BillyandAshlee.com

Mason,
Happy 2nd birthday to my sweet baby boy. I love the way you wake up smiling and go to bed smiling. I’m envious of your endless energy. I love how much you and Lauren love each other and always ask for the other if you aren’t together. I will be shocked if you aren’t an amazing athlete…you *love* to play basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, golf…anything with a ball! You spend hours outside playing any sort of ball and with anyone that will play with you or by yourself is fine too. You have no fear. You aren’t afraid to try new things, even if you fail. I love how you cuddle on my shoulder when you’re getting sleepy and suck on your finger. You are fiercely independent…wanting to get your own cup and water, retrieving your own baseballs when you hit the ball, closing all open doors/cabinets, throwing away your trash without being asked but because you like things neat and in their place (so much like mommy!). You are such an easy kid, you can entertain yourself playing with just about anything. You rarely cry, and that’s usually only if Lauren takes something away from you!=) You are too young to know that pink is a “girls color” and always want the pink one be it a balloon, sucker, etc. You love to try on Lauren’s shoes and clothes. You can spot a sports game on tv from across the restaurant. You have such a fun personality and are just always so happy. Love you forever and can’t wait to watch you grow up!
Love,
Mommy

Mason is 18 months old today!! I can’t believe I will be planning a 2 year birthday party soon!! And anyone that knows him will know it will be a “Buzz” birthday party! I think a Toy Story theme sounds fun to do, can’t wait!

He had his 18 month old well child visit today. Two shots and a finger prick for blood since his iron level had been low the last few appointments. They want it at least a 12.0 and it had dropped from 10.9 at 12months to 10.6 today, so they went us out for a full blood work-up to see if there is a reason. I took Mason across the street and they took 3 vials of blood out of his arm, poor baby boy! The lab tech said he has awesome veins and got it in the vein right away and was done quick! We should have the results in a few days.

18 mo stats:
weight: 23lb6oz, 20% (up from 12% at 12 months)
height: 32.5″, 60% (up from 50% at 12 months)

Dr. Tyson said he looks perfect and we’re doing a great job with him! Love to hear that! They asked if he had 4-6 words…umm, yea, more like 30-40! I need to count it up (I have a list written in my cell phone), but he’s just had a language explosion in the last few weeks and is like a parrot mimicking anything you say. My favorite from yesterday was when Billy picked Mason up from me at dance class and as Billy was walking out with him, Billy told him to say “bye guys” and Mason would normally wave and has recently started saying “bye bye’, instead he said clear as day “bye guys”!! Everyone there just cracked up it was so cute! Lauren said “no” to something yesterday, so that’s been the new word for the last 2 days. He’s signed “more” for a long time, but this morning he was actually saying it too! I love it! His words may not be as clear as some of Lauren’s were, but I bet he has almost as many as she did! I was fully prepared for kid #2 (and a boy at that), to be a little speech delayed, but he’s not at all and seems to be well ahead! Billy reminds me often that with Lauren and I in the house, Mason has heard more words in his lifetime than some kids hear by the age of 5. Touche.

We filled out the “autism” questionnaire and there wasn’t a single concern there at all. She asked if he climbs stairs, tries to jump, climbs on things, etc. Ummm, he’s a boy. What do you think?;)

So, all is well, pending the blood workup. Which is very interesting, because he is our big meat eater. Lauren will barely touch meat (especially iron rich red meat) and her iron levels have never been of a concern. Guess we’ll find out soon.

The other exciting news of the week is that Mason started at Lauren’s school yesterday! He’s in the same room Lauren was in when she was a toddler (South America), so it’s a bit nostalgic for me and is actually kind of difficult to remember back that far when she wasn’t in Australia. He’s very used to being in her school since he has gone in with Billy every morning for drop-off and with me every evening for pick-up since he was 3 months old. So walking into the school was no big deal. But when Billy, Lauren, and I walked out with out him, he started to follow us an then Lauren yelled a big “bye Mason!” and that’s all it took. The tears started. I watched through the window a bit, and he just sat in circle crying his little eyes out. I texted Miss Lauren and Miss Courtney (his inhome daycare people for the last 15 mo’s that we love dearly) and they were so sad for him and Courtney wanted to go pick him up!lol I called midday and Miss Wendy (the director) said he was doing really well and only cried for a few minutes and was asleep on his cot. I have no idea how they get an 18mo old (and 10 of them at that) to lay down on a cot and go to sleep. But he did. And Miss Sarah (his lead teacher who is so sweet) said he took a great nap. He had a few tears now and then when they would make him sit down when he didn’t want to, but I wouldn’t expect any different!lol When Lauren and I went into his room last night to pick him up, he was so excited to see us, but instead of running to us, ran around the room showing us everything!! Ahhh, he was so proud and excited about his new room, love it!! On the way to school after his appointment today, he fell asleep. So he woke-up when we were in his room and I was taking his jacket off and he started crying when he realized what was going to happen (let alone the fact he was woken up from his nap, and he totally sleeps when he’s had stress like the the shots and blood drawn). I handed him off to Miss Sarah and left him crying, I feel so bad doing that, but I know staying there only prolongs the tears. I’m sure he’s having a great day:) And we all know he’s going to be getting some extra attention and kisses tonight for all the shots and blood draws today!!

I’ll post an 18 month update soon!

Billy and I loved running our first 5k in November and decided to challenge ourselves and are running our first 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) on April 2nd! It’s kind of a bucket list thing, a way to push ourselves, a goal we can work towards, as well as setting a good example for the kids. Our training has been going really well. In order to be able to both get our runs in this winter, we bought a treadmill a few months ago (he’s mainly ran outside, but I’m a wimp, and the gym closes at 10, this way I could start my runs as late at night as I needed to or could do it at 5:30am while he was running outdoors). I ran a 10 mile run on my treadmill last Saturday! That was the first run that I was actually in pain. The last 1.5 miles were pretty brutal, my left hip flexor was killing me and I hobbled around for about 45 mins after my run. The next day was even more painful, but I spent the day icing it, skipping my 3mile recovery run, and working out the muscles with a baseball and it worked! All was better by Tuesday and I was able to do my 4mile run pain free. I have an 11 mile run on Saturday, and I think I’m going to go run part of the race course. It’ll be a nice outdoor run and a change of scenery from my basement:) My goal for the 1/2 is just to finish! But I would definitely like to finish in under 2.5 hours. I’m running 10min miles on my long runs in training, which would be around a 2 hour 10min finish, but most of that is w/o hills on the treadmill, so I imagine the hills will slow me down a bit. Billy is already talking about training for a marathon this fall. We’ll see how the 1/2 goes, but I’m crazy and am considering it!

Billy is doing his first triathlon on Sunday!! I’m so excited for him and would love to do it with him, but wanted to concentrate on the 1/2 and not try to get back into swimming and cycling also! The triathlon is at our gym and is all indoor, a 250m swim, 5mi bike, and 2mi run. The kids and I will be there to cheer him on! Next time I’ll be joining him:)

Friday is a big day at our house.

1. Lauren has kindergarten round-up on Friday!! We will preregister her for kindergarten! How is that possible? Where did my little baby girl go? She’s more than ready and I’m really excited for her to go. There’s 12+ kids that we know from our neighborhood that will all be starting kindergarten next year (that we know of), so that will be really fun for the kids (and parents)! Lauren, Billy, and I are going to round-up Friday morning with a bunch of neighbors and then taking the kids out to breakfast after. Lauren is so excited to actually go *inside* “kindergarten” that she can hardly stand it! It’s the first question out of her mouth each morning and the last one before bed each night: how many days until we go to kindergarten and go out to breakfast with my friends? I’m just hoping we get all day kindergarten at her school. There are generally more kids that want it than there are available spots, so it goes to a lottery. She’ll get full day somewhere, but might be one of the other elementary schools close. Fingers crossed for our school!! We have 2 days in April where we take her for 1 hour and the teachers take the kids to do stuff while the parents have informational meetings of some sort. August will be here before we know it!

2. Mason’s last day at Miss Lauren’s house is this Friday. It’s so bittersweet. He’s had the absolute best care with Lauren and Courtney that I could have ever hoped for. Thank goodness Courtney babysits the kids and they still get to see her! We’ll have to visit Miss Lauren’s now and then. Mason starts at Lauren’s school on Monday (he could have started when he turned 1 in September, but we kept him in the smaller in-home environment to keep him healthier over the winter and no regrets at all about that!). It’s going to be so weird to see him sitting in circle time…I just can’t picture it, he never stops moving!! That kid must have a hollow leg too, because he eats a ton but at almost 18 months, he is weighing it around 22.5 pounds! He has his 18mo wbv next week, will be interesting to see his stats! I will say the “sweet” part of the move to Lauren’s school is that we will only have 1 daycare pick-up and drop-off. We’ve been doing 2 for 15 months…and Mason’s is not convenient to Lauren’s school or home at all, totally out of our way. But absolutely worth it. I estimate I’ll be getting about 30-45 mins back in my day by only having the one pick-up though!! Yea for getting to the pool sooner this summer!;)

I haven’t done this for Lauren for ages, so here goes.

Stat’s
At her 5 year well child visit her stats were:
weight: 40lb4oz, 55%
length: 41.5″, 45%
BMI: 16.4, 80%

Now at 5.5yo, I believe she’s about 42″ and 42lbs. She had a growth spurt during this year and seems so much taller and leaner and losing that toddler round look and starting to look like a kid!

achievements and activities
Lauren has been in gymnastics for over 3 years now and is doing very well. Last summer she was earmarked with a few other girls as being ones they’re keeping their eyes on and one of the gym owners wanted them with her in a special class. Since then, she’s kept the girls together and so it’s fun that they know each other well and that us moms have gotten to know each other too! I hope Lauren sticks with gymnastics, she seems to be really good at it (not that I’m bias!) and her body is made for the sport, petite but muscular!

She also begged to start dance classes this year, so she started a combo class (tap, ballet, tumbling) in August with one of her BFF’s, Kayla and another friend just started last week, Melia. We’re all neighbors, so it’s fun for the moms too! She really loves it and seems to be learning, and can hardly wait for her recital in June. I organized a big group of girls/moms to go to KC Ballet’s Nutcracker performance in December (17 of us) and Lauren begged to be one of the dancers next year! Of course that means changing her to the KC Ballet school and I’m not sure we’re ready for that commitment yet! But she doesn’t seem to be stage shy at all, which is very different than how she was a few years ago! She did an awesome job at her Christmas program at school this year, sat right in front and sang her little heart out:)

Lauren had her first season of soccer last fall and while she loved the games and seemed to be an amazing forward, she didn’t like defense and didn’t care that much for the practices. We weren’t sure whether or not to keep her in it, but she’s asking to do it again this spring, so I guess we’ll give it another shot!

She really took to the water last summer for the first time, and loves swimming all over the pool with her life jacket and playing around in the 3′ water w/o her life jacket, jumping in, swimming under water, etc. I expect this year will be even better. She took lessons last summer for 2 weeks and loved it, so I wanted to put her in this spring as a warm up for this summer, but we are just too busy. Monday is dance, Thursday is gymnastics, and we really don’t want to take up the only 2 free nights with more activities. We plan to put her in private lessons at our subdivision pool this summer.

She’s also asking to take piano lessons, and that sounds like a good art to add to all the sports, so I think I’ll look into it.

Lauren has been starting to read for awhile. She wants to read so bad and talks about it all the time, so I’ve been trying to devote more time in the evenings to reading the Bob book series with her. She has a ton of sight words (the, cat, dog, yes, no, big, etc) and is getting better at sounding words out instead of anticipating what they should say! She’s had tons of books memorized since she was 3 years old (Pinkalicious, all the Llama Llama books, etc), so it’s fun to actually see her reading words!

We started paying Lauren an allowance in November. She gets $5/week as a member of our household and is required to save 20% of it, or $1, and the rest she can spend any way she wants. She can earn extra money by asking us and we come up with chores for her to do (she usually helps me with the laundry every Sunday and earns an extra $1). The first week, she spent all $4 within a few hours of getting it at Target!lol Then she wanted the Rudolph at Build-a-Bear and saved her money for 4 weeks in order to buy him! I was so proud of her! I may have bought a few accessories for Rudolph myself, since she had done such a great job:) Now she usually waits a week or two before spending it, but jumps at the chance to run errands with me on the weekends in case there’s something she needs to buy! 99% of the time it’s yet another stuffed animal. I couldn’t count how many we have at this point. I’m pretty sure she brought home at least a dozen from “Cinderella’s Castle” in September…I’d say she has well over 100, but she loves them. Her animals and her American Girls.

Lauren can hardly stand the wait for Kindergarten. With the September birthday, she’ll be one of the older kids in class and she’s definitely ready to go. 14 of the 20 kids in her preschool class left for kindergarten this year and they got a big group of “babies” in their class (2.5-4 year olds) and while I do think Lauren loves the mentoring aspect of it, I think she misses the older kids to play with, she’d been with them for 2.5 years. We have Kindergarten round-up in 1.5 weeks and she’s so exited for it…she often asks if we can pass our neighborhood and drive the block up the street to go see “kindergarten”, so we do the stalker drive-by just so she can see the building. When she actually gets to go in the school, she is going to be over the moon!! I am going to drop my work hours and just work school hours, so roughly 8-3, so I can pick her up each day (she won’t have to do aftercare) and we can go to the gym, go swim, do her activities, run errands, whatever. I can’t wait to have 2-3 hours back in my day every single day!! Mason starts at Lauren’s school 2 weeks from today, so I’ll already gain a lot of time back not driving to 2 daycares, so I think I’ll try to start the 3pm schedule this summer, we’ll be at the pool by 4! =)

Big Sister
Lauren is a wonderful big sister to Mason, most of the time. If she gets something for herself (a snack, a drink, a blanket, etc), she always makes sure to get one for him as well. I do think it’s because she’s a thoughtful kid and not because if she doesn’t, he’ll try to come take hers!;) She wakes up in the morning and comes into our room asking if she can go play with Mason for awhile, so she’ll usually go into his room and climb in his crib with him and play for awhile before we go get them. They love to play chase around the house, dance, build tents, watch Toy Story and even play on the laptop together. He follows her wherever she goes or asks for her if he can’t find her “sissy” which doesn’t quite come out that perfect, but we know what he means:) She’ll usually get him unbuckled from his car seat, she reads him books, if he finished his dinner she’ll split hers in half to share, etc…she’s just a great big sister, no wonder he loves her so much:) And she thinks he is hilarious and he’ll do things just to make her laugh.

likes
Boys. That should definitely be #1. She is forever pointing out teenage boys with “Justin Bieber” style hair that she thinks is cute. If we see her staring off at something, most of the time if we follow the gaze, it ends up at a teenage boy. yikes. We know we are in serious trouble. Her boyfriend is still Drew. He’s off at kindergarten this year, but they see eachother at their birthday parties, at the gym, etc. We happened to run into him at the pumpkin patch this year, and they were inseparable. Good thing I like his parents! We always talk about how crazy it would be if they really end up dating! Lauren’s super excited to go to Kindergarten next year and be at the same school with Drew! She has other boyfriends too, but Drew is who she is going to marry, and the feeling is very mutual. Too cute.

She loves to draw and write. She can spell/write almost every single kid in her class’s name by memory and did so on her valentine’s, even though they weren’t supposed to, but she insisted! She has a very creative imagination and is always playing with her stuffed animals and dolls and it’s very entertaining to eavesdrop on it:)

She is still picky about her food, but has actually started being more adventurous since Mason started eating solids as that kid will eat most anything, so when she sees him try it, she will too. Not sure if it’s because she thinks it must be ok if he likes it, or if it’s a bit of a competitive thing, but either way I’m happy! She will know eat pizza because of Mason! Her diet would consist probably entirely of fruit if we’d let her. Watermelon, cantelope, grapes, strawberries, apples, oranges, blueberries, peaches, etc., she loves it all. She is decent with veggies and likes broccoli and carrots and sometimes will eat other things. Other than fruit, it’s pretty much macncheese, cheese quesadillas, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, and meatball lean pockets. I have no idea on that last one. She’ll eat little frozen meatballs out of a frozen hot pocket, but that’s about the only meat she’ll touch besides chicken nuggets and “old McDonalds” cheese burgers (without pickles or onions). Oh, and of course she loves sweets, but lately doesn’t like things that are super sweet. But she loves cupcakes, brownies, cake, ice cream, etc. Who doesn’t?;)

She loves to play on the computer and also loves movies. She’s walks around quoting movie lines, which is funny, but we should probably cut back on that a bit…it’s just hard in the winter, especially during Mason’s nap time when we need her to be quiet! And of course, any movie with a love theme is well received:)

Lauren likes to be the leader in about every peer situation. She likes to tell her friends what game they are playing, who will be who, what to say, etc. It works ok with some friends, but obviously not all! And on top of being in charge, she definitely has a stubborn streak. I guess he’s a born leader…at least we don’t have to worry too much about her peer group influencing her! I’ve actually had a neighbor say they can tell Lauren will be the one they all follow on the cul-de-sac, she can already tell, so I told her we’d try to make sure she was a good influence! no pressure!=)

dislikes
When things are “fair”. She doesn’t like there to be a winner and loser, she likes it to end up in a “tie”. She doesn’t like if someone has to go without, she’ll give up some of hers so that everyone has a little. I guess we are raising our little Democrat right, aren’t we?;) She is also very sensitive and gets her feelings hurt easily. If you even raise your voice to her a little, she just melts and is sobbing.

Of course, she doesn’t like Mason messing with her stuff, but she’s learned to put things up higher where he can’t reach. Playing with her fairy house on the floor and wanting it to stay perfect doesn’t work so well!

other
Lauren begged to get her hair cut “like mommy’s” which means a bob, before we went to Disney in September, but I made her wait since she was getting a princess makeover for her birthday at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at the castle. So in November, we had her hair cut in a bob. I *love* it. She loves it. Daddy who washes her hair loves it. Then she saw Tangled over Thanksgiving. Now she wants her hair like Rapunzels. I cringe, but it’s her hair, so I guess we’re growing it out again! I just love her sassy little bob though, fits her personality well! She also wants bangs, but I can’t bring myself to let her have those just yet!

She started asking to get her ears pierced a few weeks ago, so we took her last weekend for Valentine’s Day. As I suspected, she chickened out before it was her turn. Billy owes me $5.;) She said she’ll try again when she’s 6. No pressure from us, so we’ll see when she really goes through with it!

Lauren is dying to lose her first tooth like some kids have started to, but so far no loose teeth at all.

That’s it for now, I’m sure I’ll remember more I’ll come add!

I really had no idea what to expect and that always gives me some anxiety. But the pre-race environment was so cool!! Lots of people warming up, stretching, upbeat fun music playing on the sound system…just so much enthusiasm and I love that it’s all so positive/healthy. We saw quite a few kids running with their mom/dad, I can’t wait until our kids can run with us!

Anyway, 5-10 mins before race start, Billy and I got into line in about the middle. The PA system sucked, we could hear music perfectly but couldn’t hear a word the announcer was saying as it was cutting in and out. But then he/the crowd sung the national anthem. It was such a cool feeling and a bit emotional…standing there with all of those runners and I was ONE of them…not on the sidelines looking in. I thought how I was proud of Billy for all the work he’d been doing, how I was proud of myself for going for it even though I hadn’t trained for it at all, and how it was such a positive message (and role models) for our kids. And I thought how all these people were here together and some were first 5k’s, others were 1/2 marathons and full marathons and how much dedication and training go into those and how much hope they had for their race today. Just a very cool vibe. Then there was the 10 second countdown and the crowd slowly started moving. About 30 seconds in, the crowd broke up enough Billy could start maneuvering around people and I wished him luck and didn’t see him again until the finish line.

I was amazed by how many people I passed but of course there were many passing me as well. It was a big throng of people and fun to be a part of. There weren’t any mile markers on the 5k, so I never really knew how much farther I had, but I knew I was running 10-11 min miles on the treadmill (or to phrase that better…the 2 runs I’d done on the treadmill to prepare for this!), so I could kind of keep track as I started my Polar timer as soon as I crossed the start mat. The first mile was fun. The second mile was hard (it’s always my hardest). The first half of the third mile was the worst and I was thankful for the aid station and Gatorade at that point. The second half of the third mile is always tough, but I know it’s almost over. I just have no clue how to pace myself, so I don’t know if I was running fast or slow or what. I do know I pushed myself harder than the 2 times I’ve run a 5k on the treadmill in the last week (the one running I’ve done in months!). I sprinted the last bit to the finish line and my official finish time was 30:47 with a pace of 9:56!! Considering I’ve been running a 33:50 on the treadmill, I’ll take it! I was very happy my pace was under 10min! Billy’s official time was 25:41 or an 8:17 pace!! Awesome!! He had a bit of trouble being able to pass people as it was pretty shoulder to shoulder with fast people such as himself:) Hopefully the next race we do won’t be so crowded, or at least a race that does stagger starts so it’s not so bad!

I saw Billy on the final sprint to the finish and he met me just past it. It was very cool to do this together, both of our first 5k’s!:) I was the most lightheaded and winded I think I’ve ever been, as I pushed pretty hard the last 1/2 mile. Again, very thankful for gaterade, grapes, and bagels! We hung out and watched some more people finish the 5k and then headed home to relive the sitter (these races are going to be quite the investment with the entry fees + a sitter!).

While I was running it, I was wondering why in the hell I let Billy sign me up and there was no way I’d do a 10k in April, I need to change it to a 5k. But once it was over, I totally had the runner’s high and was pretty proud of the accomplishment, especially considering I hadn’t trained at all. I can’t wait to actually start training for the 10k! =) Hopefully I can convince my mom to start training to run it with me!!

Mason turned 12 months about 3 weeks ago, so it’s time to get his 12 month update posted so that maybe someday I can write something in his baby book that is still completely bank. Not that Lauren’s is much better, but it’s a project on the to do list, go back through the blog and put it in the baby books. Someday.

Mason is now 12.5 months and is such a charmer!! We are constantly stopped by people telling us how they love his smile and his eyes. He’s very quick to given anyone he sees a smile and often seeks out their eye contact, so cute!

sleep
Mason is still a great sleeper! He sleeps with a few paci’s in his bed and we never have to go in there to retrieve them (we did learn a few things between him and Lauren!) He nurses at 8:30pm and I put him in his bed awake, give him a paci in his mouth and one in his hand, and he watches his mobile/lights/music for a few mins and then is out. The only time that he’ll put up a fuss is if he’s over tired such as past his bed time. On the rare occassion he’s super sleepy, he’ll fall asleep nursing or just after and I get to hold a sleeping baby for awhile, love it! He usually sleeps 11-12 hours, so until 7:30/8:30am. He then takes a 1ish hour nap in the morning and then a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon, although we rarely give him a morning nap on the weekends. We’ve gotten better about structuring our weekends to make sure he gets in his afternoon nap.

milestones
Mason started walking at 11.5 months! In less than a week, he was able to pull to a stand from the middle of the room! I love watching them the first few weeks when they have their arms up in the air and look like little monkeys! When you tell him “no”, he’ll usually shake his head back and forth like “no no no” and smile:)

signing
Mason is finally starting to sign!! He’s signed “all done” for awhile in a variety of ways including shaking his hands above his head and now the real version, but just with one hand. He’s also signing “please” but patting his chest with his hand, close enough! He is so proud of himself when he does “please”, smiling ear to ear, it’s adorable!

teeth
At 12 months, Mason had 10 teeth, his bottom 4 and top 4, plus his top 2 molars. Now at 12.5 months, one of his bottom molars is through and the other is just starting to poke through. He usually does get a bit cranky when he’s teething, but we haven’t noticed too much with the molars other than him sticking his fingers back there to chew on them probably giving him some relief, but he usually gags himself in the process!

food
Mason is a really good eater. He loves meat…sausage links or patty’s, chicken nuggets, hamburgers, cubes of ham/turkey, etc. He isn’t so good about eating fruits and veggies, but loves bananas and will eat grapes on occasion. He loves cheese sticks. His new fun thing to do is to go to the pantry and get his own snack for me to open! He’ll also bring us empty sippy cups from the cabinet to fill up for him. He still nurses morning and night (and sometimes mid-day before nap if we’re together). At daycare, he also gets a 6oz bottle of milk before nap.

talking
We were wondering if our second kid would be a talker like Lauren, and so far he seems to be! He babbles a lot and has a handful of words, but seriously, still will rarely say mommy or mama. Darn kid!!! He says way harder words! On the rare occasion he wants me to pick him up and pick him up NOW, he’ll pull out a “mommom”, but I still don’t even know if it’s really for me! There are also somethings he says that we ask ourselves, does he really know how to say that or was that a coincidence? Like today, we see a train at the Magic Kingdom and he says “train”. Who knows. The words he says that we know for sure he’s saying are:
- dada (his first word…and when he sees daddy or Billy picks him up, he says “dada!!” so excited)
- sissy
- doggy
- again
- yea
- balloon (very garbled version like “gagoon”, but we usually knows what he means!)
- hi
- cheese (as in “say cheese” for pictures…if he sees the camera, he’ll usually immediately smile and say “cheese!”)
- this (dis)
- that (dat)

health
Mason had allergy testing done a few months ago and he is allergic to penicillin and cephalosporins. We’ll recheck it next year, but in the mean time, all of his medical charts have been labeled as such and I can’t take either while I’m nursing him. Other than that, he’s pretty status quo. He has his noisy breathing that should get better. He had pink eye a few weeks ago, that’s about us bad as he’s been since he got his ear tubes placed in May.

stats
length - 30″, 51%
weight - 20lb even, 12%
No wonder he’s such a skinny guy! Also the fact that he’s in perptual motion must keep his metabolism high!

likes
To walk everywhere. Food (especially sausage). For people to look at and smile at him. To play “peek a bo”. To sing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes”. For mommy to sing him “You are my sunshine” each night before bed. To find anything he can push or pull and drag it around the house or outside. Balloons. To play in water. Music and to dance (he shakes one hand and pumps the other arm and usually shakes a leg, all at the same time depending on whether he’s sitting or standing when he hears music). “All the Single Ladies” by Beyonce. To clean (loves to run the swiffer sweeper and to dust/clean with a rag or paper towels).

dislikes
To be restrained if the highchair/car/etc is not moving. To not have the food or water he wants. For Lauren to take away what he’s playing with.

He’s such a happy baby and we (Billy, Laure, and I) feel so lucky to have him as ours:)

Mason had his 12mo well baby visit on Monday, at almost the 12.5 month mark. His stats:

height - 30″, 51%
weight - 20lb even, 12%

Scrawny boy:) She asked if he’s a picky eater and we laughed…the child eats double the amount his sister does! I split what I make them in two, they eat, then I feed him what she doesn’t eat, seriously. He’s constantly going into the pantry and bringing stuff to me to open to eat. If this is what he’s like at 1, I’m going to go broke feeding him as a teenager!! She asked if he’s active, and again, we laughed. The little boy is constant motion. I don’t think he *ever* sits in one spot for longer than MAYBE 10 seconds. Daycare also says he must have an awesome metabolism for as much as he eats! So the dr. deemed him healthy:) His percentiles hadn’t really changed since his 9 mo appt, so I guess all was well! His iron is still a little low (tested 10.9 and they want min of 11), so we’re supposed to keep him on infant cereal and iron supplements twice a day. yea, easier said than done. He got his first flu shot, prevnar, and hep A. We chose to delay the MMR/chicken pox until we get back from vacation since Lauren had such a bad reaction (high fevers for a week). I need to do an official 1 year update on him soon.

Speaking of vacation, we leave in 2 days for a week at DisneyWorld!! yea!!

We were so busy having fun yesterday, I forgot to pop in and wish my sweet baby boy a very happy 1st birthday!!! We opened presents, went to the “farm”, had lunch at Fritz’s, a nap for Mason, then cupcakes from Small Cakes, and wrapped up the day by going to the circus, Mason’s first time!! What a fun day!!

Mason - You are such a sweet baby boy and the happiest baby we’ve ever known…that is the comment we get over and over about you. You always have such a sweet smile for anyone who will make eye contact with you! You are the perfect completion to our family and make us smile and laugh every single day. We can’t wait to watch you grow up!! We love you!!!

Mason has been taking steps for maybe a month or so, but within the last week, he’s been walking all over! He can turn, catch his balance, etc. Love it! He looks like a little monkey with his arms up in the air balancing himself! So, walking at 11.5 months:)

Took him to Stride Rite to measure his foot today, we’d had him in size 3 robeez mini shoes and he needs a 4, oops! So, he got 2 new pairs today.

Mason talks all.the.time. Of course it’s jibberish, but he has some words.
- dada
- doggy
- kitty (what he calls all animals except dogs, including the polar bear at the zoo last weekend!)
- sissy (Lauren of course)
- hi
- yea

Still no mommy. He’s killing me! He’ll say “mom mom mom” sometimes, but 99.9% sure it’s not me. I sometimes think he doesn’t say it just to toy with me!

I can’t believe he’s one in a week and a half, where does time go??

Mason is now 10 months…so weird to hit the double digits!!! I’m starting to plan his 1st birthday and it’s very surreal!! Wasn’t I just pregnant with him?? He continues to be the happiest baby and we frequently have people tell us that if their babies had been as happy as Mason, they’d have had 6! Not too much bothers him and he entertains himself quite easily! You just have to keep your eye on him because 99% of the time he’s likely getting into something he’s not supposed to! So different than Lauren! Lauren wants to do the right thing and please mommy/daddy, Mason gets a kick out of getting in trouble and grins at you with a smile that’s hard to resist! We’re in trouble, aren’t we?

sleep
Mason is a great sleeper! He nurses at 8:30pm and I put him in his bed wide awake (he lunges to go there as soon as he’s done) and watches his mobile/lights/music for a few mins and then is out. We never usually hear a peep from him. Every once in awhile he won’t want me to leave and will through his paci’s out so that I’ll come back…I’m convinced he is already manipulating me like that! He usually sleeps 11-12 hours, so until 7:30/8:30am. He then takes a 1-2 hour nap in the morning and then a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. He really likes to nap in the morning the best and would prefer the long stretch in the morning, but Miss Lauren (his daycare lady) likes to keep him on the other schedule to be with the other kids. No sweat to us…but I have to admit on the weekends, he’s lucky to get his naps in his bed because we’re out an about so much with Lauren. It’s to the point though that we have to be home at least once a day for his nap.

milestones
He’s been cruising since 8 months and is a total pro. He can pull up on the cabinets and open the cabinet door and pull stuff in and out. His balance is really good and he is now frequently letting go now and just standing by himself. A few times he’s taken a few steps and then lunged for me, so it won’t be too much longer before he’s walking! yea! He really doesn’t fear much of anything and will try relentlessly until he does something. He rarely if ever cries when he hurts himself and so he constantly has bruises that we never know how he got them (he currently has a black eye…didn’t have it when he went to bed last night, but woke-up with it, so who knows?). However, we have noticed that if someone else hurts him, he makes sure to whine/cry a bit and look at them to make sure we/Miss Lauren knows that someone else did apparently to tattle on them!lol Around 9 - 9.5 months, he decided that he preferred to crawling on his hands/knees instead of his army crawling that he’s done since 4.5 months! And he’s really fast at it now! He’s also throwing a ball really well and is also amazing at trapping and/or catching balls you roll at him and has even caught balls that have been thrown/bounced at him! In the last few days, he’s started dancing when he hears music or even Lauren singing! He puts his hands under his armpits and twists back and forth, it’s so cute!!

eating
Mason drinks milk (nurses or bottles at daycare) about 4 times a day (6oz bottles). He eats 3 meals a day and around 8.5 months, he started refusing all purees and started eating all finger food. He loves to feed himself and will eat forever if you let him eat with a fork (he needs help poking the food but then puts it in his mouth). He’ll eat almost anything except is picky about fruit. He loves watermelon and peaches, but doesn’t seem to care for cantelope, strawberries, or grapes so far! He loves macncheese, pizza, quesadillas, hotdogs, hamburger, black beans, cheese, yogurt, grilled cheese, peas, mashed potatoes, and goldfish! Around 9 months, he finally figured out the sippy cup and now loves to drink entire cups of water at a time. He also loves his snack trap filled with goldfish.

teeth
At 9 months, Mason had 7 teeth. He got his 8th during his 9th month (4 top and 4 bottom). Now at 10 months, he’s working on the next 2 bottom teeth and some molars! He usually has a cranky day or so when they are first pushing through and giving him some Highlands teething tablets or ambesol helps.

signing
Mason understand the signs and words for milk, eat, and all done and would signed “all done” at 8 months. At 9 months, he added “more” to his understanding and started signing “more” (modified with one finger to his palm).

talking
He is constantly babbling (and usually loudly). He says “ahh dis!” while pointing at something all.the.time and he seems to be asking “what’s this?” or “look at this!” so we’ve been telling him what “dis” is. =) I was afraid kid #2 wouldn’t be a talker like his sister, but so far, it seems that my fear was completely unnecessary! He’s clearly saying “dada” and meaning Billy. For instance, tonight at gymnastics, Billy had come in and sat down and Mason pointed at him and said “dada!!” We’re pretty sure it’s his first word. A few times we’re pretty sure he’s said “doggy” and several times he’s said “sissy” (sounding more like “didy”) for Lauren since I’m always asking him “where’s sissy?” or “let’s go find sissy?” to which he’ll always look towards her, point at her, or take off crawling for her room. A week or so ago, he saw her picture on the background on my laptop and he got all excited babbling like crazy and shrieking and said “didy!!” So cute! And seriously, sissy before mama? What the heck? Doesn’t he know who carried him for 9 months in the heat of the summer, birthed him, fed him, rocked him, etc. for 10 months? jeesh. So far we have dada, doggy, didi…maybe he just like “d” words you say? Oh no. He’s also been saying “all done”…which is only partially a “d” word. I’m working on it.

health
Mason has been 100% healthy since he got his tubes in back in May. Until today. He’s running a 101 degree fever today which appears to possibly be the same virus Lauren had over the weekend, but possibly teething. We’ll find out in the morning most likely. He’s scheduled to have his allergy testing for antibiotics tomorrow, but if he’s sick, we’ll have to reschedule.

stats
I have no idea how long he is, we should measure. But I weighed him with diaper and pj’s on tonight and he weighed 20lbs 4oz. He’s wearing 6-12 month clothes and won’t appear to outgrow them anytime soon but is outgrowing his 9month footed pj’s.

likes
To be anywhere Lauren is. To be in anything he shouldn’t be in. To turn the dials on Billy’s receiver. To get into the cabinets and pull everything out…especially the sippy cup cabinet. To cruise along anything he can find. To stand and look out the window. To play with balls. To eat. To drink water out of his sippy. To swim…he *loves* to crawl around in the 1′ water and has no fear, dipping his face in and taking drinks (eww!), sitting by the fountains and playing in them, and constantly is crawling for the deep water and gets mad or giggles when I catch him. He loves to go into the deep water with us swimming around and even lets us take him under water pretty well. To ride in his push car. To sleep. To wrestle (loves to dive onto you if you’re laying on the floor). Playing chase (he loves us to chase him and grab his legs saying “I’m going to get you!”…he lays down and starts giggling). He also likes to chase Lauren around the circle of the main floor (kitchen to hallway to dining room to butlers pantry and back to kitchen). To open doors/drawers. To be outside. To read books and to flip through them by himself. To get to play in the playroom.

dislikes
To have to wait for his food in his highchair. When Lauren holds him down (go figure). Having his face/nose wiped. Hats.

Only one more of these monthly updates before Mason’s 1st bday update!! It’s so much fun watching Mason grow-up and watching how the relationship between the kids continues to evolve. Lauren will likely always be the little mommy and we find ourselves telling her “let us be the mommy/daddy, we’ll tell him what he can/can’t do”, but yet are very thankful that she is so caring and watchful over him and more than once, she’s been the first one to him pulling dog food out of his mouth (he really is determined to eat some). The four year age difference has been wonderful…she is such a huge help to us, is very proud of her baby brother, and she really sees him as “our baby” and is so nurturing and they play together really well and I’m sure that will continue to grow as Mason gets older and can play more. I better let her have some input on his birthday plans, I’m sure she has her ideas, she lives for parties and birthdays!

Since this blog is serving as my kids baby books until I pull them out and write this all down in one place…I wanted to document for my records:

Mason had 4 teeth (2 top, 2 bottom) at 8 months. Before he turned 9 months, he got his upper right tooth. At 9 months, he cut his upper left tooth and now his bottom right tooth is popping through. That is 7 teeth at 9 months!!

Also over the weekend (at 9 months), he started standing on his own when we let go of his hands! He can stand for maybe 10 seconds or so! He’s also cruising around much quicker and transitioning between things by kind of lunging for them. He also started crawling up the stairs and climbing onto the hearth of the fireplace over the weekend! Good grief Mason, slow down!! We don’t have to learn everything at once!!

Mason had his 9 month well baby visit today. It’s going way too fast. I can’t believe his next appointment will be at his 1st birthday. It is a bit bittersweet, but I *LOVE* this age. He’s interacting with us so much and learning new things everyday. I just know that at any time he’ll take his first steps and he’ll be talking and I’m going to be wishing for him to be 9 months again, so I’m just treasuring each and every moment. He was so tired a few nights ago that he fell asleep nursing before bed, which doesn’t happen that often anymore, he gets drowsy, but pops up when he’s done. So, I just spent 30 mins or so holding him in the glider and enjoying it. But man is that kid noisy when he’s sleeping:)

His appt went well today. Of course he’s met all the milestones they ask about (sitting, standing, babbling, pincher grasp, etc). No shots, but they did prick his finger to check his levels and the first test came back low on most everything, so they did it again and he is low in iron, so we’ll be starting drops for that. He didn’t cry at all. even while getting his finger pricked and squeezed twice. The entire appt he just sat happily on my lap and smiled at his pediatrician and was a total flirt. They do recommend rear facing in the cars now until 2, which I’d read, so we’ll see how long we can keep him that way. I’ll do a proper 9 month update in the next few days (and I’m getting caught up with posting pic’s slowly). Here were his stats:

weight: 18lbs, 15%
length: 28″, 40%

Exact same percentiles as last time, so I guess it’s good he leveled off. Who would have thought he’d be a little guy? As Shane pointed out, give the kid a chance…he might be a scrawny kid but he could still hit a growth spurt between now and an adult:) So, all is well, clean bill of health, which is so much better than a month ago when we were battling the ear infections! We are big fans of tubes!!

The kids surgery was 1.5 weeks ago and they did great!! The worst part was the 1 hour between when we had to arrive at 7:45am and about 8:45am when they finally took Mason back. We were on our way home by 10am! They had their post-op appt yesterday and the tubes are open and look great. Now, fingers crossed they stay in for a month shy of 3 years (that way we don’t have to get even more sets in either of them but don’t stay in so long we have to do surgery again to remove them, like we did with Lauren just 6 short months ago!). And Lauren did *such* a great job being brave for her brother…being 4.5 years old was tough, as we had to tell her that they would put her to sleep again and it would hurt when she woke-up, poor thing. She actually had nausea until about 3pm that day and then was back to her normal self and outside playing with her friends. By 11am, you would have never known anything happened to Mason!

Mason had been babbling a bit before surgery (mama, mommom, baba)…but he has really had a language explosion since the surgery!! He is constantly babbling and trying out his various volume levels and how high and “girly” he can make his voice! And last weekend, he started babbling “dada”! Billy actually took him to Sears to get a new blade for the lawnmower and apparently, he *loved* it! I took Mason outside to swing on their playground while Billy was mowing and Mason’s eyes never left Billy and that lawnmower the entire time. So weird! I don’t think Lauren has ever noticed we even own a lawnmower!! And apparently, the boys bonded. Mason really started showing a big interest in Billy and wanting to go to him, and not just tolerating him when I wouldn’t be with him. Bittersweet for this mama, that’s for sure! We still hadn’t been able to tell if he was babbling “mama” or “mommom” and “dada” in the right context…until today!

I was leaving this morning and Billy said that after I walked out the door, Mason went crawling for me saying “mommom” and Billy said to him “where are you going Mason?” and he turned around and said “dada!” in his girly voice. Maybe?? What a smart boy at only 8 months:)

Both kids went to the ENT last Monday (5/17) and the result was they both need tubes. Lauren’s ear drum had actually ruptured with her last infection and Mason’s ears were still infected, despite 2 rounds of antibiotics. So, she recommended a 2nd set of tubes for Lauren, and debated taking out her tonsils because they don’t look good, but decided not to. And she recommended Mason’s “first set of tubes”…since he’s so young getting this set (8 months), this is likely his first set. Considering Lauren is 4.5 and getting her 2nd set, I figured with Mason. The ENT also considered fixing Mason’s laryngealmalacia at the same time, but it would have required having the surgery at Children’s Mercy downtown and an overnight stay. We don’t think he’s stopping breathing at night, which is the concern as he relaxes in his sleep and his voicebox collapses into his airway and while he’s noisy when he’s sleeping, it doesn’t seem to bother him. So Billy and I decided to hold off on that surgery and hope he outgrows it (which kids normally do by the age of 3) and if it becomes bothersome when he starts walking/running, then we’ll address it and possibly surgically correct it then.

I just hope the tubes makes a big difference for Mason like it did with Lauren when she got her first set at 15 months old and that it keeps Lauren’s ears as healthy has they’ve been the last 3 years until her ear tubes were removed last November. Mason has been sick for a month straight (a few colds and ear infections) and it will be nice to have our healthy guy back…thank goodness he’s such a happy baby, you’d never know he’s sick.

And of course the kids were thrilled that their surgery was an excuse for grammy to come visit, and bring gifts! The hard part will be not feeding them anything until after surgery. We’ve already explained that to Lauren and promised her a big breakfast out of pancakes and eggs after surgery, but not possible to explain that to an 8 month old, poor guy. We ate a big, late dinner tonight, hopefully that will help! Wish us luck tomorrow!!

I was feeding Mason this morning when Lauren asked me why I feed Mason milk from my boobies. I told her that is what they are for and when she’s a mommy, she’ll do the same. She looked at me all confused and said “but we already have a baby?” Oh yes, I forget, Mason is “our baby”, so why would she have another one? So I explained that one day she’ll grow up and get married and have a baby of her own with her husband. And she said, “like with Drew?” (her boyfriend of a year or so now) and I said, “yes, like with Drew”. Then you can see her thinking pretty hard about this new reality and she said “will I have to go live with him??” LOL, yes honey, that’s part of the deal, dirty boxers on the bathroom floor and all. She seemed pretty sad that she would have to leave mommy and daddy’s house. They’re so sweet at this age, I’m really going to miss it when they get older and don’t want anything to do with us. I doubt she’ll be so sad about it in 14 years when she’s off to college!

I’m thinking Mason may have said his first word tonight (at 8 months)…”mama”, of course:) Four separate times I put him down to help Lauren with something and he’d crawl towards me saying it several times while whining to be held/eat. Who knows?

Mason turned 8 months today!! So hard to believe!! He is such a happy baby…I know I sound like a broken record, but that is the thing we hear the most often from everyone…”he’s such a happy baby”, “he’s so smiley”, “does he EVER cry?” We just love him so much!!

sleep

Mason is a great sleeper, finally! He’s always slept from 8:30/9 until 5-6am, eat, and then sleep until 7:30/8:30. I can’t remember when, probably around 6-7 months, he started sleeping consistently 8:30 - 7:30/8:30. So nice! We just put about 4 paci’s in his bed, and we’ll hear him wake-up in the middle of the night every once in awhile and fuss for a second until he finds a paci. We also put his fishies crib toy in there and he loves it. When he wakes up, he rarely fusses, he’ll just pay with the crib toys. To go to sleep, we just lay him in the crib and he goes to sleep on his own. I never even knew he could do that, I used to hold him until he fell asleep (bc I wanted to!) or Billy would walk him around the house until he fell asleep. But when we went to Wichita for Damon’s birthday in April, it was so noisy in their house, I knew it would never get quiet enough to walk him to sleep, so I put him in the crib by himself, awake, for naps/bed and he went to sleep on his own, who knew? Thanks Miss Lauren (daycare)!

milestones

Crawling at 4.5 months, pulling to a stand at 6 months, and now on the verge of 8 months he’s pretty much cruising around the furniture (not always gracefully)! He’s also walking behind his walker! Crazy!! It’s like he has sheer determination and will and is not afraid to try, and try again, and again and again until he masters something. If he falls and bumps his head in the process, we never even cries, he gets up and tries again! So different than Lauren…we’re convinced she won’t do things until she’s certain she can do it perfectly! Mason is still army crawling, but can crawl on his hands/knees, we’ve seen him push up to them at least to crawl over stuff, but that is not his preferred way. He even has some little road rash spots on his forearms from all the army crawling! For several months (maybe at 6ish months?) Mason could go from crawl to sit. Watching him go from sitting to crawling used to be pretty funny…he’d just kind of fall forward and it wasn’t graceful! But for awhile now (a month or two?), he’s been good at it. During 7 months old, he started clapping!! It’s cute bc his left hand stays still and the right hand claps to the left only:) And a lot of times, he’ll also “cheer” along with it…saying “aaaaaaa” and in “yeeeeaaaaaa”, but just the “aaaaaa”. It’s so cute! He loves to do it when he hears music, or if we say “good job Mason” or something along those lines. Finally, Mason got his first haircut at 7 months too! No more long mohawk!

eating

Mason drinks milk (nurses or bottles at daycare) about 4 times a day (6oz bottles). He eats 3 meals a day (various combos of cereal, veggies, and fruit). He loves the Gerber cheeto looking things, but won’t eat yogurt melts or puffs…he has a very sensitive gag reflex! We’ll probably start trying to add more table foods soon.

teeth

He got his first two bottom teeth at 4.5 months and got his top two teeth at 7 months! No sign of any more just yet. When he first got his top teeth, we’d hear him grinding his teeth together a lot, but haven’t heard it lately, so hopefully the novelty has worn off!

signing

Mason definitely understands the signs and words for milk, eat, and all done. And in the last few days, we’ve noticed he’s been signing “all done” when we’re feeding him, and only when he’s done (just shy of 8 months)!!! He’ll open up every time we come at him with the spoon, but then he’ll sign all done (puts his hands up and kind of waves them), smile, and refuse to eat anymore!! What a smart kiddo!!!! He gets all smiley and happy when we sign all done, milk, and eat to him as well! We’ve been working on “more”, but I don’t think he gets it just yet. He just smiles and coos, but that’s his normal.

talking

Other than “aaaaaaa” when clapping, no words just yet! He babbles a lot, but most of it is just “aaaahhhhh” type stuff. We hear consonant/vowel combo’s every now and then…tonight he was saying “bababababa” after picking up and carrying around a doll’s bottle…I would think that was a coincidence, but we’ll see if he does it consistently! I’m actually going to mention to the ENT about the lack of consonant/vowel combo’s at his next appt…I’m afraid with all the fluid on his ears, his hearing/speech may have already been affected. That should all be resolved soon.

health

Mason has been to the pediatrician 3 times in 13 days. That might just be a record for our kids. 1st visit - cold with fever and noisier than usual breathing (noisier than he is with just his stridor) diagnosis was “broncialitis” and twice a day xoponex treatments. 2nd visit - suspected ear infection as a result of the cold and we were correct…10 days of amoxiclyn. 3rd visit - concern his ears weren’t clear and we were correct…no infection, but still fluid-filled and puss in his left ear and on his red, swollen tonsils. After this last visit, the hope is that he doesn’t get another infection before we go back to the ENT in a week and the ped said to get him in tubes. So, he goes on 5/17 (dual visit with Lauren, who also likely needs tubes, her 2nd set). I’m hoping we can get them scheduled for the tubes on 5/24, we’ll see. His next scheduled pediatrician appt is at 9 months.

stats

I have no idea how long he is, we should measure. But he weighs about 16.5 pounds at 8 months. He’s wearing 6-12 month clothes with plenty of growing room.

likes

To be outside. To play with toys of any kind or things he thinks are toys (especially remotes, a toy kitchen knife, balls, cell phones, anything he can carry around while crawling). To be carried in baby carriers (bjorn, hotsling, maya wrap, etc). His paci at night and in his carseat. His sister. Word World. Wonder Pets. Gilmore Girls (hehe). To crawl to Brody’s food as soon as we feed him and try to eat dog food. To crawl into the pantry if we leave one of the doors open. Giving us a devilish smile if we tell him “no” to something or to stop and get away from something. Playing with the Billy’s receiver buttons and volume dial. Swinging in his swing on the kids playground. Being tickled and thrown in the air (huge belly laughs!). Ice cream. Pulling up (he gets so proud of himself!) Baths in the big tub with Lauren. Taking medicine (he tries to grab Lauren’s out of my hands to take too!) Playing with Lauren.

dislikes

The first 2 seconds you put him in his carseat before he gets his paci. Having his nose wiped. Having his face wiped. The first 2 seconds you put him in his highchair before you start feeding him. Sitting still long enough to get his diaper/clothes changed (he’s so hard to change bc he’s so busy!! Lauren always just laid there and let us!). The first 2 seconds you put him in his crib before he realizes he’s tired and falls right asleep. Us not letting him play with the remote/cell phones. Meat. Puffs. Hats (he pulls them right off).

I’m thinking about his 1st birthday plans already…Lauren is voting for a “robot” first birthday. I think that could be really cute! Just trying to figure out how many parties to have (one here in KC and one in Wichita?) and when. We are leaving for Walt Disney World in late September for a week (will be gone over Lauren’s birthday), so his parties will be early September and hers will likely be 10/2…and we’ve been talking with some of our fav neighbors about having a joint bday party with their daughter (she’s 3 days younger than Lauren) and having a huge Disney princess party (which is what they both want) in the cul-de-sac with princess bounce house, hire a princess or two to come, etc. I think the girls would love it! It’s still a ways away. I need to think of all things robot (maybe!), before I start thinking princesses! His 1st birthday will be here before we know it!

Mason had a cold last week, requiring breathing treatments on the nebulizer…and we’re likely headed towards the dreaded “asthma” diagnosis with him. By Thursday he was running a fever and diagnosed with a double ear infection on Friday, worse on his left side (caught it on the onset, so not terrible, but started antibiotics after he wouldn’t nap, eat, etc). I was hoping to get him through the winter and him not need tubes until fall/winter (as it is a forgone conclusion at this point he’s getting them, we were just trying to wait it out until this winter). He has a follow-up at his ENT in 2 weeks at which point we’ll do a hearing test and tell his ENT we’re done and ready for tubes (she’ll do them whenever we throw in the towel).

Lauren of course caught his cold and by Sunday night, complained of ear pain at bath and then woke-up at 10pm screaming from the pain. After a long night of sleeping propped up with mommy and warm washcloths on her ear, we got her to the dr. this morning and she has a “raging ear infection” to quote her ped, in her left ear, right ear is clear. This is the ear that we had the tube removed from in November. At her post-op recheck at the end of January, she had fluid on both ears, so we have a 4 month recheck scheduled at the end of May, 3 weeks from today. Her ped recommended today that she get a second set of tubes…it’s only been 5 months since we removed the left one (the right one had fallen out sometime in the previous few months) and we can’t keep her ears clear.

So…I’m trying to get the kids appts moved to the same day with the ENT in the coming weeks and we’ll likely schedule them for surgery for the same day for tubes. Hopefully Lauren will be brave for her baby brother! Poor kid, I’m not looking forward to telling her she needs surgery again considering she still remembers last time just 5 short months ago. Oh well, they should be changed kids once they have tubes again, I know it made a world of difference for Lauren last time. Hopefully they stay in at least a year so we get the benefit over next winter.

One of Laruen’s fav books is a book by Dr. Seuss called Wacky Wednesday where everything is weird (the fish is fishing for a man, the stroller has feet instead of wheels, there are 2 suns in the sky, etc).

The wind is just insane today and since we live in a construction zone, and it was trash day, there was a bit of debris in the neighborhood tonight. We pull up and Lauren says mommy, there is a sign in our yard, and oh look a bag in our tree, and the patio chairs are blown over, and in complete seriousness she asks, is it Wacky Wednesday? lol