10 months old

I can't quite come to grips with how quickly this past year has gone. Lincoln is 10 months old and just getting better by the second. He's not listening to my pleas to stay little forever, and so, I will just savor every minute of every day while we watching him grow. We are so thankful to have such a healthy, happy, smiley little guy in addition to our rambunctious little girls. It's the perfect blend of drama :)

In a nutshell: he's easy. And we have experience to prove that; as we had 2 (one especially), not so easy babies. But even when Lincoln has a rough spell, which he has had plenty, he's still easy. We can tell when something is wrong with him because he's not his usual happy, smiley, mellow little self. He gets cranky, nothing seems to please him and he can't be calmed. Thank goodness these bouts are far and few between and typically only happen when he's not feeling well or teething.

We continue to nurse, something I never really imagined I would still be doing. The funny thing is, with baby #3, I had no expectations. Like zero. People would ask us questions about nursery furniture, baby gear, how we planned to manage with 3, etc. And we didn't have any answers. It's not that we hadn't thought about it, but we knew better than to make unattainable expectations. Keep in mind, our experience with Sidney was still fresh in our minds, 5 years later! We were having a baby; all bets were off. And the same went for nursing. Instead of wondering "how am I going to nurse a baby when Regan has _____ (insert activity), we just rolled with it. In the beginning, an awesome friend reminded me "it takes a village to raise these kids", and without extended family around, our friends became our village. She picked up Regan each week and brought her to dance, giving me the ability to nurse in private. As we got into a rhythm, I became more comfortable and with the use of a cover-up, we became more mobile. And let's remember, he's easy! And so, when I needed to nurse him in the locker room during swimming lessons, or at a family room at Valleyfair, he rolled with it. And when I nursed him weekly in the car at softball games, he went with it. Heck, I had to go so far once as to face a corner of a dark restaurant and feed him! Never in a million years thought I'd be doing that. In other words, I didn't have any expectations about breastfeeding. Zero. People would ask "how long do you think you'll nurse him?". And I still don't have an answer (except to say I won't be one of those who whips up her shirt at the park to feed her toddler). But if he stops tomorrow, that's up to him.

Some other facts about our growing 10 month old:
* He naps 1-2 hours in both the AM and PM, then takes a shorter 1 hour nap around dinner time (this is both convenient and not so convenient).
* He sleeps overnight well until about 6:30/7am.
* We still use the soothie green pacifiers. His choice. We've tried others and this is his preference.
* Since getting tubes in his ears, he talks so much more. Most of his babbling happens when everyone else is quiet, and in this house, that happens around 8pm when the girls go to bed. I love to hear him talk, his most common babble goes something like "ee ya ya ya ya ya". Which I heard a girl at daycare doing so I'm pretty sure that's where he picked it up.
* He sticks his tongue out....a lot. Not sure where that is coming from, but it's darn adorable :)
* He loves balls. Loves. Loves. Loves. Playing catch (using his left hand to throw) for hours each day.
* His favorite book is Baby Boo! And he giggles and laughs throughout the book, especially when we get to the page that says "BOO!". Over and over and over we read this book.
* Still doesn't move much. He rocks back and forth when on all 4's and will left up his hand to play with toys so I know it's coming soon. Been working hard at having him bend while standing to pick up a toy. He's accustomed to having a big sister just hand him whatever he wants, so learning to do these things actually takes practice (and patience).
* wears size 12 month clothes and still in Pampers Cruisers size 3
* Eating more and more table food, preferring that over baby food at times and the other way at other times. We went out to eat last night and had to apologize for the floor beneath him....it was a disaster! Pretty sure more went on the floor than his mouth. And 2 nights ago, we had tacos at home and I gave him shredded cheese, because the softie in me knows how much he loves cheese. My mom used a vacuum to clean up the mess, we had cheese EVERYWHERE!
* Weighs roughly 23 lbs  Height ? Almost 30 inches

Happy 10 months buddy! Love you always!