Four Months of Mason.....

What an action-packed 4th month for Mase!

Although we had a few posts earlier about Auntie Diana's NC visit, Mason's First Thanksgiving and a special visit from GaGa and PopPop Valente, we wanted to wrap up month 4 by highlighting some of the things that Mase has been doing for the last few weeks.   

Mason took for the air for the first time this month as we boarded a flight from Charlotte to Newark in preparation for a busy weekend with friends and family.  The trip started with our annual Chrismukah Party where we got to celebrate the holidays with our closest and oldest friends.  This year's party had so many new additions with the crew adding 5 babies and a new fiance! By the look of these pictures, you can all tell that these parties will never be the same for any of us :)

Also while up North, we had Mason's Baptism.  We are very grateful that so many of our family and friends were able to make it out for his special day.  A big thanks to everyone that made the day such a success especially Mason's Godparents Diana Gebhardt and Dominick Valente.  It was a beautiful ceremony and celebration dinner in Freehold.



Mason still refuses to nap regularly and fights us each and every time he gets tired.  He hates napping in fear that he will miss out on some of the fun when he shuts his eyes!  Luckily he is sleeping 10-12 hours at night so the cat napping during the day is usually enough to keep him content.  

It certainly has been a month of firsts --thumb sucking, sitting in the high chair and rolling over!  Most recently he began to eat real food!  Being one of DaDa's favorites, we decided to start off with carrots.  From the picture you can tell there is about as much on the outside of his mouth that makes it into his stomach :)  

Look forward to our 5 month post since we'll have so much to talk about with Mason's first Christmas and New Years Eve!  


Until then, click here for more Month 4 Mason pictures!

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE...

Mason celebrated his First Thanksgiving with Grandma Lynn, GaGa Martha and PopPop!  We have so much to be thankful for this year and really had a great day filled with lots of yummy yummy food, drinks and relaxin!

Mason got to sit in his high chair for the first time and enjoy the Turkey Day feast table side like such a BIG BOY.  He absolutely LOVED it!

Mase even found his thumb during one of his many holiday siestas.  He is not quite a pro thumb sucker yet but he very well may be on his way if this keeps this up :)

And before we realized it, he finally got himself to roll over!  Check out this video of him in his playroom rolling over from his tummy to his back.....

The holiday festivities commenced with a Skype date with Auntie Diana and a little bit of black Friday shopping!  What a trooper Mase was and what an AWESOME first Thanksgiving he had!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND PHOTOS

Mason Starts Month Four with a BANG!

Auntie Diana came to visit while her studio was closed last week.  She and Mason had so much fun together! It may be a little early, but since we are very busy the next few weeks and Auntie was in town, we decided we were going to go and meet Santa Claus! The elves took a very long time getting things ready but Mason was such a good boy while we waited patiently on line. When he finally got to Santa's lap, he made sure to show him the most serious face he could so he knew he meant business :)




Mason also got a chance to eat off of a spoon while Auntie was in town!  He was eating 8 oz. of formula at night and even wanting more at some feedings so we decided to add a little cereal into the mix.  


Although, he is definitely not LOVING it, he is getting more interested in the spoon each day.  We can't wait to start to introduce fruits next! 


At first he really thought eating off the spoon was GREAT but look how quickly he changed his mind! Check out this video.

Mason also helped us deck the halls and had a great time decorating for our favorite holiday while listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks' Christmas CD!

CLICK HERE FOR MORE MONTH 4 PHOTOS

Month Three Just Flew By!

Wow! Last month we actually said we were going to start keeping up by updating weekly but that obviously did not happen! Another month flew on by and now our BIG BOY is 13 weeks old! It is just getting better every day if that is even possible!

Mason had a great month and enjoyed every second of it with family and friends! We kept the traveling to a minimum but still managed to keep extremely busy.
Along with the Wingates, we enjoyed Carolina Balloonfest 39 and have amazing pictures from the beautiful day out.


For Mason's 1st Halloween, he managed to keep the costume on for about 10 minutes before he had had enough! We managed to get a few shots of him in costume but if you dig in, you'll see shots of him not too thrilled :)

We were lucky enough to have great friends come visit us - The Philips. After a well behaved dinner out at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Mase went to sleep and the adults got to play by the fire!


He is sleeping for longer stretches now but still manages to surprise us every once in a while by waking up in the middle of the night. He's also close to rolling over - check out this video.

Oh so close!

Mason is also FULL of personality and EXTREMELY impatient-like his mommy! He is smiling more often and starting to make louder noises and coos as well! He can sit up in his bumbo all by himself and also grabs whatever toy you put in front of him almost effortlessly!

Maternity leave ended on November 1st and it has been a crazy week to say the very least. A few tears were shed saying goodbye but we are making sure to maximize our time with the little man in the morning and evenings! It is just never enough!


Mase also had fun at his first birthday party - Happy 1st Birthday Skype Greenberg!


This month, we are celebrating Mason's 3 month birthday with his Auntie Diana who will be visiting for the week!

CLICK HERE FOR MASON'S 3 MONTH PICTURES
CLICK HERE FOR MASON'S 3 MONTH VIDEOS

Two Months!

Mason had another action packed month! We started off by celebrating Grandparent's Day and taking Grandma Lynn to a very nice dinner. Mase was a very good boy at dinner and thank goodness because the restaurant was a little quieter than we had anticipated!

We spent most of the month traveling up and down the east coast and had our first family vacation and and even celebrated Mason's two month birthday in our favorite city (Asheville, NC) with the Quinones Family!

Mason hit a few big milestones this month! While in NJ, he grabbed the rings on his mat and even rolled over for the first time while at Great Grandma Gebby's. He has started to coo and smile at us and does this all day long. This is by far our favorite new milestone and melts our hearts each and every time we see that little grin! He is just loving his tummy time and is getting stronger everyday. He also smiles at all of the animals on his playmat and has grown into his rainforest bouncer which he also loves. Mason will also keep busy some days by staring at the lights and fans in our house! He is infatuated!

We visited the doctor for Mason's monthly checkup and he is now a whopping 12.5 lbs and 23.5 inches long putting him in the 75%. He is growing like a weed and the doc was very happy with his progress!! We are loving that he is awake longer during the days and sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night! We just need that long stint to be from 10-6 am as opposed to 8-4 am but we will get there in time! :)

We are gearing up for Halloween and enjoying the last few weeks before Mommy heads back to work on November 1st!  Cannot believe Mase is almost 10 weeks already!  Time just keeps flying on by as everyone said it would.  This month we will be celebrating being married for 4 years... it has been the best year of our lives and we are soo extemely thankful and blessed with the beautiful new addition to our family!!! We love you Mase!

CLICK HERE FOR TWO MONTH PHOTO ALBUM

Our First Family Vacation

A few days after we got back from New Jersey, we packed up and headed to Myrtle Beach to meet the Geiers and Smiths for our first family vacation. The ride was about 4 hours and Mase was a champ! We were so excited to meet their new additions Amelia and Olivia and get a some much needed R&R as well. It actually exceeded exepectations! We had such an amazing time~lots of laughs with great friends!  Here is a video of Mase relaxing and listening to some jams.

The guys played 2 rounds of golf and, in return, sent the ladies to the spa for the afternoon. While at the spa, the boys had the babies at the pool and all eyes were on them! People couldn't believe that 3 men would have 3 babies and not a mommy to be found.

While the guys were golfing, the girls were brave enough to pack up the mini van and spend 5 hours at the outlet mall with the kiddies. We had a great time parading around 3 strollers and 3 babies and also got quite a few looks and comments while there. The kids did a pretty good job of behaving, making it very easy to have a fun day together

The last night we were there we decided to go out for a nice dinner. We had called ahead and warned them that we were coming and would be bringing 3 babies under the age of 4 months. They sat us in the back corner away from most of the other diners. We were all actually thrilled and felt like it was the perfect spot for us "in the event" any of the kids got fussy. We sat down when we first got there for about 5 minutes before Mason was the first to get going. We calmed him down with a bottle and then it was Olivia's turn. Once she calmed down Amelia started. It was actually too funny and we laughed the next day when we decided that all of us did not sit down together the entire dinner except for those first 5 minutes. The best part was that we made the best of it and had great time any way! We actually laughed about it and made the best of it because we were just so happy to be together!!

Mason LOVED his new girl friends and cannot wait to visit and vacation with them again!

CLICK HERE TO SEE VACATION PICTURES!!

Mason LOVES New Jersey!

Anthony had some clients to visit in PA so we decided to take Mason on his very first family road trip to meet some family members and friends in New Jersey! It took us about 12 hours to get there and 10 1/2 to get home but Mason loves his car rides! He only had one meltdown the entire time-such a good little man!

Each day we were on the go but got to visit with some awesome people while there! On our way down, Mase got to meet his new friend Addison Barry when we had breakfast with her and her parents, Dave and Regina, in DC. When we got to NJ, we were thrilled to see Auntie Diana and the AWESOME room she set up for Mason to sleep in. It was equipped with his very own crib, changing table and awesome jungle wall mural and decor. We absolutely LOVED it! He even grabbed his first toy on his play mat when we got there. We caught a quick video of it so check it out!!

Within the first 24 hours, Mason met Mamma Haber, Aunt Sarah, Dana, the Montellas, Great Grandma Gebby and part of the Valente clan at Great Aunt Rose & Uncle Cos's house. We made sure to get some quality time in with Aunt Christina, Uncle Mike and Mase's cousins Jack, Katie and Allie.

We spent a day with Aunt Rachel and also took Mase to Princeton for dinner with the Leibs and Sabinos and even had some time with The Levinsons just a few days before his new friends Sami and Reece surprised us by making their debut a few weeks early!


We ended the week with a visit with Aunt Sarah, Uncle Juan and Miss Olivia and then a visit to Mulligans with the Philips'.  GaGa and Pop Pop hosted a "Meet Mason" soiree so the Loefflers, Sciancalepores, Gadaletas, Valentes and Haddocks got a chance to hang with Mase before we headed back home to NC.

All in all it was a very successful first ROAD-TRIP and first trip to NJ! Hope to do it again soon!!!

CLICK HERE TO SEE NJ ROAD-TRIP PICTURES!

One Month Already!

Happy One Month Mase!

Time just keeps flying on by for us and we are loving every minute watching him grow!


Mason has had lots of firsts this month! We have shared a new album and also wanted to share a few quick highlights of the last few weeks.


Mase enjoyed many of his first shopping adventures including a trip to the grocery store, Southpark Mall and even a visit to the outlets in Gaffney with GaGa and Pop Pop Valente.

This month, he started to sleep in his crib like a very big boy! A huge step for us since we spent much of the first few weeks watching him breath while sleeping and listening to all of the noises he made wondering if he was ok.


His umbilicial cord finally fell off so he was able to enjoy his very first real bath given by Grandma Lynn! He LOVED it! Sooo much better than the sponge bath.


We took a trip into uptown Charlotte to see some co workers and then went to lunch at the Epicentre. That visit was going fabulously until I realized I had left Mason's bottle at home. One thing Mason is not, is patient! Especially when hungry! Luckily there was a CVS across the street but I must admit for a minute there, I was panicked.

The Wingates and Greenbergs stopped by to say hello as well. Although he slept through most of their visit, he thoroughly enjoyed their company and is very excited about having Connor and Skye as friends. He also had a visit from a Meridian friend Mandy and her son Tyler.


Mason loves technology especially talking on Skype! Just this month alone, he had a date with Aunt Diana, The Geiers, The Levinsons and The Quinoneses. His pen pal, cousin Jack, sent him his very first Mickey drawing; Mase was sure to thank him when he chatted on Skype with his cousins and Aunt Christina.

We are just loving the cooler weather and looking forward to our family roadtrips this month! New Jersey and Myrtle Beach here we come. Bring it on FALL! :)

CLICK HERE - MASON'S 1 MONTH PHOTOS!!!!

Mason's Newborn Photo Shoot

Angela Shea came for a visit and took AMAZING photos of Mason.

I have attached the link for you to view the gallery/slideshow but not sure how long it will be working. ENJOY!!!




http://www.angelasheaphotography.com/slideshows/Valentenewborn/

Cannot believe it has been Two Weeks...

We kept very busy during Mason's second week at home. We spent the first few days enjoying the last of Auntie Diana's company! While she was here we went on our first family outing to McAlister's for lunch followed by Target, Marshalls and Home Goods. We had to make sure to introduce Mason to a few of our favorite stores!

On Thursday, we spent a few hours at the Meridian family cookout. Mason was such a good boy and slept the whole time while being passed around to a few brave souls willing to hold a 7 lb peanut! :)

On Friday, we went to the doctor and Mase is in tip top shape! We ran a few errands before Grandpa Gebby and B as well as GaGa Martha and Pop Pop came down from NJ.

We had a great weekend together and he was absolutely spoiled with lots of love, hugs and kisses. On Saturday we went out to listen to our first live band at the local music festival -Weddstock. It was a little warm but the band was AWESOME! 

We also went out to do some outlet shopping and enjoyed our first Mexican dinner with Mase at Cantina 1511. YUM!

We added each week's pictures to Picasa if you want to download any pictures.  Just click on the link below to see the full album.  

Mason's 1st Week
Mason's 2nd Week

One Week Old Today!

Happy One Week Baby Boy! :)

It has been a very exciting week here in the Valente household. Mason is growing and changing very quickly already and for a peanut, he is one tough cookie! We spent most of his first week in the hospital but finally got to come home on Thursday and have been spoiled with so much love from family and friends since home... we cannot THANK YOU enough!!!

Aunt Diana and Grandma Lynn have been very busy helping take very good care of Mason while Mommy and Daddy adjust to parenthood, which right now is a lot of feeding, changing diapers and snuggling! :) We have been working hard to create some kind of schedule at home and so far Mason has been such a very good baby and really is such a lovable mush.

We have also been able to introduce Mase to a few of our family members and friends via Skype. He is already very into technology like his Daddy!

Yesterday, Angela Shea came by to shoot Mason's newborn photos. She also shot our maternity photos a few weeks ago and has published some of them on her blog. Feel free to check them out.
Today Mason had his very first play date with Ashlynn who was born just five days before him. They slept through the entire date and took turns crying when it was time to take a few photos!

PICTURES: CLICK HERE - Mason's 1st Week