TBT Halloween

Happy Halloween!! Check back tomorrow for Mason’s first Halloween reveal.

Gabby’s Halloween Costume from a few years ago! I thought it would help to not scare the trick or treaters. She really wanted to eat some of that candy.

 

Happy Hump Day!

Happy Wednesday!! I can’t wait for tomorrow! Mason’s first Halloween.  It is so exciting. We have been working on him wearing the glasses that I made for his costume.  We have been busy the last few weeks and I know it is about to get worse with the holidays. The next few months are crazy with Thanksgiving, Christmas, Birthdays galore!! All of our parents have birthdays coming up…I have three friends (and family) having babies.  Mason’s first birthday is coming up.  It is just going to be insane.  So on this here slow Hump Day, lets enjoy some adorable Mason pictures.

This I might have shared but it is too cute!! Charlie would bring Mason her ball and drop it and then back up and wait patiently for Mason to throw it. Who does not love doggie and baby love?!Eating everything.Walking everywhere.Come on Gabby lets break out of this joint.  Gabby is so good with Mason.  She helps him stand up, but runs away when he tries to use her to walk.We finally cut our top tooth and our attitude on life changed!! Happy Happy Happy.Dinner with Nana and Papaw.  He was high fiving everyone who would walk by and waving hi.  In the last week, waving is his new favorite thing to do and clapping.  He claps in excitement for himself.The glasses for his costume.  Got to work on leaving them on but he likes them.  I need to get a video on me putting them on him so cute and funny.  This one is for Mason’s Uncle Eric (my brother).  He loved Mason’s Hipster Aslan shirt and thought I should get a shot of Hipster Mason and Hipster Aslan.  Standing up in his crib.  I am hoping he won’t be climbing out for awhile.A rare thing…snuggling with Mama.  He rarely holds still like this.

Pumpkin Patch Weekend

We had a crazy fun weekend.  My best friend and her family (husband, 3 kids, and 2 dogs) came and stayed with us.  It was craziness but fun! It is so wonderful having her close now.  The dogs all got along, the kids all got along, and the adults drank! We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday and then watch the Razorbacks play Bama.  Some of our other friends who have a daughter the same age as my friend came over to play while the adults watched the game.  At one point we had 6 kids ages 3 and under.  Oh yeah…pure craziness, but awesome!  I can’t wait to go see their new house.  Instead of telling you all about the weekend fun, check out the pictures.

Decorating cookies…thanks Walmart!Riding PoniesWatching their brother ride the pony.Checking out the animals at the petting zoo.Petting the humans is included.  He did pet the baby goat too.Walking the corn maze.So much fun.Mason looking very excited about the maze.More pony riding.Child labor…Skye is pulling the wagon.Trying to find a pumpkin.Mason wanted this one.Family shot.Mason always interested in everyone else.Here is my attempt at getting all the kids in a photo.  Hawke was the best one.Mason and Hawke.All 4 kids together. Yup. This sums up the whole weekend in one picture.

A week in the life…

I saw where some working Mom’s were doing a day in the life, hoping to help others with scheduling or whatever.  I thought it would be interesting to look back and see how our schedule evolves.  It has already changed significantly since Mason was born and is constantly changing.  So this week I am doing a week in the life of us.  It may showcase our boring life but it is our life and I wouldn’t change it.

6:30AM – Michael wakes up and jumps into the shower.  I wake up and just lay in bed half asleep and half awake waiting for him to get out of the shower, so I can take one.  I am listening to the monitor for any sign of movement from Mason. 

7:00AM – I jump into the shower. I get out of the shower and get dressed.  Mason is still not awake, so Michael goes to make a bottle and I go up stairs to wake up Mason.  Today, I ended up turning on the light and touching him and he still did not wake up.  He was not ready to get up.  I let him sleep while I pick out his outfit for the day and waiting for bottle delivery.

7:15AM – Mason has his morning diaper change and gets his outfit on for the day, while getting his morning 7oz bottle.  This is the best time to change his clothes and diaper, because he is not trying to roll off the changer. 

7:25AM – Michael feeds Mason while I finish getting ready. 

7:40AM – I get ready to walk out the door to take Mason to school, only to discover a smell.  Another diaper change and we are out the door, running late.

7:50AM – Mason gets dropped off at school.  He loves his teacher Miss Whitney, and starts ignoring Mommy.  I, at least, get a wave bye. This is typical Mason.  He just wants to play with his friends. 

8:00AM – I am having to stop to get gas because I am running on fumes.  I also run into the gas station for a morning Red Bull. 

8:10AM – I am back at the house making a quick toast for my breakfast.  I get Gabby her breakfast. I go log into my work computer and get started reading through all my emails and prepare for the days events. This is where I will sit until lunchtime:

11:30AM-11:45AM – I take a quick break to grab a sandwich from my kitchen.

4:30PM – Starting to feel antsy about leaving to go pick up Mason.  I am ready to be done and go play with my love bug.

5:00PM – Ding Ding.  I drive to pick up Mason from school.

5:20PM – Home again. 

5:30PM – Run to Target with the Hubby and Mason.  Mason really loves going to the store.  He usually just looks around and smiles at anyone who looks his way.

6:30PM – Grab some food on the way home for dinner.

6:45PM – Feed Mason his dinner, get Gabby her dinner, and we eat our dinner.  His dinner is carrots and cheerios tonight.  This is some of my favorite moments of the day.  There is usually some Gabby sharing happening.

7:15PM – Bath Time and tell Daddy night night.  Michael goes to play basketball every Monday night with some friends.

7:45PM – Another 7oz bottle before bedtime.

8:00PM – Mason is put into bed and goes right to sleep.  I go to try and setup the newly purchased gate from Target on the stairs. 

8:30PM – I give up putting together the gate and go get Mason’s bag ready for the morning.  I make sure all the bottle are clean and put the right number in his bag for school.

8:40PM – I go get in bed with a good book.

10:00PM – Michael gets home from basketball and we talk about the day before passing out.

Traveling Working Mamas

Okay working Mamas out there.  I am talking about the working mamas who leave there precious kids with someone other than themselves during the day (or night) and go help a company make money, while another person spends more time with their kids than they do.  Now that I have define who I need help from, here is my dilemma. 

I work 40-50 hours a week.  I spend anywhere between 25-50% on the road for work.  I love my job.  I love the feelings I get accomplishing day to day tasks and seeing the end results.  I love my child, but I also love my job.  I don’t have to work I choose to work.  I choose to work, because I like the way I feel by working.  I am not going to lie it is also very nice to have financial stability by having two working parents.  To be able to do, get and go as we please.

I spend a lot of my life working.  When I am home I spend all of my nonworking time with my husband and my adorable little boy.  It is wonderful!!  I love every minute with them.  When I am home my husband goes and plays basketball, softball, golfs, plays poker with friends.  He does a lot of fun things.  I don’t mind.  I mean he is basically a single parent 25% of the time.  We do the occasional date night out, but most of our quality time is spent between 8-10PM.  When I am home I rarely go out and do anything.  Why? Because I feel guilty.  It makes me sad being away from him.  I feel bad leaving my baby at home without me.  I already do that enough when I am traveling for work.  I feel bad having my husband take care of our baby, when he does this a lot.  So, unless it is going to the grocery store or target, I really don’t do much. My husband says I need to get away and do fun things too, but it is so hard. 

What do you all do?  Do you feel guilty or sad? 

On a positive note…check out my little adorable bug this morning.  Where’s Waldo?

Mason Mason Mason

This has already been a CRAZY week.  I am really glad it is Wednesday.  Friday, hopefully, my best friend and her family will be coming to stay with us.  God help us.  We will have 4 kids under 3 and 3 dogs and 4 adults under one roof.  Who wants in on this ciaos?  Mason has not been feeling good this week.  No fever, just running nose, cough, and teething.  It just sucks.

My normally great sleeper woke up at 3AM screaming and crying.  Michael and I both tried to rock him, but he kept crying. If one of us left the room, even with the other still in the room he would cry even harder.  He wanted both his Mama and his Dada.  I gave him some Tylenol because I am thinking it is his teeth, but it took him forever to calm down enough to sleep.  Even when he finally fell asleep snuggled next to me, he was not comfortable.  I think he was just exhausted.  This doesn’t look like a sick baby right (during bath last night):

We are heading to the doctor this morning.  He was tugging at his right ear in the middle of the night, so we are going to get it check.  Plus he has had this cough and running nose for almost a month.  No fever, just not a happy baby.  Please think about Mason as we go to the doctor today.  I hope it is just teething and he isn’t sick.

Laughing

A Laughing baby always makes me smile.  So on this here Monday…Boo Mondays.  Here is something I hope makes you smile.

Confessional Friday

Lets confess today.  I am having a great week, so my confessions might be a little boring.

• I am not scheduled to travel this month (which can change at any minute), but I am missing being on the road.  When I travel for work, I feel like I am accomplishing stuff.  Does that make me a bad Mommy.
• My husband is missing having all of Mason’s attention, and I confess I am loving it always being a Mommy day.  That’s what we call it when he prefers one of us over the other.  It usually changes, but lately has been lots of Mommy days.
• I confess I am kind of missing my old job.  Not because I don’t love my new job, but my favorite conferences are coming up and it is the first time in almost three years I won’t be attending.  Plus I am missing my old coworkers.  I talk to them from time to time….or weekly.  I feel the need to check in.  I still talk to coworkers from all my past jobs.  They are like my extended family.
• Mason loves his cousin.  Okay this isn’t a huge confession, but they came over this week and he just loved watching her and following her around.  When he can walk it might become fun to watch him chase after her. I caught them playing on the floor in the kitchen how cute is this. 
• I confess I am one of those pet owners who dresses their dog up for Halloween.  This year is extra special since it is Mason’s first Halloween too.  I got Gabby the perfect costume to help with the trick or treating.  She will glow.  Doesn’t she look super happy!

A Smile that Melts Hearts…

Or at least melts my heart all day everyday.  We have been having fun for the last few weeks trying out new foods with Mason.  Mangos were his favorite.  He also LOVES Cheerios.  I need to get a video of how he reacts when I throw some cheerios on his try.  It is like he is a starving person who hasn’t eaten in weeks. 

Big blue eyes.  He has his Daddy’s eyes.  These are so hard to say no to.Mangos!!! YUM!We tried rice too and he liked it.  Likes to smear it all over the tray and then try to pick them up.Fun games at dinner.Playing with his food.  He also had mango in his hair.  End result of trying to feed ourselves…baths.

9 Month Baby Boy

Happy 9 Month Old!Loving on his teddy bear.Wanting to walk around all the time.

Weight: Mason is weighing in at 21lbs 2oz as of his last doctor’s appointment.  He is in the 75%.  He is getting so big.  I feel like he looks a lot older.   
Height: He is officially 29.5” long and that is in the 95% for height.  I thought we had slowed down at his last doctor’s appointment, but back up to the 95%.
Clothes: We are wearing anything from 9 month to 12 month clothing.  It is cooling off and I love putting my little boy in some adorable jeans.  He just looks so darn cute in them all the time.  
Eats: Well, he doesn’t like or care for avocados.  I have been trying to give him more real food and less puree.  He loves all fruit still.  He really likes rice and spaghetti. 
Sleeps: Sleeping great as always.  10-12 hours a night.  On the weekends I have been snuggling in bed with my little love bug.
What he is enjoying: He is loving crawling and getting around!  He wants to get into everything and anything especially things he shouldn’t.  AKA Gabby’s bones, dog food, dog water, and cords.  And whenever I tell him No he laughs.  YES LAUGHS.  Oh God help us through our terrible 2s. 
Teeth: We have 4 teeth.  Still waiting for those two front teeth to come in.  Maybe he can ask for them for Christmas.

Weekend Overview

What did we do this weekend?  Well, we went to our first wedding.  By we, I mean, Michael, Mason, and myself.  Mason did such a good job.  He didn’t fuss or cry once.  We did have to diaper dash at one point, but he did great.  Mason would look around and occasionally he would see someone he knew and get excited.  He also was a huge flirt with the girls sitting behind us.  He even let out a squeal and giggled at them.  Oh boy, am I in trouble when his teenage years hit. I think Mason just thinks girls flock to him.  I mean he is pretty darn cute in his sweater vest and khakis.

My super handsome boys.My love bug is just precious.

After the ceremony, we dumped Mason dropped Mason off with a sitter and went to the reception.  The reception was so beautiful.  I really wish I had gotten more pictures.  They did everything themselves and it was just so fun and definitely was the couple’s personality.  My favorite thing at the reception was the giant jenga game they had setup.  I love a good game.  Nerd alert!

The reception ended around 7 and we headed out to The Hive, which is this great restaurant in the Museum Hotel.  The food was amazing and if you get bored you have crazy good art all around you.  We went to dinner to celebrate our friend Rachel’s bday and we all got different food and shared.  My favorite was the steak.  It was awesome! One of the fun things about the restaurant are these large creepy green penguins they have that you can grab and set at your table.  We grabbed one after awhile and then our neighboring table had some fun and came and helped us sing Happy Birthday to Rachel. 

After dinner, we ran over to Crystal Bridges to see their new exhibit outside. It is a giant soccer looking ball that lights up.  We then went back to our house and had drinks and played a super fun hilarious game called Cards against Humanity.  We printed the sample version off their website.  Michael told me to order the real one off Amazon, so we can play again. We declared we need to find a few other couples to play with (*that won’t judge our interesting choices).  If you have played the game you understand that comment.  If you are one of those couples, let us know. 

The birthday girl and our penguin.The table next to us was fun.  Messing with Tyler.

Giant Soccer Ball at Crystal Bridges.