Weekend Adventures at GiGi and Pop's!

Mason had his first ride on Poppa's tractor this past weekend. We were not sure if he would be scared of it or not but decided to give it a try. As you can see, he sat in my dad's lap and did great. His cousins, Joshua and Sydney came along for the ride as well. My dad always looks forward to riding the grandkids on his tractor.

My mom was getting ready to fix fried squash for dinner and decided to give Mason a sqaush to hold. As he does with everything these days, put it right in his mouth. He began sucking and chewing on it and loved it. He played with it for 20 minutes or longer. Later that night, we gave him so stewed squash for dinner and he ate 2 bowls full. He must have thought it was yummy!

We got home in time to get to see Momma Hester. She has only gotten to see Mason one time since he was born. Momma Hester is like a second mother to me. She has been with our family for 41 years. She began keeping my older sister Sherri when she was six weeks old and continued to keep all four of us. It was great to see her and spend some time with her. We love you Momma Hester!!

Mason has become quite the little camera ham! Every time I get my camera out he makes the biggest cheeziest smiles. It is hilarious. As you can see in the picture to the right, my mom found it quite funny as well. Both GiGi and Mason are two big cheeze balls in this picture!

Sydney loves to hold Mason. Every chance she gets she is saying, "Kimmie, can I hold Mason?" In this picture, he looks as big as she does! It is going to be fun watching Mason grow up with his cousins!

Even though we had to leave a day early since Mason started getting sick again, we still had a great time at GiGi and Poppa's. We wish they lived a lot closer so we could be able to see them more often. Hopefully, we will be able to get home sooner next time. We love all of you very much.

Until next time....

What has Mason been up to lately??

There has been a lot going on with Mr. Mason these days. My favorite thing that he has just started doing is saying Ma Ma. He has said it a couple times before but now he is saying it all the time. He is much more intentional with it now and knows that ma ma is me. Yeah!!!! Hearing him say it makes me smile every time.

Within the last week or so, he has been doing a lot more cruising around. He can get around really well and is getting faster and faster. He walks around the coffee table and will let go of it to get to the couch and love seat. Unfortunately, he has found the stairs and has attempted to climb them a couple of times. We know it is time for a gate but haven't found one that will work with our stairs yet. He has also learned how to control his musical walker and can get anywhere in the house that he wants to go with it. I will not be surprised if he is walking on his own within the next month.

Over the past two weeks or so Mason has been trying to cut his front two teeth. We could tell it was time since he started chewing on anything and everything he could get in his mouth. He has had a bit more trouble with these two than he did with the first two that came in on the bottom. His gums were really red and swollen this time and he was much fussier than normal. I just noticed today that they are almost through the gum line. I can see them but can't quite feel them yet. It won't be long.

Mason has almost mastered drinking out of his sippy cup. He is getting where he prefers drinking from it instead of drinking his bottles. I guess we should probably try to transition him completely to the cup within the next couple of weeks. I don't foresee it being an issue during the day but it may be an issue with the night time bottle. Well, it will probably be more of an issue for me than for him since I love cuddling with him and giving him his bottle at bedtime. That will be just another reminder that my baby is growing up. :-(

We have also been working on saying and waving bye bye. He has almost gotten both of them down. He will wave his little hand backwards of course, smile and say bye bye. He is so cute when he does it too. I am also trying to teach him to blow kisses.

Gosh there is so much more that he is doing or is in the process of learning to do but I'll end now or else this post is going to be way too long. Not sure why I am worried about how long it will be. No one reads my blog anyway so it shouldn't matter to anyone but me!!!

Until next time.....

Our 9th Anniversary

Happy 9th Anniversary, Dawn. I love looking back to where we began, seeing us as we were at the beginning, then slowly leafing through the memories we've made together to bring us where we are today. I love anticipating the days ahead of us, wondering what we'll find in each other, in ourselves before another year has slipped away. But best of all, I love being with you where we are today, together writing the pages we'll remember tomorrow!

I LOVE YOU!

My 1st Mother's Day

Today was my first Mother's Day. I thought for a long time that I would never be able to celebrate this day as a mother myself. Thank God that he has blessed me with a healthy baby boy and I can celebrate the joys of being a mom with all of the other special women out there. Mason woke up extra early to tell me Happy Mother's Day. He must have excited because by 5:30 he was ready to start his day. Mommy was not but didn't have much of a choice. Unfortunately, Mason has been running a fever for the past two days so I was worried he may still have a fever so I got up as soon as I heard him. After checking his fever and feeding him a bottle, we spent a little mommy and Mason time laying in the bed upstairs just enjoying our time together waiting on MiMi to wake up so we could open our Mother's Day gifts.

Finally MiMi woke up and we got to open presents. Mason got MiMi a new watch, a CD, a carwash and as a joke a work out video! Mason got mommy two new pairs of earrings and an awesome card that is also a photo frame. It said,

Happy First Mother's Day, Mommy

My mommy is so special 'cause she keeps me safe and sound.
And I always feel so warm and loved whenever she's around.
My mommy is so special 'cause she makes life good for me -
I'm so lucky that my mommy is the best that there could be!

I Love My Mommy!

Until next time...

Happy 9 Month Birthday Mason!

Today, Mason is 9 months old. I am just amazed at how quickly it is passing by. It seems like yesterday that we were just bringing home our 7lb, 12oz tiny, baby boy. Of course, he will always be my baby boy but he isn’t quite so “tiny” any more. He currently weighs in at 21lbs, 5oz and has grown 8 1/4 inches!!

Mason is doing really well. He is healthy, minus the typical colds, ear infections and junk they get from daycare and exposure to germs and such. He is sleeping eleven to twelve hours every night. He has two teeth so far. He is trying really hard to walk and is just an amazing little guy!

He is such a joy and is so much fun! While he has been fun all along, the age and stage that he is currently at right now is the best so far. He is totally interested in everything. His favorite toys these days are his farm and Little Tykes laptop that his Gi Gi gave him, his glow baby that his Nana gave him and his musical walker thing that his Aunt Stacey gave him. He is also just as content playing with a cardboard box or a plastic water bottle. Anything goes these days.

During the first couple months of the dreadful sleep deprivation, there were many times when I wished he was older so he would sleep better and that he would be more capable of doing things on his own then most always I would hear the song, “You’re Gonna Miss This” by Trace Atkins and realize that I should slow down and take every second in because time was going to fly by. It didn’t seem like it then but boy do I see it now!

The chorus of the song is what spoke to me the most. Here it is in case you aren’t familiar with it.

You're gonna miss this
You're gonna want this back
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast
These Are Some Good Times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna miss this

Until next time…..

Our Baseball Outing

Today we took Mason to his first baseball game. It wasn't the major leagues but it was a group of 4, 5 and 6 year olds dreaming to one day make it to the big league.

It was our nephew, Joshua's baseball game. He loves baseball. He was so cute out there in his Crimson Tide uniform playing third base. He played really well. Got a few hits and even stopped several grounders. It was great watching him play. It was even better when the game was over and he came running over to where we were and said, "Guess who won? We did. We won the game," he exclaimed with a huge smile on his face!

I am looking forward to when Mason will be playing sports. Of course we will start out playing YMCA sports. The YMCA philosophy is centered on participation and FUNdamentals where everyone plays, everyone wins! Then once he gets several years under his belt playing, we will move to the more competitive leagues because I know Mason will be a super athlete. Why wouldn't he? I was once a good athlete so I am certain he will be!! :-) I really want Mason to like sports. I will try very hard to let him choose what he is interested in but you can bet I will be hoping he plays baseball and/or basketball as those are my two favorite sports!

Check back with us in several years to find out which sport he chooses.

Until next time.....

Kim