11 Months of Mason

• Since he's mastered crawling, he's decided to take the stairs whenever he can (ie. whenever I'm not looking). He's fallen once and remained flat on his back like a bug until I came to pick him up. That didn't faze him, as he was right back at it within minutes. 
• We lost him at family dinner on the 7th and he had climbed all the stairs by himself up to Teagan's room.
• He doesn't crawl. He cruns. That's crawling and running combined. He's found that he's fastest when he uses his feet instead of his knees, so hardly does the latter.
• He loves blowing raspberries on glass - mirrors, windows...it's hilarious.
• He sprouted a tooth near the beginning of the month and is just working on his second. Babies younger than him look older than him. And a lot like a scene from Jaws.
• He can bonk heads, high five and give kisses on command. And by "kisses" I mean he will lean into your lips with his mouth wide open. It's an experience.
• He gets so goofy at bedtime. An 8 oz. bottle takes entirely too long to feed him because he's so busy giggling, sticking his fingers up your nose and grabbing your lips.
• He loves music - he calms right down when I sing to him.
• He always LOVES being outside. If he's crying, 10 times out of 10 you can take a step outside and he stop and be perfectly fine. Until you try to take him back inside.
• His passion for music and the outdoors leads me to believe he'll be a wandering minstrel when he grow up. 
• In addition to being outside, he loves to be anywhere he isn't supposed to be - the toilet, the shower, the garbage. It's unreal.
• One of his favourite indoor haunts is the treadmill upstairs. If all the bathroom doors are closed, he's usually sitting serenely on the stationary treadmill, or squealing because he's stuck and can't get off.
• He babbles, running his fingers across his lips, a la Hook (a movie from the 90s.) Brandon calls him Bangarang from time to time.
• He's VERY communicative. He knows exactly what he wants and grunts at it, flails and growls at you until you get it right. I can't wait for him to speak.
• Speaking of speaking, his first word was BABY on September 28th, just shy of 11 months. He caught me completely off guard and repeated "baby" numerous times, completely melting my heart.

Mason Moment:

I'm always torn when my kids go off on their own - which, for the record, has only happened a handful of times. I want to enjoy my incredibly rare time alone, but at the same time wonder what they are doing. I went downstairs to switch some laundry the other day and snuck back up the stairs quietly to see if I could catch a glimpse of what they get up to when I'm not around. It was darling. Teagan was talking to Mason softly and sweetly and he was just exploring. After a minute or two, he caught me and our eyes connected across the room. His face lit up like a Christmas tree and he immediately began to crun towards me as fast as his tiny body could. I scaled the makeshift baby gate and squeezed that little nugget as hard as I could. It was so precious. My love for this little man grows almost as fast as he does. Which is fast.