Finding the sweet spot.

I am in a good place right now.

I seem to be finding my niche in it all right now.

I am joyful and content where I am right now.

Feelings like this are sometimes fleeting.  I want to remember this.

I need to remember how wonderful it is to be in love with my husband and to adore our son.
I need to continuously remember how blessed we are to be healthy!



There are so many things every single day that try to distract from this feeling I have.  Friendships in flux.  Expectations others place on me that I cannot meet.  Deadlines I will not achieve.  Bills I forget to mail, so I pay online ;) Dishes stacked in the sick and dust piling on the mantle.  I may not have time for twice weekly visits to the grandparents.  My toes may not have been painted in a month :(  I may not have returned too small pants that have been in my car for two weeks and shirts hanging on the door for a month :( 

I give myself a break, tell myself I work all day and need to see my son in the evenings.  I need to spend time with my little family of three from Friday at 5 until Monday at 9.  And while this is undoubtly selfish, I know I will never in my life regret the time I spend with my husband and son. 

So I have my peace and my joy and my loves!  I have taken the time to be splashed in the bath tub.  I have stroked my boys warm head and sung him to sleep.  I have played cars and read books and explored grass and discovered birds and gotten dirt under my finger nails and colored pictures and watched Elmo.  :D  I have watched silly videos on youtube, cuddled up for a movie, made muffins just for him, put away his socks.

I am me, I am David's wife and I am Lincoln's mom and now these titles in my life come first! and it's sweet!

Milestones

Lincoln seems to be crashing through a milestone a minute lately.

You are of course walking, running, now climbing, sliding, talking and repeating, dancing...

You have never needed a security object.  You aren't yet attached to a blanket or stuffed animal. 

You gave up the pacifier, un-prompted, at 9 months.  Just stopped taking it and wanted nothing to do with it.

It took a long time for us to get you interested in a sippy cup.

At 17 months old, you still have a morning, nap and bedtime bottle.
This weekend we are going to try to stop the morning bottle, trading it for a cup- we'll see.
You like your bottle and its the first thing you ask for in the morning after Dada.

You are still a baby, and most certainly MY BABY.  I am completely ok with still cuddling up and giving you a bottle.  I am completely ok with having you sit still for a moment so I can cuddle you, smooth your hair, rub your head, touch your sweet face. 

While there are still many milestones that will be accomplished, and we are joyous and proud at each one, I cherish each day I can love you as my little baby boy who fits perfectly in my arms and upon my lap and overflows the confines of my heart.  I love you sweet boy!

Lincoln - 17 Months!

Lincoln, love, you are 17 months old.  You are busy, constantly going, moving, running, playing!  You captivate me and capture my attention in little things you do every day.

You are enthusiastically affectionate.  You blow kisses with the exuberance and force of hurricane winds.

You are a sweet mimic.  You copy every word we ask you to say.  When I ask you, What does Lincoln say?, your answer is "Huh?"  Its so funny!

You are becoming a comedian and like to make us laugh, repeating funny words or making a weird sound until we are falling over laughing at you.

You like Elmo and Sesame Street, but we fast forward until Elmo is on.  You like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny.  You like the songs on these shows and sway and dance to theme songs and things like the hot dog dance on MMC.

We are working with you with numbers, colors, shapes, and ABCs already.  If we say one, you say TWO! You repeat the colors when we point them out. Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Orange and Purple.

You say Sky, Tree, Car, Outside, Bye Bye, Home, Oh no, Uh oh, Dog, Doggie, Cat, making all animal noises still, Bath, Teeth. You point to your nose, mouth, hair, ears, teeth and belly button.

Lincoln, you love routine.  When you wake up you ask for your bottle.  When its time for bed we change your bottom, put on your jammies, brush your teeth ( you love to brush teeth).  Then we go upstairs and rock and you drink your bottle of milk and when you are done, you hand us the bottle and give a kiss and say BED! 

You love to be outside and you like to go bye bye.  You and I went to the mall last weekend and you were perfect.  Just sing-songy through the store saying 'shopng, shopng' and if I asked you if you liked something you said uh-huh!  You are a perfect personal shopper!

You are trying new foods all the time.  You like queso at the Mexican restaurant, sloppy joe's, spaghetti, green beans cooked w/ bacon, corn bread, angel food cake.  You know that I have a candy dish at work when Dada bring you and you share a hersey kiss with us.

Lincoln Update

Lincoln today you are 16 months, 2 weeks old.

Eat

Chicken Nuggets, Fish Sticks, French Fries, Green Beans, Cucumbers w/ Ranch, Bananas, Apple, Apple Sauce, Crackers, Cookies, Vanilla Pudding, Vanilla Ice Cream, Ham, Spaghetti, Sloppy Joes, Grilled Cheese, Shells & Cheese, Yogurt, Oatmeal, Pancakes, French Toast,
 
We let you try whatever we're having. You like fruit alot, but don't have much interest in veggies and spit them out. 

Sleep

You go to bed around 8pm, give or take a half hour on a normal night.  You sleep through the night and wake up around 7:30 or 8 am.  You sometimes coo in your sleep and we hear you over the monitor.  Sometimes the monitor is nice and othertimes it makes us completely paranoid.
Our evening routine is pretty simple.  We read books and watch Sesame Street throughout the evening, I wash your hands and face, change your diaper, put you in your pajamas and we grab a bottle from the fridge.  We go upstairs and you drink your bottle, I'll sing you a couple songs and when you're done with your botttle you give it to me, give me a kiss and I put you in your crib, cover you up and leave the room.
The nap routine is exactly the same as the bedtime routine.  We usually put you down around 1pm and you sleep anywhere from 1.5-3 hours :)

Play

You like to climb and slide, you love the new toy climber we got.  You also like the basketball hoop on the side and to crawl beneath it.  You like to play with bowls, spoons and baking pans in the kitchen while we are cooking.  You LOVE to be outside. Coming in is one of the only times we see you throw what could be called a tantrum.  You love to explore, walk down the street to get the mail. You love to swing at the park, and don't usually want to leave there either. 
You can show us your nose, ears, hair, eyes, mouth.
Gives high fives, noggin', kisses, blows kisses, fake sneezes, fake coughs, says Boo to surprise us.
Claps after a song is over or whenever he hears clapping on TV or a live song on te radio.

Talk

Cracker, Cookie, Sky, Tree, Car, Apple, Bubble, Hot Dog, One, Two, More, Hey Baby, Mama, Dada, Grandpa, Dee, Ally, Matthew, Hi, Bye-Bye, Night-Night, Morning, Up, Elmo, Abby,
Animal Noises for dog, cat, horse, cow, sheep, duck, owl, lion. 

I know I am missing some, this kid is going to talk just like his mom.

Love

Books, Baths, Brushing your teeth (playing with the toothbrush), being outside or climbing, being tickled, Elmo

Lincoln, I don't think that your dad or I could love you more than we do!  We also like you a lot and are really enjoying seeing your out-going, friendly and happy personality come through on a daily basis.  You are very sweet, smart and  funny little dude.  I was really pleased to see you go up and give a baby at daycare noggin' today -  you see babies already and give them your toys, rather than take them, and laugh with them :)

Still here.

I am still here.
We are still here. 

This week is the first week of a new term.  The last 10 weeks have been very demanding, school wise, for David.  He had had hours of homework on the weekends and not been getting home until 11pm four nights a week :(

This is a new term.  David only has one class this 5 weeks, he's only gone 2 nights a week.

Its adjustment.  While its wonderful that he's home, I forget what I do usually and don't know what to do when he's around.  We're going on a date. On a week night. This week!  Crazy. Wonderful!

I am already anticipating the adjustment on the other end of this 5 weeks.  You know, the one when he's gone ALL the time, again! :p  not looking forward to that at all. 

And just for balance, while it's great that he is home, its not because eventually he will have to make this time up.  They don't have a class for him this term, either he's already taken what is being offered or he hasn't completed the pre-requistes.  This is a 2.5 year program; so the negative would be that the class off adds 2.5 weeks onto the end.  We have done this definately two, maybe three times.  Hopefully they'll get it together and help David continue moving forward towards graduation.

Lincoln is awesome, I am going to do an update on him soon, so I'll save it.

I am good too.  Enjoying my time with David and seeing Linc show us how smart and out-going he is everyday.  Work is good, hoping things will continue to get busier in the construction industry in the coming spring and summer months.