6 Months

It has been a while since I last posted about Mason so I have LOTS of updates. I know that I say each month is exciting, but this past month has probably been my favorite. He has growing up so much and each day does something new that makes me laugh. Here are his 6 month updates:

~Weight: 23.3 lbs (99.5%)
~Height: 28 in (95%)
~has 3 bottles/day
~ started eating solid food! YAY! Eats oatmeal, rice, sweet potatoes, and pears..loves them all!
~sleeps from about 715-645 and naps 2/day for 2 hrs

Mason has had quite a first firsts this month. He went down to Auburn for his first football game. I had to work all holiday weekend, so Kyle and Mason had some father-son bonding while they were in Auburn. He went downtown and saw Toomer's Corner and saw the stadium  and got to witness the excitement of football in the south. Of course, he only lasted a short while since he missed his morning nap, but we (Kyle mostly) were so excited to show him what he will get to look forward to in the upcoming years on Saturday's. Since I wasn't there, NO pictures were taken of this monumentous moment (I made sure to tell Kyle "MAKE SURE YOU TAKE PICTURES".... I look at my camera when he gets home..not a ONE!) When we go down in a couple weeks we will relive it over again and definately get pictures this time.  Mason also got to meet Kyle's grandmother, Mama Nell...such a sweet experience for a great grandmother to meet their great grandson. Again, I have no pictures of this sweet moment either.

While Mason may not be crawling yet, he finds a way to get into everything. I have started taking pictures of all the things he manages to get into while in his walker. It's like babies just know what they SHOULDN'T go after and go straight for those things. Ex: Electrical Outlets

He has also taken a love to dishwashers. Every morning when I unload the dishwasher (yes, we run it nearly every single day) I let him play in the bottom of it. I thought surely there was no way that he could reach the utensils..wrong. I turn my back for one second and he has a knife in his hand. It's true what they say...you can literally turn your back for one minute and babies are getting into something.

His third love: the diaper bag. The same day that I turned around and he had a knife in his hand he also managed to take everything out of the diaper bag and throw it on the floor. He had a diaper in his mouth... at least it was clean.

While Mason lovse all of these things, his most favorite thing to play with would have to be Cali. He is mesmorized by her. He gets in his walker and follows her around the house...unfortunately Cali doesn't share the same affection for Mason and often runs from him. We are working on the brother-sister love.

Unfortunately Mason also experienced his first time being sick. Your baby being sick is probably the hardest thing for a mom to go through. Hearing your baby cry and knowing there is nothing you can do to make it better is absolutely aweful. Waking up 3-4 times in the night isn't much fun either. I took him to the Pediatrician Saturday morning and found out that he has Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. It's a virus that manifests itself in a rash that forms all over their hands, legs, and mouth (as you can tell by the name). Since it is a virus there is nothing to give them to make it better, so we lived on Motrin every 6 hrs for nearly a week. I am so happy to say that he is finally back to his happy, playful self.

Mason is such a great eater! I read online that babies may only eat a couple bites when introducing a new food. Oh no, not my child. He would eat until I stopped feeding him. He eats oatmeal and pears for breakfast, sweet potatoes for lunch, and rice for dinner. I can't wait to start introducing new foods and watch his facial expressions when he eats them for the first time.

Eating sweet potatoes for the first time

This was the same day that he had the knife in his hand and took everything out of the diaper bag. As you may imagine, I was exhausted by the end of this day.

Go Go feeding him more potatoes

I think that is about it for this past month. We continue to do well and feel so blessed every day with our little man.

Family Firsts Part 3

Family photos have never gone well in our family. Whether it's deciding what to wear, what time to take the pictures, or all the girls (mostly me) being mad because it will make our hair frizzy before dinner... it's usually a disaster. So, adding 3 babies to the mix was certain to turn out aweful...right? This year we planned...and luckily it turned out great. We decided what we were wearing a week before we ever left and put the pictures off until the last night we were there..just in case it didnt go well. The babies did awesome, and more importantly the adults were all patient.

Gramps and Go Go with the grandchildren

The girls

                      

Hea and Jay with their beautiful baby girls

                           

The boys

Siblings

                             

Group photo

                    

Poor Em was feeling a little under the weather before pictures, so Kyle and I decided we would use that time to get some pictures of just our little family. One of the fun things about boys is dressing them like their daddy, so before the trip we, of course, got matching navy polos for the boys. The condo we stayed at has a gorgeous fountain at the entrance that I had been eyeing for pictures since day one.

There always has to be a teaching moment between Kyle and Mason...especially when it comes to sports

  

 

 

Go Go loves Mason

Mason with Uncle Bobby

Gramps with Mason

Well I guess that's the end of Mason's first trip to the beach. We had a great time and can't wait to go back again soon. Hopefully next time Mason will like the ocean a little more! Thanks, Gramps and Go for a great trip!

Family First Part 2

The next days of the beach vacation were spent relaxing by the pool, eating GREAT food, and...of course taking lots more photos. Since we had all the babies this year, we tried cooking in more instead of going out to eat. This is a change for us as we are usually way too lazy to cook on family vacations. It actually turned out great... the babies were happy which means mom and dad are happy! Going to the beach is never complete until you have spent a day at the outlet mall. The boys were kind enough to watch the babies while the women went shopping...ALL day long! I know that I have entered parenthood when I would rather spend all my time/money in the children's outlet stores rather than J.Crew, Ann Taylor, Polo, Michael Kors, Coach, etc... We tried to have a fashion show with the babies in their new clothes. However,they had other plans

I was so excited to take Mason to see the ocean and sand for the first time. I grew up LOVING the ocean and I want him to love it just as much. Getting to the beach is no easy task. We had so much stuff... 3/4 of it we didn't need but of course I had to take it JUST in case. Luckily, we had plenty of hands to help out. I wondered how Mason would like the ocean.... would he love the water and sounds of the waves or would he hate being so hot and not able to get in the water like he could at the pool? Would he try to eat the sand like he does everything else? Or would he just fall asleep and not care at all? Well, a little bit of all of this occured. He didn't mind the water, except when one of those really big waves came and knocked him in the face. He didn't seem to care about the sand yet, but luckily he did NOT try to eat it (as you know Kyle and and I can't stand dirty messes, especially on Mason). After about 30 minutes all the babies decided they were hot and tired and didn't care to be at the ocean anymore. After all that time packing up and walking down the ridiculously long boardwalk, we headed back to the room. Mason was exhausted from this new experience and fell sound asleep.

 Maggie had mixed feelings about the ocean.

 Kyle with Mags after we got back in the room.

We had a great day, but I think we will wait until next year to take the babies back to the ocean. Maybe when they can walk around and sit up on their own (Mason) they will like it more!

The next big venture...taking family photos. This has NEVER gone well with our family...even before babies came into the picture. I will save that for Part 3.