sneezes and stink face

Sorry about the messy face. He started doing his snorting in the middle of lunch and I just had to tape it.

7 months

Well Mason keeps on growing and learning new things. He recently started doing what I call "stink face". He wrinkles up his nose and starts snorting. Kind of like a rhino I guess. I still have to try to catch it on camera/video.

Enjoying the outdoors

See his teeth?Happy boy

This is his "determined to get something" look

Pearly whites

Two weeks ago Mason's first tooth broke through. Following very closely his second tooth broke through. My little monster now has two teeth - and he's not as much of a monster anymore. I'm not looking forward to all the other teeth that he's going to get eventually. His teeth aren't all the way out yet, but they're getting there. Getting pictures of a 6 month olds teeth is HARD work - but I was able to get a few.

Barely there

Look at his weird colored eyes

He's getting so big

Just like Daddy

For those who don't know, Chris is a landscaper and loves his tractor as well as his other machines. We went to Woodbury Tractor to get a part Chris needed and there was a mini tractor just like Chris'. Of course we had to take it home for Mason!

It is actually really well made. It's all metal with power steering and pedels for when he gets older.

mohawk baby

swinging Mason

A couple weeks ago we tried Mason in the swing. He wasn't so sure of it at first, but then he seemed to enjoy it. One day he was swinging for almost an hour!

First time swinging at Nonna & Grandpa's

I see a little smile

swinging at the park

puppy love

Mason loves his "big sister" Coors so much. Everytime she walks into the room he smiles and tries to reach for her. Unfortunately she doesn't feel the same way about Mason. She would rather be as far away from his as possible. However she wants to be near Mom and Dad so she ends up near the monster.

Something has caught their attention

gotcha!

6 month appointment and sleep issues

We had Mason's 6 month appointment today. I wanted a specific doctor who is always booked and that's why the appointment was 2 weeks after he turned 6 months.

He weighs 16 lbs 7 oz (although the nurse wrote down 4oz, but the scale said 7.2 to be exact). I am thrilled at his weight gain and have promised myself not to obsess over it anymore. I'm sure I'll find something else to obsess about. He's still in the 25th percentile for weight.

His length is 27.25 inches - still the 75th percentile. His head is down to the 5th percentile now (was at the 25th at birth and 10th at 4 month appointment) but the doctor and nurse didn't seem concerned. He's still growing so I guess that's good.

I had some issues about Mason's sleep that I brought up. I think I've mentioned in past posts that he was regressing. At 3 months I could put Mason in his crib and after fussing for a few minutes he would fall asleep. At 4 months he started becoming a lot more active and he would roll over and start screaming. I started swaddling him and then I would tuck another blanket into the crib so he couldn't roll around. At 6 1/2 months we're still doing this. You should've seen our pediatrician's face when I told her I was swaddling him. But hey, I did what I had to so he would sleep and I could sleep. Because of the way he acts when I put him in his crib without being swaddled I knew the only way to break the habit would be "cry it out" (CIO). Anyone that has kids knows how hard it is to listen to them cry. It just breaks my heart.

Most CIO advocates don't recommend using that method until at least 4 months, some say 6 months. I knew that 6 months was the earliest I wanted to do that. I bought Dr. Ferber's book Solve your Child's Sleep Problems but I haven't read it yet. I wanted to talk to M's pediatrician first and I'm going to try her method first (which seems very similar to Ferber from what I've heard about it).

She suggested starting with nap time. Give him a kiss and tell him it's time to go to sleep, put him in his crib and walk out of the room. Wait a couple minutes and if he's upset pick him up, tell him to calm down. Once he's calm tell him again it's time to go to sleep and leave. Extend each interval going in there and eventually he'll get so tired and fall asleep.

I decided to start with today. He was over tired after our appointment so when we got home I followed her instructions. I started with a couple minutes, then 5, 10 , 15 etc. I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but right at the end of the 20 minute interval HE FELL ASLEEP! No swaddle, no blankets - just him all by himself. I couldn't believe it. He only slept for an hour (his first nap of the day is usually about 2), but I will take what I can get. I'm NOT going to be swaddling my 5 year old. He needs to learn how to fall asleep on his own now so he will have good sleep habits as he gets older. Nap time rolled around again and it was feeding time so I nursed him (he fell asleep), put him in his crib where he fussed for a few seconds and then we fell back asleep. That nap was only 40ish minute. I'm hoping it works again tonight. I have a feeling I might be up a few more times than normal, but I figure I'll have a couple rough nights with him and then hopefully it's smooth sailing!

Proof of Mason sleeping w/o getting tied down:

Wow that was a long post. I usually don't write so much. I wonder if anyone actually got through it all, lol.

Fourth of July

I hope everyone had a great Fourth. We had a wonderful day. It's very rare that Chris has a whole weekend off and it was great being able to spend it with him. We went to Nonna & grandpa's for some swimming and then went to Mason's Godparents house for a BBQ in the afternoon.

I made my very first layer cake. It was a lemon cake with raspberry mousse filling and vanilla buttercream icing. The cake was out of a box, but I made the raspberry mousse and the icing from scratch. I want to play around with fondant but I was too scared this time around. Maybe my next cake.

Enjoying outside by the lake.

Having fun with Godfather Jim & Godfather Gary

Woody!! He loves dogs.