Mason 9 months

 

Mason Alan you are 9 months old!

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

Weight: 21 pounds (76th percentile)

Height: 28.5 inches (53rd percentile)

Head circumference: 18.7 inches (97th percentile)

You are a big, healthy boy! You have the most kissable, chubby cheeks! You are wearing size 12-18 month clothes. You wear a lot of Matthew's hand-me-downs. It's so fun for me to see you in the same outfit that your big brother wore! Matthew also thinks it's pretty fun to tell other people that he wore the same thing when he was a baby too. Proud big brother!

You are a wonderful sleeper. You have been sleeping in your own room since you were 6 months old. We started weaning you from your sleep bundle, by bundling you with 1 arm out when you were about 6 months old. By 7 months old, you slept with both arms out, and by 8 months old you were, and still are, sleeping in a fleece sleep sack. You sleep on your side or on your tummy, with your stuffed giraffe and white noise machine on. You take one nap a day, usually for 2.5-3 hours at the same time as Matthew and Mollie. If we are in the car in the morning or evening, you will usually take a cat nap as well. You are exhausted by bedtime and sleep from 7:00pm-7:30am. You wake up happy and on most days that smile doesn't leave your face all day.

Matthew and Mollie love to come into your room when you wake up in the morning. They climb into your crib, read you books, and play and giggle with you until you decide you've had enough and are ready for your morning bottle!

You are one happy and content baby! On weary and tiring days where it seems like we have toddlers whining and fighting all day long, Daddy and I always say how thankful we are for our Mason! We can usually count on you to be the easy, go with the flow baby boy.

We said goodbye to nursing all together this month. Over the past couple of months, I had been supplementing with a bottle right before bedtime, and eventually before nap and bedtime. My supply went way down and you completely lost interest. Thankfully it made the weaning process flawless and you have transitioned over to formula very easily. You get so excited when you see your bottle and have learned this month how to feed yourself your own ba-ba.

You are eating everything! You have not met a food that you don't love! I really can't even tell what are your favorite foods because you will literally eat anything that I put in front of you. (Don't change this habit once you become a toddler, okay?) We did puréed baby food for awhile, but you were always grabbing at the spoon, trying to feed yourself. It just wasn't working well. I started trying more cubed, soft cooked foods that you could pick up and feed yourself, you loved it and we haven't looked back since! You eat what we eat now and it makes mealtimes so much simpler! You eat three meals a day, a snack in the afternoon, and drink 3-4 bottles. You also love to drink water from a sippy cup.

You have very good fine motor skills. You usually just full on fist grab your food and stuff it in your mouth, but you also have a good pincer grasp and love to pick up Cheerios one at a time. You pick up a lot of your toys one handed, love to play with balls and you are starting to show us your toys and make a "Oooooh" sound. You are just too cute!

On the other hand, you've been a little slower with your gross motor skills. You can roll back and forth, but you don't cover any distance rolling from one side of the room to the other. You sit like a champ. You are so content to just sit on the floor and play with toys, sometimes too content! You aren't crawling or scooting yet. You love to stand, but have no sense of balance. I guess when you have a big brother and sister who entertain you and bring you all your toys to play with, you don't really have a reason to start moving yet! I know it will come soon enough!

You said your first word. Both Matthew and Mollie's first word was Mama, so from the time you were a little baby, Daddy was determined you would say his name first. He was a proud Daddy when your first word was "Da-da". You say it so sweet and happy. About 2 weeks later, you started saying "Mama, mama, mama". Except the only time you say it is when you are tired, fussy, or whining for your bottle.

You are starting to wave and say "Hhh".

You have two big siblings that you think the world of. You watch them and want to follow them around so badly. You give them the best smiles and giggles. I love that all three of you are so close in age, and am so excited to watch your relationships continue to grow.

You LOVE to swing.

You are still a cuddler, especially at night when you are tired, but you love to look around and watch people and the sights around you.

You're grabbing and reaching at everything. You put anything in your hands into your mouth!

You do wonderful in the church nursery and don't experience any separation anxiety.

You love your binkie and can put it in your mouth by yourself!

You take baths in the big bathtub with your bro bro and sissy! You absolutely love bath time. You splash and play with toys.

You are ticklish, especially around your neck and upper back. You have the best belly laugh and give some of your biggest laughs to Matthew when he does silly things with you.

You have 2 upper and 2 lower teeth ready to pop through, but no teeth yet!

You absolutely hate getting your face washed or nose wiped. I think that's about the only thing you don't like.

Mason Alan, you bring such joy to our house. Your Daddy and I are constantly amazed and so thankful for your sweet, laid back personality. God knew exactly what we needed when He gave us you! We love you to the moon and back baby boy!

 

 

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Matthew Jay 4 years old

Matthew Jay you are 4 years old!

What have you been up to lately?

Matthew Jay, I can barely wrap my mind around the fact that you are 4 years old! Can time please just slow down?? I still vividly remember the day you were born and placed into my arms for the first time. Now you are a rambunctious, lively, social little boy who steals my heart each and every day. I fall more and more in love with you with each day because I get to know you more and more.

You love to meet new friends. You are happy running around and playing with Sissy, but you two are always eager to meet a new playmate at the park, McDonalds playplace or around the neighborhood.

You are a polite little boy and always saying "Hi!" to random people at the store or on walks. I love your heart for others.

Some days I don't think I can handle any more whining and crying, or can bear to hear the word "NO!" one more time, and then you do or say something so sweet, kind and caring that I remember how worth it being your Mommy is, even on the hard days. You are a little boy who is full of joy, and is learning how to test boundaries, especially with your mama!

It seems like your favorite toy changes every day. Some days it feels like you love your toys and want to play with them all day and others it seems like they are invisible to you and all you want to do is to run around and jump on your bed with Sissy. You like to build legos (Daddy loves this!), race cars and play with your action figures. You always take 1 or 2 books or toys to bed with you, and they stay tucked away in the top drawer of your bedside table until you wake up.

Your favorite shows are still Mickey, DocMcstuffins, and Little Einsteins. Your favorite movies are Cars and Planes Fire and Rescue. You rarely ever sit through a full show and never through an entire movie before playing or exploring something.

You know all of your letter sounds and can write a lot of your letters. You can write your name, but you need lots of reminders to write neatly and on a line. You love to play playdough, paint and color.

Your favorite foods are waffles, Mac n cheese, pizza, bananas, granola bars, carrots and hummus, pb & j and turkey, strawberries and frozen blueberries.

You wear size 4-5T clothes. You are quite opinionated about your clothes. For the most part, you pick out your own clothes and dress yourself. Sunday mornings can be hard when Mommy insists on picking out your church clothes, and you'd rather wear your worn out play jeans and character t-shirt. You like to layer your favorite shirts and some days will wear two or three shirts at once because you couldn't pick just one.

Your favorite outfit to wear is your pajamas, especially your batman ones. Usually as soon as we are home, the play clothes come off and PJs go on. You also can't take a nap without wearing your pajamas.

You love spending time outside, as long as you don't get too cold. You have mastered riding your bike and scooter. You also like to skateboard, lying down on your tummy. You recently got your first pair of roller skates and you're doing a great job learning how to balance on them. You love playing outside with our next door neighbor. You two boys love to ride bikes together, play frisbee, baseball, golf or shoot your nerf guns.

You absolutely love going to church, learning about God and seeing all of your friends and cousins.

Your best friend is Joshie. You also say that Big Mason and Sissy are your best friends too.

Your favorite color is blue.

You want to be a superhero when you grow up.

You love superheroes but have never seen a show or a movie about them. You also really like Ninja Turtles. You think that all superheroes and Ninja turtles exist to help people (and not fight!)

You love playing with your Sissy. You two have so much fun together and I'm so thankful that you have each other. You also like to fight, hit and scream at each other. Your new trick is that you and Sissy have somehow figured out a way to both go potty on the same toilet at the same time. You guys are pretty proud of this. You two are always making me laugh, sometimes make me cry and keep me constantly on my toes and thankful.

You have a very special relationship with Mason. You are so sweet to him and Mason is absolutely smitten with you. You love to play with him and find silly ways to make him giggle. You love when I leave the room because you take such pride in 'babysitting Mason'. You tell me about how God is making Mason grow bigger, and then you stand up and show me how big you are getting. You tell me about how God is starting to give Mason teeth, and then you show me all of your big teeth. I'm so excited to see the relationship between you your little brother grow!

As we approach 4 years old, nap times are becoming a little more hit and miss. You generally sleep from about 7:30pm-6:30am. You and Sissy share a room, so sometimes the time you actually fall asleep is later depending on how much you and Sissy talk and giggle before going to sleep. You sleep with your big stuffed hippo in the corner of your bed. Hippo must be completely covered by your blanket at night, blankets must not be twisted and your little blue and white blanket must be in bed with you.

You had your first trip to the ER. Mommy was out at dinner and Daddy was home with you, Sissy and Mason. You and Sissy were running around the kitchen and you slipped and hit your head on the corner of the wall. Mommy got a frantic call to come home! Daddy also called Grandpa and Gabby to come over quickly and help. You gave your Daddy quite the scare! Daddy finally got the bleeding to slow down and when I came home your were glued to Daddy's lap with a rag over your forehead. You only wanted Daddy to hold you and would not remove your rag without a fight. One look at your cut and I knew we had no choice but head to the ER. Thankfully they took us right back and took wonderful care of you! You got some medication that made you quite loopy and goofy. You ended up getting 10 stitches and were quite the brave little boy! We had one little accident on Super Bowl Sunday while you were playing downstairs with your cousins, where you bonked your forehead and a couple of your stitches popped out. Five days later all of your stitches came out. Your forehead looks great, is starting to heal up well, but you'll always be left with a scar! Since your accident, every time you fall, bump your knee, or even have a runny nose, the only thing you are worried about and your very first question after it happens is "No blood? No blood?". Poor kiddo!

Matthew Jay, you are a loved little boy. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of the young boy that you are growing up into. You love God, your family and others. You have a smile and laughter that is contagious. I pray that you never lose those things.

Happy Birthday Matthew Jay. We love you so much!!

 

 

 

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