20 months ago today was the most emotional-roller-coaster-ish day of my life!!! Mason Thomas was born and now here we are almost 2 years later blessed beyond words! Wow, I cannot even believe how fast the time has gone! I also can't imagine life before Mason. He definitely makes each and every day very exciting.... and just a little bit challenging! He is a very active, energetic little boy with tons of personality. We have our hands full, but not in a bad way at all. Yes, Mason is VERY busy, into everything, and gets put in time-out quite a bit, but we are overall very blessed by saying we have a very good little boy. He is sweet, loving, and so far, very good at sharing. Every now and then he gets a little territorial when someone is in his space (ha ha!) but I'm sure that's normal for a toddler! He loves to go, go, go. If someone pulls out a toy, he is ready to check it out. If someone pulls out a book, he is all ears. He's just so go-with-the-flow and adjusts so well to new situations. He's a really good mixture of both Marc and me, personality-wise. I think he's a LOT like his Uncle Jody as well. My mom watches Mason and says, "That is Jody all over when he was that age!" And, looking at my brother's baby pictures, Mason is a replica! He still definitely has his Da Da's & Grandy C's eye shape, but has the eye color, hair, and bone structure of my family. Many people say he looks just like my dad as well. So, for this month, I'm saying Mason is favoring my dad and brother. Oh, and his Papa Jack isn't proud about that at all! Ha ha! :)Here are a few more tidbits about Mason at 20 months:
STATS: Mason weighed about 25 pounds at his 18-month check-up and he hasn't been officially weighed since. He was in the 3rd% the first 15 months of his life; jumped into the 25th to 50th% percentile by 18 months old! The pediatrician says that Bowling Green is treating him well! :) He was almost 32 inches in length. He is wearing most 2T, but some 18 months if it is long. He is wearing size 4 diaper. He is wearing size 5 1/2 shoes. He is getting taller each and every day! In fact, just last night his big toed ripped right through his footed p.j.'s! And he could wear the same ones just last week and they fit just fine! Mason is definitely not our little skinny baby anymore who gets all the comments of how tiny he is; he is chunking up a little and his face is filling out more so he's starting to blend in more with the other kids his age.
LOVES TO EAT! This is a comment that many people say about him after observing him for a little while... the child eats us out of house & home!! He does a very good job feeding himself with a spoon, which we introduced at 16 months old. He still makes a big mess and loves to throw food across the kitchen when he gets a little bored. When is that stage gonna be over?!?!?! I'm sick of having to mop every single day! Well, needing to mop and actually mopping are two different things! Ha ha! Some of his fave foods... Graduates meals (pasta & chicken & veggies and the white turkey stew w/ veggies), peas, peaches, pineapple, blueberries, grapes, bananas, any kind of dried fruit (esp. blueberries), cranberries, deli mesquite turkey, grilled chicken, whole grain bread, Wheat Thins, animal crackers, and cheerios.
FOOD ALLERGY UPDATE: Mason was officially diagnosed with allergies to milk and beef in June 2009. Since then we pretty much keep him away from ALL dairy and beef & pork. Dealing with his allergies has just become a way of life for us. We are now used to having to take his own food whenever we go to someone's house for dinner or to a restaurant. We know all the right foods to buy and it gets easier each and every day. Yes, I do look at kids eating mac & cheese, cheeseburgers, and spaghetti off the Kids' Menu and get a little jealous (I'm sure Mason does, too!), but I'm just thankful for the foods that he is able to eat and that God was able to show us his allergies before he had a dangerous allergic reaction. His diet includes a ton of fruits and veggies, so he has ended up probably eating healthier that he would have without these allergies. The pediatric allergists will repeat the tests when Mason turns 2 and then go from there. We're thinking he's pretty much outgrown the milk allergy, but the doc says to not even test Mason's little system yet by tempting it with milk. So, we're still patiently waiting.
BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!! Mason's single most favorite thing in the world to do is to look at books!!! We receive free books from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library each month and he gets sooo excited to see what each new book will be! He is now going through this phase where ALL DAY long he will pick out a book, bring it to me, and work his way in my lap somehow no matter what I am doing, so that I will read the book to him. And who can resist that?? :) He really acts like he knows the storyline and he'll point to a thing and say either the sound it makes or what it actually is. He is sooo smart! The other day he took out "I Love You, Stinky Face" (one of his faves from newborn days), started flipping through the pages saying, "Mama, Mama!" I thought he was trying to tell me something, but really he's been listening to me read this book for so many months that he knows what the story is about! It's about this silly conversation between a momma and her son and on each page the little boy asks, "But Mama, but Mama... what if I were a.....?" And she replies, "If you were a.... , I would still love you!" It's such a sweet story. I realized that Mason was reading the book to me for the first time the day he was looking at that book and saying "Mama, Mama!" I about cried in the middle of that Victoria's Secret dressing room!
FOOD ALLERGY UPDATE: Mason was officially diagnosed with allergies to milk and beef in June 2009. Since then we pretty much keep him away from ALL dairy and beef & pork. Dealing with his allergies has just become a way of life for us. We are now used to having to take his own food whenever we go to someone's house for dinner or to a restaurant. We know all the right foods to buy and it gets easier each and every day. Yes, I do look at kids eating mac & cheese, cheeseburgers, and spaghetti off the Kids' Menu and get a little jealous (I'm sure Mason does, too!), but I'm just thankful for the foods that he is able to eat and that God was able to show us his allergies before he had a dangerous allergic reaction. His diet includes a ton of fruits and veggies, so he has ended up probably eating healthier that he would have without these allergies. The pediatric allergists will repeat the tests when Mason turns 2 and then go from there. We're thinking he's pretty much outgrown the milk allergy, but the doc says to not even test Mason's little system yet by tempting it with milk. So, we're still patiently waiting.
BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!! Mason's single most favorite thing in the world to do is to look at books!!! We receive free books from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library each month and he gets sooo excited to see what each new book will be! He is now going through this phase where ALL DAY long he will pick out a book, bring it to me, and work his way in my lap somehow no matter what I am doing, so that I will read the book to him. And who can resist that?? :) He really acts like he knows the storyline and he'll point to a thing and say either the sound it makes or what it actually is. He is sooo smart! The other day he took out "I Love You, Stinky Face" (one of his faves from newborn days), started flipping through the pages saying, "Mama, Mama!" I thought he was trying to tell me something, but really he's been listening to me read this book for so many months that he knows what the story is about! It's about this silly conversation between a momma and her son and on each page the little boy asks, "But Mama, but Mama... what if I were a.....?" And she replies, "If you were a.... , I would still love you!" It's such a sweet story. I realized that Mason was reading the book to me for the first time the day he was looking at that book and saying "Mama, Mama!" I about cried in the middle of that Victoria's Secret dressing room!
TALKIN' AWAY! Mason says about 40 words. He hasn't said a complete sentence yet, but you can tell he understands things we're trying to tell him. We'll ask him to go in another room and get something (like his new moose he got for Christmas!) and sure enough he'll go and get it. His favorite word is still "Dada." He has started saying "Mama" a lot more and says it with the biggest grin ever; he knows we've been waiting months for him to say it but he's been a little stinker about it! He only has said one person's name and that is "Audrees." He has two little friends named Audrey and he goes around the house talking about them all day long. He refuses to say anyone else's name. Thank you. He loves using baby signs more than verbal communication, I think. His favorite is the sign for "more." As soon as Marc gets home from work, Mason goes running up to him doing the "more" sign cuz he knows his dad will then preceed to get him the biggest snack ever, usually grapes. He signs "more" the second he gets up in the morning, letting us know he's ready for his breakfast. He also signs "all done", but that is VERY rare cuz I don't think he could ever really be done eating! He loves letting us know sounds that animals make and has said just a couple names of animals.
Some of the words Mason says... juice, da (for "ball"), mama, dada, Audrey, hippo, fish, "Oh, wow!", nooo, yes, nana (for "banana"), diapah (for "diaper"), zebra, ephant (for "elephant"), bye, ho, ho, ho!
LOVES HIS SLEEP! We are so thankful that Mason has slept through the night since 8 weeks old and we have never once had an issue with sleeping. God knows what he's doing cuz this girl is NOT a morning person and I need my sleep! I've gotten Mason on my schedule... we love to sleep-in and stay up late! And we love naps during the day! :) He goes to bed around 9 pm and gets up around 9:30 am. Some days earlier or later, but that's the average. Putting him to bed is easy... we turn on his nightlight, start his CD, put him in his crib, and I say the same prayer I have been saying every night for 20 months, just with a couple of new lines added. He immediately turns on his stomach and tucks his hands in (he does this when he wants to get cozy or when he's super excited about something), lays there and thinks for a little while, and then goes to sleep. We read soooo many books during the day, that we've gotten out of reading books at night just because he doesn't really associate that with bed time.
LOVES HIS SLEEP! We are so thankful that Mason has slept through the night since 8 weeks old and we have never once had an issue with sleeping. God knows what he's doing cuz this girl is NOT a morning person and I need my sleep! I've gotten Mason on my schedule... we love to sleep-in and stay up late! And we love naps during the day! :) He goes to bed around 9 pm and gets up around 9:30 am. Some days earlier or later, but that's the average. Putting him to bed is easy... we turn on his nightlight, start his CD, put him in his crib, and I say the same prayer I have been saying every night for 20 months, just with a couple of new lines added. He immediately turns on his stomach and tucks his hands in (he does this when he wants to get cozy or when he's super excited about something), lays there and thinks for a little while, and then goes to sleep. We read soooo many books during the day, that we've gotten out of reading books at night just because he doesn't really associate that with bed time.
OTHER THINGS MASON LOVES... being with people (has always gone to other people without any tears... especially loves us leaving him in the church nursery), throwing balls into his new basketball goal, pilfering in his new play kitchen & sorting through all the dishes & fake food, running into his Dada's arms every day when he gets home from work, watching Praise Baby DVD's and basketball games with Dada, showers with Dada (Yes, a HUGE Daddy's boy!!), Sunday School, Kindermusik, Toddler Time at the Bowling Green Library every Monday, dancing, laughing, running around randomly and chasing big kids at church, getting all of our food out of the kitchen cabinets and organizing it, traveling, and life in general! :)
2 comments:
Wow! He looks like such a big boy in all these new pics! I loved reading about him! :)
Happy 20 month birthday Mason! We love you! He really is the biggest boy now!
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