11 months!

Wow! Mason, it's been almost a year since you've been born. I can hardly believe you are 11 months old already. Time is flying faster than I ever remember it with Allison and Preston.

Let's see what you've been up to this month.

• You are still wearing 12 month clothes. Some 12-18 month clothes and a few 18 month clothes. Nana and Aunt Cassie bought you tons of new clothes for Christmas, so you are set for awhile!
• Mason, you still only have 2 teeth, but they are not stopping you from trying and eating new foods.
• You had your first ear infection this past month and when you didn't seem to be getting better before New Years Eve, we took you back to the doctor and found out it had turned into two ear infections. They put you on a different antibiotic, which cleared up both ears a week later. Just like your older brother, Amoxocillan tastes good, but doesn't do anything for you.
• You are practically running now, forget walking. You are even walking better in shoes.
• You are in to everything even more. I have had to put outlet covers in all the outlets, which I NEVER had to do with your sister and brother. As a matter of fact, I still had the box of covers, unopened, from my baby shower for Allison. I think maybe because you are bored at home all day, you just have to get into it all!
• We celebrated your first Christmas and New Year this past month. You never messed with the Christmas tree and only got into the gifts once or twice, you just wanted to carry them around. On Christmas morning, you weren't really into opening your gifts. You liked playing with the paper and boxes, and liked sitting and walking on the boxes. We had to open all your gifts, your siblings didn't mind though! Hopefully by your birthday next month you will be ready to tear into the paper!
• You will NOT eat baby food anymore. Maybe a few bites, but that's it. You want to feed yourself and we're having a hard time finding things that you will eat, mainly because of textures I think. But, you do eat scrambled eggs, toast, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit loops, cheerios, and a few other things. You love spaghetti, but can't feed it to yourself just yet, it's hard to pick up. You also still love mashed potatoes, and will let me feed those to you. You are also still eating yogurt and pudding. Today we tried chicken noodle soup with curly noodles so you could pick them up and you did like that, so maybe we found something else for you to eat.
• You have found your voice; you babble ALL the time, but not only that, you have started screaming (shrieking actually) all the time. Not in anger, but just screaming. You do scream when you are mad, but mostly you just scream because you are happy or trying to keep up with your siblings or trying to get someones attention, it's so high pitched that sometimes we just have to leave the room to get a break. ha!
• You have still been having trouble sleeping at night. You usually wake up screaming and the only way I can get you back to sleep it to pick you up and take you into our bed. Once you finally fall back asleep, I usually carry you back to your bed and there you stay until the morning. Once in awhile you will sleep through the night again, and a few times you wouldn't go back to sleep until I fed you a bottle. So, either you are growing or not getting enough to eat before bed, not sure which, but it's been like this since your ear infection. Hopefully it's just a phase and you will outgrow it soon, I do miss my sleep!
• You still have your big beautiful blue eyes and gorgeous dimple in your left cheek. I think (and hope) they are both here to stay forever.

Mason, next month we will be celebrating your first birthday and I still just can't believe it. We are starting to plan your party and think about how to celebrate your first year of life. You have brought so much joy into the hearts of all of us; especially your siblings who, some days, can't stop kissing you and loving on you. I can't imagine my life without you. I knew having 3 kids would be a lot of work, and exhausting, but didn't ever think about how much happiness it would bring to all of us. It definitely outweighs any negative worries we may have. I never really even complain when you are up all night or sleeping with us in our bed because I know all too soon you will be running around and not needing all the cuddles I can give you.

Happy 11 month birthday sweet boy, I love you!

See those two teeth on bottom?!