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!