Keeping Up With the Joneses

Mason had another dr's appt yesterday and it was quite an adventure. He was just fine in the waiting room, but as soon as the nurse called his name he started screaming at the top of his lungs. The whole time we were there he was screaming, kicking, and crying bloody murder. The doctor didn't even touch him but he acted like he was getting shots. He screamed until we left the building. Anyway, Mason weighed in at 20lbs 12 oz, which is a 3 oz improvement on last month. This isn't great, but considering in that time he had a concussion and lost almost 2 lbs, the doctor was satisfied. He said just to keep feeding him half and half and butter and to bring him in if he doesn't gain a lb every 2 months. Hopefully we won't have to go back until Mason's 2 year appointment.

News is starting to get out that the Jones family is expanding. We are expecting a baby the end of April 2007 and are really excited. I had my first ultrasound yesterday and saw an actual baby, kicking and squirming. We're not sure Mason really understands, but when I ask him where mommy's baby is, he lifts up my shirt and kisses my belly. I think he'll be insanely jealous, but we have a while to prepare him. We bought him a shirt that says "I'm going to be a big brother" and he is proud of it.

Marshall has been in San Francisco all week, and Mason has missed him. So much, I think, that he has an imaginary daddy. The last 2 nights Mason has wanted milk at 5:30 AM, so I give it to him in bed with me. After he is done I take him back to his crib to sleep some more. The last two mornings as I'm carrying him back to his room he's said "bye-bye daddy!" Also, when I take him upstairs to bed he says "bye-bye Thomas, bye-bye car, bye-bye puter (computer), and bye-bye daddy". I think he thinks that Daddy is living inside the computer because we've been web-caming him. He'll be so excited when his daddy comes home on Friday!

On monday night I put Mason to bed as normal and then went to the bathroom. As soon as I came out of the bathroom I could hear him playing with the blinds in his room. I opened the door, and Mason jumped down into the middle of his bed and pretended to be asleep. I said "what are you doing young man?" and he looked up at me and said "horsies mommy!" We have a horse pasture in our backyard, and he loves to look at the horses morning and night. I said "Mason, no more horsies--night-night". As I was leaving he said, waving his finger "mommy? No, no, no, no horsies! Night-night." It was just so cute. He went right to sleep.

Mason and Mom my. Mason was insisting on webcamming with grandpa, but he wasn't there. I had to keep him occupied!! 

So we thought after those tests a few weeks ago, things couldn't get worse. But they definately did. Last Wednesday Mason was playing with William and Joseph on Nicole's waterbed, and he fell onto the frame and had a concussion and dislocated his shoulder. He had to go to the hospital and get a CAT scan and X-Ray. They sent him home thinking he would be okay, but he threw up a couple times an hour for the next 2 days. We were so worried about the poor guy. On Thursday morning I took him back to the doctors and he had lost 2 lbs and was dehydrated. We were told to go back to the hospital for another CAT scan if he didn't stop throwing up that afternoon, but fortunately he stopped that evening. The worse part of it for mommy was that his head hurt so bad, and the tylenol only lasted about 2-3 hours, but we couldn't give him another dose until it had been 4 hours. After 2 hours he brought the tylenol to me and said "pleeeease, mommy? Tylenol? I a good boy". ...

Yesterday was pretty rough for Mason. He had his 18 month check-up at 9 AM. He's been really healthy for a while, so I thought everything would go smoothly. But he weighed in at only 20 lbs 4 oz, and the doctor was really concerned that he wasn't gaining weight. He looked in his eyes and said he had pallor, which was a symptom of malnutrition. He grilled me on what we feed Mason, and said that even if he was just absorbing the milk we were giving him that he should be healthier. So he referred us for some blood and urine tests at the hospital and said to go that day so we could get the results ASAP. At the doctor's office he got a shot, and screamed until he got a Thomas sticker. At the hospital it took three of us to hold him down so they could take blood, and they had to do it twice to get enough. Mason was absolutely traumatized. He cried for about 30 minutes. He kept ripping the bandaids off, so they had to wrap up his whole arm in bandages until the bleeding stop...