Getting Ready to Move?

We are finally over the stomach bug and Mason is pretty much back to himself. Thank goodness! Scott and I now have colds and are hoping that Mason doesn't catch this too but I am sure that it is only a matter of time. He's building up his immune system right? That's what I have to keep reminding myself.

Mason is now getting quite good at pushing himself up while on his tummy. He will push himself up and then bend his arms and go back down and then push himself right back up again. It looks like he is doing pushups and we are just waiting for him to figure out how to bend his knees and lift his stomach and bottom off of the ground. He is on his way to crawling! (I will be saying this now for the next few months just as I went on about him cutting teeth. Heehee!) Strangely he still is not sitting completely on his own although we are pretty sure he is able to do this but just prefers being on his stomach. We will sit him up and he will sit for maybe 5 seconds and then he squirms himself backwards onto his back and immediately flips to his stomach. Hopefully he will be sitting on his own by the end of this next month!

Ava was trying to show him how to crawl from this position. Here's our happy little boy!

We go to the pediatric opthamologist on Monday (Mason will be 8 months that day) to have his sty (on his left eye) checked out. He has had this since he was 3 months old and although it is starting to look a little bit better lately, we want to make sure that this purple mark is only a sty and nothing more. Our optometrist told us that the opthamologist may simply "scoop" out the sty. I am trying not to think about how this procedure is done. I will update all of you after our appointment.

Happy New Year!

Wow! I can't believe that it is already 2008! Scott and I were talking about all of the exciting things that happened over the past year and how excited we are for all that is to come for 2008.

The first milestone of 2008: Mason has a tooth!!! Yeahhhhh!! Finally. It popped through yesterday (bottom right) which might also help to explain some of his "flu-like" symptoms. I have been telling Scott that Mason is "teething" since he was about 3 months old and Scott was beginning to get sick of hearing it. (I figured that I had to be right sooner or later.) We don't yet have a picture as it is just through the gums but hopefully I will be able to soon post his new smile. I am told that I will miss his gummy smile and I am sure that this is true but I am excited for his teeth.

I have included a few pictures here from our Christmas. We had fun putting all of the bows from our gifts on Mason's head.

Mason really enjoyed the wrapping paper.

Here is our little reindeer.

Happy 2008 to all of you! Stay tuned for more updates....

Battling the Bug!

We had a fantastic first Christmas with Mason and our family and friends but have since spent the latter part of the holiday fighting a really nasty stomach bug. (This isn't what was on any of our Christmas lists!) Scott and I got sick on the 27th and had to spend an extra day at his parents place because there was no way that we would have been able to look after Mason. I can't remember the last time that I had the stomach flu but I won't soon forget this past experience. It was brutal! Thank goodness for Scott's parents and for Uncle Karl who spent the day playing and entertaining Mason.
We thought that Mason had dodged the bug but he came down with it on Saturday morning. Let's just say that we now know the difference between vomitting and a little spit-up! Scott, the couch, and the floor received quite the coating. Projectile vomitting in an infant reminds me alot of the Exorcist - very scary!!! Poor little guy couldn't keep anything down all day and his temperature shot right up. We took Mason to the ER around 10 PM on Saturday night because he was starting to show signs of dehydration. The hospital ran a number of tests(bloodwork, urinalysis, and chest x-rays) to make sure that he didn't have a bacterial infection. Meanwhile he was given tylenol, gravol and pedialyte to try and replenish his lost fluids. Scary, scary times for mom and dad! We felt soooo badly (and helpless) for Mason and were feeling guilty for exposing him to this bug. We finally went home around 3 AM after the test results were clear and his fever had broken.
We thought that that was the end of the bug but we are still dealing with it and it seems to rear its ugly head at least once per day. Today has been the best day since last week so we are crossing our fingers that we are through the worst of it.
I know that Mason will get sick many more times in his life and that this is just something that is part of childhood but as a parent all you want is to be the one that is sick and not have your child in pain. Does it get any easier?
Any tips from other parents out there?

Christmas Photo Fun!

Many of you may have noticed the absence of something in your Christmas cards: not money but a Christmas photo of Mason. The primary reason for this is that we weren't able to get into the city to the photo studio due to the huge snowstorm that decided to arrive on our picture day. We had attempted to have photos taken earlier in the month and were not happy with the results (although we did order a few pictures because we felt obligated) so we were hoping that our second attempt would result in at least one half decent picture. Apparently this was not to be! What were we to do? Take our own pictures of course!! How difficult could it be? Well, I will let all of you be the judge. I have posted a few of the "better" pictures below. Our photo session lasted almost a week and we finally just gave up trying to capture the "perfect" picture of Mason. In our eyes all pictures of him are perfect!




We are so excited to be celebrating our first Christmas as a family! Having children definitely brings back the magic of the season. We are so blessed to have Mason in our lives!
Merry Christmas to our family and friends! Stay tuned to more pics....

Bishop Family Christmas

The second party was the annual Bishop Family Christmas. This was our first time attending and it was really nice to see so many relatives (even though we didn't know half of them.) Santa makes a special appearance after the big potluck dinner and all of the kids receive a gift.
Mason wasn't too sure what to think of Santa but he sure was interested in the colourful wrapping paper on his gift.
Bradley and Jack helped Mason open up his gift.Here are some of the Bradley cousins from the next generation. Emma and Catherine joined the boys. Moments after this picture was taken we were in the vehicle to go home and Mason fell asleep before we left the parking lot and slept the entire 2 hour ride home!

Christmas Party at the Jackett's

We spent this past weekend attending two different Christmas functions. The first was hosted by The Jackett's for my extended family. We all dressed in tacky clothes, including Mason although in these pictures he had already taken off his sweater due to the temperature of the house. Don't Scott and I look like we are plucked right out of the 80's? I love this picture of Mason. He reminds me of the Max, the little dog in the Grinch. It must be the way that the hat is perched on top of his head.
The next morning Mason was hanging out in his Christmas jammies in the kitchen with everyone.

Kids' Christmas Party

At the beginning of the month we went down to Elora to attend the Legion's Kids' Christmas Party. Mason took in all of the action. There were so many kids there that he didn't have time to realize that he had skipped his afternoon nap. Santa Claus made an appearance and Mason received a cute toy for the tub. Grandpa Day showed up prior to Santa's arrival.