[Mason] 3.5 Years Old

Monday, February 1, 2016


My dear sweet boy, there is so much to say. Happy (belated) half birthday! I can't believe that I have had the pleasure of being your mom for 3 1/2 whole years now! You amaze me on a daily basis. I am constantly in awe of how much you know and how much you're learning.

You know how to count from 1 to 10 and even from 10 to 1. You can identify 11-15 if asked "i.e. Mason, show me number 12". You know all your (basic) shapes and all your (primary) colors. You know the ABCs in sign language and can say A, B, C, D, E, F, and Z out loud. Z (zeeee!) is by far your favorite letter and 10 (tehhhhh!) is by far your favorite number.

Everytime you see the iPad or want the iPad, you get so excited and yell "PAD!". You probably watch more iPad than you should, but every time I catch you on the iPad, you're watching a show about colors, numbers, or letters and I can see the wheels turning in your brain. You often know the color they are about to show before they even show it and can recognize and tell me all the numbers. You LOVE music and often dance along to whatever it on.

You are the most loving child and are constantly giving kisses, blowing kisses, and giving family hugs. You are a pure joy to be around.



Stats :

Height : I believe it was 43 inches (3 feet, 7 inches) at your developmental pediatrician appointment about a month ago.

Weight : 35-ish pounds

Size : You wear 4T t-shirts and sweatshirts as well as pants. The tops fit just fine, but it's the bottoms with the problem. You need a 4T for length (badly!) but are more of a 3T in the waist. I simply pull the pants in pretty much as small as they go and you're good to go though! You wear a size 9 in shoes (Converse mainly, but Toms and Natives too) and a size 3T-4T in pull ups. You are not potty trained yet, but we're working on it.

Potty Training : Speaking of potty training, the whole process is... going. You are way more inclined to go at school for some reason. I don't know if it is because they have ACTUAL small toilets (mini size adult ones) or what, but your teachers tell us that you're doing great at school. At home, we have a seat for the toilet and a little potty for the floor, but you just don't seem interested. You don't seem to notice yet when you're wet or dirty and to be honest, I'm not going to push it. I don't want you to feel like you're being punished by us making you sit on the toilet for a certain amount of time. If you're not ready that's fine. You'll let us know.

Sleep : You still go to bed around 8pm every night and wake up between 5:45am-6:30am. Thankfully the 5:45am wake up calls are on week days when your dad and I are already awake for work and the 6:30am (sometimes even 6:45am!) are on the weekends. You got a real big boy bed for Christmas and we finally set it up a couple weeks ago. You have been LOVING your new bed from day 1! During the week, you nap for 2 hours at school. And on the weekends, you nap anywhere between 2-4 hours.


Eat : You LOVE to eat. I don't think there is one food that we've found that you don't like. You'll eat anything at anytime... if you're in the mood. If you're not, then it's NO! NO! NO! while shaking your head at the same time.

For breakfast, you LOVE waffles. You literally have a blueberry Eggo waffle every morning unless something special is going on. You must see me blowing on the waffle to cool it off before I give it to you because whenever I hand you the waffle, you immediately blow on it too, to make sure it is cool enough. It is one of my favorite things!

If your dad makes pancakes for breakfast or if I make homemade (from a can) cinnamon rolls, you'll have some, but I still think you prefer your waffle. I let you have some of my raisin bran the other morning and to my surprise, you liked it! Oh, and you also love to steal my cinnamon raisin bagels too.


For lunch, most of the time (5 out of 7 days) you eat at school. They send home a calendar of meals for the month and there isn't anything on the list that I've heard that you don't like. There is no doubt in my mind that you go hungry at school. In fact, they say you are one of the best eaters and are always asking for extra snacks.

For snacks, you love goldfish (regular and pretzel), apple sauce, graham crackers, pretzel thins or pretzel sticks, Pirate's Booty, go-gurt, apples, veggie straws... you name it, you'll eat it.

For dinner, 99% of the time, you eat what we're eating. You love chicken, pasta, hamburgers, steak, and even some fish. You love asparagus, broccoli, carrots, olives, avocados, and red peppers. You also love strawberries and blueberries. And so much more!


Play : You're currently OBSESSED with cars! We got you some Hot Wheels cars for Christmas and you love to carry them around wherever you go and drive them on everything. You are also loving your scooter. The other day, we were having one of your home ABA sessions. The sessions are pretty structured for when you have play time, snack time, work with teacher, reading time, etc. You weren’t really too into the session that day and all of a sudden you got on your scooter and stood in front of the door. I asked if you wanted to go outside and ride your scooter and you yelled “YEAH!”. Thankfully your therapist was ok with deviating from the schedule and we took you across the street to the park. You scootered all the way there with a huge smile on your face. Once at the park, you slid down the slide, ran around, were a peeping tom under the shades of the basketball/tennis courts, and were SO interested in playing with the other kids. You pushed me on the merry-go-round/twirly thing and fell on the ground dramatically as if you were so tired. It was amazing.


Love : The word no. Riding your scooter. Playing with cars. YouTube Kids videos. Counting to 10 and saying the alphabet. Oh! And your BFF Logan. He is the only one that we can consistently get you to say that you love. "Do you want to go visit Logan?" "YEAH!!!!!!" Also, it's the sweetest and saddest thing that you both love playing so much that you both cry when it's time to leave.



Hate : You HATE getting your toe nails cut. It is like a constant battle. You've always hated this and I thought it would get better but it hasn't. You've come around and tolerate getting your finger nails cut, but you kick and scream when I try to cut your toe nails. I have to basically hold you down or if your dad is home, he has to MAJORLY distract you. Thankfully your toe nails grow slowly and I don't have to torture you that often. Other than that, you don't really hate anything!


Preschool : You go to preschool 5 days a week and are there pretty much from 8am-5pm everyday. I drop you off in the morning before I go to work and your dad picks you up after he's off work. Preschool is AMAZING for you. Your teachers LOVE and adore you and you've made so many friends. If seen such an improvement in your motor skills as well as social skills since you've been there for the past 1 1/2 years. You are the sweetest when we pick you up in the afternoon and you wave bye and say "byeeeee! see you!" to your friends when you leave. I 100% support our decision to leave you in private preschool again this year. You are thriving. We also enrolled you in the Webby Dance program on Friday mornings at school and you LOVE singing and dancing so much!


Autism Update : You still have 3 speech sessions a week and you are doing AMAZING in them! You have 2 - 1 hour sessions (1 on Monday and 1 on Wednesday) and then 1 - 30 minute individual session (on Friday). Your teachers adore you and you just got a certificate of achievement last week for improving so much! You also have 5 sessions of ABA therapy a week - 3 sessions at school for 3 hours each (on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday mornings), one at home for 2 hours (on Thursday nights) and 1 at the learning center for 5 hours (on Saturdays). It's a lot. It crushes me to lose such precious time with you on the weekend (since we already barely get to see each other during the week) but if losing 5 hours with you on Saturdays for a year (or however long it takes) is all it takes to make a huge difference in the future, I'd gladly make the decision again. It's only been since August and I've already seen HUGE improvements so I know we are making the right decision. 

I mentioned above that we had your developmental pediatrician check up a couple weeks ago. Your  developmental pediatrician is the one that diagnosed your autism and is the person that we go to check in with every 6 months to make sure you are progressing well (which you are!). On this particular appointment, we met your new doctor since your old one moved to Northern California last year August. We LOVE your new doctor. He seems great and you get along with him really well. The appointment was pretty fast, he asked us a bunch of questions to get you know you, and asked if your dad or I had any questions or concerns. For the most part, we are pleased with how well you are doing, but we had a few questions about the future and entering into public school when you're of kindergarten age that he helped your dad and I with.

Talking : Your speech has exploded recently! You have made GREAT strides in the past couple months with regards to talking. You are so much more vocal now even if you aren't specifically saying words. Most of the time the "words" are still undecipherable, but there are still a lot of words that you say that we know! You have your own way of saying the words (like juuu for juice and nah for banana) but you can say the following : numbers from one to ten, juice, mama, dada, papa, milk, hi, bye, see you, done, yeah, no, ball, pretty much all colors (red, green, blue, black, etc), up, down, stop, go, book, head, shoulders, knees, toes, shoes, pad, sit, more, there, tap, help, and many more! I am SO proud of you and can't wait to hear you talk more!

I can't believe we are just six short months away from you being FOUR years old. The time is just flying. Every day I get to spend with you is such a gift. Happy 3.5 years sweet boy!




24 comments:

  1. Happy 3.5 years to him - and you for being a mom!!

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  2. Cutest 3.5 year old out there! Tell him I love food too!! Glad to hear his sessions are going so well, Elizabeth!!

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  3. Happy 3.5 birthday! Yay for good eating!

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  4. I loved reading this post! I love his sweet smile. I am amazed at all the camera eye contact. It sounds like he is making great strides with his ABA therapy. That is SO exciting. And what a good little eater- that is a blessing for sure.
    Lia loves music and dance and yoga - I think there is something about the structure in dance and yoga she finds calming and so much fun to do. Music is such a great way for kids to express themselves too! We have so many dance and yoga DVD's she has loved learning and watching from. We found a ton on Ebay!
    Happy 3.5 BDAY Mason :)
    Ally

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  5. What a sweet boy! I LOVE LOVE LOVE hearing how well he's doing with Speech!!! Way to go, Mason!!! He is a TALL Boy!! Cam is 40", and I think HE was tall! And the potty...ugh...we are still in diapers, too. Cam HATES having his toe nails clipped, so I usually pick a day when he doesn't need to nap and give him the choice between napping or having his tow nails clipped. He always picks the latter, and he thinks he's gotten one over me by not napping. ;) Happy 1/2 birthday, Mason!! I have loved watching him grow and learn!

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  6. What a sweet & handsome boy! I wish there could be a pause button.

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  7. He's getting so big! As a teacher, myself, it makes me so happy to see an autistic preschooler thriving!

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  8. Aw, he's getting so big, and he's doing so well!!

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  9. Henry hated getting his nails cut... like full on fit for a long time... especially toes. Oh the joys! :)

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  10. Yay Mason! I love that he's making such great improvements in the speech department. You guys are all just doing an amazing job and Mason is thriving! What a little charmer and such a smartie! He seems like such a happy and fun kid.

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  11. Yay, Mason!! So glad to hear his speech is coming along :) That must be so nice for you!! He's so sweet, happy half birthday buddy! !

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  12. Happy 3.5 years Mason! And I agree, waffles are great and toe nail clippings are way less great haha

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  13. Happy Half Birthday! That's so great he's improving so much in this short period of time. That is a lot of sessions but definitely worth it! And Mason is tall too! Noah's real life friends seem so short lol

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  14. Happy half birthday mason!! His smile is just contagious! He and cam have a lot of similar loves. Cars being one of them! I'm so glad that you guys like his new pediatrician and you've seen so much progress. That's amazing! It's about about all of the time you loose with therapy but it'll only mean more time later. You go momma!!!

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  15. Sweetest boy! His smile is contagious!

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  16. I seriously love how happy & smiley he is! And yay for so much wonderful progress, especially in the speech department!

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  17. He is the sweetest, happiest 3.5 year old I know. I think we need a play date soon.
    I'm also insanely jealous of how well Mason eats and sleeps.
    And, I'm thrilled that he's thriving with his therapy! I was floored the last time we saw him with how great his speech has become.
    You're doing an amazing job, momma!!

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  18. This is so sweet and encouraging! Mason seems like such a sweet boy and his smile just makes me happy! It is great that he likes preschool so much, his school sounds amazing! Don't push the potty training, everyone learns after all, right? He sounds like Brielana, nary a food she has met that she hasn't liked haha.

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  19. Such a fun way to document Mason right now. Emily HATES getting her toes cut too, always has. He also weighs almost as much as she does... did I ever mention she's hallow ;). Happy half birtday Mason!

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  20. Such a fun way to document Mason right now. Emily HATES getting her toes cut too, always has. He also weighs almost as much as she does... did I ever mention she's hallow ;). Happy half birtday Mason!

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  21. What a sweet, sweet boy! And smart too. I love to see him on your snaps. He makes my heart happy with his great big smile. Happy half birthday Mason!!

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  22. I love hearing that all the time away from home in therapy is paying off! His speech is improving! Imagine the changes you'll see a year from now!
    And for comparison sake... Connor is 31 pounds and 3' 1". He is just the tiniest of things!

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  23. I feel like I'm really missing out in Mason's awesomeness. I want to hang out with him for just one day! He has gotten super tall too!

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  24. Such a sweet, sweet (adorable) boy!! :) What an exciting year already, he is doing so well!! Don't worry, we have the same issues with pants over here - skinny waist, LONG legs!! :)

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