New Traditions

Chris and I began our Christmas Eve traditions with Mason last night. We had planned on taking him down to Riverside Park to see all the lights, but the wind and the storm blowing in put an end to that plan. So we stayed in and started a fire (okay, so we just ignited the gas logs, which is less Christmas-y but the best we could do) and settled in on the couch for the first annual reading of "The Night Before Christmas." Mom and Dad used to gather us all up (quite a feat in itself) and read that and the Christmas story from St. John, so I wanted to carry on that tradition with Mason. Unfortunately, Mason's attention span is less than 1/8 that of the common house fly, so we skipped the Bible story this year.

With our poem read and our cookies laid out for Santa (a gingerbread replica of the Bakers), off we went to bed.

Uncovering My True Calling

Yesterday Miriam came over for for Photography Day, Part Deux, which was such a rousing success (as you can see from the adorable pictures of the Cutest Baby in the World) that we have finally given in to the inevitable: we may be paid (albeit not well) to teach, but we were born to photograph. Chris had been expressing much disgust over the cost of professional photography, which was compounded by his disgust over the cost of the professional camera he had purchased for me for Christmas last year so I could take pictures of our baby. Thus in his mind, a professional photographer should play no part in our lives...ever, at all, period. And so I caved in and agreed to take Mason's 6-months photos on my own, as much to help save money as to challenge my artistic side, and (as always) Miriam was my willing co-conspirator.

Miriam insists that I note that anyone who wants to pay us gobs of money to photograph their offspring should just call our people (i.e. Nick).

The Freezer Gremlin

This is how we protect the surplus breastmilk in our extra freezer: a freezer gremlin. Actually, it's just a disembodied turkey claw that I uncovered this afternoon while retrieving some more milk for Mason. You can imagine my surprise and delight.

Santa Baby

Here's Mason doing his best Santa Claus impersonation. Thanks, Aunt Megan and Gramma, for the outfit and hat!

Mason's New Friend

Mom gave Mason a little stuffed horse when we were home for Thanksgiving, and he fell in love. Chris tried to take it away while Mason was in the swing because he kept chewing on the mane and getting hairballs in his mouth. You can see Mason's reaction in the picture; he was NOT giving it up! Later Chris made me trim the mane and tail so that the hair issue wasn't such a big deal. He also renamed the horse Rocket because it wasn't manly enough to call it Spirit (it was the horse from that movie, Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron). Anyway...how sweet is this picture?

Avocados...Yum-Yum!

Mason's getting the hang of eating baby food now. We started him on rice cereal after his surgery, but things got sidetracked by his reflux. He was throwing up (yes, throwing up...not spitting up) at least once a day and sometimes up to five times, so Dr. Kaushik put him on Zantac. That didn't do the trick, so they upped his dosage, and it finally improved, although he still does it every now and then. We had to just concentrate on getting ANYTHING to stay down for a while, so moving from cereal to fruits and vegetables took a backseat. All in all, Mason lost more than five weeks because it took that long for him to gain back up to his pre-surgery weight. Every time he threw up, I tried not to cry. I was so worried because he wasn't gaining weight (and sick of washing regurgitated milk out of my hair, the carpet, his clothes, etc.), and it didn't seem like anything we tried made it better.

When I finally felt like it was safe to move on, I started him with avocados. Chris gagged watching me make it; he hates avocados. I told him that avocado is a perfect food because it has everything a person needs to survive and has the most fat of any fruit or vegetable, so he better smile and pretend like it was delicious when he fed it to Mason. Chris solved that moral dilemma by refusing to feed him. The avocados went over well, and Mason likes to help me get the spoon into his mouth. Messy, but effective.

So now Mason has tried avocados, pears, sweet peas, apples, butternut squash, and yellow squash (he's not a fan). We weighed him yesterday, and it looks like he's about 14 pounds and 5 ounces. Chris and I set a goal of 15 pounds by the time he goes back for his 6-month check-up on the 18th; I don't think we'll make it, but he's gaining, so we're happy with that. Oh, and Chris did feed Mason a few bites of squash the other day out of necessity (we were trying to hurry out of the house to see the Rockettes in Nashville for our anniversary), so he's making progress as well.

The Annual Family Picture

My family's annual picture (which hasn't been annual for a couple of years!) and Thanksgiving prompted another visit back to East Tennessee. We had spent last Thanksgiving in Clarksville, so this year was the other side's turn. We had dinner over at Tom and Pattie's, where Tom made the best turkey I've ever had. I'm normally a sides girl, but I think I ate more turkey than Chris this year. Dinner was later than normal, and Mason's bedtime is 7:30, so we had to leave before the party was over. Before we left, all the sisters made plans to meet up pre-dawn the next morning for some Black Friday shopping.

At 4:45 on the dot, Mary pulled in at Mom's to pick me up, and we made it to the mall at 5, way after the first rush. Sisters 1 and 3 wimped out, so it was just Mar and me, and we were back home by 9. I'm dreading the days to come when Mason will want the toy-of-the-year and Chris and I will have to camp out on Thanksgiving afternoon. Mary and I still laugh about the year Tyra wanted the Barbie Beetle, and I had to hurdle stacks of toys in KB to snag one of the three they had in stock. I'm not that fast anymore and Chris' knees are shot from two decades of soccer, so Mason may be out of luck.

The next morning the whole family met up at the Thompson-Brown house for our family picture, and it was as much a zoo as you imagine it would be, trying to corral 23 people. As usual, Dad ended up Photoshop-ing the picture to get one good shot where all eyes were open and no kids were screaming. Toward the end of the shoot, Mom and Dad were ensconced on the steps with all their grandkids, and as Chris passed Mason to Mom, I noticed tell-tale wet spots on his pants. Yep, he pooped out his diaper, so he is conspicuously absent from the grandkids photo. Maybe Dad can Photoshop him back in. We got some super-cute shots of him in his toboggan, though.

Later that night we were able to visit Jason and Christy, even though we missed out on seeing Sydney because she was napping. Christy looks way cuter pregnant than I ever felt. Can't wait to see little Rece! From their house we headed over to Brad and Amy's and had dinner with them. Braden was so sweet and shared his toys (even his prized Thomas train) with Mason...pretty impressive for someone his age! We hadn't seen any of our Knoxville friends in ages, so it was great to catch up.

If we end up moving back to East Tennessee, it'll be nice to have couples to hang with who have kids. We'll miss the Shasserres and Collinses so much, but we realize that we're kind of a drag on them now that we have Mason. Of course, they could just hurry up and have kids, and then we wouldn't have to worry about it!

Christmas Card Pictures

A couple of weekends ago we met the Shasserres at Dunbar Cave for a photo shoot in the hopes of getting a good picture for our Christmas card. Although the Shasserres' pictures were a lot better than ours (it's easier to get Nick to smile than Mason), we got some cute shots. I wish I had video of Miriam trying to get Mason to laugh! I certainly laughed at her a lot, though Mason wasn't quite so easily amused.