Life right now.

Well, school's back in full swing again! This is my first year teaching my regular math class while simultaneously being a mama, and I fully expect this year to be ridiculous. Gone are the days of coming home exhausted and just falling into bed for a late afternoon nap. Now the days are go, go, go from 6am until Lincoln goes to bed around 7pm... and then it's finally time for me to get to do all the fun stuff I couldn't do while he was awake, like the dishes, or prep for the next day.

Despite all this craziness, life is feeling pretty good right now. My students are pretty awesome. They're the same kids I had last year when I was teaching 7th grade study hall classes and tutoring, so it's fun for me to start the year already knowing them all. And it's definitely helpful already knowing who I need to keep an extra eye on during class. I know which kids I need to frequently visit to make sure they're keeping on task, and I know who can probably answer my questions before I even ask them. It's going to be a fun year for sure.

Lincoln's been having a ball the last couple weeks. Along with attending "Daddy Daycare," he visits our friend Kristin a lot, who takes him to the Y with her kids, so he still gets to see his friends at the infant child watch there. Two days a week he goes to his daycare house, run by a parent of twins in my class. He goes along with our P.E. teacher's daughter and occasionally other staff kids, and getting to hang out with other kiddos in the 2-4 range is so much fun for him. Our little guy is super social and just loves being around anybody.

To add to the craziness this year, Chris and I are considering buying our next house! Because, you know, that sounds like a great idea in what will probably be my most challenging teaching year yet. (Except for the first year. Oh man, that first year....) No idea if we're actually going to go through with it, but we've been dreaming and scheming up ways to try to get into a 4 bedroom. I suppose that's one way to really make this year memorable!

Lincoln at 8 Months

Slowly but surely... ;)

At 8 months, Lincoln...
- weighs 14 pounds, 10 ounces
- pulls himself up on things easily
- has started searching all the drawers and shelves in the house for interesting things
- plays independently for long periods of time
- lights up when he spots mama
- got sick for the first time (Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease is no joke!)
- ate dirt for the first time
- loves pulling his books off the shelf
- hates to be on his back for diaper changes

He is a ridiculously happy baby. We are so blessed to have such an easy going guy. Hoping that part of his personality sticks for the long run! :D

Baby PSA: Plagiocephaly

Our little monkey's rocking some new head gear these days. Something they don't mention at the hospital when they let you take your lovely newborn home? Watching out for signs of a flat head, aka plagiocephaly. In Lincoln's case, if we had just been watching for the signs, we probably would've been able to mitigate the problem from the get-go and L wouldn't have to wear the helmet. But we didn't know, and so he does, and here we are, making lemonade out of lemons... or protocol droids out of cranial helmets. And I've made it my mission to make sure people know to be looking out for plagiocephaly (and in L's case, the torticollis which caused it).

At Lincoln's two month appointment, his pediatrician noticed he was having a hard time looking to the left (the torticollis, or tight neck), and that he was developing a flat spot on the right side of his head. This was due to him always sleeping with his head tilted to the right, something we realized after that appointment. The doc set us up with an appointment for baby physical therapy.

Lincoln loved his PT appointments. He got to play on a giant mat and flirt with this therapist while she helped him see that he could turn his head to the left if he wanted. She told us that his neck was apparently tight since birth, possibly due to being pulled out at a weird angle, so he had just learned to always look right rather than deal with pushing past the tightness on the left. But the good thing was that his neck could twist that way easily. We just had to get him doing it more often to make that tightness go away for good.

For a few months we had him sleep with "rice socks" we were instructed to make: tube socks full (and I mean full) of rice. When Lincoln slept, we swaddled him tight, laid him between the socks, and tilted his body to the left so he didn't have the chance to keep sleeping on his flat spot. The hope was that since he was still so young it would work itself out. But Lincoln became too much of a mover at night, and soon he was busting out of the swaddle and out from between the socks, so the PT began talking helmet with us around four and a half months. At least the tightness in his neck was gone from his physical therapy!

Lincoln didn't get to start his helmet until he was about six and a half months old. (We had to do a little runaround with our insurance for quite awhile unfortunately.) Because of that, he has to wear his helmet a bit longer than was originally forecast. We were told at his last appointment that he probably has about six weeks left, so that's exciting! That helmet may look cute, especially once it's decorated, but it has a bunch of drawbacks. For one, that thing HURTS! Lincoln is a big mover and squirmer, and both Chris and I have been smacked in the face with the front of that helmet. It also makes cuddling really hard since we can't feel his sweet little head against us. And second, it makes his head stink! Poor guy has had it all summer, and he wakes up in the morning with a sweaty, stinky head. He also has begun to think he's indestructible, because that helmet absorbs the impact from any fall–he's in for a rude awakening when that thing's not on 23/7.

So here's the PSA: take note of how your baby sleeps and if they can turn their head both ways! Chris and I had no idea to be looking for something like that, but we feel pretty confident that if we had noticed the neck tightness, and made sure that we placed him to sleep making sure he was alternating facing left and right, that Lincoln would not have developed that flat spot. When Baby T. #2 comes along, you can bet we'll be super vigilant watching for the first sign.

Lincoln at 7 months

Again, behind with the months, but I'm slowly catching up! Lincoln turned 7 months on June 15, just in time to kick off the summer!

He was not AT ALL happy about doing this photo shoot. Pretty much anything that requires him to be on his back for longer than half a second is the worst thing in the world to him. Changing diapers are great fun these days (said super sarcastically). I'm pretty lucky I got what little pictures of him smiling that I did! Because in reality, most of the pictures look like that little one the middle right side of the spread....

At 7 months, Lincoln...
- weighs a little less than 14 pounds (yes, he's a teeny guy)
- has mastered sitting up on his own
- figured out how to crawl! (over Memorial Day weekend)
- loves blowing bubbles
- lets me know he wants to nurse by pulling on my shirt
- eats tons of food!
- loves his jumper
- rides in carts like a big boy
- can stand up in his crib
- wears a helmet to fix his flat spot
- crawls into my lap and melts my heart
- loves to crawl over daddy and mommy when they're laying on the floor

Paislee Press May Guest Designer

In May I got to be a guest designer for Paislee Press. Paislee Press is run by my absolute favorite scrapbook designer, Liz Tamanaha, so I was pretty thrilled to get to play with all the brand new products, as well as some of the old goodies.

I took the opportunity to try to finish up some of my 2015 album. Because let's face it, once Lincoln arrived, there was no way I was finishing that album on time.

The first layout documents life at our house about a month after Lincoln was born. We did a lot of lounging bed apparently. These were the good ol' days, when we could bring Lincoln to bed with us and he would stay put. I miss having him sleep between us!

I went further back and did a spread of some of Lincoln's birth pictures. The whole story is definitely not recorded on this page, but the very abridged and wholesome version is here!

I also wanted to add a few new spreads to Lincoln's baby book. For his book, I'm using one of the new 6x8 Project Life albums. It doesn't feel quite as daunting as filling a full size book and I'm loving the smallness of it. It fits really well on my shelf. Anyway, I had planned to do three spreads showing his typical routine, morning, noon, and evening, but I ran out of time (May was crazy busy) and focused just on the morning. I'm sure I'll go back sometime this summer and finish up those other pages, since they're about halfway done.

And that was that! Super fun seeing how the whole design team thing works and being part of the behind-the-scenes of it all!

Lincoln at 6 Months

So, Lincoln actually turned 7 months a few days ago. But as our May was crazy, and the beginning of June was all about the final push to the end of the school year... I just did his 6 month page a couple days ago.

And, wow! So much has changed from those 6 month stats! At 6 months, Lincoln was trying desperately to crawl, he'd just started eating solids, and bedtime was becoming a bit frustrating for us. Not to give away too many spoilers for his 7 month page, but he crawls all over the house now (and has totally set his eyes on walking next), he eats everything, and puts himself to sleep pretty easily now, for a full 12-hour night. What will 8 months bring?!

At six months, Lincoln...

- weighs about 13.5 pounds

- loves avocados and prunes, and also eats sweet potatoes, squash, and peas

- hardly ever spits up anymore

- puts his own pacifier back in his mouth

- takes longer naps during the day (finally!)

- is really hard to change because he flirts to his stomach and tries to squirm away, every time.

- doesn't like when we leave him alone to play

- army crawls everywhere

- can sit up when we prop his arms in front of him

And here's the final page for his baby book!

Tuesday blues

It is 8:54 and I have achieved my main goal of the day by being in bed before 9. I am so thankful this day is over.

Lincoln woke up around 4am and took his sweet time going back to sleep, so I've basically felt exhausted all day. Last night was, sadly, one of those nights I chose to stay up doing things, instead of my usual-and safe-10pm bedtime. Bad luck.

My 7th graders and I got moved to a tiny classroom this week, so the noise is compounded. And have I mentioned 7th grade Drama? Holy Bologna, I cannot with it anymore. I just cannot.

So I survived the day (with a little help from the Coke Chris brought me when he came with Lincoln for L's morning nursing), and managed to make it to our neighborhood pho place for some takeout, then Chris and I tag teamed cleaning the kitchen (a wreck for several days now-we were out of baby bottles!) and getting Lincoln down for the night.

Here we are, Link and me eating his dinner. He loves salmon, and seemed to like the spaghetti squash, too. He couldn't finish it all and I'll admit, I definitely helped myself to some finger foods. (Good thing, too, because I didn't get to eat my pho until 3 hours after I'd brought it home!)

So. I got the kid down. Chris took our ballots next door to our polling place. We ate our pho. I started Lincoln's diaper laundry. I took a shower. I packed Lincoln's things for his daycare house tomorrow. And now I am done.

And I am totally showing a movie in class tomorrow. ;)