Mason and Alice: February 2007

Mason playing with his mom

Jeni and Mason played today. It is snowing outside and we expect ~20 inches, so we'll be playing inside a lot.

By the way, if you ever want to download any of these pictures (in any post) you can click on the picture to go to a page on www.flickr.com which will have the picture. If you click on the little button that says "All Sizes" (between the picture title and the picture itself), you'll go to another page that has different sizes that you can download.

You can also click on the Flickr badge to the right of the screen to go to our general Flickr page which has a few more pictures that I don't post here.

Mason can stand!

Mason has been trying to pull himself up to standing, but has a hard time with our wood floors. I think that he is able to practice at daycare though.

The other morning I went into see him after a nap and he had pulled himself up to the rail on his crib. The mattress was high, so he was on his knees, but Jeni and I decided it was time to lower it before he stood and flopped over the rail.

After lowering the mattress, we put him in the crib to try it out. And lo and behold!

He was pretty happy about it.

Happy 5th Birthday CJ!

Mason's cousin, CJ, celebrated his fifth birthday on Saturday (his actual birthday is the 13th). This is the earliest picture of CJ we have on the laptop. He is 6 weeks old and his aunt is undoubtedly giving him some good advice.

Mason's Aunt Amy had a big party to celebrate the CJ's birthday this year, so Mason got to visit with his relatives.

Mason played on the floor away from the rowdy older kids.

CJ blew out his candles with help from his brother Joey. Eventually all of the other kids helped out too, because the cake was decorated with trick candles.

Later, Mason was getting tired so he just watched the older kids play "football." Here, he's resting his head on my cousin Lisa's leg.

Before we left Joe had a chance to teach Mason how to do a puzzle.

Nine months in, nine months out....

Mason's 75% birthday was Saturday. He spent it at his cousin CJ's 5th birthday party (of which, more later).

Today Mason went in for his check-up. He is doing really well. He is up to 21.8 pounds and 29.5 inches which puts him right at the 50th percentile in weight-for-length. His head is still huge, though apparently not large enough to send the doctor scurrying to write a paper for the medical journals. It's big, but not historically big.

Here's a picture of Mason deciding what condiment he'd like on his cereal.

Let's not talk about the Super Bowl

Mason couldn't believe how poorly the Bears played. He could barely finish his dinner that night.

Super Bowl XLI!!!

Jeni and I have enjoyed our time here in Madison. We really liked the hospital that Jeni deliverd in. There has been only one problem. Mason was born in Wisconsin.

But don't worry! We have thus far been able to keep him sheltered from the Packers and their fans. And we are doing our best to ensure that he grows up cheering for the only NFL team worth cheering for.

DAAAA BEARS!

As you can see, Mason is ready for the game today.

We'll take lots of pictures of Mason watching the Super Bowl. At the rate that the Bears make it, he'll be 21 the next time.

Eating solid foods

Mason is eating solid foods these days, including ground turkey and pancakes (just a bit this morning).

This is great, of course, and necessary. It does have consequences, which can be summarized by Mason's new t-shirt. (Thanks Chris and Heather.)

If you can't see the t-shirt, read about it here.

It was very hard to photograph Mason that morning. Why do they make cameras so shiny and flashy?

More pictures in the bouncy seat

After a hard day playing with his friends at daycare, Mason somehow finds the energy for bouncing. It's hard to get good pictures of him in it because he is rarely still enough. So we have some pictures of him jumping out of frame.