Dear Mason,
Once we reached a year I kind of stopped doing monthly updates. However, you are growing, developing, learning & doing so much more every single day I just want to be able to document so we can look back & remember these times.
You are currently weighing in at 23.8 pounds (72nd percentile) and 28.75 inches (1st percentile) You are wearing 12 month clothes and a mixture of 12 & 18 month pajamas.
You are a slow teether! You have your top 2 & your bottom 2 teeth but that's it. We know you are getting some new ones in soon. This is the one area I can say is the most difficult for us. You do not handle teething well at all. It seems to be extremely painful for you and you get extremely grouchy, clingly, don't sleep or nap well, just all out of sorts. We can tell about 2-4 weeks before your tooth comes in that it's coming through.
You are still an early bird but you're getting better. For the most part you wake up between 6:30-7:00am. There are some mornings when you wake up earlier but they are fewer & further between. Now that we are out for the summer you have been taking a short 45-60 minute nap & 1 long afternoon nap that ranges from 1-3 hours. You are also still an early to bed boy! Most evenings you still like to start your nighttime routine at 6:30 but we are slowly trying to transition you to 7:00.
You still have your paci when you sleep. I was going to get rid of it by 15 months like Dr. Sood said but guess what...you win! This just isn't a battle I'm ready to reason with you about yet. You only take it when you sleep & most nights it falls out right after you've gone to sleep so suck on buddy! We will take it away when I can speak reason to you & you can understand.
We stopped nursing about 1 week after you turned 1. The final straw was one night when you had refused your bottle & woke up hungry. I tried to nurse you but it was obvious that my supply just wasn't enough for you. You were frustrated & trying everything you could to get milk. I realized at that point maybe getting Mama's milk from bottles was just best for you at that time. Our goal was to make it to a year & we did sweet boy. You took your milk from a bottle for a good while, we even started to mix it with whole milk & you loved it even more! Then one day out of nowhere you just decided you were done with milk period. You don't want breastmilk or whole milk & we have tried it every single way. You won't take it in a bottle, a straw sippy cup, 360 sippy cup, hard spout sippy cup or soft spout sippy cup. You won't take it if it's hot or cold or even if it's mixed together. You've decided all you want is water. The only way we have gotten you to take it is mixed in with mama's protein shake (more about this later). Dr. Sood says she isn't worried because you love yogurt & cheese & are getting the nutrients from our shakeology too.
You are a pretty good eater for the most part. We have noticed you do not like your food to be mixed together at all. You will eat 1 thing & when you have finished that you will go on to the next thing. Your very favorite food seems to be fruit. If any fruit is placed on your tray with your meal you will refuse to eat anything except for fruit. Some of your favorites are chicken nuggets, spaghetti, taco soup, tacos, ranch style beans, pancakes, bananas (which you used to hate), pineapple, apple & grapes. Dislikes eggs (still) & strawberries. One of your very favorites lately is Mama's shakeology. When you hear me start to mix my shake you come running to the kitchen. I pour maybe 1/8th of it into a cup for you with about 4-5 ounces of breast or whole milk & you don't put that cup down until it's completely empty.
You are still very independent! You love to do things all on your own. We have been letting you make the calls on when you want to be left alone to play and when you don't. There are times you will laugh & play with us but there are times you absolutely just want to play on your own. If we leave you alone and let you play you will seek us out when you are ready for us to come play with you again.
You are extremely curious and want to figure out exactly how everything works and you will spend as much time as you need to exploring it until you figure it out. One evening we were playing with your tools in the living room floor and you picked up the screw driver and a screw and were trying to get the screw to stay on top of the screw driver. You also figured out how to screw the nuts on the bolts to hold pieces together. Your love of tools and cars makes Daddy happier than you know.
Speaking of tools & Daddy, your favorite place to be in the entire world right now is in the shop working with your Daddy. All Daddy has to say is "Mason do you want to go to the shop? Let's go!" You grab your cup and start speed walking to the door saying "a go! a go! a go!" Once you boys are out there you will happily stay out there for literally hours. You two have been spending most evenings out there lately. You will play with Daddy's tools, help him sweep the floors, pretend to drive & play inside the cars. There's absolutely no place you'd rather be.
You also absolutely love being outside. You seem to remember right where the door is and will stand there and just stare outside until we can go out. This prevents a little bit of a struggle in the HOT Oklahoma summers. Yesterday you would have done anything to go outside but the heat index was over 100 and it was just too hot. I've learned if it's raining or too hot to shut the blinds and that will detour you, I know that it's only a matter of time before you start to discover you can raise them & you will want to break free.
You are no longer a child that's easy to just throw in the cart and shop with. Since you have learned to walk you do not want to be tied down. If we give you the benefit of the doubt and let you walk beside us holding our hand it backfires. You take off running the opposite direction and we are left chasing after you. You are getting a little better if we speed walk through the store but for the most part shopping is a solo activity right now.
You are starting to talk like CRAZY! Just in the last week & a half you & I have been on summer break your vocabulary has really picked up. You repeat things that we are saying all of the time. Some of the consistent ones you are doing are:
"a go"- let's go
"uh eww"- love you
"ni ni"- night night (when you ask if you want to go night night you either say no! or ni ni)
"nana"- you use this for both banana & your Nana.
"baaa"-ball
"cacake"-pancake
"bubo"- bubble
hi, hey, bye bye, donut, Mama, Dada, DD, Noah, more, K
The one word/name that you said one night that was the biggest surprise to us was Amanda. We were going through all of the grandparents & Aunts/Uncles names and when we got to Amanda you took off with it. So far her & Nana are the only family name you've said. This is the most fun stage for me as you are just surprising me with what you are doing and saying.
You have absolutely no fear at all. It is so crazy to me. You also seem to have a very high pain tolerance. You will take a tumble here & there or accidentally head butt one of us where our eyes are watering & you just look at us, smile & go on about your business. If you take a fall & cry we know you are very hurt. Several weeks ago you were walking in the living room & tripped into a step stool. You cried a little but when we couldn't keep you alert you scared us to death! We made a trip to urgent care & the ER where they told us that you had all of the signs of a concussion. The next day you were trying to pull that silly stepstool back out to climb on. You are definitely going to keep us on our toes!
You are so much fun and bring so much happiness to our lives little man! Seriously, every night that Daddy & I get in bed we talk about how much we just love you and miss you and can't wait to see you in the morning. You always greet us with a smile, big hug & kiss. You are the joy of our lives, Mason Porter & we love and cherish you more every single day!
Love, Mommy & Daddy
The memory I will treasure forever of you and your Daddy <3
This month seemed to fly by! We had lots of fun & exciting things!
We started the month off with teacher appreciation week and spoiling our sweet Miss DD.
We have spent our fair share this month in this little corner. Someone is learning to push boundaries & test their limits.
But we seem to finally be understanding the concept
Practicing with our tools to work in the shop with Daddy
Our first sucker at the grocery store
A rare breakfast in bed for Mama
Mason took a header to a step stool that landed us in the hospital with a concussion
And then we had our first hair cut
Tornado watching
Last assembly of the year with Mommy
120 days of sugar bear hair growth
My 2nd Mother's Day
Mother's Day cookout with my mom & my sisters
Last 2 days of kindergarten
Driving Mama's car
Avery's skating birthday party. We had so much fun but my siblings & I learned we weren't quite as young and agile as we once were. We definitely had the bruises to show!
Lots of summer snuggles!
If this boy could live outside he would!
Mason was fascinated with Mama mowing the grass!
He followed behind & cleaned up what I missed
Picking Blueberries at Thunderbird Farm
A visit from the Balmos' poor little man was not a fan of his Mommy loving on another baby. The second I let go of little Bristol he latched on and would not let go!
Bestie Babies!
Playdate at Miss DD's
Which meant middle of the day grocery shopping date for Mama & Daddy
Summertime=puzzle time!
Memorial Day Ribs (notice I had taken all of the meat off for him but he insisted on eating straight from the rib like his Daddy)
