At last!

Before Mackenzie knew it, Grammy was here and the fun began! During her four day stay, I think Grammy read every one of the 18 books we'd checked out from the library and countless others from our own collection. She also spent time searching for insects in the yard, playing board games, doing puzzles , scratching a certain enthusiastic canine behind the ears and making silly faces and noises at our squirmy boy.  Mike, Mack and Grammy visited the Celestial Seasonings tea factory, the Leaning Tree card company and the art museum in Boulder before heading to the butterfly pavilion. When they returned home they were exhausted but each bearing a " I held Rosie" ( the tarantula) sticker on their chest.

Time with Grammy always goes fast but we are always glad for the chance to spend time with her. Mackenzie can't wait to start the countdown to Grammy's next visit.

That's quite the lap full!

Mack holding Rosie-Brave girl!

A long, long wait

Mackenzie has been very patiently counting down the days until Grammy would get here. Finally, the day arrived and the minutes dragged on. Mackenzie must have stood at the door for 20 minutes before I finally convinced her she could play outside for a while and I'd call her when I saw Mike's car carrying Grammy drive up. True to my word, a few minutes later I called out that Grammy was here....Let the fun being! To be continued.....

Captivating....

What could possibly hold Mason's attention for MINUTES on end?
( minutes are like hours in babyland)

The ceiling fan, of course! There isn't a baby that can't be
charmed by beloved " Aunt Fannie" , the ever present
baby sitter!

Smiles for Aunt Fannie

Mason is 2 months!

I guess, technically, he won't be two months until Tuesday, at which point he will actually be almost nine weeks...Thanks for all the confusion, Gregorian calendar!

Mason has figured out that he can fit his entire fist in his mouth and has mastered the art
of blowing raspberries! He is still working on mastering the
ever trying nap routine. He'll be visiting Karen for his 2 month
well child exam later this week.

Mason, 8 weeks

Looking more and more alert!

Chatting with Mason

Here's a quick clip of chatty Mason and me pulling out

                                                           all the stops for a smile. 

Shocking

When we brought Mason home from the hospital, Ellie developed a major case of sibling rivalry. Not only was she incredibly curious about him ( so much so that we worried she would pounce on him if we turned our back) but she also "remembered" lots of bad habits that she'd previously been broken of. Mike and I were unsure what to do. We love Ellie . She is part of our family . Not only that, Mackenzie and Ellie are playmates and we knew that , if came down to it and we have to find Ellie a new home, Mack would be heart broken. But we also couldn't be with Ellie every second of the day, reminding her not to chew on baby toys and not to dig, etc.Most importantly, we have to be able to trust Ellie with our kids and we just weren't sure we could. Brian and Annie had raved about e-collar training with their two dogs. Though we never liked the idea of using an electric collar with any animal, we also didn't know what else to do. So, we decided to give it one last ditch effort , hoping it would be the solution to our doggie woes.

We're happy to say that it has helped tremendously. In fact, we've only had to shock Ellie once or twice. Should she forget, we simply remind her with the " vibrate" setting on the collar and Ellie shapes right up. Thank goodness! Our house just wouldn't be the same with out Ellie girl.

Grammy is coming!

Grammy will be here before we know it so , of course, we needed to create a countdown so we knew exactly where we stood in the wait. This time, Mackenzie insisted on doing the entire thing herself. Each morning as she checks off the day, she also adds a new drawing to the poster:

Mack's handy work !
See the "slug bug" traffic jam at the bottom?

There goes another day!