[Mason] 18 Months Old.

I can hardly believe that... Mason turned 18 months old on Saturday!

Stats :

- Height and weight - we won't know until his 18 months check up on January 31st.

Wears :

- size 4 diapers

- size 12-18 month pants - the length is getting a little short on some, but the waist is perfect

- size 12-18 month and 18-24 month shirts depending on the brand

- size 6 in Stride Rite shoes

Eats :

We have been blessed with a kid that will eat almost anything. Seriously, the kid loves to eat. That being said, he will also let you know if he doesn't want what you give him. Be either straight up spitting it out after you put it in his mouth or by faking you out making you think he is picking it up to put it in his mouth and then he will throw it on the floor.

His favorite things are : pasta, turkey/ham, string cheese, pirates booty, goldfish, yogurt, apple sauce, sweet potatoes, edamame, chicken nuggets, avocado, and mac and cheese.

He can be totally done eating his own food and then sees someone else eating and then is hungry all over again. Seth and I will feed him breakfast on the weekends and then sit down ourselves and he comes over, grabs our plates to see what we are eating and basically begs to have some of our food...even if it is the exact same thing he just finished eating. He does the same thing at daycare too!

Drinks :

Everything! Seriously. I think he would if we left him. He loves milk and water. He loves to sneak some of mommy's Starbucks black iced tea and passion tea. And he LOVES to drink out of my mason jar tumbler. I swear he drinks more water out of my cups than his own. He's also snuck a sip of lemonade from his cousin, Addison's, cup at daycare and LOVED it.

Sleeps :

His sleep is actually pretty good! We are so lucky! He goes down easily at night for bedtime and usually sleeps straight from 8pm-ish to 6am or 7am. However, I think we have hit that sleep regression that people talk about at 18 months. Mason has recently been waking up at night around 1am or 3am crying. For no real reason. In fact, last night he woke up at 1am with a little whine. I checked the monitor and he was fine so I went back to sleep. Then cry. Nothing. Cry. Nothing. Cry. Nothing. And on an on for what seemed like an eternity but was probably 10 minutes. I knew he was fine, so I left him alone since he wasn't really crying. I'm hoping this ends soon because the amount of times I wake up in the middle of the night seems like I have a newborn all over again.

That being said, we are definitely not headed towards a big boy bed anytime soon! This kid is the craziest sleeper ever and would probably fall out of bed and we would find him across the room in the morning.

Please see the picture above. This was all one night!

Says :

Not much... I haven't really talked about this on the blog at all, but he is behind on his speech. He recently has gotten more of a voice but still does not say any noticeable words yet. I know he does understand what we say because he will look at me when I asked him to, he will come to us if we ask him too, he laughs when Mickey says something funny on tv, he will get things if you ask him to, and he will shake his head no when he doesn't want to do something, He is the MASTER of the head shake. No. No. No. I'm not really sure where he got this from since we do say no, but we don't shake our head at him. I am trying to teach him that shaking his head no is bad and to shake his head yes, it is actually pretty funny and pretty appropriate when he does it.

Mason, give nanny a kiss. Shakes his head no. Mason, please? Shakes his head no.

Mason, should mommy go to work tomorrow? Shakes his head no.

Our neighbor asked "Mason, did you cry when you fell and hit your head?" Shakes his head no.

Mason, it's time for bed. Shakes his head no.

Does :

- This kid seriously gives the BEST hugs now! And it melts my heart. Before bed, right after story time, I will turn Mason around and say "hug" (sometimes I don't even need to say it) and he will give the BIGGEST hug. Like putting his head down on my shoulder and putting his arms around you hug. It is the absolute BEST!

- Mason was a late walker and only really started walking by himself 1-2 months ago. He would walk holding our hand but wouldn't want to walk by himself. At daycare Luz would practice with him and he would just cry and cry and cry. Then, one day, he just got it! And he looked SO PROUD of himself. It was the best feeling. Now the kid can't walk everywhere fast enough!

- He loves to climb on everything!
- He is very good at helping to get himself dressed.
- The poor kid got his first big owie the other day... a huge goose egg on his head! He cried for a minute and then was back to playing.

Loves :

- Carousels!
- Brushing his teeth (though I think he likes sucking on the toothbrush more than the actual tooth brushing) and holding mommy or daddy's toothpaste while we brush his teeth.
- Bath time! As well as splash time.

- Throwing his water/milk cup on the floor....
....by "accident" or on purpose sometimes. I swear he will look right at me, pick it up, hold it over the edge and just drop it.
....and then get a HUGE smile on his face. Stinker!
- The swings and the slides at the park.
- Dumping all the food from his tray on the floor (he did this for like a month straight but it has gotten better).
- Tearing his train table apart
- BUBBLES!
- Throwing all the books from the bookshelf on to the floor.
- Story time before bed and helping to turn the pages.
- Crawling up the stairs by himself or walking up with help
- Getting into trouble! And getting in the dishwasher.

Hates :

- Getting his nails cut - but! This is getting better! If I can distract him with an episode of Mickey Mouse, he will sit still long enough for me to cut his finger nails without pulling his fingers away every 2 seconds. Also, on a good day, he will let me cut his toe nails without shaking his foot and pulling it away as well.
- Getting his nose blown/sucked. We got a NoseFrieda a year-ish ago and it's made an amazing difference. Mason still hates it but it makes it easier for Seth and I.
- Hates wearing sunglasses or hats. But loves to rip the sunglasses off his face (or anyone else's for that matter) and put them in his mouth!

This is such a fun age! We just love our little man so much and can't wait to see him learn and grow more!

We love you Mason! Happy 18 months!

All our love, Mommy and Daddy

Weekend(s) recap through pictures.

First of all, I would like to say a HUGE thank you to Tara from A Tale of Four Maples, Kate from Sokolewicz Family, Meghan from The Adventure Starts Here, Amy from Happily Hello, Suzie, and Kary from Always Painted, Usually Chipped. Thank you all for contributing to my Boy Mom series! I can't thank you enough for sharing your stories with me and the blogosphere. I really enjoyed reading all the stories!

Stay tuned on Mondays for more boy mom stories!

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With all the excitement of the boy mom series, I haven't shared any of my own news! 

Last weekend we had a fun and productive weekend! Friday night was a lazy night and was spent having fun in the bath.

Mom! I'm ready!

Then on Saturday, we went to our friends Matt and Lorraine's house to celebrate their daughter Lily's 4th birthday. The theme of the party was "sprinkles" and Lorraine did a great job with the theme! I had just gotten off of working for 8 hours on a Saturday so it was really nice to go over to someone else's house and just have fun.

Lorraine made a cute happy birthday banner // sprinkle garland hanging on the bathroom mirror

sprinkle oreos // sprinkle nutella fudge balls // caramel covered apple popsicles 

Mason had fun playing with the toys and balloons and had fun climbing the stairs.

I had fun chasing him!

Colored spaghetti for dinner for the kids!

Mason especially loved the bread.

That's my boy! 

Birthday girl and dessert time 

He wasn't so sure about the rainbow colored oreo...

...but once he tasted it, he quickly remembered he liked them. 

Saturday night was a rough night as Mason woke up at 3am crying. And it lasted until 4am. Every time Seth or I would take him out of his crib to console him and rock him, he would calm down, but immediately started crying hysterically when we would put him back in the crib. So... blankets and pillows on the floor and we both slept in his room. It may not be comfortable to us, but it is comforting to him. I've done it once before and believe it or not, it calms him down. I rub his back or his head and tell him that we are here and that we are all going to go to sleep together and he lays down, on the side closest to me, and calms down and eventually falls asleep. It is seriously the sweetest thing.

Miraculously we all got to sleep in until 9am... only that sleeping in came with the shock that it was 9am! Mason NEVER sleeps that late and we had booked a hair cut for him at 10am (it had been 2 months since his last one!) so it required some quick moving on our part. We decided that Seth would get ready and I would feed Mason breakfast and then he would take him to the hair cut appointment and I would stay home and clean. Now, obviously Seth got the better end of the deal, but cleaning needed to happen. Bad. I've been having to work Saturdays (in addition to Monday-Friday) for a month-ish now and cleaning had been put on the back burner since we have other weekend chores that have to be done every weekend (like laundry, grocery shopping, etc.).

This weekend was a different story all together. This past weekend was Mommy/Mason weekend and it was just what I needed!

Friday night Seth was still home but we spent the night eating take out sushi and just hanging out and enjoying the weekend. Mason enjoyed drinking out of my mason jar tumbler...

...and mastering the art of the selfie.

(and the droolie!) 

Then Saturday started our weekend together. Seth works at the swap meet selling tickets in the ticket booth about seven times a year. His dad has worked there for years and years and Seth has been working there for a while now too. Basically he works from 5am-2pm selling tickets to the Pomona Swap Meet and gets paid a good amount of money for doing so. I did it for a while too, but when I got pregnant with Mason, I stopped. Seth continues to do it though and it provides us with some extra money throughout the year. recently he started working both Saturday and Sunday which gives me some extra time with my boy.

We started Saturday off by eating breakfast, watching cartoons, and then lots of playing. We also celebrated his 18 months birthday! I bought him a Citrus Lane box subscription back in December for Christmas and his first box arrived on Wednesday but I saved it until the weekend for his half birthday (more on the box later).

We had lunch and then it was time for Mason's nap.

And mommy's afternoon coffee. 

Mason slept for 3 HOURS (!!!), ate a snack, and then we headed off to the grocery store to get some stuff for dinner. I decided that I would cook (which, for those of you who know me, know this happens rarely if ever). I've made my mom's meatloaf for Seth once before and he loved it so I decided to surprise him by making it for dinner since he was at work all day. Even Mason loved it!

Then I attempted to take an 18 month picture of him. Which he was having none of. I think the last time I actually got a good, cooperative monthly photo of him was 6 months lol.

Moooooooom! No more pictures please... 

Sunday was spent sleeping in until 7am, running errands, monkeying around, and taking pictures.

Someone dropped his toy in the sink and decided he would try to get it himself...

Love, love, love this boy! 

We've been having some great weekends over here and hope you have too!

Happy Tuesday!

[BOY MOMS] Kary from Always Painted, Usually Chipped

On Mondays we wear blue…and green and grey and lumberjack plaid and stripes. My boy and I wear a lot of stripes!

Hi, I’m Kary and I blog over at Always Painted, Usually Chipped (although since having my son, the name should probably be changed to Rarely Painted, Often Chipped). I am a boy mom and I love it!

When I was pregnant I was really leaning towards “boy”. It felt like a boy and I really wanted a boy. My husband also really, really wanted a boy. Then we went in for a check and upon hearing the heartbeat the nurse told us that it was in the “girl” range.  Dang. We knew it wasn’t proof, but from that point on I just assumed I was having a girl. 

I’ve never been a tom boy, but I’ve never been a girly girl either. I fall somewhere smack in the middle. I can hang with the girls, but the thought of all the girly drama and the bows (oh, the horror of the bows) was not something that I was looking forward to. When I thought I was having a girl I talked myself into being excited about it. I can do bows! I can do ruffles! Bring on the glitter (in moderation!!).

Then we went for a follow up ultrasound at 15 weeks and they asked us if we wanted to know what we were having. I was shocked that they could tell so early, but casually said, “sure” since we kind of already knew. When the nurse said “boy” it was like a wave of relief hit me. No bows!! No glitter!! My husband’s face was priceless. He was getting his boy!!!

Now that my son is here it totally makes sense why his heart rate was in the higher “girl” range. He never stops moving. My 14 month old is a wild child. Our days are filled with running and sliding and playing. He is more content to push his stroller and to pull his wagon than to actually relax and take a ride. I like to call him “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Contained” (Harry Potter fans, you’ll get that). 

We play with trucks, dig in the dirt (eat the dirt on occasion), and our rock collection is extensive. Leaves are treasures and naps are overrated. We wrestle and do flips on the bed, somersaults are a must, and chasing the cats is a favorite activity. 

The first animal sound that Reed learned was the lion, “ROOOOOARRR!” Some of his first words include poop, butt, hop and snack. We will spend hours in the yard, in the hopes that we’ll see the garbage truck and then we’ll chase it all the way around the circle. If we get a bonus horn honk our day is made.

 

I am a boy mom. I am this boy’s mom. I am Reed’s mom and I’m the luckiest mom in the world! 

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If you would like to share a post about you and your son, email me at elizabethrose84@gmail.com .

I would love to feature you! You don't have to have a blog to participate!

[BOY MOMS] Suzie and Niko

Hi there!!! My name is Suzie and I am a boy momma to my 17 month old son Niko.  A little about me and my family, my husband, Michael, and I have been married almost 3 years and I also have a 19 year old step-son and 3 dogs.  When I originally found out I was pregnant I wanted a girl, all my friends had girls and I couldn't wait to buy all those cute clothes.  We found out at our 17 week sonogram (I had sonograms every other week from 10-22 weeks) what we were going to have.  When the sonogram tech told it was a boy (no doubt), I just smiled and said I was very happy.  It wasn't till we got in the car to drive home that I started to cry and my husband asked me why and I said I am really happy I am having a boy.  I think I was a little relieved not to be having a girl. 

I officially became a boy momma August 1, 2012 and I immediately fell in love with the most beautiful little boy.  Niko is now 17 months old and is still the most beautiful (hubby says handsome, boys aren't beautiful....LOL) handsome little guy ever.  I love shopping for clothes and toys for him.  I was a bit of tomboy growing up, so I am very excited to go splashing in mud puddles, building forts, tickle wars, swinging on the swingset, sliding down slides, playing in the water, playing cars and truck and everything else that he gets into.  

We got him a teepee for Christmas and he loves it especially when Daddy plays with him in it.  Niko is a typical rough and tumble boy.  He loves to play chase, hide and seek, and he also likes to play ready-set-go and run to you so that you can toss him in the air.  His newest thing lately to be upside down in any fashion . Whether it be just laying over my legs or being carried upside.  He laughs and laughs when you do that especially if you pretend that you can't find him. Another new thing he has been doing lately is that he puts a shirt over his back like a cape and put his arms out in front of him like he is superman even though he has never watched superman (he is so stinkin cute).  

We have tried to find words to describe Niko and the only ones we can come with is goofy, silly, and funny.  He just makes you laugh all the time and there are times where is walking around the house just giggling for no reason which make us laugh even more.  He is such a laid back, fun, goofy, happy baby.  He is always smiling and laughing.

He loves the dogs that we have especially Nita (english mastiff).  He can crawl, poke, bite, pull, lay on her, stick his fingers in her ears, nose, mouth and eyes and she won't do a thing about but lay there.  When she has had enough she just gets up and moves.  He gives all the dogs "loves", his way of hugging them, he lays he head on some part of their body.

Niko has been the light of my life and I can't imagine my life today without him.  I have said in the past to Michael what did we do when we didn't have this little guy.  It's hard to remember what life what like without him, he keeps us on our toes.  I love watching him learn new things, say new words, figure out how to do something, and in general just grow.  I love hearing him call me momma or if I am not in the room he calls for me, "where momma", "momma here".  His smile just makes my heart melt.  It makes me a little sad how fast time has gone and how much he has changed, but I can't wait to see what he grows into as a little boy, teenager, and adult.  I just hope that time slows down a little because there is so much to remember, so much to do and see.  One of my favorite things to do with him is read and I hope that this continues.  He loves to bring me books and sit in my lap and listen to his momma read to him.  No matter what I am doing it is the one thing I will drop everything I am doing and take the time to do with him. I love my little guy with all my heart and then some.  He has brought me nothing but pure joy and I love every minute that I get to spend with him.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading a little about my life as boy momma and what my little guy loves to do.  

Have a great day!!!

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If you would like to share a post about you and your son, email me at elizabethrose84@gmail.com .

I would love to feature you! You don't have to have a blog to participate!

[BOY MOMS] Amy from Happily Hello

Hi! My name is Amy, blogger over at Happily Hello and mother to my sweet little 15 month old wild man, Roman. I loved following along with Erinn's Girl Mom series, and when I saw Elizabeth was carrying the torch for us boy moms, I was absolutely thrilled! I love to see the fun activities other moms are doing with their littles especially when their littles are boys. 

When I found out I was pregnant, I immediately started purchasing bows, dresses, even pink furniture. I knew I had a 50% chance of having a girl and frankly I am one of the girliest girls around. I even let my husband pick our boy name because I knew we wouldn't need it. (Fortunately, I liked the name he picked!) At my 19 week gender ultrasound, when the technician announced we were expecting a boy, my reaction was are you sure? Followed by tears, both of joy that our baby was healthy, but also of shock. Immediately after, I went shopping for my first baby boy items and thanks to Baby Gap, I had no issue finding adorable little man outfits. I couldn't imagine before Roman arrived how I would raise a little boy... And now, I can't imagine it any other way! What I've learned in the past 15 months, so far it's much like raising a little girl. He loves to read, sing and dance. 

He also loves playing in dirt. 

He is an excellent shopping partner and is the sweetest little snuggler around. 

Most of all, he loves his big brother, our black lab Rocky. Rocky was a stray we found on the side of the highway in pretty bad shape. (Hence the scar on his face.) We never imagined the love they would have for each other this early on. Most of our days are filled with chasing Rocky around with his collar, or crying if he already has it on, feeding him all our meals, and most importantly nap time snuggles. We hear giggles 90% of the day and 100% of the time they are compliments of Rocky. 

One thing is for sure, being the mother of a toddler is the most rewarding job ever. Watching them grow and learn is such a special gift and the way they view you as their world gives your own life so much value. The first years are filled with so many milestones. First smiles, first steps, first words all happen regardless if they are a boy or a girl and make all of the hard work and sleepless nights worth while. 

Thank you so much Elizabeth for starting this series! Here's to many grass stains and skinned knees! On Mondays we may all wear blue.... But every other day we streak around the house like this... Just kidding, only Roman. 

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If you would like to share a post about you and your son, email me at elizabethrose84@gmail.com .

I would love to feature you! You don't have to have a blog to participate!