Words Lincoln knows in Sign Language

Bye
All Done
More
Milk
Food
Brush Teeth
Tired

Today Link ate with a spoon by himself and practiced standing on his own. He also has made it clear he can say and sign night night, more, done, and almost has food.

Tonight he added tickle to his vocabulary on his own. And despite having only worn shoes twice in his life, when given a pair his size he tries to put them on his feet.

Back in the Groove

All those thing put off are instantly on. We had Link's 1 year exam. Link was a gem and even gave blood without even caring for a lead test. Since he is one year WIC changed and we have less food and more whole milk, which will impact what I though we would be eating on our $0 spending month.
Thus far it not spending money hasn't been too hard. Mom and Dad missed us and my mom is now retired so they have been over every night with food to grill out. They came tonight too, but as they walked in the door I got a phone call that church council was tonight so I had to go. The meeting was long and filled with tension so it lasted longer than my parents could stay.
Lincoln's sleep pattern has changed from 3 naps a day to 1 really long nap in the early afternoon. I was very surprised to find this out.
When we got home my sister had done lots of landscaping as part of her rent for our house. The yard looks great with bushes trimmed, branches cut, flowers planted, holes fixes, sandbox built and a swing set up. Link has loved swinging everyday. We also bought him a baby pool on the trip which he enjoys sitting in daily.

More than the pantry challenge

We are back from visiting over 20 states. While we did travel well financially we were hit hard by an unexpected car repair at the end of the trip. To cover the cost as well as make up some other expenses Bryce and I decided to go beyond the pantry challenge (cooking only what you have in your house for a month) and we are going to go all of August without buying anything. Yes, we will pay our bills but there is a difference between paying and buying.

I'll keep you updated on how we do. Already we have a list started of things we will be purchasing Sept 1.

Lincoln's Imagination

Link has been excelling at the dinner table. He now blows on ALL his food before and sometimes after it is in his mouth. He signs "more" intentionally now and when he is hungry and we are not feeding him. He occasionally signs "all done" AND he can say it too! This advancement in communicating is good because we are already in what I think is considered the terrible twos. The way I see it the terrible twos are mostly the lack of understanding between parent and child due to communication inabilities. Well, it is here. Probably not as bad as it will be in the future, but enough to be annoying and enough to think I was dealing with tantrums for a while. I guess Lincoln really never has had a tantrum, he just gets whiny and brisk in his movements when we understand what he wants.

He also has a great imagination. He loves to pick up imaginary food and eat it. I noticed this first when he seemed to be picking up cheerios from under his butt in the car seat. I thought I had cleared them all out but then I realized what he was picking up was non-existent. He also does great with animal sounds and raises his arm for an elephant trunk when making the sound.

Moving and posing

Lincoln learned to crawl at Phil and Teresa's home. He started with knees, then went to lobster crawl, then bear crawl. So he is on the move. Not constantly, but whenever he wants now. This has helped calm his need to be picked up too.

He loves to give kisses and likes having his back blown on. He can blow through a straw and he likes to brush his teeth and spit (we are not using toothpaste).

He has associated sounds with things. One funny one is a really low rumble he gives to cars. We will upload a video when we get home.

To get him to stop crying we often will get out the camera. He likes to ham it up and often gets caught posing in the funniest ways.

Last night I put Lincoln to bed on a mat on the floor in the bedroom. I was so thankful that I opened the door slowly as not to wake the boy because he moved around and must have been trying to get out because he fell asleep with his body by the wall and his head directly in front of the door. An ingenious way to make sure he would get woken up when we entered the room. If I had opened the door quickly I would have knocked his head off.

People say that some kids skip crawling and go right to walking. I am pretty sure Lincoln is skipping crawling and NOT going straight to walking. This is the only thing that bothers me about his development even though I know it is more my problem of impatience when I see his younger friends crawl all over him and walk. He does not show any signs of a disability just lack of desire. We may be growing a couch potato.

Lincoln now has a pretty good grasp on mama, dada, and baby. He also responds to the words "high five" and "kisses" and he likes to put phones and anything that looks like a phone (remote control) up to his ear and say hi.