Christmas #5

Lincoln and his Grandma Laura

We wrapped up this Christmas season by spending a day in Columbus with the Parkinson family. After a week of driving around, Lincoln "going to bed" in his car seat, meeting all sorts of new people, Lincoln was an absolute all-star on Sunday. Jenn and I had a great time with Larry & Marti, Kas, Cindy, Trevor, and Lincoln's Grandma and Grandfather and Auntie Haley. The Wii was out in full force, and Jenn and I are sold on the Wii fit (especially after watching Trevor and Dave play it so well!). I'm not sure how much I ate because there were cookies and fudge sitting out during our entire stay.

The Parkinson Family

(What follows will probably be boring to non-family, but it's important I include it for record-keeping purposes.) Lincoln has initiated a change in his feeding schedule. Nursing has been a challenge over the past several weeks, and it has become clear that he is not interested in nursing 5 times per day. So we've decreased his frequency of eating to 4 times daily, and we're giving him big volumes of solids (bananas, chick peas, broccoli, sweet potatoes, blackberries, mangos, rice, barley, oatmeal, pears, apple sauce, bok choi, papaya...). He seems much more content with this schedule. It also means that he has to stay awake longer, which has actually not been much of a problem. For weeks (months?) now we've heard from folks who say, "Has he dropped a nap?" or "Is he staying up longer?" And for a long time the answer has been, "Lincoln isn't like most babies." But now, at just shy of 8 months old, he's starting to stay awake longer in between naps and feedings.

Grandfather Dave and the Parkinsons love playing with Lincoln.

Lincoln has reached a couple of milestones recently. He's now in the stage where he does not want strangers picking him up and/or taking him away from his mom, his dad, or his grandparents. We found this out over the Christmas time. A second milestone is that he's becoming quite a "grandma's boy." He actually cried when I took him from his Grandma Paulette. Can you believe it? Lincoln loves the women in his life!

Another milestone that may be coming: Jenn reports that he nearly voluntarily rolled from his back to his stomach in his crib last night. Have no fear, though, he didn't complete the job and he returned safely to his back. We're preparing ourselves for hearing a shriek in the middle of the night announcing a rolled baby boy. Any day now...

The end of 2008 is approaching. I looks as though our New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is going to be pretty low-key. Exchange some clothes, straighten up some things around the house, watch some football, have some pork and sauerkraut at Mom and Dad's place, rest... sounds like a good plan to me.

Finally, we're going to miss Great Grandma Gates. She's headed to Charlotte with the MacDermotts today, but she'll be back around April sometime. Great Grandma was great for Lincoln on Mondays and Tuesdays. It made him laugh when she would push his toys back to him with her cane. It was fun to watch! Take care (Great) Grandma!

A Happy Grandma.