7 months

Another month come and gone. I can't believe Mason is now closer to being 1 than being a newborn now. It baffled me last night when I was starting to look at Christmas and birthday presents (don't judge me, I start early with Christmas and now 2 birthdays to plan within a month of each other) that I was needing to look for 12-24 month ideas for Mason. Craziness I tell you.

Milestones
*He is sitting up better, but is still a little wobbly.
*He is eating 3 "meals" on top of his 5 bottles now. He is getting better at eating the chunkier food and has a lovely addiction to puffs. I am trying to make sure he eats really well since he is so little but I have to remember his belly can only hold so much. However, feeding him is quite a chore because he has gotten much more distractible this month and wants to pay more attention to anything but eating.
*He finally moved into 6-9 month clothes. A lot of his 3-6 month clothes still fit, but I wanted to make sure he wore the 6-9 month stuff for more than a month since its all summer clothes so we went ahead and brought them out now. He just has a really large wardrobe to choose from for now. Darn.
*He started leaking through his overnight pocket diaper, so we've made the switch to fitted diapers and covers for night and naps. I am even experimenting with wool covers, even though I never understood their greatness before now. I hated to buy more diapers but Mason started sleeping on his side this month and urine is just not contained well in a pocket diaper on a side sleeper. This is how diaper addictions are started, I am sure of it. I am so glad I didn't do fitteds with Aubrey for long because they are too cute. Boys diapers aren't quite as cute.
*He has become a crazy, mad rolling machine. Gone are the days of my sweet, immobile baby staying put. Once he sets his sights on something, he turns himself around in the general direction of where he wants to be and starts rolling to get there. His favorite place to explore is the DVD storage at the bottom of the entertainment center (I won the argument again when Todd said he knew we needed doors there like I wanted, HAH!).
*The battle with separation anxiety has started. If I leave his sight he starts screaming. I think its even worse for him than with Aubrey because he sees me all day so when I leave, its bad.
*We started using a few baby signs with him. He has started to do the "bye-bye" motion to himself which means he is getting better grasp of hand-eye coordination so we thought it would be a good time to start some signs. So far we are just using mommy, daddy, sister, doggy, milk, and eat. We taught Aubrey a few of the signs so she can help us reinforce them, as well. I know it could be a while before he signs back, but its fun to do right now and it will happen when it happens.
*And a new experience for me to watch this time. Aubrey never seemed too interested in her girl parts during diaper changes so it was a little bit of a shock to me that Mason is all too interested in what's down there. He is not gentle and I know it has to hurt when he grabs it, but he doesn't seem too bothered it. All I can say is Lord, help me. They start that fascination early, huh?!

Sitting up like a big boy

I turned my back for 30 seconds and the next thing I know he's underneath the chair.

Complete Aubrey Randomness

I've not been great at keeping up the blog up-to-date with Aubrey's happenings lately (bad mom) so this will be a catch up post.

A few weeks ago, Todd and I took Aubrey to her first baseball game. We attempted to take her last year but it got rained out while we were tailgating so we thought we'd try again. Todd's company had a company outing set up at the Charlotte Knights' game that included tailgating before the game and then of course the ballgame itself. We left Mason at home with Todd's parents because he would never have lasted as late as we planned to be out, plus it was a million degrees outside and way too hot for him. It also gave us the chance to have some one-on-one time with Aubrey, which we haven't had for a while. Aubrey enjoyed running around the tailgating area with the other children and wasn't too thrilled when it was time to go in for the game. But, a blue snow cone changed her thoughts on the matter pretty quickly. They also gave all the children coming in the gate a free batting helmet with number stickers so she was able to keep herself entertained during the game. She did watch a little bit of the game and was fascinated when their mascot came out, but mostly she drank her snow cone and played with the stickers while we watched the game. I hope she grows to enjoy baseball like Todd and I do because we really want to take her to Atlanta for a Braves game soon.

This summer has been ridiculously hot so our time outside has been more limited. We are also a little more limited in our freedom with Mason's napping schedule, so out outside time is usually spent in the backyard. I got out the water table and the baby pool for Aubrey and she has enjoyed them as usual. It amazes me that she was so little when we first put out the water table 2 years ago and now she is so much bigger.

Just for comparison, this was taken in May 2010. She was so tiny then. Sigh...

Another neat part of the summer has been sharing the Olympics with Aubrey. She was immediately fascinated with gymnastics, which I think happens to almost every girl that ever watches it. She started doing rolls off the couch and asked to watch "danastics" every time we turned the tv on. So, we decided to give her a shot at it and enrolled her in a beginner's gymnastics class near our house. Soccer has not been a huge hit with her so we'll give gymnastics and dance a try this fall and see what sticks. We want to expose her to as many things as we can so she can find what she loves and run with it. I'm a little nervous to hear "watch this, Mommy" now so hopefully this will channel her interest and give her some exercise at the same time.

I've also really enjoyed watching Aubrey's creativity bloom this summer. Since Mason takes up a good bit of time she has learned to entertain herself and she comes up with some entertaining ways to play. I am never quite sure what I will find in her playroom, from a fort (the cozy coupe flipped over with a blanket and pillows inside) to a multicolored easel from her crayons or markers to a complete toy box explosion. It is always something different but as long as she is happy and helps clean up her mess I will let her be just as messy and creative as she wants to be.

We visited the ENT doctor last week for her 12-month post-surgery. After they made us wait for an hour, we finally got the good news that her tubes had fallen out. He pulled the first one out of her ear with no problem. But, the 2nd tube was stuck in a clump of wax in her ear and she almost came out of the chair when he pulled it out. He said her ears look exactly as they should now so we are released from his care unless we have more problems in the future. Let's hope they stay that way because I really don't want to her to have to deal with that drama again.


One of the best parts of this summer has been watching Aubrey and Mason learn to interact with each other. Aubrey absolutely adores Mason and has a hard time keeping her boundaries with him. She doesn't try to hurt him, she just smothers him with love and teaching her to be easy with him has been a challenge. But, I am thrilled that she loves him and am so glad we only have minor jealousy issues at times. I hope as he gets older he'll love her the same as she loves him.

So that is a brief glimpse of Aubrey's summer so far. Summer is quickly coming to a close and my little girl will soon be starting preschool, dance and gymnastics so there will be lots of fun to share in the next few weeks.