4 months down...

To my growing baby boy,

Has is really been 4 months? Where has the time gone? You keep getting bigger and bigger, right before my very eyes! We took you to your 4 month checkup, and the doc says you are growing absolutely perfectly! You are almost 26 inches long, which is already over the 75th percentile for height (you're gonna be a giant!) and you weigh almost 15 pounds, which is right in-between the 50 and 75th percentile (just perfect!). Believe it or not, you are wearing 9 month jammies to bed! You can still wear most of your 3 month clothes, but the bodysuits are getting way too short for you, so you're in mostly 6 month stuff now, although those are huge in the width! If it's a one piece outfit, like your jammies or your summer short-alls, they have to be 6 or 9 months, or they won't fit you! Point of the story? You are going to be one TALL, skinny boy!

This month hasn't really been chock full of new developments like the past couple of months, mostly just fine-tuning the things that you already know how to do. You found your feet for the first time this month, and you haven't let go since! Every time you grab your foot, you look at it with a little sparkle in your eye, like you've just found a brand new toy! And you love to play with your toes; you wiggle them around, watching them all the time, and then try to stick them in your mouth.

In addition to developing that charming little personality of yours, you are starting to develop quite the little temper. If you don't get your way, you are not afraid to let us know. You have learned that you can scream - on demand, now - and if you start to get mad, the screeching begins; not just cute baby screeching, but full on, red-in-the-face-because-I'm-so-mad-that-you-won't-let-me-have-my-way screeching. And you especially like to do it in public when you get sick of sitting in your car seat. Sometimes it's funny, but most of the time it's not because the screaming quickly turns into a full blast meltdown for all the world to hear. I'm sure you'll grow out of it, right? Who am I kidding....

You are grabby, grabby, grabby, grabby, and some more grabby! Your little fingers and hands have been working overtime and you LOVE to reach for things now! Nowadays you are really good at actually grabbing what you are reaching for. Talk about making momma proud! The only downside? Now you can grab mommy's glasses and rip them off my face, leaving little tiny baby fingerprints all over them. And your new favorite thing to grab? Handfuls of mommy's hair! You always grab a big ole handful right at the nape of my neck, OUCHIE!! But I suppose the upside of you being able to grab a toy and quiet yourself balances everything out.

What comes along with being able to grab for things? Putting things in your mouth, of course! Namely, your hands. But the occasional teddy bear or shirt sleeve get stuffed in there, too. And on really special occasions, you try to get your hands AND a toy in there!

 You are on a roll! And you are getting super-de-duper good at rolling over. Sometimes you roll over multiple times, like you were rolling down a hill or something... it's pretty cute. You can roll both ways, but you like to go from tummy to back a lot.

 You know what else you do? You cry real tears now. It breaks my heart. You don't do it all the time; it usually happens when you wake up and realize that I'm not in the room with you... that's when the real tears come. It's so sad. But I suppose that just means you're growing up, right? You're a big boy now, making real tears. I think I might cry some real tears now, just thinking about it. But I don't have any pictures of your real tears, so here are some more happy ones.

We bought you a Bumbo seat and you L.O.V.E. IT! Mommy loves it because it's helping you learn how to sit up like a big boy, and you love it because you can sit up better now!

We started feeding you rice cereal about two days before your 4 month birthday. Your doctor doesn't want you to start solids until 6 months, but mommy thinks knows you are ready. You always stare and mommy and daddy while we eat, you watch every single bite that we take; you also are sitting up really well and have good control of your head; and most importantly, you are always hungry. You're supposed to be eating every 3-4 hours, but you usually eat every 2 hours (and you aren't even overweight after eating that often, you're just perfect) so mommy decided to let you try some cereal at 4 months and see how well you did with it. Result? You love it! You thought it was kinda gross at first, especially since I made the cereal with formula (whose taste you STILL don't care for), but you got used to eat and now you eat rice cereal like a champ!

And, as always, we'll end with some pictures of your perfect little feet!

Well, my love, that's about all we've been up to this month; like I said, not much new stuff going on, but you've been working your little butt off, keeping yourself occupied with growing and getting better at the things that you already know how to do. You are quite the little smarty pants!


No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you ; after all , you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside. I love you more today that yesterday...

<3 mommy

3 months down...

To my smiley baby Mason,
Holy smokes, it's been three months already... you are getting so big!

We learned last month that you really like it when the picture on the TV changes. Well, your love of the TV has only grown since then! You got a lot of Baby Einstein DVDs for Christmas and you love watching them. Now that you are smiling and cooing more, you talk to the videos every time a new character comes on the screen, especially when you watch the Baby Neptune one.

 You aren't really into any "games" or anything yet, but you love when mommy plays "peek-a-boo" with you. And you also love to clap your hands (with mommy's help), so we sing "If Your Happy and You Know It" all the time... it always get a laugh!

 You looooove to talk! You talk to your pictures by your changing table and you talk to the ceiling fans; really, you talk to everything. You watch people when they talk to you and try to imitate the noises that they make. Sometimes mommy catches you singing along to music in the car; it's super cute. A lot of times, you start talking, and then when you hear yourself talking, you talk even more!

We're still battling with the whole sleeping-in-your-crib thing, but we're making progress, sloooooowly but surely. And now that you're starting to roll around a little bit, I can see that our days on the couch are quickly coming to an end... mommy better get her butt in gear and get you used to sleeping in your crib!

You laughed for the first time at the beginning of this month! Every once in a while, when mommy or daddy talks to you, you smile and then... all of the sudden you laugh! It's so cute. When you were 11 weeks old, mommy took you out to run some errands in Castleton and we went to see Grampa at work. Mommy was holding you and Grampa was tickling you and all of the sudden, you threw your head back and laughed... and you did it again and again, every time Grampa tickled  you. It almost made me cry, it was so cute!

You've always cried when you're unhappy (duh) but lately you've started making this adorable little pouty face when you're mad or sad; it starts out with a little lip quiver, then you stick your bottom lip out and whimper a little bit. If your demands aren't met promptly, or to your specific liking, the pouty crying begins and I can't lie, it's adorable.

We got you a big boy bath tub last month and you've liked it since day 1, but now... you LOVE it! Your movements are starting to get more coordinated, so now you can splash in the water. Actually, you do more of an "old man shuffle" and kind of wiggle from side to side and that gets the water splashing, and then when you feel the water splashing, you flail your arms and legs about and that just gets the water splashing even more. And you smile and laugh and coo with every splash.

You are starting to develop quite the personality. In one word? Gregarious. You thoroughly enjoy other peoples' company, and you love to talk to people. You've been a little uncertain about people that you don't recognize, but after you study their face for a few minutes and start to warm up to them, you just smile and coo and try to talk to them. You are still very alert (mommy and daddy get comments on that whenever we take you out places) and, if it's possible, more observant than ever. Another trait that has come to light? You are very opinionated - you know what you want, you know how you feel, and you are by no means afraid to let us know. Going hand in hand with your studious behavior, you are also very curious; you like to watch things and when you do, I can almost see the gears turning in your brain. Lovey, lovey, lovey... you are so affectionate and you love to snuggle and get kisses. And you are a very, very happy baby - everything makes you smile and unless you are tired, you are almost always in a good mood!

And going along with your growing personality, you are starting to develop quite a few facial expressions!

Mommy loves watching you while you eat; you do such cute little things while nursing, it always makes me smile. At night, since we sleep on the couch, we usually nurse while laying down and we seem to fit perfectly together - for now, while you're still so small. You are a natural born leg-kicker, but somehow you know not to kick me while nursing, so you just stick your leg up on mine and wiggle it back and forth. You also love to touch me with your hands; sometimes you lay your sweet hand gently on my cheek (although sometimes you do it not so gently...), but usually you lay it on my chest, up by my neck. And the further you get in to your feeding, the sleepier you get, and you try to burrow and grab onto mommy's shirt. So sweet.



You are going through a phase where you don't want to be put down very often. Needless to say, mommy needs to have her hands free so I can get things done during the day, so I bought a Moby wrap. Thank goodness! You like being in it, snuggled close to mommy, and I don't have to hold you, so my hands are free to do dishes or work on the computer or fold laundry.

You are really starting to get control of your arm and leg movements; they don't randomly thrash about as much. You have started to try and reach for things now, too - not very successfully at this point, but when you see something that you want, you kind of stick your arm out and lean towards it. Sometimes you get lucky and actually get a hold of the thing you want and put your death grip on it; you love to hold on to things and you've got a good, firm grip, so you don't usually drop things very often. Since you've gotten more control of your arms, you've found your hands, and that is definitely a good thing! You suck on them all the time and mommy is a-okay with that. If you won't take a paci anymore, you can chew on your hands all you want if it keeps you from screaming. Your legs are constantly in motion. Seriously. Except for when you are in a deep sleep, your legs move all. the. time. I think you're gonna be a really good runner, or biker, or swimmer. And given the way you push your feet down, you may just be a race car driver.

You got your 2 month shots a few weeks ago and you weren't not happy about it! It was a little bit of a delayed reaction when the nurse stuck you with first shot, but man, oh man, you screamed your little head off. You quit crying as soon as mommy picked you up, but you were fussy the rest of the day. You fell asleep as soon as I put you in your car seat to leave, and  you slept for a good couple hours once we got home. You even slept through all the hammering and drilling while mommy was hanging up your new curtains and putting your new bookshelf together!

You rolled from your tummy to your back for mommy during tummy time! And then a couple weeks later, Nana was watching you while mommy was at school, and you rolled from your back to your tummy for the first time! Mommy was really sad that I missed your first back to tummy roll, but Nana said you just threw your leg over the other one and rolled on over!

You love to look at yourself, either in the mirror or on mommy's phone. We stood in front of the mirror this morning and as soon as you saw yourself, you started grinning from ear to ear. When mommy takes pictures of you on my phone, you like to get really close to it and check out the cute little baby on the screen.

You love it when mommy and daddy read books to you! You love to look at all the pictures, and when we read books that have a lot of words in them, you talk along with us!

Sometimes mommy just sits and watches you play or sleep; you are such a sweet sleeper, you look like a little angel when you sleep, and it melts my heart. Now that you've started moving around more, you grab for things when you play, like the little animals on the tray on your swing. Sometimes right after you wake up, you have these little quiet moments where you just lay there and look around at everything; I love these times and sometimes I lay my head down on your chest and hear your little heart beating so fast.

And no monthly summary post would be complete without your feet... because, yes, mommy is still obsessed with them!

 No one else will ever know the strength of my love for you ; after all , you're the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside. I love you more today that yesterday...

<3 mommy