[Flashback Friday] Part 1 : The 80s

Friday, August 29, 2014

With my 30th birthday just around the corner (just 3weeks away!), I thought it would be fun to re-live my childhood in phases.

This week's focus :
The 80s
1984-1989



Look at all my hair! Now I know where Mason got it from :)


floppy discs

walkman / boom box

VHS / cassette tapes




MTV was launched

Music videos were invented

Michael Jackson , Madonna, Whitney Houston, Bon Jovi




ET

Indiana Jones

Top Gun




Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Murder, She Wrote

Who's the Boss?




Family Matters, Roseanne, Full House

The Golden Girls, Baywatch, Hey Dude

Inspector Gadget, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

DuckTales, Muppet Babies




Pac-Man

GameBoy, My Little Pony

Cabbage Patch Dolls

My Buddy and Kid Sister

The game : Mouse Trap



the perm and the mullet

 shoulder pads, jean jackets, leggings, legwarmers, headbands, lace gloves, beaded necklaces, plastic bracelets

SLAP BRACELETS!




And I'm sure there's LOTS more that I forgot on the list.
What are your favorite things from the 80s?


Back to (pre)school style

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Mason is starting preschool next week (more on this later... also cue mommy freaking out!!!) and so I thought it would be fun to post a little back-to-school (so to speak) post about what Mason might wear to school during the Fall. 

Old Navy is my go-to clothes store for most of Mason's clothes (well old navy.com) so all of these choices are from there. I like to keep his style casual but cute and practical for a two year old boy with a lot of energy.





What is your favorite store to shop for your little one?





What's in a Name?

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

A few weeks ago, Julie talked about how she came up with her blog name "Girl in the Red Shoes". And a couple weeks ago, Amanda posted about how she came up with her blog name "Kids and Cabernet", so this week I thought it would be fun to share how I came up with mine.

For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that my original blog name was "Now That the Birenbun is Out of the Oven" - hence the blog url. I kept it for a while but as Mason got older, it seemed less applicable. (Side note - I came up with this name because we always called Mason our "Birenbun" when I was pregnant with him since our last name is Birenbaum and he was a bun in the oven... Birenbun... so the blog was all about the Birenbun being OUT of the oven).

Back in January, I had my blog redesigned and introduced the new name of my blog. To be honest, I didn't even come up with the name. My ever so talented, marketing genius BFF, Vickie, did. On a whim, I texted her saying that I wanted to change the name of my blog and literally seconds later my new blog name was born :

Chasin' Mason

Why? Because I'm always chasin' my Mason around!

And there you have it.



How did you come up with your blog name? I'd love to know!


PS I'm still trying to figure out how to change my blog URL without having to start a whole new blog altogether/have this URL re-direct to the new URL. If anyone knows how to do this or who to contact to help me, please let me know!

Weekending + the best ice cream EVER.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

My weekend was a little unconventional in the fact that I had off Friday, worked Saturday, and had off Sunday. Why? Because school started yesterday. The most dreaded day of the year. No, not really, but at least for us at the college bookstore, it's one of the most built up days of the year. Prepare, prepare, prepare and then you just want it to happen already so it can be over.

Anyway, enough about that.

Seth had to work on Friday so it was just me and Mason. And I must admit, I didn't hate it :)

We started off our morning with a treat for breakfast. I may not be a cook but I make a mean... cinnamon roll from a package! Haha.



I have to admit. They were delicious.
After breakfast, we headed to Trader Joe's to pick up some stuff for dinner for Friday night as well as for this week. Since I have to work late and probably won't be home until around 10pm every night, I wanted dinner to be easy for Seth to prepare while having to entertain Mason. Oh, and I might have seen this delicious sounding ice cream in the Trader Joe's ad that I got in the mail on Thursday. You might have seen my Instagram picture about it.
It's called Cookie Butter Ice Cream.


YOU GUYS.
If you don't ever listen to me about anything else, listen to me about this.
GO. BUY. THIS. ICE. CREAM.
Run. Don't walk.

As I bought the ice cream, this happened...

lady checking me out : "have you tried this before?" 
me : "no, I just saw it advertised in the ad yesterday"
lady : "they make us try everything, you know for product knowledge (poor her! haha), let me tell you, it's delicious."
me : "is it new? i've never heard of it before?"
lady : "maybe like 3 weeks? we had it for a week, then it went out of stock, and now it's back"
me : i'm glad i came now then! i saw it in the ad...like way in the back, like they were hiding it, they should have put it on page ONE!"

Now I'm glad they didn't put it on page one. Hopefully nobody else knows about it and I can go back tomorrow for more...
kidding. sort of. sort of not.

After Trader Joe's, we came home, unpacked the groceries, had a quick snack, and then headed out to Party City for something that I needed to buy for work. We came home for a little bit, headed out to Mason's appointment, came home, had lunch, and then it was time for a nap - for Mason. Though I could have used one too lol. Instead I made some iced coffee, read some blogs, and caught up on my Real Housewives of Orange County (oh the drama!).

Mason woke up, he had a snack, and we played outside on the water table. He was obsessed with drinking my peach green tea lemonade and kept stealing my sunglasses so I thought it was be fun to make him into a little mini me.


Seth came home, we played some more, had dinner, and then when Mason went to bed...


...cookie butter ice cream.

It was every bit as delicious as I thought it would be.

Saturday - I worked and then Seth and I went out to dinner for a friend's birthday.

And Sunday - Mason had his swim lesson and Gymboree and then we had Sunday night family dinner at Seth's Dad's house.

It was a great (but too short!) weekend and I'm already counting down until next weekend!

Hope you all had a great weekend!
(Go out and get some of that ice cream now!)




[BOY MOMS] Julia from The Everyday Momma

Monday, August 25, 2014


Hey y'all it's Julia here from The Everyday Momma to bring you another installment of Boy Moms! I was so thrilled when Elizabeth asked me to give my take on being a boy mom! I have been following this series from the beginning and absolutely LOVE reading about other blogging moms' experience with having boys; heaven knows as boy mothers we need as much help/advise as we can get ;) So here goes my story:

"I'm 90% sure you are having a girl" said the ultrasound tech at my 20 week anatomy scan. I wasn't at all surprised. Over the last 16 weeks, I had worked myself up to be scared to death to have a girl. I am not at all into girly things and I really have no idea how to be a girl myself, so how in the world would I be able to raise a girl and give her the true girl experience? Because the universe works in funny ways and I was really terrified to have a girl, I was sure I was going to be blessed with a baby girl just to show me that I could raise a girl perfectly well and it would all work out. 


 We decided not to tell anyone yet since we weren't 100% sure. We were waiting to see what was going to happen at the follow up ultrasound at 24 weeks.The reason the ultrasound tech was only 90% certain was because she couldn't get a full, clear view of the genital area. I turned sides, walked around, and prayed my little heart out, but after 10+ minutes of trying, the tech moved on. She told us she didn't see any boy parts, and so was fairly certain it was a girl. I was so disappointed to not know for sure (after hyping myself up for months to find out). However luckily, she also wasn't able to get a good view of certain parts of the heart, so we had to make another appointment at 24 weeks. 

In the weeks following that first unsuccessful gender scan, I began wrapping my mind around what it would be like to have a little girl and tried to make a real effort to be positive for both myself and my boyfriend Mark. I also became obsessed with anatomy ultrasound pictures. I would study every one that would come up on my mommy forum app and I learned all the ways to tell boy or girl. I was determined to be prepared for my next ultrasound; I was not going to leave that office without knowing 100%! 

Being that this post is part of the Boy Moms series, I am sure you can guess what happened at our second scan, but since I am probably the most long-winded writer you will ever meet, I will finish the story. The first thing she asked was if we wanted to know the gender and with a resounding yes! she moved her little wand around and found the sweet spot. All my 'research' was completely worth it because within 2 seconds I knew what I was looking at. I didn't say anything though because I wanted Mark to hear it from the tech. Somehow the little person inside of me that I was hoping was a boy, but knew had to be a girl, was in fact, a BOY! I was elated, so overjoyed, and incredibly grateful to get the news that I wanted so badly to hear! I basked in that elation for a long time. Pregnancy was not my thing, but finally finding out that I was going to have a little boy helped me get through that last grueling 15 weeks. 

DIY gender reveal photos

As D-Day grew closer and closer, I began to conger up all sorts of crazy thoughts: namely... oh crap is this going to be one of those "be careful what you wish for" situations where my son is going to be a complete terror and eventual serial killer?!?! 

Well 2 years into his life and I am happy to report that he is not a serial killer (yet), but I can't say that I haven't used the word 'terror' to describe him once or twice ;) He embodies every sense of the 'BOY' label and I do very often have to remind myself "this is what I wished for", but I wouldn't have it any other way. As I am sitting here writing this, I am trying to imagine what life would be like if the ultrasound tech was right the first time. It's hard to speculate on something so arbitrary: maybe life would be drastically different, but maybe things would be quite the same. I find it hard to tell if I am making him be all boy, if it just comes naturally, or if it is some combination of the two. Whatever the reason having a boy is everything I ever imagined it to be and more. I love everything he loves and am really enjoying learning about all the 'boy' things I never really knew much about. Currently, that means sports, dinosaurs, and Ninja Turtles. His ninja moves are on point and he is really excelling in his baseball skills. 


 It is hard for me to put into words all that I love about having a boy, specifically my boy, so I will be brief and use (mostly) pictures:
2. His love for all things messy (Paints and Edible sensory play)


3. His fearless (Noodling)


4. His goofy and imaginative demeanor



5. His need to always be involved


6. His determination (which will probably be the death of me).
He has been a man on a mission since the day he was born. It all started with his Houdini skills in the swaddle.


Then, it turned into a need to explore everything (even if that meant tippy toes).


Then, it was his needed to do everything his daddy did.


And now apparently it is his need to become a pilot.


He is a handful and a half, always on the go, but he also has a very endearing, lovey-dovey side. His new goodbye routine consists of saying 'kiss, hug, high five, and boom-boom (fist pump)', making you do them in order, and insisting on all four before you leave. He is a pretty fierce cuddler as well, although only when he is tired or hurt. And he gives the best tickles and raspberries in all the land.
 He is my everything and will always be my number one. Anyone that knows us can attest to the fact that he is 120% a momma's boy. Sometimes it can be overwhelming when I need a break, but really, to know that he thinks I am the coolest person in the entire world makes my life complete.  


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If you would like to share a post about you and your son, email me at chasinmasonblog@gmail.com .
I would love to feature you! You don't have to have a blog to participate!




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