Lunch Breaks

Aren't they nice? Whoever decided that us hard working Americans need 30 minutes to do nothing and re-fuel...thanks. I truly am appreciative, but not too excited considering I have been to Africa and now know what other parts of the world do...in Africa, everything shuts down at noon and everyone goes home for "lunch" (I say that in quotations because I also found out through my AIDS education that most people use this time to have sex - no joke; there's lots more I could say about that stuff I learned but I'll save it for another post). And then when everything shuts down at noon, it may or may not open back up. So we always had to get all of our errands done by noon in case those "eating lunch" decided they were having too much fun to come back.
Yeah, but not us here. I am writing this over a turkey sandwich from school cafeteria (appetizing) while simultaneous listening to this soulful song on repeat that I just found out I am singing in church on Sunday morning and should probably learn by then.

After work today, I am headed to pick up Lincoln and we are off to the duo game mess in Little Rock this weekend - thanks ice storm. We play Greenbriar tonight and Morrilton in the morning - ouch. Sounds exhausting. Poor guys. The fun and exciting news is that Lincoln gets to see his grandparents who haven't seen him in months! They're gonna go crazy with how much the little fellow has grown!

Speaking of grown, Lincoln had a well visit today for his 4 month deal...he weighs 13.7 lbs. and is in the 20% for his weight supposedly...he is 24 in. long which they said is a little small. He was really long last visit and hasn't grown much more. I asked the doc why that is and he said that he'll probably catch up, some take longer to grow, and then he said it could just have to do w/ genetics. Did he notice my husband is 6'5??? :)
Lincoln did AMAZING at his visit! He as quite the show off, talking, laughing, doing his cute high pitched squeal, and trying SOOO desperately to show doc how good he can roll over and how all he's lacking is to roll that one shoulder. He was adorable and knows how to make mommy proud.

Some of Life's Greatest Joys

1. Seeing my sweet little baby look up and smile at my face...because he knows I'm mom (I'm a mom!)
2. Holding my husband's hand...feeling protected, loved, and important.
3. Being blessed with an amazing family who is so supportive.
4. Beating Harrison by 25 points - on our home court :)

Go Panthers.

More Butt Pictures

My friend Meredith gave Lincoln this adorable outfit...he's finally big enough to wear it and it looks so freaking cute on the little guy - thanks Meredith! I think you can see by the pictures that he's quite fond of the overalls. :)
Ha...and check out the pictures below...Lincoln's grandma MacMahan got him the cutest diapers ever - they have his name on the buttocks! Another item I thought he'd be able to wear months ago, but no. He just grew a butt big enough to fill them last week.
This is Lincoln, NOT wanting me to take a picture of his buttocks...
And these are the ones where mommy won the battle. :)

By the way...we have now had TWO consecutive nights of Lincoln sleeping from 10:00pm - 7:00am...UNBELIEVABLE!!! Our little plan and method has worked like a charm. :) I wished I would have known how easy that would have been and we would have done it a month ago!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

Today is very exciting because we get to spend the morning w/ the little Valentine, and here in the next hour, we're dropping him off at his Mimi and Papa's house. They've offered to keep him until late tonight so Jason and I can try and find some romance in the midst of this crazy thing called parenthood - SO excited. And what are we doing?? Absolutely NOTHING. Well, not entirely, I guess. But nothing extravagant or anything. We're staying home, cooking
Fillet Mignon's and just spending uninterrupted time together - now that is priceless and the best gift ever. I'm so excited. :)

And check out what this little rockstar did last night...we saw daddy coach (and won again in the last seconds!!), then came home and put him to bed at 10:00. Jason's brother and his wife stayed the night last night and we let them sleep in our room cause it was our third night of C.I.O. and we didn't want them having to stay up and here Lincoln scream. And we couldn't NOT do it tonight or we start back at square one.
So, we put him down at 10:00 and the little booger did not make a PEEP - a PEEP people, until 7:20 this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's a miracle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I know I shouldn't get crazy excited yet, because who knows if this will last, but this is the first time he has EVER done this, in his CRIB, and I'm SO excited that I might see more sleep in my future. :)

These pictures below are Lincoln's Valentine photos with his puppy his Grandma and Poppa McMahan sent him... I was disappointed that I never could flash at the moment he was smiling...he sees the light on my camera when it focuses, and he always stops smiling because he gets so intrigued by it. Oh well...he's still stinkin' adorable.

Night #2 of C.I.O

Well last night was Jason's turn to stay up w/ Lincoln in attempts to help him get through that night feeding (or very early morning, to be exact). So before bedtime, I coached Jason up BIG TIME:
"Okay honey - now he's gonna scream starting at about 4:00am...and it's gonna be hard to listen to and you're gonna think the little fella is suffering and possibly on his death bed, but DON'T GIVE IN. If you feel like giving in, come get me first and I'll take over! Now he'll cry like this on and off for about 3 hours until he's suppose to get up. You'll be miserable. You'll wanna give up. You'll say it's not worth it. But DON'T GIVE IN. The end results far outweigh this one night. Did I mention, DON'T GIVE IN????"

So I get up this morning at my usual time, walk into the living room where Jason is asleep on the couch. I hesitate waking him up because I'm sure Lincoln was screaming all night and what if he just FINALLY fell asleep?? But then I figure he'd rather be in the bed, so I wake him.

"Honey - how'd it go??" I say with a sheepish look, scared that the answer is "awful!"
Here's what he said...

"Oh he woke up at 4:30, cried for about 20 minutes, and he's been asleep ever since."

What?! You mean our child, only on the second night of letting him cry it out, only cried for 20 minutes??? WHAT?! How could that night be so drastically different than the night I had w/ him when it was my turn?? Couldn't believe it. So excited. So proud. And all those speeches I gave him to pump him up last night...not needed apparently.

So I'm hopeful this is the turn of a new era for Lincoln's sleeping habits - wouldn't that be amazing!!! But I'm not getting my hopes up yet, because tonight is my turn, and well, I wouldn't be surprised if I'm just not that lucky. But it can be done, people...it CAN be done.

It's Friday. Go Panthers.

Brokedown Papi

Well he's done it again folks. Except this time he didn't get himself stuck in the bottom of an abandon swimming pool for an entire week.
We woke up to shrills from Papi who was simultaneously, frantically running in circles on our bed, SCREAMING (if a dog can scream) and his heart was racing at a pace that would have hinted he just finished a marathon if I hadn't known otherwise.
I freaked out.
We couldn't get him calm.
Couldn't figure out what was wrong.
I freaked out some more.
Because this scenario went on ALL night long,
I balled...all night long.
I don't know why, but he kept acting so disoriented and like he was having constant panic attacks, my mind kept coming back to the fact that some was internally wrong. Brain cancer was all I could think of that would be causing these odd behaviors.
So we sat up with him, trying to comfort him, watching him, trying to figure out what was wrong...helping him calm through each wave of panic...and I was certain these were the last hours with our Mr. Papi. I know I sound dramatic, but I truly had these feelings.
So this morning Jason took him into the vet (I couldn't do it) and I said my goodbyes and my prayers that God would make the cancer go away.
Well, after 2 hours and many tests at the vet, the conclusion?
Papi's playful spirit had finally gotten the best of him.
Bruce Wayne broke Papi's tail.
No cancer.
No more goodbyes.
Just a broken tail.
So I'm sorry Papi and I truly feel bad for your poor little tail, but PRAISE the LORD.
For those who have read this blog, that's TWICE now in the past 3 months I thought we'd lost our Papi.
I really am melodramatic. Gosh.

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In other news, since I was up w/ Papi all night, I decided to do Lincoln's first "crying it out" night to get him past his early morning feeding he still insists on.He actually did okay...cried on and off from 4-6:45am, but he at least had some off moments where his shrill and Papi's weren't the deafening duets of the house. We're gonna keep it up these next few nights and hope to eliminate it by the end of the weekend. And can I brag on him for a bit?? He has been getting WONDERFUL reports from the lady that keeps him! She says he's the hit of the other three little girls that stay there and that he is the happiest baby - just laughing, smiling, and taking it all in. That makes a mamma proud. :)

Because They're Too Pathetic to Keep to Myself

Who's in the Bed?
Husband? check
Lincoln? check
Bruce Wayne? check
Big Papi? check
Benny? check
Mamma? Of course not. Apparently she's the only productive/non-lazy one in the house. That's what I get for having a house full of boys.