Mason 2 years old

Mason Alan 2 year old

Mason Alan you are 2 years old! Goodness those two years sped by. You have turned the corner into a little (not so little) boy!

Weight: 29 pounds (61st percentile)
Height: 35 inches (71st percentile)
Head Circumference: 30 inches (98th percentile)

As of two years old you are wearing size 2T-3T clothes, and size 4 diapers.

You are still a great sleeper! You sleep about 12 hours at night and take a 2-3 hour nap! You sleep in a big boy bed. Literally, we put you in it one night, you didn't climb out once, and have been sleeping in it ever since!

You love to eat! You aren't a very picky eater. Some of your favorites are cherry tomatoes, yogurt, applesauce, eggs, smoothie and a whole apple. Of course ice cream and donuts also make the list! You're our little garbage disposal, frequently asking for a "nack, peeze!"

I can't believe how much you are speaking! You basically talk in full sentences.

You love, love, love balls! Your favorite is the basketball!

You also love playing with cars. You line the up, race them and pretend with them.

You like to play in Mommy and Daddy's car and pretend to drive.

When Matthew and Mollie are around you are always trying to keep up with them. Lots of times this ends in tears because sometimes you just aren't ready to play like they are. It's so fun to see you when you aren't around them, because you are SO content to just go down in the basement or up to your room and play quietly and by yourself.

On Mondays and Wednesdays you get time with just you and Sissy while bro bro is at preschool and Miles is at home with Banna. It's been so sweet seeing you two together. You are just her little side kick and she loves it!

You and Sissy have been having wrestling matches almost nightly! Silly kids!

We are working on it, but you don't like to hold hands when walking or crossing the street.

Speaking on walking, you ALWAYS want to walk when we are out and about or in the store. Mr. Independent!

You're still a little clumsy. You are slowly learning how to really run!

Your favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. You will sit on the couch, zoned out and watch an entire show.

You're obsessed and a little possessive of your boo boo and giraffe (guh).

You knocked your lip on the bathtub and chipped your front tooth. We had to take you to the dentist to get it smoothed out. It adds character, right?!?

When Daddy is watching sports, you love to tell him whats on. Football! Baseball! Basketball!

You say "Seahawks!" when you see a football.

You're so curious right now! You are always asking "What you doing Mommy?"

No more baba! Now we just need to work on getting rid of the paci!

Your favorite characters are Mickey and Elmo.

My goodness Mason, you have such a silly and sweet personality. You are always saying "Hi Uncle Banna!" or "Hi Uncle Daddy!" We now call you Uncle Mason! You'll say "Hi Tim!"

When we ask you how old you are you say, "I five!" You deny it when we tell you that you're really two and insist you are five.

I love the way that you say you words. You can Gabby, "Dabby", Grandpa, "Gampa" and Grandma "Gama". You have Papa and Banna down.

Mason Alan, you are just a delight! You bring so much joy and laughter to our lives!

Mollie 4 years old

Mollie Lynn you are 4 years old!

My sweet girl. I hope you know just how much we treasure you. You are one of a kind and you truly have a heart of gold. Sure, you can be a stinker, and whine too much or scream about the silliest of things. Sometimes you have a hard time keeping your hands to yourself when your brothers bug you, but Mollie Lynn you are precious. You love your family, you take care of your brothers, and you have such spunk and joy. I pray you never change!

You have the biggest, most compassionate heart. You are always willing to help out, pick something up, or go grab a diaper and wipes. You clean up after your brothers, you get Mason (and yourself) milk, and dish out snacks to the family. You have a servant's heart. You love to help in the kitchen, cutting up veggies, or helping to bake cookies (and eating the batter!). You help me sort laundry too!

You love Miles to pieces. You are always asking to hold him. You swing him around and put him on your hip just so. You sit him on your lap to go down the stairs with him. You change his diapers (and do a good job!), change a lot of his clothes, give him toys, feed him his bottles, and gets in his crib to play with him when he wakes up. Sometimes you forget that you aren't his real Mommy, but you sure are the next best thing. Thankfully, you've only tried to nurse your dolls and not Miles.

You are a little goofball, always telling a silly story or making up some ridiculous song. You and Mason like to call people "Uncle". You are still shy around people you don't know very well and at church, but you have blossomed so much this past year. Sometimes you will say hi to every person we walk by. You love to give all of Daddy's baseball players a high five after the game. You will order and pay for your own food at restaurants and you'll go up to the front counter at a restaurant like McDonald's and ask for things that we need.

You are independent. You wash, condition, and rinse your own hair. You dress yourself and put your shoes and socks on. Your favorite outfit is jeans and a t-shirt. You change your clothes about 5 times a day. Thankfully you can put your old clothes away when you get your new ones on. I'm dreading your teenage years! You only like to wear dresses on Sundays when we go to church. You are starting to like dresses you can twirl in, but still bring a change of clothes most Sundays so you can change into your play clothes at Papa's house.

You are so particular about your socking fitting and feeling just right.

You are a smart little girl. You know most of your letters and sounds, can count to 20 and to 100 by 10's. You have learned your colors, shapes and rhyming words from your brother. You love to color and do such a good job coloring in the lines. You love writing your name and other things that you ask how to spell. You are left handed. As much as I might have tried to steer you towards using your right hand, you made it very clear that your left hand was most comfortable.

You love to snuggle and want tickly, especially when you are tired. You give the best giant hugs, and ask for us to "squeeze me".

You still love your milk, and wants milk out of a sippy cup when you are tired and in the morning.

You have a thankful heart, and get absolutely tickled over even the smallest of gifts.  

You love to paint your own nails and toes. They usually are a mix of pink and purple. We went on your birthday and got a pedicure!

Every Tuesday you get to take Matthew to preschool and spend the morning with your Grandpa! What a special time you get to spend together. You get Starbucks, run errands, or go to the park. 

Mollie, one of the accomplishments that I am so proud of is that you learned how to ride your bike before you turned 4! You are a determined little girl, and kept trying. No training wheels, straight from your strider bike to a big girl bike! One day you just took off and haven't looked back since. We are so proud of you Sissy!

Mollie Lynn, God has blessed our family by you. I pray that this year you would continue to grow in His grace, and understand the love that He has for you. We love you so much Sissy!

Miles 8 months

Miles Patrick you are 8 months old!

Miles, Miles, Miles...what else is there to say but that you are the sweetest and easiest little baby! 

What have you been up to these past couple of months?

As of 7 months old....

You wear size 6 month clothes and size 3 month pants.

You started the month off rolling over from back to tummy. By the end of the month, you were rolling all over the place!

You must be starting to teeth because everything goes into your mouth.

You make so many grunts and sweet little noises!

You began the month sleeping swaddled in the bassinet in our room. I kept thinking that I needed to move you though. For about a week you were waking up multiple times a night for your binkie, wanting to nurse at times too. I wasn't about to let you regress on your sleep habits, and I didn't want to be waking up multiple times a night either, so I decided it was time to move you into your room that you share with Mason. I also felt like you were starting to fight against being swaddled. So one night I just put you in your crib, unswaddled for bed, and you slept through the night and have done so every night since! You sleep from about 7-8pm until 7am. You and Mason have done such a great job sharing a room. Your nap schedule is also much better this month. You usually take 3 naps per day. 1 long nap for about 3 hours from 12-3. You also take 2 short naps, one morning, one early evening, lots of times just in your car seat when we are out and about. 

You love to cuddle, but you also love to lay on the floor, rolling around, playing with your toys and exploring this world!

Oh my goodness, you absolutely love food! You eat pretty much anything pureed.

You grab at faces.

You are making so many sweet grunts and coos lately.

Thank goodness you finally learned how to put your paci back in by yourself!!

As of 8 months old...

You wear size 2 diapers. You wear size 6 month clothes and 3 month pants. You are still tiny!

Sleep continues to be amazing! You love your crib. You nurse and have a bottle before bed, we lay you down sleepy but awake with your zebra, binkie, and white noise machine on, and you put yourself to sleep. You sleep about 12-13 hours at night.

You are sitting up!!

You are making all sorts of noises and sounds.

You said your first word! Your Daddy works hard at it, and just like Mason, your first word was
 "Da-da". You "talk" all the time.

As much as you love your Daddy, or are perfectly content with someone else holding you, you have special eyes for your Mama! When you are tired or hungry, and I am around, you will whine until I nurse you. Out of all your siblings, you like to nurse the most. You nurse every 3-4 hours during the day, have 1 bottle of formula before bed, and you eat solids twice a day.

You LOVE food. I stopped pureeing your food and now you just feed yourself cut up foods. You grab fist fulls of food and shove them in your mouth. It's so fun to watch how much you enjoy eating! You pretty much just eat what we eat. You love eggs, greek yogurt (I feed you this!) and fruit.

It's baseball season around our house, so you went to your first baseball game!

You love your siblings. The feelings are pretty mutual. You just light up when they are around and playing with you.

You LOVE to swing in swings at the park. Your smile is so contagious and just lights up your entire face!

You are so easy in the nursery at church. Stay that way, okay?!?

Miles Patrick, you are exactly what our busy family needed! We thank the Lord for the little blessing you are in our lives! We love you to the moon and back!

Matthew 5 years old

Matthew Jay you are 5 years old!

My oldest son, how in the world has time zoomed by and now you are 5 years old? You are growing up before our eyes! We are so thankful for the work that the Lord is doing in your life. Your Mommy and Daddy are so proud of the little boy that you are becoming!

You are 39 pounds (70th percentile), and 3'5" (55th percentile). They don't measure your head anymore at your doctors appointments, but you take after your Daddy and have a very large head! You wear 5T or XS-S clothes. You wear size 13 shoes.

Favorite color: blue

Sport: t-ball

Character: batman

Food: pizza, egg casserole

Best friends: Joshie and Aiden

Favorite tv show: PJ Masks, Miles from Tomorrowland

Favorite animal: snake

Favorite song: Deep and Wide

Favorite drink: slurpee

Favorite thing to play outside: ride bikes

Favorite breakfast food: donut

Favorite thing to do at school: play outside

Favorite dessert: twist ice cream cone

What do you want to be when you grow up? fire man

You like to dress yourself. Some days you are very opinionated about what you wear, and others you will wear whatever I pick out. For awhile you only wanted to wear kakhi pants, another time it was anything but jeans, another phase was only jeans! You are looking forward to wearing shorts and flip flops as the weather gets nicer. 

You are a little boy who likes routine and wants to know what the plan for the next day is before you go to sleep. You also love adventure and exploring,

Although you test your mommy and daddy, you are a rule follower, especially at school.

You go to school 3 mornings a week and absolutely love it! You so amazing there. You have made some sweet friends, learned a lot and are such a good little boy for your teachers.
 (Now we just have to get some of that behavior to rub off at home!) You are a smart little cookie and very ready for kindergarten. You love to play outside and get so excited when it is your turn to bring snack and show & tell to school.

You LOVE Tuesday mornings when Grandpa takes you to preschool. What a special time you two get together!

Love watching a show first thing when you wake up

When you are tired and we are at home winding down for the day, your clothes immediately come off, your curl up in a blanket, and you half lay, half sit on the couch, curled up in a little ball. It's your tired position!

You are not much of a snuggler or a boy who loves giving or receiving hugs, but especially lately, you have been loving your daddy cuddles in the evening.

No more naps! You are right in the in-between stage of giving up naps, but at the same time could really still use one. You are a little boy who needs his sleep! You're not tired enough when nap time comes, but exhausted by 6pm! Without naps, you usually sleep from 7:30pm-6:30am. You will rally if we are out and about and gladly stay up longer. If you do nap, it's a miserable struggle trying to get you to sleep! You share a room with Sissy. This year, we got you two new bunk beds. You sleep on the top bunk. At bedtime you two like to talk and be silly with eachother, usually coming out of your room a few times before crashing for the night!

You were so healthy this year! Hardly any sickness, and only a few sniffles here and there. I'm really quite amazing considering this was your first year in preschool.

You are such a people person and absolutely love being with your friends. You still get really shy at times around adults though.

You LOVE church. You are always giving us a hard time if we are unable to be there for some reason. You love going to your Sunday School class, spending time with some of your best friends, and learning about God! I love to hear all the stories and hear the songs you are learning. We are praying for you knowledge of Jesus to grow this year!

You are going to play T-ball this Spring! I don'y know who's more excited, you or Daddy!

You are always wanting to be doing something or going somewhere. However when you are tired, you will sit and watch a show without moving a muscle. You love being out and about. Your behavior is so much better when we are out of the house too. It seems like you go stir crazy if you have to spend a day at home and pick on your bro bro and Sissy all.day.long! You don't really play with toys when you are at home. You would much rather spend the day outside.

You LOVE to play outside. If you could, you would be outside from early morning to bedtime. We are so anxious for summer break! You love to ride bikes, your electric scooter, play ball, and hide and go seek.

Some of your favorite foods are pizza, chicken nuggets, smoothies, avocado, carrots and hummus, goldfish, chicken and ice cream. You have a banana and string cheese almost every night before bed for a snack.  Some meals it seems like you hardly touch your food and other meals is seems like you don't stop eating! You aren't a picky eater, but the first thing you do is smell your food and ask what's in it before trying it.

You wanted snow SO badly at our house this year, and we never got any. We went up to the mountains to sled one day and no surprise, but you absolutely LOVED it!

You love watching YouTube playdoh surpise eggs videos.

You love being a big brother. As much as you and Sissy seem to fight some days, you two are little peas in a pod, best buds. Most of the time you are so sweet to Mason and other times you like to push his buttons! You hug and kiss Miles all the time. I'm so excited to see the relationships that you continue to develop with your brothers and sister!

We love you so much Matthew Jay!

Miles 6 months

 Miles Patrick you are 6 months old!

What have you been up to these past couple of months??

As of 5 months old....

You are wearing 3 month clothes, and a couple 6 month sleepers.

You still wear size 1 diapers.

You still love to eat food and enjoy trying new flavors and foods. You eat vigorously and want your food as fast as possible! I make all of your baby food homemade.

You are losing your hair. Every day it seems to be getting thinner and thinner. I'm so sad!!

You found your feet. You love to lay on the ground and play with your toes.

Tummy time seems to be improving and you are tolerating it more and more.

You aren't rolling over yet.

You are so alert. You have big, brown eyes. You love to look all around.

You played in the exersaucer for the first time. You spent about 10 minutes in it, before you couldn't hold your head up any longer.

You still love your paci. You pull it out a lot and can't put it back in by yourself. 

You love to be held. 

You still sleep swaddled, in our room, through the night! Why change a good thing right now?!?

Your Sissy is absolutely smitten with you. Her obsession with you grows each day. You are like her little baby doll. I think she sometimes she forgets that I am actually your Mommy and not her. Mollie loves to change your diapers, even poopy ones! She dresses you, gets you in and out of your car seat, gives you your paci. Sometimes it's a little too much, but what a blessing you have in your Sissy!

You love to take baths and showers.

You are starting to find your voice and beginning to make lots of little, sweet noises!

As of 6 months old....

Weight: 13 pounds 5 ounces (less than 1st percentile)

Height: 24 inches (less then 1st percentile)

Head circumference: 17.3 inches (68th percentile)

Clearly introducing solid foods and increased dosing of your anti-relux medication hasn't helped you pack on the pounds. Your doctor wants to try taking you off of Zantac and see how your body responds. We are also going to increase the amount of food and fat we give you. We will go back for a weight check in 6 weeks to see if we can fatten you up!

At the end of 6 months, your reflux all of a sudden seemed to improve. You spit up SO much less! Nothing really changed. You had been off your reflux meds for almost a month already, but its like your body just kicked in and started digesting your milk much better. You still spit up a little here and there, but much improved. Hopefully the scale will start reflecting this!

You are wearing mostly 6 month clothes, even moving into some 9 month sleepers.

You wear size 2 diapers.

You hair is very thin all over. It seems like its now starting to grow back in. It is much darker then your brothers and sister!

You are rolling over from your tummy to your back! You do this almost immediately every time we put you on your tummy.

You love to sit in the exersaucer and the bumbo. 

You still sleep in our room. You sleep from 7:30pm-6:00am. I have noticed that lately I've been having to get up a couple of times per night to put the binkie back in for you. Let's not start a pattern, shall we?? Your naps are infrequent during the day. 

You spent every Monday and Wednesday morning with Banna while we take Matthew to preschool. What a special time you get with her!

You like to suck on your toes. 

You are a smiley and giggly little boy! You light up for all your siblings. 

Miles Patrick, you are the perfect cap for our family. We love you so much little man!

Miles 4 months

Miles Patrick you are 4 months old!

What have you been up to these past couple of months?

Weight: 11 pounds 4 ounces (0.3 percentile)

Height: 23.5 inches (2nd percentile)

Head circumference: 16.5 inches (64th percentile)

You are a tiny little peanut! Even with your reflux medications, you still spit up ALL.THE.TIME. It's no wonder you aren't gaining weight like you should be. At your doctors appointment, we decided to try increasing your anti-reflux medication. We are also going to be starting solids! You seem so tiny and young to be starting solids, but I'm hopeful that it might help with the spitting up and most importantly the weight gain. 

Your first food was avocado. We've tried it multiple times since, and you still really dislike it. You LOVE bananas, and will take the avocado mixed with a little banana. You have also had peas, sweet potato and applesauce. You love to eat solids. We almost have to bundle you while you eat because your hands just go right up to your face, get in the way and make a huge mess!

You are still sleeping in the bassinet in our room. You sleep swaddled with your paci. I'm much more relaxed on your schedule, so some nights I put you to sleep in your bassinet about 8:30, other times I let you fall asleep downstairs and just carry you up when we go to bed. At 3 months, you were waking up once per night to briefly nurse and then go back to sleep. By 4 months you are officially sleeping through the night!! You take good naps throughout the day, but not really on a set schedule. 

You love your paci. If you are fussy, it calms you down immediately, except if you are hungry!

You are continuing to nurse well. I feed you about every 3 hours during the day. Some nights you take 2 ounces of formula before bed. 

You are such a happy, easy, content baby. I'm so thankful! You are one smiley little guy! This month you started cooing. I love seeing you start to interact with us.

You sat in your bumbo seat for the first time. You lasted just a couple of minutes and looked like a little bobble head the entire time.

You love lights and TV. I try not to let you watch it, but its amazing how you will turn your head to try to get a glimpse!

You celebrated your first Halloween. Mason was sick, so both you and Mason got to stay home and enjoy a quiet night with your Gabby! You also celebrated your first Thanksgiving. We spent the day over at Gabby and Grandpa's house. You slept through dinner like a good little baby!

You have 3 older siblings who love and adore you. You actually put up with so much from them. Mollie loves to change your diapers and pick your boogies. I think she likes to pretend you are her little baby doll! Both Matthew and Mollie love to hold you up on their shoulder and carry you around. Mason loves to lay his big head down on you and give you loves. I pray daily for the bond between you siblings to grow and strengthen daily!

Miles Patrick, you are so loved, little guy!

Mason 18 months

Mason Alan 18 months

Mason Alan, you are 18 months old! What have you been up to these past couple of months?

Weight: 26 pounds (72nd percentile)

Height: 31.75 inches (21st percentile)

Head circumference: 19.7 inches (97th percentile)

Size 18-24 months or 2 T clothes. You are a solid dude!

You take after Daddy and have a big head.

Your sleep habits haven't changed. Thank goodness you are a good sleeper. Never change that, okay?

It seems like overnight you have turned the corner into a full blown toddler! You are exploring everything. All of a sudden, you want to be doing anything and everything Matthew and Mollie are doing. You try to keep up with the big kids!

Mason, for 18 months, you were my absolute easy going, do whatever, content kid. Now don't get me wrong, you still are pretty easy going, but lately you have shown us a little temper when you get mad. I'm not used to you being naughty or disobeying that it's almost cute when you choose to hit or throw something. You are learning how to sit in time out. It's secretly absolutely adorable to watch you sit on the stairs in time out.

You absolutely love your cousin Caleb. He is so attentive and sweet to you, and your feelings towards him are mutual. You talk about him during the week and are absolutely giddy when you get to see him. Family is such a gift!

Goodness you are the love bug of our family right now. You LOVE to snuggle and give hugs.

Your vocabulary is exploding! Every day you are learning new words. You are putting together 2 word phrases.

You try to run, but you just aren't there yet. I think because you started walking pretty late that it will just take some more time. You try so hard to keep up with your big brother and sister though!

You are a great eater, obviously. You LOVE eggs, yogurt, oatmeal, cheese, any kind of berries, frozen blueberries and toast. 

You love to color and play playdoh.

You were sick with a cold and a fever on Halloween. You dressed up as a puppy dog, but cried through the pictures. You stayed home and a had a quiet night with Gabby.

You love your little brother. What an amazing transition you have made into the role of big brother. We are so proud of you!

Mason Alan, we love you to the moon and back!

Miles 2 months

Miles Patrick you are 2 months old!

What have you been up to this past month?

Weight: 9 pounds 7 ounces (.94 percentile) 

Height: 22 inches (5th percentile)

Head circumference: 15.75 inches (68th percentile)

Dr. Kolsky was concerned about your weight since at your 1 month appointment you were in the 40th percentile for weight, and this month you were below the 1st percentile for weight! You spit up ALL.THE.TIME. After I nurse you, it literally seems like you throw up everything that I just fed you. You need frequent burping, and end up going through multiple burp cloths, bibs and outfits daily. It seems like I don't get to see your cute clothes very often, because they are either covered up by a bib or soaking wet with spit up! Thankfully, spitting up does not bother you at all. You don't even seem to notice that it happens and for that I am so grateful!

The transition to 4 little kids has been great. Life doesn't stop, you just fit right in and come along for the ride! You have such a laid back, easy personality that it has made the change easier. You fall asleep in the car seat and do great being toted around from place to place, activity to activity. 

You are beginning to have more awake periods. You have a couple hours where you are awake in both the morning and evening. You are the sleepiest in the middle of the day. 

You still wear newborn size diapers and mostly newborn clothes. You can fit into a few of your 0-3 month outfits.

Nursing is going well. You nurse every 3 hours during the day.

At night you are sleeping 4-5 hour stretches. I feel horrible because you will wake up at night because you have spit up everywhere. To help with the spit up, we have the head of your bassinet slightly elevated. You still sleep in the bassinet in our room.

You got your first set of shots this month and tolerated them well!

You have the biggest, most charming brown eyes.

Besides the constant spitting up, you are an absolute dream baby. So easy and content!

You cry when you are tired or hungry. You will also stop crying almost immediately when someone picks you up. I think being 4th child, you are learning to cherish those times you get held!

You are a cuddler, and loves to sleep upright on our chests.

At home, you sit in the bouncy seat or on the boppy, watching the chaos of your brothers and sister playing around you! 

Although they are not your favorite, you are tolerating baths better. I tend to just shower with you instead.

You still have lots of hair. It gets oily fast from all the little fingers touching it and kisses you receive!

Your brothers and sisters love you. Matthew and Mason like to say hi, and hold you for a few minutes at a time. Your sister on the other hand, is like a second mommy to you. She LOVES to hold you, and is a big helper!

You got circumcised at 5 weeks of age. You did great!

You love to be swaddled. You sleep swaddled at night and for some of your naps during the day. If you are ever fussy, we can just swaddle you up and it seems to settle you right now. 

During tummy time, you just lay your head down and fall asleep. Your brother Mason used to do the same thing!

You take the bottle really well.

 Grandpa and Gabby love to babysit you! 

You stay with Banna every Monday and Wednesday when I take Matthew to preschool. What a special time you get with her, all to yourself!

We love our Fridays with Gabby!

No smiles yet, they're coming though!

You love to hold your head up and look all around.

You are tracking fingers held up in front of your face really well.

Miles Patrick, we love you so much sweet baby! What a little blessing you are to our family!

Mason 16 months

 Mason Alan you are 16 months old!

What have you been up to these past couple of months? 

 

At your 15 month well child check:

Weight: 25 pounds (80th percentile)

Height: 31.25 inches ( 51st percentile)

Head circumference: 19.5 inches ( 98th percentile)

 You are a big boy. You aren't a very chunky, rolly polly boy, just solid as can be! You wear 18-24 month clothes. You wear size 4 diapers.

You absolutely love your crib and love sleeping! You sleep from about 7pm-7am and you take about a 3 hour nap each afternoon. You sleep with your old and your new stuffed giraffe, your paci, a blanket and your sound machine on.

One night when going to bed, Daddy and I were sitting on the couch. We told you that it was time to go to bed. You started walking towards the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, you turned around and said "Nigh, nigh", waved and started crawling up the stairs. It was so sweet.

At 15 months you can walk across a room. You still crawl about 50% of the time. 

Finally, at 15 1/2 months you started officially walking everywhere. You seem so proud, and will just walk around and around our house. 

You can go up and down the stairs. You like to try and be a big boy and walk down the stairs, which you can't do safely, so you need need lots of reminders to go down backwards.

You love to play with your shoes but don't like to put them on.

You love food. You honestly will eat just about anything we put in front of you. We call you the garbage disposal because you will eat all of Matthew and Mollie's leftover food. You LOVE apples, eggs, Veggie Straws, string cheese and milk.

You have had a rough time teething. You are fussy and extra tired.

Your vocabulary is growing every day! You say a lot of words, but usually only say the first sound of the word.

You nod and say "yes" or "no" to questions appropriately.

You LOVE bath time and splashing with your brother and sister.

You absolutely love brushing your teeth.

You love when Daddy lays on the ground and you crawl all over him, and "wrestle"

You love keys. When Gabby is over, you immediately want her purse, so you can dig in it and find her keys.

If you are outside, you love being in the dirt, making a mess and working with Daddy.

Mason Alan, you seem soo big after having a tiny little baby brother! You absolutely love Miles. You call him "Muh". You love to kiss Miles and give him hugs with your enormous head. We do have to put Miles and his bouncy seat up on the table because you also love to crawl on top of him and bounce his seat way too hard! Oh the joys of 2 babies 14.5 months apart. Seriously though, you have adjusted wonderfully to having a new baby brother. You are so interested in him and have assumed the role of big brother perfectly! I couldn't be happier about this. You two are going to be best of buds in no time!

Mason Alan, you are just in the sweetest stage. Don't ever change buddy! We love you so much!

Miles 1 month

How in the world are you one month old already? Although you are still tiny, you seem like you are growing everyday! I think because you are our last baby, I am trying to savor and remember each moment with you.  The teeny tiny newborn stage is absolutely precious and one of my favorites. You are just the sweetest thing ever and we are so in love with you!!

What have you been up to during your first month of life?

Well, you sleep, sleep, sleep, sleep and sleep even more, we wake you up to feed, you pee, you poop every few days, and you go back to sleep. You are a pretty easy little guy! Thank goodness!

You have breastmilk jaundice, so we had to do home phototherapy. Your bili levels have been very slow to come down, so you spent your first week of life on a bilibed at home. I'm so thankful you were able to stay at home, but it was really hard having you just sleeping on the bilibed and not cuddled in our arms! We had to wake you every 2 hours to feed. This was challenging because you were so sleepy! We also had to syringe feed you after each feeding because you were so hard to keep awake while you nursed! It was a long and exhausting week, but we are so thankful that you are healthy! You are still jaundiced but it will take awhile for it to go away completely.

You sleep about 20-22 hours a day. You have very small periods of awake times, most of those being while you are nursing. We don't get to see those sweet, dark brown eyes very often! You have been sleeping great at night. I nurse you about 10pm, 2am and 6am when we get up for the day. After nursing at night, you go right back to sleep. You nurse every 3 hours during the day. Most of your daytime feedings I have to wake you for. Since you were almost 4 weeks early, we expected you to be a sleepy little guy!

Our one and only, you still have a full head of dark hair. Everyone loves to rub and touch your sweet head, so your hair tends to get oily quickly. I love after you have just had a bath and your hair is so clean, soft and sticks straight up! Bath time tends to be very quick because you don't particularly enjoy it.

You love your paci. It is very soothing for you. Lots of times you take your paci with such vigor and just chomp away on it.

You wear newborn diapers and newborn sized clothes. You have such skinny little arms and legs.

You sleep swaddled at night. You like to be swaddled but you don't need it all the time when you sleep during the day.

You love to snuggle on a warm chest, but you also really like to sit in your bouncy seat or on your boppy.

The Ergo puts you to sleep immediately. This makes trips to Costco with four kids and one Momma much easier!

After about 3 weeks, I got the hang of how to best nurse you and you finally figured nursing out. You were SO sleepy for the first couple weeks, but nursing is much improved and you now nurse for about 10 minutes on each side.

You absolutely have to be burped after you nurse. I've never had a baby who has spit up much at all, but you have started to spit up quite a bit after each feeding. Both you and I go through multiple outfit changes, bibs and burp cloths throughout the day!

Thankfully, you rarely ever cry. If you are hungry, tired or cold you will fuss and as soon as we take care of the problem or pick you up, you will calm down immediately. You are such a content little guy!

We love you Miles, and are so thankful for your sweet, easy, laid back personality. Thank goodness because I don't know how we'd survive a fussy, needy fourth baby. God always know what He's doing and what our family needed when He gave us you!

Miles Patrick, birth story

Some nights I lay down in bed completely in awe that at 29 years old Matt and I have been blessed with 4 beautiful children ages 4 and under. Most nights we just collapse from sheer exhaustion! I am continually amazed and humbled at the responsibility and privilege that God has placed on us, as parents to our now 4 children to raise them in the nurture and admonition of The Lord! I'm in awe at how perfectly created our Heavenly Father has made each of our children uniquely different and special.

I still vividly remember the day that I found out I was pregnant with Baby #4. Mason was almost 6 months old and at that time having another baby wasn't even on my mind. I already had a baby, as well as a 2 and 3 year old! I missed my period, although I didn't think too much of it since I was still nursing Mason, I wasn't feeling great, was slightly bloated and just had that sense that I should take a pregnancy test. I remember walking out of my bedroom to the top of the stairs, saw Matt and just said "I'm pregnant." Now don't get me wrong, I was very excited that God had blessed us with another pregnancy but it was very unexpected. I had to tell people fairly early on because I started to show by 8 weeks. I loved the responses I got from people because it was either that they were very excited for us, or they rolled their eyes completely not surprised that Matt and Cammie were pregnant again! At 20 weeks we found out that we were having another little boy. God knew one girl was enough for our family. Mollie will have 3 brothers all protecting and looking out for our little princess!

This pregnancy was by far my most uncomfortable and miserable pregnancy. 4 pregnancies in 4 years took a toll on my body. I had so many aches and pains, especially in my back and hips. Plus, I was completely exhausted from chasing around 3 little ones! This is the point where I get to brag on my husband because he was super Daddy, especially during the last couple months of my pregnancy when he was on summer break and I was miserable. My kiddos and I got spoiled daily by Daddy and he was a huge help with our kids and the house. I think Matt was so glad when I finally gave birth though!

At 36 weeks I could just tell that I was close to having this baby. On Saturday August 8th, we had a busy day. My mom gave me a baby shower that morning, where I was blessed with diapers and clothes from my dear friends and family, and we spent the afternoon at a family reunion. I had been having some random contractions but nothing regular, just exhausted, sore, huge, worn out,....done being pregnant! At 4:00pm, I had a few strong contractions and while in the bathroom at home, my water broke. It was time!

However, after my water broke my contractions stopped. My midwife had me stay home to see if labor would start on its own. Later that evening I ended up having to go into the hospital because my Group-B strep results weren't back yet. They ran a rapid Group-B strep test and did a non-stress test to make sure baby boy was doing fine. My Group-B came back negative and baby looked great, so about 10:00pm my midwife sent me home for the night to get some sleep and to come back in the morning for an induction.

I ended up having contractions throughout the night, but when I got up in the morning to shower, they stopped completely! We got the kids up and ready and my dad took Matthew and Mollie to church where they would spend the next couple of days with Aunt Amy, Uncle Kevin and their cousins. Matthew was thrilled, Mollie cried. I'm so thankful for family who loves our family and kids as their own. Bami came over to our house to take care of Mason there. With everyone set, my mom, Matt and I headed to the hospital to have a baby!

I started Pitocin about 8:30am. I was 3 cm dilated. By about 9:30 am I was having strong regular contractions, 3 minutes apart. Since I have had three previous natural, non-medicated births, I knew that this one would be no different. However, in the midst of painful, intense contractions, I dreamed of an epidural! Throughout the morning I walked the hallways and bounced on the labor ball. Around 12:30 my contractions seemed to really change and I began to feel the urge to push. My midwife checked me and baby was low but I was only 5 cm dilated. Needless to say I was a little frustrated and disappointed with my progress. My labor continued to be hard and intense.

During all of this, we still hadn't been able to decide on baby boy's name! We had decided that it was going to start with an "M" and had a list of about 4 names, but no winner yet. Finally, during labor we buckled down and Matt decided his name was going to be Miles Patrick. I loved it! Miles after my Pa's middle name and Patrick after Matt's dad. Miles Patrick Stevens.

At about 1:55 my midwife stepped out for a couple of minutes to order some food. I had 2 really intense contractions, during which I felt like I had to push again. Since it was only about an hour and a half earlier that I was checked and only 5cm, I was determined that I wasn't going to have my midwife check me again until it was really time to push. I didn't want to be disappointed by my lack of progress again. I decided that maybe I just needed to go to the bathroom (insert, WRONG choice!). Immediately after sitting down, I knew that I did not have to go to the bathroom, but that it really was time for baby, and NOW! I literally had to run to bed, my mom trailing after me with my IV pole. I had to leap into bed, because I had it elevated so I could stand and lean against it during labor. Immediately after getting into bed, Miles was born, self delivered, right on the bed. It all happened so fast he was just laying there on the bed, curled up in a little ball, not even aware he had just been born! My midwife walked (ran!) into the room just as I was delivering. She ran over, grabbed Miles and put him up on my chest. During all this (which was literally about 15 seconds), Matt stood I think in shock at how fast everything just happened. Miles just lay, so calm, perfect, pink, and wide eyed on my chest, not even letting out a cry. The one thing all of us couldn't believe was that Miles had a head full of hair! I always wished I had a baby with hair, but after having three bald babies, I never imagined that #4 would have hair, let alone dark, black hair. We all couldn't stop laughing and smiling at what just happened. I remember feeling so relieved that it was all over and our fourth baby was really here!

Miles Patrick Stevens

Born 8/9/2015 at 2:00 pm

7 pounds, 19.5 inches

He layed in my chest and nursed for about an hour. After that, I got up and dressed and Miles was wrapped up and passed around to an eager Daddy, Gabby and Grandma. Because Miles was 3.5 weeks early, they had to check his blood sugar. He nursed great, but it ended up that he had a very low blood sugar. I had to nurse a bit more frequently throughout the day, Miles had to have his blood sugar checked often, but we were able to steer clear of a visit to the NICU.

Aunt Amy, Papa and the kids came to visit. Matthew said "hi!" to Miles but was way more interested in the present that Miles had brought to him. Mollie was so fascinated with her new baby brother. She didn't want to pass him around and just wanted to hold him and kiss him. Grandpa brought Mason and Banna to come meet Miles too. Mason gave Miles a few sweet kisses on his head and was most interested in the snacks we had for him. The evening we ordered pizza and enjoyed a quiet night at the hospital.

The next morning Matt and I were so eager to get out of the hospital and bring our little guy home. Turns out that Miles had an elevated bilirubin and was starting to develop jaundice. The doctor had us wait about 8 hours to recheck his bili level. His level went up even more. It felt like a long day, anxious to get home. Our doctor felt comfortable with us heading home that evening with plans to return in the morning for another bili check. His bili level continued to creep up but wasn't at a level that required phototherapy just yet. We had an appointment with my pediatrician the next day and had another bili level drawn. This time his bili level went up to the point where we had to start home phototherapy. Miles ended up having to be on the bili lights for 6 days. I'm so thankful that we were able to do phototherapy at our house, but it's hard having a newborn baby you want to love and cuddle on, yet all you can do it nurse him and then put him right back on the bili lights. It also made for a tiring and challenging 6 days, having to try to wake and feed a very sleepy baby every 2 hours. Needless to say, we were all so happy when Miles was healthy enough to come off the bili lights!

Matthew, Mollie and Mason have loved having a little baby brother. Matthew loves to kiss and talk to Miles. He will hold him for a few minutes and then is off to play and explore. Mollie is my little helper. She loves to help change diapers, retrieve a new burp cloth, or grab the wipes. She will sit and hold Miles like she's been holding babies for years. Mason calls baby Miles "Muh". He loves to point at his baby brother and gives him the sweetest kisses and constantly hugs Miles by placing his head on Miles. So far our transition to 4 kids has been wonderful!

Miles Patrick, you complete our family and are so excited to love you, nurture you and watch you grow (but not too fast, okay?). Welcome to this world sweet baby boy!

 

 

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Mason Alan 14 months

Mason Alan you are 14 months old!

What have you been up to this past month???

You are SO much fun right now. You have such an infectious smile, a sweet personality and are learning new things every day! You are at a busy age, moving from toy to toy upstairs to downstairs, happy to sad and back again!

You crawl everywhere! It's about time you start walking, but for now all you do is pull up and walk along furniture.

You let go of things when standing. Instead of taking any steps, you will dive with your head towards us and give cuddles. It's one of your favorite games.

Finally, at 14 months and 3 weeks you finally starting taking up to 4 steps at a time. You've done everything slow and steady and you'll be cruising before we know it!

You can crawl up stairs and have almost learned how to crawl down them too.

You love to play with empty water bottles, balloons and your favorite toy, balls.

You say "Oooooh" and "whoa" to new or exciting things,

Your new words are bubble, mama and dada.

Speaking of Daddy, you are such a daddy's boy. You love your mommy, but you absolutely light up for Daddy. Since Mommy has been so big and pregnant, and since Daddy has been off for the summer, you have spent so much time being Daddy's little side kick.

Mason, you love to swing, be outside, ride in your car, and dig in the dirt or sand. All boy!

We have had a hot summer, so it's a good thing that you absolutely love water! You play with the water table but your favorite is the kiddie pool. You crawl right into the pool, turn yourself around and sit down, and splash your arms and smile with such satisfaction! It's pretty adorable, but then again I think just about anything you do these days is pretty cute!

You went on Grandpa's boat for the first time. You loved swimming in the lake, but you weren't too sure about wearing a life jacket. You watched your bro bro and sissy inner tube for awhile and then fell asleep.

You have such a sweet, easy going personality, but you are starting to show your stubborn side. You have a little temper at times, especially when changing your diaper, getting into your car seat or riding in the car. You will throw a toy or hit whoever is within arms reach when you get upset. You are learning how to sit in time out!

You so badly want to be with the big kids. You are starting to play a lot more with your brother and sissy, but just can't keep up most of the time. You love to poke Matthew's belly button and giggle, and play in your crib with Sissy.

At 14.5 months you became a big brother!!!! Seriously, overnight you seem so big compared to your tiny little brother. You love to point at Miles and you call him "Muh". You like to kiss his head and give him hugs with your head. Miles sat in your lap one day and you were so proud and happy. You were gentle and ever so sweetly kissed his head. Melted our hearts! I'm so excited to see your relationship with Miles. You two will be best buddies!

Mason Alan, what a joy you are to our family!

 

 

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Mason Alan 1 year old

Mason Alan you are one year old!!

Mason Alan, you are such a light in our family. Sometimes Daddy and I will be talking on our crazy busy days when it seems like your brother and sissy are fighting and pushing our buttons all day long and we always say "Thank goodness for Mase!" God knew exactly what our family needed when He gave us you! You are happy, laid back, sweet, lovable and predictable. I can't believe you are ONE but I can't wait to see the little boy you are starting to grow in to. We have cherished our time with you this past year and are so blessed to call you our son!

You wear size 18-24 month clothes and size 4 diapers. You are a solid little chunk!

You're the best sleeper! You usually take 1 nap a day for 3-4 hours. Sometimes you will take a little cat napin the car. You sleep at night from about 7:00pm-7:30am. You sleep unswaddled with 1 blanket, a stuffed animal, your boo-boo, and white noise machine on. After a good night sleep you wake up one happy boy!

You love to eat and will eat just about anything and everything. You love fruit, especially bananas and strawberries. Other favorites are cheese, yogurt, PB toast, and eggs. We have started transitioning you over from formula to whole milk and you have done great. You eat with a plate. You have started to throw food at times. You will just smile when we tell you "no" but generally you obey that, for now anyways!

You love your Daddy. You make the same grunt noise every time you wants to gets daddy's attention. Your entire face lights up in a special way for him. You love to grab his beard, climb on him and show him all your toys. Daddy gives you your bedtime bottle and cuddles. It's a special time you two have been sharing together.

You spend most Fridays with Gabby while Mommy works. You are a happy little boy who loves his Gabby, although you are a total stinker and haven't been napping well for Gabby. It's getting better but you are a tired boy come Friday evening!

You LOVE balls. It's absolutely your favorite toy and your favorite word to say. Anytime you see a ball on the floor, outside, downstairs, a picture of a ball or anything round that might resemble a ball you will say "ball" over and over again. You are obsessed.

Other words you are saying are: mama, dada, dog, bro bro, ba ba (bottle) and nana (banana).

You wave hi and bye. You recently started waving by opening and closing your hand. It's pretty cute.

You sign more, thank you and all done,

When you are excited you get all tense, pump your legs and squeeze your fingers in and out.

You have started making a scrunchy smile face. It's my favorite.

At 11 months and 1 week old you learned how to go from lying down to sitting up on your own.

At 11 months and 3 weeks you finally started to crawl!! You are just starting to get the hang of it, but I know you will be flying in no time.

You have been trying to pull up on furniture but have only pulled up on the couch twice so far. You love to stand holding on to furniture and people though. Your balance is much better, although we can't leave you by yourself yet. Again, I know you will be cruising before I know it.

You love to stand on the couch and look outside.

You're still experiencing separation anxiety. It's really hard to even go to the ymca right now, and about 50% of the time we are called out from church because you won't calm down in the church nursery!

You love to take your socks off in the car.

You have 2 bottom teeth and 2 top teeth. A few more are starting to come in. You drool more, are a little fussy and have your fingers in your mouth a lot.

You know where your head and mouth are. You like to poke your bro bros belly button.

You lay your head down on us if we ask you too. It's adorable and turns into a fun game!

In about 3 months you are going to be a big brother!

Happy birthday Mason Alan!!

 

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