Sometimes when I go into Lincoln's room at night, I just stare at him. I mean, he is an actual live baby that is mine. That is crazy. I voice this to Chris frequently, and he just looks at me like I'm crazy. Of course he's ours. We wanted him, and now he's here, forever part of our lives.

I have always been one to stop abruptly and really consider what my life looks like. I think for the first five years of our marriage, I would suddenly pause and turn to Chris and say, "What the heck. We're married." And he'd think I was crazy, but that's just because he isn't quite the reflector of life that I am. 

But seriously, we're married. For going on seven years now. How did that even happen? 

How is it that I woke up one day in a house that we bought? How am I finishing up my fourth year teaching at a wonderful school with amazing staff and kids? How did we stumble into a photography business that led to Chris working from home full time, so that when we did have kids, one of us was able to be with them all day?

And seriously, how did we become parents to this incredible four and a half month old?

I love that squishy face.

In other news, we've started letting Lincoln gnaw on veggies when we make them. So far he is not a fan of bell peppers, but he loved slobbering all over a green bean the other night.

Around here...

Around here, we are playing Baby Signing Time a lot. Like, to the point that when I'm at school, the lines running through my head are "These are the pets I love, bird, bird, bird, bird, tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet," "I'm in a car... here I go!" and "Mom has a mom and she's my grandma, she's another mother who loves me." Dang those songs are catchy.

Around here, Chris is editing engagement shoots and newborn shoots, while simultaneously keeping Lincoln entertained all day. Link doesn't nap during the day that much, unless one of us lays down with him. Then that kid will sleep for hours. It's cute in a way, that he just loves being right up next to us, but it's definitely hard when we're trying to get anything done during the day. I keep telling Chris to just embrace naptime when I'm at school, but so far he's been anti-nap. Until today.

Around here, we're pretty tired. Lincoln's regressed in his sleep habits a bit since I went back to work. For the first couple of weeks I was back, he was waking up again 2-3 times a night, and it was hard to get him back down. He was getting better, than two nights ago, he woke up around midnight and refused to sleep if we weren't holding him. As in, we would get him asleep, really, truly asleep, and as soon as we would put him down he would wake up screaming. That was a hard day at work for me after that night. Fortunately, last night he was so much better. I pulled out all the stops: looooong bath time, thin cotton pjs, lavender essential oil diffusing in his room, and an extra top off bottle. He only woke up once, around 2 am, and just long enough for Chris to feed him a bottle before he was out again. Thank you, Jesus.

Around here, I spend my days with 7th graders. And we're just about at the time of year when the Drama starts. I don't know how many times I had to say today, "I don't want to hear about your drama," "Why are we still talking about this?" "Just ignore them," or "If this conversation doesn't end there will be CONSEQUENCES." Seriously, one track minds, those kids. And that track ain't math.

Around here, the monkey is 4 months old! He now is seriously into his toys, enjoys his tummy time and baths, no longer gets swaddled at bedtime, has graduated to 6 month clothes (in Carter's), tries to hold his own bottle during feedings, and has wiggled his way off the bed for the first time. (He was fine.) He still loves being outside the house and seeing people, but he's enjoying his play mat and even being in his crib much more lately.

That's it for now. It's almost 10pm on a Thursday night, so I'm torn as usual between going to bed to get a good amount of sleep hours in or staying awake long enough to finish Lincoln's 4 month scrapbook page. Oh, decisions, decisions.

3 Months

Little Monkey's three month page came together quickly. He's up to so much these days, it was pretty easy coming up with some journaling for this page. :)

Lincoln Update: 15 Weeks

Our happy baby boy is up to all kinds of new things these days! Obviously he's sitting in his Bumbo these days. Chris was at Target this week and bought a tray accessory for it and Lincoln LOVES sitting up and playing with his toys that are now harder to drop out of reach.

He's also started smiling for the camera, which these two photographer parents are thrilled about. :) He used to stop smiling every time we put the camera up to our eyes. His brow would crease and he'd concentrate on staring at it– so frustrating when we were trying to catch him mid-grin.

In the last week he's become OBSESSED with his feet. As soon we plunk him down on the changing pad, up come the feet (as well as that little tush)! On a side note, he also thinks its hilarious when he gets pretend spankings during diaper changes. What is it about a naked baby tush that just makes you want to smack it? I'm not sure, but Lincoln just cracks up when I lift his legs and ask if he wants a spanking. What a weirdo. ;)