Some Lincoln Ramblings

Once we had Lincoln, we quickly got floods of tips and advice on how to raise him (you know, the "Do this, but don't dare do that...you better not let him do this or he'll do it for the rest of his life" stuff) and all opinions contradict each other in one form or fashion eventually. Some of the advice, mind you was FABULOUS and life saving, but I definitely plan on not obsessing that I am ruining my child's life this time around and being more of a "go-with-the-flow" kind of person. There was one point in Lincoln's early years I thought my precious child would require a papsan swing to sleep well into his adult years - yeah, not too hard when we actually made the transition.
One of the rages right now with infants is teaching them sign language. "Really??" I remember my first response being upon hearing this...how can a tiny little creature who coos, pees/poops, and sleeps possibly understand how to sign (heck - I can't even sign more than a few words of the alphabet). But when Lincoln was 6 months old, I decided to give a whirl with the popular "more" sign...apparently, anything you try and teach a 6 month old in relation to food, works. I was not only amazed at the fact that my little baby was signing his needs when he first did this, but I could not believe how fast he picked it up! Within two weeks the champ was a professional at letting me know he liked something and, dang it - wanted MORE of it! I later moved to teaching him "All Done" to let me know when he was finished with his food. We did this one a little later - about 9-10 months or so. These are the only two signs I have taught him, but it has been amazing how through, just these two signs how much the little booger can communicate with us! For instance, he no longer only reserves the "All Done" sign for mealtime when he is finished eating. For the past few weeks, when he gets sleepy for a nap, he will walk to his bedroom door (we usually keep it closed during the day) and stand there doing his "all done" sign - like "Mom, I've had enough for now." It truly is precious. Or the other day we were in this little children's shop and I let him run around and play while I looked at clothes for him. After about 20 minutes, he came up to me and signed "all done" letting me know he had enough and was ready to leave. So the advice on signing...great advice and I completely recommend it!
As far as his actual words go, he is now saying: Ball (80% of the time), mama, dada, dog, bru- (trying to say Bruce), and well, that's about it for his extensive vocabulary. But it is phenomenal to me how many words and phrases he understands! I can tell him to "Go get your ball" and he goes directly to his basketball...or "Go get in your chair"...he also knows the words "Monkey, milk, do you want to eat?, are you ready to go?, ready to go nigh-nigh?, (all by which he responds with a clap if he wants it and a shake of the head "no" if not)...and numerous other phrase we use throughout the day.
I'm not really sure what this post has turned into except crazy ramblings about Lincoln's development at this stage (more for my memory I guess), but all in all just to express how amazed I am every day at this little guy's development and learning abilities - it truly is amazing to see children grow and I am so blessed for this experience!