I keep trying...

I keep telling myself I'm going to stay on top of this and then I get busy and don't get around to it. I'm going to try and commit to doing at least one a week, but again, we'll see what happens.

So, it's June 4th. I can't believe it's already June!!

Lincoln's growing like crazy and talking more and more and he's getting a mind of his own as well. The other day I asked him if he was ready to go and he said, "Not Yet."

I teach him all these cool things and then when it comes time for him to show off his brilliance, he won't perform. He knows all the words to the 'Hockey Song' but other than Allen, I haven't been able to get him to sing it for anyone! Half the time he won't even sing it for me anymore! And to try and get him to sing it on camera is pretty futile, though I did get him half singing it and I'm going to attach that video. It drives me nuts that he knows all the words but just won't do it when I ask him too!!

Okay, that's about it for now, I'm going to add some pictures and the video, but Lincoln's ready for a bed and I just don't have much time to write anymore in here. I will get back to it though.

Take care!!

It's been a while...

Jamie came to visit....

Today Nanny, Grandpa came to visit and they brought Jamie with them.

On friday I was talking to Dad on the phone and Lincoln wanted to talk to Grandpa. I put him on the phone and Lincoln asked him if he was coming to visit. Grandpa said, "No, I'm not." Lincoln's little lip puckered out and started to tremble and he asked again "Grandpa - you come and visit me?" And Grandpa again said "No." That was the end of it. Poor Lincoln started to shake and cried soooo hard. He was just sobbing!! The poor little guy!!!

Anyway, they came down on Friday night, but by the time they got here Lincoln was already in bed. Today he got up and they played. I was asleep when he woke up so I didn't get to see his reaction to Jamie, Grandpa and Nanny being there, but I'm sure he was excited.

I slept most of the day and Lincoln went shopping with Nanny, Grandpa & Jamie. One thing that does stand out today is this. I was brushing Jamie's hair while Lincoln was in the bathroom watching. I finished with her ponytail and told her she was done. Lincoln looked up at her with this adorable smile on his face and said, "Jamie, you look so pretty." It was very very cute!! I tried to video him saying it again, but it didn't really seem to work much. We're going to take them to Bubba Baloos tomorow so I'm sure I'll have some pictures to put on here then.

Until then,

Goodnight!!

Early Morning

So, I had to work this morning and Lincoln would be going to daycare. Lincoln usually sleeps until about 8 ish, sometimes later, but because of work, it meant I had to wake him up at 6am ish.

I did let him sleep until 6:15 and then picked him up and brought him in my room, and put him on the bed so that I could dress him. He apparently thought he was just getting to sleep in my bed because as soon as I put him in there, he tried to roll over, snuggle down and go back to sleep.

This was not the case, of course and I rolled him back over and began to get him dressed. He was most unimpressed. He got quite upset and told me "Mommy, put my jammies back on." When I tried to explain that he was going to Auntie Christine's, he didn't seem to care! He responded with "No, Mommy. Leave Lincoln's jammies on him."

I love how he sometimes will speak of himself in the third person, it's quite cute. Anyway, that's about all I have to report today which is more than I thought I'd have to write about since I dropped Lincoln at Christine's at 6:30am and won't be picking him up until 7pm.

So, for now, take care.

A Relaxing Day...

Today was a very nice smooth relaxing day.

Lincoln and I got up about 8:2o or so. I made us bacon and eggs for breakfast. Lincoln only likes his eggs scrambled. We had a nice leisurely breakfast and then played some 'hockey' with golf putters in the living room. Lincoln's suddenly taken a big interest in hockey. I don't really know where it came from all of the sudden, but he quite enjoys it. He runs around the house singing 'The best game you can name is the good old hockey game." It's very cute.

After out hockey game, we went to Bubba Baloos. For those who don't know what that is, it's this big indoor playground with tubes, ball pits, tunnels and slides. There is also an arcade section, but Lincoln is obviously too small for that nonsense. So, basically, you pay for the child - adults are free and then you can stay and play as long as you want.

Lincoln's always been a little timid when we go there. He's never gone in the ball pit before at all. He wanted nothing to do with that. Also, he used to just go up one section and come down the slide, but I did get him going through a few tunnels last time. Today, Allen came with us. He went crawling around in there with Lincoln. Lincoln started out with the slides only, but eventually, Allen got him going up through the tunnels and nets. Allen couldn't get him in the ball pit though. Going down the slide...
I love that he'll jump off a diving board
yet looks terrified on a slide!

Just exploring the mesh tunnels...

Peaking out at me from inside one of the hanging mesh tunnels.

Lincoln and Allen.
Way up high in an enclosure with huge inflated balls.
By huge, I mean, they come up to mid chest on me.
That's the corner of one ball in the right hand side of the picture.

And here's Allen coming down from that big ball enclosure.
It's a pretty tight fit - he had to belly crawl out of there!

Climbing up the rope bridge... Something else he wouldn't do last time either.

Sliding down the 'rolly' slide.
The heavier you are, the faster you go.
So needless to say - Lincoln didn't go too fast.

But when I took him down, I thought we were going to go through the wall!! They actually have this padding on the wall at the bottom of the slide. I'm sure it's because other parents (and heavier older kids) have almost flown through into it when coming off the slide.!!

Now trying it head first like superman.
But he didn't go any faster that way!

We had a nice time there though. Lincoln ran off a lot of energy and just as we were leaving, the ball pit was empty and I managed to talk him into going in it. He had some fun throwing the balls around and then this other little guy, Axle his name was, who was 3, came into the pit with his dad. Axle immediately charged at Lincoln in an attempt to hug him. Lincoln was trying to get away and thus, Axle managed to grab Lincoln around the neck and the two of them rolled over into the pit while Axle hugged Lincoln and then kissed him too. He was a very cute little guy -- and very affectionate too obviously -- but Lincoln's still too timid for that kind of thing. The dad kept trying to keep Axle away from Lincoln, but it was a tough job. Poor little guy just wanted to play, he just plays a little rougher than Lincoln is used to. Near the end, though, they were playing pass with the balls so that was nice.

Still not really sure how he feels about the ball pits.

But he's coming around and liking them a bit more.

Looking up at the ball Mommy's going to drop on his head.
I love his eyes!

We then came home and Lincoln had a nap while I caught up on some laundry, it never seems to end.

After naptime, we played a little more, then had supper, a bath, stories and bed. Lincoln's getting smart these days. He'll pull out a book and then say, "one more please, Mommy?" when we're done reading the first one. He has this sweet little look that gets me every time - so about ten stories later, we finally head to the bathroom and brush his teeth before tucking him in.

It's back to work for me tomorrow and Lincoln will be starting his first day of daycare at Auntie Christine's, so I imagine I won't have much to write about tomorrow. I'm wondering how our first morning of waking Lincoln up at 6am is going to go. He usually isn't awake until 8 or 8:30 so here's hoping it goes well!!

Anyways, that's all for now.

Take care, and goodnight.

I still haven't figured out how to put these video clips in after I write the text without having it attach at the end. I don't know if you have to just insert it and then keep typing after, which doesn't work for me since I do all my typing and then go back and add the pictures. The pictures I know how to cut and paste in, the video won't let me do that!

Anyway, that's Lincoln copying the little penguin in the move "Happy Feet." Before you push the play button on the DVD the penguin is doing that little dance and Lincoln always seems to want to dance like him. PS... Lincoln did have pants on at some point before this video was taken, but he had just been to the bathroom and doesn't like to put the pants back on when he's done so he just runs around in his underwear.

One last thing..

PS... I thought that 'Potato Head' the fish wasn't going to make it through the night. Last night when I was going to bed, I noticed he was floating kinda wonky at the bottom of the tank, but I'm happy to report, he's still alive and swimming this morning and he looks completely normal. There was no need for an impromptu trip to the pet store today!! Yay!!

Goodnight for real this time!!

Just a quick note today.

Just a quick post tonight because it's been a very long day. I accomplished a lot of cleaning, plus we took all our recycling in and hit the park, and hit the pool!! It was a nice day, but just very full!! We ended it with Pizza and Lincoln's been sleeping for about an hour and I'm about twenty seconds away from the pillow myself!!

I can't believe all the things Lincoln is saying these days. It's like he's just started putting everything together. I know it didn't happen overnight, but wow, it almost seems like it. Today, we were driving back from doing the recycling and I was telling Lincoln we were going to go home and it would be naptime and his response, clear as a bell was, "Okay Mommy. I had a hard day." I don't have any idea where he got that from!!

So, Lincoln is well on his way to being completely diaper free!! Today, he even took himself to the bathroom four times all by his own self. I was in the living room folding laundry and he went running off down the hall, at first, I thought he was going to his bedroom, but then I heard him singing the ABC's -- a sure sign that he's got soap or cream or something and is washing his hands. So, I went to check on him, before he made too big of a mess. He smiled, told me he had gone pee and was washing his hands. I told him what a good job he did and then asked if he'd flushed the toilet. He had not. So he picked up his two little dinky cars that he had with him and walked over to flush the toilet. Alas, because of his slippery -still soapy hands, as soon as he pushed the flush handle - one of the little cars slipped out, dived into the toilet and went away -- never to be seen again. He was soooo sad. His little lip came out and he just looked at me wondering why I couldn't save his car!! ((I'm just happy it was small enough that it didn't clog the toilet.)) He was pretty sad about the whole thing and I advised him that perhaps a good rule of thumb is no little cars allowed in the bathroom.

One other thing I wanted to mention about today. My little daredevil!! He's fallen in love with the movie "Toy Story" and will now stand on just about anything, put his arms out in front of him superman style and yell, "To infinity and beyond." And then jump. He does this off chairs, steps, baskets, you name it! We went to the pool and he was jumping off the diving board. He will walk right out, stand there for a moment, put his arms out, yell "To infinity and beyond." And then jump in the water and swim to the side of the pool. Today, he was watching other kids and decided that they had pretty neat ideas as well. So, a few times, instead of his typical walk to the end of the board, yell and jump approach, he began running straight down the board and jumping. This works well for the older kids who have decent balance. Lincoln's balance is alright, but not on a springy diving board and a few times I thought he was going to wipe out! He didn't and I finally talked him into walking again, although, he'd walk most of the way and then about two feet from the end of the board, he'll sprint and run like the devil off of it.

The big thing about the diving board, that I wanted to mention is this. My little stunt monkey, was watching other kids flip and spin off the board and decided that he should try that too. Luckily, I was able to stop him, but the little hellion, walked out on the board, bent down and put his hands on the board and was trying to somersault off it!! Crazy little kid.

Oh, and I told him he was a crazy lunatic today in the car and his response was, "I not a crazy lunitack! Mommy." He picks up everything and copies EVERTHING these days. Allen was in the pool watching Lincoln jump off the diving board. Allen had his back against the edge of the pool and his elbows and arms draped along the side. Lincoln jumped in, swam over next to Allen and proceeded to try and take up the same pose. It was very cute! My little copy cat!!

Okay, I'm off to bed, tomorrow I have a bit more cleaning that I want to get done and I also think I'm going to take Lincoln to "Bubba Baloos." ((For those of you that haven't ever heard of it - it's a large indoor playground with tunnels and slides and ball pits and things. Great fun for little monkeys to run around and play on.))

That's all for now & no pictures today either. I'm just toooooo tired!!

Take care & goodnight.

New Pets...

Today was a pretty busy day. We got up and went to church, then we had to go and buy Joshua a birthday present. His birthday was right after Lincoln's nap.

We headed off to Church and generally, Lincoln does pretty good there. I bring him a snack and a drink and a few little cars and a book and he's pretty quiet for most of the mass. If he gets loud, we can always relocate to what I call the 'banishment' room. It's little room at the back of the church where kids and parents can go and still hear and be a part of the mass, yet not disturb other people. We've only had to go there once and that was when Lincoln was pretty small and fussy. His favorite part of Mass is putting money in the collection and giving everyone the sign of Peace, (handshakes.) He's pretty good at shaking hands and he'll happily say "Peace be with you." at the right time.

After Mass, we headed to Walmart. I had to buy some dog food and we also needed to get a present for Joshua's birthday. I didn't intentionally leave it for the last minute, either. We'd done some running around for the past few days, but Joshua apparently likes Diego and he's pretty hard to find, which really is surprising. Anyway, we got the Diego toy and while we were perusing the dog food, Lincoln spotted the fish bowls and the pictures of fish on them. That spurred a plea to go to the pet store. Since it was only eleven, I decided we could head there before Lincoln's nap. I also made the snap decision to buy a little fish tank at Walmart because they were on sale for $10.00.

So, we bought the fish tank and headed off to the pet store for fish. The people at the pet store are incredibly friendly! One lady chased feeder goldfish around with a net for a good minute or two trying to get two fish that were different colors for us.

Once she bagged the fish, she gave the bag to Lincoln to carry and he proudly, and tightly with both hands, carried his fish to the til to pay for them. I gave him the toonie as well, so he was just on cloud nine. He put the fish on the counter and then put his toonie up there. The cashier started asking him about the fish and the subject of names came up. She asked Lincoln what he was going to call his fish, but he didn't answer her. He likes to play shy these days.

So I took up the conversation and the result had both the cashier and me laughing like crazy.

I said, "What are your fish's names, Lincoln."
He didn't say anything, just kept looking intently at the two fish.
I said, "Are they Bob and Tom?"
He said, "Nope."
I said, "Barney and Fred?"
He said, "Nope."
I said, "Well, what are they're names? Who are they?"
His response, "Mr. Fishy and Potato head."
Thus, our two new fish were named, although, I think I may have to make an impromptu trip back to the pet store tomorrow because Potato head doesn't look like he's doing too well. We'll see if he makes it through the night.

Checking to make sure they're still in the bag...

Yup, they made the trip home just fine!

Can I take them for a walk?

Carrying the bag, very carefully.

Taking a closer look...

Here's the tank!!

Getting it set up, seeing if they like their new home.

Tank is full, just getting used to the water now.
The one on the top is Mr. Fishy, the whitish one is Potato Head.

Watching them swim around in their bag while the water adjusts.

Opening the bag and pouring them into the tank.

Look at them swimming!

Hmmm... they seem to like it.

An even closer look, just to make sure they're okay.

Putting the tank lid on.

I think they like it in there!

Mr. Fishy (the orange one) swimming over to take a good
look at Lincoln who's taking a look at him.

And now Potato head (the white and orange one) is
swimming over to take a good look at Lincoln.

I love those last two pictures!!!

After the pet store, we came home and Lincoln had a nap. I had to wake him up at 3:30 because he was still sleeping and the birthday party started at 3. He was pretty excited about going there this morning, not so excited when I woke him up to go. He's always a little shy and reluctant when we go to places where there are a lot of kids, or even just a few kids that are pretty rowdy. He's a bit timid in new areas. Marlene and Patrick had a bouncer thing set up with a slide, but Lincoln stayed clear of that until it was empty. Then he went in with another little guy, Simon, Michelle and Jacks youngest son. The two of them played quite well together and I'm thinking I may have to get them together for a play date one of these days. They're older boy, James, spent a fair amount of time pulling Lincoln and Myles around in the wagon and Lincoln quite liked that as well.

After the party, we headed for home, but made a brief pit-stop at a park nearby to make certain Lincoln was completely tired out. We got home and then had a bubble bath. Lincoln played in the tub of bubbles while I relaxed and read a few pages in my book.

I think the long day and shortened nap took it's tole on him though, because he was very defiant and grumpy when I asked him to clean up his bath toys. He was having none of it. I gave him a few chances and then finally told him he was going to bed. That led to an all out crying fit and while I dried him off, he kept saying "I'll listen to Mommy. I'll listen to Mommy." So, being the sucker I am, I gave him another chance and once he was in his pajamas, I sent him to the playroom to pick up his toys. This again didn't work and he refused to co-operate. Thus, I brushed his teeth and put him to bed. I don't know if he's hitting the terrible two's or if he just had an exceptionally long and busy day, but in any case, he ended up in bed!

That's about the whole day in a nutshell.

Goodnight.

BIG NEWS!!!

It was a very lazy day today! Lincoln and I didn't even get dress until nearly one!! And really, that was only because Lincoln had been running around naked except for his underwear all day and since I still put him down for a nap in his diaper, I figured we should get dressed to nap.

So, around one, Lincoln got dressed and went down for a nap and I got dressed simply because it seemed like the thing to do!

Anyways, onto the big news!

Lincoln has been doing awesome with the potty training. I always ask him if he has to go potty and he'll either say yes or no. Depending on his answer, and depending on the last time he actually went on the potty, I'll take him to the bathroom. But this morning -- for the first time -- he stopped what he was doing. I looked up and he was stripping his underwear off. I thought he was going to run around naked, because he does that all the time, but, SURPRISE, he took off running down the hall and headed into the bathroom, all by himself!!

And every time he goes to the bathroom - he has to have a magazine.

So, he's well on his way to being potty trained!! I still put diapers on him at night and for his nap, but I'm thinking that we're nearly past that too, because most times he does wake up from both his nap and in the morning dry!

I'm sure when Lincoln is older, he'll love this blog spot thing!! I mean, what teenage boy or 30 year old man wouldn't want to read stories of his potty training days?

That's about it for today. Like I said, it was a very lazy day. We hung around the house and played and that was about it. He still has pink-eye so we did have a few more wrestling matches while I tried to put the drops in his eyes, but that's about it. Oh, and he did get his little Buzz Lightyear and Cowboy Woody doll and pretend to put drops in their eyes with a little block which was kinda cute. And he spent a fair amount of time this morning running around in his underwear pushing his dump truck around with a pumpkin bucket on his head, which was incredibly cute!!

That's about it for today. Back to work for me tomorrow since I have a babysitter coming in to stay with him and he won't be affecting any of the kids at the daycare. Two nights and then I'm off for four more days. It's been very nice relaxing around the house, although, since I have hives and Lincoln has pink-eye, it hasn't been technically relaxing, but it's still time off work and time spent with Lincoln! So that's always a good thing!

Anyways, that's about it for now.

Goodnight.