And He is ONE!

Happy birthday to our sweet Mason!  He turned one April 8th.  It is crazy to me that my last baby has hit that first really big milestone...turning one.

He is joyful.  People ask me things like "does he ever cry, does he ever stop smiling?"  My answer is always "Ha!  Yes, he does cry and yes he stops smiling sometimes.  But for the most part, he is a very happy baby.  He has gorgeous big blue eyes that sparkle when he smiles.  He craws super fast, cruises the furniture and even tries letting go and standing for a second or two.  No steps yet but he is now walking while pushing something.  I don't have stats yet for weight, height, etc because we haven't had his 12 month check up yet.  But he is in size four diapers, 9 or 12 month pants and 12 month shirts.  He says mama and has tried dada a couple times.  I think he is saying uh oh now and often copies sounds we make.  

He babbles all day long.  He is sleeping better!  He still wakes up one time a night to nurse, typically around 2 or 2:30.  I am not fighting him on that once a night feeding because up until recently, he was getting up many more times than that.  And he is my last baby and I am cherishing that few minutes with him in the night.  I will start working him out of that feeding soon.  He is also finally starting to nap really well.  Still napping twice a day and they tend to be anywhere from an hour to two hours each.  Keeping him alive has been my biggest goal each day, even more so than the other two kids!  When Carter was born, there were no other siblings leaving toys out.  When Madelynn was born, Carter was still really young and didn't have many small toys.  Mason has two older siblings who both have small toys.  And the legos!  Oh the legos!  They are everywhere!  I have pulled legos out of Mason's mouth several times!  We are trying so hard to keep them out of reach and Carter is pretty careful about it!  But I can't leave Mason unattended anywhere in our house.  I am looking forward to the day when Mason doesn't put stuff in his mouth!  

He is finally eating real food without choking.  It took him a long time!  He loves whole wheat bread, cheese, applesauce, broccoli, green beans, vanilla greek yogurt, and all baby food in pouches.  He is over wanting baby food out of a container but will gulp it down out of a pouch.  We moved him into his big boy car seat a couple weeks ago.  He slept much better in his infant car seat but we felt like it was time to move him up.  Which meant Madelynn moved into Carters' and Carter is in the little booster now.  

Mason gets into everything!  He just pulled a little flower pot off an end table yesterday and completely broke it.  I had just bought it at IKEA two weeks ago.  Bummer.  If a drawer is open...he is in it.  If the bathroom door gets left open...he is standing at the toilet.  If the laundry door is left open...he is crawling toward the litter box.  He keeps me on my toes! 

First time in his big boy car seat.  

 See, he does cry sometimes!

He still has nine teeth and has been working on the tenth for weeks!  It is so swollen and puffy and looks incredibly painful.  I wish it would just come through.  It's another molar which seems harder to get through.  

He is a snuggle bug and loves his mama.  He goes to others very easily but does better if I am not in eyesight.  If he sees me, he typically wants me right back.  But if I leave, he does really well with other people.  He loves bath time now and plays and splashes and giggles.  He is fun and silly and makes us laugh all the time!  He is also feisty.  He knows when he isn't supposed to play with something (like the floor lamp in the living room or the toilet) but when I am coming toward him to make him stop, he laughs and just touches it more.  Saying no and even small slaps on the hand doesn't do a thing for him.  Oh boy!

Happy Birthday sweet Mason!  We love you!

7, 8, 9 and 10 Months Old!

MOM FAIL!  I have now missed four months of blogging about my sweet Mason man :(  I promised myself I wouldn't do that...but I did.  I have three kids.  That is a lot.  And sometimes things slip through the cracks because I am not always super woman.  I want to be but apparently I am human.  However, my little sweet Mason is amazing.  And I am excited to sit here and write a lot about him.

By seven months Mason was army crawling everywhere.  He was happy and sweet and adored his siblings.  Since he was finally able to move around, rather than just sitting in the middle of the rug, he followed his siblings everywhere.  This is what I wrote about him on Facebook when he was seven months...

I'm just a couple weeks late but our Mason is seven months old! He army crawls like crazy and is starting to get into things he shouldn't. He is sitting up really well and smiles and talks to everyone. When he smiles, his face shines. He is a beautiful, sweet baby boy who is so joyful.

Eight months old brought Christmas...

He enjoyed looking at Christmas lights.  Carter and Madelynn had so much fun including him in all of the fun Christmas festivities.  He looks so handsome in a bow tie.  He started really eating more solids during his eighth month in this world.  I wish I could say that he started sleeping through the night at this point...but that would be a big fat lie!  He was probably at his worst phase of nights at that point!  He liked to get up between two and four times a night, every night.  It's a good thing he is so cute!

His mouth was ALWAYS open!  Drool was always (and still is) coming out of his mouth.  He had six teeth at this point and was always acting as if more were trying to pop through.  But he was so happy and smiley.  He literally gives everyone a smile!  He is well loved and swooned over at Carter's school every morning.  One of the teachers loves to snatch him as we walk down the hall and keep him until I am ready to leave.  He just flirts with everyone and makes people smile.  He loves attention!  He will let anyone hold him and has no fear of strangers.  He loved the nursery and always did great playing and even napping on Sunday mornings.  Naps at home weren't always great and the swing was still used as back up frequently.  He was finally starting to like baby food but still choked on cheerios.  He was wearing size nine month clothes and starting to go into some 12 months stuff and wearing size four diapers.  

At nine months he had one more tooth break through for a total of seven.  He had his nine month check up with Dr. Wilson.  He weighed 19 lbs 2 ounces which put him in the 40th percentile.  He was 28 1/2 inches tall which put him in the 50th percentile and his head was in the 50th percentile as well.  He is one perfectly average baby!  Carter was always a little on the larger side and Madelynn was always very far on the small side.  Mason is just right in the middle.  He still loved riding in the car and fell asleep in the car more often then stayed awake.  He is by far my best car sleeper.  During his ninth month he started to figure out how to lift his belly off the floor while crawling and staying up on his hands and knees.  Sometimes it was still faster to army crawl though. 

Nine months brought out the stinker in my sweet precious little boy.  He started to see how fun getting into things could be and that he could pull up to his knees and see things he had never seen before.  He still couldn't pull up to a standing position but his knees did the trick for him.

He could go from sitting to crawling and crawling to sitting and was extremely mobile at this point.

Nine months also brought a new cranky side to our little man that we really had not seen before.  Looking back now I can see what probably caused it but in the middle of it...it was hard.  He didn't want to be put down, he didn't sleep well at night or take good naps, he cried for unknown reasons (which was so uncommon before)...all around he had lost a little of his joy.  But during his ninth month of life he got his first ear infection.  He did ten days of antibiotics.  A few days after his meds, I took him in for his nine month check-up and found out that he still had an ear infection.  I had no idea that he still had it other then he was still cranky.  So he had to do a second round of an even stronger antibiotic that was hard on his tummy.  Not long after the second round of meds and a follow up appointment to confirm his ear infection was gone, he woke up in the middle of the night with a fever that ended up lasting five days.  A bit after that ended he had a pretty bad cold with lots of green snot and then just recently (Carter's birthday) he puked a whole bunch.  And a week ago broke through his eighth tooth.  All that to say...he had every right to be cranky for a month!  As soon as his last tooth came through, he was joyful again.  He would let me put him down on the floor and instead of crying, he would crawl off and play!  So thankful he is feeling better!

And now he is ten months old!  I am starting to plan his first birthday...and I just can't quite believe that!

He finally started to actually eat solid food.  We are still going slow with him but he loves whole wheat bread.  He loves most of the fruits and veggie baby food that I offer him and is now doing great at eating bread and cheese.  It is time to start working on more options.  He is into everything and crawls all over the house at lightening speed.  He loves going into the bathroom and standing up by the edge of the bathtub.  Especially when Carter or Madelynn is in the tub and he can watch them play.  He loves to play in the kids' rooms with or without them.  He makes big messed with toys and anything he can get his hands on.  

This is what I wrote about him at ten months on Facebook... 

This cute messy boy turned 10 months yesterday! Crazy. In the last month he has popped through three new teeth (ugh), started eating real solids (bread, cheese, etc), started feeding himself (as you can see in the picture), slept through the night ONE time (the night before he turned ten months), and has been the crankiest this month that he has ever been the prior nine months combined! He has also had more sickness this last month then the other nine combined. Two ear infections, a five day fever followed by a rash, and now a green snotty cold. Up until this month he has been the happiest baby ever! Always smiling and making others smile! Sadly this month he has been pretty cranky (especially the last couple of weeks.) I'm just praying it is a short lived phase and that my happy flirt will be back soon! But we are so thankful for this little man!

He loves the broom!  He is now able to pull to a standing position and has even started taking a few steps holding onto the furniture.

He looks so much like me in this bottom picture.  And those eyes kill me.

He is in love with his mama and daddy and has the best reactions when he sees either one of us.  His laugh is amazing and perfect and he giggles pretty easily.  Tickling him is the easiest way to get him to laugh.  He still nurses about every four hours a day and eats three meals of solids a day as well.  He is still in his infant car seat which I am holding out on as long as possible.  He falls asleep in the car so often that the infant carrier comes in very handy!  He goes to bed at night beautifully and falls right to sleep most nights between 6:30 and 7 and sleeps until around 7 with typically one wake up to nurse.  Occasionally he wakes up twice.  This little guy is amazing.  

Mason...we love you more than words can express.  You are the perfect third child and have finished our family out beautifully.  You have more joy in your little body than many babies combined and can light up a room with your smile.  You have melted our hearts and continue to bless us every minute.  Your brother and sister are obsessed with you and think you are just about the best thing they have every laid eyes on.  You are blessed my sweet boy.  You are so loved.  We love you sweet Mason man.