Sweet, sweet brothers

I always knew Logan was going to be a great big brother.  He is such a sweet, sensitive caring soul. So when Mason came along, he was smitten from the start.  Like obsessed with baby Mason or "Buggie" as we call him. He always wanted to get him his bottle, pacifier or just wanting to kiss him.

 When Mason started to crawl at about 9 months, he also started to follow big brother around.  Logan was so excited to show him new things and play with him.  Around Mason's first birthday he learned to wave bye, clap, and throw balls (he loves any kind of ball, maybe we have a future athlete?) and Logan thought this was the best thing ever.  They "wrestle" together and Logan can ALWAYS make Mason laugh, especially when Mason is throwing one of his temper tantrums, which are more and more frequent these days. Everyday when I drop Mason off in his class first, Logan has to get Buggie a toy and give him a kiss on his head and a wave goodbye before he goes to his class.

Logan will always run to Mason to try and get him to calm down or give him a toy, or food,  Food normally works to calm him down.  Ha! Logan always wants to "match" Mason if they have clothes or jammies that are the same, he loves it.  I told him the other day:
Me: Logan, you have to always protect Mason ok?
Logan: Ok mommy, if someone is mean to Buggie, I am going to kick them in the face!
Wow, ok buddy didn't mean for it to be that violent but you get the picture, he loves his baby brother.

I picked Logan up from school yesterday and his teacher said she witnessed the sweetest thing between Logan and Mason. Out on the playground, a little boy made Logan cry (this is very out of character for him) and he was inside a playhouse crying.  Mason heard him from the other side of the playground and crawled (yes, still no walking yet) over to the fence and put his little hand through to reach out to his big brother.  They sat and held hands and Mason calmed Logan down.  His teacher said they sat like that for a good 10 minutes.  My heart overflowed.
I have such a big love for these boys and my heart is so happy they have that same love for each other.  Not all the time.  Sometimes Mason will hit Logan or Logan will get annoyed with Mason. But they will have that brotherhood bond their whole life.  I just love these sweet, sweet brothers.

Kid-less Austin getaway and a sick baby

This past weekend my friend's Heather and Henry (getting married in March) were having a couple's shower in Austin.  Mason is 13 months old (ironically same exact age Logan was when we first left him overnight) and Mommy and Daddy had not had an overnight stay in over 2 years.  Being a parent is amazing, but sometimes, we deserve a night out with no responsibilities.
We went over to my parents house on Friday and Mason was being so good and playing like he always does.  Saturday morning we headed out and Mason still seemed fine.

This was a picture of him before we left, still his happy little self! 

On our way! 

We headed out of town and stopped and ate at a diner and had the best pulled pork tacos I have ever eaten! We got into Austin and were just hanging out catching up at my friend's house.  They have a sweet chubby cheek 4 month old named Danica and I definitely got my baby fix!

We got a call around 4pm that Mason had fever and had thrown up a few times.  So the first night we leave him, he gets sick, go figure! Well he got plenty of snuggles from my mom and the next day we picked the boys up and they were fine.  Mason obviously had a virus, but nothing we could have done about it, so we stayed and went to the shower. It was really fun (well I tried to have fun considering I knew my baby was sick!) and I only got one picture from the shower, and it was not even with the bride to be! Oh well.  I got to catch up with lots of friends and have some adult conversation.

It was a "House divided becomes a House United" theme so everyone was in UT gear or Aggie gear. The bride went to Texas A&M and the groom went to that other school. :) The guy in the middle of the picture is my best friend that we have been friends for over 15 years and it was great to catch up with him and his wife and meet his sweet baby girl.

We made it home the next day and Mason seemed miserable.  Took him in to the doctor on Monday and she just said he had a virus.  So he stayed at home with Mommy on Monday and Tuesday and got LOTS of snuggles and kisses.  He still isn't 100% but seems to be on the mend.

 

Poor baby, fell asleep on his lunch. 

It is nice to have a night once in a while but oh how I miss these boys! 

That one time we went to Santa's Wonderland....

Most people know how I feel about Santa's Wonderland.  WAYYYYY overpriced.  I could think of so may things my family could do (or a bill I could pay, buy the boys new clothes, groceries...) for just the price of admittance into Santa's Wonderland. It also makes me sad to think about the families that would love to go and have a good time but just cannot afford it.  We were thinking about going to the Lights of Tejas this year since it seems way more family/price friendly.  They also have a "pay what you can" night and I think that is very generous since it is Christmas and everyone is already broke.

I told Bryan the ONLY way I would ever go is if we got free tickets somehow.  Well, we actually did.  We have a very close friend's dad who works for Appel Ford in Brenham that donates all the trucks for the hayride so he was able to get us tickets.

I thought if we got free tickets we can pay to park, so we spent $15 to park. Which you have to do online in advance and have to pick your time slot.  Lots of folks driving up did not know this and they had to turn around.  
We walked into Santa's Wonderland at 5pm.  It was crazy.  SOOOO many people.  I do not do well in crowds so I was already starting to feel itchy.  Logan wanted top ride the train (and it was free) so we did that first.  Then we found out how long the wait for Santa would be (3 hours...holy moly) so we decided to skip that.  Cue meltdown from Logan.  This will be a reoccurring theme as the night goes on. 
I thought that we better stand in line for the hayride before it gets late.  Good thing we did.  We waited in line about 20 minutes (that was already too long for Logan) and by the time we were at the front it had circled all the way around (my guess would be about 45 minutes to an hour wait).  I just cannot imagine waiting that long with little ones.
We went on the hayride and yes, the lights were beautiful.  However, if you go every year, they have the same lights.  I mean, maybe they add things but I am pretty sure they are the same lights.  And the weather was ok for us but what if it is cold or rainy?  That would be terrible for people.  It was more fun to drive through with your family and look at the lights.  No getting out of the car to stand and wait in line. BUT they did away with that option to make more money because the frontage road would get backed up.
After the hayride we got off close to the bouncy houses and slides and Logan said he wanted to do that.  Great, it was free.  Slide and bounce to your heart's content.  That lasted about 15 minutes and he was done.  Off to the pony rides and petting zoo (which are not free) $5 for a 2 minute pony ride and $4 to feed animals that most of them did not want food because kids had been shoving food in their face all night. I digress. It is for the kids right? Ha.
After that, people were literally everywhere.  It was a madhouse. I just wanted to leave.  Logan saw the roasting pit where you could roast marshmallows and after I found out how much marshmallows were, I would have brought a bag of marshmallows and stuffed them in my purse.  Cue meltdown. Nope, next.
We saw the big snow globe and Logan wanted to take a picture.  We stood in line and found out you have to reserve a space and the next one was after 10pm. Sure I will be here with 2 kids on a Sunday night after 10pm.  Cue meltdown. Really?! Nope, next.
We made our way back to the front and we got to see the snow and Logan thought that was so fun.
It was getting late and with so many people, lines, whiny/hungry baby and 4 year old, we decided to head out.
All in all, I was so grateful for the free tickets.  Would I ever go back?  Not unless we got free tickets again.  If we would have paid $80 (Bryan, Logan and I--baby was free) to get in, I would have been VERY disappointed.  Not worth it at all.  We spent 4 hours there and most of it was in lines or finding out wait times were too long. But people pay it.  People go every year. We heard this couple behind us taking about that they had a 3 hour drive home. That blows my mind.

I really am not trying to sound like the Grinch here, but it would be nice if Santa's Wonderland did some sort of half price night or paired up with a charitable organization (Toys for Tots) and gave discounted tickets.  I know they need to make money since they are only open for about a month, but to me Christmas is about family.  It is about giving.  It all seems so commercialized to me.
Logan had fun, but would have been just as happy if we piled in the car, drank hot chocolate, listened to Christmas music and drove the neighborhood around looking at lights.

Santa's Wonderland, A Texas Christmas Experience. It was an experience, that is for sure.