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.

It's Crazy Uncle Kyle's Birthday!

That's right, Kyle is turning 22 today. I was looking through some old e-mails the other day and dug up these two gems:

sad news
From: kyle portela

Sent:Mon 2/23/98 4:00 PM
To: surrept@hotmail.com

Hey sis whats up. Sorry for not e-mailing you sooner. But I was just so busy I think we should constantly keep in touch on e-mail. I bet your wondering wy My subject is sad news. Well first of all Chelsey and I are through she dumped me for a stupid boy named Dallin Erickson. I'm just so sad can you give any advice. Also How's school going work. So hoo's the boy in your life. I really want to know. So are you diaponted that Chelsey dumped me or are you mad. Right now i'm still in shock and am depressed so bad. well its bed time right now so by. P.S. Type back asap

ouch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
From: kyle portela

Sent: Sun 3/21/99 4:00 PM
To: surrept@hotmail.com

Hey sis Whats up. If i gave you one million guesses you would never guess what happened to me to day. On the way to school I was almost across the street in the crosswalk and a teenage driver didn't stop for me and I got hit by a car on the way to school.OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whel write back soonkyle P.s. Idon't know how fast it was goingSo don't ask ok. P.s.s. Igot a hat of the san fransico giants baseball team from somebody who saw the accident and a butterfinger from aunt kathy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE!!!