Lincoln took his first bath in the big bathtub this afternoon. He had started trying to crawl out of the little blue plastic one, so it was time. He loved it--especially being able to swim like a frog on his belly. I'm not ready to stick him in the tub with Emily yet, but we may get there...some day.
In another big step forward, Lincoln finally figured out how to coordinate his hands & knees to crawl this afternoon. It's still not very consistent or graceful, but watch out world!
Emily caught on to "mommy thinks my drawings are neat" pretty quickly because she spent a large chunk of yesterday afternoon drawing on the Magna-doodle and after every scratching saying, "Mommy, Mommy, look what I did!" and then insisting that I take her picture. Below is a picture of her first self-portrait. Then she got into suns. Lots of suns. Especially with smiley faces. One of her best ones is below. Today she has changed mediums. The desk is now covered with pages of computer paper filled with circles and smiley-faced suns drawn with an ink pen. Let's hope she just sticks to paper and doesn't start experimenting on the walls! ;o)
Emily surprised me with some advanced drawing skills this afternoon. Before this I had really only observed scribbles, solid coloring, or the occasional wobbly circle. She has spent a lot of time lately playing with her coloring box and the Magna-doodle, as well as listening to stories from a new children's Bible on CD. This was the result! You can watch the video for the explanation of her drawings.
Garden [of Eden] with a snake
"Tippy boat" (i.e. Jesus calms the storm)
P.S. Yes, she was back in the Christmas dress by this point in the day. And what's going on with her funky bang hair-do? I attempted to cut her bangs dry a couple weeks ago by bribing her with a video or something. They need more help than I can give them. It doesn't help that Emily insists on just sticking her headbands on top of her head resulting in a hippy-like hair-do. If I try to place it correctly with her hair tucked behind her ears she just rips it out and slams it back on her way. Double sigh.
I know everyone has been on the edge of their seats wondering about the fate of the Christmas dresses! After Emily spilled on the butterfly dress on Saturday (30th) I washed all the dresses as soon as she went to bed and set up the ultimate test before she woke up in the morning.
This is what Emily looked like coming down the stairs on Sunday morning.
Emily ended up wearing the Christmas dress most of the day on Sunday (31st) even though we didn't make it to church on account of her green, runny nose and general family fatigue.
However, this was the get-up on Monday morning. Poor George!
She was wearing the same thing on Tuesday morning, but I told her she couldn't wear the butterfly dress to the grocery store because it was too cold. So this is what she came up with. (Notice she also always changes headbands to match--the girl's got some fashion sense.)
Watch out, Hy-Vee! Maybe I should have stuck with the Christmas dresses. :op At least she did it willingly. However, the minute we stepped in the door back at home she put the butterfly dress on again. We made a trip to Waterloo later in the afternoon. Again, she willingly changed into a shirt (a different purple/brown one), but immediately put the dress back on as soon as we got home.
This morning she came down the stairs in the butterfly dress again, but I actually convinced her to wear a truly matching outfit (I picked the shirt that went with the purple leggings she already had on) with satisfactory socks/shoes to the library for story time. There is hope! I didn't get a picture before the butterfly dress was back on again, though. Sigh.
It has been another fun month with Emily. She continues to do great going potty all by herself with only a few hiccups here and there. I've noticed a sharp increase in the amount of toilet paper and hand soap we go through, but I'll take that over Pull-Ups any day! She also continues to want to "help" with almost everything.
Her firstborn characteristics are also starting to shine through (as the firstborn of two typical firstborns she really doesn't have a choice). Not only does she insist on always saying the prayer before meals at home, she also wants to say the prayer for her Sunday school class each week. One of the long-time helpers in that room says she's never had a kid ask to do that before. The other quickly developing characteristic is bossiness. This one makes me cringe a lot because I know I was TERRIBLY bossy when I was growing up--even into high school. Just ask my mom and BIL! ;o) Lincoln is the obvious target most of the time. She tries to be a "mother hen" to him a lot. Luckily, he doesn't really have a clue and doesn't mind...yet. However, I've begun to see it happening during play dates and other interactions with peers. It usually takes on more of a negotiator style with me or Austin, but sometimes it's just flat-out statements of how she thinks things are going to be (even though her demands are not necessarily met). I'm not quite sure how to approach this one yet, so any suggestions would be welcome!
A typical characteristic of a 3-year-old is clutziness and Emily certainly has that one down. I'm pretty sure she trips over something (often her own feet) and "needs ice" at least 2-3 times a day. She dumps over a glass of juice or chocolate milk on the kitchen table/chairs/floor at least once a week.
Another thing Emily is trying to figure out is the meaning of abstract concepts like feelings. After reading The Berenstain Bears are Afraid of the Dark ten too many times, Emily loves using the words "spooky" and "scared" but doesn't know what they actually mean. She'll call things "spooky" at mealtimes, which usually means the food is hot. When I ask her to take another bite or try something she'll say she's "scared." How do you explain those concepts? Another funny thing she often says about foods she likes is "Yum...that tastes like pumpkin pie." I'm not sure where this is coming from because the only time she's ever tried pumpkin pie was this past Thanksgiving, and she was definitely not a fan.
Emily continues to love social activities. Her favorite Sunday school songs are "Jump and Hop" and the one that goes "the rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the sand went SMASH!". She loves the preschool story hour at the library on Wednesdays, playgroup in Denver on Thursdays and playing with bikes & balls in the gym at Mom's Morning Out at church on Fridays. When we go places she tells me, "You can talk to the other mommies, and I'll talk to the other Emilys. They have pretty princess dresses, too." :o)
The January Winkflash pictures have been uploaded and the video player is below. Can you tell I've been regularly doing a workout video this month?!? ;o)
This may be the end of an era. After 34 days of wearing one of two Christmas dresses, Emily may have finally reached the end. It happened quite by accident--literally. Yesterday afternoon I heard Emily calling from upstairs something about "potty", which means you better run and find out what's going on. She had completely changed her outfit and her beloved Christmas dress and black leggings were soaking wet and lying on the floor. For the next 15 minutes I desperately tried to find the puddle and the missing wet panty. Emily was no help. She thought it was a fun game and started "looking" in funny places. Finally, after finding nothing and stopping to think, I remembered that Emily had been playing with my large water bottle. She had spilled water over herself--not had an accident in her pants. Phew!
However, with a really wet favorite dress and her back-up in the wash, the revolutionary result of this little adventure was the rediscovery of a cute, hand-me-down "butterfly" dress that Emily wore a few times when it was actually warm enough last fall. She paired the dress with a beautiful pair of rainbow pants and a new outfit was born. She even changed her headband from red to purple. She had the dress back on before she even came downstairs this morning. Granted, both Christmas dresses are still in the laundry, but I think she may be moving on. The only problem is that this is more of a fall/spring dress, it’s short-sleeved, it really would only look “good” with white tights, and there’s only one. I did purchase another pink cotton dress last fall, but Emily refused to try it on then, so I thought I’d try again in the spring. Sigh.
I had already decided that Valentine’s Day was going to be the cut-off, after which both Christmas dresses would be retired to a secure and undisclosed location. In the words of my mom, “That was fun, but now it’s done.” ;o) I may have a bigger problem now. We might have to start a new system where Emily gets to choose what she wants to wear from several choices I give her. The hard part is that she can reach all her clothes and get herself dressed before I can even get to her in the mornings. Maybe we’ll have to decide the night before. It will be an experiment. I’ll keep you posted.
Now that he weighs over 17.5 lbs., we officially ditched the baby carrier and moved Lincoln up to a convertible car seat. Today was our first outing. I'm not sure if the pained expression on his face is because of the new car seat, the new marshmellow coat that prevents any kind of movement, the hat (or any hat) that always covers his eyes, the biting wind, or the fact I woke him up in the middle of his morning nap to drag him to the library for Emily's story hour.
He was obviously much happier once he was packed into the car cart at Fareway. It was quite a circus. Besides having to carry a squirmy, slippery baby and keep track of a dawdling little girl, I also just got a new purse that resembles a bowling ball bag and weighs about as much. I can't figure that out, though, because when I moved everything over I didn't add anything, and it still seems so much heavier. Anyway, with a new wallet and a new organizational system it's going to take awhile to get used to a whole new way of running errands and shopping.
In addition to moving up in the world, Lincoln is also moving forward. He's still not "crawling", but he is experimenting with other techniques. One way is a half slither, half army crawl. Another is to get up on all fours and sort of launch himself forward and then repeat. I've already moved all of the large, floor houseplants to the upstairs guest room and tried to hide the computer cords. Next to come are the outlet covers and cupboard locks.
I am long overdue to post some updated pictures of our house remodeling projects. I keep waiting until they're "finished", but I have come to grips with the fact that decorating is never "finished". It is always a work in progress. So here are some current pictures from our house along with some of the "before" comparisons.
Emily's room when we looked at the house
Emily's room now (Notice the Christmas dress hanging on the peg. She's wearing the other one. And yes, those are built-in drawers in her walk-in closet that came with the house. She has the best closet.)
Master bedroom when we looked at the house
Master bedroom now
Half bath before
Half bath now (Window will be replaced as soon as it's warm enough and still needs wall decor and maybe a new mirror)
Stairway/foyer before
Stairway/foyer now (The lighting/flash makes the shade of blue look a little crazy, and there's a lot of wall decorating that still needs to be done.)
Our little boy is 8 months old today! He is changing by the day. He has pretty much mastered sitting up on his own. If he gets down on the floor he is able to maneuver around pretty quickly. He continues to roll sideways and scoot backwards. He is often up rocking on all fours--especially in his crib--but hasn't quite figured out how to move forward yet. This leads to him getting stuck in some precarious positions sometimes.
Lincoln has started pumping his fingers in a "bye-bye" gesture but has not associated it with saying goodbye. He has also caught on to turning pages of board books. His favorite books are touch-and-feel ones. He has to compete with Emily sometimes, though, because she knows how the books go and tries to turn the pages right away or tries to turn back if you accidentally skip a page.
Lincoln now has two teeth (click on picture to zoom in and see) and usually takes two naps per day. The transition period of dropping a nap is not always fun, but I think we're almost through it. Sometimes Lincoln is in bed for the night by 6:00pm, which is before Austin even gets home for supper. Although not always the ideal schedule, it makes for a somewhat less hectic mealtime when you only have to deal with one child. ;o)
Speaking of meals, Lincoln is down to four nursings and up to three meals. I think this is the most time and labor-intensive feeding period. We've made our way through most of the 1st Foods fruits & vegetables with mixed results. We've also started with yogurt and some finger foods. Pears seem to be his favorite, but with any food at anytime he may stonewall after only 2-3 bites. It takes an immense amount of patience to sit and wait for him to give you an opening to shove in another spoonful. Since that opportunity only occurs once every minute or two you end up constantly hovering with a spoonful of food within an inch of his mouth. I don't remember it being this hard to get Emily to eat for this long. I hope that doesn't mean Lincoln will be a picky eater! The one thing you can always count on, though, are the flavored baby puffs. He inhales those. He also is very capable of drinking out of a handled sippy cup on his own. We've still just stuck with water because he sometimes looks like a football player who takes a big swig and then projectile spits it out again. Therefore, we've moved on to vinyl, pocketed bibs. Meals are messy enough that he could stand to take a bath after almost every one. At the very least, he needs a change of clothes. Thank goodness for stain remover!
Lincoln LOVES bath time. He squeals with delight whenever I start filling his bathtub and undressing him on the bathroom floor. He'll spend up to 20-30 min. playing with bath toys and splashing around. It's a lot easier now that he can sit up well and you don't have to have a hand on him at all times. One of his favorite toys is the rubber duck. Just like Emily did, he can--and does--like to stick the entire head in his mouth. :o)
Lincoln took his first bath in the big bathtub this afternoon. He had started trying to crawl out of the little blue plastic one, so it was time. He loved it--especially being able to swim like a frog on his belly. I'm not ready to stick him in the tub with Emily yet, but we may get there...some day.
