First Christmas

Much like my last post, this one is about a month late. But, I still want to record what I remember about Mason's first Christmas...so here we go.

We spent Christmas in California this year. The week before we left, we were able to spend some time with my family which was really nice. We had so much fun in fact, that I didn't take a single picture. Oops. On Saturday morning we got together with my mom and sisters to have brunch, exchange gifts, bake some goodies, and play games. It was great. Later that week we got together with my dad for dinner. I love being with family!


Then it was off to sunny California! I wasn't sure how the drive with Mason would be. We bought a new carseat since he had nearly grown out of his old one. It seemed to sit a little too upright, so we stopped in Scipio before the sun was even up. Damen about froze his toes off readjusting the seat! After that it was fairly smooth sailing and all in all Mason did great. We made the drive in 12 hours 15 minutes, just over an hour longer than it normally takes us. 


I don't even know where to start! The house was decorative and very festive. It was nearly 80 degrees the first day we were there and outside was green with flowers growing. Not the Christmas I am used to, but certainly a welcome change! 


Here is Mason peeking under the tree on Christmas Eve. We had a great dinner with the missionaries joining us.

On Christmas Day we went to 9 am church. It was a lovely morning, and it was nice to spend some time reflecting on why we celebrate Christmas. Afterwards we went home to open gifts. Mason got some great stuff, but of course he LOVED crinkling all of the wrapping paper. 

Here he is, yelling at the top of his lungs...

And playing with his new toys.

It was such a nice and relaxing day. We had a great lunch, played games, and watched movies. 


The rest of the week was also very relaxing...for me anyway! It was so nice to have so many people around to play with Mason. Damen's dad stayed up a couple nights with Mason so I could sleep, and Damen's mom took Mason most mornings so I could go back to sleep. After a six week stretch of rarely more than 1.5 hours of sleep at a time, it was a welcome break! Most of the vacation is a haze in my mind, I spent so much of it asleep and resting. 


I even got an afternoon to myself to go take a swim in the pool...

I tried to get out and enjoy the weather aside from the resting. Most days we took a walk at least to the park. Here we are one day playing in the park. Mason loved going out in the stroller.

Mason was scared of Joe the first night, but they soon became friends and hung out on the floor together. Joe occasionally licked Mason's face but was pretty gentle with him. Mason seemed to really enjoy watching Joe run around at the park.

On one trip to the park, we took Mason to the playground and by the time we left the four adults were playing on the playground while Mason watched from the stroller. 


Towards the end of the week we took a trip out to Ventura Harbor. I was determined to take Mason to the ocean. He was teething that day so he wasn't super happy but the trip seemed to be a good distraction for him. He now has two front bottom teeth! He just stared at the ocean and didn't quite know what to make of it. He didn't like the cold waves on his feet. 

We stopped and got ice cream, and of course Mason grabbed my hands and pulled the cone to him. He made sure I knew he wanted to share it with me!

We did NOT want to come home, but after 9 days it was inevitable. I'm so glad we got to go!

Six Months

On December 19 we went in for Mason's 6 month appointment! Here are his six month stats:
28" long (92 percentile)
17.5 lbs (50 percentile)


At six months, he has mastered rolling over in both directions. He still doesn't love being on his stomach very long, though. He has one tooth. He can sit up pretty well on his own. He loves scratching anything with texture, and wants to chew on everything. He babbles a lot more, and laughs a lot more. He also gets pretty cranky when he is tired and cries more than he ever has before. He loves playing with my hair and loves touching my face, especially while he is feeding or falling asleep. He loves baths now and has learned to kick to splash water everywhere. He has also started being more cuddly than he used to. When he gets tired he grabs both sides of my face and snuggles his face next to mine, or sometimes he just puts his head on my shoulder and climbs closer. It is always short lived, but it is cute. He still only likes to eat squash and applesauce. He falls asleep easily but does not stay asleep, still waking up every 1.5 - 3 hours. He has started to sleep on his side, and migrates around the crib as he's sleeping. He hasn't shown any signs of separation anxiety yet, but he is scared of my dad. He has started crying when he sees him and it takes awhile to warm up to him. He has started standing on his legs instead of just bouncing all of the time. He is still super curious about everything and wants to be in the middle of whatever I'm doing. 


I'm sure there are plenty of other things I could write, but that's all I can think of for now. He seems to learn new things every day, and he is constantly changing!

Chompers

Well, this little guy got his first tooth on Saturday! Damen discovered it while I was napping. I was surprisingly excited about it. Partly because it is a milestone, and partly because it explained his fussiness and barfing the day before. 


I guess that also explains some of the rough(er) nights lately. Saturday night was certainly the worst as the tooth made its way to freedom. I have a feeling I'm not going to love teething. He was just starting to enjoy playing on the floor by himself. Now he is upset if I'm not with him at all times. And he still rarely naps more than 45 minutes at a time. Awesome. 


Last week we saw the doctor and she prescribed something for his acid reflux. I was hoping that would help his sleeping, but I guess we'll have to wait to find out. She thought he was 9 months based on his size, so she also recommended feeding him more during the day. 


It's a good thing I love this kid so much! Here he is yesterday in his high chair. He is finally strong enough to sit in it. He played with everything he could reach on the counter while I got dinner ready. I usually have about 15 minutes before he is done and wants to be picked up again. He was cracking me up with all his talking and noises.

Monday we have his 6 month checkup. I'm interested to see how he's doing. Hopefully we'll have some progress to report.

Torture and Joy

I looked at my last post from nearly a month ago, and laughed. Here is what I had to say:


"Each of the past few nights he has had one stretch of sleep lasting four hours. Hopefully this trend continues."


Often I am very glad that I can't see the future. Living through the present can be a lot easier than knowing it's going to get worse before it gets better. 


Between getting sick, traveling for the holidays, and a crazy storm driving us to stay at my dad's, Mason's sleeping has gotten worse. The nights when he sleeps for 2 - 3 hours at a time now feel like heaven. On bad nights we are up every 15 - 90 minutes through the night. It was sad and scary while he was sick, and felt like torture once I got sick. We have had three weeks of this sleep pattern with a couple good nights sprinkled in. It has been emotionally grueling as much as physically. So, I've been reading up on baby sleep topics and we have an appointment tomorrow for Mason to get checked out for any physical issues. Wish me luck.


We've all been pretty exhausted. Here's a photo I took as I emerged from a nap one day...

I don't mean to sound pessimistic or ungrateful. We really are so blessed and have a wonderful, healthy, happy boy. So, onto the JOY part of the post. 


We had a fun Thanksgiving visiting with family. First we went to Koosharem and had a great Thanksgiving Day with my family. Then we got to spend the rest of the weekend with Damen's family which was wonderful. We even got to go to Grandpa Burnham's 95th birthday party.


Here's a picture of Mason as we were riding FrontRunner to Ogden to meet Damen on Black Friday.

He was so cute and so content all morning. I love this boy.


Over just the past couple weeks, his curiosity has turned on full speed! He is interested in everything, especially the computer, phone and remote...a true Burnham boy. The dexterity in his hands is getting better, so he wants to touch and hold everything. He laughs more and is more interactive. He is also experimenting with his voice, so he likes to yell often. (I love the way his tongue rolls sideways and sticks out the corner of his mouth when he tries to "talk".) He has become interested in his toys, but also wants to be in the middle of whatever we are doing. It has been a lot of fun to see his curiosity grow and to watch him begin to explore things. The only negative side affects are that EVERYTHING gets shoved into the mouth, and he fusses a lot because that is the only way he can communicate. 


Here he is, fascinated with something I'm holding. I love his bright, blue eyes and the serious face he pulls when he is intently studying something.

I've never been more exhausted in my life, but this guy is definitely worth it. As I am typing he is rolling on the floor smiling at me, chewing on a finger, and gurgling happily. It makes me smile, makes me happy inside, and almost makes me forget how many times we were up last night. 

Squash - My New Hero

Starting on solid foods wasn't as smooth as I had expected. I didn't expect to go home after talking to the doctor, serve Mason a full meal, and then have him sleep 12 hours that night. I may have secretly hoped for it, but didn't expect it. 


That first week we tried brown rice cereal. Gag. Sweet potatoes. Gag and heave. Peas. Gag. Rice cereal mixed in breast milk. Gag. Formula mixed in breast milk. Gag and heave. He wouldn't eat anything and I was devastated.


Finally, we got him to drink a bottle of breast milk with a little brown rice cereal mixed in. We kept adding more until it was barely thin enough to make it through the nipple. That was it for a couple weeks. 


After he got used to the rice, I went to the store and bought a few different kinds of baby food to see if Mason would eat anything else. I know it can take up to ten offerings before they like a certain type of food. I also figured I would stop trying to mash my own food for now since I've heard some babies do better with the thinner, smoother texture of store baby food.


Here's Mason eating peas. Mmm, "nature's candy" as Damen always jokes. Apparently Grandma loves peas, but he and Kade never did. This is the most common look I get when I try to feed Mason. Peas, no. Bananas, no. Sweet potatoes, no. Carrots, no.

Fortunately we gave squash a try. This is currently the only food Mason will eat without making a face. He loves it! We have only been feeding him squash for just over a week now, and he will eat a 4 oz jar in one sitting. He often makes noises, and it sounds like he is saying "Mmm" the whole time he eats. (Butternut squash was the food I hated most as a kid, go figure.)

Each of the past few nights he has had one stretch of sleep lasting four hours. Hopefully this trend continues. I love you squash!

Tractor Beam

I've been working on photos for this post for awhile now, but this is as close as I could get. Mason has started noticing his hands, and sucking on his fingers. He'll suck on any individual finger, or as many as he can fit into his mouth. It seems like every time I turn around he is eating his fingers or shoving something into his mouth. Kade described his mouth as a tractor beam...it just draws everything in. So here we have a few examples...

The two-finger suck. This used to be his preferred method, but it is dwindling. He also sucks on just his ring finger, and sometimes his thumb, but that involves having an open hand with the rest of his fingers poking him in the eye. I could never get a photo any of those.

The inadvertent finger-in-the-nose finger sucking...

Grabbing my hands to eat them or whatever I'm holding.

The double-hand shove...his current preferred method.

The grab-anything-near-me-and-shove-it-in-despite-how-it-tastes trick. This is a Happy Birthday Grandma sign I was trying to take his picture with.

Ah, and finally my favorite...sucking on the toes. I generally find him like this a couple times a day. 

Now I am trying to get him to keep FOOD in his mouth. We'll blog about that later.

Trick or Treat

I played in the Halloween Hat tournament last Saturday. Mason and I went as Little Bo Peep and a sheep. The costume idea came from Toy Story. Damen had to work or I would have dressed him as Woody. It was a fun day playing ultimate, and Mason seemed to like being outside. His furry costume kept him nice and warm during the chilly morning. I had a good time getting out and running around this weekend. I paid for it in sore muscles and exhaustion, but it was worth it. (My mom was kind enough to watch Mason for a few hours Monday while I slept...that helped!)


Here we are Saturday morning in our costumes.

Here is Mason on Halloween. I made Damen take his picture along with our carved pumpkins. I don't think Mason loved his costume, but I sure did! 

 He got tired of our picture taking quickly enough...

And like good parents we laughed and kept taking photos before rescuing him. Happy Halloween!