Raising Mason Greene: 8 Months has come and gone

Another month has come and gone, and I find it all the more difficult to scratch up the time to update this blog on what's happening in our lives!! Mason is now 8 months & 11 days old, and he is doing so much these days!! His crawling skills have improved immensely and he is incredibly fast. You can set him down and as soon as you turn around, you will hear his little hands and feet slapping the tile as he chases you across the house!! He can go anywhere and get into anything, and he takes full advantage of this. He loves to stand up, he will grab anything he can get especially the backs of your pant legs to pull himself up. Now he has begun to let go and stand on his own for a few seconds before plopping onto his butt, or even better, lowering himself slowly to the floor. He has learned to control his sitting and will patiently lower his bottom down to the floor with his arms out in front for balance! He is creeping from one object/piece of furniture to the next. He gets into everything now, he loves to pull up on the recliner, couch, coffee table, fish tank, toilets, trash can and kitchen cabinets. He can also stand up using flat surfaces like the wall or window. He still likes his walker but is not so crazy over the bouncer anymore. He has a new fascination with his alphabet pal caterpillar, his sesame street activity table, and his push car, but other than those he mostly spends his time crawling & exploring every crack and crevice in our home, and standing up as much as possible. We have caught him in the kitchen opening the drawers and chewing on the handles, so we have started baby proofing the house over the last few days! We installed a baby gate across the doorway in his room and we also invested in a large living room carpet earlier this month. The rug was a great invetment because it gives him a huge area he can crawl and play on within the living room, and the adults have enjoyed it too because we can now sit on the floor as well. Other challenges have been keeping his and ling's toys separate, he loves her toys and she loves his, which is a bad combination because they both slobber all over their toys and they both put them into their mouths! I hate germs and I hate dog hair getting on mason and the thought of it going in his mouth, is too much for me!! We also are now dealing with the fact that mason understands food & eating and he will no longer let us sit through a meal peacefully without him having a bottle or food of his own. This has been tough because Landon and i are not on a 4 hour schedule like mason and we are still only feeding him organic foods with no added salt or sugar. Mason, along with everyone else, cannot understand why he cant have some of our foods, it's not just an issue over eating organic, everyone fails to consider the fact that Mason cannot handle textures yet and that we are trying to prevent food allergies. This is very frustrating and has caused some major "Mason Meltdowns" in several restaraunts! He can however snack on the puffs now and does try to pick them up between his fingers and feed himself, which he is successful at about 3 out of 10 times. It is pretty adorable to watch him feed himself. We don't have any height or weight stats yet because his next Dr appointment is not until next month, but he is still eating 6 oz bottles 4 times a day and is eating fruit and sometimes cereal for breakfast and a veggie and a fruit at night. He has started eating the puffs for babies and has done really well with them. He has also started drinking some juice, we finally found a flavor he likes... grape! He still doesn't want to drink out of the sippy cups, just plays with them and gets mad when they leak. He is about to outgrow his car seat, he is so long that his feet hangout and so heavy, hardly anyone can carry him in the car seat. Because of the hassle of the carseat, we have started using my cart covers that i made, and letting him ride in the grocery carts like a big kid. He also sits in the high chairs at restaurants now too with the cover. He says mama, dada, gaga, baba, luh, and the newest word "geh" which is egg. We gave him plastic eggs to play with the other day and he became all about the word "geh" "gig" and once in a while we actually heard "egg" but now, he mostly uses "geh". He loves to talk and babble, and has really started to hone in on his own little personality. He will give me kisses on the mouth, he hasn't yet gave them to anyone else except Madison once. He is still very much a mommas boy and wants me to hold him and play with him all the time! We have had some changes in our schedule since i started back to school, Mason now goes to Landon's cousin Lisa's house on Wednesdays while i am in school, and he loves it! He loves her little boy Logan,so much and i can tell he really loves being around other children! Landon keeps mason on Mondays while I'm in school and that works out great, because they get their own special time together, which is hard to get with Landon's busy work schedule. I love how well this has worked out this semester!! I feel completely comfortable leaving him on those two days a week and i never thought i would be able to do it, but it's totally working and i am so happy to be making strides towards graduating!! Another new activity that we have added to our schedule is story time at our local library on Tuesday mornings. Mason loves to play, crawl and interact with the other babies but has little interest in the books and songs! He seems way too independent to sit in my lap for half an hour when there is so much to explore in that great big room. Landon and i try to read to him from his books in is room and he enjoys the pictures and listening to us talk but gets frustrated when we don't let him rip the pages and eat the books. I'm sure it will improve as he gets older. I hope that mason will learn to have a love for books and reading!! As of today we have more exciting news, i just discovered Masons newest tooth, on the top in the front! That makes 3 all together now! We also have our 3 year wedding anniversary coming up on Wednesday the 29th. I was hoping for a family trip, just the 3 of us, to the mountains but I'm not sure yet if that will work out for us!! The time is slipping by and we have so much to look forward to, masons first Halloween is just around the corner, then thanksgiving, and Christmas, then Masons first birthday will be upon us!!

8 month pics