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!

Night on the Square

Tonight us coaches wives had planned to meet our dazzling men in Fayetteville after practice for a night of Hugo's and lights on the square. Sadly, the Matchell's boy got sick today and so him and Chris had to stay behind while Bethany and I loaded up Lincoln and the girls for a Christmasy night on the town. On the ride over, Anna was on "Reindeer Patrol", Lincoln was trying to nap (but couldn't), and Makaiah was sweetly calling Lincoln "Buddy, buddy, buddy" when he would get fussy. We met our men at Hugo's for dinner and then proceeded to the square. I have never seen these lights before, but they were fantastic. It was a perfect night - not too cold and zero wind - and you can let the kids run around without worrying about car traffic (however, one must be ware of the occasional horse-drawn carriage or camel - yeah, camel). Here are some pictures of the night - some were hard to get because of all the lights and glare...
Ha. He was not happy because I pulled away from a dog he was playing with to try and get a picture - I know, world's worst mom. :)

My little explorer...

The picture below is of Anna singing Lincoln "The Hot Dog Song"...she knows how to warm his little heart. :) I'm not sure if it was her co-pilot and his potential to pull out her pretty blonde hair or the unknown of the excitement of lights, camels, and horses (you know, every essential to getting one in the Christmas spirit) that brought on the teas, but she did not wanna be in that stroller. :)

So Lincoln got to ride solo for a bit (between the "Da-Da-Da!" call when he would see a dog and his excitement for the enticing stairs that seemed to be EVERYWHERE - it wasn't long before I was pushing an empty stroller).

Let me explain the red pants on my son...he was in a Santa outfit tonight. :) It was just too cold to wear it without his coat when we were looking at lights so it looks like I dressed him in hideous red pants - um, no. And I realized I never got a picture that captured the full effect of this little outfit. It truly is adorable and I'm not so bummed cause I'm sure he'll be sporting it again in Crossett in a few days at his grandparent's house.

This picture cracked me up when I uploaded it...not really sure what the little Tiger is doing. And then my little Handsome :) It was a fantastic night! My camera died half way through the night so I have no pictures of Bethany & Brandon or of my sister and her husband - bummer. But Bethany got us a group shot so I'll tack it on here later. Off to bed. :)

Traditions

Last night our community group met one last time before the Holidays with the topic of choice being, of course, Christmas. We read some Scriptures about the prophesies of Christ's birth and contemplated Advent and the anticipation the people must of felt for their Savior's birth into the world. All but one family in our group have children and the topic quickly shifted to how we keep Christ the center in the midst of all the added glitz Christmas has assumed. The Foughts had researched some common traditions aimed at keeping Christ centered and shared some of them with the group, while others offered things they do/have done with their families.
Jason and I were just discussing this topic Sunday night as we were finishing up our Christmas shopping and decided on one thing we were going to start...
One of my continuous prayers for Lincoln has been that he will have a compassionate heart for others and an spirit of servitude. Christmas provides such great opportunities to exercise such qualities and teach them to our kids. But not only to our kids, but as a reminder for us adults as well...I pray that I can be remembered as someone who is compassionate and know that this is a daily battle fought between myself and the continual things that aim at distracting. Jason and I have always set a budget for ourselves and what we would buy everyone and each other at the Holidays. We decided next year to, not expand that budget, but start taking a certain amount from each of our allowances (including Lincoln's) by which we could use to buy gifts/meals/anything needed for a family in need. Jason has shared some stories with me about how families did this for his family when he was a child when things were extremely tight. He said some of his greatest memories stem form these times when others were so generous and Christ-like.
I'll be honest, sometimes I struggle with the whole gift-giving aspect of Christmas...it's Jesus' birthday - shouldn't we be giving Him gifts? I've always had a hard time understanding why we all buy each other gifts at Christmas. Don't worry - I'm not robbing my child of this! But I do long to find a way to help Lincoln (and myself) understand and keep an appropriate perspective on this truly, most wonderful time of the year.
Which leads to a tradition another couple shared - giving Jesus gifts. They talked about a tradition where each family member decides on something they will give back to Jesus...maybe a commitment to more time with Him, or doing an act of servitude, for example. Then as each member shares on Christmas morning their gift to Jesus, the family can keep each other accountable to those gifts. I personally loved this one and think it is a good way to get the whole family involved!
Other traditions shared were having a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake, and then their was one about Advent that I think we might try and do next year:
For each of the 4 Sundays before Christmas, light the appropriate Advent candle and prepare a dinner to share by only the light of the candles, while reading appropriate Advent readings and scripture. Likewise, the first of these would be eaten by one light, next by two, and so on, before the celebration of Christ's birth, symbolizing no more darkness and full light. I think it is a fantastic way to re-center each week the true meaning of Christmas and get a small glimpse into the anticipation the people must have felt long ago.

Those are a few of the traditions that stuck out to me and seemed like something we might try to incorporate. I'm just curious...what are some of your traditions and how do you keep alive the true meaning of Christmas?

My Mush Brain

Please please PLEASE let me blame this following story on being pregnant! I feel like everything else can be blamed on pregnancy (literally, the comprehensive symptom list pretty much covers EVERYTHING), so I'd like to throw the blame that way for this mishap for sure.

The story kind of starts last holiday season (which, yes, I am full aware I was not pregnant then...but still)...

It was Black Friday and Jason and I had been shopping all day long - the exhausting, feet detaching from your ankles kind of shopping, when we decided to make one last stop (at dark) at Gordman's before coming home...and to make matters worse, it was Gordman's - the store where it always seems like I can find some good things but yet always seem to leave empty handed in disappointment (I still haven't figured it out, apparently). So we were literally in and out within a matter of 15 minutes maybe, and as we were driving home, I realize the heart-wrenching fact that my wallet was gone. Sparing the details, we knew it was stolen (from Gordman's!), so I quickly cancelled everything (always fun) and slummed into the depressive state of making a list of all I wold have to change and get new to replace what was stolen.
Low and behold, a few days later - on my birthday to be exact - I get a package in the mail, sloppily addressed to me - with EVERY CONTENT of my wallet wrapped nicely in it - seriously??! They even mailed back gift cards! But no wallet and no return of the cash I had stashed in it. I couldn't believe it - mean enough to steal it but nice enough to save me the hassle of the DMV. Folks, they even mailed back my credit cards.

Now, flash forward to today...this was our designated day to finish up the Christmas shopping. We headed to the mall (about a 30 minute drive) after church this morning. After we had been driving for about 20 minutes, a van pulls up next to us (on the highway - going 70) and yells something in Spanish while pointing to the back of our car. All we get is that something is wrong with our car so we pull over and Jason gets out to check the damage. He's looking confused, not figuring out what the guy saw on the highway - and then the face. The "Oh my lovely wife" face.
He comes back to the car - not a word, but a sheepish grin - and hands me my CELL PHONE. I had left it on the trunk of the car, by which some man had happened to notice driving 70 mph, and it had stayed for 20 minutes on the highway. I've always thought it was a pretty awesome phone.

So we shop, shop, shop...then shop some more, flash forwarding to nightfall and feeling the exhaustion coming in, when, before you know it, we find ourselves making one last stop at none other than Gordman's. Why always the last stop? As we're walking in I joke with Jason about the last time we went there together a year ago..."hang on to your wallets in here!".

Okay. So we leave Gordamn's with no mishaps and actually bought a couple of things this time! On the way home I reach into the diaper bag to see if my sister has called me, and OH MY GOSH. No phone. My mind races to a scene in Gordman's where I let Lincoln look at my phone...but I got it back from him, right? Oh my goodness - it's in the shopping cart at Gordman's.

So I quickly call from Jason's phone (as we're turning around to head back to the store and my husband has that "I'm trying to be patient with her" look)..."Hi, yes. You might remember me from last year - I lost something in your store, again."

When we got back to the store, I frantically searched the carts and talked to employees...nothing. So we left my name and started the long trek home, this time feeling CRAZY depressed and wondering if my brain could fall to pieces even more. People - my phone had already survived a car ride on the trunk earlier that day - what were the chances of it surviving this? Not good.

So I called and had outgoing/ingoing calls blocked, as well as Internet access (which you can directly access a handful of some accounts from my phone) and felt creeped out that someone was reading my text message conversations. I also had Jason send a text to my phone offering a reward. We spent the whole ride home doing these arrangements.

Then we got home. And it was there I became utterly convinced it had to be the pregnancy because no one was as ridiculous as me without a grand excuse...

My phone was in the diaper bag all along...I never thought to check twice.

My poor husband.

Bartlesville

This weekend Bentonville has been playing in a tournament in Bartlesville, OK. All the coaches get their own suites provided by the tournament, so us wives came up for the occasion and are making a vacation out of it (except for Bethany - we miss you). Christine and I have had quite the adventure taming 4 crazy kiddo's between the two of us through basketball, basketball, and well, more basketball. She took off to Dallas today to run her first marathon (superstar woman, let me tell you), but I'm still trooping here in Bartlesville through tomorrow. Might I add, this town is ADORABLE. I absolutely love it. It's full of old money (home of Phillips 66) and the houses here are incredible! So much so, that I have been calculating just how bad of a commute it would be from here to Bentonville everyday...2 hours isn't terrible??? I've even found us a house :).
Before we left from Siloam yesterday, my new diaper bag came in the mail! I ordered it last week with some birthday money from Jason's parents, and I have been anxiously awaiting it's arrival - hoping it would come before this trip. When the time came to leave, it still had not arrived and I was a little bummed, but then as we were pulling out the driveway, it came! I ordered it from Gap.com - it's a SkipHop bag and it has been fabulous! I absolutely LOVE it. Perhaps my favorite feature is it is designed to fit on the back of the stroller (it actually has about three different ways you can even carry it for your convenience). Here's a picture of it below...highly recommended.

And then below "in use" today as we trekked through the mall between games.
At the mall today, we went into Hibbett Sports and Lincoln immediately outstretched his hands, wonder in his eyes, and started saying, "Ball! Ball! Ball!" I looked...looked again...no balls. But he was persistent and I could not figure out where he was seeing a ball. Then I saw it. Lining the ceiling were basketballs all around the store - I never saw them, but he sure found them withing seconds of entering the store. Oh dear. It's already started. So we found some junior basketballs that were on sale and he got treated (only because it's vacation!). And he has gripped that thing ever since.

Also this morning, I went to put on Lincoln's shoes and they don't fit! None of them! He literally grew overnight! So we got him some new Nike kicks at the store today (50% off = $15 = great deal!).

Below are some pictures with his buddy little Matchell that he got to hang with the past few days. However you have to watch him because he loves to grab everything right now and one time i looked down and he had a fistful of her pretty blonde hair in his hands! Sad. I'm glad she's forgiving. :)

All in all it's been a great weekend with some wins sprinkled in there...reminding me how thankful, again, I am that I have such a hard-working husband and get to to go on these trips with him without work's interference. :)

It's Official

I've realized, in my adventures as a stay-at-home mom, that since I no longer have to "get ready" in the mornings or decide what to wear to work, I have fallen into the slump of wearing the same thing every day - I call it my pregnant outfit. But the sad part is it is really no "outfit" by any means. And perhaps the even sadder part is that Stacy and Clinton would probably drop kick me off the planet if they caught wind of my fashionista ways. Note to self: do not watch "What Not to Wear", "America's Next Top Model", or (tip from Leslie), the Victoria Secret Runway Fashion Show while you have an ever-expanding belly that is unstoppable. So what is my "outfit" - you're dying to know, huh?
Well, I have 2 choices between pants (though they're both black): either my $8 tight yoga pants that will forever just keep expanding or the lovely black track pants I purchased from Express in the year 2001 - no joke. These expand, but not forever like the first pair mentioned, but I wore them all the way through with Lincoln, so as long as they still fit, I'll consider it success this time around. Might I add though, since the pants are almost 10 YEARS OLD - they now also have new white spots on them - in the knees. Money well spent.
And the top? Jason's large grey Nike sweatshirt. Yes, I look like a goddess. And yes, I literally wear this everyday (don't worry, I do wash it occasionally) except for the occasional switch up when I go to a basketball game (or church) - however, I did wear this lovely ensemble to 1 of 3 basketball games last week. :)
And I think this can officially be called my pregnancy outfit because, if you remember a picture I posted the morning we went into the hospital to have Lincoln a year ago...yeah, I was wearing it - with pant choice #1. I've posted a picture for memory sake of that morning. And by the way, the pink pumas in the picture? Yeah - also purchase at the Puma outlet in California...10 YEARS AGO, as well. Sorry Babe - I'll go back to caring about fashion in the spring.
So all you pregnant ladies, what is your "outfit"? Come on - you know you have one.

55 Days...Oh My

As my husband and I were laying i bed talking last night, I asked him what the day was and he told me it was the 6th...the 6th? Really? Oh my. That means, at the latest, baby Noah will be here in 55 days. OH MY. And yes you read it right - I am making a prediction, because, well (close your eyes for those who don't agree with this - I know you're out there) we have a set induction scheduled for the 6th of February - unless of course, he decides to grace us with his presence at a sooner date. But a later date? I don't think so Mr. Noah. :) And before the gasps and judgements partake, let me explain. My husband's a basketball coach and Noah's due in February. Right. Most of you still probably don't quite understand (except for you Christine), but I have found my own mother sometimes has a hard time with this one...I probably would have too until I married one. :)
So without going into the details of why, Noah is set to be induced Saturday morning on the 6th of February...3 days earlier than his due date. And since Lincoln was a little late, I'm hoping Noah continues that tradition so we can make it to the 6th! Water breaking in the middle of Bentonville vs. Southside game does not sound too exciting. Now confession time - we induced with Lincoln (for similar reasons - I swear our lives don't revolve TOTALLY around basketball!), and it was GLORIOUS. Such an incredible experience that I swore my next birthing experience just had to be torturous and I so long to have another experience like I had with Lincoln. There were so many positives about being induced for me, and I'll admit, the whole going-into-labor-on-your-own-terms and not knowing if you'll make it to the hospital or HEAVEN FORBID in time for the epidural - terrifies me now. So we'll see how this one goes. And obviously, as long as a healthy baby is on the other end - it will be perfect (in the end).
This last trek of pregnancy has proven to be more uncomfortable than with Lincoln - I've started having very annoying back pain...that I know is because I'm continually lifting a 25 pound baby (not to mention all the gear he comes with). Last night I got nervous it would not go away after pregnancy and I would not be able to resume the active lifestyle I once enjoyed. Hopefully that is just paranoia. Nonetheless, I cannot wait for Noah to be here! I'm probably most curious as to what he is going to look like - not in a superficial way, it's just that everytime I think of him I can't help but think of him with Lincoln's face because that is all I know. It is fascinating to me. 55 days and I'll get to see. :)