Personality:

Mason is still into his cars, but because he is really catching onto how things "work" he is really a lot more interested in other things now too. He likes to take his ducks to the bath, put them on the train for a ride, put them on the slide and has attempted on several occasions to let them visit the nearby pond, but since it is not clean mom has saved them from the unsanitary white porcelain throne...

Mason had his first trip to the zoo this month thanks to my good friend Ellen and he loved it!

Mason is really into mimicking us now. He coughs, he laughs, he makes popping noises with his mouth and gives high fives.

Watch out ladies because he is really into picking flowers, also knows how to rock in his chair by himself and loves playing hide and go seek.

 Development:

Mason has started to repeat "baa baa", "gaa gaa", "uh uh" and "oh oh". Most of the time they seem to be used out of context, but frequently he says "baa" for ball, "gaa" for go, "uh uh" for uh oh and "oh oh" for oink oink. He has also said "bye bye" several times too, but it almost seemed too coincidental. It is really hard to know what he is trying to say, but we think it is fair to say he is experimenting more and more with different syllables and sounds. He is babbling nonstop now. He is rarely quiet unless we are in the car, outside exploring, or eating.

And on his 11 month birthday he started saying "Mama" completely in context. I guess it is fair to say that this is his first word. Amazing. I really never thought with all of the other syllables he has been playing with (none started with an "m") that he would say "Mama" first, but this is one happy mom. :)

Mason is now banging objects together and putting shapes/blocks into their coordinating spots. Watching him maneuver his little hands so that a shape will fit is too cute. He has so much patience and is so focused on making it work. He points by lifting up his whole hand in the direction he is trying to point, so even though he doesn't point with a finger, he does know how to "point" at what he wants. And he absolutely knows what all of his toys names are now too. If you ask him to get ____, he will search for it until he finds it and bring it back to you. He is such a great sharer with his friends and is really loving spending lots of time with kids of all ages just observing and following them around.


We love that he is so social and not shy at all around other kids. We also love that Mason is not scared of anything (yet). We have seen other kids be scared of the dark, big animals, loud noises, etc. but Mason seems pretty fearless unless he gets knocked down, which tends to happen from time to time since he is one of the smaller (and walking!) kids his age.

Mason has also picked up a lot more understanding about his daily routine. If you ask him if he is hungry he will go to his high chair, outside- he will go to the back door, bath- he will walk towards the bathroom, upstairs- he will go to the stairs, and if you tell him someone is here, he will go look out the window. He even brings me my shoes and throws them at my feet to signal me to put them on and when he did not have pants on today he attempted to put them on himself by sitting the pants on top of his feet. I know it isn't the same thing as putting pants on but the fact that he knew to put the pants on his feet was impressive to me. I cannot believe what babies learn in 1 months time. It is a lot of fun watching him catch onto new things each week.

Mason's separation anxiety seems to be much better, so it could have been caused a little by his 3 teeth last month, but he still does not do well at new places with strangers. If he is home and a stranger visits, he is fine. If he is at a familiar place, but a stranger wants to hold him he will try to get out of their arms and sometimes cries. I am relieved that I can leave him places with familiar people and he does great now.