Raising Mason Greene: October 2010

Mason turned 9 months nearly 4 weeks ago, and so began our fall. We have been enjoying this beautiful weather change as well as all the changes in the Greene house! Mason at 9 months became extremely mobile and even attempted a couple steps unassisted before plopping onto his bottom, but he is still not yet ready to walk. He started holding his arm out when you would tell him to say bye-bye and since then has really gotten the hang of waving at people. At 9 months he started saying bye-bye but would only say it occasionally depending on his mood and when he'd say bye, it was well after the moment had passed. Since his last update at 8 months he has gotten another tooth in that makes 3 on the bottom and one on top. We also took Mason on his first trip to the Zoo this past month on the 1st of October. Neither Landon or I have been since probably out middle school days to the best of our recollection. It was a celebration of our 3 year wedding anniversary and we couldn't think of anything better than a fun filled day at the Asheboro Zoo, just the 3 of us. Mason had the absolute best time, he has always had a love for animals and fish. He was so interested in all there was to see and I'd like to think he gets that fascination from both Landon and I. All 3 of us had a blast, the weather couldn't have been anymore perfect and it was by far one of the most enjoyable days i have ever had. Spending time with mason and Landon together is the greatest gift i could have ever asked for and the Zoo was just so much fun! Mason's 9 month old birthday started off kind of rocky after Mason had a night of crying and sleeplessness to which we woke up the next morning to find he had busted blood vessels all over his entire face. It was absolutely horrible looking and although he seemed to be feeling fine we thought it was best to have the doctor take a look at it. I took him to the doctor that morning and we were horrified to find out that she thought it could be a serious issue with his blood clotting properly, so she sent mason and i directly to Presbyterian children's hospital for blood work to be done. Mason and i waited for hours for someone to take his blood but when they finally drew his blood mason did amazingly well, he didn't even cry, just a little flinch while he sucked on his paci and played with his lucky green care bare that the hospital staff gave him. It was so nice to see such friendly and caring people concerned for my sweet boy. Mason seemed very pleased with his new care bear and it was really ironic that his care bear had a lucky clover on it! We were truly blessed with "luck" and were so relieved when masons test scores came back normal and the doctor told us the pitikia was just from mason straining during his crying fit. He was back at the Dr the next morning for his 9 month stats where he weighed 17 lbs 11 oz and measured 29 inches long. His doctor said it was time for Mason to start on more solid foods and that we should begin to introduce more table foods, textures, and a sippy cup. We started giving mason stage 3 foods and over the last month, he has began eating some soft table foods like mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and mashed bananas. He was not crazy over the new textures and would sometimes gag a little but has quickly come around and is now loving table foods and stage 3's. He also took right to his nubby sippy cup and now drinks all his formula from the sippy cup. We are basically bottle free at this point. Luckily Mason's face cleared up almost completely in 3 days which was just in time for our fall pictures. The month of October with Mason has been great! We have really enjoyed Mason's first fall and kicked off the month of October with fall pictures at the pumpkin patch in York. Mason was 9 months and 2 days old the day we visited the patch for pictures and fun! Mason loved the chickens and thought the pigs were funny at first until one pig nipped his hand which made him cry. We had a great time though and Kim took some amazing pics of us as a family and some of mason at the patch too. A couple days later my mom and i took mason to a cute little pumpkin stand near the house to look at their pumpkins. They gave us a cute little wagon for mason to ride in and we put him a blanket in it and pulled him around while we looked. he absolutely loved riding in the wagon, it was his first time riding in one and we took some adorable pics of him in the wagon and with all the beautiful pumpkins and mums. mom bought mason an adorable little mini pumpkin with a silly face painted on it and mason loved playing with it! The weekend before Halloween we took mason and his cousins to a boo bash festival where they dressed up and enjoyed painting pumpkins, eating cotton candy, and playing games. We also took the three of them to our church carnival the day before Halloween, where mason had a great time riding in his stroller while smiling and laughing at all the other kids at the carnival. The girls played lots of fun games and took home a bag full of candy they won. Mason really enjoyed watching his cousins ride the spinning swings, he thought that was very funny!! We wrapped up our Halloween with trick or treating on Sunday with me, Landon, my mom, brother, and sister in law, as well as my nieces molly and Madison!! it was a super fun night and i couldn't get over how much fun mason had trick or treating!! yes, mason did trick or treat, he loved it, he is such a social fella and loves to meet new people and smiling faces. when we weren't carrying him, he would ride in his stroller with his candy bucket clipped onto it and Landon would push him in his stroller up to the door with his cousins! Sometimes he would pick out his own candy out of the bowl and hold onto it for dear life. he wasn't sure what it was but he liked holding it and didn't want anyone to take it away!! He would laugh and squeal in delight and loved being pushed around in his stroller, kicking his legs and flailing his arms around in excitement!! He loved seeing all the other kids out trick or treating too!! We really had an amazing Halloween and i cant believe that this was the first of many more memorable Halloween's to come!! Now we are looking forward to Mason turning 10 months in less than a week and we are looking forward to our first thanksgiving with mason as a family!! We have so much to be thankful for this year!! I'm greatly looking forward to this holiday season!!

Here's Pics from the Zoo Mason is 8 mon. 2 weeks