I know I have several posts to add (like maybe Lincon's nine and ten month posts since he's now ELEVEN months old as of today) but I just had to pop in with these cute pictures of Lincoln enjoying the beautiful weather yesterday. A big thanks to our neighbors for the awesome slide!
How is it that Mr. Lincoln is already 8 months old? Time is just flying by. This time last year I was rubbing my belly dreaming about holding him in my arms and now he’s not only here but already babbling and crawling and turning into such a little boy!
1/23/11
Oh what a difference a year makes!
Link has really mastered crawling in these last few months. He’s quick and loves being able to get where he wants to go. He usually has a toy or something in his hand, though, when he wants to go somewhere and for a while he had to choose between crawling or keeping the toy. He figured out a brilliant solution, though, and started carrying things in his mouth. He may look a little funny doing it but I give him bonus points for creative problem solving!
He was by no means bald when he was born, but Lincoln has never really had a ton of hair. Plus it’s fair which makes it harder to see. Over the last month or so, though, it’s really gotten thicker. He finally has enough hair for it to look messed up in the morning. I love it when he wakes up still looking kinda sleepy with his hair fwinging out to the side :-)
Since he was just a few weeks old we have been bathing Lincoln in an infant tub on the bathroom counter. As he’s gotten older he has begun to love splashing around in there so much we decided it would be smart to put the little tub in the big bathtub to help contain the water. Mr. Lincoln, however, did not love this idea. When we put him in the tub-within-a-tub he went absolutely nuts. He screamed and cried and flailed toward us trying to get out. It was simultaneously one of the most pathetic and hysterical thing I’ve ever seen. He has since acclimated to his new bath routine but that first time was a doozy.
He’s not quite ready to dance with the stars but since Christmas Link has been dancing more and more. He bobs up and down to the beat when you put music on and he has also started moving his head around Stevie Wonder style. I really need to get the video camera out more often…
Lincoln has started waving bye-bye! It’s still hit and miss but he knows what it is and what it means. He’s most apt to do it when you don’t ask or expect him to. Stinker.
Our boy may be busy and spirited but he is oh so sweet. It melts my heart when he crawls all the way across the room to me, tugs on my pant leg and looks up at me with those baby blues. How can I resist picking him up?
Clearly Daddy can't resist him either!
His sleeping routine has been fantastic since Christmas. He’s been sleeping 10-12 hours a night. IT. IS. HEAVEN. A good night’s sleep is a beautiful thing. I hope this isn’t just a phase. Now that he’s standing up and pulling up so much he stands in his crib and just looks and you when he wants you to pick him up. Somehow it's much tougher to resist him when he is looking right at you instead of laying down. So sad. So effective.
Solid food is continuing to go great. We still haven’t found anything he won’t eat. He loves pita, hummus, applesauce, chicken, turkey, cheese, avocado, oatmeal, couscous, pancakes, bacon, sweet potatoes, yogurt, meatloaf, broccoli, carrots, cottage cheese, rice, berries - I could go on and on. He even likes lemons! He’s drinking from a sippy cup now too. Such a big little boy.
"Do I have something on my face?"
Lincoln's little baby laughs are pretty much the most best sounds in the world. I love finding new ways to elicit his giggles. Sometimes it's just the little things...
We love having adventures with Link. When it snowed here in January I took him out to play while I shoveled the walk - he loved it! See for yourself:
Although he keeps us on our toes, Lincoln makes us smile every single day.
During the month of December Link and I took some swim classes at the Y. He had so much fun in the pool this summer I knew I couldn't wait until next summer to let him swim again. His teacher was great and wonderful with babies. She showed us some helpful tricks like getting in and out of the pool with him by myself (without using the stairs) and how to help him be comfortable floating on his back. Lincoln loved the little toys she'd bring to play with and his absolute favorite was singing "Wheels on the Bus" while swimming in a circle.
Isn't his little swim outfit cute? His trunks have a shark mouth on his tush. The pool we were in was half for swim lessons and half for old folks water aerobics. The seniors loved seeing the babies and a few of them dubbed Lincoln "Shark Butt." Every week they'd see us walking toward the pool and say "Look! Shark Butt is here!" (Side note: I hope they put extra chlorine in that pool. I'm sure is the grossest one there seeing as it's full of incontinent babies and geriatrics.)
Don't you just love his little prune-y toes?
The lessons were only a half an hour at a time, but I think Lincoln would have happily stayed in the water all day long. He's definitely a water baby.
I know I say this every month, but how in the world did our baby boy get so big so fast? We have a seven month old! Lincoln is just growing up so fast. It's fun to see him change and learn but at the same time his babyhood is flying by way too quickly.
He is buckets of fun these days now that he is quite adept at crawling and beginning to babble more and more. He’s taking full advantage of these new found ways to express himself. He crawls all over the house (usually towards things that he’s not allowed to have) and jabbers up a storm. I don’t think he’s really trying to say anything yet, just letting us know that he is capable of making noise – and lots of it.
Lincoln is becoming very interested in music. He’s likes listening to it mostly, but now he’s beginning to make it. He LOVES playing the piano. I may be a little biased, but I think he’s rather talented ;-) A future Mozart perhaps?
One of his cute new tricks is dancing. He’s not quite fully busting a move yet, but when he hears a beat he starts bouncing up and down. It’s pretty darn ardorable. Hopefully we’ll get it on video soon so you too can enjoy his mad skills.
Link is standing up more and more. He needs help to keep his balance, but he really likes standing up like a big boy. I came home from work one night and he was standing next to the couch, holding on for balance. He was so excited to see me that he took a step forward, assuming he could walk. But gravity of course got the better of him and he faceplanted. Poor kiddo was elated one minute then bawling on the living room floor the next. A few Mommy kisses later he was good as new. With the rate he’s cruising through babyhood, though, I’m sure it won’t be too long before he’s running across the living room to welcome me home.
Once Lincoln hit six months we really delved into the world of solid food. We have sort of followed the Baby Led Weaning approach and mostly given him small bites of what we’re eating instead of purees. He’s done great with it so far - we’ve yet to find a food he won’t eat. We’re hoping this means he won’t be a picky eater as he gets older. We're keeping our fingers crossed!
He is still waking up at least once a night, usually some time between 2 and 4. It's generally not too bad and on days that I work I just consider it a bonus that I get to spend 15 more minutes with him that day. The worst, though, is when he wakes up at 5 and my alarm i s set to go off at 5:15. Bleh!
I can hardly believe our little baby boy is half way to his first birthday. When did that happen? Everyone tells you time will just fly by after you have a baby but you don’t quite get it until you experience it for yourself. This has been the fastest yet most wonderful six months of my life.
Mr. Lincoln continues to be our little mover and shaker. Not only did he start sitting up all by himself this past month, but he started crawling too! He’s still army crawling most of the time but has started getting up to his hands and knees more and more. Now that he’s mobile he is into EVERYTHING. He is a busy busy boy. Sometimes, of course, this is a challenge but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love our spirited little boy!
He’s really starting to like his toys now that he can play with most of them, but like most babies he likes playing with everyday things more than anything. When we were on a flight back home from Omaha he was playing with a little cardboard coffee cup sleeve from Starbucks (and ignoring all the fun toys we brought with us of course) and once he starting tearing it to pieces with his little teeth and trying to eat it we took it away from him. You would have thought we were torturing him the way he screamed. Luckily being the savvy parents we are we had managed to grab a stash of sleeves to keep him amused for hours so we happily pulled out a fresh one for him to gnaw on. Being first time parents, however, we neglected to realize that what we thought would amuse him for hours actually amused him for about four minutes. Awesome. We somehow managed to keep him entertained for four more hours and all made it home in one piece without our fellow passengers shooting us too many dirty looks.
Lincoln definitely takes after his Daddy in that he loves all things technology. He loves to gnaw on electronic cords, pound on computer keyboards, and chew on cell phones. He had a ball playing on the ipad with Uncle Benny and Gampy.
Link still loves being swung around – especially upside down. Maybe he’ll be an acrobat someday. He also loves to spin in circles. I hold him close and we spin until we’re both dizzy. He smiles and coos and it is just so adorable. Now that he can crawl it’s fun to put him down after twirling and watch him try to crawl in a straight line :-) I know, I know – Mom of the Year here.
Alice and Scout are getting more and more used to Lincoln. They have a new challenge, though, now that he’s getting more mobile. His loves to pull their tails as they are trying to escape his clutches. Subsequently the new word we’re working on is gentle. It’s a work in progress for sure.
Now that Lincoln has hit six months we've started our journey into the world of solid food. We started with rice cereal which he happily ate a few times but once we started introducing other foods he quickly lost interest in it. Such a refined palate for such a young age ;-)
He now has three little teeth in his sweet little baby mouth. They are just too cute. It’s amazing how much older they make him look – especially now that he has one of his two front teeth. Unfortunately it's tough to get a picture of his upper chomper. Maybe by next month...
Even with three little teeth, breastfeeding is still one of my favorite times with Lincoln. I love just snuggling close to him and giving him just what he needs and loves. My mom told me not too long ago that I stopped nursing at seven months. I will be SO sad if Lincoln stops nursing next month. I hope I can still breastfeed him and that he's still interested for months and months to come.
Life with our son is pretty darn fabulous. We just couldn't imagine life without him.
Six months ago our world was turned upside down – and we love it!
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As a bonus for reading this entire post here is a funny little video of Lincoln trying a new food :-)
Hooray - winter is finally here! We've been waiting for a good snow and today it arrived. I had lots of things I could have been catching up on today (like, um, this blog for example) but instead I bundled up the baby and we headed outside. We took the sled for a spin around the yard and Lincoln "helped" me shovel the driveway and sidewalk. He also had a few bites of snow and surprise, surprise he liked it! That's our boy - he'll eat anything :-)
Wowza the last few months have flown by. Lincoln is already 5 months old and I'm just now writing his 4 month post! I think the last few months have gone by so quickly because I went back to work when Lincoln was three months old.
That first day back was torture but it's been getting better since then. I still don't like leaving him all day (or night, depending on my rotation) but I know it's good for both of us. He gets to socialize with other babies, interact with different adults, and enjoy a different environment. I get to interact with adults, feel like I'm making a difference in the world and keep up my nursing skills. I'm hoping to be able to cut back to part time some day but for now I'm trying to focus on the positives. At least I have a job, a job I really like, and that I get to stay home 4 days a week with Lincoln while still working full time.
Clearly Lincoln seems to be coping okay!
At his four month check up back in September he:
weighed 16 lbs 0 oz (60th percentile)
was 25 7/8 inches tall (82nd percentile)
had a head circumference of 42.75 cm (82nd percentile).
He continues to be our big little guy :-)
By four months old Lincoln...
...had two teeth! He got his first at 14 weeks, 2 days old and his second two days later. My baby had teeth at three and a half months - crazy!
...was a little rolling machine. He had already mastered back to front and front to back but he started putting it all together to get where he wanted to go. He could move at least 3 to 4 feet just by rolling. Such a little mover and shaker!
...was in love with water. He was always splashing away in the bath tub and had a ball whenever we took
him to the pool. He'll probably be swimming on his own by next summer!
...was still madly in love with and fascinated by his hands and feet.
...was VERY interested in whatever other people around him were doing. If you were reading, he'd want to have your book to chew on. If you were eating, he'd want to eat. If you were cooking, he'd want to cook with you (or at least grab each ingredient you pick up). He's so interested in the world around him and is so fun to watch him explore.
...starting getting defiant. By four months - I know! Whenever he didn't want to get into his carseat or swing he would arch his little back like a cat being forced into the bathtub. It was annoying and highly effective. He's not doing it as often anymore but when he does it it's actually quite a challenge to wrestle him into his carseat.
...had an adorable Who-'do (as in Dr. Seuss's Whos). He has this one hair on top of his head that is about two inches longer than all the rest. I LOVE it and will be so sad when I look for it one morning and it is gone.
...continued getting more and more verbal. I love this video of him making his new favorite sound. His constant babbling, squeals, and coos are just adorable. I can't wait to hear his little voice once he starts talking.
...had really mastered picking up his toys and refined his hand-eye coordination. He could easily pick up a toy that looked fun and most of the time could easily get it to his mouth or his other hand for further exploring.
...had gone through his first illness. He caught some sort of GI virus (gotta love daycare!) and was throwing up and had diarrhea for over a week. I just felt so bad for our lil buddy. There's nothing worse than seeing your child sick and not being able to do anything about it except love on and snuggle him ;-( He was a trooper, though, and even though he felt crummy he was pretty much his usually happy self.
I'm sure there are more things he started doing in his fourth month but that's all I can think of for now. Month by month he is getting more and more interactive and fun. I love watching him grow and learn but at the same time he is doing it all too quickly! I'm sad that he's growing up so fast and that before I know it he'll be my little boy instead of my little baby. So I am trying to make the most of each day and soak in all his adorable baby-ness while I can. Because he is just the best. thing. ever.
