Mason is 5 months old!

Happy 5 months to Mason!

What he likes:

• Kicking: he's always kicking his legs. He's really squirmy, which makes it hard to hold him sometimes. Grandpa thinks he'll be a good swimmer because he kicks so much now.
• Rolling over: he's getting a lot better at rolling from his tummy to his back. Sometimes he can go full circle: tummy-to-back-to-tummy again. 
• Holding his bottle: guess he likes to help too because he usually tries to grab his bottle when he's being fed. Sometimes he pulls the bottle out and tries to put it back in his mouth.
• Reaching/grabbing for things: he especially likes things that make noises
• Funny noises: he breaks into a smile when mama (or anyone) makes a funny noise
• Raspberries: he always laughs when mama gives him raspberries on his tummy or feet
• Grabbing his toes while he's lying on his back (also known as happy baby yoga pose)
• Getting naked

What he doesn't like:

• Napping at daycare

Happy Birthday Mama!

Mama's three!  Okay, she's not really three, but that's the number of candles we put in her cakes. I got to pick out her cakes, so I chose: a chocolate cupcake, mini-fruit tart and a mini-carrot cake. 

To celebrate her birthday, mama went on a bike ride with auntie Michelle, planted vegetables in her new planter box and went for a bike ride with me and dada around our neighborhood.  We also went to lunch and dinner with grandma and grandpa.  Po-po's on a cruise of the British Isles, so she couldn't join us. 

When it was time to sing Happy Birthday and eat cake, grandma asked, "Who's going to blow out the candles?" I replied, "Logan!" in a very insistent tone. Since it was mama's birthday, I decided to let her help me blow out the candles.  See, I can share. 

I ate all the chocolate frosting off the cupcake and two blackberries from the tart.  I wasn't interested in the cake part of the cupcake or the custard and crust from the tart. 

Posse in effect

This weekend was our first trip to Gilroy Gardens for 2012 season!  It was also Mason's first trip ever!

Usually, we go with another family or two.  This time, we had a huge posse with us: Me, Mason, Kyden, Sienna, Matthew, Edison and Greyson. (That's right, Sienna was the only girl hangin with us guys.)

With such a large group, it took us a while to get started. After all the season pass photos and the bathroom stop (one of many), we finally got to ride the rides.  I wanted to ride the spinning garlic (similar to the teacups at Disneyland) and the banana split (giant banana swing similar to a viking swing), but I was too little.  Boo!

At least I got to ride on most of the rides.  Mason was too little to ride on pretty much all of the rides. He was only allowed to ride on the train. See there he is...somewhere in this picture. If you look closely, you can see part of his face. Even though he couldn't ride most of the rides, Mason did great.

 I had a great time hanging with my posse. But I think mama is confused.  I've been asking her if we can go to Disneyland, not Gilroy Gardens.  Every time I ask her, she replies, "You need to ask Uncle Jeff and Auntie Jeanette."  Huh?

Here comes the bride

 Mama's cousin, Sharon, got married today.  Hmm...if she's mama's cousin does that make her my 2nd cousin? Anyway, we (Mason and I) were lucky enough to be invited. So after our naps, we got dolled up and headed out to Pleasanton.

It was a really fancy venue with a giant fountain in the front. The bridal party danced down to the aisle to the Marry You song from Glee. Even the groom's mom danced down the aisle with the groom! I bet mama would do something like that when Mason or I get married. They had an airline/flight theme, which mama thought was cute because Sharon is a flight attendant and Wilson (the groom) is a pilot for Cathay Pacific. BTW, they didn't meet at the airline; they met in college - driving buses.  Hmmm, I'm sensing a definite transportation thing.

They also had a photo booth with props. Fun, fun! Mason and I took pictures in the photo booth.  I took mine with dada; Mason took his with mama.  We couldn't get it together to take a family picture though.   


















There were only a handful of kids at the wedding: me, Mason, Anders (he was the ring bearer), the flower girl and two other girls. I've hung out with Anders before. His mama (who is another one of mama's cousins) brought him over to meet Mason, have lunch and then go to the park a month or so ago. He was really dressed up in a rental tux. Mama got me to wear my tie by telling me that Ander's would be in a tie too.

Weddings are okay...kinda boring and long in my opinion. I mean don't people know how hard for little kids like me to sit still and behave?  I kept asking if we could go home during the reception, but we had to wait til the food was served. Good thing dada packed dinner for me. Otherwise I would've been tired and hungry.

Mama's back to work

Mama picked me and Mason up at daycare yesterday. What the?! I'm not used to having her pick me up. Usually dada picks us up and we see mama when we get home.

Turns out mama went back to work this week, and she's going to do pick up twice a week.  It wasn't actually an entire week, since she started on Wed.  But she said it still felt like a full week. I think she misses hangin' out with Mason and Tachi, and taking care of stuff for the family/around the house.

Bubble water

Bouncy ball

Happy Mother's Day

Today is a day that we celebrate mama's and all the wonderful things they do for us! We had a really busy day (more on that later).

At daycare we've been talking all about mama's and why we love them. Ms. Darlene wrote down what we said and posted it outside our classroom. Since dada usually picks us up, he took a picture for mama.  I also made gifts for mama. I made mama a paper flower and a laminated poem with my hand prints the page. Mason even made something for mama.  It's a picture of him inside a heart with one hand print next to it.

Back to our busy day. After getting dressed, we packed up the swagger wagon and headed out for brunch with grandma, grandpa and uncle mike at Scott's Seafood in Walnut Creek. Uncle jeff, auntie jeanette and ethan went to Disneyland, so they couldn't join us. I was so excited about seeing grandma and grandpa that I didn't take a nap on the drive. (No offense uncle mike. I like hangin' out with you too, but grandma and grandpa are special.) My favorite thing at brunch was the grapes and the chocolate from the chocolate-covered strawberry.

After brunch, we went to play at a nearby park. Uncle mike had to take off, so it was just grandma, grandpa, mama, dada, me and mason. This was a really nice park. They had a train that kids could climb on, swings, two play structures, a sand play area and rocks that we could climb.

After playing at the park, we headed home to hang out with Po-po. Mason and I both took a nap on the drive home. I continued my nap at home. Dada joined me. When we woke up, mama, mason and po-po were facetiming with uncle eddie, auntie lia and caylie. Caylie is getting big and even cuter! It was nice to see them. I wonder when we're going to meet caylie in person.  Then we went to dinner with po-po. There were giant gold fish swimming in a pond at the Chinese restaurant we went to!  I wanted to touch them, but kept swimming away. I also wanted to throw a coin into the water, but mama said that we couldn't do that here.

Happy mother's day to mama, grandma, po-po, auntie lia and auntie jeanette!

Bowl-o-rama

Matthew invited me and Mason to go bowling with him and Kyden this afternoon. When dada reminded me that we were bowling today, I got really excited.  I kept asking about bowling all morning and on the drive there. But my excitement turned to fear as soon as we walked into the bowling alley.  I started to cry and say that I didn't want to go bowling.

Ky, Matthew, uncle Mike, auntie Audrey and dada were totally into it and ready to bowl. Dada and uncle Mike even brought their own shoes and bowling balls! After I saw how excited they were, I decided that I wanted to bowl.  So, mama and I went to find some balls for me.  I got a 6 lb ball (green) and and 8 lb ball (orange).

Auntie Audrey asked the bowling alley workers for a ramp so Ky, Matthew and I could push our balls down the ramp.  Oh we also asked them to put the bumpers up on the lanes. They didn't have enough shoes in our sizes, so Matthew and I just bowled in our normal shoes.

The hardest part about bowling is waiting for my turn and not touching the balls when it's not my turn. Dada says that if I touch the balls when it's not my turn, my fingers could get smooshed.

Mason wasn't all that interested in bowling. Must be because he can't walk and stuff yet. He ended up taking a nap on mama while we bowled.

Turns out bowling isn't scary at all. I had a lot of fun bowling! So much fun that I kept talking about it at dinner tonight. Ky and Matthew both bowled a strike! While I didn't bowl a strike, I did bowl 3 spares and ended up bowling 99.  Mama says that's good because she rarely breaks 100 when she bowls. Here's a video that mama took of me bowling.



Thanks for inviting me Matthew! I had a great time and can't wait to go bowling again!

I'm still sleeping

This past week whenever dada comes to check on me in the mornings, this is what happens:



Sorry, the video quality's not that great because of the lighting in my room.  But you get the idea.

Bored out of her mind?

 Dada brought me to school, like always. But today, he also brought Mason to school.  He started daycare and today was his first day.  

Mama was sad because she's going to miss spending time with Mason and because it's her last week of maternity leave. I was sad too this morning. I wanted mama to come with dada, me and Mason to daycare. When she didn't get in the white car with us, I cried. I miss her. I always ask for her when we get to daycare these days.

Dada managed to successfully drop both me and Mason off.  He says Mason adds a half hour to both drop off and pick up.  In the morning, he drops me first and then Mason. In the evening, he picks up Mason first and then me. He says it's easier because he doesn't have to deal with me taking my shoes on and putting them back off.  Mason's in my old homebase with my old teachers. Here he is with Ms. Sandra.

Mama stopped by at noon to participate in an infant massage workshop with Mason. He really liked the massage (who wouldn't?). She's going to try and work it into our night time routine. That's right, I benefit from infant massage too.

Mason did great for his first day of daycare. He took 3 naps...all of them were less than an hour. He also didn't spit up at all. (Well, he saved it up for dada and mama cuz he threw up all over both of them after dinner.) Ms. Jessica, another one of his teachers, did squats while holding him. He likes that a lot. He'd always laugh and smile when mama did that with him at the mommy/baby yoga class.

Since dada took me and Mason to school today, what did mama do all day by herself (beside the infant massage workshop)?  Dada said something about bon-bons. I think she must've been bored out of her mind.

Flowbie party

Tyler, Connor and Claire (the twins) came over this evening for a flowbie party.  Auntie Sylvia heard that dada cuts my hair with a flowbie. She told mama that my hair always looks really good!  So, mama invited them over because Connor and Tyler needed hair cuts.  She said that Connor's hair was so long that people thought he was a girl.

Connor didn't really like the flowbie very much, but dada was fast. Tyler (he's 6!) did great. He didn't cry at all. It took dada longer to cut Tyler's hair because his hair is really thick. I was so impressed that I wanted dada to cut my hair too. And guess what? I didn't cry this time! Mama wanted to take a picture of all us boys after our haircuts, but we didn't cooperate.

Terk

Mama and dada met with Ms. Jessica (yup, the same Ms. Jessica that took care of me when I was his age) today because Mason's going to start daycare next week.  She said that Mason reminds her of Terk, the gorilla from Disney's Tarzan movie.  Mama and dada hadn't seen the movie before and didn't know what Terk looked like. So, dada googled Terk. What do you think? Is there a resemblance?

 

It's the crazy hair do!  Mason's hair is even wackier than mine was. He has waves and curls.  And his hair is puffy, kinda like a bouffant. After that, dada started calling Mason a monkey.  Someone should tell him that Terk is a gorilla, not a monkey.  But I guess Mason the gorilla doesn't have the same ring as Mason the monkey.

Long and lean

Mason had is 4 month well baby visit today.  He hit all of his milestones and is completely off the baby zantac - even though he still spits up a lot.  Here're his stats:

• Height: 25.75 inches (78th percentile)
• Weight: 14 lbs 14 oz (48th percentile)
• Head circumference: 42.5 cm (50th percentile)

So he's long and lean - like dada and grandpa. Mama talked to the doctor about how much Mason spits up, and she said that it just means his esophageal sphincter is probably looser than most kids. She told mama that he could start solids sooner since that might stay in down better. Mama and dada have decided to wait until he shows an interest in food. Guess they like doing lots of laundry.

Mason's head is slightly flat on the back right side. Good thing he has lots of hair to mask it! I had a flat head when I was Mason's age and my head is round now.  Probably because I'm a tummy sleeper. We'll see if Mason is tummy sleeper or a starfish (on his back with his arms and legs spread out, which is what he does now). To help correct his flat head, he's going to have to lay on his tummy every time he has to be put down. When he's tired of being on his tummy, someone's going to have to hold him or he's going to have to sit in the Bumbo.

The doctor also told mama that he has a heart murmur. Apparently he had it at the last appointment too, but for some reason she didn't tell mama and dada about it. Anyway...heart murmurs are common in infants. Most of the time they're "normal" or functional heart murmurs that go away on it's own. She said it sounds like this type of murmur. But to be on the safe side, she's wants a pediatric cardiologist to listen to his heart.

Hopefully these things will clear themselves up. Otherwise he might have a tough time getting the cute girls to like him!