Five Months Old

Dear Lincoln,

You have been such a joy this month. You have completely mellowed out this month. You used to be kind of a high-strung kid, but now you are just easy-going. It has made life around our house better than ever.

You have continued to progress physically this month. You roll with ease to either of your sides and from your tummy to back or back to tummy. You are getting better and better at sitting upright on your own. If I set you on our bed and hold your hips you can usually sit for a while before tipping backward or slumping forward. Your abs must be getting really strong as well because when we put you in a reclined or semi-reclined position you strain to sit up. You will not lay back and relax in your bouncer for more than a few minutes without sitting up and leaning forward. We put together your jumper and you really seem to enjoy the feeling of standing on your own. You are getting better and better at focusing on something and grabbing it. All these new skills make it much more fun to play with you. You are a really active and busy baby. You don’t like to be cuddled unless you are sitting or standing. If we try to lie you back you get really annoyed.

We have been through a few rough phases with your sleeping this month, but we have come out on the other side with a baby that sleeps really well now. At the beginning of the month we stopped swaddling you so your hands were free to wave around in your sleep. You would wake yourself up by hitting or rubbing your face. You would also flip over to your tummy in your crib and get stuck. You couldn’t settle down unless you were on your back, so you would cry until we came to flip you back over. Sometimes I would rescue you and flip you to your back and before I could walk back to my own room you were back on your tummy crying. It was frustrating for both of us! After talking to your pediatrician he told us that if you get to your tummy on your own that it is OK to let you sleep like that all night.

We decided that learning how to manage your flailing hands as well as learning to either stay on your back or sleep on your tummy was too many things to master all at once, so we started letting you sleep exclusively in your swing. This made it so you couldn’t flip to your tummy. It took about a week, but you figured out what to do with your hands – suck them! You’ve definitely settled on your pointer and third finger (the same fingers your daddy sucked as a baby). I used to always nurse you to sleep then carefully set you in your crib, but we decided to start putting you down for your naps while you were awake to get some practice putting yourself to sleep. Once you had mastered that skill we moved you back to your crib and started letting you figure out how to comfort yourself when you woke up in the night.

It was awful to listen to you cry, but I think it was easier because of our video monitor. We could see you and monitor you every second. I didn’t have to guess what was going on in your crib. Being able to see you led to some funny sessions of watching you perform all kinds of acrobatics as you tried to get to sleep. Your dad and I would be crowded around the tiny monitor like little cheerleaders exclaiming, “Get your fingers! There they are! Suck them, darling! Just turn your head babe! Roll back to your back, babe! Don’t go up onto your elbows! Come on, bud!” Being able to suck your fingers helped you immensely. Now you really don’t cry anymore. Now, you start out the night on your back, but usually end up sleeping most of the night on your side or on your tummy. You are also starting to take longer naps, probably because you can comfort yourself. Thankfully, you are still strictly following the 90-minute schedule.

I have mixed feelings about you turning out to be a finger-sucker. I might have preferred you to take pacifiers because then when it is time to wean you off them I can just take them away.  I really tried to get you to take pacifiers, but you just wouldn’t. It is nice that, unlike pacifiers, your fingers can’t really fall out of your mouth and if they do you can put them back in yourself. I’ve heard horror stories about moms having to go in fifteen times a night to put the pacifier back into their baby’s mouth. It nice right now, but I’m already worried about weaning you off of your fingers. How are we going to do it? I’m also worried that you won’t learn to talk as soon because you always have a mouth full of fingers. Maybe I just need to chill, right?

The other major accomplishment this month has been learning to ride in your car seat without acting like I was going to make you live in your car seat forever. It has been so wonderful. I am no longer a prisoner in my own home. We used to be out of milk all the time because I never thought getting more milk was worth the hysterical scene we would have while driving there. Now I can run to the grocery store without having a long internal debate beforehand about whether it is worth getting us both all upset. I don’t know how it happened - one day I forced myself to go on errands and you didn’t really cry at all in your car seat. I thought it was a lucky coincidence, but the next time we went out you were an angel as well. Now we go window shopping just to get out of the house. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m glad it did!

The other thing you have decided not to loathe this month is baths. I still bathe with you, but you seem to actually enjoy it. I think that you would be OK if I bathed you by yourself, but I haven’t wanted to try it yet. Instead of sitting against my legs, out of the water, now I sit you on the bottom of the tub and actually submerse your lower half. You stay warmer and sometimes even splash around a little. It sure is easier to keep you clean now!

You can see why the theme for the past month has been mellow. You are better at entertaining yourself. I can set you in your bouncer, or in your jumper, in your Bumbo, or on the floor on a blanket and you can stay happy while I get things done. Sometimes, you are so mellow that I worry that you are bored and not getting enough stimulation. You have been enjoying your feet for the past couple weeks. You started by gathering them to your chest, but now you are getting really accurate at grabbing them with your hands and bringing them to your mouth. You especially love to suck them when you are getting your diaper changed. When you don’t have your fingers in your mouth you are a really loud baby. We went to dinner at a friend’s house and you were squealing so loudly that we couldn’t hear each other very well.

We are getting to be such good little buddies this month. You are getting more of a personality and we are enjoying each other’s company a lot more. You think I’m really funny and you laugh at me a lot. I love your laugh more than I can explain. I tickle you all the time so I can hear it. I miss you when you sleep a long time. One night this month I woke up in the middle of the night and silently went to the window to see if it was snowing. I glanced over at you and you were alert and quietly staring at me. I felt like you had woken up because I was awake – almost like we had an invisible bond. I picked you up and we just walked and cuddled for a while before I fed you and put you back to bed. It was magical.

You bring so much joy into our house. Your dad and I can’t get enough of you. We are super unproductive when we are all home together because we just like to sit and tickle you, play with you, and look at you. You are like our own little sun.

Thanks for making us happy when skies are gray,

Your Mama

365 Days: Week 9

We got my camera all packed up for it's journey to California. Bye camera! Get well soon!

The clouds were beautiful while I was running some errands. 

Sometimes I feel worried/guilty that I'm not stimulating Lincoln enough. Ah, the guilt and anxiety of motherhood... Some days he has to spend lots of time playing by himself so I can get things done (anyone else planning their ten year high school reunion?). Because he still isn't the greatest at grabbing and keeping a grip on toys, "playing by himself" seems more like just rolling around on the floor or watching me from his bouncer. Sometimes I imagine that he is looking at me with accusatory eyes. Lately, I've been trying to come up with more stimulating things for him to do. I've had this balloon since the end of December (yeah, that might give you an idea of how organized my house is) and it stills floats really well.  It drifted into a room we rarely go into so I kept forgetting to pop it and throw it away. Now I'm glad I didn't because I figured out that Lincoln likes to have the balloon tied to his leg so that when he kicks it moves. 

 *I'm not leaving him unattended with the string, so don't worry that he will strangle himself, ok?*

This is Aldi. It is a really cheap grocery store we have here. It is super tiny and they don't some things, but what they do have is usually a great deal. For example, avocados for 19 cents each! Guacamole anyone?

What is going on with the weather this winter? It was 70 degrees so Lincoln and I took a walk to the grocery store. I didn't really need anything but when I got there I discovered that there was a 50% off sale on Kelloggs cereal. I was hungry (the worst state to be in while at a grocery store) so I couldn't resist buying a couple boxes of "fun cereal." We usually try to buy healthy-ish cereal like Grape Nuts, Wheaties, or Raisin Bran, but I splurged and bought Cocoa Krispies and Cinnabon cereal. Is that an open cereal box under the stroller? Yep. Don't judge! I couldn't wait until I got home - I'm exclusively nursing a big baby so I'm hungry all the time. It made a yummy snack for the walk home.

We decided to give our office a little TLC this weekend. It was one of my least favorite rooms in the house. Someone (I'm not naming names) insisted on painting the office a pumpkin color about two years ago. That same someone would not let me paint sample swatches. He just picked a color out at the store, had them mix a gallon of it, and brought it home. When I got it on the walls I hated it and have hated it everyday since. We finally got white primer up over the hideous orange. What a difference!

We added wainscoting to the office, caulked all the trim and wainscoting, painted the lower half white, and the upper half a gray-blue. We both love it! The office is completely transformed and we got it all done on Friday evening and Saturday. I'll post more photos later after we switch out the ceiling fan which is almost too hideous for words. 

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.