We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Grand Junction, despite half the family being sick.  I haven't uploaded photos yet.  Instead I got out our Christmas decorations and made marshmallows and attended to a cranky baby.  This is just a quick note to say hi and to report that Sam rolled over twice today!  At 2 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days he accomplished this, and fits best in size 9 month clothing.  He continues to impress. 

This week is auditions for the musical, so the busy-ness continues!

What better way to start December than with a screaming baby in the grocery store with a declined credit card, which apparently was stolen?  Let's add a snowstorm to thwart your mother's attempts to visit, so you have no babysitter during auditions week.  Fingers crossed the snow is underwhelming, and no further colds plague our house.

Wow, a lot of pictures of Sam being held.  I guess it was so remarkable to me that he was out of my arms and happy at the same time.

Play dough for Jack



A new rattle for Sam (loves it)


Cooking the feast






Assisting Andy via phone with the family recipe known simply as "rolls."


Admiring our rolls


We had an amazing feast, and Jack ate leftover pizza for Thanksgiving.  >:-P


It wouldn't be a grandparent visit without a bath.


Amanda, Ben, and I went to see Frozen with Jack.  He LOVED it.  Seeing a movie with him is an experience all on its own.  He's crazy about Olaf and got super excited to see Carmike theater's amateur artwork.


Bedtime prep




Sam is crazy for these "infant stim" pictures that go on a mobile.  I brought some for his entertainment while away from home.




Thank you for hosting, Mom and Dad!

Jack must have a mixed up understanding of holidays.  On top of Thanksgiving, we started our Hanukkah sock opening per Mason family tradition (Thank you Betty and Rick, we love them!).

Then the Hanukkah socks have overlapped with Christmas decorating.  Every day Jack asks me if it's Christmas yet.  I forgot to get a chocolate advent calendar, and my embroidered one is not ready for use yet.  Poor kid.  Time is abstract for a three year old who can't tell when a new day starts or ends, give or take a nap, and changing daylight hours.  But it doesn't bother him too much.  All he cares about is that Santa brings him Skylanders Swapforce.  He tells everyone we meet who mentions Christmas to him.


Oh, and check out this glorious marshmallow I made.  My folks gave me a recipe book as an early Christmas present.  I took the hint.  These are marvelous, and I have plans for two more radical ones.  This one is just a plain vanilla bean, to be sure I understood the basic recipe - it's quite different from my usual one, and much better too.


Bonus picture of Sam's first rollover, as previous mentioned.

Miranda asked for more information about my new book, so here it is, Marshmallow Madness by Shauna Sever.  She has a baking blog too.  The book is adorable, with a puffy cover to match the candy.  What I love is how exact her recipes are: she uses common ingredients (Knox powdered gelatin instead of sheets) and tells you exactly how long to whip at what speed for each recipe.  She also tells you how to calibrate your thermometer for different altitudes.  My previous recipes all required a lot of guesswork on my part, but these are practically scientific.  The recipe itself gave me denser yet bouncy smooth marshmallows.  She has me prep the gelatin a different way (melting it smooth before adding) and splitting the corn syrup . . . I forget why, but it works.

I definitely recommend it!  I would feel bad about sharing her recipe secrets with the public, but she posted her classic vanilla recipe on her blog, so have at it!

Amanda's school was cancelled again today.  That means no auditions yet.   Instead I get to spend a homey day trying to stay warm in the below 0 weather.

Pictures from dance class yesterday:

 
 


Jack has been helping me in the kitchen, mostly by snacking and snitching.  Here we are making marshmallows.

Here we are today making Peanut Butter Reindeer cookies





Jack also plays with his dino-robots, watches Despicable Me ("Speekbell Men") on a continuous loop, and talks about how excited he is for Christmas.

Auditions have been pushed back AGAIN.  Friday school was cancelled due to cold temperatures.  I guess -23 wind chill is pretty cold.  Whatever.

In a way it was nice, because I had tons of time to clean my house and put out goodies for Babypalooza!  Our friends Trevor and Cate were visiting from Boston with their new girl Maggie.  She was born within a few weeks of Sam, like many babies I'm finding out.  They wanted to get together with all their old friends who had young ones and we volunteered to host.  It was wild with all the creepers and cooers, but so fun.  Bonus about having parties with friends who are parents - everyone left by 9:45 and they all cleaned up after themselves!  It was the easiest party I've ever had.

We dedicated one moment to taking pictures, and it was no small feat.

The mommies:

 The daddies:
Neil and McKayla, Josh and Petra, Trevor and Maggie, Ben and Sam and Jack, Brian and Xavier, Stephen and Wyatt.


Saturday was crazy fun and busy.  Ben took Jack to the Apex jungle gym after breakfast so I had time cuddle and play with Sam.  Then we went downtown to visit with Trev and Cate some more.  Amanda watched the boys while we had a wonderful date at Bonefish, then I stayed up too late to make an appearance at another holiday party.  How I miss my friends!  I'm trying to host another one this coming weekend so I can spend more time catching up with everyone.

Before our date we made a stop at the mall for an important task.  Can you guess who Jack spied coming back from break?




He was bounded up to Santa with a springing skip so fast I didn't have my camera focused.  But you can see him tick off his wish list right away.








I think here he was asked whether he had been a good boy.  That was a real thinker. 







He told Santa "Happy Christmas" then bounded back to Dad.  So adorable.




We had such a fun couple days I thought it was all sugarplums and jolly and ho ho ho for the season.  But Jack woke up this morning with a stomach virus.  Egads. Give. Me. A. Break.

I think he's better.  He went from 9 vomits in the morning to only 2 after nap.  He was keeping water down, a popsicle, some crackers, and asking for more food when we put him to bed.  I told him no, to not push his stomach.  I hope he feels better tomorrow.  It makes babysitting difficult.  Auditions are now pushed to Monday/Tuesday.  It will be a Christmas miracle if they happen and everyone stays healthy for one solid week.

We made it through auditions and turned out a stellar cast.  We are really excited about this show and group of kids. 

Jack was well enough for me to leave with sitters on Monday and Tuesday.  Still uneasy, still coughing from the November cold, but well enough that I would have sent him to school were he in school.  Tuesday night he had another bout of stomach flu, complete with fever and nightmares and hacking cough.  I think I slept 3 hours that night, between him and the usual Sam needs.  So Wednesday and Thursday were spent in our never-ending convalescence.  Sam and I are still healthy, and I don't think Ben cough the stomach bug (though he suffers from lingering cough too). 

I remember thinking, if we could just get well by Thanksgiving, I'll be happy.  Now I'm repeating that mantra but for Christmas. 

Oh, and my hormones have changed and I'm losing my hair like crazy.  And Sam had a weird rash this morning. 

I'm so glad I don't have to go back to a full time RN job now that Sam is 3 months.  Being a mom is work enough.

Well I'll be, it's another Friday the 13th!  I wonder how often those happen so close together?

  
He had this rash on his belly and back this morning.  He doesn't seem bothered by it, so I'll just keep an eye on it. 



Nope, not bothered at all :-)

Sam gets bigger and bigger.  I have no idea what his weight or clothing size is.  He fits Gerber, Circo, Gymboree and Carter brands size 9 months, some 6 month things still fit but are quite snug.  This outfit from Tea is 12-18 month sized.



He loves peering into faces and laughing at toys.



Everything gets swept into his mouth now.  He's been trying to suck his thumb by using the other hand to push it into his mouth.  Moderate success with profuse drool.



He still hates tummy time.  This was the best face I could coax from him.







Sam still eats every couple hours during the day.  For the last week he has been going down to bed at 7:30 pm, staying asleep until 5 am, then up again at 7 for the day.  Of course, last night he got up three times and broke the pattern.  That's babies - always changing :-) 



I love you, big guy.

Last night I became the latest victim of the stomach bug.  Luckily I think tomorrow I'll be good.  Ben stayed home with me today and I was able to actually sleep and heal. 

Too much sick.  If you will recall, this streak started on November 18th with a flu-like virus for Jack (and a week of diarrhea for him prior to that).  Almost a full month later and we are still dealing with illness.  Blech blech blech.

I made a quick recovery and now the whole family is HEALTHY!  Jack has sprung back to life.  His imagination and his appetite are both in full swing.  With all the presents bought, parties done, and errands run, we are in spontaneous jolly mode.  Pics below. (kind of wonky, I realized part way through that flickr changed my default code, and I'm too lazy to fix them all. :-P )

Adorable Sunday outfits:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457543725/player/

Self-wrapped present to send to Maine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457648456/player/

We delivered on foot to the UPS store:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457586044/player/

Which had cookies!  and toys! and a tree!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457645436/player/

Devouring cupcakes from Amanda
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457537305/player/

Sharing toys with brother
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457536105/player/

Showing me his "Shield attack upgrade"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457636816/player/

From today, Jack practice wrapping more presents.



We made BOTH tree ornaments and cookies today.

Feeling jealous of Ben's Christmas party at work, I took the kids to Chick-fil-A.  Sam was sleepy.  Jack was ecstatic.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457631316/player/

I had to buy a peppermint chocolate chip milkshake to share with Jack, because he lost so much weight.  It was for his heath, guys.  I HAD to.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457523695/player/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelsmason/11457695083/player/





 Waiting for Ben to come, I let Jack play Skylanders while I sat with Sam.  Ahh, knitting and ballet.  I found a new-to-me Nutcracker on youtube!  It opens in a kitchen with sausages and carcasses, Drosselmeier looks like Nosferatu with a mustache, and the family is like the Thenardiers in Act 3 of Les Miserables.  Can't wait to see the rest of this.  It's from the Mariinsky Ballet.  Those crazy Russians.

For fun, I put Sam in the same outfit Jack wore in this 3 month photo.  Can you tell who is who?

Ok, the extra hand going "Boop!" gives it away. 


JACK:



SAM:





(Boop!)

They actually aren't that different.  I know Sam is humungous for his age, but Jack was big too.  And the difference is just an inch or so.  I think Jack had more limbs, and Sam more belly.  But both boys are big and perfect!

Brian is coming over to eat pizza and play munchkin with us after bedtime. Sam and I are cuddling by the cedar fire.  It's softly snowing outside.  We are watching the Lady Gaga and the Muppets Holiday Spectacular.   It's. . . weird.  But jolly, and Jack likes the Muppets.