He's seven months old!

I can't believe it either.  He's such a happy guy.

He makes this face a lot:

And this one:

He got a Sophie giraffe for Christmas and it's a winner.

There's that face again.

And again!  He can cry and laugh at the same time -look close and you'll see tears here.  Not sure why.  He was enjoying his first hummus, baba ganoush, and taboulih meal and all of the sudden was DONE.  But I can usually make him laugh through his tears.

Still making friends with the animal.  He is completely charmed by Jem.

I tried to take some photos on his tummy.

But he immediately flipped and continued towards the edge of the bed.  

Stinker ;-)

Marital Communication in the Modern Age

Ben, like most men, is terrible at finding things. I have been enjoying back posts of Hyperbole and a Half over the holiday.  There was one in particular that was JUST LIKE US and I filed it away for future sharing.  It came into use faster than I expected.

When Ben announced he was going to water Brian's lemon tree and check on Zoe the cat, I asked if he had the key.  Not yet, he said.  I watched him look in the tiny basket by the door.  I watched him look in the basket on the bureau.  Then he looked at me and shrugged "I can't find it."  I shrugged.  He stared at me.  I let out a major sigh, put my laptop on the couch, and dug the keys out the basket on the bureau in, like, 4 seconds.  But before I let him have them I picked up my computer and retrieved this comic:

He called me snarky and snatched the keys off the couch.  I chased him to the door and demanded he also see this part:

He said I was being super snarky and left.  I settled back on the couch with my smugness, sure that I had taught Ben an important life lesson about looking harder for things. 

Later this morning, Ben im'ed a link to me and demanded instant viewing of said link:

Touche.


PS Ben will probably berate me for the style I chose to post H and H's comic.
PPS Why am I bald?

My Christmas present to Jack-watchers

A Christmas Eve bath!



Splish splash from Rachel Mason on Vimeo.

Merry Christmas!

Oy, what a weird holiday.  I was scheduled to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  The Masons came to celebrate.  I was overstaffed on Eve and only had one patient to do in the AM on the 25th.  This would have given me a large boost of jolliness except A. I don't get paid when I don't work and B. I have another. freaking. cold.  Seriously!  I had two colds over the course of three years.  Then I get sick on both Thanksgiving and Christmas?!  Life is so unfair!! 

Anyway, we opened presents when I got home.  Jack was spoiled as expected, but Ben and I were fairly spoiled too.  Our family is too nice to us.  Jack has also been enjoying the lavish attention showered on him by the grands.  Here's some photos from the last couple days.  Huh, after uploading them I see that they are ALL of Jack.  Sorry.

 Eating yogurt on Christmas Eve.

 Jack standing atop a mountain of presents on Christmas Eve.

 Barleigh, Nanners, and Jack.

 The dissolve technique for present opening.

 Concentrating hard.

Huh, I expected to be in this picture.  I think Nanners was operating the camera though.

Last night we went to Christmas dinner at Aunt Berit's house.  Fantastic food, funny relatives, and Jack only cried from getting overwhelmed twice!  It was a nice way to get the Christmas mood, after a weird morning of work as usual.  Even if I got bogged out on Theraflu lemon drink. :-)

Is it worth another re-knit?

So I finished Jack's orange sweater - for a SECOND time:

I completed unwound the sweater I knit this fall and re-used the yarn on the same pattern with minor alterations.  It fits MUCH better.  I re-knit it over a few days time.  Now it's something I'll actually dress him in.

So the question in this post title refers to this other sweater I finished:

It looks better in action, as in the shot on the right where Jack is sitting in a cart seat for the first time (that was about a month ago).  I've worn and washed the sweater several times. 

On the one hand - yay!  I knit a whole sweater!  Yippee me!  I like the color and the yarn from knitpicks is really nice. 

On the other hand - not a flattering top at all.  It was supposed to look like this:

Short puffy sleeves, waist flattering, with a high neckline!  What happened on my pattern?  I knit it a size too small according to my gauge, and it's still boxy and over-sized.  No matter how I style it, I feel frumpy.  Ben consoles me, saying it looks home-made, but in a good way!  Hmmm.

I feel as though I could make some major improvements.  Make the smallest size, add the collar last to pull it in, shorten the sleeves and take out the puffs, and add more waist shaping and length.  But that would mean tearing it to pieces and starting over from scratch.  While making this sweater, I already restarted 3 times after knitting about 8 inches of length.  So it's not inconceivable to tear it out again.  But . . . so disheartening. 

Lunar Eclipse

DSC_4584, originally uploaded by Ben Mason.

I'm in love with the photos Ben took last night of the eclipse. He stayed up all night, taking a series of photos. Amazingly, the clouds parted just right so he could get clear pictures. More on his flickr page.

December going-ons

As promised, more photos from our short vacation in the mountains, and other things this month.

Soft snow in Bailey on Thursday. Whew, not enough for a snow day. I would have hated to miss callbacks.

Me and Jack. You can see some red spots on his head. Ben and I both accidently bumped his head - in the same spot! Poor guy.

Ben went hiking. Our wimpy dog cut it short, but he said it was beautiful anyway. Andy, Jenn, want to join him over Christmas?

And that's all I took on our trip to Bailey.  Yeah, not many.  But the point was to relax!  Oh, and cast the show.  Auditions were fun.  Many kids chose to sing Christmas songs, which tickled me. We ended up double casting like I hoped we would.  We had enough boys audition with some to spare!  I was impressed with the kids' enthusiasm for dancing, compared to the group last year.  It's shaping up to be a really fun project this year.  I love collaborating with my sister. 

More pictures . . .

We were eating dinner when I heard a crinkling noise. Jack was unwrapping presents!

I love seeing scenes like this all month.

I don't remember ordering a Jack-in-the-Box.

Amanda directing her kiddos in Macbeth, with nephew in tow.

Escape to CB

Spent all my days off at Camp Bailey this week, helping Amanda audition and cast her spring musical.  I'm stoked!  If I don't get worked into the ground this weekend, I'll post some more photos and info.  For now, here's Jack after eating macaroni and beef with veggies. 

More vids

I nominate this for cutest Jack video yet.


Flips! from Rachel Mason on Vimeo.

And here we test Jem's patience with babies.  She's looks pretty miserable.


A future in rodeo from Rachel Mason on Vimeo.

Hanakkuh, oh Hanakkuh!

It's the time of year when we celebrate, er, possibly offend the Jewish community by getting eight pairs of socks.  Ben has received eight pairs of socks for eight days every Hanakkuh since 1990 when Hanakkuh Harry appeared on SNL.  When I came into the family I happily joined in the ritual.  Seriously, socks are awesome.  This was Jack's first time getting socks and getting to open presents.  Good practice for Christmas.  I had to miss it because of work, but Ben taped it for all of us!


First Hanukkah Socks from Rachel Mason on Vimeo.

Swinging at demonhead park

Season's Greetings!

Happy December to all!  Ben bought me a "happy holidays" gift - a woot shirt that made me laugh out loud.  Here's a link to the image.  He also taught Jack how to high five.  No kidding!  He drops his toy and softly brings his hand to yours.  It's a start!  I'm working on "so big!" next. 

I have a couple days off.  We're going to see Amanda's kids do Macbeth and go to the holiday craft fair Friday evening.  I'm hopeful that the food trucks they mention include the little orange rocket, which I discovered parked outside my hospital one day.  What else to do with my time off??  caramels? needle felted ornaments? gift shopping? peanut butter bars? or my default - tv shows and knitting?

UPDATE:  I made these.  They are tasty tasty yum.  I'm still thinking about making these.