Hard Knocks

Last week we capped off a busy week of work with our first kiddie birthday party and a trip to urgent care to get some stitches. Not in that order. First off, the stitches were for me, so please stop sweating, crying, or otherwise freaking out thinking we dropped Mason. He’s fine. I promise. I, however, decided to spike my face instead of the ball after scoring a touchdown playing flag football on Saturday afternoon. I managed to finish the game and get home to check out my nice gash. After a shower and change I decided it was best not to “rub some dirt on it” and headed off to Pro Med for a quick stitch. I called Kelly on the way and I could hear her doing two things on during the call. 1) She was trying not to pass out due to her super squeamish tendencies 2) She was wondering when her husband is gonna quit playing football and hurting himself. Well, I have good news for you babe. You didn’t pass out!! So I sported some sweet new blue stitches under my chin for a week and fielded a slew of questions at work. I probably should have come up with a better story like “Kelly has a mean right hook” or “my weekend job is a hotel porter for Russell Crowe”. Next time…

After my quick trip to urgent care we all headed down to Mia and Avery’s 1st birthday party. Kids are generally scared of a person my size. Adding a large bloody bandage to my chin (which, from their perspective, probably looked like it was my whole head) certainly didn’t help me win over the little tykes. Mason seemed to enjoy his first kiddie party and particularly liked the balloons. I think we can probably just never buy Mason another toy and stock up on socks, balloons, boxes of any size and shape, remotes, and anything that we don’t want him to have. These are the things he enjoys the most.

On Wednesday of last week we had Mason’s 9 month checkup. He weighed in at a healthy 22.5 lbs and 28.5 inches. So he’s in the 97 percentile for weight and somewhere in the middle of the pack for height. That’s running back/linebacker stats if I’ve ever heard them. The doctor said he should be transitioning to real people foods now, since he can mash them with his gums, so we started with spaghetti as his first real meal. This was an entertaining mess as he grabbed noodles and tried to put them in his hair. Unfortunately, the camera battery died after one picture so this piece of Mason’s progression was missed. But I’m pretty sure he’ll make more messes in the future. Mason also has been taking a few bumps and bruises on the path to learn how to walk. He’s toppled over a few times and recently smacked his dome into the cabinet when reaching for the Xbox. I’m sure this is normal but it doesn’t make keeping an eye on him any less stressful. How quickly we’ve moved away from the times where we could just sit him down and he could sit up on his own but couldn’t crawl anywhere and therefore couldn’t get into any trouble. Now he’s trying to eat dog food, tipping over water bowls, pulling everything he can off of the ottoman, jamming things into his mouth, and generally wreaking havoc. All that being said, it’s pretty awesome watching him scoot around, especially when he’s really excited and begins his “huffing and puffing” as he crawls.

This past weekend was low key for the boys and busy for Kelly. After an injury-free football game on Saturday, Mason and I hung out that evening while Kelly headed out for a bachelorette party for Melissa. The girls had a fun night out on the town and I didn’t catch any hint of scented lotion when Kelly returned, so I’m pretty sure no Chippendales were involved. On Sunday morning Kelly and Mason went to a baby shower for our friend Brandy who is due in a few months. I’m pretty sure I was out of bed before noon, but I can’t say 100%. I do know that having two dogs that like to bark at anyone and everyone that passes by gets to be a little annoying. It’s a good thing they’re cute. Later on Mason decided to throw his first hissy fit when I took a spoon away from him. The thrashing arms in legs, while strapped into his highchair, was a little amusing, I have to admit. Fortunately he calmed down when I got him out of the seat and he returned to his normal routine of pulling himself up on random objects, standing for as long as possible, and then plopping down on his diapered butt. This practice has made for some interesting and challenging diaper changes lately but my guess is he’ll be walking within the next couple months or so.

And now, pictures…

Mason likes chillin in his crib and playing with his favorite musical stuffed animal. Oh, and he also loves for his hair to look like Doc from Back to the Future as much as possible. The look on his face suggests that he just found out where babies come from.

Yup- I definitely had the nurse take a post-stitches picture. I actually had her take a pre-stitches picture as well, but I’ll spare you from seeing that one. I’m a big fan of the shave job they gave me though. I think I can start a new look.

Go ahead, click on this picture. Enlarge it so you can see the gloriousness of my mustachio! I honestly don’t think I’ve taken a less classy picture in my entire life. Wifebeater? Check! Backhand ready? Check! Dirty worm on my face? You know it! I was actually disappointed when I went to work that day and no one laughed at me. I guess I just expected that people would know it was a joke, but either they were too scared to laugh at me or they just don’t know me well enough to know that I won’t be rockin the mustache any time soon.

Tater took a new perch this week and hung out on top of the couch. He is a strange dog.

That’s a happy kid! Despite the fact that he has more teeth coming in up top he continues to cheese away.

After pulling the magazine that held his puff snacks off of the ottoman Mason decided to share some with Tater, proving that even when he’s bad, he’s good.

Me and my boys.

Momma and the pooches. Tater is highly inappropriate but this would explain why his breath is so bad and Bella’s is at least tolerable.

Typically Bella wants nothing to do with Mason. But the allure of baby food on an open palm is too much for even her to resist.

We took a trip to Lowe’s on Sunday to pick up some more childproofing measures. Mason was helping me install the locks that will keep him out of these cabinets.Well… that and getting mad at me for not letting him eat the screws. I promise they’re not that tasty Mason.

Like father, like son. This could be the best picture Kelly has taken yet, and while I’m slightly embarrassed to be showing this, I think the exposed boxer briefs and diaper combination is too funny to omit. Thanks for the helping hand there little buddy!

Back resting in his favorite spot on my shoulders.

You can actually see the devilish look on his face. He’s thinking “I really can’t wait to grab a handful of that and make a complete mess.” And a note to any parents of 9 month olds: your child might not be ready for real people foods like the doctor suggests. Mason liked the taste but had a hard time actually mashing up the noodles and he got sick because of it. So we’ll stick with baby food “mushies” for now. He can have steak when he’s ready to order it himself.

Behold the ridiculous cuteness!