Tired Boy

Today when I was doing the lunch dishes, and Lincoln was finishing his sandwich, I realized it was unusually quiet. Usually I hear something, like "all done" or "more" or him just talking and talking. So when I looked over he had fallen asleep. We usually take naps right at this time but it looks like he couldn't wait much longer!

Speaking of sleep, he sleeps through the night again! It has been great for the past week. I still wonder if it was a combination of moving to a new home, and then I started rocking him every time before he slept (nap, bedtime, whenever he woke up, etc.) for several minutes...and then that's all he wanted when anything stirred him at night.  I miss rocking him as much as I did before, but he just sleeps better now, so its better for all of us.

He is doing cute things every single day. He still loves to wave bye and everyone and everything (even the bathtub water as it drains:). He loves to identify our buttons, but he calls them "but" and its kind of cute:)

He also runs in circles and pretends to share his crackers, and then right before you eat them from his fingers he pulls them away to tease. Silly boy.

Last week he had his first kiss! There is a little girl named Makenna in our ward that he attends nursery with and they were both at our library's storytime. During the playtime segment, as they both stood on a platform, I said "Lincoln, give Makenna a hug." He did so sweetly and then decided to plant a kiss on her lips too!  Kind of funny. Lincoln definitely is more affectionate these days. He loves to point out busses, balloons, and airplanes the most. Boy, I love being his mother!

Minnesota Life

We arrived into Minnesota just over a month ago. So far we really love it. We love our new home too. Within a few days of moving here, we had already been invited to some social events with some new friends, and since then we have been feeling even more comfortable here. We bought a brand new sofa and loveseat and got an new (to us) entertainment center. So it feels like home having all of our furniture in place.

Vance started work and he really enjoys it. He has two "business trips" between this week and the next, taking him to different states, but only for a day or two at a time, which is not bad at all.

Lincoln has adjusted to the move  well. I thought it might be harder for him. Although, for some reason he is not sleeping as well at all through the nights. He usually wakes up 2-3 times EVERY night. Not sure why. Sick or not, he's up in the night. He's not tugging at his ears at all so I don't think it is an ear infection. He wakes up, wants to be held and just rocked and rocked in the rocking chair. We think he's asleep and as we try to put him back into his crib he lets out the most pitiful cry....it honestly feels like trying to get a newborn to sleep through the night again. He will then just lunge his body towards the rocking chair and pulls up the blanket over us to cuddle and rock. Several times thought the night. But last night he only woke up once, maybe this is progress!

He also brings us so much joy! I wanted to record some of the things about Lincoln, what he does, says to remember.

17 Month Old Update

1. He loves buttons, especially buttons on microwaves. He says "beep beep" when he sees them.
2. Says uh-oh a lot, and sometimes before he pushes something to fall to the ground:)
3. He loves elevators and would love to go up and down them, and of course press the buttons there too.
4. He signs a few words (more, please, thank you, milk, thirsty)
5. He will wave bye to just about everyone and everything these days.I love the way he curls his fingers and has his palm facing him when he waves, so cute.
6. Up until a week ago, when he signed "thirsty" he would touch his nose that made it look like he was picking his nose. Ha! Now he's got it, though.
7. He is starting to be more friendly with strangers and others besides just me and Vance. He had a couple of months where Vance and I were about the only people that could hold him without him crying.
8. Lincoln loves his circus tent. He will gently pull my fingers so we can go inside it and read books or use flashlights.
9. He loves to build towers with his blocks, and knock them all down.
10. He has got a kitchen set that he really enjoys pretending in. Most of all, he loves putting things in and out of the microwave.
11. He doesn't like playing by himself much yet, and he doesn't really enjoy watching TV and movies.
12. When Vance or I are watching a show, he likes to tease us by turning the TV off. Maybe that's how he can get us to pay attention to him then!
13. Lincoln loves to play "noses" when we rub our noses back and forth together. He has the sweetest smile.
14. He lately has become a huge cuddler! I love it!
15. He also is very active. He still has a hard time sitting still and paying attention to something for long. I'm not worried yet, cause he's just 1.
16. He loves wearing his boots. This week he brought them to me or Vance on a few occasions to wear them.
17. His articulation is pretty good for his age. I usually can understand every word he tries to imitate. Atta boy! I suppose I feel a little bit like he should be since I'm the speech language pathologist! No pressure...
18. He really likes it when Vance starts to play rough with him and wrestle. He also loves it when I give him horsie rides.
19. He has become a more affectionate little boy. He freely gives hugs and kisses and it melts our hearts.
20. He brings a pair of shoes to me each day now to wear. Today he brought me some high heeled black church shoes to go with my jeans.
21. He has the most beautiful white hair. I love to cut his hair but then always regret it because it is so beautiful to me. He gets comments a lot on how blonde it is and how fair he is. My older brother has called him "ghost baby" or "ghost child" on a few occasions:)
22. Because we live 15-20 minutes from the airport, we can see several airplanes in the sky in a day. Lincoln can usually hear them before I even do. He'll run to the window and try to spot them.
 23. Lincoln now tries to sing. It is so sweet and I love his little voice.
24. He runs in circles around us for fun.
25. He loves to sit and balance on the arms of our sofa and loveseat.
26. He loves it when we spin him around and then let him "walk" only to fall to the ground with dizziness. He definitely gets the giggles from this game.


Here are the words he says these days:

Bye bye
Shoes
Sock
Uh-oh
All done
Cracker
Milk
Thirsty
Please
Thank you
Balloon
Bus
Truck
Food
Fishy
Computer
Grandma (Mee-ma)
Grandpa (Ba-ba)
Peter (Be-oh)
Mama
Dada
Diaper
Bed
Book
Airplane
Dice
Apple
Banana
Thirsty
Blue


There are probably a few more, but I just can't remember all of them now. We love him so much. I'll have to put up some pictures or videos another day.

Lincoln's Big Decision

This is a video from Lincoln's first birthday (October 1). We decided to follow a Korean tradition usually performed on a child's first birthday. We placed different objects in front of him on a table, each of which corresponded to a different "future". For example, a ball signifies an athlete, a ruler signifies an engineer, or a dollar bill signifies a rich man. It was a lot of fun. See the big decision for yourself below.

Minnesota Here We Come

Last week, Vance formally accepted a job offer to work for a company in Eden Prairie, Minnesota as their Product Development Engineer! We are really looking forward to this new adventure in our lives. We visited the area and we think we will love it. We are also happy to move their because it is supposed to be a great place to live. In 2010, CNN's Money Magazine named it the #1 place to live in the United States. More importantly, we will have awesome family close by. We have a sister and brother-in-law and their two darling girls who will be so close. We will be not too far from my parents in Wisconsin as well. We don't have an exact moving date yet, but hopefully soon.

Anyway, we are really sad to leave all of our friends who have become family here in Indiana. We have fallen in love with this place and it will be hard to say goodbye. I really am starting to feel an ache inside knowing we are leaving. We have so many great friendships and memories here and we love this area. We have the best of friends and are so grateful for them!

Graduation!

Vance has received his master's degree in Mechanical Engineering (MSME) from Purdue University! He graduated this past weekend. I can safely say that this has been the most difficult semester for the both of us. It has been incredible to see how much Vance has accomplished. He defended his thesis a few weeks ago and has been finishing up the last projects, journal papers, tests, etc. since then. This semester he almost always would head to campus until 11 pm to 1 am after dinner every single weeknight and sometimes on weekends as well. I am VERY glad that we are done with school, at least for now.

Now we can say we both have our master's degree. I am so proud of Vance. He finished his master's degree in one year and four months!  He is AWESOME.

After graduation we took some pictures to remember the big day.

The commencement ceremony was inside the Elliot Hall of Music.

Next to the fountains that weren't running at this time of the year:)

All of us in front of the Bell Tower.

Vance in front of the ME building.

Lincoln thought it was so fun to have his dad's cap on.

Inside the ME building, where incredible refreshments were served. There was a vegetable platter that honestly looked just like a floral bouquet. I have never seen a vegetable tray look so beautiful.

Vance and Lincoln...I love my boys!

Make sure you read the post I just created below too...