Seven Months

1, 2, 3 . . . 7. I can't believe that it has already been that long since Mason entered this world. He is such a happy , healthy baby and doing so well. Through this seventh month, Mason has been working on playing with his feet and building up muscle to sit up on his own. Now, he is able to sit in place and play with his toys for a long while. That is until he tips over and can't get back up. Today, I was realizing that he would fall forward between his legs, but instead of just rolling over on his back or tummy, he was able to push himself up back in the upright position. He's building up muscle in his arms as well as his abs. It's kind of exciting to see him grow and develop. If you listen to him real close, you may hear him say da da. This is exciting for dad, now let's see if he'll say ma ma.

We will see what the 8th month holds!!

Growing up

It's crazy how the boys have changed in the past few weeks. Back at the beginning of April, the physical therapist wanted us to work with Mason with him playing with his feet and building muscle up in his abs, back and neck so that he can learn to sit. We've been working with him as well as his teachers at school and he now plays with his feet and we can sit him up and he will stay for a while. Yesterday, I walked in and Ms. Sue said he had sat up for 10 minutes with her. He's still a little wobbly and will face plant into the floor if you aren't careful, but it is progress. Also, Mason began at the beginning of the month working at school with a sippy cup. Instead of his bottle. He's been doing a great job and no longer takes a bottle at school. I finally got some take in toss cups of our own and he drank out of it for us here at the house. Looks like bye bye bottles and hello sippy. Makes it easier on me for washing dishes.

Jay on the other hand is doing well eating. If you know, we've had trouble with Jay eating for a while. He has mastered eating what we eat in the past year, but is the slowest eater of all. It can take over an hour sometimes. The last two nights he has ate all by himself and has only taken 30 minutes. This is great progress. He is also learning to write his letters at school. I had him writing notes to his and Mason's teachers for teacher appreciation all on his own. He's doing a great job with it.

All in all, we are all staying busy around the house. Spring has sprung and there is tons to do inside and out. We will keep you posted as things change and happen around here.

Tubular Success

Today was the day that Mason received his tubes. It was suppose to be tomorrow, but last week the doctor switched up days due to him wanting a hearing test done at the same time. We up and there at 6:00 in the morning. Of course we were there before the receptionist. We eventually made it the back room and Mason was dressed in his girly looking gown, as the girl next to him was dressed in her boyish looking gown. Total gender mix up on this one. Once they took him back, we were told it would only take about 15 minutes to put the tubes in, but about 45 minutes to an hour for the hearing test. They said there was tons of fluid in his ears and would dramatically better his hearing. The goal during the test was to get the reading down to 25. His right ear reached 20, but his left ear reached 30. If anything, he may have mild hearing loss, but nothing that will really effect him down the line. Overall, it was a success and we will see how well he hears as we go throughout the day.

If you didn't know...

Tomorrow is the 7th annual WDSD--World Down Syndrome Day. Cool huh?! It is March 21st every year because of the 3 chromosomes of the 21st one that they have. On a second note, Mason is doing great. He is becoming really active and rolling over a lot. He's eatting cereal and veggies and about to start fruits. Yum Yum!! Mason isn't the only one that is amazing us. He's finally doing some coloring that is in the lines and not in only black. The stuff really worthy of being pinned on the fridge. He's also really been working on his hand writing. He wrote his name, first and last, today. Yeah!! Our little boys are growing up.

little of this and a little of that

over the last week, mason has added some more food to his diet besides milk and cereal.  i had ms. sue and ms. leslie, his teachers, add a new vegetable this week every 3 days.  we started squash last weekend, added carrots and sweet potatoes through the week, and then tried peas today with daddy.  not too sure about those green things.  yuck!!!

last sunday after church, we ventured out to cracker barrel to have lunch with the hurd's.  i don't think we will do that again.  our 30 minute wait turned into at least an hour and then took longer inside.  we finally made it home around 2:00.  may i remind you we left church right before 11:00.

here's jay showing some skin to the camera as kayla sits there all sweet and innocent.

lately, jay has gotten really good at playing temple run on my phone as well as a few other games.  he's learned some really good hand eye coordination and gave me a chance to get a few things down while he plays sitting in one place.  we like to start the technology early and since schools are going to the iPad, why not teach him now.  just kidding.

saturday night, daddy was feeling a little under the weather, so i took the boys to chick-fil-a at jay's request.  i noticed on Facebook that the store in matthews was having an ice cream sundae bar.  we went and were able to get free green ice cream in honor of st. patty's day.  we finished the night with jay playing on the playground before we came home.

not much of nothing

what have we been up to lately??  not really anything.  we haven't done too much exciting around the house or elsewhere, but our usual, go to school/work, eat, sleep, go to church and hang around the house. garrett did have his basketball team over the spend the night the other friday night that we had the bad storms.  ned hurd and him held the fort down and kept the house in order.  nothing seemed out of place or torn up when i returned.  

jay picked out a shirt for mason the last time we were at the store and wanted to wear it the same day.

big smile!!!

on the kid front, mason's gotten two different colds since i last wrote.  one was sinus and the other bronchitis which caused us to go the doctor to get some meds.  his first taste of amoxicilin and he loves it. mason's also started to eat rice cereal in the last two weeks.  i'm hoping to add some vegetables this weekend or next week.  we'll see if i make it to the store to buy some.  jay continues to play with his friends at school and gets into trouble on occasion.  at least it isn't everyday like i hear from some parents, but he does have his moments of not listening and playing too rough with his friends.  fortunately for him, his teacher loves him and his personality so i don't think he gets in timeout as much as he should.

mommy, give me more food

yummy!!! something tastes good.

tube time

This past week we had a full week of school, meetings, and Mason had a doctor's appointment at the Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor (ENT).  My goal was to go to the doctor and have him checked out of for the fluid in his ears and see if he could get tubes when he turns 6 months old.  The office visit was a success!!   Mason will be getting tubes on Thursday, April 5th (Garrett's b-day).  The doctor explained that in a lot of Down Syndrome children, they typically hold fluid behind their eardrum.  For the fluid to get out, the tube that would is connected to their nose would have to be open to allow air to get in and dry it out, but unfortunately, usually in Down Syndrome children it is very small and most of the times blocked.  They only way for the fluid to get out would be tubes.  They won't do it until they are 6 months old, so here we wait until then.  We don't want the fluid to start effecting Mason's speech and hearing and hopefully we can get a clear reading at his hearing tests after this.

The past Saturdays we've been going to church to watch Garrett coach basketball.  Jay's been a good sport, but to sit there an hour can be challenging.  I've lately been giving him my phone to play with.  He will get it into camera mode and take tons of pictures of himself.  Here is one to leave you with.  I tend to trash the rest of them that are really pictures of nothing.