Lincoln Crawls on His Knees and Two Year Anniversary

Lincoln started crawling on his knees consistently yesterday. We are so proud of him. He had been army crawling since the beginning of June, so we are excited about this. Vance took this when he got home from school and I was finishing our dinner.

Yesterday he also tried to feed us with the spoon he played with during dinner. It was sure cute. He tries to pull himself to stand on everything, and seems more determined than ever to stand on the faucet in the tub....which makes us so nervous. We try to distract him to play with his toys in the tub, but sometimes all he tries to do is stand!!

Lincoln also has learned "peek a boo." Below is a video of him playing in the tub with our version of the game with the shower curtain.

This last video is about two weeks old. We got him a walker and he loves the independence it brings him. We have to watch our toes when he's in it, though...

We have been having all sorts of fun here lately. It has been extremely hot and humid, with the heat index at 115 degrees for the past three days. We are so grateful for our air conditioning (the bill will be high this month!) Anyway, we have been having fun. I have baked lots of bread (white, banana, pumpkin, zucchini), tried new recipes for dinner, got a new jogging stroller which is AWESOME, and got rid of a lot of extra things we don't need in the house. I also am almost finished with a great book called "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl. He survived the Holocaust and tells of his experience there but also relates it to many things he has learned about love and the purpose in life and suffering. He gained so much from his experience. Very inspiring and definitely not a downer.

In the last few days we went to the Tippecanoe County Fair and saw lots of pigs, sheep, horses, cows, chickens, rabbits, crafts, and more. Lincoln seemed to enjoy the horses the most.  We also have gone to a nearby tumbling gym and played in the foam pit, crawled through tunnels, etc. Yesterday we went to the Tropicanoe Cove pool in Lafayette. It is the fanciest pool/waterpark in town. Lincoln didn't especially enjoy the lazy river (I suppose there is nothing to "do" while you float, however I loved it!). He was pretty daring and walked right up to the falling water toys, even if the water got in his eyes.

We celebrated our two year anniversary on Monday, July 18th!  Vance was so thoughtful and did some sweet things throughout the day. When I opened the laptop at about noon, the "Love Songs" station on pandora started, and he had a card for me waiting there. I woke up to two bouquets or two dozen flowers for each month we have been married. Then I found Ghirradelli chocolates on the bed! Vance is good at making special days like birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays extra special.  I thought of a few things...one of them making a homemade card.  I actually made a successful and cute one which makes me feel super crafty.  Deep down I want to be more crafty.

A newly married couple in our ward volunteered to babysit for us, so we went out on the town in the evening. We went to La Scala, a fine Italian restaurant, for dinner. The food was soooo tasty and the servings were generous. We took home the rest that made enough leftovers for two meals for both of us. We also went to "All Fired Up," a pottery place in town where you can paint pottery. I painted a utensil holder and Vance painted a spoon rest. Then after that we went for a romantic walk down by the celery bog. The sun was setting and the wild flowers smelled beautiful. It was such a nice night and was fun to think about how glad we were that we chose to marry each other. It was nice to reflect on all the experiences, whether joyous or sad, we have been through. Love you Vance.