365 Days: Week 8

Again, I apologize for my awful pictures. I am basically taking these with a poor quality cell phone camera. I almost didn't post these pictures after I saw how terrible the quality was, but I really want to keep going with this project, so you'll just have to bear with me for a few weeks. I'm going to try not to point out/apologize for/complain about the pictures every single time I post one. I just got back from shipping my camera to California to be repaired. I hope it comes back really soon. Really really soon.

Lazy Sunday couch cuddling. These two just crack each other up. Look at those rolls on Lincoln's thighs! I'm so proud.

 I took one more picture after this one and then my camera quit on me.

I made these cookies. I was pretty disappointed with them. They looked really cute, but the actual cookie was not that great. This is the only recipe I've ever tried from The Pioneer Woman that I didn't like. I forgive her, though, because I've been reading her blog for years and love her and her food. Seriously, her food is awesome.

Please try to ignore the fact that the cookies are not in focus. Apparently you can't take photos of anything remotely close to you with this camera.

We had Scooter's friend, Mridul, over for dinner. Mridul has been a visiting international med student for the past two months and has been working with Scooter every day. He is from New Delhi, India. It was a really fun night and we all enjoyed learning more about each other's cultures. He's getting married in a little while so we had fun learning all about the way that is done in India. He had never seen a dishwasher and thought it was pretty amazing. We thought it was pretty amazing that at home his family has a servant. I told Scooter that I could get used to that idea. Mridul really wants us to come visit him. I told Scooter that I could get used to that idea as well.

My good friend Diana came and visited us for a couple hours (thanks, Diana!). She told us it was a really nice day out (I really need to stop assuming that it is freezing and start checking the weather), so as soon as she left Lincoln and I headed down to our local pond. There weren't very many geese or ducks, but the water was still and beautiful. 

It was late evening and I was feeling frustrated thinking about how nothing exciting or picture-worthy had happened that day. Then I suddenly felt really ashamed and ungrateful because, of course, I have a darling baby that is exciting and picture-worthy every day! He is so long that all of his pants end up looking like capris - isn't it darling? 

Scooter had a huge exam today, but rushed home after it was over to start working on another round of small house projects. We have quite a few projects that are about 90% done. It is funny that I haven't mentioned many of them on the blog so many of you don't understand how into this stuff we are. We have completely gutted and redone our kitchen, cut a hole in the foundation of our house to add a window, finished our basement, etc. I'll blog about it one of these days. We've decided that we have to completely finish the projects we've started before we can start anything new.

We watched the KU vs. Mizzou game this weekend. Scooter, and basically our entire region, was looking forward to this game with GREAT anticipation. Kansas-Missouri rivalry is really strong here. Because Kansas City straddles the border between our two states it seems like there is a slight rivalry in every aspect of our lives. Going into the game Kansas was ranked 4th and Missouri was ranked 3rd. In case you didn't see it, our Jayhawks won. In overtime. By one point. Needless to say, it was an amazing game. Scooter was holding Lincoln, but toward the end of the game I had to take him away. I was afraid that in his excitement that Scooter was going to forget and jump up or something. 

The weird white line on Scooter is light coming in through some blinds, not a light saber, ok?

Camera Woes

My camera was my first baby. I cherished it and took such good care of it. I love it and we have been literally around-the-world and back together. I'm sure a lot of you feel the same way about your cameras. I bought it a few days before we moved to England. It was the result of my first major financial stand against Scooter in our marriage. Usually we pretty much agree completely on finances and purchases, but not this one. I was adamant. I must have this camera. Pictures are not as important to him as they are to me and he thought that a tiny point-and-shoot camera took the same quality of pictures. I presented all my reasons numerous times and then I begged and needled him for a while before he finally caved.  Four years later, he would never take the camera back. We treasure the photos we took with it.

Well, my beloved camera gave me this error message on Sunday. It won't take any pictures no matter how many times I press the shutter release button - and trust me, I've pushed it hundreds of times in desperation. I have been trying to figure out how to fix it for the last few days. I found some stuff online that looked pretty scary - opening up and exposing my camera's insides + WD-40... ack! After thinking about it for a couple days and researching my other options we decided that it was worth a shot to fix it ourselves. A lot of people seemed to have success, so we crossed our fingers.

Last night we attempted the repair. We got out our tiny screwdriver and unscrewed the bottom plate. We exposed the gears and found the one that controls the shutter. It wouldn't turn all the way around. We even found an almost miniscule amount of random white semi-sticky substance on the gear. We removed as much of it as we could and spun the gear quite a bit. At this point I was fairly hopeful, but then the gear started sticking again. Sometimes it would turn and sometimes it wouldn't. The online tutorials said to spray WD-40 onto the gear, but that sounded too risky for me. I filled an eyedrop dropper with WD-40 so we could control the amount and we put half a drop of it on the gear. It was still sticking. Then we put a whole drop on. Still sticking. We eventually put five drops onto the gear. The camera took one picture during our trial and error process, but then the error message flashed again and now we are back to square one.

Why did this happen!? We have taken really good care of it in my opinion. I almost always keep it in it's special case - i rarely just shove it into my diaper bag. It's so frustrating and sad. Just when I had started my photo-a-day project, too! Now the only other camera I have is an underwater video camera that takes 5 megapixel still photos. I've decided to keep going with my project so you guys are going to be suffering through at least a few weeks of really poor resolution photos, sorry.

Now, we aren't sure what to do. According to Nikon it will probably cost $200 to fix and I won't have it for about three weeks. But now I'm worried about what will happen if we pay to have it fixed and then it breaks again. I would love to get a new one, but they are so expensive, oh my!

What can we do?

365 Days: Week 7

We had dinner with some friends. It was so yummy and fun. Our friend Dustin made homemade cheesecake - yeah, the real kind in a springform pan, not the Jello kind. He's so talented! Lincoln was hilarious - he was squealing so enthusiastically that we couldn't hear each other talking unless we talked loudly over him. He clearly enjoyed himself (even though it doesn't look like it in this picture).

We got our first real snow during the night. Because Scooter had to leave ridiculously early, he didn't shovel the driveway before he left so I thought I'd do it as a surprise. I've never shoveled our driveway before (I know, spoiled, right?) so I was pretty proud of myself. Turns out, if I had waited a few more hours it might have melted on it's own because it warmed up later that day. Oh well, lesson learned- next time I'll check the forecast before shoveling. 

We had a really laid back, but nice, Valentine's Day. I felt so lucky to have two sweet boys being my valentines this year. Despite my best efforts to convince him otherwise, this ratio of meat to other food is still my husband's ideal meal. I thought since it was Valentine's Day I would indulge him. The gross part of the story is that he ate all of this plus 3/4 of mine - no problem. At least he loved it.

 Why does all the food look so greasy? I obviously need to work on my food photography skills...

I worked on a craft most of the day. It involved over one hundred blue paint chips. It was pretty awkward getting that many paint chips from just one store, so I went to two. The finished product is really neat, though, so it was worth it. I'll post it once it is framed. 

This is not the greatest photo because it's blurry, but it perfectly depicts Scooter and Lincoln's love affair with each other. Lincoln's favorite person changes depending on his mood. If he's hungry I'm his favorite. If he's in any other type of mood Scooter is his favorite. Lincoln even takes much better naps when Scooter is home with us. I love it that way and wouldn't change it one bit. 

I worked on and finally mailed baby shower invitations for my sister, Rachelle. We'd love to have you there if you'd like to be at her shower, so contact me if you want to come. She's having her first baby and it's a girl, so we are super excited. I've been having fun wandering through the baby girl sections at stores. Girls are way more fun to dress aren't they?

Scooter and I put this baby jumper together for Lincoln. I almost get over-stimulated just looking at it, so we weren't sure how Lincoln would feel about it. He was really wary of it at first and eventually cried the first time we put him in it. This was during his second session and he started liking it a lot more. He didn't understand that he could stand it in and kept lifting his feet up off the floor. 

365 Days: Week 6

Don't you wish that you could see what funny things your spouse does when you aren't home? I got home from Utah/California and found this... Scooter's outfits for the next week all laid out on the bedroom floor. Not only laid out, but laid out in the order in which he puts them on - underwear and undershirt, socks, pants, and shirt. Although, wearing scrubs everyday pretty much takes the guess work out of what you are going to wear, it is hard to wake up at 4am and not stumble sleepily around the room in the dark. I guess he developed this system while I was gone. Pretty cute right? 

Scooter was able to come home a little bit early from work (a rare treat!) so we decided to go on a family walk since it was so nice out. 

One of the themes for the week has been bad sleep - for Lincoln and for us. Lincoln can roll from back to front, but not front to back so he gets stuck on his tummy. Lincoln keeps rolling over in his crib and then waking us up because he is uncomfortable. The pediatrician told us that if he gets himself into this position it is fine for him to stay like that, so we've been letting him try to comfort himself a little bit. This was the first time he actually comforted himself and fell asleep after he rolled himself over. Thank heaven! Scooter had already left for the day (even though it wasn't even 5am) so I snapped a picture so he could see when he got home.

This is my branch of our library. I love it because if you want something and it is at another branch they will transfer it to your branch and then email you when it arrives. They also have a great selection of audiobooks, my favorite. 

                                                                                                                 

I was in the mood for baking so I made my favorite (well, one of my favorites - who can really choose just one?) kinds of cookies. Scooter took some to school and apparently the neurosurgery has been seriously deprived of home-baked goods for too long because they think I need to open a bakery. I think they need to eat food that isn't from the hospital cafeteria more often.    

Lincoln had his four-month check up at the pediatrician. He was such a good boy and didn't even cry when he got his shots! He was pretty cute and was smiling and flirting with his doctor. 

This is one of Lincoln's new favorite things to do. He grabs his daddy's hair and holds on tight. He especially likes it when daddy bounces up and down. 

What's Wrong With Lincoln's Ears?

Well, I guess that we are going to be those parents. You know, the ones who seem to really care about their children's looks. 

I've been concerned about Lincoln's ears since he was born. Seems like a minor thing to worry about, but weird ears run in my (mom's) family. Let's just say that this is my grandpa's take on his own ears - "In heaven when God was handing out ears I thought he said 'beers,' so I said 'give me two big ones.'" Enough said. My mom has had her ears surgically pinned back and I had mine surgically pinned back and my earlobes reduced when I was twelve. The surgery was, looking back on it, not that big of a deal, but at the time I was pretty scared. Plus, I couldn't go anywhere or wash my hair for a week because I had huge bandages covering my stitches, which was a bummer. I guess when that is your ear history you are, of course, going to be concerned about your child's ears.

Even when he was a newborn we were afraid that his ears might stick out a little, but as the months have gone by his ears were looking worse, not better. They would fold when he'd lay on them to sleep or play and it was starting to make them look bat-like.

I talked to my dad (an ear doctor) and he recommended something called Ear Buddies. Ear Buddies basically do for your ears what braces do for your teeth. Ears are made of soft cartilage that hardens as you get older, so, in theory, if you correct your child's ears while they are a baby they will not need intervention later. The Ear Buddies are small flexible splints that you tape into the baby's ear. Then you tape the ear to the side of the baby's head. The age of the baby determines how long the splints are worn. If we had done it when Lincoln was a newborn we may have only needed to do it for as little as two weeks, but now that he is older he will need to wear them for 10-12 weeks.

We hesitated for a few reasons. First, the Ear Buddies are a bit pricey at about $100. Second, the thought of having your child wear these unsightly splints during the times that you want to be taking hundreds of photos is not very positive. I was worried about everyone asking about them and wondering what was wrong with Lincoln. I was worried that people would think I was being super vain on behalf of my child. I was worried that they would be a huge pain to apply and maintain. For all these reasons I hesitated, but the longer I thought about it I felt like I had to try them out. I decided that I would have felt bad if he ended up having weird ears and I had done nothing to prevent it. The possible future guilt outweighed the current inconvenience.

So far it hasn't been a very big deal. They were fairly easy to apply and stay in place pretty well. They don't seem to cause him any discomfort at all. They aren't as noticeable as I thought they were going to be. At first I thought I would always keep a hat on him to try and cover it, but that turned out to be a big hassle. Hats don't really stay on babies that are thrashing around in their cribs, car seats, etc. We gave up the hat idea. Not many people have commented on them which makes it less awkward for me. The only bad thing is that the tape gets really dirty and gross looking pretty quickly. I also wish the kit had come with about 10 times as much tape as it did. It is such a pain to take off and reapply that we only do it once a week, so toward the end of the week it looks pretty grody.

Hopefully the Ear Buddies will correct the problem and will help Lincoln avoid any teasing or feelings of embarrassment when he is older. I initially was going to try not to post any photos that showed the Ear Buddies, but I decided that was silly. So, when you see Lincoln's ears taped in photos for the next couple months you will know the reason.

Four Months Old

Dear Lincoln,

If I could describe you this month in two words they would be developing and adaptable. You have made huge strides in your physical development and you have been a great sport to put up with me dragging you all over the place.

About a week into this month you rolled over for your first time. You had been trying to do it for a while but that pesky shoulder was always in the way! You didn’t really do it again for about a week, but then one day, while we were in Utah, you just started doing it all the time. Now every time we lay you down you roll over. You prop yourself up on your elbows and you lift your head really high and sometimes even lift your legs up as well. You haven’t figured out how to roll from your tummy onto your back, but you’re working on it. For now, we have to rescue you once you decide that you’re tired of being face down.  In the last week you have shown the first signs of really wanting to learn to army crawl. When you are face down you reach out your arms, grab onto the blanket you are lying on, and seem like you are trying to pull yourself forward. You also draw your knees up so your foot is under you. Sometimes you even dig your toes into the floor. You haven’t perfected your skills by any means, but if we give you something to push your feet against you make slow progress across the floor. Maybe we’re biased, but you seem really strong for your age.

Because of your new rolling over skills we have had to stop swaddling you this month. This has been a bit of a struggle for you (and for me!) because your hands always seem to end up in your face, bothering you. It makes it harder for you to stay asleep. I’ve been swaddling one of your hands to try and help you transition to going completely without the swaddle, but it is turning out to be a difficult change. You are also very squirmy in your crib. Sometimes I find you facing the opposite direction from where I lay you down. Speaking of staying asleep, you are really struggling with your daytime naps. You will seem absolutely exhausted, I’ll get you fall asleep, but then 10-20 minutes later you wake up. I can’t figure it out. How can I lay a completely limp baby into his crib and then 10 minutes later have an alert baby? It doesn’t make any sense. Sleep training is coming, my friend. I need to take back my life.

You have been the picture of an adaptable baby this month. You came with me to Saint George, Salt Lake City, and Palm Springs. You have flown 2700 miles and have driven well over 1800 miles with me. You have had to take your naps in hotel rooms, poolside, in stores, in cars, in the middle of strange beds, in my arms, in church, in your car seat, in your stroller, and in restaurants. You’ve nursed in all kinds of places, but you’ve also taken bottles like a champ. You’ve taken naps in all kinds of noise levels and in the dark or in bright daylight. You’ve been held by so many different people – aunts, uncles, grandparents, people at church, and total strangers on the plane. You have been sweet and charmed them all. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate what a good baby you are! It makes it possible for me to enrich my life in all kinds of ways.

The only thing that you still are standing firm on is your loathing of riding in the car. You hate it with a passion. It is not even so much your car seat because you will sit in that fairly happily, but as soon as the car seat is put into the car you get really upset. This makes it really hard for me to run errands or go anywhere by myself. I went a friend’s house about 15 minutes away this month. You screamed so much on the way home that I was bawling. I feel like I am making you go through some kind of torture. As much as I hate it I have been forcing myself to keep driving you places because I refuse to become a prisoner in my own house. When I have someone to come with me and drive (Scooter, my mom, etc.) I can ride in the back next to you and hold your hands, try to get you to suck a pacifier, sing to you, and try to distract you. This helps up to a point, but you always end up having a melt down at some point. I really hope you will grow out of this soon.

You have also found your voice this month. You have your quiet times, but once you get going you are a really loud baby. You love to squeal and seem to love the sound of your own voice. If we bounce you while you are squealing you love to hear how it changes the sound of your squeal with every bounce. You also like to experiment with how loud you can be. You are making new sounds and your favorite consonant is “m” and your favorite babble sound is “ma” so it sounds like you are saying “mama” all the time, which I find very flattering. In the last couple of weeks you have also started laughing in earnest. It is sometimes a chuckle, sometimes a guffaw, and sometimes a shriek. You are ticklish under your arms, by your neck, and sometimes on your tummy. When we tickle you we can just see the laugh building inside you – you open your mouth in a huge smile, get really tense and almost frustrated, then you remember how to release the laugh and you seem so proud of yourself. You have started blowing raspberries this week and you seem very entertained by yourself. Sometimes you will delight yourself by blowing dozens in a row.

The other things you have really found and fallen in love with are your hands. You can’t keep them out of your mouth. You suck on them, chew on them, and play with them.  You have even figured out how to focus on something and reach for it. You are getting better at grabbing things and holding on tight. All of these are great tricks but your favorite activity is to suck on your hands. It doesn’t matter what part – your fingers, your fists, and your wrists are all wonderful options. You sucked so hard on your arm earlier in the month that you gave yourself a little hickey.

It seems really early, but you have been showing all the signs of teething for a couple weeks now. You are producing truly incredible amounts of drool. You basically have a nice slimy coat of drool on your lips, chin, cheeks, shirt, and hands all the time. Combine the drool with the raspberry blowing and you do a great job of soaking yourself. You suck on everything you can get your hands on (or just your hands, of course). You don’t just suck either, you bite. If you get my finger in your mouth, which you try to do all the time, you chew on it surprisingly hard. It almost even hurts me at times. Luckily, you don’t bite while nursing yet. We have tried giving you teething rings, but you don’t quite have the dexterity to get them turned correctly so they fit into your mouth, so you give up and go back to your hands.

One of the best pieces of news for me this month is that you finally starting to make strides with entertaining yourself for short periods of time. Up until this month you have been fussy if I tried to put you down for even a minute. You constantly seemed to lose interest in your surroundings/current activity. It was really hard to get anything done, but now you are able to stay calm for stretches of a few minutes (and sometimes even longer) without needing my attention. Hallelujah!

You are looking more like you daddy than ever. Your eyes are definitely brown and even your dad grudgingly admits that it looks like his genes won that battle. Everyone comments on how you look like your dad and don’t really have any of my physical features. That’s fine with me because your daddy is one handsome devil! It seemed like you lost some hair early in the month, but this week it seems to be growing in. You are still so bald that it is hard to tell what color your hair is, but I’m hoping you’ll get your dad’s genes in this department as well and that you’ll be a tow head. For now though, you still look like Mr. Clean.

Lincoln, you are even more of a joy this month than last month and we love you more than you’ll ever know. Sometimes for no apparent reason I will be overwhelmed, almost cripplingly so, with how much I love you. You bring me so much joy.

We are so lucky you're ours,

Your mama

For the record:

Weight: 14  pounds, 12 ounces (34th percentile)

Length: 26 1/4  inches (82nd percentile)

Head Circumference: 16 1/4 inches (16th percentile)

365 Days: Week 5

We drove from Palm Springs to Saint George. This is my favorite quirky exit "Zzyzx Road" and I look forward to passing it every time we do this drive. Lincoln was a really good sport until the last thirty minutes. He decided that he had been in his car seat long enough and let us know, very loudly, for the rest of our drive.

Hanging out at my parents house - it is so nice to be home.

It was nice to have Lincoln be the only grandchild at home for a few days. He got all of my parents attention. He couldn't have loved it more!

These are the raspberry rolls from Kneaders. I like their orange variety even better. I'm ashamed to admit that I daydream about these rolls sometimes. I'm not too ashamed to admit that within a couple hours of taking this photo I had single-handedly eaten more than half of these. 

We drove to Salt Lake City to visit my sisters. I had to drive separate from my mom (long story) so I had to drive alone with Lincoln. He hates his car seat so for long trips like this I usually have to sit right next to him so I can hold his hands and comfort him. Even with my constant attention he usually cries quite a bit, so needless to say I was really nervous about driving alone with him. He miraculously fell asleep after about 15 minutes and I didn't want to wake him up by stopping so I just didn't drink anything and kept driving, and driving, and driving. He didn't wake up for 3 and 1/2 hours! - just 15 minutes short of my sister house! It was a real miracle.

We went to The Living Planet Aquarium with my sisters, nephew, and aunt. I knew that Eli would love it, but I was really surprised when Lincoln really seemed to enjoy it as well. He just looked alertly at the fish while his aunt Rachelle held him. 

It is really hard to capture how beautiful Salt Lake City is, especially while driving on the freeway, but trust me, it is lovely.

365 Days: Week 4

Andrea and Eli arrived at my parents house today. Andi spent lots of time holding Lincoln. He looked so changed since she had last seen him. 

My mom, Andi, Eli, Lincoln, and I drove to Palm Springs, California. It was an adventure with a busy 18 month old and a 3 month old that hates his carseat with a passion. After an hour and a half we had only made it to Mesquite, Nevada which should only be a thirty minute drive. Luckily, the day got better after that and we only had to stop a few times to let the boys stretch and get a break from their carseats.

There was a duck pond near our condo so we went and fed the ducks every morning as soon as we woke up. Eli loved trying to throw the bread. Lincoln just loved being outside.

Lincoln spent his first day at the pool. He didn't get in the water, but he really enjoyed kicking around in the shade. He might even love the sun as much as his mama.

We tried to do a little shopping - I don't know what we were thinking. Shopping with toddlers is nearly impossible. We finally gave up and found a fountain for Eli to play in. He got soaked but at least he was happy.

More time at the pool. Eli is completely fearless so you can't take your eyes off him for even an instant. He doesn't even hesitate to jump into the pool. Lincoln, on the other hand spent most of the time napping in his stroller.

Today at the pool Lincoln really mastered the art of rolling over. We laid him on a thick pad of towels and he entertained himself with his new skills.