Hope all of Mason’s fans out there had a wonderful holiday.  For those of you who we missed with the Christmas card, here you go!

Andrea and I had a very nice (and much needed) holiday break.  We were downstate with our families the whole time, so Mason has had lots of grandparent time.  It’s definitely nice to have extra sets of hands around, but I think we both missed our friends in Mt. Pleasant and our own home.

This being our first Christmas with a baby, we were inundated with cute holiday outfits for Mason.  I think this was our favorite–although a button down front makes it not so easy to change diapers in.

Andrea’s brother Jeff was also in town for the week, so Mason got to see a lot of him.  Jeff lives in Florida, so it was nice that he got to spend so much time with us.  I think with all of the activity and people, Mason probably wore himself out a little bit.  Case in point:

All in all, it was a great time for all of us.  Mason got to see all his biggest fans, Mom got to sleep some, and Dad didn’t have to get up at 5am and go to work.

Mason has hit a new stage in which he seems to be developing at lightning speed.  In the time that he was downstate, he started clapping, waving, saying ‘mama’, and almost crawling.  He hasn’t figured out that he needs to crawl on his knees–he keeps doing pushups and stays there on his hands and toes trying to figure out what to do next.

He’s also figured out how to open his mouth for the spoon, which makes mealtime MUCH cleaner.  He has actually been eating better–but only with solid foods.  He still doesn’t like to take the bottle, but as long as he’s still filling diapers and gaining weight, we won’t complain.  Oh that reminds me, he’s up to 28 1/2 inches and 18 pounds, 9 ounces.

For some reason, Mason doesn’t like sweet foods, though.  He loves vegetables, but most fruits he doesn’t seem to like at all.  Recently we tried vanilla custard with bananas (Mmmm!), but apparently they were too tart for him.  He kept making great faces–I’ll try to get a video up in the next post.

Andrea and I are gearing up for Mason’s next surgery on February 4th.  Having come through the first one, we are a little better prepared this time, but we also know how long of a week it’s going to be.

For those who aren’t familiar, the first surgery closed Mason’s lip and nose, but the roof of his mouth is still open.  This surgery will close his palate, and make his mouth as physically ‘normal’ as it will ever be.  He’ll never have bone in his palate, so it will not be quite like most babies, but for the first time in his life Mason’s nasal and oral passages will be two different things.  Keep him in your prayers!

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 11:59 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.