in the beginning - some missed feedings and not very much napping. But I think it is getting a little bit better. He's interacting with 7 other kids from 7 months to 22 months old. In the beginning Mason was "that" kid - stealing everyone else's Nuk's :) But hopefully he's making new friends and learning how play well with others.

We hope to send Mason there again for a couple days a week when he turns two because they offer some really great programs for the kids.

Here's a few pictures that his teachers have sent us at work:

Fantasy Football Widows

Mark had his second Fantasy Football draft on Sunday and all the wives and children got together while the guys "drafted". It was quite a crazy few hours beginning with Mason having a sweet potato explosion in the car on the way up there. So Caleb was kind enough to let Mason use his bathtub to get cleaned up! There were 6 babies there under 15 months and it was pretty wild! Mason's walker and ball were the hit of the party and everyone wanted to play with those items. Mark was still drafting at 8pm - so Mason and I headed home for bed (and to clean up the car seat from the earlier explosion!).



It was a fun, but crazy time and I hope we can get the kids together again before next year's draft! (And I hope the draft takes place during nap time next year!)

Blue Harbor

We had our annual trip to Blue Harbor in Sheboygan at the end of August with the McGrath's. It was a lot cooler than we had expected - so much cooler we had to run to Wal-Mart to get a few warmer things for Mason. It ended up working out well that it was cooler since Mason didn't really care for the beach and the sand! He did like the indoor water park - but I think we only made it there once based on Mason's and the other kids schedules. I can already imagine how much different next year is going to be!!

And he's done with the sand...

Mason in front of one of the condo's on the beach.

He loved to chase around his cousins with his walker!

Cousins

Mason was finally able to join his cousins for the annual "fence" picture at grandma and grandpa
McGrath's. He's getting so big so fast!

Mexico

Well, this blog is mostly about Mason but I thought I would post a few pictures of our trip to Mexico for Brett and Erin's wedding at the end of July. We had a fun time, but I was definitely ready to come home by the end of the trip!