"BAD dog!"

I was upstairs putting Mason down for a nap when I heard Mackenzie shouting--no screaming-- at Ellie. The screams quickly turned to tears and, as I reached the top of the stairs ( a no longer drowsy Mason in arm)to find out what was going on, Mackenzie was already at the bottom of the stairs on her way up.

" Ellie ATE my nature!" . The tears were coming faster now.
" Your nature?"  I had no clue what she was talking about.
" My LEAVES! That I collected on our walk! "
Sure enough, I could see leaf bits scattered about the room below, a guilty looking Ellie chewing a stem near the stairs. I attempted to diffuse the situation, apologizing that Ellie had eaten her nature and reminded her that dogs eat things when they're left around and ended with a promise that we could later collect more leaves. Thinking this solved the problem, I resumed the nap time ritual but could still hear Mackenzie lecturing Ellie down stairs. I couldn't make out much of what she was saying from Mason's room upstairs but every now and again I would hear her shout " That's a BAD dog!" . This went on for a few minutes before Mack forgot about the eaten roughage and all was calm.

Fast forward a few days and Cass and I are sitting in my living room and I am telling this story to her. Ellie had found a comfy spot on the chair behind me . As I began to rehash this story, Ellie became uneasy and when I turned around, had buried her head in the throw blanket on the chair. This must have been a very traumatic event for poor El:

Poor girl

"I'm a cowgirl!"

After watching Mike taking a ride on Chica a few weeks ago, Mack decided she was going to go for a ride, too. Papa is always ready to saddle up a horse for rides and so off they went, Mackenzie chattering about being a cowgirl.

Gramps giving Macky some riding tips. She says she's going to keep
practicing so she's the best cowgirl EVER!

Two cow girls! Mack and Brooklyn

We made it- Three months!

Mr. Serious is not easily impressed

 Mason is three months old! This is officially the end of the newborn phase which means we survived! This always sounds weird to me ( and probably to other people as well) . The newborn phase is such a purely innocent time full of moments that will forever be remembered but ,if I'm being honest, it's my least favorite time of the early years. And it's not that I don't love and treasure any time with my babies. It's only that ,along with this sweet time of "firsts", the sweet smell of a bald baby's head and the complete contentment that comes with having a sleepy newborn passed out on your chest, also comes  the total lack of routine that tends to drive up my anxiety and make things feel chaotic for me. I am a type A personality to a tee so having things feel so unsettled is really hard on me, especially when there is one more child. Having said that, I adore my babies and seeing them through this stage, even with all the anxiety it provokes in me, is something I'd never pass up on. And as Mason reaches the end of the newborn phase, I smile thinking of all the memories we've collected over the last three months.

He sure had changed a lot! He came into the world screaming and demanding attention. From the start he's been a boy who knows what he wants and, for him, there isn't any middle ground. Don't get me wrong, when Mason is happy he is VERY happy but it doesn't take much for his switch to be flipped from " happy as can be" to " I'm mad and YOU better do something about it". This hasn't really changed much but his happy times are far out weighing the crabby ones. Up until a few weeks ago, the only place for Mason to be was in a warm pair of arms, preferably mine. Now he is content to spend time laying on the floor under his baby gym or in his exersaucer or bouncy seat. He also is a much better traveler and has learned that his car seat is not a torture device. He is a much happier passenger these days. He is full of coos and giggles and full out laughter. One of his favorite things is watching his sister prance around the room or making funny faces at him. My favorite memory of the two of them so far is listening to Mason in his exersaucer  laughing his little heart out at Mackenzie, playing with her shaker eggs, dancing ever more wild to keep the laughs coming and so proud that she is the one who provoked such happy sounds.

One of the things I have been most proud of since Mason's birth was that I was able to successfully and exclusively breast feed him. It was something I was not able to do with Mackenzie and I felt robbed of an experience that everyone woman should be able to do if it is her desire.  Mason and I established a great nursing relationship, one that went strong for nearly three months. At that point Mason was no longer sleeping more than an hour or hour and a half around the clock. He would nurse , have time to "play" and just as he got settled in for a nap, his little belly was empty and the cycle restarted, this time with a slightly crabbier baby than before. Night time showed no reprieve . Thankfully, our wonderful pediatrican called to see how things were going and found an exhausted, overly stressed mom , dad and baby . She gave me suggestions for how to get our little guy sleeping better. The major thing was to add rice cereal to a bottle of my pumped milk at one night feeding. While this did help somewhat at night, our days were still full of a nonsleeping, always hungry boy. To make matters worse, he had decided he really liked the faster flow of the bottle and became a very lazy nurser who would only eat 5-10 minutes before he'd stop, only to be hungry again in 45 minutes to an hour. Maybe it's because I was so exhausted or maybe it's because this time, stopping was MY choice, but making the gradual switch to formula wasn't so bad for either of us. Mason has been sleeping so much better at night, usually waking only once for a feeding, and going longer stretches on a full belly during the day. This means he can get in some good naps and I feel like I has a weight lifted off my shoulders because I am able to spend more time with Mackenzie as well as gaining some sense of normal life again. I will always be in awe of those who can nurse their babies for longer periods of time. It really is a bond and experience that I won't ever forget and I am so glad that I got the chance to do it ,even if it wasn't for as long as I'd wanted. And since I had such a healthy supply and was able to pump daily, I am still able to give Mason breast milk in at least one bottle a day . 

Mason's first bottle

The last three months, though trying at times, have also given me some of the most joyous times in my life- kissing another bald, newborn head and drinking in that newborn smell, seeing my daughter love her brother with a natural, real love right from the start, hearing Mike talking to Mason on the baby monitor and referring to him as " son" , first coos, first laughs all shared as a family. As Mike said- it really does feel like Mason has been here all along.

Mason Thomas 3 months

There's that smile!

Playmates are coming!

As it usually goes, when I found out that I was pregnant last summer, I was suddenly surrounded by fellow baby bump bearers. By the time I'd entered my third trimester, I had at least 15 pregnant friends . Since then, there has been a steady stream of newborn cuteness in our lives. Mason will have no shortage of options when it comes to playmates especially considering that a few of those newborns belong to some of my closest friends.

Cass is one of my oldest and dearest friends. Her boy Logan is just
seven weeks behind Mason. They will be best friends, like it or not!

Logan is younger but he can out eat Mason all day long!

Happy Birthday, Ellie

Ellie looking very obedient

A few weeks ago Mack asked about Ellie's birthday. Since we got her from a shelter, we don't know an exact birthday but we know she was born sometime in July. Upon hearing this, Mack insisted we put the date on the calendar and began planning a doggy birthday party. Normally I'm not someone who loves their pet so much that I celebrate their birthday. I'm fairly certain there isn't a canine in the world who would know or care that their birthday was fast approaching. I love my dog but not that much. Having said that, I am the mother of a four year old old who does love her dog enough to feel compelled to make the day special and who is fairly certain that Ellie would be heart broken with out a celebration. So a celebration we had.

Making Ellie's birthday cake

Check out those egg crackin' skills

We made a yellow cake mix but
added dog bones to Ellie's.
Turns out, they were the only part Ellie ate.

Ellie got to lick the bowl

But Macky got to frost the cupcakes

Ellie's meaty birthday present- a ham bone

Ellie could hardly believe her luck- a day full of treats!

Ellie shortly after we brought her home

Curls abound

Mack is in love with her hair. Any chance she gets to do something new or crazy to it, she snatches up. I showed her how twisting her hair into buns can make it extra curly and crazy when you take them out. She seems to really like the idea since she informed me this morning that she'd be wearing buns to bed every night.

Back at it!

After having gotten the " all clear" from my doctor to start running again, I was ready to jump back into it but with the 100+ temps, I wasn't about to even try running. Thankfully, this last week we had four days in a row with temps below 80 degrees so I grabbed my chance!

I mapped out a three mile route around our neighborhood and I was surprised to find that I hadn't really added much more than a minute to my pre-pregnancy time and , even more surprising was the fact that I had absolutely no pain at my incision site despite the fact that it's still considered a fairly new " wound".

Even though I am excited to be back to running, the route can be kinda lonely  . So, I recruited a jogging partner and, despite her outstanding physical shape, I'm pretty sure I wear her out:

Ellie, post jog