More family visits

Alice met some of my family as well when we went to her Nana and Papa's house.

Mason was excited to play in the snow with his cousins, Joe and Corey. They had built a snow fort in the yard after a big snow and Mason helped them with a little maintenance.

Corey led their efforts at digging deeper and piling the snow higher.

Joe got some snow in his mitten, but otherwise had a good time.

Mason didn't have a shovel, but made do with an old dustpan. He also had issues with snow in his mittens. There is money to be made selling mittens for toddlers that cannot be removed except by an adult.

A bit later my grandparents came over, and my grandma got to meet Alice.

Alice meets more family

Alice went on her first road trip last weekend. She slept all the way to the burbs and back, which was nice, and got to meet more of her family.

She wore a dress for the first time. I think that she is too young to know what women go through to look cute. It was tough to get the tights on and to get the dress all buttoned up.

Alice met Jeni's cousin Gillian.

Jeni's Grandma Gene also came to visit.

Alice napping

Jeni took this cute picture of Alice napping. I think you can see that Alice is gaining weight.

She says that Mason and Alice were smiling sweetly at each other once Alice awoke, but by the time she got the camera out, they looked like this.

Bathtime is lots of fun

We've been giving Alice sponge baths during Mason's bath time. She spits up a lot and we need to get the stink off her.

Mason loves bath time. Alice doesn't like being scrubbed with the soapy rag, but loves having warm water poured over her and being rubbed with lotion afterward. When her hair gets wet it curls.

And then for at least a few minutes, they're both clean and fresh.

What a nice big brother!

Mason likes to entertain Alice by kissing her and singing her songs. Here he sings his ABCs between bites of a snack.

Alice often responds to him by turning her head, or by opening her mouth (part way to a smile, I think).

The many faces of Alice

Jeni got some nice pictures of Alice making funny faces.

Laughing?

Touchdown?

Farting?

We are quite excited that Alice slept from 10:15PM to 5:15am last night. She was quite fussy and didn't nap much yesterday so she was very tired by the evening, but we're hoping that it was a sign of things to come.

Second Christmas

Last weekend, we had a second Christmas, this time with my family.

Mason liked opening more presents, but enjoyed spending time with his cousins even more, I think.

We didn't take any pictures, but here are a few from my sister Amy

Mason update

We don't want to give short shrift to the original subject of this blog, so here's a quick update on Mason.

Mason is doing very well, all things considered. Any anxiety he has about his new sister only comes out at bedtime when he only wants Jeni. Even then he doesn't usually put up too much of a fight. Most of the time he is very patient with us and is interested in what Alice is doing (or having done to her).

He really is turning into a little boy before our eyes. His latest milestone is becoming fully potty trained. Jeni and I are very proud of him and brought him to get his own fish a few days ago.

At first he thought Dorothy (Elmo's fish's name) would be a good name, but in the end decided on "Neno" which is his pronunciation of Nemo of "Finding Nemo" fame.

Mason invites all of our visitors up to his room to see his new fish. If you ask, he will proudly tell you what he did to get earn his pet.

Usually, Neno lives up on Mason's dresser so this kind of thing doesn't happen.

Happy New Year!

Everyone in our house was asleep by 11:30PM New Year's Eve. At least we saw the ball drop in New York.

The next morning we took some pictures of Mason and Alice.

We also took a little movie. Mason loves to give his sister kisses.