Alice's 6 month check up

Alice had her six-month check-up yesterday. She was a good little trooper. Mason went along and consoled her after her three shots. He also was a bit of a hero during the car ride home. He said, "Stop Allie!" and told Jeni that Alice was about to eat one of her bandages.

On to the stats!

Alice now weighs 19 lb 5.5 oz (94.5 percentile) and is 28.5 inches long (99.5 percentile). Those numbers put her in the 44.6 percentile for weight-to-length ratio. Time to start basketball practice?

Too hot for shirts

This weather is terrible. So Mason and Alice did without shirts at dinner tonight.

You'll note that Alice can't keep her eyes off of her cereal spoon.

We had beets which Mason really liked, especially the pink stains they left behind.

He was a bit disappointed when his tongue was no longer red after he brushed his teeth tonight.

Happy Father's Day to me!

I had a nice Father's Day. Jeni made us waffles for breakfast and then we went to a park for a walk in the bugs and mud and then a picnic.

We had a good time despite the heat.

Mason's first picture of Alice

Jeni has been teaching Mason to take pictures. They plan to take pictures of Mason's favorite things and then make a collage of the results.

Here's Mason's first picture of Alice. Pretty good!

Summer camp!

Mason is attending "camp" at a local forest preserve. Each Wednesday morning Jeni, Mason, and Alice drive out and Mason learns about animals, insects, and plants while Jeni and Alice relax with some other parents.

Some of Mason's friends are attending as well. Here he and Natalie show off their hats.

Mason showed absolutely no apprehension about being away from Jeni for the hour and a half of camp. This made Jeni both happy and sad.

Just another post with cute pics of our kids

Alice is sleeping so well these days, but is having a few issues with the heat and a cold that she is getting over. She is still sleeping, but does a lot of moving around her crib and grunting/moaning.

We thought she looked like she was doing tai-chi so we snapped this picture.

We didn't want Mason to feel bad so we snuck into his room to take this.

So they don't feel like we are making fun of them, here is a picture where they both look really nice.

Baseball in the yard

Mason's uncle Chris visited this weekend and brought Mason a belated birthday present of a baseball glove and tee. Mason has been having a lot of fun with them.

Alice posed for some pictures with her grandparents.

And we occasionally have a request for Hogarth pictures so here you go.

Happy sleeper

Now that Alice is sleeping so much, she is much happier during her waking hours. She and Mason "play" together a bit too, now that she can sit on her own.

We took these pictures of Alice a few days ago after a bath. We put some mineral oil in her hair to try to get rid of her cradle cap. It worked a bit, but had the side effect of making her hair a bit stiff.

Our backyard

Our backyard is looking pretty good so far this year. I'm sure that later this summer, when it doesn't rain as often, everything will die because we won't water. For now though we have been having some fun back there.

Mason really likes his swing.

We also have a little garden. We had bunny issues until I put a little fence. Hopefully we'll have some tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries later this summer.

Nice farmer!

Shhh.....Alice is asleep

A few weeks ago, Jeni and I decided that we needed sleep and that we would need to get Alice to sleep through the night.

So for three nights when Alice would wake up, we let her cry until she fell back asleep. And then, it worked! Just like that! For the last week Alice has been sleeping from 7pm to 6am, sometimes waking to eat around 1am. Additionally, she is a very good napper now as well.

Hooray!

Mason had been acting up a bit, but now that Alice is napping and Jeni and he can spend time together during the day, he is doing really well.

He still loves to "read" books.

Visit to Nana and Papa's

Mason and Alice had a nice afternoon with their Nana and Papa last weekend.

Mason rode one of Papa's many bikes. He had three adults around him, so we figured he didn't have to wear his helmet. Also, purposely bailing off the bike is no longer funny.

Alice just waited on the porch with Nana.

Isn't that a beautiful picture?

New toys

Because Alice enjoys her jumper so much, but we don't have door jambs from which to hang it anywhere in the house but our bedroom, we borrowed some exersaucers from some friends. She loves to stand in them and watch her brother play.

Pony tails

Jeni bought little rubber bands for the long hair on the top of Alice's head.

So of course Mason also wants a ponytail.

Aren't they, uh, cute together?

Mason can almost ride a bike

Mason got a hand-me-down bicycle for his birthday. Thanks Joe and Corey! He never really got the hang of his tricycle, but he and Jeni have been working on the bike for the last few days. He just about has the hang of it, though is prone to becoming distracted and riding into the grass.

This video is a bit long (~2 1/2 minutes) so don't worry if you can't make it to the end. But if you're ever in town we can show you the entire 6 minute version.

Alice loves to bounce

We pulled the "Johnny Jump-Up" out of the attic for Alice to use. We only have a few doorways from which to hang it, so she only gets to bounce if one of us is in our bedroom.

She can bounce forever in it.



And Mason wanted a ponytail in his hair again today by the way.

Mason's birthday trip

On Mason's birthday we traveled to nearby Monticello and their railway museum.

We walked around and through the display trains first.

The big excitement was an actual train ride. It was a beautiful day and the train ride was a nice length for a three year old (30 minutes or so).

Mason is a pretty great three-year-old. It is hard to believe how quickly the time has gone.

Update: Video!

Mason is three now

And he really likes to remind us of that.

We had a nice little party at our house, and the weather cooperated so we spent most of the afternoon in the backyard.

We invited some family and three of Mason's friends. The kids made bird feeders and stuffed nest-making materials into little cages to hang from trees. They really seemed to like it.

"Betty", "Jughead", and "Veronica" went for a ride in the wagon.

Alice got lots of lovin' from her GGMa, Nana, and Papa.

Mason had a really great time. And of course, he couldn't wait to eat cake.

Spring Picture Potpourri

This post will just have some pictures from our spring. You can always go to our Flickr page for more

Here is Mason with his friends Natalie (standing) and May. The other night, Mason told me that he loves Natalie "really much" and will be marrying her when he is four. Of course, today at the park he became infatuated with a little girl that he met there, so I hope Natalie is keeping her options open.

This is our most recent family portrait (in front of downtown Urbana's beautiful parking deck).

Mason likes to dress up in all of the medical stuff from his surgery. Here he and his friend Audrey are ready to make you feel all better.

Alice got to spend a bit of time with her Aunt Amy a few weeks ago. This picture also does a good job of showing off Alice's "healthy" thighs.

Finally, here is Mason in front of his 100-piece zebra puzzle. He usually wants a little help finishing it, but this day he completed the entire thing by himself. I think that we could probably buy him a new 60-80 piece puzzle every few days and he would be in heaven. Is there a Netflix for children's puzzles?

Brookfield Zoo

Last month, we took a trip to the Brookfield Zoo with Jeni's parents. The zoo is displaying animatronic dinosaurs this summer, so we have a nice picture of a dino eating Mason and Jeni.

Later Mason took the zoo map and helped us find our way.

While Mason and I rode the carousel, Jeni got this lovely picture of Alice.

Semester done- Recommence blogging

School's out for the summer, so I finally have a bit of time to update our blog.

Alice is doing very well. As you can see in the pictures, she has started to eat rice cereal. She really likes it and we think that it helps her to sleep a bit longer at night. We can usually depend on her to sleep from 8pm-3am and then until 6am or so. Much different than a month or so ago when she awoke every few hours.

Alice has started to scoot around the ground a little. She can spin around on her stomach and back, and can push around in a line (just a bit). We think that she watches Mason too much though and wants to skip straight to walking. She loves to stand (with support of course), and bounce around in her "Johnny Jump-Up".

We can hardly believe that she'll be 5 months old on Saturday.

Easter

Mason, Jeni, and Jeni's mom colored Easter eggs one afternoon before Easter.

On Easter Sunday, Mason found all of the Easter eggs that I hid. I guess that I'll need to hid them a bit more slyly next year.

Jeni got Mason some Jelly Belly jelly beans, but he doesn't seem to like them. Maybe he got a "buttered popcorn" one?

Alice: sleeping and eating

Alice is eating very well and getting much bigger. About a month or so ago, she began to have some problems keeping food down and in. She's only gotten better now that Jeni has cut dairy and eggs out of her diet.

At the same time that Alice had her gastrointestinal problems, she also stopped sleeping quite as well. She now wakes up two or three times a night instead of only one or two. We hope that as her stomach matures a bit she will go back to her old ways.

She is still very cute though so Jeni and I can't be too upset.

Mason's thumb

So I think the last month has been the longest posting drought in this blog's history. Kids and work are keeping us busy.

About a month ago, Mason had surgery on his right thumb. He had never been able to straighten it, a condition called "trigger thumb." Champaign-Urbana lacks a pediatric hand surgeon, which necessitated numerous trips to Springfield.

The good news is that the surgery went great, Mason can bend his thumb, and a few weeks later the scar is starting to fade a bit. Mason was very brave during the whole process and loves to show people how his thumb works.