Let's Give a Round of Applause for...Well, for Everything

It happened Sunday morning. To be honest, I wasn't really paying attention to Mason as I sat in the chair reading and he played on the floor. But then I heard it. The sound of two little hands smacking together. It was a clap--an audible clap! Oh, I had already written about Mason's first clap in his baby book--don't worry about that. (What mom isn't keeping up with her child's baby book? Ha!) But it was one of those entries that I almost felt guilty about because the clap was really pretty weak. The concept was there, but we definitely had some work to do.

(No offense, buddy, but the fists somewhat randomly knocking together wasn't quite the real thing. I know you were trying, and it was very cute! How is it, by the way, that as a first-time mom I have such a strong desire for my son to clap? As if he's not going to someday learn that. Whew! He learned to clap, on to college! Anyway, enough of my side notes...)

The first real clap was very cute and accompanied by a wide-eyed smile. And now we clap for everything. Wave bye-bye, Mason. Clapping. Eat lunch, Mason. Clapping. Sit on the floor, Mason. Clapping. It's so sweet. I'm not kidding. Lots of random clapping.

The last few days he has also added some sort of smile that requires squinting your eyes and sometimes also spitting. Believe it or not, that is also adorable. In case you can't picture it, I've included a photo of the squint-spitting.

Central Iowa Tour

Saturday was a big day for the Gaulke family. In just one day we attended our first "inurnment," joined the Gaulke clan for the annual reunion, hung out at Grandpa & Grandma Gaulke's in Indianola, and I even squeezed in a bridal shower (barely) and bachelorette party for my friend and cousin Kristin, who is getting married in August. That meant leaving home at 7:00 am and returning to P-town around 11:30 pm. Points on our tour included Indianola, Clarion, Dows, Nevada, Indianola again, Grimes, Indianola again & Pella. Watch for details from next week's Southeast Iowa Tour as we head to Swedesburg to join the Easter clan (Brent's mom's side)... :)

While we somewhat dreaded having such a busy day, it really was a good day and we were glad to see family, especially Brent's aunts, uncles and cousin from the East Coast. Mason did well in the car and really had a lot of fun (as he usually does when he is the center of attention!). He even got to enjoy the Indianola Balloon Classic on Saturday night. (I've never even done that!) I thought I would include some fun photos of his adventures with Uncle Charlie and Cousin Katie!

We couldn't take it anymore!

Well, we succumbed to the pressure, and the Gaulkes have joined the Blogosphere! We've enjoyed the blogs of friends so much that we could no longer resist. We look forward to using this space to share about life from house projects to random thoughts to our favorite thing--Mason's latest cuteness. :) Speaking of Mason, the name for our blog comes from his favorite book, B is for Bear. We've read it at bedtime (and had it memorized) for months.

Thanks for joining us! Stay tuned...