Monday, May 20, 2013

8 Month Adventures

Mason is now 8 months and is surprising us each day with how much he is learning and growing. Right now Mason loves to stand, and walk along the couches.


 He is still slow and falls every now and then but is getting better balance and catches himself more often.  He also learned to clap his own hands.  He doesn't hit them together very hard but lightly brings them together when he's really excited or is playing with his hands, something he has always loved.

We knew that Mason loved the theme song from "Big Bang Theory", but Christoper found a new song that Mason is obsessed with.  We watched Wreck it Ralph on Mother's Day which had Mason's full attention with the songs and bright colors.  On his computer Christopher pulled up the song from the movie, "When Can I See You Again," and Mason loved it.  As soon as it was done he started making noises at Christopher for him to play it again. Now every time either one of us pulls our computer out Mason gets excited thinking we'll play the song for him, we usually do.  Christopher even downloaded it to his i-pod and Mason will smile, clap and swing his arms when it comes on.


Mason also had a phase of really high-pitched excited squeals.  He just did them one morning and they came every time he was really excited about a toy, or being picked up or just at random times when he was happy. The last week and a half they have died down and we have heard very little of them.

With summer on it's way we had to get Mason a hat for his big bald head, and had the chance to try it out one afternoon when we went to the park with our friends the Owens.  Mason was pretty good when we were at the park, as long as he was held.  We could tell he was tired and tried to get him to sleep so we could play, but he wouldn't.  As soon as we were ready to leave we put him in his carseat, Christopher picked him up and about 15 seconds later he was out.  He was pretty cute with his hat on and airplane in hand as he slept.


Spokane has a really cool attraction downtown that we got to visit.  They have gondola rides that go out over the river and the water is pretty high this time of year.


We parked at the law school and walked down the Centennial Trail to Riverfront park.  When we got on the gondola Mason was really excited, he was doing his high pitched squeal and smiling the whole time.


I was nervous he wouldn't like it because he isn't the biggest fan of elevators, but he loved riding in the gondola. The view was really good of all the water rushing over the falls and it felt really good to have some of the mist come in our gondola that was starting to act a little like a oven. Mason took turns riding with us and could barely sit still during the ride he was so excited.


  He was a champ during the ride and on the walk to and from the park.  It was warm that day so Christopher and I split a tiger's blood snow cone.  It was a pretty perfect day!


We had a surprise from Mason one night when he was standing on the couch and decided to start falling out to us. He would stand a little on his own, then usually fall straight forward at us or back into the couch.  I wanted to get some video of Mason standing by himself, instead I got this!


Since he learned that he could stand by himself against the couches he has absolutely no interest in being on the ground anymore.  He is most content sitting on the floor not on his stomach or back, and even then it's only for about 10 minutes before he starts whining and grabbing at your legs or the couch, anything to try and pull himself up.  He hasn't learned how to pull himself up to the couches yet, when he does I'm sure he'll be so excited and much harder to keep up with!


 He is a happy boy who loves to play, watch us cook and clean in the kitchen from his bumbo, and laugh at  Christopher's silly faces.  I can't wait for him to start being able to follow us around and start exploring.