in with the new

Walking Between Us!

Mason now walks anywhere from 4 to 20 steps before falling! He can only stand assisted, but I'm sure that will be remedied soon enough.

Here's the video! He looks like Frankenstein when he's walking!

Wobbly Walker

Mason is taking steps now! About a week ago, he started taking steps between Will and me. Then he got brave and took steps between the TV stand and the black padded cube we use as a "coffee table". He still prefers crawling, but when we have him walk from one of us to the other, he is so smiley and proud when he gets there!

I need to get a video!

Torture! AKA, Haircut!

Torture!, originally uploaded by misseill.

Mason got his first haircut today. We brought him to Shortcuts, a place just for kids. He was fine when we got there, and then as soon as the womann put the cape on him, he broke down. Will had to put on a cape and hold him in his lap. We brought his pacifier (which is only for nighttime use these days) to try to help the situation. You can see that it didn't. The "ABCDEFGHI" song (not the alphabet, but Big Bird's song) temporarily helped, but the tears they kept a-coming.

Poke through the pictures to see the crying baby and then the happy baby who was no longer in the salon.

12 Months Old!!!

Mason turned ONE year old! Every month is more fun than the last!

This month started with something not-so-fun. He went through a biting phase for a few weeks. He was biting my boobs, he bit Will's stomach (he broke skin!), he was biting when he kissed. It got to be too much for me. I stopped nursing. Or maybe he stopped nursing. We nursed for 11 months and 1 week. I'm so happy I was able to do it for so long. He transitioned to milk very easily, and now has 3 bottles of whole milk each day.

The transition to milk may have helped him organize his sleep. Maybe he felt he didn't need to get up for boob juice, because the whole milk was more filling. Or maybe it was a coincidence. About a week after the bottles started, he started sleeping through the night. He's been pretty consistent with it, sleeping 10 - 13 hours without crying for us for comfort. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he cries for a minute or two and gets himself back to sleep.

His spoken vocabulary didn't grow very much this month, he says "La la" for daddy and "Ba" for bath, bed, Basher, car, truck, Olivia ("mmmmm-ba")... He doesn't say "mama" much, less than once a day. I think he thinks we're connected, so why consider me something else with a name? He understands so much more than ever before:

What does Basher/dog/puppy say? Woof ("vvvvvvffffffff").

What does a bird say? Tries to "whistle", blows air from a little round mouth.

Fish? sucks in his cheeks. He knows the goldfish crackers are fish, he knows photos and drawings of fish are fish.

What does a cow say? "mmmmmvvvvvvv".

He laughs at the end of the ABC son when his Leap toy laughs.

He likes to turn lights off (he can't do on).

He looks for and points to lights. He likes when we make them blink on and off.

Will asks "Watch Baseball?" and he looks at the tv.

If I ask him to play music, he'll bang on his gym toy until a song plays.

He knows what to do when we tell him to "play with your toys".

I'm trying to teach him to use his "lalalala" to sing. Sometimes it works.

He is still shaking his head no in protest. No nodding yet.

He waves hello and goodbye very consistently. Shopping with him is such fun, he brings smiles to so many faces.

"Do 'meep' to mommy or daddy", and he grabs our noses

He holds up his feet when we ask where his piggies are (this is new in month 13...)

He had several trips to pools and the beach this month. He loves the water! His girlfriend Olivia taught him to jump into the pool from the side. Will didn't know about this trick. He put Mason on the ledge of the pool, and Mason rocked himself into (a surprised!) Will's arms.

He doesn't like to miss out on things. When we take him on a walk, if we pass the swings or dog run without stopping he cries in protest. He yells and makes a mad/sad face when mother goose leaves the room. She should be in there with him! He makes a funny whistle-ey "ooh ooh" noise when he wants to eat something we're eating.

Speaking of eating, he likes so many foods now. He even eats things I don't like, like strong flavored garlic and onion potato chips! He eats whole fruit from the pit, nectarines and pluots. He LOVES strawberries. He eats chicken, meatloaf, lentil soup, bread, cookies, yogurt, baby fruits, baby oatmeal, cheese (sharp cheddar, manchego, parrano). In a couple of weeks, I'm going to leave him with the spoon and see how he does.

Probably the biggest development this month is Mason's cruising! He has gotten SO good at it! He doesn't fall on his head several times a day like when he first started standing! He's even graceful at sitting now, not so much flopping down on his bum any more! He's also crawling "normal" now. Sometimes he army crawls. But the last 2 weeks of the 12th month showed great improvement in "normal" crawling.

His 12 month appointment was last week. He is 28", 19 lbs. 10 oz., his head is 18.25". He is in the 10 - 25%ile for height and weight, and the 50 - 75%ile for his head! Big brained lollipop head! Yay! Love him!

Cruiser

Mason's been cruising along the furniture for a few weeks now. A good day is a day when he doesn't bump his head on the floor. He's been having more of those lately! I have to get a video of him walking circles around the black cube (our "coffee table") in the living room. Until then, here he is under the dining room table...

First Haircut

We tried to wait until he was a year old, but Mason's hair was in his eyes. It was too long. So we cut it and took away all of his strength. Hee. Here's the before...

and after (I have to get a better pic!)...

Eleven Months!!!

Mason is eleven months old today!!!!! I know I say this a lot, but he is SO. MUCH. FUN!!!! I've been making a DVD of his first year, and watching the early months when he was a cute lump makes me appreciate his current state even more!!! Yes, it was fun to have him fall asleep on our chests, and nice to leave him on the floor and know he was going to still be there if we stepped out for a moment. But I wouldn't trade our little 11-month personality for that for anything!

Now on to all the 11th-month fun!

Mason does lots of fun "tricks" now, always with a smile. He'll wave hello or goodbye, sometimes it's a delayed thing a minute after we ask, sometimes it's right away, and SOMEtimes he does it completely unprompted if he catches the eye of a stranger looking at him. He does "where's mason", he'll cover his face with a piece of clothes, or just his hands. He thinks it's so funny (it IS). If we ask him to "Do ABC", he crawls over to his ABC ball and rolls it so it sings the "ABCs". If we ask him "Where's Leap?" he'll find his Leapfrog doll, play its ABC song and laugh heartily with the doll at the end. If we ask him to share, no matter what it is, food, toy, pacifier, he gives it over willingly with a giggle. He's so proud of his sharing! This week he has been gesturing toward lights and light switches. He's really good at off, but can't do on yet.

He is now a parrot and a copycat. He will mimic tongue clucking, a kiss noise, and he's working on a fish face. He'll say "dada" (which has evolved - or devolved) into "lala" over and over with us. He'll say "mamamama" with less frequency. Same with his latest, "woof". He said "woof" to Harley, Will's parents' dog, when we were there this month. It was the first time I'd heard him say it. He also says BBBBBBBBBBB with lots of drool and makes cute high pitched babbling noises and guttural roaring.

He started pointing at things that he wants this month. It's really an outstretched arm at his sippy cup, toys, light switches, Basher... I'd say 90% of the time we understand what he's gesturing at.

He is scared of things now. He was scared of a dragon on his Baby Einstein Baby Bach DVD. He's still hesitant every time we put on a video, but we gave that one away. There was a blast of thunder that had him in tears for about five minutes. I only use the vacuum when Will takes him out of the house. When we were in NC, we were looking at cows, and they all mooed at the same time (they were about to be fed!) and they freaked him out!

He had his 13th and 14th flights!!! He was SO good on them. On the way there, he slept for half of it, and the waking time he was a little bit fidgety. It's hard for a little guy to sit in one place for so long! On the way home, he slept the whole way!!! I didn't have my Boppy (which I highly recommend for travel with infant), so it was a little uncomfortable.

At the end of month ten, he had just started sitting up from crawling. Now he is a champ at it. When he first started doing it, he would get into downward dog, and then back into sitting. Now he sometimes does that, and sometimes just pushes up from his side. He also gets to sitting from standing. This week, he started pulling himself up to stand and plopping back onto his butt. He does it a lot! He loves to open and close doors and drawers.

He's sleeping a bit better these days. He's officially a one-nap-a-day kid now. He falls asleep BY HIMSELF IN HIS CRIB (!!!!!) most of the time. His naps are anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours. He is sleeping in his crib at night now, too. He was sleeping in his Pack 'N Play until a few weeks ago. We think he sleeps much better in his crib. It's a MUCH more comfortable bed, and he doesn't get woken up by our TV or the creaky floor or the dog crying from her nightmares... He usually falls asleep nursing, and then I feed him once during the night. He may or may not wake up at random times and either need help getting back to sleep or get himself back to sleep. The last few days, we've heard him on the monitor at 6am, he cries a bit and then gets himself back to sleep within a minute. Whew!

He has  four teeth now. He grinds them together. It is an awful, AWFUL noise, like nails on a chalk board. He's also biting us when he gets his little mouth on us. He broke through Will's skin today! He bit me (and tried to several times after the first one) while nursing tonight! I hope it's just a phase, that he's just exploring his new teeth and can get over it. Otherwise this nursing may end faster than I'd hoped.

He had his first fever over 101 this month. The doctor said she usually doesn't attribute fever over 101 to teething, but he had so much going on in his mouth that it was possible. We gave him a lot of Tylenol, Teething Tablets, and Orajel.

He has long, messy hair. I LOVE it. The longer and messier it gets, the cuter I think it is. I promise we won't let it get long and girly. He'll have a trim soon after he turns 1.

I can't believe Mason's going to be 1 in a month!!! This has been such a great adventure! It can only get more fun!

Stand, Fall, Stand, Fall

Mason did this over and over and over and over and over this evening. We think he may try it in his sleep!

Share

That Hand!
Originally uploaded by misseill.

Yesterday, Mason swiped a piece of chicken that was too big and put it in his mouth. I was worried because of past choking trauma (I'm traumatized by Mason's choking). I couldn't get him to face me and so I could get it out of his mouth. Will came over, said to Mason, "Share?" and put out his hand. Mason pulled the chicken from his mouth and gave it to his daddy! Yay for our generous boy! Whew.

Ten Months!

Oh, baby boy! I can't believe you're in double digit months now! Each month is more fun than the previous one, even when you don't sleep well, like this whole month! This has been a busy month!!!

Right at the start of his tenth month, Mason graduated to a big boy car seat! No more lugging him around in the bucket! Woo! (Now if we could only unload that thing on Craigslist!)

He is staring at his hands and ours all the time. We love to watch him explore his world!

Speaking of exploring... the army crawl he started last month was perfected this month! He is so good at getting around! He will come find me or Will when we've left the room. It's fun to have a visitor crawl in the office when I'm working!

This week he started sitting from the crawl position! I missed it the first few times he did it, but caught him this morning! He gets into downward dog and then backs up onto his tush.

We went to the Tampa Aquarium this month with Grandma Helen and Grandpa Ken. It was quite a time! Mason liked when the big schools of fish swam past him. At first he wasn't sure, but then he warmed up to the idea, and then he smiled a lot.

Mason and I went to Long Island last week. His Grandma Susan and Grandpa David joined us. He met a LOT of his cousins up there. He was so great, happy to be passed around from person to person. We stayed with my cousin Marcy and her family. She loved him to pieces. We took a day trip to Long Beach to visit our old neighbors. Their daughter is 3. She hugged and loved him to pieces.

Will is teaching him "share". He is getting it! Maybe month 11 will have him sharing like a pro!

He is walking with help, and loving it! We hold his hands and he takes these giant exaggerated Frankenstein steps. He received the toy on the left as a gift. It's a lawnmower-type toy with clacking alligators. We help him walk around with it. Pulling himself up and cruising around on the funiture is around the corner!

He says "Daddy". Well, he says "Die-yie" or "I-yie". And he knows he's saying Daddy. He says "ma-ma-ma". But not when we ask him, only when he's talking silly to himself. When we ask him to say "Mommy", he says, "mmmmmvvvvvvv". It's coming, I know it!

He shakes his head no a LOT. He does it when he doesn't want anymore food, even when he does still want food. He does it when we nod and say yes. It's good times.

He goes into "lockdown" when Basher tries to kiss his face. He is in crawl position when he does it, and he hides his head in his arms.

He waved hello/goodbye at the start of the month. He does it sporadically now.

Man, that's a LOT of stuff!!! I expect month eleven to be filled with even more new surprises! Yay baby!!!!!