Lincoln at 15 months

Oh my goodness, this kid is so much fun these days.

1) He loves doing chores.

It started with the broom. He loved carrying the broom around. He'd have a fit if we actually took the broom to do some sweeping. Last weekend we were at Chris' parent's house, and Lincoln spent the majority of his time carrying their broom and dustpan combo from room to room. He was so mad when we got in the car to go home.

Also funny, the first thing he ever pointed out in a picture book was Cosette's broom. :D

Then it was the duster. Lincoln likes to go into the cabinet under the sink where he knows the microfiber duster lives. He dusts the floor and the bottom of bookcases for us. If we point out something specific, he'll dust that.

Third, he loves helping with the dishwasher. We can hand him small items like utensils for him to put in the basket, and I just found out that Chris has been letting him pull the utensils out when the washer is done. (Ew. Baby hands all over my spoons!) The other day I tried to quickly unload the dishwasher without him, and when he came toddling around the corner and saw what I was doing, man was he irate. He basically pushed me out of the way to take over. Silly boy.

2) He LOVES books now.

Something switched about a month and a half ago and all of the sudden he is all about his little library. Whereas before the books were just good for pulling off shelves to make a mess, now we actually read them- all the way to the end! He has favorites, too. Notably is "The Hand Book," which I think he loves for the "dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum" part. Somewhere along the way he made up his own hand motions for the part of the book where two characters meet and they "shake hands, shake hands, shake, shake, shake!" My favorite part of his newfound love for books is when I find him sitting with a book in his lap, "reading" out loud. He's starting to add inflections into his babble, so it really sounds like reading!

3) He communicates with us.

Teaching him sign language is finally paying off! He can sign please, all done, yes, and again. His most used are definitely please and again. He signs please if we ask him if he wants something and he does indeed want it, and of course as soon as food comes out. Again is used when I sing songs to him, or we count the mice in a picture book, or when daddy flies him around the room. Yes is a sign that we're very excited to see coming out a lot, because it's helped us so much in figuring out what he wants or needs at the moment. He still will not sign milk, even though it's the one sign I've used with him since he was four weeks old!


4) He loves to slide.

This just happened in the last couple of weeks. Chris took him to a playground a bit ago and came back with reports that Lincoln had a blast when daddy put him up on the slide and helped slide him down. Just a couple weeks later, we were doing a family photo shoot with the Holzes at a playground near their house, and Lincoln was climbing up the play structure and going right down the slide all on his own. Like 20 times. I took a video of it, and Chris says it gives him "the feels" for some reason. I think we both are seeing how are little baby is suddenly not so much a baby anymore!

The end of nursing

This week I nursed my baby for the very last time.

Tears.

Not going to lie, I still feel a bit in denial. Like we're just taking a bit of a break, and he'll be right back at it tomorrow.

But I know he's done. And I'm both happy and so incredibly sad at the same time.

I knew it was coming. Over the last couple of weeks, Lincoln's become VERY into his books. He loves them so much now. He reads them in his bed after he wakes from a nap, he carries them to us when we're cooking or working, he "reads" out loud using our inflections. And for awhile now, he's insisted that we read a book while we nurse.

Yeah, that was difficult. Super adorable. But very hard to do properly.

So he was only half-interested in the mama milk while we were reading, too. He'd pop off to raise his head to look at the pictures or try to turn the pages. My guess is my milk supply really took a hit from that, and after a bit he wasn't getting as much as he used to.

He went from pointing to the rocking chair to indicate we should nurse, to pointing to his bookcase to tell me he wants to read. For the last few days, I would still put him in a nursing position, even though he wasn't showing interest. He'd give me a minute or so, and then it was all about the book.

Then on Tuesday, he drank for about ten seconds before lifting himself up and reaching for his book. I switched him to the other side, and that's when it hit me: This is probably the last time I will nurse this baby.

I didn't want to believe it, but just in case I soaked up every single second of it. I touched his sweet face and ran my hands through his ridiculously messy hair. I made sure that if this really was the last time, I was going to make that memory count.

The next day he wouldn't nurse at all. I tried again for two days after, but he's done.

When I told Chris, he high fived me, and I crawled back into bed with him and cried. I know it's silly; we went a full 15 months, something I thought would never happen with the complications we had in the beginning. I told myself I would nurse him as long as he wanted, but I secretly hoped he would go longer, because I wanted it to continue. I worked really hard to make nursing work for us, and when I think of all the pain, all those long nights, giving up lunch breaks and waking up in the middle of the night to pump, it just seems to incredibly sad to give it up so easily.

But we did it. We nursed to 12 months and beyond. It was hard. It was so very hard.

But man, oh man, was it worth it.

Inauguration Day

So today we had this thing in America called the inauguration for the new president of the United States. My school is awesome, and carved out time during first and second modules for the students to be able to watch it. I wasn't too sure how they're reactions would be, and I was definitely ready to put out fires quickly and nip the negativity in the bud, but man oh man my kids so got it. It was such a great thing to get to watch through their eyes.

And of course they are in the 12-14 year old range, so some silliness and laughter was to be expected.



Here were my fave moments:

Student: "So where are they anyway? I mean, I know they're in Washington, but where exactly?"

Me: "I'm pretty sure it's the Capitol building."

Katie: (Gasps.) "It is! There's the Washington Monument in line with it, just like in our books!"

Me: (So proud.)

(We happened to have a picture of D.C. in our math books because we were doing a section that involved grids, so D.C. was the city of choice used to show a gridded city system. We actually had a lengthy discussion a few weeks ago about the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial being on a straight line with the Capitol.) 

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Me, while the chorale was singing: "Guys, can we talk about that first guys' speech? I just love how he pointed out that the second election was so much more important than the first, since the idea of transferring power peacefully was not really something that happened during that time period. You all know, a lot of time power in a country is transferred through violence and bloodshed, so isn't it so incredible that our country is one of those where the leaders have always graciously given up power, even to those who they don't agree with? It's giving me goosebumps, I don't know, maybe it's just because I'm an adult now, so it's affecting me a lot today."

Lauren: "Or maybe you're cold!"

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Announcer: "Please welcome Chuck Schumer."

Sam: "Oh, I love that guy! He's got the best glasses!"

(And sure enough, Chuck Schumer had good glasses.)

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Supreme Court Justice: "Vice President Elect Pence, raise your right hand."

All my students: Raise their right hand.

Me: "Uh, you guys all know you're not being sworn in, right?"