My darling little froggingman!

Yesterday we were very blessed my one of Stephen's volunteers at Building Futures to be invited out to their 'little piece of Heaven' as they so lovingly and accurately call it. They have 40acres of woodlands and grasslands about an hour north east of the city. They have developed some of it into a beautiful garden, a quaint little cabin, and a great dug out for their kids, who are now adults, used to spend their summers swimming it. The rest is all natural forest and meadows - it really is a piece of Heaven. Lincoln, of course, had one of the best days of his life as he got to run around exploring, discovering, and just being a little boy! His favorite part of being out there were all the little frogs hopping around, waiting to be caught! Stephen and I caught and few and showed him - and then after that Stephen, Rodger and Linc went hunting frogs for a long time. The funny thing is is that Lincoln doesn't have the words "gentle' or "don't squish" in his vocabulary, so needless to say some of the frogs got a little bit of hard loving from our little 16 month old! Lincoln was able to even catch some by himself - and if they were getting away he wouldn't hesitate to try and step on them!

This one frog Stephen caught for Linc by the water, and placed it on the ground in front of Lincoln - and Lincoln proudly caught it all by himself. As we tried to tell him not to poke, squish, and manhandle this little frog - it got away into the water. But couldn't get very far as it was so exhausted and shocked at being handled so brutually it simply floated on the water. Well Linc was thrilled as he caught it AGAIN! And again this poor frog was 'loved' and discovered by Linc. We finally took it away from him and set it in the water away from Lincoln. And to my horror I watched this little frog sink to the bottom! After a few short minutes it struggled to the surface and slowly made its away as far away from my son as his little body would take him.

It was really cool to start to see the little boy in Lincoln really emerge! One of our 3-5 year goals is to buy some land in the country and settle out there. I won't be surprised if once we are out there my house is filled with creepy crawly things that my little adventure brings home. In fact, I can't wait!

Lincolns little antics

Lincoln has definately been my joy these last few weeks as he seems to have had a development explosion and doing lots of cute fun new things.

Linc now sticks his tongue out - it is so cute, because he hasn't figured out how to push it out very far yet so it sits between his lips. If you look at him and stick your tongue out at him, and gets the most glorious smile on his face and in his eyes and out pops his little tongue.

Linc now says "No" regularly and clearly. Last week we were at Stephen's parents farm and there were a lot of dogs at the farm, and so a lot of "Roxy, No." Herc, No!". As I strapped Linc into his car seat for the long ride home he points at Herc, who was sitting in the Jeep and says "No,no,no,no,no." It was priceless! Now, he says No, when he means no. He says NO, when he means yes. Its very cute.

Stephen has taught Linc to play hide and go seek. Stephen will say to Lincoln, "Lincoln, should I go hide?" or "Lincoln, want to come find me?" Which is usually followed by a, "No." which means Yes in this case. So then Stephen runs into another room, at which point Linc runs after him as fast as his little legs will carry. Stephen usually only has enough time to step into a closet or hide behind the door - but Linc always manages to find him, and is so proud of himself when he does!

One of the best things I am enjoying in this stage is Linc is finally starting to show affection of his own free will. When he climbs into my lap with a book in tow I am amazed everytime how perfectly we fit together. We were truly made for each other. When i squat down and throw my arms wide and the rare times he runs into them and gives me a big hug - I never want to let him go, or want that moment to end. Motherhood has rewards and moments that are priceless and inexplainable - and I am blessed, grateful, and humbled to have the privelege of being a mother.
My heart is over flowing with love and joy for my child. And it is over flowing knowing that I am priveleged enough to be carrying our second one.

The Lord is good.

Linc's First Hair cut

Well after being asked if Linc was a boy or a girl one too many times, we decided to get his hair cut. I loved his long blonde hair, but it was getting to be too much. Linc did great - sat so well and didn't cry or make strange. The lady we went to was brilliant and really understood toddlers and just going with the flow! He looks even more like Stephen now, and definitely less like a baby :(. He is growing up so fast!

These boots were made for walkin....

Lincoln took his first steps on July 2nd and started walking on July 3rd! I wasn't there for the first steps - Stephen told me proudly that Lincoln had accomplished this small feet after I returned home from shopping while in Florida. The next day we were in the living room of the beach house and I hear Stephen say, "Lincoln took a step!" "Two steps, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!" I ran over and caught the last bunch of them - and they were AMAZING! He spent the rest of the afternoon taking a few steps, falling on his bum, standing up, falling down, standing up, taking a few more steps, falling down! It was brilliant! We were able to get the second time he walked on video - I am so glad we have that memory forever on tape, it is incredible.
Now its about 3 weeks later and he is motorin - walking every where he goes. He either toddlers, or toddlers quickly! It is darling! He is so proud of himself!

A little side of me showing through

In the last few days Lincoln has started showing a will of his own! I am getting a little frightened, as I was child that had a VERY strong will. Lincoln just screams and cries his I give him something to eat that he does not want. Or if I try to change his diaper. Or if I put him down and he doesn't want to be. I hope we quickly learn a way to communicate that doesn't involve screaming and crying!

Lincoln's Quirks

Lincolns first word was "no"! He doesn't understand what he is saying, he just likes to mimic us! It was amazing the first day he said it! I had just taken him away from the dog food for the umpteenth time saying "no,no,no lincoln!" and put him into the living room. He crawled all the way through the living room, through the dining room, and through the kitchen into the foyer. Once he got within site of the dog food he crawled towards it saying "no,no,no,no,no". It was priceless! He hasn't really said it since though. He mostly like to say "doubledo!" and "doh" and sometimes he tries to say "keys".

He still isn't walking - but loves to walk behind his walker. It will be any day now.

There is this one thing he loves to do, that I find weird, but maybe its a common baby thing. He loves to put things around his neck! Anything he finds that is long, like a necklace, a piece of rope, a belt, sunglasses, he has to put it around the back of his neck and then crawl around with it there!

As well he still loves to put things in his mouth! everything goes in the mouth! Yesterday i was making supper and had the potatos out, he got into the bag and bit little pieces off the potatos. Then he went to his diaper bag, found a pear I had in there from his daycare, and ate almost the whole thing, skin and all! Daily, i would even say hourly, I say to him "Lincoln, what is in your mouth?" "Can mommy have it?" Sometimes he gladly shows me, and pulls it out, whether it be paper, dog food, anything really that fits in there. Other times he gives me a grin and crawls away as fast as possible, leaving me chasing behind and trying to pry his jaws open to do the 'sweep'! The other week Stephen was 'watching' him, and had noticed Linc was no longer in the living room with him and that, more importantly, it was quiet. Stephen found him in the kitchen with a package of gum and his cheeks stuffed. Stephen proceeded to pull the pieces out 1,2,3,4,5,6. He goes back to the living room and realizes it is still quiet, he goes back to Linc, checks for more gum hidden in his mouth. Pieces 7 & 8 are removed. He checks one last time to be sure and piece 9 is found. Lincoln at this point bursts into tears!

The other week I was grocery shopping and putting all the veggies right behind Linc. At some point Linc decided to grab the green onions and play with them. Of course he put them in his mouth, even though they were in a little bag. apparently they tasted good because he sucked on those onions for the whole entire grocery trip! People thought it was so odd that he liked them! He breath smelt like onions after that!

Lincoln - the national travellor!

In the last 3 months we have been to Ottawa for a week. Drove to Kansas City for a week. Flew to Camrose for a day (we got the call that my Grandfather was in his last days and Linc and I went to say our good byes) And then drove to Camrose for the funeral and were gone a week. We went to Brandon for my brother's wedding. And now are getting ready to fly to Florida for 12 days! We recently bought a new vehicle and it had 18,000km on it - now it has 27,000km and its been about 3 months!

Somewhere between all that we sold our house, bought a new one. Moved in the new one and out of the old one. As well Stephen's family has visited twice. And my best friend Ashley, and her husband have been living with us for the last month, along with my cousins Travis and Kristin!

We also had Stephen's grand opening for his program Building Futures. My big brother's fabulous wedding, and the Coldplay concert! It has been some busy, busy months1