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.

32 Things I Love about Jake

Tomorrow is Jake's birthday and since I am so on top of things this week, I am posting the night before! So here is this years edition of things I love about my husband. Mason wanted to get in on the action as well this year so I snapped some pics. Happy Birthday Jake/Daddy!

1. He makes me cream of wheat when I am sick or cold.

2. He loves to do yard work.

3. He gets excited every saturday night when a new Naruto is released in Japan and he can watch it on the computer.

4. Even though he is afraid of spiders, he still takes care of them because I am scared too.

5. He does laundry and the dishes.

6. He treats Mason so gently.

7. He has extreme patience when I try to cut his hair and then doesn't complain when I send him to Great Clips.

8. He watches no other sports other than Boise State Football.

9. He defers to me whenever he has to write something that might need a comma.

10. He has some great (re: crazy) ideas to combat global warming and shares them with me on a frequent basis. This week: "I think we should genetically alter all the trees in the world to have white leaves".

11. He doesn't expect me to make dinner or clean the house.

12. He cares about children other than his own.

13. He doesn't mind touching raw meat (something I refuse to do).

14. He will only take a multivitamin if it's of the children's chewable variety.

15. He's not opposed to pulling the kids out of school and going on a trip around the world (in ten years or so).

16. He loves devil's food cupcakes with milk chocolate frosting.

17. He will stay with Mason when he gets immunized and I am hanging out in the lobby.

18. He can find anything on the internet, even if it hasn't been released to the public yet.

19. He likes vegetables.

20. He calls me in the middle of class to make sure the baby got his medicine.

21. He wants Stephen Colbert to be president.

22. He eats a cheese quesadilla 3 or 4 times a week.

23. He genuinely likes my family (or at least I think he does).

24. He wants a dog but is not pressuring me to get one.

25. He puts his Ipod on like an article of clothing every morning.

26. He gets a little meloncholy every time there is a full moon.

27. He loves his family.

28. He is very patient with Mason and I.

29. He thinks the dremel I got him for his birthday is his best gift yet.

30. He likes to carry Mason around the house and show him things.

31. He is very dedicated to his education.

32. He tells Mason and I that he loves us at least once a day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year in Burley. We went to Aunt Colleen and Uncle Roland's house and I think I had the tastiest turkey of my life. So good! Mason had a great time playing with the kids, he loves kids the most. We have so much to be thankful for this year, especially our baby boy. We can't imagine life without him and feel honored to be his parents. He makes every day a true joy. We are also thankful for our good health, our fantastic families, friends, and the opportunities we have been given here in Boise. We hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and we love and miss those we haven't seen in a long time!

I've Got Mad Mothering Skills

I am quite proud of myself today and really feel like a mother. Mason slept more than normal yesterday and was rather cranky in his moments of being awake. Not that I would know first hand, as I was working my two jobs. He's spending the week at home with his dad though, so I am on the pulse of his activity. Anywho, I didn't like what I heard so first thing this morning I called the doctor and got him an appointment to be checked out. Even though he was perfectly fine this morning, I had a feeling something was up. Well, sure enough, baby has an ear infection! (Do not interpret the exclamation point as gleeful that he has an infection, but rather my glee at sensing something was wrong) It's still pretty small, and only in one ear so I think we (and that pretty pink amoxicillin) may be able to avert the crisis that had befallen baby Jackson. I should give some credit to KA for posting about Jack's ear infection, as it heightened my awareness. Hopefully my instinct has saved us from having a painful Thanksgiving. One funny thing, I met Jake and Mason at the doctor this morning and it was a very cold and snowy day in Boise. Mason looked ridiculously adorable in his fuzzy hat and I was quite impressed that Jake thought to actually put his winter hat on. I would have been even more impressed if he were wearing a jacket, or socks.

I Didn't Go to Disneyworld

That's right, I was in Orlando this week and I didn't even get to go to Disneyworld. Ridiculous. It was actually a week I would like to forget, starting with a red eye flight from LAX to Orlando on Monday night. I had been feeling sick to my stomach for a couple of days and ended up puking several times during that flight and all the next day in Orlando. I noticed people are not very excited to sit next to someone who is throwing up and I'm pretty sure they thought they were getting some kind of flesh eating virus just by being next to me. I was still very sick on my way back to Idaho, but this time I had a plan. As soon as I started throwing up I turned to the concerned woman to my right and said "Don't worry, I'm pregnant". Wow, what a difference those two words make. Not only were my fellow passengers much more sympathetic to my cause, but the flight attendants were as well when my neighbors explained why I was so ill. I had ginger ale and pretzels before anyone else, not that I was eating or drinking. Anywho, I remained home the rest of the week with this mysterious illness, but am happy to report I am feeling much better. Kudos to Jake this week, who was pretty much a single dad. We are very much looking forward to Thanksgiving!

Weekly Update

Our weeks are so packed these days that I actually can't think of anything to blog by the end of the week. Mason has been nearly perfect this week, except for the day he got his 6 month vaccinations and a flu shot. We'll let him slide on that day. He's just about to crawl, he likes to hang out either on his hands and knees or on his hands and toes. He only goes backwards right now, so we put him against the couch so he can't go anywhere. He's catching on to the fact that he can roll wherever he needs to go though, so we are almost in serious trouble. He is now in the 97th percentile for height (28 inches) and 50th for weight (18 pounds). He was pretty funny at the doctor because he wouldn't stop kicking his legs and jumping up and down. His doctor said "Well, he sure is an active little fella isn't he?" That could be why he's thinning out.

What else? Well, my dear husband taught me how to get advanced copies of Celine Dion and Leona Lewis and pretty much any other album I want so I am updating my Ipod as we speak. It's so handy to have an ultra computer savvy guy in the house.

I'll let you know how the new job is going, and what exactly it is that I do, in a week or so. The jury is still out, but I have been cleared to fly on the company jet, so I guess that's something.

I'd also like to give a shout out to my favorite cousin Jen and her family, who have just made the brilliant decision to relocate to Boise from Phoenix. We're pretty excited about it and now officially have family here!

Halloween

I know I am a bit behind, but it has been one very busy week. I am hoping to find that balance between work and home soon! Mason's first Halloween was pretty uneventful, other than the fact that Grandma and Grandpa Portela were up visiting. Mason wasn't really interested in being in his costume, so we weren't able to get a smile out of him on Halloween. However, he did smile all over the place the next day. We had just the right amount of candy, and were a big hit with the parents of the trick or treaters because we gave them York Peppermint Patties. We also got rid of all of the Tic Tacs and Life Savers we don't particularly care for. See, I forgot to buy candy until about 5:30 on Halloween night and there wasn't much of a selection by the time I got to the store. Whatever though, it worked out perfectly. I am no fan of Halloween in general, but I do love the little kids who are so cute and grateful for the candy. Politeness goes a long way with me and when a 3 year old says "Happy Halloween!"? Melts my heart!

It's just a little crazy around here!

It's a big week at the Bennett house mainly because I got a job. Another job, I should say. I am currently still working my part time job, and now I have a full time job, hence the craziness. I hadn't even been looking for a job but a friend emailed me about a subrogation specialist position at an insurance company and it looked interesting. There were many attractive qualities about this job, including the fact that I wouldn't have to drive downtown, I get off at 4:30 everyday and oh, they pay me. Before I had Mason, I told Jake that I would continue working even after the baby so that he could finish school without having to have a job. Then I lost my job and gained the second love of my life and my priorities shifted a bit. I promised that around Mason's 6 month birthday I would look for a job, but that if I didn't get one before Jake went back to school in January we would just take out student loans and I would stay home. Well, I got the one and only job I was interested in so I guess I'll be working for the next two years. Lucky for us Mason goes to Sunny's house for the day where he is loved and adored and equally loves and adores her boys. Although I shed a few tears this morning, I am so relieved that I don't have to worry about him being ignored at a day care. My cousin Jen tells me that there will come a time where I actually enjoy using my brain and talking to adults. But I was just starting to learn spanish from Dora the Explorer and her cousin Diego!

A Breakthrough!

Mason has been crazy cranky this week and we know he is teething, but he has really ramped it up. He doesn't so much cry as whine and then screams very loudly and then returns to whining. I checked his gums every day and there was nothing, there was not even swelling. Well, two nights ago I finally got the big payoff, the tip of a tooth breaking through his gums! He's still kind of cranky and refuses to sleep more than 20 minutes during the day. He is now sleeping 12 hours at night though so I guess I shouldn't complain. My question is this...will he be this cranky every time he gets a new tooth? We looked it up and he will get a total of 20 teeth. That's a lot of crying, yo! Here he is in happier times...

Our Free Time Is Never Wasted

Click here to see our hot moves which we have been practicing for months!

Click here to see MORE hot moves.

We Caved

When I typed the title to this blog, Jake said "What's this we crap?" So I suppose to be truthful I should say that I caved. I just felt bad every time I ate a bowl of cereal in front of Mason and he would watch the spoon go from the bowl to my mouth and back to the bowl. He looked at me with these eyes that said "Momma, I could do that, you should let me try". And so I did. We fed Mason on October 15, 2007, a full 2 weeks before his 6 month birthday. But Dana was right, now I have to remember to feed him twice a day, which I have forgotten on more than one occassion. Anywho, our little guy is totally getting the hang of this eating thing. At six months we'll start feeding him vegetables. Yum.

The place is on fire!

I was just talking to my dear friend Erin, who resides in Escondido and I mentioned that I hadn't seen her online lately. She said "Well, I lost my cable and the place is on fire". I laughed. She said "No really". Turns out she's right! We hope that our friends and family in San Diego County are all safe and sound and don't have to take up residence in Qualcomm Stadium because that place is scary when you don't live in it. Here's a picture of Mason to cheer you up. He dressed up for the evacuations, but obviously takes them very seriously.

Another First

It seems like every week Mason does something for the first time. I can hardly keep up with them. One first that he had last week that was entirely unplanned was his first chiropractic adjustment. We were actually at the chiropractor for me but the doctor asked if I had had Mason evaluated and I said "Uh, no. Isn't he a bit young and a bit tiny for this?" He said he had worked on babies three weeks old. I said ok. He proceeded to pick him up and hang him upside down and then told me that he favors turning his head to the right. This is true. Then he had him lay on his belly on the big table and he adjusted his lower back. At this point, every person in the office is gathered around to watch the tiny man on the table. Even the other patients where watching. What was Mason doing? Loving every minute of it. He particularly loves the hanging upside down part, so we recreated it when we got home, much to his delight. Then he got to listen to his Ipod, which he also clearly loves.

Mason's Bath Time

A Bath Video, well, um, OK!

Hay!

This weekend we went to Payette to visit with Jake's Aunt Georgia and other family members for their annual "Weinie Roast and Hay Ride". We weren't quite sure how Mason would take it as it has certainly turned chilly up here. And San Diegans, we do realize that this is the sacrifice we must make for living in Idaho and have invested in several warm coats for just this purpose. Anyway, we layered some clothing on Mason and put him in an adorable hat, and he was actually quite happy. He didn't love the hay ride as we sat in the back with the very loud singers. His look was reminiscent of the football game debacle we subjected him to.

We met Jake's second cousin, who happens to have a baby boy 2 weeks younger than Mason. His name is Miles and he eats cereal from a spoon. We don't yet feed Mason anything but a bottle because the doctor said we could wait until he was 6 months old to introduce him to foods if we wanted to and we thought that was a fantastic idea. He said if Mason expressed interest in eating food, we could start him earlier. He hasn't said anything to us about eating food, so we have stayed on the bottle track. Judging by the way he nearly pulled the spoon out of Brooke's hand to put in his mouth and his sadness at not succeeding, he may actually be interested. What are we going to do about it? Yeah, we're going to wait until he's 6 months old to give him cereal. I'm sure he's forgotten by now.

3 Years Strong

Today is our 3rd anniversary, but since it is a Monday and we have other things to do (at least Jake does) we celebrated this past weekend. We said from the beginning that we would go somewhere for just a night every year for our anniversary and we did the first two years. This year I kind of didn't want to go because we would have to leave Mason overnight with a non family member. However, when our neighbor offered most excitedly to watch him for 24 hours we decided to continue the tradition. This year we went to McCall, a super charming little resort town in the mountains. It's on the lovely Payette Lake and Jake and I are trying to figure out how we could possibly live there. I said I would homeschool Mason and we could just live in a cabin in the woods. Jake's reply was "I want Mason to have some chance of going to college". I'm just going to assume that it would be the fact that he was raised with wildlife instead of people that will preclude him from going to college. Anyway, we had a great time and I only had a small bout with panic when I realized we didn't get cell phone service up there. I had to dig deep and trust that everything was ok back home. And it was. So Happy Anniversary to my perfect husband, I love you more every year!

It was just a little chilly up in the hills.

A little something Jake crafted out of the twigs in the forest.

The Mile High Yacht Club (although it was actually about 213 feet shy of a mile high in elevation)

Our delighted boy

Because we care...

This post is for the Basagics, who were disappointed that there were no pictures of Mason in the post before last. Well here you go Basagics, this blog's for you!

A Test for Video

Ok, I have finally gotten around to posting a video. My first attempt may not work so please try to be patient. Here goes...

If it does work, this is Mason at his first play date with Jackson, who is already very famous in blog land.

I am not The Biggest Loser

So tonight Mason and I snuggled in bed to watch The Biggest Loser, which has been rather motivating to me the past two weeks. These people are pushed to amazing limits by working out 4-6 hours a day and I think to myself "Wow, I can hardly work out an hour before I feel as though I am pushed to my limit", and it makes me work out a little more. This week the contestants were faced with a "temptation" which was a room full of high calorie, high fat food from burgers and fries to cookies and cakes and everything in between. The contestants have to spend 4 minutes in the room and they can choose to eat or not eat and no one will ever know. I am watching each of the 16 or so contestants stand in this room and after about the 6th one I pause the television and say to Mason "This is ridiculous, Mama needs some cupcakes stat!" So Mason sits on the table while I proceed to bake perfect cupcakes with milk chocolate frosting. I am so ashamed! Dana and I just had this discussion last week about how the show always makes her want to eat, but I was so motivated two weeks in a row. Jake has reminded me that this is probably not the week for me to be watching baked items and whatnot. Apparently I will have to Tivo The Biggest Loser once a month and watch it when I am "in the clear", if you catch my drift.

Welcome Fall!

I have to say I am rather excited about the changing weather. It has been chilly here this week and I could not be happier. I love wearing long sleeve shirts and sweatshirts and I love having more than one blanket on the bed. Apparently my baby does not feel the same. Last week he suddenly stopped sleeping through the night which was not only a cause for alarm, but a reminder of how great we have it that he sleeps 10-11 hours a night. The first night he got up at 5, the next night 1 and 5. Then when I put him back to bed he would just quietly whine. The reason I know this is because I can hear him on the baby monitor and if he's not sleeping, I'm not sleeping. Well then my mom came to visit and suggested we buy a heater for the nursery as the house was 62 degrees and that may be why the child is no longer sleeping through the night. We bought a heater, got the nursery back up to 75 degrees and what do you know? The little guy sleeps through the night again. Good thing my mom came to visit or he might still be freezing. Now he wakes up happy and playing, which I captured this morning when I went to get him up. Notice his mohawk, which no amount of water can keep down, and really, why would we want to?

Not Much of a Fan

We decided to take Mason to his first Boise State football game on Saturday. He was pretty happy and we figured he'd be fine because he would be in the baby pack the entire time. Our first clue that things might not be so great was the look on Mason's face when we boarded the shuttle bus. Let's just say he was extremely concerned and more than a little skeptical of the other people on the bus. One lady said "Did you bring cotton for his little ears?" When I said no, she shook her head in disgust. I looked at Jake and he just smiled.

When we got to the stadium we went to visit the biggest Bronco fans we know, my aunt and uncle Marilyn and Todd. They tailgate every home game and we always stop by to say hi. Mason hasn't developed his stranger anxiety yet, but he wasn't interested in socializing with anyone. We stood in line with some rowdy BSU students, who were making endless sheep comments to the passing Wyoming fans. When we got into the stadium, we were in our seats for approximately 2 minutes before Mr. Airhorn to the right scared the dickens out of my baby. He did calm down enough to finish his bottle, but then it was all over. He did not cry, he screamed. 3 minutes into the first quarter Jake took him out to the sidelines where he noticed dozens of other parents who had the same brilliant idea as we did. I asked if we could please stay until halftime, because it was actually a really good game and we had really good seats. (Does this make me a bad wife/mother?)

Anywho, we obviously left at halftime and Mason rewarded us with full on belly laughs almost the entire walk back to the car. He was beside himself with glee to get out of that stadium. We listened to the game in the car, where Mason immediately fell asleep from the exhausting ordeal we had just put him through. Needless to say, we will not be taking him to another game this year.

I can't think of a title today...

So let's see, since we last posted Mason went to the doctor for his big 4 month appointment, which went much better than his 2 month thanks to the tips for giving him tylenol before he gets the shots. He barely whimpered this time, according to Jake. I was out in the lobby, that is way too traumatizing for me. He has grown three inches, but only gained two pounds so our little roly poly baby is thinning out a bit. Last weekend we took him to Art in the Park and he was so content to just hang out in his stroller for hours while we looked at art. The air quality is horrible here these days so his little eyes and nose were running the whole time, but he didn't seem to mind. We rewarded his great behavior with a walk in the baby pack with dad. He loves this. We got a nice family pic at the beloved Boise State, which caused us to mourn on Saturday with a football loss.

Not much more to report, Mason is starting to reach for things now, but he is super slow and tentative which is very amusing. Today he was doing a little E.T. action by ever so lightly touching the tip of my finger. It's really rather darling.