Dear Mason,
Mama is so so far behind on your updates! Goodness since I last wrote you you have grown up so much and started doing SO MUCH!!!
We just had your 18 month check up with Dr. Sood. You weighed in at 26.0 pounds (73rd percentile) you've always been a healthy weight little one. Your height on the other hand....well little man you are 29.5 inches and have currently dropped of the growth chart. You have always been short & Dr. Sood says not to worry you are just on the fun size growth chart. Mama says big things come in small packages baby boy! You're wearing size 4 diapers, 18 month sleepers & a mixture of 12-18 month clothes. The other day I accidentally sent you in the sitter in pants that were 6-12 months (oopsie!) so Daddy told me it was time to put up all 12 month clothes. You may be swimming in your 18 month clothes for a bit but I know you'll grow into them.
You were a slow teether but you are currently teething like crazy! On the top you have your 2 front teeth, 2 eye teeth & one molar. On the bottom you have your 2 front teeth, one eye tooth & 2 molars. The eye teeth were VERY hard on you & took over a month to break through. The molar teeth were complete shocks to us. You showed zero signs of teething. One day I stuck my finger in your mouth because you were chewing on something and viola there were 3 new teeth!
You are talking SO MUCH!! This is such a fun stage because it seems like every single day you come up with a new word to say. I've been trying to document everything you say so I can remember it. Currently you are up to 54 words consistently which is well over the 10-20 word expectancy from our pediatrician. You will pretty much repeat anything that we say right now finding your favorite and sticking with it. You seem to have full conversations with us often. We don't generally know what you are saying but you certainly do! You will repeat the same story over and over until you think we have understood you. Your favorite words right now are: Mama, Daddy, Blake (if Daddy doesn't respond to Daddy immediately you go straight to yelling GAKE! at him), Braun (the sitter's dog), Noah, Let's go, night night, drink, vroom (car), chicken, I want, Goofy, Donald Duck, Wal-Mart, again, ball, hat, apple jacks & cracker.
You have always been a fantastic eater but lately you are giving us a RUN FOR OUR MONEY when it comes to eating. According to other friends with babies around the same age and Dr. Sood this is completely normal, but Mama still doesn't like it. Dinner seems to be the biggest struggle you are refusing to even try bites of things that have always been your favorite food. Dr. Sood says that now is when picky eaters are created so to stand strong and offer you what we are having for dinner including one thing we know you will eat on your plate. She says our job is to control what and when & your job is to decide if & how much. There have been a couple of nights you have gone to bed without eating anything & while it kills my heart, you don't seemed phased by it. I just keep telling myself this too shall pass. With that being said, these are your favorite foods that you never refuse: yogurt, grapes, apples, chicken, peas, spaghetti, lasagna, french fries, apple jacks & goldfish.
You are still a really great sleeper! When you are ready for a nap or bed you will tell us night night & we know you are ready. We ask you to go find your fox & you get it, bring it back & reach straight up for us to put you in bed. You still do a really good job putting yourself to sleep. There have been
occasions where you don't fall asleep right away when you are put in
your crib, however you are happy to talk to yourself until you fall
asleep. We can also turn the music on your monitor on & that helps you fall asleep quickly. You prefer for your Daddy to do bedtime with you but when Daddy is gone you adjust well to Mama doing it & there are the occasional nights you ask for Mama to do it. You are taking 1 afternoon nap for between 2-3 hours (sometimes on the weekends 3-4 hours). At night you sleep from about 7:30/8:00-5:30/6:00. The mornings used to kill me as I am not a morning person, but I enjoy it now.
Although you are sleeping good, this month we have began to struggle with night terrors. If they are going to happen they will happen between 10-11pm or 3-4am. Before we understood what was going on we would go in and get you and try to comfort you, however the second we laid you back in bed you would scream in terror at being left back in the bed. We learned that when we are coming in to get you we are actually causing you confusion. (I forgot the exact word Dr. Sood used) We have learned the best (and most heartbreaking thing) we can do is to not go into your room. Rather we talk to you on the monitor or turn on the music & it soothes you back to sleep. Before when we would go into your room we would be up for hours with you. This has allowed you to fall back asleep within minutes.
Since you were a baby you have absolutely loved being outside & your love for the outdoors has only grown. You are your happiest when I open the back door & we spend the majority of our time outdoors. Your favorite things to do outside right now are drawing with chalk, swinging or just running around like a madman.
Your love for books has continued to grow. We spend the majority of our evenings reading books to you. You will find a book you want, run up to either of us and say "Dada" (your word for when you need help with anything) and crawl up in our lap to listen to us read. You love to turn the pages for us & will generally wait until we say "turn the page" to do so.
You still love music & dancing. When any kind of music comes on you will stop and bust a move. Recently you've started loving to drum. Anything & everything you can turn into drum sticks you will.
You have really started taking an interest in doing exactly what we are doing. You want to drink like us, sit like us, do what we are doing, drink what we are drinking, cook like us, pretty much everything. Sometimes we can give you sometime to pretend like us and that will suffice but other times you just need to have exactly what we have. Mainly: Daddy & his coffee, Mama & her straw cups, making coffee, cooking dinner, brushing our teeth. You just love to be in the action.
Your favorite toys are still cars and balls. You could play with them for hours!! However, you have started just collecting random things that you love & you will walk around with them for days. An invitation we get in the mail, your Aunt Stephanie's picture that you found, dental floss. Really just completely random items. You have designated 2 drawers in the kitchen as your hiding spots for these items.
Oh my goodness your heart! You love to give us your hugs!! You will constantly stop what you are doing, come up to us and wrap both of your arms around our neck giving us the biggest hug then give us a big kiss before you leave. Or if you are just passing by you will walk up to us kiss us and keep going. It is just too much for our hearts!!! I will say you are starting to give those kisses out to little girls your age! While it's precious, I can already see we are in lots of trouble!!! But I love how sweet your heart is, little one!
I feel like every stage we get to we are saying "this is the funnest stage yet!" Truly thought, I feel like this is one of the funnest stages yet. You are starting to really develop your own little personality & become a little person. I feel like Daddy & I are constantly saying I can't believe he is so big or I can't believe he can do that!
Mason, you are so much fun! You are constantly full of energy, laughter and love. You wake up every morning happy & excited for your day. You are determined, compassionate, an explorer & have an inquisitive mind. I love the little man you are becoming & pray every day that we can to train you up in the way God wants you to go. You will never know how loved you are my sweet boy!
Putting ourselves to sleep wherever we can find a place
Pops came to visit
Blake spent the majority of the month traveling so we spent lots of time on FaceTime
Traveling husband=lots of flowers
Mason came to visit Mama one day at school & he felt right at home & all the little mama hens in my class had the best time chasing him around
Baby loves from Mrs DD
Adding another baby mean Mama needed a bigger car.
Hello there little baby! You appeared much quicker than your brother did!
First ultrasound
Our little hometown had a Memorial Race for my Grandpa Webster
Mason began having night terrors in the early morning hours. The only way he would go back to sleep was sleeping on Mama. LOTS of early morning hours for us this month.
Mason also began his standoff for eating anything except for chicken. He will go to the freezer and pull chicken out in any form and ask for us to cook it.
Apparently running a 5K in court shoes is frowned upon. Tendonitis and spending 2 week in a boot.
If you followed us last year you know Fall & Winter were the seasons of breathing treatments for our boy. Spring and Summer were fantastic, but fall is upon us & so is Mason's wheezing :(
Ended the month celebrating one of the sweetest people I've ever met moving on to a new job. We sure miss you Kristy!!!
