Reminiscing

It's strange to think that this time last year, I was pregnant and didn't even know it! It's even stranger to think of some of the conversations I had about having kids, and how much I wanted to even though we weren't really trying.

My friend Chrystal moved back home last summer and got a job at Iduma. One afternoon, I took her up to the school to meet everyone. On the way home, we had this deep conversation about having babies, and about what we would do and how we would feel in different situations. I remember feeling very emotional during our conversation about my desire to have a baby!

During our team planning before school started, Alisa was telling me about how awesome her kids are and how much she loves them. I specifically remember her asking if it bothered me for her to talk about them, because we had talked before about how I really wanted a baby, but it wasn't the right time for us. She teared up a little bit while she was talking about them, and I teared up with her!

At new teacher orientation, I ran into my friend Christina. She asked when we were going to start trying to get pregnant, and I told her we were going to have to wait a year or two so Terry could finish school. (Christina has a baby now too!!)

It's just crazy to me that during all of these conversations I WAS pregnant, and I had NO clue. My very first blog post talks about how I took a test to "rule out" pregnancy - I didn't think for a second that I really was. And now, here we are, a year later, and I have the most beautiful, amazing little boy! I am so blessed, and I am so thankful that God had this in store for us!

Mason had his first "swimming" adventure today! We went to the Lions Junction Family Water Park in Temple with my friend Alisa and her two girls. Mason really enjoyed just sitting in the cool water watching all the kids play. We sat there for at least an hour, and he was completely fascinated with everything going on around him.
Look how focused he is on all the activity! We couldn't even get him to look at the camera! We tried to go on the lazy river - I thought we would both really enjoy just floating along, but unfortunately, it wasn't the peaceful ride we expected! There were several places along the river with water spraying down from above us, and it was much more forceful than I expected! Mason cried every single time we went under one, even though I tried to cover his face. I didn't really like it either, so I don't blame him!
Here's Mason with Alisa's little girl, Olivia. She just turned 4, and is cute as a button! She has such a fun personality!
I could definitely tell when Mason was ready to go. Look how sleepy he is! He took a nice nap when we got home!
I noticed tonight that he has a few sunburned spots on his arms and legs. I put sunscreen on him several times and tried to keep him in the shade of my body as much as possible. I feel so bad!! I'm so glad he enjoyed the water though! I bet next year, we'll be spending a lot more time at the pool!

Picasa

Terry downloaded a new program from Picasa on my computer. It's similar to iPhoto, but there are a lot of different things you can do with it. I made this collage in like 2 minutes! You can also make movies and add effects to photos! It's very cool! I bet you'll be seeing lots of collages on my blog in the future! =)

Avocado Face

So, Mason's not so sure about avocados.

He would really rather chew on his fingers.

But, he's a trooper, so he'll try another bite...

...and spit it all out.

"What the heck are you feeding me mom?" I guess we'll try again tomorrow!

You've come a long way baby!

Four months ago today, I got up, took the last long, hot shower of my life, and had a baby. This is what I looked like at 5:30 in the morning:


Yikes! Although there are some things I miss about being pregnant, there are so many things that I DON'T miss. That is a BIG belly. It's okay, you can agree with me, it won't hurt my feelings. I would post an after picture, but I don't look good enough yet. ;)

So, like I was saying, four months ago today, our little monster came into our lives and forever changed us. (Warning: It's about to get mushy.) He captured our hearts in ways that I could never even imagine until I was right in the middle of it. When he was born, I loved him with an unimaginable love - I didn't think that love could ever change. It did. It has grown and expanded in ways I was never able to fathom before. I love him more every single day, even the ones when he cries all day and nothing makes him happy. Those days are forgotten with one little crooked Trusty smile, or one enthusiastic laugh at the fool I am making of myself for him. How many times can I sing I'm a Little Teapot in a row? I will sing it ALL DAY if he keeps laughing at me like that. They say it in the movies, "I can't believe how much I love him!" (That was actually from Friends, go figure.) But I didn't understand until it happened to me.

As long as we're talking about Friends, here's another quote that I think is fitting to the current post: "I'm gonna love you SO much that no other woman will ever be good enough for you!" ~Monica Geller to her new baby boy =) I'm a loser, I know.

What did we do before we had Mason to occupy our every moment?

• Sleep? Pfft, overrated.
  
• Eat with two hands? Where's the challenge in that?
• Play on the computer? That's what laptops are for! Heck, that's what naps are for!
  
• Go a whole day without getting peed/pooped/spit up on? Well, okay, that one's not my favorite...

To celebrate Mason's four month "birthday", here are some "before" and "after" pictures. My, how he has grown.



















At Mason's check up today, he weighed 17 pounds, 14 ounces (90th percentile) (which means he's more than doubled his birth weight), and he was 25.5 inches long (75th percentile), which means he's grown almost 6 inches! Dr. Riser was very impressed with him and all of the milestones he has reached. She gave us the go ahead to start veggies, so I bet tomorrow I'll have pictures of Mason with avocado ALL over his face. I can't wait! (PS, I know avocado is a fruit, not a veggie, but whatever.) So tomorrow, I'll do my best to post avocado-face pictures, and a picture of the ginormous butternut squash I got today. =)

2 More things

1) We will most likely not continue cereal. Mason hasn't spit up in weeks and he spit up twice last night! Not even spit up - more like projectile vomiting. And it was A LOT. He did sleep from 9-5, but I don't want to keep going with the cereal if it's going to upset his tummy!

2) I mentioned before that Mason was rolling over. I've been using the sleep positioner to keep him on his belly. Without it, he rolls on to his back and then wakes up mad because he can't roll back over. Here's how it's supposed to work:

Here's how it looked Tuesday night when I went in. What's wrong with this picture?

That's some magic baby! I have no idea how he did that! Here's how I found him Wednesday night:

Think he's trying to tell me something? =)

And here are a few more pictures...

Just because I think they're cute!