18 months

Every month gets harder and harder to get this little boy to sit still and smile...he's definitely over the monthly pictures already!

17 months

Mason is 17 months and is already full of personality and energy. We are amazed daily at what this little boy can do. He is the funniest and most frustrating thing I've ever experienced. I can be so mad at him for continuing to stand on his chair after I've told him 5 times to sit down...and then he will turn around and do the funniest thing that I'm biting my lip and turning away, trying to quickly gain my composure and to not let him see me laugh. It's so hard to not laugh at him sometimes. GAH!

His vocabulary grows every day, I swear. Some of his newest words are:

mine (everything is mine these days!)
get down
please
all done
cool dude (and points his fingers while saying it)
water
more
snow
up
down
help
out (from us telling the dog to get out, LOL)
baby (what he calls his blanket)
hi
bye
book
apple
nose
eyes
ears

He can sign milk, more, again, please and all done. He can point to his nose, ears, eyes and mouth when asked. When we are rocking or he's sitting in my lap, he loves to point to my nose and say nose over and over again. When you ask him to wink, he scrunches his entire face up. It's probably the cutest thing ever :) When we ask him to get "brown bear brown bear" or another one of his favorite books, he knows exactly which book we are talking about and will go and grab it. He will answer most questions you ask him with yes or no. He knows what bath, potty, change diapers, hungry and bed mean and will go towards these rooms when we say them.

He just amazes me. I can't believe how fast he's grown up and how much he understands. He loves to copy everything we do and say, he's like a little mini-me. But Joe and I really have had to pay attention to what we say and do now. The other day, Joe had a rolled up piece of paper and tapped Shiloh on the back/butt as she walked by him as he sat on the couch. Before we know it, Mason is taking his toy and trying to hit her with it. In his eyes, he was copying Daddy...even though Joe meant it as a loving gesture, Mason's too young to understand the difference. It's crazy and slightly nerve-wracking trying to set a good example for him. Hopefully we don't screw him up too badly ;p

This little boy is going to test our patience though...he has no fear and is constantly pushing us to see how far he can go or what he can get away with. He is going to keep us on our toes and up at night for many years to come, I just know it. He got both of his parents stubbornness and his mama's short fuse. But I wouldn't trade him for anything. He is my world and the best thing I ever did. Ever.

life lately...

...has been crazy! The biggest thing we've been dealing with lately has been Mason's ears. About a month ago, we visited an ENT doctor to get their opinion on Mason's ears. We rarely get into our primary doctor for ear infections, because as we all know, kids tend to get sick in the evenings or weekends. Which means we are dealing with urgent doctors, who in my experiences so far, are not that great. So we went to see our ENT doctor to get a plan in place, so we knew what point we were at and how many more infections we let happen before we explore the tube route.

Before we saw the doctor, we saw an audiologist. She tested his ears to measure the fluid in his middle ear. Both ears came back flat, which you didn't want. A normal ear will make a mountain peak so we knew there was a lot of fluid in there. Granted, Mason was fighting a cold and had just been diagnosed with another ear infection that weekend before so I guess I had expected fluid to be there. After the ENT examined his ears and we went over his health history, he strongly recommended tubes. After 6-7 infections is 9 months, his hearing could start to be affected.

So we scheduled the surgery but I also wanted to try seeing a chiropractor to see if that could be an alternative. I found a chiropractor near work and I took Mason for a few weeks. The chiropractor would adjust his neck/back and check his ears. He thought the fluid was starting to improve, however 4 days after Mason stopped the antibiotics for the first ear infection, we ended up in urgent care on a Sunday afternoon for another ear infection.

Even though it was frustrating to be dealing with another infection, it was the sign I had prayed for. I had been going back and forth for those few weeks, losing sleep over what decision to make. I was terrified of putting my child under and wanted to try an alternative, less invasive and more natural approach...yet that approach would take time we didn't have the luxury of having. And after all that time and investment, it wasn't guaranteed to be a long term solution like tubes would be. I had prayed for a sign and God gave me one that I couldn't mistake. So with that urgent care visit, we prepared ourselves for the upcoming surgery.

That day we had to be at the surgical center by 6:30am, his surgery was scheduled for 7:15am. Thankfully they like to schedule the youngest patients first, so we were the first surgery. After checking in, we went back to the room and they checked Mason over to make sure he could proceed with the procedure. The anesthesiologist came back and went over the surgery and answered our questions. Then our ENT doctor came in, explained his part of the surgery. Then Mason and I got dressed for the surgery and a nurse came by to walk us to the OR. Joe went to the lobby and I carried Mason back.

The next part was the hardest part of the day, they had prepared me for what to expect but it was still the hardest thing I've ever done. I laid him down on the table and they placed a mask over his face. He struggled to get free, they had told me it would take 5-6 breathes before he would fall asleep. I just kept telling him how much I loved him and he was doing so great. And then he went limp, they removed the mask and let me kiss him before they rushed me out to the lobby. It all happened all too fast but I was a wreck. Joe told me to go get something from the vending machine. It was down a few floors, so I wondered around to find it. I got back to the lobby and had about 2 sips of my drink before our doctor was walking out, telling us everything went great and he was in recovery. There had been a lot of thick, yellow fluid in his ears...which made me relieved that we made the right decision. It would have taken months for that to drain on its own.

Once he woken up, they took us back. He was pretty crabby, whining constantly and was restless. I took him and we just rocked for 20-30 minutes. He started to wake up a little more and refused the apple juice. He wanted milk, kept signing for milk. He threw the sippy cup of juice anytime we tried to offer it. They didn't have milk but the pharmacy did. We were ready to head home so we grabbed all our stuff and started the hunt for milk. The pharmacy had 1 carton of milk...score! That was until Joe checked the expiration date, it was expired. At this point, Mason had no food or drink all morning...and was SUPER pissed by this point. So we rushed to the cars and found the nearest McDonald's drive-thru and he finally got his milk. He was perfectly find after that, LOL.

He had a nice nap on the car ride home and he napped on and off through the day. We had a lot of snuggles on the couch that day. By the afternoon, you never would have known he had been in for surgery, he was BACK!

He's been doing so well since, it's so nice to know the past 10 months are behind us and hopefully on to better, no ear infection months to come :)

16 months

A little late...but here it is!