Photo Shoot results

One of the members of our church took photos of our family out at the palace of fine arts. there were 115 shots, all of which i loved - but here are a few of the highlights:

you should check her out at mattandkellysummers.com

Going through the shoot, seein how much fun she had, and seeing the result gave me the photography bug....but where to start or what to learn, or what camera to even get? i need one for my birthday and was going to get a cheap $100 digital - but maybe i should get a "good" one? HMMMM.........

Bay Area Discovery Museum / 10 months old

The first Wednesday of every month the Bay Area Discovery Museum is free. All the good, free, fun stuff is always on the weekdays - and as a working mom i tend to miss all those types of things. But i have a ton of paid time off, around 2 weeks, so what better day to take off than a day where Mason and i can have all kinds of fun? We spent the majority of our time in the "tot room" but this place is massive. The next time i go i will join - it is well worth it for a year of fun. Here are some of the highlights:

Cheese Factory Picnic

Kurt and I are always looking for fun things to do with our little monkey, which use to be so easy when he was a passive observer. However now that he is active and either wants to be always on the go or in the ergo snuggled up to one of us it can be a bit challenging. One day we were out at the Cheese Factory, of curse we arrived just as it was closing, and we thought what a fun spot it would be to invite people out for a picnic - with wine!

Of course the date we picked was overcast and a little on the cold side - but with a sweat shirt on it was fun. We had some new friends from kindermusik there and some friends that we have known for a while - it is so fun to get to know new friends, and reconnect with friends we have known for a while. Since moving to marin i have struggled with meeting new friends, and really connecting with people. I have found that having a child is a great reason to meet people!

Mason and his great Aunt Juli:

The fun that 5 babies can have with a picnic basket:

Mason and his friend Harry, from Kindermusik:

Memorial Weekend

It seems as Mason gets older our weekends get busier...which i love - but it seems like my time with him, with my baby, just watching him be who he is, is getting shorter. I don't know what the answer is, because i love doing things with him - but i love the quiet of just watching him. It really hit me this weekend that he has a personality, he is growing up and has likes and dislikes, he is not my tiny infant anymore. I suspect that part of it is living with the in laws, and needing some time as a family of 3 - that we look for many opportunities to be out and about. We will find the way to balance better. Learning to be parents and to be a family has such a huge learning curve!

Saturday started with swimming lessons, and then some friends of ours organized a family picnic as Howarth Park in Santa Rosa http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/departments/recreationandparks/programs/howarthpark/Pages/default.aspx. For those of you in northern California who have not checked it out...you need to. It is a kids wonderland. it has picnic areas with BBQs that you can reserve, a lake with boats to rent, a train, a carousel, pony rides, a killer park with a water play area. Tickets for the train and carousel were like $2/ adult. it was so much fun. Much of it mason just watched. the carousel he thought was fun for about 30 seconds of moving- but then wanted to be held instead of ride on the horse going up and down. the train ride he slept through. But it was well worth the drive to santa rosa!

Sunday we ended up skipping church - we just needed some downtime. then it was off to a friend's son's baptism and party...and family portraits at the palace of fine arts. We had wanted to get married there - but it was under construction. we wanted to take our engagement photos there - but see previous problem. so with an almost 10 month old we took the photos of our dreams thanks to our friend kelly. http://www.mattandkellysummers.com/ . It was so cold and windy out there. Mason was trooper. He didn't get to bed until 9pm - poor kiddo.

Monday we went to the zoo!!! and we became members of the zoo too. if we go just 2 more times this year it will pay for itself. surely in the next year we will go twice. I can't believe that we are such parents and adults and are members now. I didn't know how much Mason was going to be aware of what we were doing and what he was seeing. He was completely aware. he pointed at and watched the animals. In the petting zoo he touched and petted everything that would stand still for a 9 1/2 month old to do so.

9 months old

May 5th Mason was 9 months old, weighing a big 20.3 pounds. I was pregnant for 42 weeks - which according to my math is more than 10 months old, but the medical community says that is 9 months. It felt like i was pregnant FOREVER! Mason has been in my life for 9 months now, and it has gone so fast. He is eating pretty much what we eat - thai, burritos, everything except for honey and peanuts! He is crawling up on his hands and knees, he can pull himself to stand and cruise on furniture for a few steps. He "swims" underwater. He has slept through the night for 7 nights in a row at most. He has 4 teeth, with more on their way in. And with about 90% accuracy he will say NANA for bannana. yes his first word, the most exciting thing in his life is a food item....sigh.

I wish i could stay home with him. I wish that i could work less than i do. But desire #1 isn't an option, and try as i might i can't get option #2 to work out for me. But that is a work in progress, and in this currenty economy i just can't say no to an awesome job that is flexible for my own needs. I just know that before i realize it he will be in school and all grown up.

I want to have more babies - but then Mason wouldn't be THE baby anymore - he would have to grow up. But the longer i wait, the more difference in age the two of them will have!?!?!?!?!

Swim Lessons

When Mason was first born i started researching what kinds of things a baby can do, and how old you have to be to do certain activities. Swim lessons were 6 months, gymnastics is a year old, soccer is 3 years old. Well, as has become normal for my life...i found out how to sign up and 2 months later finally got my act together and registered. So at 8 months we started classes. I had no idea what to expect at baby swim lessons. it was advertised for mommy and me, for 6-18 month olds. We showed up and there were 4 of us - and i was the only mom in the water. Which is highly unusual for baby activites - generally it mom's who do all of the activities. One baby girl is 6 months old and cute as a button. The other two boys in class are no where near 18 months old. One has got to be 6 years old. oh well. It was super fun! And Mason is fearless when it comes to water. we had these games to play - put baby on your chest, kick his legs and have him move forward so he learns that kicking makes him go forward......which means there were 4 adult walking backwards in a tiny section of pool trying not to run into each other. The whole time Mason was laughing, and splashing and didn't care when water got in his face or eyes.

3 months worth of catch up

December 20th is the last time i wrote. So much has happened!

I went back to work. I still wish i didn't have to work. Pumping 3x/day is intense and takes up an hour of my work day. I hate that i don't get to see every thing happen with him. But, the more i get use to work, the less i resent it. ANd i love the look on his face when i come home.

He is eating 3 meals a day and even some non-mashed banannas and pears

He sits up

He started crawling - in an army creeping sort of a way, and the tv remote is the most crawled towards item.

He has three teeth in various states of coming in.