Tricks and Treats

I really need to be better about keeping this up-to-date with some Lincoln stories. I'm SO that mom who when asked how her weekend was, says, "Oh, it was ok... Lincoln did the cutest thing!..." and then I'm off. I'll try to be better about doing that on the blog, as well.

So, these are some of his latest tricks (and treats):

He learned how to clap just the other day, and he thinks it is the funniest thing. He was sitting on Tyler's shoulders at the ward activity on Friday night and started clapping while he was watching people dancing. It was adorable! I tried to get a pic or video, but nada. I think that's the first time he spontaneously clapped. We've been trying to teach him for a while, so success was felt all around.

We also taught him how to "give 5," but he's not much of a performer so we can't show anybody! It's really cute, though. We say, "Can you give me 5?" and hold up our hand and he just starts slappin' 5s!

He's learned what "no" means, so now when he sees cords, for instance, he solemnly shakes his head and says "no no." He also does this when he gets to about the second step on the staircase at my in-laws.

He is VERY independent. He's all about finger foods. If we try to hold out a cheerio to put in his mouth, he leans his head back and reaches out to take the cheerio from us to put it in his mouth by himself. Some of his favorite foods right now are bananas, peas, carrots, corn, pears, goldfish crackers, graham crackers, teddy grahams, and cheerios. He also loves the little gerber graduates meat sticks. And he loves anything sweet or anything, at all, that you are trying to eat.

He's learning to drink from a straw, but sometimes he gets too much in his mouth, doesn't know what to do with it, and lets it just run out down his chin. So drinks get kind of messy. He's getting better though. He had his first kids meal at Wendy's on Saturday, and he really liked the chocolate milk. But we didn't have a bib for him, so we had to remind him to swallow and take the straw out of his mouth. I think he's been doing much better since then.

At the doctor's the other week he got his first series of 12-month shots. As a reward, the nurse offered him a sucker. He'd never had one before, but oh my word, he LOVED it! And he looked SO smug about it. I love that something so simple can bring such joy. I have a lot to learn from my little guy.


I already blogged about his obsession with diet mt. dew that he got from us, but seriously all the kid needs for hours of enjoyment is an empty soda can. I'm afraid he's going to hurt himself one of these days, but it's a losing battle to try to keep them away from him.

About three weeks before he turned one, he starting pitching a HUGE fit every time we put him in his car seat. We were confident that the next three weeks would be terrible until we could turn his car-seat around. But then he figured out that he could see his "friend" in the mirror on the headrest (that we use to see his face in our rear-view mirror), and he started getting this huge grin when we would put him in his seat! It still hasn't lost it's appeal, but we're wondering if this narcissistic impulse should be encouraged or not? It's so adorable, though. He even took his first series of steps toward the mirror! (One's been on the floor lately because of our flooring project.)

He LOVES shoes. We're not sure what it is about them, but he makes a beeline for the foyer and the shoes that are neatly stacked there... until he pulls them ALL down. I think part of it is the laces (remember he loves cords, too, that's why he's learned "no").

He is ALWAYS on the go. That's why I love this last of our monthly pics with the elephant:

We could NOT get him to hold still.

Which is about as funny as his 11-month pic where we could only get him to hold still if we let him hang on to a mt. dew can:

And finally, the kid is stinkin' cute in hats. At the store on Saturday we were trying a bunch of hats on him and admiring him. At first, he pulled them off, but we think that once he caught on that we were an appreciative audience, he was more willing to pose.


I think that's all for today. If I can manage these more frequently, the next updates won't be quite so long!

Felt House-A-Long

If you follow my other blog, you may have seen that I'm participating in the Felt House-A-Long that Fireflies and Jellybeans is hosting. We're just starting week 1 (so if you want to do this with me, jump on the bandwagon!) which is Planning and Supplies. She has a great list of inspiration, but after starting my "sketches," I'm kind of at a loss. I'm wanting to do something fairly gender neutral so that any future female siblings aren't left out of the fun. Which means I want it to be easily modified, as well. For instance, I like the idea of window boxes, but right now they'll just have greenery - maybe later I'll add flowers.

So I've gotten this far, and now I'm stumped. It's kind of blah. Click on the image to see it enlarged if you need. Do you guys have any thoughts or advice? We're brainstorming here - no bad ideas. I don't know that I like having the SAME window on both sides, but I do like the idea of windows. I'll probably make fruit for the tree - It's just not on the sketch. And don't worry, the "leaves" on the tree will look MUCH better.

Does the portico over the front door look like a portico or just some random shape? Circular window on the front of the house - yes or no? One of the inspiration houses had a cute half-circle window in the door, so maybe a window in the door would be better? The back is BORING - what could I add that would reasonably be on a house? What else could I put on the sides? Does the grass look like it could be grass, or should I try for bushes or something?

I'm not wanting to make something super-intricate, so some general ideas to get the creative juices flowing would be MUCH appreciated.