Whew! What a weekend!

The weekend's not quite over, but I don't expect I'll get much of an opportunity later in the day to write this, so thought I'd take my chance now.

Though we're home anyway and wouldn't know the difference between a long weekend and a regular one, our friends and family made sure we did see the difference!! There was a lot of activity in the Mason household this weekend! And we love it!


Friday was a fairly uneventful day, so I guess it didn't really start until Saturday when the Haggertys came to visit. Christine was extremely excited - she LOVES her Godparents and had been asking about "Bedin" for a couple of weeks now. Kevin, Amy and Liam came for a visit late in the afternoon, bringing over dinner and basically looking after everything. Liam and Christine had a great time playing and we had lots of laughs, mostly at Liam's expense, for all his falls... What a crazy kid!
We definitely enjoyed the wonderful meal and company.

Then on Saturday morning, the Durepos came over for an Easter egg hunt in the morning. Gilles, Tara and Jacob were over around 9:15 and the eggs were all found by 9:30. They had lots of fun finding the eggs - everytime they spotted a new one, it was like they'd discovered gold. It was very very cute. All the eggs were hidden in pairs, and Christine quickly learned that one was for her and one was for Jacob, so when she found them, she'd grab them, put one in her basket and run to find Jacob to add to his stash as well. She was very good at sharing yesterday!

Christine and Papa then joined the Durepos at the YMCA for a swim (which Christine loves) while I stayed at home with Nicholas, waiting for mon oncle Paul, ma tante Melissa and Edeanne to arrive for their visit. Unfortunately, they called later in the afternoon to say that they were unable to make it. Lucky for us, we were invited to go to the Durepos for dinner, so not only were we with "family" for Easter, Trev and Christine got to eat ham! (I'm not a fan at all, so it's not something we have here - ever...). Trevor was pretty excited. We had another egg hunt at their house (we hid the same eggs as in the morning...) and then had a fantastic meal. We really enjoyed that as well!

This morning also started fairly early with Paul, Melissa and Edeanne arriving around 9am to cook us some breakfast! They also brought everything with them to make a terrific big breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast & potatoes) and we enjoyed seeing all the kids together. Christine didn't have to be quite as careful with Edeanne as she's a little bit older and stronger (4 mths) than Nicholas. She's also more interested in what's going on around her and is interacting more, so Christine really enjoyed that. Here's one of the attempts at a family picture. Tigger even made the shot!

The kids are now napping (thank goodness!) as we await the Lawson family's visit! Christine is anxious to see Maya, Natasha and Jaida, of course. She's also asking if "Bedin" (aka Kevin) is coming again as we do usually see the gang all together, so she's assuming that if she sees Maya, that she'll also get to see Kevin... We're really looking forward to seeing them again. It's so much fun to see all the kids together and getting to hang out with our friends.

We'll have yet another meal to enjoy (yay!) that Bonnie made up. Looking forward to seeing what delicious meal she's bringing down! If only hosting friends was always this easy... I haven't cooked all weekend! I could easily get used to this!!! We're so lucky!

We hope everyone else's Easter weekend was as enjoyable as ours. We'll be back to the old routine tomorrow, so hopefully Christine won't be too bored with no one coming for a visit! Maybe we'll have to take her out somewhere to ease her back in...

The Shamrock Shake Experience...

As I had mentioned in my last post, Trev and I have been together for about 9 years now. At least 5 years ago, since we've both been in Brockville if not while we were still in Fredericton, we started what was to be a new tradition to commemorate our "anniversary": get a Shamrock Shake from McDonald's. Well, this tradition quickly became searching all over for a Shamrock Shake and being quite disappointed at not finding them anywhere! Every year, we'd drive to all the McDonald's in the area looking for the Shake and not find it. We had even talked about going across the river to Ogdensburg a couple of years ago to see if we could get one there. See this guy's post here - it's hilarious! Both Trev and I had the EXACT same reaction when we read it: we could have written it as it's so close to our experience!

Anyway, it turns out they haven't been available in North America for the last 5 years (so basically the same 5 years as we've been looking for them). Last year, we actually made our own and it turned out alright... This year, we actually saw the sign at McDonald's, so thought we should finally be successful in our quest. We even did some research online to see if it could possibly be true - we didn't want to be disappointed once again. Well, the word was official: McDonald's had brought back their Triple Thick Shamrock Shake for a limited time (end of February to end of March or something like that). Were we excited!

So we got all organized, put Christine to bed slightly early so that Trev could head out and pick up a couple of shakes for our favorite evening of sitcoms (we don't have cable, and Mondays are the only day that there's really anything on). He headed out and I thought it was taking him a long time... He was actually missing the start of Big Bang Theory, so he'd been out more than 1/2 hr (and it only takes 5 minutes to get anywhere in BrockVegas)! I thought maybe something had gone wrong and he'd driven out to Prescott...

Turns out the ice cream machine at the Brockville McDonald's was broken... so no Shamrock shakes for us - AGAIN! Believe it or not (for those who know Trevor), Trev actually went to Walmart to see if McDonald's there had them, but they don't make shakes. So he came home empty handed...

We did get our shake though on the 18th - not quite the same, but it did the trick. We ended up only drinking about half of it, it was really rich. Christine enjoyed her sips as well. Perhaps we'll be enjoying our St. Patty's Day treat on the 18th from now on!

We're so spoiled!

It sounds like the kids are waking up, so this may be a short entry...

After having a pretty easy going first child (let's face it - Christine is a terrific and, most of the time, very happy kid), we were definitely figuring we were doomed. The kicks in utero were definitely making me think that the baby was going to be very demanding of our time and energy.

Well... I don't know if it's his nature or if it's the fact that this is our second time around and we know more what to expect, but so far (and though I'm not supersticious, I knock on wood everytime I say this), Nicholas is a great baby I'm starting to go along Kevin's saying: babies are easy. Maybe it's 2 year-olds that aren't...

In all seriousness - Nicholas is very easy going. Unless he has a very dirty diaper or is extremely hungry, he's just happy to look around or sleep. We hardly ever hear him other than his occasional moaning or grunting. He sleeps anywhere (while Christine would only sleep in my arms or in the swing for her first 6 months) and seems to know his days from nights very well. Trevor's getting lots of sleep ;) and I'm doing quite well myself. He's feeding twice at night and is very efficient, so we're typically back in bed within 1/2-hr or so, so I'm getting 8-9 hrs broken up a couple of times. Not bad. All in all, I feel WAY better than when I was pregnant - I'm getting more and better sleep, my blood pressure is back to normal, my back isn't as sore, I don't have heartburn, the list goes on. I wouldn't have said the same the first time around...

As for Christine, she's adapting. There has been a lot of changes in her life, and she's definitely making the transition. She's already much more gentle with Nicholas and loves to kiss him all over. She wants to hold him often and is a terrific help when it comes to diapering. She hands me the clean diaper and then the wipe and then gives me the tube of vaseline. When the new diaper is on, she takes the yucky diaper to the garbage and is just so excited to have been such a big help. It's great. She's really going to be a terrific big sister!

She's also adapting to being at home almost all the time and not getting the same level of play that she's used to at daycare. We're going to try to get her out more and doing more fun activities as she's typically such a happy and easy going kid that we really don't want to lose that! We'll try to get to the Y every now and again to go play at the gym and go for a swim and maybe go to the library for story-time when they start their spring program. I can't wait for spring to get here so we don't have to get around in that muck! I can't believe how much snow we still have... oh well...

Anyway, the kids settled back down, so this ended up being slightly longer than I had expected. Sorry for the long read. Not much else is new around here, so that's it for now.

Have a great St. Patty's day everybody! We'll be enjoying Shamrock Shakes after Christine goes to bed - can you believe Trev and I have been together 9 years?! Weird...

Introducing Nicholas Walter Mason

We are all very excited to announce the birth of our son, Nicholas Walter Mason! He was born on March 4th, 2008 at 8:40am via cesarean section at the Brockville General Hospital. He weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs 7 oz and 21-1/4" long.

Trevor and I were completely certain we were having another girl, so you can imagine the shock when they pulled him out and Trev said it was a boy - we were both so shocked and excited! As everyone has been saying: we now have the million dollar family! Maybe it's more along the lines of our family will cost us millions of dollars as none of Christine's clothes will work for Nicholas and I have some shopping to do!! :) Perhaps I'll see if Dana will want to join me?!

The other big surprise of the day (which was so exciting!) was when Trevor called our friends the Herages to give them the great news and found out that they had just had a baby girl, Avery, a little less than 2 hrs earlier! I had been feeling bad that our baby may be born before theirs, and I know how much it sucks to go past your due date... We were just so thrilled!!

As for the actual birth, well, it was pretty "eventless". We were at the hospital for 6am, as we had been instructed. When we got to our room, we were able to unpack a little and get settled in. By 6:30, the nurses were in starting to get the prep done for the surgery (IV, catheter, etc.) and then we waited until just before 8am to get rolled into the OR. Once there, the anesthesiologist did his thing and once I couldn't feel from chest down, Trev was allowed to come in. He and the anesthesiologist were standing just next to my head while I lay there with a green curtain in from of my head. They talked about what was going on, so I knew what was happening. As the anesthesiologist said though - they couldn't see much as it was on the other side of the mound... But they were the first to see Nicholas' head come out (along with the other 7 people in the room: baby Dr, baby nurse, 2 OB's / surgeons, 1 or 2 OR nurses and 1 student nurse). That's when Trev told me it was a boy, and he was SCREAMING! I guess that's good though as he didn't shoved down a hole too small to help get all the mucus out, so this was going to have to do.

From there, Trevor, Nicholas, the baby Dr and nurse all left and I was sewn back up. Once that was done, I was brought into the recovery room until I could move my toes again. Then I was back in my room with Trevor and Nicholas, finally, around 11am.

I can't believe that's just over a week ago already! Nicholas is a fantastic baby so far - already somewhat predictable and is feeding extremely well. On Monday, when the Health Unit nurse came by, he was already back up to 8 lbs 4 oz, so not quite birthweight, but not far. He's doing great. As for me, I'm recovering much more quickly and easily this time than last - perhaps because I wasn't as sleep deprived and my body hadn't been through the marathon of labour for almost 26 hrs prior to the section. All in all though, we're doing pretty good.

And on that note, I think I will attempt my first slow and short walk outside. I need some fresh air!

Til next time...

Why this blog and my promises to you!

Many of our friends have set up blogs to keep family and friends in the loop on what's going on in their life. We thoroughly enjoy reading their blogs, so I thought - hey, everybody else is doing it!

Seriously though, with another baby just around the corner, it's probably silly to set up this blog as there probably won't be much time to upload anything, but you never know... With family and friends scattered here there and everywhere, we do want to try to keep in touch... or at least let people know what we're up to. We'll see how this goes...

My promises to you, you ask? I make no promises!!
For this blog: I may write everyday for a week or two then drop off the face of the earth for months. So keep checking on whatever frequency you want - you may be wasting your time, but it's yours to waste!

For our pictures: We will continue to post pictures to our Flickr account. Any pictures that have kids in them will be marked Private for Family and Friends only (there are some weirdos out there that we want to keep away from our kids). If you want to see pictures of our kids, set up a flickr account (www.flickr.com) - it's free. Once you have an account or if you already have an account, let me know and I'll add you as a contact and you will automatically be able to see all our pictures when you're logged in.

Well, the kids are up, so I must go. I will post soon about the arrival of our son, Nicholas - that, I do promise!

Julie