And...we're done....

Nursing that is...

It's now been about two weeks since we nursed before bed. I'm OK with that. I'm pretty sure Lincoln is too. He was really only nursing for about a minute or two anyway, so it's not such a big deal to stop. Instead of nursing we just put on his pajamas and he sits on my lap with his paci and his blanket. He sits until I can tell he's good and sleepy and then I lay him down in his crib. Some nights he goes right to sleep, other nights he lays there and just talks and wiggles for about 30 minutes. For the first 3 or 4 nights without nursing he screamed....that was the hardest part! We'd just go in and talk to him ...lay him back down, and then say goodnight again. He'd scream for about 10 more minutes and then he was down.

He's sleeping between 10 and 12 hours at night. He goes down between 8 and 8:30pm and gets up between 7:30 and 8. Usually... Two mornings last week he was up at 5:45...YUCK! We were all tired. He's eating very well. Some of his favorites are mac & cheese, spaghettios, pancakes, pasta, hot dogs, chips, and the list goes on!

Lincoln's Words

I just wanted to post really quickly the most wonderful things we've been hearing lately. Here is Lincoln's current vocabulary:

Mama

Daddy

Yiye = Lile
Nana

dall = ball

tu-uh = truck

ta = car

ni-ni = night night

bye bye

hey

uh-oh

no
doo = door

He also has lots of sign language:

cup

up

more

all done

bath

yogurt

We're working on outside, diaper, and dog. 

A quick pic of our recent trip to South Mountain State Park. I'll blog about that soon!

Weekend Fun!

Lincoln got his first haircut on Friday! It was bittersweet....he was so precious as he sat there in that chair and was a perfect angel. He didn't fuss or cry once. He never tried to take the scissors away from Melissa or anything. Anthony decided that his curls over his ears were getting unruly and needed a trim. I had already said that I wasn't cutting his curls from the back! I'm afraid if I cut them off they won't come back. He looked at the comb and held one so he could brush his hair while she was cutting. He turned to see what she was doing maybe once or twice, but that was it. Otherwise he just sat there and waited to be finished! 

He gave her this look when she brushed his hair into his eyes so she could snip it. 

He had to help sweep when he was finished! He LOVES a broom! 

Here's the bittersweet part, he looks sooo much older!! Something about that messy curly look said sweet little boy. Now that it's all trimmed up and short in the front it's such a big boy cut! I have to admit I shed a tear! Anthony saw him when he got home and said he wished we wouldn't have cut it....we're going to let it grow back out!! :)

On Saturday we decided to check out a zip line course here near home. The Beanstalk Journey is here in Morganton, NC. The course has like 5 wood bridges and 5 zip lines. Here we are all suited up and ready to head out on the course.

You had to climb up the Giant's Ladder to get onto the course! It's a huge rope tube. 

My very fist zip!! It was tons of fun! We're about 50 feet off the ground and each zip is about 50 feet long.  Except for the last one, that's 500 feet!

Anthony showing his personality!! We obviously didn't take Lincoln. This place doesn't allow anyone under 4 years old or 70 pounds. Not to mention that after our 3rd rope bridge and 2nd zip line the sky turned ominous. Huge black clouds came rolling in and filled the sky. As we were trying to get from one treehouse to the next the wind REALLY started whipping! I mean, blowing the pine trees a good 15 feet over and showering us with branches and leaves. Then came the rain...COLD, cold rain! Just a few drops at first, so it was OK. They were going to let us finish the course. Then suddenly: thunder!! And the sky opened up and poured on us! They had to "rescue" us by tying us to a rope and rappelling us down from the tower. We made it about halfway through the course, enough to know that we liked it and want to do it again. The best part is we get a FREE pass to return any time! So not only did we get halfway, we get to go back for free!!! That's my kind of trip. And it was a big adventure! We weren't scared, just cold and wet! We will definitely return to use our free passes soon...

Sunday, June 19th was Father's Day. 

This is Anthony's 2nd Father's Day and he is such a good daddy. Lincoln adores him and loves to play with him. They wrestle in the floor and play guitar together. Ok, so Lincoln just really smacks the strings and carries it around. But it's still cute! Yesterday at a yard sale I bought Lincoln a big tool box full of cute little plastic tools. Some are Little Tykes toys that make noises (without any batteries!) that sound so fun. There's even a tool belt. We filled it up with tools today and he wore it around the house taking all the tools out of it! Anthony can't wait until Lincoln is old enough to start helping around the house. Not because he doesn't want to do the work, but because he wants to do it with Lincoln and teach him how to do things, like his daddy did. 

We got him a Kindle. He's always talking about how the books in the basement are taking up so much space and we've sold about all the ones we're willing to part with. So I thought that an e-reader would be a great way that he could still have his books, but not have them cluttering up the house. Plus, he reads like 3 books at a time anyway...and this way he doesn't have to pack 3 books in his suitcase! 

Lincoln loves Daddy!!!

Who moved my cheese?!

Yes, I'm like Hem and Haw....I do NOT like change. Let me explain.

So we had an end of the year faculty meeting this morning before our principal let us know what our staff placements would be for next year. Due to the fact that she was planning on moving a large number of people around another teacher volunteered to read a children's book about change. The title is Who Moved My Cheese? If you haven't read it check out the basic idea here: http://talktokate.com/books/who-moved-my-cheese-for-kids-by-spencer-johnson/. 

I am happy with my old cheese. In fact, I LIKE my old cheese. I don't want to go out into the scary maze to find new cheese. I'd like to just wait right here until someone returns my old cheese. 

But, alas, that is not going to happen...Today I was informed that I'm moving to 2nd grade. After teaching in 4th grade for the last 3 years, and having taught either 3rd or 4th grade for my whole 8 year teaching career you might say I'm quite concerned. I'm so overwhelmed I don't even know where to start. I have to move rooms of course, so I feel like there's sooo much to be done that I can't even begin to pack. Today after she told us our assignments I literally just wandered around the school talking to others who had been moved to see how they were feeling. Now I have one more paid workday and probably a week's worth of work to be done before I have my classroom moved. Plus once I get moved I'll have to organize and put up posters and such. 

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm simply stating facts. I'm trying VERY hard to be positive about this. My principal tells me this will give me more of an opportunity to be creative and integrate even more technology. Plus, it's a little less stress b/c it's not a testing grade. I'm nervous because I have no idea how they do the K-2 assessments, or how they do their grading. They don't use grades, they give 1-4. Who knows!? 

The sermon at church on Sunday was about insecurity and fear and how we need to overcome. How it's the devil working on us and when we feel that we should start to pray. It was a very hard lesson to sit through. I already felt like I had been attacked and was being judged as a person and not a very good teacher. So to hear the preacher say we needed to get rid of our insecurities it stung a little bit. 

I'm not sure what I'm doing here. I don't know what to do on the first day at school. I don't know what they can do. I don't know how much these babies can read. I don't know how to help these babies read better. I don't know what to teach. I don't know how to deal with teaching math and science again. I don't even have manipulatives. I don't know how their calculators work. I don't have enough books for them to read. I don't know what to do with them all day...

I am trying very hard to look at this as a good thing. I can do anything once. I can try anything once. I can give it my best shot. 

Let's just hope I make some progress on my room tomorrow. I have a feeling I'm going to be at school this summer more than ever before. I realllly try hard not to go to school at all over break. In fact, I won't even talk about school if someone asks. And I won't tell them when school starts back until the month of August. I just am not a teacher in the summer months. Take that however you want, but it's how I work. I get to truly be Kyla over the summer. I get to be the best mommy ever over the summer. I get to be the best wife ever over the summer. That is truly who I am and who I love being. Let's hope that now being a 2nd grade teacher fits into that equation! 

School's Out for Summer!!

TODAY IS THE BEST DAY IN A LOOOONG TIME!!! Today was the last day of school!!!!! No more students...no more lesson plans.....no more meetings.....and HOME with my Lincoln!!!!!!

Ok, I know that was pretty powerful and included a LOT of exclamation points but you have to understand how wonderful today is. All the paperwork, lesson plans, meetings, political drama are over!!! At least for the summer. I can't wait to spend all my time with my Lincoln. We've got a trip planned for Yellowstone with Erin for July and we're planning to take a trip to Virginia Beach for Anthony's birthday in August. That's all the concrete plans we have for now, there's no telling what else will pop up. We've been talking about trying out a zip line pretty soon and I think Anthony's itching to get the kayaks out into the lake pretty soon, too. I know it has also been mentioned that Lincoln would be crazy about the zoo this summer since he's crazy about animal books and sounds. 

I'll write more often now, since I will actually have time to upload the pictures and share our excursions. Sorry it's been a while...just haven't felt up to doing anything extra with the stress of the end of the school year. 

Here's a quick picture of our Mother's Day this May. 

Easter & Things

Some of our Easter pictures.. Leslie had to take them for us because my camera was shipped to Canon for repair. The shutter relay was broken and needed to be replaced. I just got it back and it's in perfect working order...hooray!!! I felt like I had lost an arm without it!

Yes...that's a REAL bunny!

Awwww...Nana!

We got Lincoln a Pillow Pet for Easter. He loved it!! He carried it around and wollered all over it. He needed a pillow and we thought this was a much more attractive option. 

We spent Easter Sunday at my grandmother's house in Canton and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! It was about 85 degrees and perfectly sunny. We sat by the creak and played and played!

Lincoln and Great Uncle Rick really hit it off! They had such a good time together! He was the first one to put Lincoln's feet in the water...it was all over after that! We couldn't keep him out of it!

Dad and Kaleb were twins!! :)

Kaleb and the boys....Zane was determined to get in, too! His bottom was mud-covered and WET!

This is not a picture of Lincoln fussing because he wants to get out....it's a picture of him fussing because he DOESN'T want to get out! And the water was so cold his toes were like popsicles! He loved every  minute of it and we had to keep him from crawling down the hill to get in by himself. So sweet!

Lincoln and Ma-maw! She always takes such a GREAT picture. I love taking these...I have one of the two of them from every time they've been together. What a treasure. 

Lincoln is walking everywhere! About 2 weeks after his birthday he decided he was done with crawling and began walking all over the place. Now, about 2 weeks after that he's practically running around the house! Anthony spent the WHOLE day Saturday staining the deck and it looks wonderful. Lincoln has really, really enjoyed it! He'd rather be outside than anywhere else. He is also eating table food, almost exclusively. For breakfast he still gets baby food fruit to mix with his cereal but otherwise he's eating chicken nuggets, spaghetti-o's, mac & cheese, beans and rice, french fries, pancakes, eggs, and almost everything else we eat! He is working on his vocabulary, you can tell! He can say Mama and Daddy, of course...but he can also say 'tuck' = truck, 'mmmmmm' = moo, 'two' = two (when we say one first!), he has said ball at least once and Erin swore he said cup! He's beginning to blow kisses..soooo sweet! And continues to wave bye-bye and hold his hand up to his ear when the phone rings! He makes all kinds of other babbly noises but we have no idea what they are. He is signing more, all done, cup, milk, and we're working on bath. He loves the bathtub! 

The other BIG news for us lately is that Lincoln had the Chicken Pox!! He had red bumps for about a week and a half and Anthony and I didn't think anything about it. He's outside soo much we just figured it was mosquito bites. Then when he started developing a fever we realized that neither of us have any mosquito bites. I took him to the doctor on Friday, April 29th with a fever of 103. Dr. Todd checked him out and confirmed it was the chicken pox. Lincoln had his 1 year shots on April 8th, and he had bumps for about a week or more before we realized what it was. Todd said he feels like Lincoln was probably exposed to the virus around the same time as his shots...however, Anna says it's a live virus vaccine and it's not unheard of for a child to get chicken pox after getting the vaccine.

Anyway...there's nothing he can take to make him feel better so it was just Tylenol/Motrin to keep his fever down and if he was itchy he could use calamine lotion. He never once acted like he was itching or acted like the bumps bothered him at all. He had a fever until about Monday and was extremely clingy and whiny for several days. We had to stay home and keep him away from others who hadn't had the pox, or haven't been vaccinated. Lucky for us Anthony hasn't had them...but he's had the vaccine. 

However, our babysitter, Denise, hasn't had the chicken pox. Even though she'd had him for a whole week while he was infected she didn't feel comfortable keeping him this week. So....Erin was available!! She came down and stayed with Lincoln Monday-Wednesday. It was wonderful! They had a good time and he was a very good boy. Today, Thursday, he spent the day with Papaw Vance. Denise had a death in the family and Erin had a meeting all day, so that was all we had. They had a grand day together, although he didn't nap very well and was realllly tired and cranky this evening. But, such is life.

Otherwise all is pretty normal around here. There are only 25 more school days until summer break!!!! I think I can, I think I can...

Birthday Boy

Anthony is begging me to post some pictures of Lincoln's birthday party. I'm not quite ready to blog that, but here are some pics from our VERY fun day! More dialogue to come soon...

I have to say we had a most excellent day!! Anthony and I both took the day off on Friday to get some things done around the house. I needed to clean and Anthony did yard work and such. It turned out to be beautiful and Lincoln just played while we got many things accomplished. My house is clean in ways it hasn't been clean since we moved in! It felt good! Problem is, once the party was over it needed to be cleaned all over again! Whew!!

Our awesome cake!! It was made by Alex Bell from Morganton, NC. She is the sister-in-law to one of our baby friends, Gina Bell. Check out her website if you're in the area. She can do just about anything and it's delicious! So much more fun that just a flat sheet cake!

Anyway...the top of the cake was Lincoln's smash cake! Imagine black icing flying everywhere!! The bottom tier is white cake with butter cream icing and filling. The middle tier is red velvet cake with cream cheese filling and butter cream icing. Lincoln's cake is also white cake. The feet were made with molded rice krispy treats! And they were yummmmmy! 

On party day Lincoln was in an excellent mood. He had taken his nap like a very good boy and since the party was later in the day, at 4 pm, he was happy and we were able to finish up some last minute details. We cooked burgers and dogs for about 40 people. Almost everyone we invited showed up and we had a lot of fun. We had the party outside and on the deck. The house is certainly not large enough to hold all those people! The kids had fun playing outside with the basketball goals and swinging. We had set up the Corn Hole sets and my Poppy and Anthony's dad played horseshoes. The kids seemed to get along well. Anthony manned the grill while Mom and Erin and I worked on the finer details. We served baked beans, slaw, chili, seven layer salad, chips, and all the regular cook-out type fixings. It was all very tasty. The wind was VERY strong so we floated up and down the stairs and in and out of the house. It was warm, but the wind was really whipping. 

This is our big one year old!! His shirt is so precious. I ordered it from etsy.com. If you haven't been there to look around I highly recommend. Although I should warn you, it's highly addictive!! This is really the only picture I got of him wearing his shirt, so I shall have to put it back on and take more pictures later! Surely a week or two won't matter until I get time to take some One Year pictures. :) This is Lincoln talking on his very own cell phone. It beeps and plays music and even rings when you flip it closed. He got it for Christmas, but has just now really started enjoying it. 

I think this is the sweetest picture! I put Lincoln in his own Mickey Mouse ears from Disney World before we smashed the cake! They match! I didn't leave them on while he smashed...too afraid they'd end up dirty! 

He was fabulous at destroying it! The ears were the first things to go. Then he tore into it! He didn't care so much about eating it but he sure did make a mess! We made him taste it, note the black lipstick in the picture!! He was just more interested in squeezing it and tossing it around! Super cute!! Everyone got a good laugh.

This is as close as we came to a family picture that day! For some reason we didn't think to have someone take a photo. Inexcusable! We took some nice pictures Sunday after church with Erin, so I'll post those soon. We needed a record of our sweet baby turning one! Anthony handled the mess well. In fact, We kind of just got him out of the high chair and Anthony took him inside and cleaned him up. I was impressed! I was so afraid the icing would stain his shirt, but it came out super easily so now we can wear it all summer!

After this we promptly cut up the rest of the cake and enjoyed it's deliciousness! It is really very good cake! The kids played, the adults talked...you know how these things work! We opened presents shortly after this as well...though I can't really say that Lincoln opened them. He sat with me for about 3 minutes and then ran away! I have to admit that it was a bit overwhelming to open presents with so many kids around. That was the only part of the day when I was truly stressed out. Elise, Benjamin, Faith, Corbin, Aydan, and Zane were all right there ready to help open. Lincoln wasn't interested so I guess they just thought they could open them all for him! Anyway...we lived through it.

Lincoln got some of THE cutest clothes! The boy truly needs nothing, but he received some very thoughtful summer clothes. We got several outfits he can wear to church, and lots of summertime play time fun clothes. Both VERY nice! We hadn't been shopping for summer yet. Score! He also received a sprinkler toy, a play tent with a tunnel, a shape sorter, and several balls...always a favorite. Our friend Jessica and Baby Avah bought him a training potty (sooo not ready for that!) and his biggest gift was from Nana and Papaw. They got him a lifetime hunting and fishing license. Now he'll never have to worry about making sure he has a license to fish every year! What a thoughtful gift! It'll come in handy sooner than we think! *Addition to original post. Lincoln's very close friend and buddy, Ian, gave him his most favoritest present of all! A talking pot of vegetables called Potsy. See, Ian has one of these toys and Lincoln played with it at his house. Ian noticed that Lincoln really seemed to enjoy this talking, singing pot so he very thoughtfully gifted him one for his birthday. It is truly the hit of the house! He pushes it around with him up and down the hallway from the living room to the bedroom. He stirs it with everything and anything handy. He throws the vegetables around the house then drops them back in the pot to hear him sing "Closed!" when he puts the lid on the pot. We highly recommend Potsy to all of our baby friends and Lincoln gives his most sincere thanks to Ian...and his mommy! :)*

Overall I'd say our day was fantastic. We spent it with our truest friends and family. It was great to chat and hang out and just be together. Everyone played nicely together, and all were well behaved. I love having people at the house and it's even nicer when you get to mix in cake! Lincoln is a wonderful boy. He's happy...almost all the time. He doesn't fuss much, he's funny, he's playful, he's precious. It's so hard to remember what life was like without him. It seems like we're always busy with something else to do. What did we do with all of our time before he came along?! He's really developing his personality. He laughs and giggles...chases the puppy...and Anthony's favorite new development: Lincoln runs away (crawls away) when Anthony tries to get him. He turns around and just cackles. Anthony thinks it's the best thing ever! I have to agree it's pretty sweet to watch!

He loves to read, he LOVES to take a bath, and he loves his puppy. He'd rather be outside on the deck than anywhere else, except maybe the bathtub, and he'd stay out there all afternoon and evening if we'd let him. I'm sure that will be a very popular place this summer. He's really picking up on the sign language. He signs "more" consistently and we're working on "eat" and "cup". He still dances every time he hears music. It doesn't matter if it's just the cell phone ringing or a commercial on tv, he's going to wiggle! He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jennifer Hudson Weight Watcher commercials. He is taking 10-12 steps at a time from place to place. He is wearing 12 month clothes, but we're moving into 18 months. He's soo tall! He wears a size 4 shoe!! Talk about big feet. He sleeps through the night most nights, and if he doesn't he's not up for long. He still loves to stay with Denise. They have a special relationship and I think her kids see him as an adopted little brother! It's just precious to see them together.

This little boy has changed our life in so many ways. All of them are so special. God has truly blessed our family with this gift. He is the moon and the stars...and I love him all the way to the moon.....and back.