Mason's first 3 weeks at preschool and preparing for his baby brother

I thought I would be blogging more since I've been on bedrest, but I find my brain a little more foggy than usual. The end is in sight as I am being induced on Wednesday. As much as I have hated being on bedrest, I am grateful for some things that bedrest has allowed me to do. I've been able to spend a lot of time with my sister-in-law Erin, niece Helen, and nephew Bo since they have and will be watching Mason most days (and they've been taking care of me). Besides feeling closer with all of them, I think it's helped Mason transition to this new change in his schedule better. Even though I'm not bringing him to school or taking care of his every need, I'm around him as others are taking care of him. This week will be the true test of how he does with the new schedule and with me not around.

Mason has done so well at school these first three weeks. He seems to love his teacher and blows her a kiss every day as he leaves. He even runs right into his classroom without a backwards glance at Zach, grandma, or grandpa (who takes turns dropping him off).  We've gotten some notes from his teacher and speech therapist on different days. Most days he has participated fully and enjoys most activities. Mason has a lot more "words" lately, but they want to work on the quality of his sounds/words. Here is a note from his speech therapist after a cool activity last Friday that integrated all the different therapists and teachers: 

We really have noticed a lot of improvements at home too. I wish I knew all the strategies his teachers/therapists know! I never knew how many strategies there are to help kids learn who learn differently than normal!! The biggest area we've noticed improvements in is communication. It's such a broad area to explain and some of the improvements are hard to explain unless you experience Mason every day. We definitely notice him following our directions more and he tries to communicate more. For example, we FaceTime with a lot of people but especially his Aunt Jenni, Uncle Lucas, and cousin Phineas in Seattle. Normally, he either ignores the fact that we are trying to get him to say hi/wave to them or he tries to take my phone to play games. This past week, he sat down to look at Aunt Jenni, he pointed and said "baby" to Phineas, he waved and said "hi," and he (kinda) blew a kiss. That was so impressive to see him not only follow directions to say/do communication tasks, but also do it over a FaceTime call.

I've been thinking and appreciating some of my favorite Mason-isms as I get closer to delivering his new baby brother. Thinking of this big life change for our family has made me feel nostalgic. One of my favorite things about Mason is when he experiences his happiness to the fullest. He has no shame, thought, nervousness, or social norms that he thinks about when experiencing any emotion. When he is getting annoyed at me laying on the couch, he pulls the blanket off of me and tries to drag me by the hand to play trains with him. Then I ask, "Mason, do you want mama to come play trains with you?" His response is the purest, most joyful, "Yeah!" This is just a simple task that I was able to put words to where he felt acknowledged and understood. I love hearing his "Yeah" for all the little things he gets excited about. I have said it before, but I love his happy face and huge smile while he's on the swing. You know you are seeing Mason when everything is right in his world. It's relief, stress-free, joy, and  peace that he is experiencing. I love experiencing his happiness with him because it feels like I am giving him a gift of making sense of the world around him. Now, I will add that the flip side is that we get to experience the full brunt of negative emotions, which to say is challenging is an understatement. It's painful to feel helpless in how to help him make sense of consequences and so many general life experiences.

We are excited for meeting baby boy McCurdy this upcoming week and hoping that this transition goes as smoothly as possible for Mason. Before I went to the hospital to have Mason, I remember looking at our old dog Maggie and thinking, "How can I love a child as much or more than I love my Maggie." Nothing could prepare me for the love I feel for Mason. Now I sit and think, "How can I love another child as much as I love my Mason." I can't wait to be overwhelmed by the all-consuming love for this next son.