favorite photos

a few of our favorites from last weekend's photo shoot...

my first petting zoo!

mason's school hosted its annual spring carnival on saturday, so as the supportive, involved parents that we are, we went! the school cares for infants through kindergarteners, so as you can imagine, there were limited activities for babies. as we walked by each activity, we looked at mason, then shook our heads no... cookie walk? no. dunking booth? no. beanbag toss? no. hot dog stand? no. petting zoo? yes!!

ignoring the obvious germ factor, we agreed that he could look through the pen to check out the animals. goats, lambs, and donkeys, oh my! mason just stood there (holding on to the pen) looking in amazement at all the animals. here are a few photos from our day...

ooh... animals!

um, yes, he is licking the pen...

daddy finally picked him up so he would stop licking the pen

meeting my first donkey

my first donkey ride... sort of...

sad donkey after mason said bye-bye

the sign of a successful outing...

who can resist this face?

"toofies"

yep - two of 'em...

when gasping isn't good...

after a lazy saturday watching the monsoon from the safety of the indoors, sunday was a beautiful day. the weather was perfect and we couldn't have picked a better day for our family photos and mason's six month (oops, so we're a month behind!) photo shoot. outside of the giant fight minor discussion brad and i had over wardrobe choices, we headed out to mercer arboretum to take advantage of the colorful spring blooms. all went swimmingly well. mason smiled and showed off all his tricks for the camera including a few new ones that surprised us (you'll see when we get the photos!)

we finished up at 6 pm and jumped in the car to make it home in time for mason's dinner. mason ate, then played a bit before going to bed. he decided he didn't feel much like sleeping (aka screamed like a madman), so we finally gave in and let him play a little longer. mason konked out around 8:30 and slept soundly until 11:15 pm. that's when we heard him crying over the monitor. brad got up to investigate and soon i hear him yelling "come here NOW!!" over the monitor. i ran into mason's room and brad is holding him while mason is gasping for air. i have never heard a sound more awful than that one. we quickly decided that this was unchartered territory and one left to the professionals. we bolted through the doors of the er at 11:35.

quick shout-out to st. lukes, the most awesome emergency room ever. there was no line and even if there was one, we wouldn't have been in it because they have a 24-hour pediatrician on duty. we love them. after they administered an oral steroid to mason, he was feeling great in 5 minutes time. not coughing. not gasping. just smiling in between yawns as he signaled he was ready to go back to bed. all told, we were in and out of the er in 30 minutes!

he was diagnosed with croup, but i'm still not convinced that's what it was. after all, the doctor told us to expect high fevers, a barking cough, and 5-7 days of misery. mason has not had fever, only "barked" for the 20 minutes before he had the steroid, and other than a runny nose, is pretty much back to normal after one day at home.

i took him in for a follow-up yesterday afternoon. as mason wiggled, giggled, crinkled the paper on the table, rolled over, grabbed my hands and stood up, and otherwise didn't sit still for a single second, the doctor looked at him, then looked at me to say, "well, if he's feeling like this tomorrow, he should be fine to go back to school!"

sunday night's adventure wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but we are thankful to have excellent health care surrounding us to take care of our baby boy. i was too focused on the task at hand to take photos that night, but here's one from yesterday when he wasn't quite back to normal yet (ie going from laughing to crying in two seconds flat)... even when he's grumpy, he's still pretty cute.

bounce with me

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meeting memar and papa...

on thursday, mason and i packed up everything but the kitchen sink and headed out with grammy and pappy to new braunsfels to meet mason's only living great-grandparents. the plan was to leave immediately after the 10:30 feeding and make it there without having to stop. great plan. a little unrealistic as we failed to take into account the feeding schedules of the adults! around 12:30, mason was content and we were starving! so mason had his first whataburger experience, which also coincided with his first giant goose-egg from headbutting the table. not kidding. we weren't sitting there for more than a minute before he reached out of the highchair, grabbed the side of the table (which i had meticulously de-germed) and whacked his head on the edge. the tough boy didn't even cry. mommy sat there in shock for a second before busting out laughing because, in all of her preparedness, she didn't see that one coming!

after eating, we piled back into the car and headed on our way. thanks to the unplanned stop, mason got to break in his new carseat by eating lunch in the car. amazingly enough, he didn't spill a drop and ate sweet potatoes, squash, and a full bottle all in the safe and buckled in position. we arrived at memar and papa's house around 3:30 pm and mason quickly broke in all the toys they had waiting for him!

we took lots of pictures and just enjoyed the afternoon catching up and watching mason play, laugh, and giggle. apparently it was way too exciting because mason skipped his afternoon nap and didn't even get grumpy!

the next day, mason's great aunts annelle and claudia came over and mason played some more. pappy gave him his first glimpse of the guadalupe river and mason said he wants to go tubing this summer... we'll see. :)

we had a fun visit and are so glad mason was able to love on and slobber all over his great grandparents. these opportunities just don't come around every day.

memar & mason

aunt 'nelle & mason

aunt claudia distracts mason who was growing weary of pictures!

four generations...

one of my favorite shots, except for the eye pookies... :)