{ Breakfast: The Most Fun Meal of the Day! }

{ Updates! Get Your Updates! }

Keep scrolling to read about Lincoln at six months, seven months, and eight months as well as our winter swimming adventures.  Enjoy!

{ Holy Eight Months, Batman! }

(Click here for last month's picture)

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.

What more could we ask for? :-)

{ Splish Splash }

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.

Isn't he cute? :-)

{ Holy Cow! Seven Months }

(Click here for last month's picture)

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!

Good thing he's cute ;-)