Crazy little man!

Mason seems to be getting a bigger personality each day! His new favorite thing is to "talk" to us in a high pitched babble/scream/shrieking voice. He practiced this yesterday on every aisle of Hobby Lobby and drew quite a bit of attention though I am not sure if it was all good attention! His other new trick is waving! He seems to really be getting the hang of it and waves to anything he sees whether or not it will wave back. This includes but is not limited to Lola the cat, the people on TV, strangers at restaurants, his favorite toys and his highchair. We managed to get a video of him waving last night that I'm posting below. Just an fyi....I know it is freezing outside and I know Mason is not wearing clothes. This was his choice not ours! Lately, the minute I get his diaper off, he rolls over and takes off! We were lucky to even get a diaper on him for this video...there was no hope of getting pajamas on this rolly polly!

We had a good weekend with you buddy!

Mason-

Dad again! I sure enjoyed spending the last 2 1/2 days with you.

Yesterday we went to your cousin Liev's first birthday party at his other grandparents' house. It sure was fun! You wanted to open some presents but your birthday is still two and a half months away! We will have a birthday party then. You didn't cry though! You were really good. You had a great time with your cousins and other family.

You are starting to stand on your own! Yesterday you stood up for about 30 seconds and then sat down on your own. You are a really happy little guy. Often you will go a whole day without really crying. You always smile back at your mom and I when we smile at you. You are crawling all over the place! Last night your mom and I were talking and you disappeared! We found you in the downstairs bathroom! You had crawled in there even though it was dark. We think you might have been trying to find your playroom, which is the next room down. I helped you find the playroom afterwards.

Saturday night we took you to the play area at the Willow Bend Mall in Plano. Your mommy had already taken you a few days before. You really like that place! Everything is soft so even if you fall you don't get hurt. You made friends with a little boy who was a little older than you. You kept going up to him and grabbing his arm. After you did this several times, he ran up and gave you a bear hug. It scared you a little bit and you started to cry.

You sure want to start talking! You make these high-pitched shrieking sounds, especially when Lola is around! They are happy noises. You also say "da-da-da-da-da" quite a bit. I like to think that you are talking to me, but you also do it when I'm not around. Maybe you just miss your old man.

Dad's first post

Jared here! I am not the writer that Laura is! But I do want to start writing down some things about our wonderful experience raising Mason. I want to write it to Mason, so we can tell him all about it later!

Mason, here are just a few things we love about you.

The way you get so excited and happy when the wind hits your face. Your face lights up so much and you crinkle your nose. Almost as if by feeling the greatness of the air hitting your skin, you were getting away with something you weren't supposed to!

The way it only took a short walk to see Lola in the other room last night to soothe you and you stopped crying immediately. Might you feel perhaps that Lola is the only one who understands your nocturnal behavior?

The way you fall asleep on my chest at night. I consider it the best part of my day!

The way you laugh at us when we make fools of ourselves to humor you. When your face lights up, it brightens the entire room.

The way you love outings. You seem to think that we are nice enough to go the grocery store simply to amuse you. You love looking around at new sights.

The way you seem to be drawn to music. You even smile and rock back and forth to some songs! We are certain that it's your way of dancing.

The way you always have to be holding something. You can be in the crib crying your eyes out as you fight falling to sleep, yet you will hold a toy in each and with a fierce grip as you lean on the crib rail to stand up.

The way you stop to show us a little love. You can be quickly crawling from one toy to another in your playroom, as if there is not enough time to get in all the playing you want to do -- yet you will crawl over us and laugh, as if you are intentionally taking that route accross the room just to say hi.

The way you nudge your head onto ours. Often when one of us is holding you, you will get excited and press your forehead into ours. It's a great feeling.

The way you have motivated me to be a better person! It's such a great honor to know that you will grow up calling me "Dad". It makes me want to improve, to make myself more worthy of that responsibility.

Anyway, sorry to get so serious! These are all true accounts though and I am so grateful! You also couldn't ask for a better Mommy.

Love, Dad

Not MY child!

My child is a perfect, calm, well behaved 9 month old who ALWAYS listens and does what he is told. So that means that my child would never....

Torment our poor cat by speed crawling up to her, laughing as hard as he can and promptly yanking her tail then laughing even harder while still holding her tail and trying to eat the fur he pulled out....nope he would never do that.

He would never take a bite out of a shoe box the second I turn my head then try to eat the cardboard and cry when I take it out of his mouth. I'm sure that was a mouse who caused the gaping whole in the box, not my child.

He would definitely never escape to the stairs any chance he gets and try to climb them without me looking. Climbing must scare babies so I am sure Mason would never do that!

He loves having his diaper changed so I'm sure he would never roll over mid diaper change and crawl away laughing wearing only his socks causing me to chase him to a different room.

He loves vegetables and would never turn his head away from them and refuse to eat them but grunt and babble loudly for a bite of my cookie. I'm sure that wasn't my child.

And he especially would never ever sneak up behind me while I am putting clothes in the washer, grab a handful of cat food and try to eat it! Well, maybe it was him but I am sure he just thought it was vegetables!

Snow Snow Everywhere!

In the last 24 hours, Dallas has had 12 inches of snow! That's more snow than we have ever had in this area! It's unbelievable to look outside and see everything coated in beautiful powdery snow! I'm not at all a cold weather person but I have to say that I love this snow! It's just cold enough outside to make the snow stick but just warm enough that you can actually enjoy being out in it! We only wish that Mason was actually old enough to enjoy this weather! I'm sure if this was happening next year, he would be begging to go outside and play! This morning we went out and took some pictures to remember this crazy weather!

9 months!

Today is Mason's 9 month birthday! I can't believe that he will be ONE in three months! It is so crazy how fast time flies!

Here is what Mason is up to this month!

He weighs 19.9 pounds (32% percentile)

He is 30 inches long (92% percentile)

He is tall and skinny! It seems like every time we go to the doctor the percentile for his weight gets lower and his height gets higher...according to his doctor its totally normal for babies to not gain weight as rapidly at this age because they are so active!

He still eats a few types of baby food but is mostly on table food now! Some of his favorite things are guacamole, yogurt, cheese and pasta with marina sauce!

He is officially crawling! He also "walks" by cruising around to different pieces of furniture.

He has started waving! It's so cute to see him really interact with us.!

He still loves all animals, especially Lola, our cat.

He is sleeping great at night. He normally goes to bed around 8 and sleeps until 7! It's so nice for everyone to finally be getting a full nights sleep!

He has six teeth with two more coming in!

He has started dancing whenever he hears music. He will bounce up and down to the beat.....it's definitely one of the cutest/funniest things I have seen him do.

He loves to be out and about! I think he could sit in the Target shopping cart all day and be perfectly content. He is so amused just watching what's going on around him.

I can't wait to continue to watch him grow each month. It seems like he is doing something new every day and just growing up before our eyes!

He's finally decided to give it a try!

Mason has finally started crawling! I have to admit I never thought I would see this day come. He just didn't seem to have any interest in learning how. At six months, Mason started army crawling and from that he learned how to pull himself up and walk holding on to furniture. He got so good at this that I figured he just didn't think he needed to crawl. Well, much to my surprise on the week of his 9 month birthday he has decided to give it a try! It's so cute to watch because he still isn't quite sure what to think of the whole process. He will pat his hand on the ground really loudly as if he is making sure its safe, then take one step then pat the other hand on the ground and so on. It's so fun to watch how proud he is of himself for his new accomplishment! Here's a little video of Mason on the move.