Mr. Lincoln at 10 months

Lincoln is a little over 10 months now, and so now I'm late in documenting his many talents. But here's a little rundown about what he's been doing lately:

• One of his biggest accomplishments is that he can now crawl up the stairs and back down. He figured out how to go backwards off of everything higher up, which is not only a relief for us so we don't have to panic that he's going to fall off, but he also seems to think he's pretty cool.
• He has 4 teeth on top and now he has a pretty goofy grin. It's quite adorable.
• He figured out how to open cupboards. I was hoping that would never happen, but I guess it's time to put those baby proofed things on the doors.
• He is getting really good at standing while holding on to anything or just by balancing on the wall, but he still hasn't made any attempts to walk. He doesn't seem to really care about that yet, which is fine with me. No rush.
• At least a few times a day he wants nothing but to be carried or held. At first I thought it was because he was just needy, but now I'm thinking it's because he likes the view from a few feet higher. He definitely doesn't want to miss anything! :)
• As of July 12th he was 21 lbs and 30 inches long. I was slightly surprised to learn he was in the 96th percentile for height! He's a tall one! Hopefully he keeps that up!

North Carolina Vacation

Here's a bunch of pics from our vacation last week! It was a blast!

This was our first view of Ocean Isle beach. We drove 10 minutes from Aunt Lois's house to get to the pier and check everything out. Nate, McKayla and Sean couldn't hold back and they all ended up getting in the water fully dressed! Lincoln got a little wet too when Sean tried to put his feet in. He was a little bit scared, so I just held him on the shore and watched them have a blast in the water. It was hot, but beautiful!

Aunt Lois and Uncle Ray still own the local put-put golf course in Ocean Isle. Terea took us to play a round on our first night. Not surprisingly she totally kicked our butts! haha! Lincoln had fun getting to ride around on Sean's shoulders several times during the week. He also loved the Mango sherbert stuff Sean got for dessert that night at the local ice cream shop.

Monday, after spending the day on Ocean Isle,  we went to Calabash, NC for dinner at a restaurant that is owned by Grandma Joyce and Aunt Lois's sister. It's called Nancee's. It is right on the water and they are known for serving fresh seafood. I really like shrimp, and let me tell you, this shrimp is really fresh! But, I have to admit, since I'm not a huge fan of cocktail sauce I felt like eating this super fresh shrimp was just kinda bland. I prefer it cooked with more sauces and seasonings. After we went to the restaurant we went over to the Nautical Gift Shop. It's this huge gift shop that even has tons of Christmas decorations year round! We got Lincoln a night light with a turtle on it. He picked it out himself!

Tuesday we spent most of the day at Myrtle Waves, a water park in Myrtle beach. I didn't really take any pics, but it was really fun! That night on our drive back to Ocean Isle we stopped off at Broadway on the Beach. It's like a boardwalk around a little lake that has shops, restaurants, and also the Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not Aquarium. We had dinner at this Mexican place that was super fun and loud and crazy. A balloon lady made us balloon hats just before we were leaving. It was cool!

The view from a pier at Myrtle Beach.

I love this picture of Lincoln! He just looks so cute! We ate lunch at this little restaurant that was on the pier where I took the picture above. Then we went for a swim on the beach.

Lincoln loved playing in the sand. We found an area on the beach that had a lot of puddles. Lincoln crawled around for about 15 minutes. He loved exploring and playing in the muddy sand. It was so cute to watch him. As you can see in this pic he has a scratch on his face from falling and hitting the side of a coffee table at the house. It wasn't a super sharp edge, thank heaven, but it was made of glass so it left a mark. It's healed now, but I felt bad he got hurt.

Now Lincoln is pooped after playing all day!

This was at the airport on the way home. We flew really early in the morning, but luckily Lincoln pulled through and did fine on the planes. He slept most of the time

We had such a great time! It was so fun to stay with family and relax and play together!

9 months

Playing in the crib.

 Lincoln is already 9 months old! Let me tell you a little bit about him: He has become quite a fantastic crawler. 2 months ago I thought he would never crawl. He hated being on his tummy and wouldn't even roll over to get onto his back. At 8 months he started to get up on all fours and by the end of May he was going slow, but getting around. Now he's a pro. He's turned into a little explorer as he goes from room to room in the house and checks things out. He pulls himself up on everything he can, and he is also confidant enough to sit back down and move to the next thing. That skill took a week or so to figure out as well. He gets into anything interesting he can find. But luckily he hasn't figured out how to open cabinet doors yet, so he mostly just plays with whatever I leave out for him on the floor to discover.

Loved the swing. Wasn't scared for even a second.

Lincoln loves to pull down all those DVD's and books on our shelf. He also loves to pull himself up on the TV stand a push all the buttons on the sound system. He doesn't know he's pushing them but he will turn the sound on and of several times while we are trying to watch something. It's funny...and also annoying. But mostly funny. :)

Lincoln totally hated the baby pool I got for him and Sean. Sean put his feet in the water while it was cold and he freaked out and would scream every time we brought him near it afterwards. Sean even got warm water in there and he still freaked when we put him in there. haha.

Lately Lincoln hates everything I do to keep him clean. He hates having his face wiped. He won't let me brush his teeth. He spits out fluoride vitamins. He screams when i get him dressed. But the worst of it is that he now hates having his diaper changed. As soon as I lay him down on the bed he starts crying and tries to make a run for it. Usually before I can even get the diaper off he is already trying to roll over and crawl away from me across the bed. Getting a fresh diaper back on is also a nightmare. I have to pin him down just to get it on especially because cloth diapers take just a little extra coordination, but I am determined not to waste my precious disposables just because he is going thorugh this little stubborn phase. Now that I expect him to run away it's not a big deal unless he has pooped. Just know it gets messy. And I wanna go crazy. :)

Here's a pic of him on the run across our bed. No diaper.

Fresh from the bath.

Lincoln still loves his baby food, and he loves his milky. As far as nursing goes I don't really see him quitting anytime relatively soon.  This past week I even made some baby food for him and it was the easiest thing ever. All I did was throw the fruits of veggies in the blender, puree them, and then you stick them in ice cube trays for a few hours. After they are frozen you take them out of the trays and put them in freezer bags and then just warm them up when you're ready to eat them. He's started to learn how to eat food he can chew. So far he loves cheese and small chunks of fruit. His top two teeth just barely cut through his gums, so I think he'll be getting better at feeding himself soon.

Kitchen utensils make wonderful toys. :)

Fathers Day

             

Sean's first fathers day was wonderful! We started off with a yummy breakfast before church and ended with making cookies at 10:30 at night. In between we went up to Highland to celerate with my dad and Nate and McKayla. Sean requested to have a BBQ with all the fixin's and so we did! He made the burgers and they were super good!! It was a delicious meal.

As a gift I got Sean new swim trunks and a baby pool for him and Lincoln to play in this summer. Random fact about Sean: when it comes to giving and receiving gifts he has the patience level of about -5. I always get my gifts early, and now his anxiousness has rubbed off on me and I can't seem to wait to give him gifts until the day of the event either. But, for the last 4 days I had self control and he opened his gift at dinner! I did, however, make the mistake of telling him yesterday morning that I got him a gift and he begged me to tell him what it was for like 10 minutes. Then he wanted to play 20 questions to try to figure out what it was going to be. haha. I answered 2 questions and then decided he couldn't ask anymore cuz he would probably figure it out.  More often than we realize our conversations sound like two little kids bargaining with one another. Weird...I know.

Anyways, Happy Fathers Day, Seany! We love you! :)

Crawling Photos

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

1. The good: Lincoln officially started crawling on the night of the 31st, and yesterday morning he started off the day crawling around and having a great time. He is also already getting into mischief, and I need to start baby proofing everything asap.

2. The bad: Lincoln has started biting me while nursing. The first few times he did it I yelped in pain and firmly told him 'NO BITING'. He cried. So I did a little reading and decided that next time I would be watching him very closely and as soon as he started to bite down I would stick my finger in his mouth and force him to unlatch. He also cried like I had terribly hurt his feelings. haha. Is he just mad because he's getting caught? I don't know. I just hope he makes it through this phase quickly.

3. The ugly: Lincoln has never been a good sleeper. He had made significant progress sleeping through the night until he started teething. For at least a month he has been waking up every 3 to 4 hours every night. This week has gotten even worse because he also won't take his naps during the day without going down with a serious fight. Last night was bad. He woke up, I fed him, but then he didn't fall back asleep and just progressively became more alert. I was exhausted trying to rock him in the rocking chair, pat his back, etc to help him relax, but nothing was working. I layed him down in the crib for a few minutes to take a break and of course he starts crying etc. I let him cry for a few minutes until I worked up the patience to go back in and deal with him. By this point almost an hour had passed and Sean had woken up as well. I went back in the room and layed Lincoln on the bed to change his diaper at which point I start to tell him that it is the middle of the night and he needs to go back to sleep. I proceeded saying that he was driving me crazy and that I might lose my mind and then eventually my hair and teeth will all fall out. We sat back in the rocking chair and finally he dozed off. Sean heard the whole thing and has not stopped making fun of me for it since we woke up. I guess the hair and teeth thing were a little much. haha. But that's what happens to me in the middle of the night. I pretty much go crazy.

4. The silver lining: When Lincoln woke up again I brought him to bed with us... we both fell asleep again and then he woke up first. He climbed up on me and gave my cheek the most slobbery 'kiss' it's ever seen. Sean happened to see the whole thing in action... I was half asleep and just remember a lot of spit. I'm not sure if Lincoln was trying to show affection or not, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he does really love me afterall. :)

8 months and Thumbsucking

This week Lincoln passed his 8 month mark. And apparently he likes to suck his thumb. He has been doing it a lot the past few days and we have caught several pictures to prove it. Sean was a thumbsucker, so he thinks it's super adorable. I think it's really cute as well, but my realistic side is thinking about my fears of having to break such habits . . . but I decided I'm just not going to worry about it. We'll see how long this little phase lasts, I guess.

A couple days ago.

This was just this morning. He was playing with his toys and then got bored I guess . . . so he layed down and went to sleep.

Last night going to bed.

Yesterday morning in the carseat while we were getting some breakfast.

In other news, Lincoln has been learning a lot these past few weeks. He can almost crawl. He can get around on the floor by scotting himself on his belly and using his hands and knees, but he's not actually crawling. I'm pretty sure he's loving his new-found freedom, and it will only get better once he picks up speed.

He still loves baby food and he still loves to nurse. He's never been a pro-sleeper and has actually gotten worse since his teeth started coming in. He was sleeping 6 to 10 hours straight every night for a while, but not anymore. :(

Lincoln loves his toys. He will sit and play with them on the floor for like 30 minutes while I get chores done. I keep a basket next to my bed of all his baby supplies like lotion, vitamin droppers, vaseline, the bulb syringe etc... and there is also toys and books and stuff in it. He loves to get over to it and dump everything out. I'll just lay at the edge of the bed and watch him take each thing out, look at it, shake it around, drop it, and then go for the next thing. It's so funny.

He can also pull himself up on things. These pics are of him holding onto our bed. He has pulled himself up on the bed and he can pull himself up in the crib or also on our pant legs. He is really just too much fun. And obviously I have taken a billion pictures of him, but I can't help it! He's just so darn cute and constantly entertaining us! We love him!