The Long and Skinny of It

As if the pictures haven't given it away, Mason was built like his daddy...long and skinny.  I am extremely happy about this, as I was crossing my fingers that the little guy would be getting his Daddy's metabolism and build. So far, we're off to a good start.  But I'm starting to see the problems with that.

We have officially outgrown his newborn clothing, only in length.  Our little monkey still fits it in the width, which means his 0-3 month clothes are still a little big.  Luckily, some of the pants (especially the overalls, thank goodness for those) "fit" well enough around the waist that he can get away with wearing them...and of course onesies fit just fine.  But we have a whole stack of pants that are 0-3 month that just swallow the guy whole.  Here's to custom made baby clothes (kidding...seriously)!

So our little string bean may look a little baggy in some of these pictures....you can blame his daddy for that :).

October 5th - I'm in between sizes, sorry my clothes look too big!

He smiles!

Up until today, most of Mason's smiles have been when he is sleeping.  More like a twitch in his cheek than a smile.  But today..today I caught a real one!  I know its real because it happened multiple times when I was playing with him on the swing.  And this time, he was wide awake. As soon as it happened the first time I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture of it happening again. That one came out blurred so I kept talking to him hoping to get it to happen again..and it did!  Its still a bit blurry, and he's not really looking at me, but I caught it and I'll take it.  Just hoping he'll do it again like that soon so his Daddy can see it in person and his Safta can see it this weekend when she's in town!  Our first mark in the baby book...first smile, October 4!

October 4 - Mason's first real smiles caught on camera!

1 Month! And Payback...

Happy 1 month to our little monkey!!  I can't believe a month has already passed since Mason came into our lives.  The days have flown by.  Good and bad, I wouldn't trade a single one of them and just hope they slow down just a bit.  No need for time to go thaaat quickly! 

In the past month, though, the little guy has given me (Allyson) what many people may call payback on behalf of my parents. Last night was no exception.  You see, for as long as I can remember, my parents have pointed out that I was a colicky baby.  I mean, I was a good kid...never did drugs, didn't get into trouble, never came home super late even when there was no curfew, just a good "afraid to get in too much trouble" kid. The one thing they had to hang over my head was that my baby could be colicky. When I was a baby I would scream from about 6 or 7 every night until 11 until about 3 months old.  I'm not a doctor, and our doctor hasn't actually diagnosed Mason has having colic, but last night he screamed from about 5:30pm (about the exact time his daddy got home from work) until 11, and this isn't the first time this has happened, although it has yet to be a nightly occurance.  At that point, I got out of bed and went and sat up with him (we were hoping he would fall asleep if we put him down, he seemed exhausted, but no such luck) until his midnight bottle.  So much for yesterday's post about his great schedule! The ironic part, we booked our tickets to Atlanta for Thanksgiving at 7pm at night.  Let's hope this isn't colic or else there will be a crowded Airtran flight from Branson to Atlanta in November that is not going to be very fond of our adorable little boy!

Now, to give you an idea of how loud his cries are, the kid has a set of lungs, Chris downloaded an app to his Iphone to check decibel levels.  His decibel level averaged about 100, which is equivelant to a DC10 at 300 feet on approach, a normal car or house stereo on maximum volume, or a snowmobile.  Another comparison - 120 decibels is considered "deafening."  Needless to say, this isn't a cute cry.  Good thing it's a cute baby who we know will outgrow this.  But there is nothing worse than your baby screaming and you can't figure out anything that will make him happy.  Here's to hoping its not colic and instead is a fussy baby who has had a few bad nights!

October 3 - 1 month old!  Getting so big so fast!

Thank Goodness for Books...and Schedules

When we first brought Mason home, the first two nights were miserable. He was up, what felt like, all night, and between us and Allyson's parents who were staying with us, none of us were sleeping. Instead, we were rotating being up with the Little Monkey.  Enter our saving grace...a book.

They say there is no book to know how to raise a child, but let me tell you a secret...we've found one that comes pretty darn close! Thanks to some family friends who used the book before, they gave it to us before Mason arrived, but we hadn't taken the time to really read it cover to cover yet.  Chris used his ability to read quickly and remember a lot to find out what we were doing wrong...not letting him cry it out. We quickly put the plan into action and within just a couple of nights, Mason was sleeping so much better and was on a schedule.

Here we are, just a month after he was born and the little guy is only waking up twice a night, going to sleep at around 9:30pm, sleeping until about 8am, and napping for about 5 consistent hours during the day.  He's on a great eating schedule and with my having to go back to work in just a couple of short weeks, I'm so happy to know that day care or Ganny's house, and anywhere else he might be while we are working, he's on a great schedule.

Even today, he didn't let our lunch out with some ladies stop him from sleeping during his usual nap time.  Thank you Mason, for letting Mommy enjoy an afternoon of adult conversation while you slept peacefully. 

 October 1 - Hanging out with Daddy

October 2 - Still sleeping after an afternoon lunch with the ladies!

Things Mason Will Hate We Posted When He's a Teenager

So give us about 12 years and Mason will hate this post.  Not just because he'll be a teenager, but because we're going to get personal.  Mason has been very very cranky today, and wasn't great last night either.  Allyson was up with him from 10:45 until Midnight (he's usually great about going to sleep around 9:30 or 10) simply because he was cranky.  He woke up at around 8 this morning (with an intermission at about 4:30) and the crankiness continued.  Here we are at 5:20 in the afternoon and cranky he is still. Want to know why?  It's simple really...constipation.  Poor kid hasn't pooped in almost 3 days because of a combination of new formula (we've switched him to sensitive) and a lingering cold that is slowly going away. Needless to say, he's uncomfortable.  Which means Mommy and Daddy are uncomfortable and at the point of just wanting to help him feel better and we just can't.  A list of what we've tried per the dr's suggestions:
- warm cottonballs on his bottom
- warm rag on his tummy
- warm bath
- thermometer up the booty
Tomorrow morning (at 3 full days) we will call the doctor back and they said most likely we will be supplementing some juice in his formula to add some fiber. We'll keep you updated on that. 

Regardless of the crankiness, we've been able to capture a couple of adorable moments.  One of him last night, dressed in his overalls (Allyson loves him in overalls) before going out to dinner last night, and one this morning, curled up in Allyson's arms sleeping.  His one few moments of being peaceful today.  And a third picture, its not from his first bath, but its from the first time he took a bath without screaming.  This leads us to another topic he will one day hate us talking about on here...

Our son hates to be naked!  We think he's the only baby in the world who screams every single time he is naked. Hence our excitement today during his bath, he stopped screaming for a moment, we had to capture in on film and lie to him one day that its a picture from his first bath.  We'll just keep that secret between us. But we don't want to ruin his reputation, within seconds of the picture being captured, the screaming commenced and didn't stop until he was out of the bath and completely dressed.  He's modest, what can we say.

Enjoy these great pictures, and remember, when Mason is a teenager, this post never happened!

 September 29th - Ready to hit the town in his polo shirt and overalls

 September 30th - A rare peaceful moment of the day

His "first" bath picture...the first time not screaming that is!

Family

If there's one thing, more than any other thing, that our little monkey is lucky to have, its a great family. I'm not just talking about his wonderful, if I don't say so myself, Mommy and Daddy, but his extended family.  The day he was born, Saba and Safta made it from Atlanta before he came into the world, and Ganny and Gampa were at the hospital too. Within just days of coming home from the hospital, our house was crawling with family from as close as around the corner and as far away as Georgia and Delaware.

And just so there is no confusion, a little clarification:
Saba = Maternal Grandfather
Safta = Maternal Grandmother
Ganny = Paternal Grandmother
Gampa = Paternal Grandfather
At least now you'll know who I am talking about!

Mason is so lucky to have such a fantastic extended family and friends.   Below are just a few pictures of him with some of his family. Of course, this isn't everyone who came to see him, and there will be more to follow (Saba has all the great pictures...please send them!).  But in the mean time, enjoy today's Mason photo and the photos of him with those who love him most!

 September 28th - look at those little cheeks!

 With Ganny the day after I was born.

 With Uncle David at my Bris getting a taste of wine. He is a proud Uncle!

 Gampa at my bris, holding him as I gets my Hebrew name, Moshe Yisrael

 Thanks for coming in for my bris Uncle Jeffrey!

 With Bubbie after my bris.  The dress I am wearing has been worn by every boy in my family at his bris for 99 years. Mommy was the first to wear it at a naming.

 Getting a bottle from Saba before he headed back to Atlanta. Miss you Saba!

 With Aunt Laura in Springfield. She loved holding me!

 Uncle Scott came in from Kansas City with my cousins Dawson and Kylie. I hope to see them again soon!

Another picture with Mommy and Daddy. They love me the most!

Falling Down on The Job Already...

Figures, day 2 of the blog and already I have missed posting a picture of Mason.  Today, you get two for your viewing pleasure, one from yesterday (a picture was taken!) and one from today.  I do have a good excuse though, well two good excuses.

Excuse #1 - Yesterday was Yom Kippur.  I was fasting, although not able to go to services, so my energy levels were already down.  Couple that with excuse #2 and it will all make sense.

Excuse #2 - Mason was having a rough, and I mean ROUGH day.  My beautiful, perfect, adorable son had his crankiest day in his short 23 day life yesterday.  He didn't nap. By that I mean, I put him down, he slept for 10 minutes or so, then screamed his head off. Nothing made him happy, so this tired, fasting, exhausted momma didn't have much time to post a picture, so again, I apologize.

So with that apology, comes two adorable pictures of our little monkey (or monster seems more appropriate for yesterday)!  Enjoy his edible face.

Oh, and Uncle David - his onesie today says "Future Quarterback."  I believe he's ready to start training, his hands are big enough!

Enjoy!

 September 26th (3 weeks and 2 days old)

September 27th (3 weeks and 3 days old)