in with the new

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!!!!!

The Wave!

Mason is waving now!!! It is so cute. Watch him be grouchy and still give us a wave!

Nine Months!!!

Happy ninth month birthday, little man!!!

What a FUN month! It started with his first trip to the beach. Like I typed, he liked eating the sand, but hated the water. We also put him in a toy pool, which he liked a lot because the water was warm from the sun. I think he thought he was in the bath.

He had his first dip in a real pool, as well. He didn't like it at first. I think he expected the temperature to be more bath-like.  But he got used to it and had a little fun.

Probably the biggest accomplishment this month is that he is mobile! He army crawls all over! I can get him to come over to me if I wiggle my fingers on the floor. He thinks they're silly and always wants to check out the wiggliness.

Mason "talks" lots of different "phrases" now: "mmmm", "ba ba ba", "ya ya ya ya", "m-bop", "aaahhhhhh". He lets me make a funny mouth noise with my hand on his lips.

We did some traveling and visiting this month. Mason and I did a lot of driving on Mother's Day weekend. His aunt Jackie came for a visit. And last weekend we flew to Alexandria,VA for a wedding. That's his 9th and 10th flights! Will's cousin got married, and was so nice to invite Mason to the wedding! Mason looked so sharp in his RL vest!

He's gotten better at sleeping longer stretches at night (again). Will goes to him when he wakes up sometimes, and gets him back to sleep. It's a big deal that both of us can get him back to sleep now. He knows when he sees Will that he isn't getting boob juice, and he goes back to sleep pretty quickly. Even the transition from the Pack N Play bassinet attachment to the bottom of the PNP wasn't more than one rough night.

He's also gotten better at crib napping. We put him in, he cries for about 5 - 8 minutes. We go in and sooth him, and he falls asleep while we're in there. He's even fallen asleep BY HIMSELF four times!!!!

He got his second tooth on May 7. I expect a top tooth any day now. He's pretty irritable sometimes, and hates when I rub the Orajel on the top gums.

He does silly things on purpose to make us laugh. He laughs at Basher. He gives "kisses", an open mouth over mommy or daddy's kissing (closed!) mouth. He drops things off his highchair on purpose. When he's crawling around on the floor, he pushes toys away from himself, goes after them, and then pushes them farther away.

He had his first stomach bug this week. We thought it was over by Wednesday. But Thursday he threw up a full meal at lunch and then today he had the biggest diarrhea I've ever seen. It filled his diaper, it was all over his legs, it filled the seat of his highchair. We put him right in the tub, and I put the highchair outside for a hosing off! He has had a lot of Pedialyte this week.

He understands and laughs when we say milk and do the sign (like squeezing a cow's teat). Today and yesterday, I saw him signing something that looked like a wave at the ceiling. It could be the start of signing back at us. Maybe the milk sign, maybe hello/goodbye.

His hair is getting so long! It's hard to get it spiky now because of its heft. We are holding off on the haircut for a while. Maybe when it gets in his eyes, we'll go for it.

He's much better with non-mommy and daddy people holding him. He didn't need any time to warm up to any of his grandparents this month when he saw all of them. Same with his Aunts Meg and Jackie, who he has spent some time with.

I cannot believe what a fun month this was. I expect month 10 to be even more exciting!!!

9th Month Developmental Milestones

from the Twinkies...

90% of babies can…
bear some weight on legs	yep
look for dropped object	yep
*
75% of babies can…
pull up to standing from sitting	if he's holding our hands
creep or crawl	yep, mostly with his arms
get into sitting from stomach	nope
object if you take a toy away	nope
stand holding on to someone/thing	yep
pickup object w/ thumb & finger	a few times
say mama or dada indiscriminately	nope
play peekaboo	we call it "where's Mason"
*
50% of babies can…
play patty-cake or wave bye-bye	nope
walk holding on to furniture	nope
understand “no”	yep
*
25% of babies can…
roll ball back and forth to parent	nope
drink from a cup	yes, but it's messy
pick up tiny object neatly	nope
stand alone momentarily	nope
stand alone well	nope
say mama or dada discriminately	nope
say other words	nope
respond to 1-step command w/ gestures	he smiles when we say/sign "milk"

Army Crawl

We're making crawling progress! Here's Mason yesterday morning...

What an adventure!!!!

Coming Soon... Crawling!

It's coming! He has been getting on his knees on soft surfaces for over a week now. He sometimes does it on the hard floor. This video is from last Friday...

Eight Months!

Well, really eight months and a week!

What a personality Mason is becoming! He's such a clown! He makes that crinkle face like it's his job now! He breathes deep through his nose, like he's huffing and puffing, and scrunches up his funny face.

He started blowing raspberries on my shoulder and arm. So funny. It feels nice.

He sprouted a tooth on April 9! We're still waiting for more. We know they're coming sooner or later, because sometimes he's a cranky puss who can't stop munching his hands, our hands, toys...

He visited his grandparents (my parents) this month. His grandpa made him a swing! His Aunt Meg came to visit. We had fun shopping with her. Mason told me he wishes he lived closer to her!

He's WAY better at getting cheerios into his mouth! He still doesn't have the pincer grasp down. He palms 2 - 4 cheerios and gets about half in his mouth. Then he uses the non-feeding hand to keep the cheerios in.

We've been pretty successful at getting him to eat 1 - 2 solid meals each day. Usually breakfast and lunch, but sometimes lunch and dinner. He eats a lot of foods now... Besides baby foods of all sorts, he eats yogurt (or yogirk, as his cousin Ezra calls it), cheerios, apple "nutrigrain" bars, sweet potato, avocado, bits of chicken, grapes, bananas. One meal is usually half a yogurt and 1/4 c. oatmeal mixed with a fruity baby food. The second meal is a meaty or beany (lentils and rice) baby food and a fruity baby food.

I'm sure you've read about our sleep progress (below)!

He likes to practice standing now. He will hold on to a piece of furniture, as long as someone is supporting him. Here's a video of him leaning against the back of our futon. It looks like dancing, but it's him catching his balance!

As of the end of his 8th month, he wasn't showing signs of crawling. When he's on the floor on his tummy, he ends up pushing himself backwards. Usually into a corner of the room. This week, he started getting on his knees and rocking, but only on soft surfaces, like his crib. Save that for his 9-month entry!

He and Basher have developed quite a nice rapport. You can witness that here and here. They're sweet on each other.

I asked Will if there's anything to add. He said Mason's still short. I'm taller than someone, at least for a few years! Next month we'll find out how much he's grown and gained at his 9 month check up!

Seven Months!

I can't believe I haven't posted in five months! What a little personality Mason has become/is becoming in those five months! I can't believe he is seven months old!!!!! Everything new is such an adventure! Bath in a blowup duck tub? So much fun with the kicking and splashing! Jaunt to the park? Feed the ducks as Mason watches intently, or lay on a blanket and watch him try to eat leaves and grass, no matter how many times you remove them from his hands! Food?!?!?!? Whether he has a successful meal or not, he is smiling and either eating voraciously, trying to get cheerios into his mouth, or refusing with a turn of the head, still happily.

Nighttime is our roughest part of this adventure. We believe he's begun teething, and he wakes quite frequently. We cater to it because we just want him to get through the teething... March 6, a wonderful night. He slept 11.5 hours in a row, not waking once to be fed. Now? Bed around 7, awake around 11, 2, 5. I feed him each time, because it soothes him, and he's SO sad. After the teeth are in we'll work on dropping a feeding if he doesn't drop one himself.

The poops? They smell worse than any poo I have ever smelled, ever. EVER.

Mason is a frequent flyer! He's flown EIGHT times so far, and each flight has been a successful part of this adventure! We took him to Ashville, NC when he was six weeks old. That was very optimistic and probably naive of us. He cried so much that trip. We took him to New Orleans in January. He did great on that adventure!

He loves Basher. He knows her noises and cranes his neck to find her. He knows her foot clacking, her shaking noise, her eating sounds. Whenever they're within a couple of feet of each other, he reaches out his hands to her and she licks them. If he's crying or upset, the sight of her calms him.

He thinks mirrors are silly. How can daddy and mommy be over there, when they're over here?!?

At five months he knew his name. What a neat milestone that is. Sitting is our big milestone now. He still flops over some of the time, but he will assume the sitting position for a while before he rolls over and away. No crawling yet, but the kid can rotate like nobody's business, or roll away and back, away and back, until he's changed his position to a more suitable one.

The smiles just keep coming. I cannot believe he'll be a year old in 5 months!

Smile!

It was reflexive, I think. I was touching his lips and making silly sounds. But SO cute!

He's 33 days old today!