Our Monkey Mason

Does Mason Crawl, you ask? Oh No, It Is Worse Than That!

Christmas and New Years

We had a great Christmas in Bear Lake and Mason made out like a bandit. He got so many cool toys thanks to grandma and grandpa and he made Christmas morning much more entertaining than when it's 4 adults sitting around opening chocolate oranges. Mason was more interested in opening presents than I thought he would be, but one of his favorite things to do is to tear, and then eat, paper.

Some big news in our family is that crazy uncle Kyle asked Sarah to marry him and for some reason she said yes! It's very exciting and they think they will be getting married in September. As soon as I get the video of the proposal I'll do a whole blog about them.

It's really amazing how the end of this year is completely different than the beginning. We were excited and hopeful to ring in 2007 and now we just feel lucky, blessed and in love with our baby. He has made our already fantastic lives even better and we really can't imagine life without him. So with that, here is our final Mason pic of the year...

Let it Snow!

We are in Bear Lake right now and it is quite cold and quite snowy. Mason has been loving the endless attention he gets from his grandma and grandpa. Today he has been pretty cranky because he is cutting two, and possibly three, teeth at one time. We gave him a snowball to eat to soothe his gums. He wasn't so fond of it after the first bite, but decided to give it another try. I think he thought it was pretty tasty but he didn't like the ice on his hand so he dropped it.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Mason Crawls... Sort Of.

Enjoy this little gem, I know I did. He is now pulling himself up and standing on his own all over the living room. I (Jake) don't like it. He is just falling over and it seems like on the way down he tends to hit his face on any hard object in the vicinity.

Mason likes the standing but thinks the falling and landing leaves something to be desired. OH! And that crazy clicking sound is Mason. Just a little something our friend Sunny taught him. Thanks Sunny!

What's Going on Here?

Our child has made some major progress in his development this week. Although he doesn't crawl, he does the worm, and he does it well. Within 5 minutes of figuring out how to propel himself, he was following me around the house, and picking up random stuff we have on the floor which is not suitable for babies, like buttons and leaves. Apparently we are going to have to start paying attention to that sort of thing now. He pants like a puppy because he is working pretty hard to get to his destination.

Also this week, he figured out how to click his tongue, which he does incessantly and rather loud. He takes off his diaper as soon as I get it on, and he refuses to lie down in the bathtub. He must either be sitting up or on his stomach, and he doesn't care how much water he has to swallow to get in those two positions. This all happened in a matter of days.

I satisfied my curiousity as to whether I had a baby who would like Santa or dislike Santa.

This is Mason after we told him that the Broncos were not playing in a BCS bowl game this year.

I need your assistance!

I have pretty much canceled Christmas in our house due to some hooligans that stole our big box of Christmas lights and decorations. I don't want to buy new ones, I just want to be bitter about the ones we lost.

That being said, I am participating in an ornament exchange at my new job. It's a heinous ornament exchange and the ugliest ornament wins a prize. This is where I need your help, blogging friends. We have no ugly ornaments and I am not sure where my best options to buy them would be. I am still very short on time, but the exchange isn't until the 18th of this month. Ideas? If you have an ugly ornament you are dying to get rid of, I will pay you to ship it to me!

Baby, It's Cold Inside!

So last weekend I got the brazilliant idea that we should have a programmable thermostat in our house since we are now both gone during the day. I'm thinking it will probably pay for itself in a season, maybe two. I bring it home for Jake to install and he goes to work. At some point he says "Uh, I think I did something seriously wrong", but I pay no mind because Jake can fix/install anything. He's a genious really and often he thinks he won't figure something out and then he does so I really and truly ignored him this time. This is on tuesday evening.

Wednesday when I get home from work at 5 it is 52 degrees in the house. Jake had to stay late at school and I knew he was under pressure so I chose not to call him. I turned on the fireplace, bundled up the baby and we played in that 4 foot radius where heat actually comes out of the fireplace. He got home at 10 and figures out that he has indeed broken the furnace. We called several places that claimed to be 24 hour service places but nobody answered. We finally got a hold of someone and they said they could come and fix it right then but that it would be $50 more than if they came the next morning. We decided to wait until the morning, because the baby has a heater in his room that keeps it at a constant 75 degrees. For us it would be like camping with a super comfortable bed. I wore three layers of clothing and had 3 big blankets. Jake tucked me in and went to do his homework. At some point in the night Jake has the idea to put the big box fan in front of the fireplace and blow heat throughout the house. I probably would have appreciated this idea more had I been warned. Somewhere around 3 in the morning I was pretty sure that someone had lit the bed on fire because I was as hot as I have ever been in my life. I frantically threw blankets and clothes off. Jake, with his normal 2 blankets, says "Honey, what's wrong?" Um, what's wrong? Oh nothing babe, I'll just be sleeping in the guest bedroom since it appears I have wet the bed with the 3 gallons of sweat my body has secreted.

We ended up getting the furnace fixed the next morning and I am now figuring that the thermostat will pay for itself by the winter of 2010.