Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

Stephen and I are both going mad with anticipation of our next child - due TOMORROW! We can't even talk about 'the plan' or anything anymore, because Stephen gets so nervous. Not nervous about the labor, or being doing it at home, its that nervousness that comes from anticipating something so great, but not knowing when it will start! So we had a little fun last night, decorating my belly. Linc and I have watched Ice Age 3 one too many times I think!

Obviously, I have always had a pretty good sense of humor - so I found this hilarious, laughing so hard tears almost came! Stephen didn't know if he should laugh or not, he felt like he was desecrating something sacred! "What if our kid grows up with buck teeth now?", was his concern!
For me, its all about the memories. Capturing memories, capturing parts of who Stephen and I are as young parents. Thats the main role of this blog - to capture all of that, then eventually print it in a cute book, and have it to be passed down in the family.
I would sure love to see my great grandchildren's reaction to some of the things we have done!

Post it on bookface

Today Stephen, Lincoln and I went for coffee at starbucks during Stephen's coffee break. Lincoln was so excited to go for "cof" with "da"! How could he not when he knows his father will spoil him rotten, making sure to order a small cup of whipping cream for his little buddy to enjoy! Lincoln knows the starbucks drive thru so well, and the treats that are sure to follow, that whenever we begin to go through one all we hear from the back seat is, "Please, please, please, please" in great anticipation of what he will get to enjoy. Anyways, I am getting sidetracked.
As we enjoyed our various drinks - a nice coffee for Stephen, Iced black tea lemonade for myself, and whipping cream for Lincoln I told Stephen how earlier that morning I had told Lincoln that we were going out and he could decide if he wanted to wear his boots or his shoes. So he runs over, grabs his shoes, and proceeds to successfully put one on the right foot, even getting the velcro done up. Stephen was very impressed and said, "You should put that up on facebook, 'Can your 2 year old put on his own shoes?'"
I cautioned Stephen, "You know honey I have one friend who has a child about the same age as Linc and she is already walking down the stairs."
"Oh!", came the reply.
"What if everyone was like, "My 18mos old can put on their shoes, whats wrong with your kid?"
We laughed, knowing, well hoping, no one would ever say that. A few minutes later an older couple, in their late 50's came up to us and told us that Lincoln was the most well behaved child they had seen in a long time, and they were very impressed. Stephen and I were so proud of our little Lincolnator! I turned to Stephen after the couple left and said, "Now THAT is something you post on facebook!"
And to think we are having another one any day now! So pumped!

Lincoln's second sleepover

Lincoln went for his second sleep over at my parents last night. The first was on our 5th Anniversary, when my parents so generously booked a wonderful couples only getaway and took our little 9 month old for the night. It was wonderful.
This sleep over was motivated by the fact that Lincoln will most likely end up at my parents for a night or two after the baby arrives. They just recently downsized their large home and are settling into a brand new condo, so we wanted to make sure Linc would be comfortable in their new environment. Well, not surprisingly Lincoln had a blast! I mean what toddler wouldn't love 24hour access to an elevator when at Grandma & Grandpas!
It was harder than expected saying goodbye to my little monkey! At first he didn't want us to leave, so my Dad brought Lincoln with us as we road the elevator down. Well it worked like a charm, when we got to the bottom he eagerly waved "Bye! BYE!" and blew us kisses, more than ready to ride the elevator back up. I was almost in tears.
But regardless Stephen and I had a wonderful evening by ourselves. We went to the Keg, also compliments of my parents, an anniversary gift used 2 months late! I was actually looking forward to having to wait for a table. Something that now can be quite stressful with a busy, hungry toddler. But unfortunately we didn't have to wait. I also looked forward to not having to suddenly rush through dinner, because Lincoln was over tired. And we didn't have to rush, it wonderful. We finished our evening with watching "Away We Go", both deciding that we needed to do the simple things, like watching a movie together, more often.

It was over all wonderful. Here a few photos that my parents took of their adventure with the Lincolnator.

How do little boys know...

Stephen so lovingly took time from his day on Friday to take Lincoln and I to McDonalds to break up our day. The goal was to get Lincoln playing in the playpit, but alas, many parents had the same idea for Friday at 12:00pm, so we just ended up eating. As we sat and watched our little boy marvel at all the cars in the parking lot, in between the threatening "ROARS!" he directed our way, we couldn't help but discuss how do little boys know to be little boys? Where do these deep rooted fascinations come from?

For example Lincoln loves Dinosaurs. It seems every little boy loves Dinosaurs. But I am not surprised that Linc loves them, as we decided when he was quite little that yes indeed, our son would love Dinosaurs. We bought him toy dinosaurs, books of dinosaurs, pj's with dinosaurs, and movies with dinosaurs. Sure enough, one of the first animal sounds he could make was a dinosaur, "ROAR!".

But Lincoln also loves cars. He loves to play with his cars, crashing them into one another, or making it drive the dangerous route of railing of his crib. He loves to go in the car. He loves to point out other cars. Oh, and he loves to say, "car?". But we did not encourage this in him. Sure he has cars, as every little boy does, but it was not an intentional purchase. We have never hyped up cars, or bought books about cars or pj's with cars on them. But some how he has figured out that as a little boy he is supposed to LOVE cars! So this time we will take our cues from him, and encourage this natural love of cars.

But it still leaves us in the McDonalds pondering the question, "How do little boys know?". It is truly fascinating. And I can not wait until the day that I can ponder, "How do little girls know?"

Lincolns Vocabulary

So a phrase daily heard in the Dombowsky household is, "Bud, you gotta speak english!" Or, "Linc, I don't have a clue what you just said." I generally, agree or pretend I know what he is talking about when he natters away, trying so desperately to tell us his most recent observation or question. But sometimes I just have to let him no I have no idea what he is talking about.
Some of the 'issues' (and i use the word lightly, as he is only 22 months, give the kid a break!) we have is that he doesn't finish words:

pa = pants
da = dad
ca = clothe, car, socks, coke, coffee,
uh = up
ba = bath or ball
jew = juice
ap = apple

but for some reason the kid has mastered cheese, please, shoosh (soother), bye and of course mom and NO!.

And what surprises me even more is that he has no word for either of the dogs or his bottle. Two very important parts of his life!

He has recently added cow, sheep, and duck to his animal sound list. Even though we aren't sure where he learned the duck sound. Actually he uses the same sound in reference to any type of bird: Ca-ca!

As well, whenever he sees individual letters or numbers, usually in a book, he points to each one and says, "Day". They all make the same sound or have the same name!

We did figure out last night that he is speaking partial French, we are certain he said "ne sais pa!" I'm just glad that it isn't Korean (which I made sure of when we hosted a Korean student last month, she assured me he was not!)

17 days and trying not to count

Before I knew it I find ourselves 2.5 weeks, or 17 days before the due date of our next child. And surprisingly, or maybe not, I have very mixed feelings about being this close to the delivery.
There is a part of me, approx. 48lbs of me, that is more than ready to have this baby out of my body. I found the weight gain, even though the exact same as last time, much harder to deal with this time. 48lbs is a LOT for a little 5'4" 110lb women to gain in 7 months. Its hard physically on my body, and its hard on me emotionally. Even though I know its for a good reason, and that when I'm not pregnant I don't gain weight at an outrageous rate. But when the pants you bought just a few months ago no longer fit, it sucks. Especially since I refuse to buy the next size since I only have a few weeks left. "Cute" and "Beautiful" and not words I use anymore when i am full term. Not when I can see an extra pound in my face. Even my armpits and knees are fatter! I look forward to being able to have the energy and physical ability to take both of my kids to the park and start slowly working all this weight off.
But there is another part of me that, in the last week, has started feeling like its too soon! I feel like I have my heels digging into the sand, being dragged by time, that for the last 8 months I only wished I could speed up! There is a lot of stuff I would like to see done on the house. But mostly its just the unknown of what life with a toddler and newborn is going to be like. And if i am going to be able to handle it. Going back to being up every 3-4 hours. but not having the luxury, as with only one child, to nap whenever they do. Unless that is I can get the kids on the same schedule, which will definitely be priority. Wondering how you do errands with 2 children? How do you discipline your toddler, while in the middle of feeding your newborn?
I guess this is probably why we have no control over when the baby actually comes. If I did, I probably would have made it come before i was ready, or at this point put off having it simply out of fear of the unknown.
Thankfully I have no say in it. But a 24hour notice would be nice!

February 2010

Its been a lovely month. Lincoln seems to be developing so much lately. (I feel like I've been saying that for months!)Here are some of our funny stories from this month:

One day while baking buns, I sat down in the living room to give my back a break while the dough rose. After a few minutes the dogs come into the living room and I notice Hercules had flour all over him. I was just about to yell at the dogs when I realized it was quiet and Linc was no where to be seen. A bad combination! So I go into the kitchen and sure enough, there is my mischievous little boy playing in the flour bag!


He also has been growing more and more interested in the dogs. He has enjoyed pretending he is a puppy by getting on all fours and drinking out of their water dish. He likes to crawl into their kennel, whether they are in there or not, and close the door. Somedays I notice the dogs seem very displaced, and sure enough lincoln has filled up their kennel with his toys! As well, he faithfully feeds the dogs. One. Kibble. At. A. Time. But when the dogs are hungry, they don't mind. We also have acquired my parents cat the last month. Lincoln loves Twister very much. Everyday he goes up on our bed and gives Twister many hugs and tries desperately to give the cat a kiss right on the lips! Twister has been great so far, but Lincoln can be rough and today received his first swipe from the cat!



Yesterday I set up the baby swing in our dining room in preparation for the baby. Lincoln was checking it out and pushing it back and forth. So I think to myself, "What an excellent opportunity to talk about the baby!" I grab one of Lincoln's stuffed animals and explain to him, "Lincoln, when the baby comes we have to hold it gently like this. And then we put it in the swing!" The whole time I'm thinking, "Man am I an awesome parent or what!" Lincoln walks up to the swing, exclaims, "NO!". Grabs the stuffed animal marches it over to the dog kennel and chucks it inside! It may be a bit of a rough road of transition for Linc!

Probably the best new 'trick' Lincoln does came about one day while we were watching Price is Right. It was the final show cases and the women, as usual, were covering their mouths in disbelief and followed be high pitch screams. I look over to my little toddler and sure enough he has his hands over his mouth, just like the ladies. And not to dissapoint he follows with a very girly high pitch scream! So now I say, "Lincoln what do the people on Prices is Right do?" I put my hands over my mouth, and he screams! Then he puts his hands over his mouth, and I scream! Its great!