8 month post (a few days late!)

Lincoln is now 8 months old. It is crazy how much he has changed over the last month. I know most moms that blog would insert the "I can't believe it was 8 months ago today....it is sad they are changing to fast....my baby is gone.....blah, blah, blah" (sorry if this is you) but I am not that way. I love how much Lincoln is changing. Sometimes I do wish I had my snugly, cuddly baby but when I see him discovering something new he can do, I am thrilled! We are blessed to have a boy that is developing "normally" and I am thankful for that since so many people wish to see their babies doing the things that Lincoln is now. He is so fun right now (except the teething) and I can't wait to see how he changes this month.

In this last month, Lincoln is.....

• Lincoln is still an eating champ. He has the same amount of milk but he have increased his baby food to 2 jars at night. I have yet to discover something that he doesn't like. He gets really excited when he knows he is about eat. He lets you know when he is ready for another bite by pounding on the tray (it is cute now but someday we will discourage it!) He loves to eat the Gerber Puffs and they are a good distraction in a restaurant. We still thicken his milk to 1/2 nectar but weaning him off completely is my goal this summer.
• Lincoln is still sleeping great. He went a few days this last month with little sleep and we felt it was teething. He sometimes goes for a day with no naps but he is not too terrible. Weekends are hard him since we are usually out and about but he picks back up on his schedule on Monday.
• He is still wearing size 2 diapers (but we are on the verge of 3s), 6-9 month clothing (but some are getting too small), and some of his pants are 3-6 months. He is "chunking" up in the face the most.
• Lincoln has FINALLY starting to get a tooth in. He spent many days (and nights) wishing for a tooth to come in so we had some reason for the fussiness but nothing ever showed. Yesterday (May 30th) we finally felt a little tooth starting to break through. You can't see it but you can feel it so I am hoping in a day or two we will see it.
• Lincoln is ALWAYS moving. Seriously some part of his body is always moving, it is usually his hands (he twirls them at his wrist) or his feet. When he is gets excited then he really starts moving. It is pretty cute but I am afraid that means he will be active little boy.
• Lincoln still babbles quite a lot, especially in the morning in bed. He is talks a lot at home or in a small crowd but is very quiet and serious in large crowds of people. He will usually grin and smile in public but doesn't make too much noise. He will go to anyone (especially if food is involved) except in large crowds he will either want Shane or I.
• Lincoln has had a bad month of rashes and sicknesses. When a rash appears we have to go through anything new in the last 24 hours he has come in contact with. This can be a little difficult since he is with a sitter during the week. His eczema gets worse in heat (good thing we will live in TX!) but he have cream to help with that. We discovered that he might be allergic to food dye (like in Cheetos), he broke out in a rash after giving him some Gerber cheese puffs. We are hoping the sensitive skin gets better as he gets older.
• Lincoln is VERY close to crawling. He is rocking on all fours so we think he will be crawling sometime this week! Super excited about this!
• I think (and many others too) Lincoln is starting to look more like me than he did at birth. Shane disagrees with me.

We are blessed to have this smiley, talkative, drooley, and loveable boy with us everyday! I can't wait to spend the summer with him!

This is his new grin

Everything goes in the mouth!

Always concentrated when he is on the floor

Maybe I can get some new pictures of Lincoln in the pool up but probably not until after school is out! 4 days and counting!

Almost summer

Summer is about all I can think about at the moment. We have 8 more school days with one work day then I am free! I am pretty excited for our jammed packed schedule that awaits us in June.

This weekend, we unpacked more and spent some much needed time at home. Our garage is now the only really crazy part of our house. Everything that will eventually go in the attic or storage unit (we have yet to buy) is stacked a mile high in the garage so I just ignore that part of the house! We are loving our house and having fun being close to my parents.

Here is the front of our house
Lincoln is starting to hold his own bottle. We still cuddle and hold him when he eats so this was taken after he was finished. He is one funny dude! Lincoln also got a little closer to crawling this weekend. He will get up on all fours but can only scoot backwards for now. Soon he will be on the go!

Nothing else too exciting at the moment!

We have been busy

We have been very busy around our house this last week. We have officially moved all of our stuff to our new house. I can't way we are "moved in" yet because the new house is a disaster! No pictures will be posted until it is a little more put together.

Lincoln has been quite busy too. He is getting closer and closer to crawling. He can roll over to whatever he wants pretty quickly so that is his way of transportation. I think he will be crawling in a month or so.
This last few weeks Lincoln has really gotten the hang of sitting up by himself. He can not get to the sitting position by himself but if we set him up then he will stay for a long time as long as his toys don't get too far from him.

You may not be able to see very well but he is getting lots more hair on top and it is BLONDE! After his bath we have to comb it down or it dries in crazy ways and he looks like a crazy,old man.

That is about it, just trying to keep our heads above water until we can unpack and find all of our belongings. Hopefully that will be soon!

Leggo my Eggo

Nothin' soothes a teething baby better than a frozen waffle. Well maybe the motrin, teething tablets, and Orejel helped as well!

Ready for summer

We have been enjoying some great weather here in TX and it makes us ready for summer. This week has been a crazy week. Monday Lincoln had another EGD, it went great (the dr thinks it was the last one!) and I stayed home with him all day because we are never sure how he will do after the procedure. Tuesday he went to daycare, but that night we got a call from his sitter that her daughter was sick so she had to close for two days. Shane took off Wednesday and got to experience the stay at home dad gig (not sure he quit his job anytime soon!) And today was my day at home with him. It made me wish summer was already here so I can enjoy spending all day, everyday with him! It is a pretty fun guy! Working full time is very tough when you have a little one at home but it makes you appreciate the days you get to stay home and nothing (well except take cute pictures in the grass!)

We are counting down the days until summer vacation (20 school days left! Yippee!)

7 months

Lincoln turned 7 months on the 29th so we took his monthly monkey pictures today (a few days late!)

Some things I want to remember from this age:

• Lincoln is a BUSY BODY. Some part of his body is always moving from his hands to his feet and almost always his mouth. He likes to hear himself groan, grunt, "yell", squeal, or whatever new sound he has discovered. He mostly talks in the morning and he is much quieter in public. His babysitter says he squeals at all the other kids and can hold his own in the noise department (Great!)
• Lincoln eats like there is no tomorrow. He has tried and loves all veggies and fruits. He is now starting to reach for the bowl when it is left on his highchair tray so we have move it when we are feeding him or he will pull it to his mouth. We tried giving him some Gerber cheese puffs things but I started noticing a rash on his mouth so I am keeping them away from him for a week or so to test if he is allergic to them. He loves them though :(
• Lincoln sleeps great at night. He goes to bed between 7-7:45 and sleeps until 6ish. We swaddle him to put him to sleep but he comes undone and is in a new position when we get him out of bed. He is starting to be more and more of a stomach sleeper. He takes about 3 naps a day, two long naps and one short. It depends on the day when he takes his long naps. Daycare still wipes him out so he usually takes a 30 minute nap after we pick him up.
• Lincoln is one silly boy. He laughs all the time. Daddy can make him laugh the hardest and almost all the time but in the evenings after daycare almost anything will make him laugh. I think because he is so tired and delirious. I need to upload one of short videos of him laughing because he has a cute from the belly laugh.
• Lincoln is a pretty good baby in public. He might not be all smiles but he is pretty content just sitting and taking it all in.
• Lincoln still looks just like Shane but he has a few hints of me in him. His face shape is like mine and he has my cheeks. He has long fingers like his Nena and a pointed ear like many people on my side of the family but other than that he is all Shane.
• Lincoln got his first ear infection this last month. We took him to the doctor because he was very congested and couldn't get rid of a cough and we discovered that he had an ear infection. He was not cranky so I am hoping it stays that way in the future!
• We have been battling with trying to find the cause of Lincoln's rashes. We have eliminated bananas and the cheese puffs thinking it could be one of those but we are still unsure. We have discovered that when we give him a new toy he breaks out so I need to find something to spray on his toys. He gets a rash around his mouth that looks pretty bad (little tiny red bumps and all over red) but it doesn't seem to bother him. But he gets these whelp (sp?) type rash on his arms, chest, and back that look really red and dry and he doesn't like them touched. I have no idea where these are coming from (no new detergent, all washed clothes, no new perfume or fragrance in the house, no new foods, etc) so that is what we are trying to find out. They look painful and I am very curious to know where it is coming from. He does have eczema so we have steroid creme for that and we use it but I am not sure if it is eczema or a rash. Who knows?! If you have any advice on child rashes, pass it on!
• Lincoln puts EVERYTHING in his mouth (part of the problem from above statement). There are no teeth coming through but I am thinking we are close. He is the drooliest, sloppiest baby around! Some days he looks like he has never been bathed but I know we will have worst smelling days as he gets older.
• Lincoln loves his toy balls right now. Any small ball he get his hands on he has. And paper...the boy LOVES paper! He will start to shake his arms like crazy when he sees paper.

Lincoln is just a happy camper almost all the time. He rarely cries and when he does he is usually tired.

This is Lincoln smile

" What? I can't touch him."

So silly

Precious boy

Mr. Rock n Roll

I wanted to share a picture of Lincoln in his guitar shirt (see post below to know why he *needed* it). Pretty cute!