I feel like I post about Mason all of the time, but I realized I haven't posted about all the great things that are going on with him. I have dwelt on the negative things lately and haven't even mentioned what he is up to these days.
Mason is about 19 1/2 months old right now. At his 18 month check up he was 23lbs (33%) , 30 1/2 inches (47%), and his head circumference was 49 cm (89%). I think he's in a growth spurt right now actually. Most of his progress lately has been with speech and some communication stuff. He has learned some new words and understands a lot of words too. I can ask him where his eyes, ears, nose, mouth, head, hair, hands, belly button and toes are and he will point to them. He likes having the fan on and he will ask me to turn it on. (fa on?) He still calls me dad, but when Malone refers to me as Mom, he knows who I am. He just won't say it, the stink! He likes to watch TV, even though I know I should be discouraging it at this age. But he'll ask for a "no?" for show ( and he does this thing where he puckers his lips when he says it, it's so cute). He will give me kisses and hugs when I ask for them, and he is such a good hugger! He will lay his head on your shoulder and pat your back and just stay there. He is such a lovey kid! There have been days when I will be crying about something and he will be so concerned and give me a hug. I love that he is so compassionate! He still does the knuckles thing with everyone he sees. He even gives Malone knuckles before he leaves every morning, as part of his routine. He waves bye and will say it too whenever someone or he goes out the door. Of course he's at the age where he is wanting to be independent but struggles to communicate what he wants. He gets very frustrated and will have a fit. But slowly we are making progress with the communication.
As far as physical progress, Mason is getting braver about standing and walking. He will grab my fingers and encourages me to walk with him a lot. So we will walk together and he loves walking around and exploring outside. Outside is his favorite place! I work with him trying to get him to walk holding just one hand and also stand without holding on to anything. He can do either one for a few seconds. His feet and legs tend to trip him up because his foot turns in on the right and the left one is starting to turn out. It's a muscle imbalance in his lower extremeties. Some muscles are stronger than others and those muscles will pull harder when the ones that would balance those ones out lack the strength. We are looking into figuring out a way to help with that. In the mean time, we are currently waiting on a walker for Mason. It should hopefully be here next week. We are eager for this next "step" for him.
I have to mention that he does this thing where he'll say something like, Oh no! And he'll put his hands to his cheeks. And also, he loves loves loves babies. I have a couple friends with little babies and Mason wants so badly to hold them and pat them softly. He will make an excellent big brother some day. Sometimes on TV when someone is sad, he will say Oh no! and sometimes he will even start to cry. I tell you, he is very compassionate!! And he loves playing with other kids. He plays well with them and just wants to do what they're doing. Because he isn't walking on his own yet, he often gets left behind a bit. But he just crawls along behind them anyway, it doesn't seem to bother him usually.
Mason is such a good boy. He has his moments that frustrate us and we frustrate him probably, but overall he is such a doll. I love snuggling with him (when he lets me!) and spending time with him. He makes me laugh a lot and knows he's funny too. He truly makes our lives wonderful.
