Daddy's Home!

Mason gets so excited when Scott gets home from work! This is such a cute clip.

Helping Out With the Housework

It's never too early to start introducing chores around the house right? Mason had a great time the other day watching me fold clothes. His attempts to "help" included reaching over to the pile of folded clothes, taking the top item off and shaking it out before proceeding to the next piece of folded clothing. We have a little bit of work to do in the laundry department. Mason gets really excited when the vacuum comes out. I usually have him in the exersaucer so that he can watch me and as soon as I come around the corner with the vacuum his arms go up in the air and he starts jumping in the exersaucer. He spins all around so that he can follow me as I move about the room with the vacuum. I will often bring the vacuum close to him so that he can touch it. In these pictures I decided to lay the vacuum on his exersaucer to see what he would do.
After holding it for a few moments he then decided to chew on the handle - perhaps the vibrations felt good on his gums?

Visiting the Farm

One of my former students invited Mason and I to her farm to meet their animals. Mason was introduced to three horses, a rooster, a potbelly pig, a cat and two dogs. We don't have any pets so it was neat to watch him look at the animals and see his excitement and curiousity. His favourite animal by far was their little (and hyper) Jack Russel named Annie. She was all over the place and kept licking Mason's face which made him laugh. Annie moved too quickly for me to get a picture of Mason with her. Even when we were out with the horses Annie was running around in the field and Mason kept wanting to watch her and not the horses.

Celebrations

Yesterday we had two reasons to celebrate at the Bradley household: Valentine's Day and Mason's 9 month birthday. I keep saying this but I really can't believe how quickly time is passing! We almost have a toddler on our hands.
"Check out my boots!"

AhhhhhWaaaaahhh!!

Two weeks ago I taught Mason to open his mouth and say "awwww waaahh" while I patted my hand on his mouth. Since then he has adopted his own approach and he will blow on your hand instead.

Peek-A-Boo

Mason LOVES to play peek-a-boo and he has even figured out how to pull the blanket off of his face when we play.

Video Clips

These 3 clips (that I will post separately) are of Mason in action.

He has recently learned what "kiss" means and he has been giving us lots of wet, slobbery kisses. We can't get enough of them!

Superbowl

Superbowl Sunday is almost as exciting as Christmas at our house. (Scott would probably tell you that it is more exciting than Christmas!) Although Mason didn't get to stay up to watch the game, he did catch a bit of the pre-game with daddy.
The Giants won and Uncle Karl won the family football pool. Mason would like to let Uncle Karl know that he hopes to beat him next year. :)

Teeth

Mason's two bottom teeth are now visible when he laughs and smiles. The gummy smile is definitely a thing of the past now. Everyone keeps assuming that I will stop nursing him now that he has "chompers" but until just recently he hasn't really tried to use these teeth on me. :) I think that this is because he is cutting his upper teeth and am hoping that it soon passes! Cheeky little monkey here!
Another recent event that has taken place over the past week and a half is that Mason has slept through for 12 hours on 6 different nights. Even though I still wake up throughout the night expecting him to wake it definitely feels good not to have to get up out of bed in the middle of the night! I hope that this "sleeping through the night" becomes more consistent as I can't imagine doing this in 3 months time when I am back to work.

Mason is also starting to exhibit separation anxiety. He wants to be picked up a lot and he cries now whenever we walk away from him or into the other room. I am told that this should pass by his first birthday. Is this true?

He's FINALLY Sitting :)

I was really starting to get worried that Mason was never going to learn to sit by himself. I know that "milestones" are only supposed to be used as a guideline for development and that the normal range for each is quite broad, but Mason was really starting to approach the upper end for sitting. I was beginning to think that he would be walking before he learned to sit! Over the past week he has really made progress and is finally sitting upright on his own without flailing himself backwards. Yeahhhhhhh!! He is still a little unstable but we are confident that he will soon be able to sit for longer periods of time on his own. This definitely makes playing so much more exciting! He loves to watch his train chug across the floor. We think he is starting to cut his upper teeth as his cheeks have been a little rosy and he has been grabbing at his ears a lot lately.
Bathtime is a whole new experience when you can sit up and splash. Toys are even starting to make sense now as he can reach for them.

Family Self Portrait

We were hanging out on the floor playing with Mason and just for fun tried to take a picture of the three of us. So it's not the most professional-looking picture but Mason is pretty excited! This picture makes me smile.