Gobble Gobble...I'm 30!

The week of November 25th was an awesome one; so much excitement and joy! I was fortunate enough to have the entire week off of school...that meant spending every day, every minute, and every second with Mason! We had a lot of fun together running around with Grandma Paulette getting ready for Thanksgiving. Our baby boy changed even more this week (if that's possible); he is now very easily grabbing for toys, pulling out his binky, rolling on to his side, entertaining himself on his play pad, talking a ton, and feeling even more sturdy and strong while trying to sit up.

While all of this is great and super fun, we think he's starting to teethe; not so fun. Poor Mason has been extra fussy in-between all of these fun moments. Thankfully we have so many friends who have offered fantastic advice...we're just awaiting the arrival of a tooth. In the meantime we have lots and lots of drool, a rash beginning to form around his mouth from the excessive amounts of drool, some fussiness, and frequent naps. Eh...a small price to pay for the priceless opportunity to be his parents :)

We spent Thanksgiving Day at Ricky's Uncle Gary's house in Visalia (near Fresno). It was, as usual, a really really fun day. We rode go-carts, played in a horse shoe tournament (where I seriously dominated....I don't know what got in to me!), ate some incredible food, semi-dominated once again in an Uno tournament (a family tradition) of which I lost (so did Ricky, I might add), then enjoyed sitting by a bon-fire. It was a beautiful day; we are thankful for so so much. Our biggest blessing of the year; Mason! Gosh we love him sooooooooooooooooooooooo much. Mason had a tough day at Uncle Gary's; his teething symptoms were in full force :(

The next day was my 30th birthday! I cannot tell you how excited I was/am to be 30! I am not one of those people who look at getting older as a bad thing; I love getting older each year. Ever since I was in middle school/high school and saw the episode of Friends when they turn 30, I've been so excited to be included in that age group; now I am! We spent my actual birthday with our close friends Sarah and Jared and their fun kids! We went to the LA Auto Show and it was amazing!! My birthdays are never just a day long, I try to stretch them out as much as possible...so the next day we hung out with the Hexberg's again, and had my huge celebration that evening at Medieval Times with 16 of my closest friends! It was a blast and totally worth the large ticket price per person; so so so so fun!

My week off was fantastic; so much family time, so much Mason time, and it concluded with a memorable 30th birthday! I'm so excited for December and the holidays to come with Mason and Ricky!

Back to work tomorrow...boo.

Uncle Kyle was a great help with Mason. It was so nice to have him with us on this family filled day!

Always so much fun at Uncle Gary's!

Poor Mason...not happy. But check out the button on his jeans, hilarious, right!?

Grandma took a nap with Mason :)

Look at his smile!!!

A special birthday morning delivery from Cherice :)

Medieval Times!!! GOSH I was excited!

I am now the very proud owner of these fabulous TOMS boots! Thank you so much to KATIE! Gosh I love them

 

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We got to try out Mason's future high chair with Rocky!

Mason's new pals, Thor and Winnie!

Blogging is hard (time-consuming)...

When you have a baby, that is. Goodness gracious. I'm so sorry...it's been almost 8 weeks since my last update. Mason has changed so much in 8 weeks; it's truly incredible! I could seriously type and type about how much he's grown, but instead I will give you some bullet points, and then lots of pictures and videos!

•  Week 10 started to "giggle". Lots of open mouth smiles!
• Week 11 Mason really started to chew on his hands! We now have drool on everything (drool has quickly taken the place of spit-up). Mason also began to coo a lot!!!
• Week 12 we ALL began sleeping through the night (thank you so much Mason!) - 7-9 hours each night. Also,  mason started holding on to toys or chewing blankets for short periods of times...loves to chew on things. Mason changed from newborn formula to infant!
• Fits in all normal, on-track, clothing sizes, and is currently wearing 3-6 month sizes!
• Week 13 we moved up in diaper size...wearing a size 2 now! This week he also developed a huge interest in looking at himself in the mirror!
• Week 14 began to "roll over"...well, start to roll over. He can move on to his side, but not a full rotation yet. I also put Mason in the baby bjorn facing forward for the first time; this was really fun (for both of us!). 

 

My co-workers gave me this idea...Mason was a burrito: Chicken w/Guac

There was no way he'd go trick-or-treating in the burrito outfit, so we opted for Scooby! He hated the head piece.

I tweeted Chipotle, hoping they'd give us free burritos since we dressed Mason up as one...but nope!

We HAD to take those classic pumpkin patch pictures!

Diaper change at church...

Sitting up "all by himself" (we're getting there)

Auntie Annette was SO excited to meet her first official nephew!

Grandma Paulette's boys. Mason's first cousins: Weston (left), and Landon (sitting next to Mason)

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As a family, plus Uncle Kyle and several friends, we participated in the Alzheimer's Walk in Long Beach: Team Rowe! In honor of my Grandma Yolande and remembrance of my Great Grandma Poppy

Mason's first experience at Dominico's (our favorite pizza place on 2nd Street)!

Our first softball game to see daddy play. Mason was asleep pretty much the whole game...whatever :)

Mason's first piece of mail!

The sweetest sign my Dad made for our baby shower in Grass Valley. This sign meant so much to me, and brought me to tears immediately. I was so touched, and I knew my dad meant every word. I love you dad! :)

3 Generations, plus Mason! My mom (Lolly), my Grandma Yolande (Mason's GREAT-Grandma) and me :)

Our Mason is 8 Weeks old...TODAY!

                                         

 

      

He's beautiful, right!? Our baby boy gets cuter and cuter every single day. Personally, I have no idea how it's possible; he's SO cute! Mason has developed quite a personality now, which is so fun to see! Finally at week 6 he started to smile socially; I was so grateful, as I had been getting very anxious for this moment to come. He loves to stick out his tongue, which has turned out to be a very cute game that we play. He loves when Ricky makes a coo sound and brings his hand around his face - he coo's right back, and almost giggles - the CUTEST thing. He loves to look around at everything, and therefore is very easily distracted when I am trying to make him smile. Mason loves to be on top of his changing pad (which is high up, on top of his dresser)! When we put him on it, he is so content, and so happy. Mason is incredibly at ease when taking a bath and seriously loves it...as soon as we take him out, that's a different story! When Mason is hungry, he is HUNGRY. He will go from cute, smiley boy, to all out terror, screaming fits, when he is hungry; it's actually pretty funny...yet very stressful. Mason is still eating every 3-4 hours during the day, 5 ounces. At night he wakes up on average once, usually in the 3am hour. So nights really aren't bad at all. Finally he is wearing those adorable 0-3 onesies I've had since before we were blessed with Mason! Up till last week he was still in newborn sizes and newborn diapers! We've now gone to 0-3 onesies, and size 1 diapers! Very exciting!!

We had a pretty incredible baby shower for Mason last weekend with a small group of 60 or so of our closest friends :) It was amazing! We had so much fun. Baseball theme, with baseball foods of all kinds, jumper/bounce house for the kids in the front yard, cotton candy machine, popcorn machine, and sugar cookies in a Dodger theme (Thanks McKenzie Ricks!)...it was the perfect shower, just what Ricky and I wished for. Next week we are sooooooooooooooo excited to travel to Grass Valley to see my parents, and have another shower there with our local family and friends. We couldn't be more excited for Mason to see his Lolly and Poppy again!

This adventure with Mason is....amazing? I seriously feel there's got to be a better word. But amazing, incredible, etc. just don't do it justice. I love every single second I spend with him (same goes for Ricky). We love him so much, and are so thankful to be his parents.