Mason 3 Year Old Questions

As you are growing older and communicating easier I want to be able to give you a yearly birthday questionnaire to see how you grow and change. I hope I always remember the sweet way you say things and all of your favorites as you grow. I love you little man!

What is your name? Mason Porter Brown
How old are you? 3
What is your favorite food? Peanut Butter Sandwich
What is your favorite color? Blue
What is your favorite book? Good Night Tractor
Who is your best friend? Micah
What is your favorite show? "LightmingMcQueen"
What is your favorite animal? A giraffe
What is your favorite thing to do with Mama? Color
What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy? Ride in the blue truck
What is your favorite toy? "Lightming"
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Jump around
Where is your favorite place to go: To the zoo
What are you scared of? Bugs
What do you want to be when you grow up? A Fireman
What makes you happy? Giraffes
What is your favorite holiday? Christmas Eve
Where do you want to go on vacation? The zoo
What is your favorite song? John Deere Green
What is your favorite drink? A juice box
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? A cookie breakfast
What is your favorite snack? Goldfish 
What is your favorite restaurant? Hmmmmm
What is you favorite movie? "Patopia" (Zootopia)

Dear Liam: ONE YEAR EDITION

Liam Hayes,
Oh my sweet baby boy, YOU ARE ONE! How is this even possible? It feels like just yesterday Daddy was shouting "It's A BOY!" as the doctor laid you on my chest.

You are weighing in at 22.5 pounds (67th percentile), standing 29.75 inches tall (47th percentile) and your little noggin is 45.5cm (33rd percentile). You are wearing mostly 12 month clothes. That includes shirts, pants, onesies & sleepers. You can still fit into 9 months but we have honestly put most of them away as we are entering into a new season. You are wearing size 3 diapers. With brother we found that Huggies little movers worked best for him. Everything else was a explosion mess. However, you are the opposite! Huggies are not a good fit for you. We recently found the Hello Bello brand and it has been the perfect fit for you!

You are still drinking Mama's milk. In fact, you're enjoying it just a little too much. You have been nursing between 6-7 times a day & at our 1 year check up doctor says we need to cut that back to 3 times a day. I'm not sure who is going to be more sad about this me or you. As it is your birthday we shall wait until tomorrow to cut back.

At the beginning of this month we had a life changing thing for you, we got tubes put in your ears. We experienced 32 days of a continuous double ear infection when we had the tubes put in and you have been a different child ever since. You seem happier, you're eating better & while you still aren't as independent as you once were early on you are getting your independence back. You did very well with the surgery and even woke up perfectly normal from the anesthesia. The doctors and nurses warned us you would probably be very angry when you woke up but you surprised all of us by being calm and normal. It's been a welcome change for the first time since you were a few weeks old that we are on zero medications!!!

Your schedule hasn't changed a bit from last month. I look for it to change in the coming days as we start to come off the feedings. You are showing some signs of wanted to stay up a little later so we will see how that changes in the coming months too.
6:30: Up/Nurse
7:00: Breakfast
9:00: Nurse/Nap
10:00: Up/Nurse
11:00: Lunch
12:00: Nurse/Nap
2:00: Up
3:30: Nurse/Snack
5:00 Dinner (sometimes Nurse again)
6:00: Bath, Books, Nurse, Bed

 

You've gotten your 2 top teeth in this month bringing your teeth count up to 4. These 2 came in by the skin of your teeth, the last one coming through the day before your birthday. With your lip tie you're going to have the same cute little gap between your teeth like brother does. :)

Still a food lover. You my dear with eat absolutely anything put in front of you! Fruit, veggies, dairy, meat. You haven't really disliked much of anything. Your favorites are yogurt, blueberries, apples, broccoli, cucumbers, spaghetti, cheese, etc. Honestly, I could probably go on and on with your list. You seriously could not get enough of your birthday cake at your party.

You've gone from walking to running everywhere. You really took off fast on us and there is absolutely no slowing you down. You have about 2 speeds, fast and faster! Lots of people are afraid you're about to face plant at any second (including us) but you have no fear when it comes to getting around.

You live for outdoors and I mean ALL things outdoors. The second you hear a door crack you make a bee line sprint for the door & become hysterical if the door shuts before you get there. You especially love to be in the garage. You rarely leave the garage when the door is up, rather you will go to the edge of the door, sit down & watch the neighbors and cars pass by.

This month you discovered the word Dada and you are obsessed with it. You will say mama if you're frustrated or insistent on needing something but other than that it's all Dada. You're becoming more and more of a Daddy's boy as the months go on. I'm not sure how much longer I can stake claim on having a Mama's boy. I think it may be because we spend so much time together that you really value the time with Daddy when he's home.

This month I've been able to really see that you, my child, are going to be the one that gives us a run for our money. You are cute and you know it. If I want you to say Mama you look at me, give me a huge grin & say "DADA DADA DADA DADA!" If you are told no you give us the same enormous grin & continue to do just what you're told not to. We've tried being serious, swatting your hand, all things but you still look us as with the "I know I'm adorable & can do this" look. This is new as we are used to Mason who has a meltdown if our voices slightly raise or we are disappointed in him. In fact so much so that when we are getting on to you or telling you no Mason becomes very protective and upset at us for being mean to you while you're over there all smiles about it. We are going to have our hands. FULL.

Your favorite things include the following. Opening and closing doors. You seriously do this all day, every day! Cabinets, doors, drawers, toys, etc. whatever you can find that opens in any way you are opening it and closing it all the day long. You also have really started to love cars and trucks. You love rolling them around and watching the wheels. Any toys or possessions that Mason has are the object of your affection, right down to his drinking cup. We are talking night nights, cups, trucks, cars, toys, clothes, every. single. thing.

You still have some separation anxiety when we go places, mostly the church nursery. But honestly since we are home so much I think it's to be expected. However, you also have some separation anxiety at home. While you have this anxiety you seem to love a good stranger. When you're out in public you will go up to anyone to hold you. However, if you realized that I may be leaving you aren't having it. You really don't like me to be too far away from you at all. Your preference is that I am on the floor in the same room as you at all times. Even if I move up to a chair in the same room as you it's not good enough. As you play you come back and forth the majority of the time to get a hug and then go back to play. It's almost as if you fill up your little love tank and then go on to play. You also really love to be held.

 Sweet boy you have brought so much joy to our lives in this past year! You've added more smiles, laughter, snuggles, tears, happiness, love, kisses and sheer and utter JOY than you'll ever know. You've taught me to be more go with the flow, less rigid on schedules, to listen to & trust my mommy gut & a you've shown me a second love that I didn't know existed! You are a blessing, you are loved more than life & you will forever be our little blonde haired, blue eyed, baby boy.


Love,
Mommy (Daddy & Mase too)

Dear Liam: 11 month edition

Liam Hayes,
You are almost a whole year old! How is this even possible?!

 

You are currently weighing in at 21 pounds ounces  and standing 29 inches tall. You're exactly the same as last month. However as you've not been eating as well lately I'm not too surprised.
You are wearing a mixture of 9 and 12 month clothing. You can fit in both just fine, it just depends on what season Oklahoma is in that day. The majority of your summer clothes are 12 months and the majority of your long sleeves are 9 months. You are still in 12 month fleece sleepers on the chilly nights and in a mixture of 12/18 month cotton sleepers.

 

You're still drinking Mama's milk. This is something that hasn't really slowed down for us. As brother got closer to a year he became more and more disinterested in nursing and milk. You on the other hand are just as interested as ever. You typically nurse between 4-6 times a day. There are occasional nights you will wake up at night and do a feeding & over the last month I've been letting you. (more on this later) You also take a bottle midmorning before your 1st nap. You've gotten much better at taking bottles from other people this month.

This month has been an incredibly rough month for you little man! At the end of last month you became incredibly fussy to the point of not sleeping unless you were sitting up on us. We took you to the doctor on the 25th & found out you had a double ear infection. We took 10 days of amoxicillin and you still just didn't seem to be feeling better so we took you back in and you still had a double ear infection! We started on augmentin and by day 6 you were still just so uncomfortable. You weren't sleeping great you would wake every time your motrin would wear off and you were starting to refuse many table foods. Come to find out your left ear was better but your right ear just wasn't improving so we started 10 days of cefdinir and she told us this should really kick it but if you weren't better in 2-3 days to come back in and we would need to probably do a referral to an ENT. Fast forward 4 days and you still weren't any better. We went back in and your left ear was infected again and you hadn't shown any progress on your right ear so we got a referral to an ENT. We have a few days before that appointment but they warned us that your little ears may just stay infected until we get tubes in your ears and the doctor can manually drain them. We hate the idea of a surgery or putting you under anesthesia but are confident that this is what you desperately need. You're really not eating much food at all beyond yogurt pouches that I make for you in the morning. Then as the day goes on you haven't been eating anything else, which is totally not you, you have always had a fierce love of table food! Therefore, if you wake at night I don't mind letting you nurse or rocking with you because I know you're just miserable. Currently you have had nonstop ear infections for 27 days which is just awful!

While we have been on antibiotics, this month we officially came completely off of you reflux medicine! Praise Jesus! You took longer than brother did, but you were also on more medicine than brother was so it took a little while longer to phase off of the medicine.

Our schedule is still pretty much the same, it fluctuated a little with daylight savings time but seems to be back to normal. There are occasional days your naps don't go so well or you end up taking more naps, but since your sleep is being affected by your ears I'm just letting you roll with it. a typical day:
6:30: up & nurse
7:00: Breakfast
9:00: Bottle & Nap
10:00: Up
11:00: Lunch
12:00: Nurse & Nap
2:00: Up
3:30: Nurse & Snack
5:00: Dinner
5:45: Bath
6:00: Books, Prayers, Nurse, Bed

Still only 2 cute bottom teeth. I thought more teeth were coming but honestly we don't know. You're chewing a lot but with the ears we don't know & I've not really checked to find out. This last month you went through quite the biting faze! For a solid week you bit me every single time I nursed you and no amount of scolding you or things I tried worked. Oddly, after you were diagnosed with your ear infection you stopped. It was a rough week though & game me lots of blisters and anxiety when I nursed you. Brother bit me once and I gently flipped his little nose and he never did it again. You bit and then got a good 'ol kick out of yourself.

I know you're still a food lover, even though we've really stopped eating. So there's not a lot to report on this department. I know you still love your favorites but we are just happy for you to eat yogurt.

 

In new developments this month: WE HAVE A WALKER!!! You started walking just after 10 months. One evening Daddy & I taught you how to walk between us and you just took off from there! You still fall here and there but generally you will get yourself stood up and walk wherever you want to go. I am confident that the falling will be few and far between once we get your ear infections all lined out. I'm just so proud that you're able to walk as well as you can with your balance being so off.

 

This month has been your month for the outdoors. You and your brother pretty much live in the backyard when we have nice days. You love mud, dirt, water, all things outside! You are happy to push brother around the yard in whatever car he can con you into pushing him in. You are a strong little man!

You still haven't really said anything else beyond Mama at this point. You are babbling more often. I know I have referred back to this a lot but I think this could be due to your ear infections too. I think once they are cleared up you may start talking more. But if not that's ok too. I know brother does his fair share of talking for you.

Your separation anxiety really has gotten better this month. You still cry when we leave you at the church nursery but other than that you're fine with me leaving you. You love Miss Megan and are always so thrilled when you see her. You are also really excited when someone new comes to our house. You will crawl up to them and climb up your arms for them to hold you. Since you're just so darn cute nobody seems to mind & I'm glad that you enjoy other people.

Your love of being held has really just gone through the roof this month. Again, I know everything is different with this darn ears! About 95% of the day you like to be held or snuggled. This has definitely made things a little harder to get stuff done, but I know right now you need those snuggles more than anything! So we are doing a lot of baby wearing and carrying.

Your very favorite thing in the entire world my child: taking whatever Mason is playing with. I am so serious about that too! Whatever you see in Mason's hand immediately becomes the object of your affection & I've never seen a more proud look on your face or a bigger smile than when you successfully snag it from him. Oh does it ever make him mad and you're just sitting there smiling and giggling away. Then he will snatch it back from you and it's like the game has begun. You'll end up putting it in your mouth and he will have a gigantic size meltdown that you ate whatever he had and we have to go find you something new to play with and dry his toy. This is your very favorite game in the world & has also landed you some pretty good pushes and shoves here and there. You 2 really do love you though! This month Mason's affection for you has seemed to double, even though your need for his things has also seemed to double. I catch him often trying to hug or kiss you and telling you what a good boy or cute boy you are. He is excited to go get you out of bed when you wake up and looks for you throughout the day or looks to how he can help you with a paci or a toy. If you could just lay of his stuff he'd be thrilled to death with you haha.

You've become more of a Mama's boy this last month and that's ok, I know that I provide the milk and the most snuggles for you. I also know when you don't feel good it is common to want your mama. You do get very excited the first time you see your Daddy in the morning or after work. You insist that he come pick you up as soon as you spy him though & if he doesn't you're going to let him know how you feel about it.

We love you little Liam Hayes! This month watching you walk and become a little toddler has been so much fun!! You are a blessing little man & we will always love you more with every passing day!
Love,
Mommy (Daddy & Mase too)