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.

Mason - 7 Months!

This past month has been very exciting!

We introduced solids!

It has been an adventure for sure! We decided that we would like to try babyled weaning and it's going great so far! Basically, he feeds himself real foods instead of us spoon feeding him purees. The idea is that he will learn to chew then swallow, rather than swallow then chew. This method of introducing solids also exposes him to a wide variety of textures early on. He eats with us at our dinner times and he eats what we eat for the most part. I absolutely love it! It's messy for sure, and sometimes, he does get frustrated when he has trouble picking up a particular food, but he has come such a long way in a short time and I love watching him learn! He has made faces that would make you think he doesn't like a food, but then he puts it right back in his mouth and eventually seems to enjoy it. Some foods, he loves right away.

So far, he's tried:
Broccoli
Avacado
Black beans
* French toast
Biscuit
Eggs
* Peanut butter
* Chicken
Pork
Quessadillas
Meatballs
Mashed potatoes
* Sweet potatoes
* Carrots
* Red cabbage
*Salmon
* Yogurt
Red bell peppers
Green Bell Peppers
 Asparagus
*Bananas
Talapia
* Steak
Green Beans
x Radishes

Prunes
Orange
Strawberries
Black bean quesadillas
Omelettes
Apples
Pears
Guacamole
Spaghetti
Chicken Teriyaki
Mexican Quinoa
x Overnight oats

* = favorites
x = doesn't like

I like our record so far!


Here he is eating a quesadilla. Totally worth the mess!

The downside to solids (other than the mess)...poop. We've had quite a few poop adventures. I'll just leave it at that.



He started daycare the day before he turned 7 months old! Josh and I took this day off work and used it as a date day, so it really wasn't very hard. It was basically like we got a babysitter for the day. We love date nights and we obviously don't go on as many dates as before Mason arrived. We think we'll make this a semi-regular thing! He did really well! He ate well and even took 2 naps! I didn't think he would have any issues eating, but I really didn't expect him to nap well. I was pleasantly surprised! He seems happy there and we really like his teachers! Mom daycare fail already...we thought Monday was pajama day, but it was not. At least he was comfy!

He's developing SO much and has learned a lot in this past month! He is sitting so much better! He will sit an play for a long time. He has gotten much better at rolling and seems to love tummy time now. He's rolled over then back the same way he came a few times, but he hasn't done a full 360 yet. He isn't crawling and really only shows minimum interest in trying right now. He does scoot quite a bit. He is pretty good at entertaining himself if he has a couple toys (or clothes) to keep him occupied. He really enjoys his toys, but I really think he's equally happy to play with a sock or something a lot of times. He still loves music and lights. I'm pretty sure all babies do.

His favorite toy right now is Scout. He sings and says Mason's name. Josh and I will jokingly sing the songs randomly.

 He absolutely loves his dog!

 I started let him take naps with a blanket since that's how he'll sleep at daycare and I can keep an eye on him. He's starting to look like a little boy and it warms and breaks my heart all at the same time!

 We're still going to swim class and he's really warming up to it! His favorite part is absolutely the kiddie pool after class!

 He rocked his green shirt on St. Paddy's Day.

He gives "kisses" and they're the best ever!

I know I say it every month, and every parent says it, but they really do grow so fast! Just seeing how much easier it is for him to put a piece of food in his mouth now than it was when we first started solids amazes me. He's growing and learning faster than I can keep up and I am loving having a front row seat to all of it!

Mason's Half Birthday!

I can't believe my baby is 6 months old!!!

Mason has changed so much in this past month! That was really my motivation for me to catch up on this because I know in a couple weeks, I won't even remember when he made all these changes!
His 5th month was pretty eventful and exciting!

Some of his favorite things are chewing (on just about anything, but mostly fingers and anything cloth), pulling hair, playing with his hands and feet...and yelling at them, he loves watching Bailey and he reaches out to touch her. He still loves taking a bath. He's getting a little better about when we take him out and dry him off. He still loves being naked, but he's not as fond of diaper changes as he used to be. I think it's because he has to lay still and he's SO wiggly now! He has started to respond to his name, but only if he isn't distracted by exciting toys.

Breastfeeding is still going great! Yay for making it 6 months EBF! It was hard and a lot of work at first, but it was so worth all the effort! Josh gives him a bottle of pumped milk each day still and he does great with it. Sometimes, he even puts him to bed with just the bottle (this was a no-go when he first started teething - he would finish a bottle and still want to nurse to sleep). He is so curious now and he likes to play around as he finishes eating. He will do some of the craziest things! I get fingers in my mouth, he grabs on to my face, pulls hair, "bites" me (we're working on this and I'll hopefully correct it before he gets teeth) and my new favorite...hip thrusts.

He started teething and that has been a bit of an adventure. He's typically a very happy baby, but he's had several fussy days and when he does, it's obvious that it's from the teething bothering him. He gets really clingy and wants to chew on EVERYTHING. He was really fussy one day not long after he had eaten and had his diaper changed. He wasn't tired and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. He was just screaming! When he had his mouth open, I noticed that I could see the white from a tooth! This was actually the day he turned 5 months! That has been a month now and we still can't feel that dang tooth! I actually can't even see it most days now. Luckily, the fussy days are not often, and it only seemed to affect his sleep one night so far, at the beginning. He had his first fever as a result of the teething too.

The very beginning of his first tooth.

We both love his jumparoo! He has fun and he stays occupied for me to get some things done! Win-win. Want to know what's not a win? When he has a massive poop in there. Cloth diapers can hold a LOT of poop, so we've really only had a couple small blow outs. well, this was not a small blow out at all...

I mean...it was nearly in his armpit. Who knew motherhood could be so glamorous, right?

He's been very interested in sitting for a while now. He's been sitting while only holding on to our fingers for several months. He started to be able to let go and sit on his own for a couple seconds just as he turned 5 months. Last week, he was suddenly able to sit on his own for 5+ minutes! We've been sitting him up to play with toys and he's loving it!



He also took his first bath sitting up. We decided to also make that his first bubble bath and he really enjoyed splashing the bubbles!

We spent our first night away from him a couple weeks ago. My sister kept him while we spent the night in Charlotte. I cried when we left him. Of course I worried that he wouldn't sleep or something, but everything was fine. We missed him a ton, but it was nice to have some time to ourselves too.

Snuggles and our last nursing session before we left for Charlotte. This is my fur nephew, Benji. He was born on Mason's birthday!

I had to be THAT mom and do a Valentine's photo shoot. He was a trooper and toughed it out for longer than I expected him to! Here are some of my favorites.

 That sweet, sweet smile!

 He was so giggly for a while!

He's out of focus, but I still love this one...and it's the best one I got of the two of them. lol

He's gotten really good at rolling back to front. He's less interested in rolling back over. I think he actually really enjoys tummy time now, so he's not as motivated to roll front to back. I have yet to be fast enough to record him rolling over. One day, he rolled over and I sat right by his side for 10 minutes afterward, phone out and ready for him to roll. He didn't. I needed to refill my water, so I got up and walked in the kitchen. I was gone for no more than 30 seconds and he was on his belly when I got back!

This was the look I got.

We took him to his first swimming class. I knew I was interested in doing swim classes from an early age and a friend told me about an affordable place in Smithfield, so we decided to give it a shot. It was a lot of fun! He didn't get super excited to be in the water, but he had just fallen asleep in the car as we were pulling into the parking lot, so he got like a 5 minute nap before class. I was hoping he would sleep the whole way there and be well rested, but he's a curious baby, and that keeps him from napping well when we're out and about.

 There's a little splash park/pool that we get to use after class. The water in here is warmer and Mason seemed to enjoy just sitting with this little ball and looking around. We'll definitely continue to go to classes at least a couple times a month.

We met up with some more moms/babies from my August 2016 moms group!

We went to his 6 month appointment this morning and it went really well! He's staying on his growth curves! He's weighing in at 15lb 14 oz and he's 26in long. He took his shots like a champ! He got an oral vaccination and 3 injections. He didn't cry at all until the 2nd shot! He calmed down quickly too! Way to go, little man! So far, we haven't had any reactions, so that's good!

 Watching himself in the mirror while we wait for the Dr.

A little light weight training.

Now some comparison pictures to see how much he has changed over the past 6 months!

   

First and most recent appointments - 3 days and 6 months

 

Same sun hat - 3 weeks and 5.5 months

1 month


2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

And now...he has also started to reach for me!<3 p="">