It's a Boy!

Mayson was very excited to go to the doctor today because we were going to find out if she was going to have a sister or brother.  Here's a conversation from earlier in the week:
S: "Mayson, what is in mommy's tummy?"
M: "A baby."
S: "Do you think it is going to be a boy or a girl?
M: "Girl."
S: "What do you think we should name her?"
M: "Sister."

Here's a conversation from the doctor's office today:
S: "Mayson, you are going to have a brother!"
M: {silence}
S: "Mayson, are you excited, you are going to have a brother!"
M: "No."

Later tonight, she warmed up to the idea with this conversation:
S: "Mayson, mommy has a baby in her tummy and it is a boy. You are going to have a brother. Can you say brother?"
M: {Now smiling} "Brother."
S: "It's a boy!"
M: "Boy."
S: "What should we name your brother?"
M: {Pause, thinking, then smile} "Clifford." 

First Boat Ride

Our friends Melinda, Mark, and Brandon invited us out on their boat for an evening of cruising around Lake Union.  We all loved it!  We watched all of the sea planes taking off and landing on the water, checked out the yacht show, and ate a fun dinner as the sun was going down.  Mayson and Brandon took turns "driving" the boat and were waving to all the boats going by.  It was a beautiful Seattle evening. 

In the Garden

We had our first big crop in the garden with some big carrots and leafy lettuce and kale.  Mayson helped display our purple carrots when we were playing in the back yard.

First Day of School

We finally made the transition back to school and back to daycare at Angie's.  We had a little of a struggle getting in the car that first day, so our picture shows some attempt at distraction with Mayson's current favorite toy.  She is very into cars right now.  A couple of days before school we did some practice school pictures :) 

So, Mayson's back to school report card is that she might be smarter than mommy and daddy.  We're struggling a bit trying to figure out how to make her agree with us--we have a very opinionated little girl who has been enjoying saying no a lot. This little one knows what she wants and is not shy to tell us how she feels about it.  Amidst our bits of daily tantrums, she is gaining an amazing vocabulary.  When she does say yes, it is totally clear.  She will repeat any word we say, whether we intended her to hear it or not.  She is a pro at the alphabet and can continue the ABC's wherever we leave off.  She can count to twenty now (although the 10-20 is a little shaky). We've been having fun singing songs together in the car, and I love it when we wake her up in the morning and she says, "Hi Mommy, Hi Daddy!" 

At the Fair

We went to the Evergreen State Fair a few weeks ago so Mayson could see all of the animals, rides, and festivities. Grandma and Grandpa came with us and we had a great time looking at the bunnies, eating elephant ears and petting the horses.  We found a great family photo op. 

21 Months Old

Mayson turned 21 months old at the end of August before our summer shifted to September!  We have had a great summer, and one of our new favorite activities is picking blackberries in our backyard.  She also insists on walking everywhere with her stroller--thank you, Aunt Esther for the nice gift!
 It's official, Mayson has spoken her first official sentence which was, "Mo Mo, where are you?"  Soon after she added, "Bye, bye Daddy."  She's been continuing to count a lot, and we finally got her to actually say "yes," instead of a grunt we've been taking to mean yes.  We will say, that 21 months has brought some testing of boundaries, as Mayson is deciding what she wants.  We've had a couple of doozy tantrums, and if she knew we were talking about it right now she'd be even more angry. I'm just saying that we may have had to sit in the car for 30 minutes waiting for her to calm down before we could get her in the carseat after making her leave the frozen yogurt shop.  I guess I get angry leaving Fro-Yo too, so I can't blame her too much.