Mason - 10 Month

Again...a little late. This is what happened leading up to Mason's 10th month!

When we went to Mason's 9 month appointment, his Dr. found an ear infection. He put him on Amoxicillin and did really well with it. This was his first ear infection and he didn't show any of the signs you would expect! I'm so glad we had the appointment and caught it early!

His personality is starting to shine and I love watching it develop! He absolutely loves watching Bailey and he's really starting to watch us when we do certain things. He's so interested in the vacuum cleaner and he just loves to watch me vacuum! He's still not crawling, but he's starting to do this inch worm thing and he's gotten pretty good at scooting. He's been rolling and scooting for a while, but he's getting better at getting where he wants to go. Sometimes he's not very motivated and he'll just chill on his tummy and watch Bailey or us. 

He loves just watching his surroundings and taking things in! I wish I could know what he thought!

We went to MD this past month for a wedding. Mason got to meet some new friends and try a crab cake for the first time! A friend babysat him for us while we were at the wedding and he did great for her! He got to hang out with Ashlyn and Zachary. It was our first trip to MD with Bailey and Mason together and they did great in the car. 

 

This is his first brewery tour! 

With Ashlyn! How cute are they?!?

Unfortunately, he got a virus shortly after our trip. Our poor little guy had a rough 2 weeks! His only symptoms with the virus were a fever and a rash, so it definitely could have been a lot worse! He handled it like a champ. He was super clingy, but he was still willing to play a bit. He missed a whole week of daycare. One thing I discovered (not that it was a doubt) is that my office is no longer a safe place for him to play now that he's more mobile. I sat him on his play mat and he kept moving to his tummy and making his way to my laptop charger! 

I put him back on the play mat and gave him some excited things that were not his toys (a box, napkin, piece of paper, etc).

Apparently, that wasn't dangerous and exciting enough for him. He wasn't very pleased with me.

He loves standing! He can't pull up on this toy yet. He has tried, but it just falls over on him. I let him pull up on my hands then he'll grab on to it.

Two of his favorite things...outside and his dog! 

He absolutely loves going outside! He likes to watch Bailey chase her balls and frisbee. He likes to sit in the grass and play. He loves to just look around. I hope he continues to love the outdoors!

Gimme that ball!

We had family over for Father's Day and had a great time!

Showing Uma (my mom) how he makes tunes on his activity table!

Too busy watching his dog to look at the camera. 

Again...the dog is more interesting. 

We made this Father's Day sign for Dada!

We also celebrated Mason's in & out day this month! On June 10, he had officially lived outside my belly for as long as he lived inside!

41 weeks 5 days on the inside. This is the last photo of me pregnant. I was in labor (early labor, between contractions) here. He didn't come until early the next morning, but I was in no mood to have my picture taken at that point. 

 

41 weeks 6 days out!

He got to meed his friend, Adrian for pizza! He hadn't seen her since he was 2 months old!

He got to have several play dates with his cousin, Savannah!

How cute are they?!?

He just loves to practice standing. 

He had another play date with Savannah and Claire. 

He has learned to turn the light on and off with the chain. He thinks it's so much fun!

I absolutely love waking up to this handsome face every morning!

Mason's first faux hawk! Nevermind the girly caterpillar...he's pretending it's a motorcycle.

Mason - 9 Months

This is late...of course, but Mason turned 9 months on May 21. These are the things that happened during Masons's 8 month, leading up to 5/21!

Mason is now easily pulling to a standing position while holding on to us. He's trying to pull up on other objects, but he either loses his grip or they fall over on him. He loves to hold on to things and stand, play with Bailey, go out side and take a bath. He pretty much hates having his diaper changed (this used to be one of his favorite things!). He's rolling and scooting around, but not crawling. He's still toothless, but he doesn't struggle to eat at all!

He got to go to his first family birthday party, Natalia's 10th birthday party. I got on the water slide with him and he splashed in the pool with me. He napped well at my sister's house, then had a good time hanging out with family.

He's always been a baby who plays with his tongue a lot, but he has REALLY gotten interested in it now. He also likes being upside down. 

He loves rocking and hanging with his cousin, Savannah!

We did a mini ball pit in his bath tub! He found the single tennis ball and decided to play with it. I guess he's been watching Bailey do that a lot. 

He's very interested in Bailey's toys (that spotted toy in front of him is Bailey's. He stretched out and grabbed it rather than playing with his own toys that were closer).

We celebrated my first Mother's Day! 

First Mother's Day roses!

Mason was dedicated on Mother's Day! Such a special day!

 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

- Proverbs 22:6

He's so handsome!

He's been working at holding a standing position and has gotten really good at it!

We went on our first family vacation during Mason's 9th month! Josh had a conference for work in Boston during the first week of May. Mason and I flew up to join him after the conference. I was worried about how it would be to fly alone with a baby, but it went well! 

On our way to go through security, which was a breeze! I highly recommend baby wearing in the airport if you travel with a little one!

We found Mason Place in Boston!

Mason is an amazing sleeper. He's been sleeping in his own bed and sleeping through the night since he was just a few months old. We've definitely gotten spoiled! On vacation, he took a break from being our perfect little sleeper. He slept great one or 2 nights, but he woke up during the night most nights and didn't want to go back to sleep in his crib. Since we were in a hotel and I couldn't have him crying at 2am, he ended up sleeping with us after he woke up most of the nights. 

I won't lie...I absolutely loved all the snuggles and this just melts my heart!

He was so happy to wake up and play in the mornings!

This is at our hotel in Bar Harbor, Maine. It's the cutest little town and I loved it!

We went for a 3 mile hike in Acadia National Park - it was absolutely beautiful!

After our hike.

He got to taste a little clam chowder and he loved it! He didn't want to give the spoon back to daddy though!

This is our first time eating out with him since he started eating solids. he did great!

He thoroughly enjoyed rolling around and playing on the hotel beds.

We went to a children's museum in Portland and we had so much fun! 

Touching a sea urchin at the touch tank

Touching a star fish

About to fly back home!!!

Another (not so fun) thing happened during Mason's 9th month. Mason got pink eye! It was awful! This is also when I first realized he has too many toys. 

I sanitized EVERYTHING that he had been in contact with for the past couple weeks. These are just the small toys, not including the ones that could be put in the washer. I did those, stuffed animals and his big toys all separately.

He also had his first bathtub poop during his 9th month. Luckily, I had him in his baby bath (I'm so glad we got the massive one we did!) so I could just dump it down the toiled and clean the tub out quickly. This is him watching me fill up his bath tub after I cleaned it back up. He was so interested in watching the water!

Mason - 8 Months

Mason has now finished his first month of daycare! I'm not gonna lie, it's hard. There are days when I absolutely hate that I have to leave him there. I hate that we're paying someone else to keep my baby. When I'm feeling that way, I have to remind myself that he's learning things that I can't teach him. He's learning to interact with other babies his age and other adults. I'm able to be much more productive and he seems to really enjoy his class.  This past week has been pretty rough and in all honesty, if we hadn't maxed out the dependent care FSA, I would at least be considering becoming a stay at home mom. I do feel like it's what's best for us right now though, so I'm trying to tough it out. Maybe it will get easier with time.

He's rolling a lot these days. He rolls in his crib while he's asleep now. Sometimes, he'll just go back to sleep on his belly and other times, he'll fuss until we come get him. He likes to alligator roll during diaper changes. I would say 80% of the time I put him down on his play mat to play, he rolls to his belly and starts doing this cute little swim thing. He kicks his little legs, just like he's been learning in his swim classes. He's sitting great and his balance is improving all the time. He hardly ever falls over anymore and if I give him a little push in different directions, he usually recovers his sitting position well!

We're still doing babyled weaning and I'm SO glad we did! He's gotten so much better at feeding himself and he has his pincer grasp now!

He loves bananas!

He's making several new sounds. It's so amazing to watch him figure them out. He loves blowing raspberries and he's started to growl occasionally.

His napping has improved a lot. As long as he's not overtired, I can usually just put him down in his crib and he'll fall asleep. I occasionally have to give him a lovey to snuggle with or a rattle to shake for a few minutes, but it usually doesn't take long for him to put himself to sleep. He still rarely naps in public. He's such a curious baby. I see babies sleeping in their open strollers when they're out and about, but Mason just isn't having it. I did get him to take a nap at Target the other day, BUT it was after he had been at daycare AND I had to completely block his view. I was just running in for something really quick and I knew he was tired, so I snapped his infant carrier in his stroller and closed both canopies to get it nice and dark for him. He fussed for a minute, then fell asleep quickly. I love that travel system so much! Curse the people who told me I wouldn't use it! I'm going to be lost when I can't snap him in and out for quick runs into a store anymore. Sure, I can wear him, which I do love, but if he's asleep in that car seat, I have to wake him up to do that!

We went to MD this month and he got to meet lots of new people. We stayed with Dave and he was nice enough to invite lots of friends who were on Josh's old team over. Mason was tired and we had a busy day in DC earlier in the day, but he was really a champ! Oh yea! He got to take his first trip to our nation's capital!

Lady Liberty in Lego form - I can't wait to take him to see the real one some day!

Visiting his first Smithsonian!

He got to go on his first boat! He did not like having to wear his life jacket, but he did enjoy himself once we were anchored and we took it off for a little bit. He slowly got used to it, I think. He didn't like when the ride got really bumpy. I just nursed him while we were moving and he calmed right down and would doze off for a quick nap.

This was after the ride back to the dock. He usually wakes up after I uncover him if he falls asleep nursing. Not this time. Little guy was exhausted!


He was so tired he even slept through us taking is life jacket off!

We had his first Easter, but it was a ROUGH weekend. The Wednesday before, he got a fever. I thought it was teething related, but he had to stay home from daycare on Thursday since his fever did reach 101. He threw up one time, but other than that, he wasn't showing any symptoms of anything other than teething. His fever was gone by Friday morning. Saturday, we took Mason and Natalia to Marbles (another first for him this month!) and on the way home, I started to feel sick. I was super nauseous by the time we got home and ended up getting sick a LOT Saturday night. Looks like Mason brought his first stomach bug home from daycare! Since I was so sick Saturday night, we cancelled our Easter dinner with family. It made me really sad because it was his first Easter! We didn't make it to his first Easter service either. :-/ Here's to hoping next Easter is so much better! Mason is still not quite himself. He's been fussier than usual at daycare. He's not finishing his bottles or showing as much interest in his food. I took him to the pediatrician and they couldn't find anything wrong. They said it's possible that it's from teething or he could be recovering from this stomach bug, even though he wasn't showing symptoms. He was as happy as can be on the exam table and he's weighing in at 17lbs.

 This was Easter morning. I still felt awful, but this silly face sure did cheer me up!

A couple make up Easter Pictures

 

 Natalia stayed with us Easter weekend and she wanted to help change his diaper. This one actually ended up being his first ever car seat blowout, so we obviously have some work to do.

 He loved playing with the mirrors at Marbles!

Mason absolutely loves Bailey. He laughs at her playing with her toys and he's learning to pet her nicely. We're still working on that part.

 Note all the baby toys he has absolutely no interest in...


He loves exploring her and most of the time, she doesn't mind at all. If she does, she'll just lick him in the face and walk away.

 
He loves being outside. This is him learning to help daddy work in the yard. He actually pulled his first weed! Now, we just have to teach him not to eat them. Haha.