71 Weeks

16mo & Then Some

How old? 16 Months 12 Days
Weight: 25ish lbs
Sleep: Yikes, we did a number on our schedule this past weekend that's for sure!  I kinda knew we would given all the events going on and new surroundings...  Friday Linc was up up up late late late.  Little man did not go to bed until after 10pm!  Craziness, just craziness, now Todd and I are by no means schedule people however Lincoln is, so this was a big deal!  But he was having too much fun seeing Grammy Sparks & the whole Isaacs Fam, and being in a hotel that was new and exciting.  Uggg then he woke up like a million times during the night (and so did I, thank you room neighbor who watched TV loudly until 5am) though I am pretty sure he just didn't know where he was.  Finally around 6am I took him into the big bed with me, Todd  had stayed with Andy at his house, so we cuddled and slept off and on from 6am-9am.  Saturday night was better probably because he was so wore out from the excitement of the wedding and his ring bearing duties, being so adorable is extremely exhausting, you know.  But then Sunday was back to being a rough night and Monday morning he was up at 5am and ready to go, Mommy & Daddy not so much!  Thank goodness he slept well during naptime in the car on the way home to DC.  However we were greeted at home with thunderstorms so it was still a bumpy road when it came to bedtime.  He went down good enough but come 3am when another big storm came through he was woken-up (along with Mommy) by a very loud clap of thunder!  We let him soothe himself (even though I wanted to go down there very badly, but it was better to let him deal with it as long as his cries did not turn frantic, maybe he'll stand a chance to not be such a scaredy cat when it comes to storms ::unlike his mother::) and he was back asleep in a few minutes. 
However, the rest of the week he slept like a champ! 
Food: Our last day in Cleveland we went with Grandpa and Uncle Brant to B Spot for lunch before we hit the road.  While not entirely baby friendly in the way of a kids meal menu, we made it work by giving Linc some of our food and man was he all about the french fries.  Let me just say he does not normally get french fries at all, but he was in love so we gave in and let him have a few...I mean they are a vegetable and they were seasoned with rosemary, so that's kinda healthy right?  I will say B Spot would give Five Guys a run for their money if they were out here in DC, YUM!  And now Lola is definitely on my list of places to eat in Cleveland.  Michael Symon is kinda awesome!
Word List: Mama, Dada, Daa-dee, banana, uhoh, bye bye, touchdown, all done, book, night night, hi, thank you, yes, ball, more, dog, no, please, out, baby, bubbles, uhoh spaghetti-O's (it really sounds like uhoh spagheheheg-ooooo, but it's super cute), beep beep, car (ca),

Signs: more, milk, eat, all done, please, banana, water, puppies, cheese, outside, bed,
**Learning signs: car, help, lets go
Best Moment This Week:

We had a wonderful time at Andy & Taryn's wedding (*see the few pics in the previous post) and all the events surrounding it.   I only wish I had gotten more pictures but I had my hands pretty full Lincoln wrangling and then by the time I had a chance to breathe and enjoy myself I was too in the moment to remember to snap some shots that I wish now I had.  Oh well, regardless it was a fabulous time! 


Congrats To The Happy Couple!

Linc got a new toy this week.  We had been looking to get him a water table since he loves water so much and we can barely get him out of the bath tub on bath nights.  We found the perfect one and it happened to be on sale this week at ToysRus, YAY!  So I picked it up Wednesday and since the weather was nice Todd (with Linc's help, sort of) put it together and Linc got to test drive it out on the balcony. 

And in other news I got a fabulous new pendant from my mom for Mother's Day, it is made from Lincoln's actual fingerprint.  She enlisted us to get his little prints on a sheet of paper and asked  us to send it back to her via snail-mail, I had no idea what it was for she didn't say and I figured it was some Grandma thing, lol!  Well it turns out it was for this, and it is just like the coolest thing ever, j'adore!

I also got a new photo app for my phone this week that is completely awesome and so much fun!  It is called Instagram, if you have an iPhone or a iPod Touch seach for it now - yeah, right now - cuz it is cool & it's FREE.  I big pink puffy heart it!  You can use a bunch of cool filters and focus stuff to create even cooler looking pictures (see pic above of Linc w/ water table & 16mo pics). 

Worst Moment This Week: Just a few semi sleepless nights in CLE, but mostly this week was all goodness!  

What We're Looking Forward To:

Good weather & trips to the zoo & farmers markets, OH MY!

Moving up to the 16-22mo class at Gymboree
Father's Day preparations are underway
Trips back to Cleveland and Indiana in the coming summer months
Booking a Girls Trip to Mexico for November!  Hello beaches & unlimited drinks!
Movement: So Lincoln's two favorite things about the hotel this past weekend in order of amusement were as follows:
1. sliding mirrored closet doors (see video below)

2. luggage carts as toddler transportation

Now That's Some Precious Cargo

Milestones:  Gentle bedtime routines; Bedtime will go more smoothly if you establish a routine your child can count on. A good bedtime routine is long enough to ease your child into a relaxed state, but not so long or complicated that it's a chore for you – or impossible for a babysitter to replicate. Twenty to 30 minutes is a good length of time.
Include more or less the same elements in roughly the same order every night. For example: A small snack, a bath or a quick cleaning of hands and face, get into pajamas, brush teeth, read a book or two. A cuddle and a kiss, and you're done. Other options include saying goodnight to a few stuffed animals or singing a lullaby. Ideally, you'll find a routine that works for your child (and for you) – and stick to it.  Skip the roughhousing. Your goal is to gently wind your child down, not rev her up.
**I don't normally put the "parent tips" listed on Baby Center under Milestones in the blog because I usually think they are dumb but this one addresses what is going on with Linc lately and while I personally don't really find it as much a tip as I do validation on perhaps why I think he is doing the same thing... 
PS sure enough he does have another tooth coming in, Todd saw it when he was tickling Linc.
Parent tip

"My daughter only used her pacifier for sleep. Recently she started wanting it while she was awake and actually walked around calling for it, which she had never done before. Sure enough, three molars are coming in! Now it makes sense that she wants her binky more often. I'm going to let her keep it until the teeth come in all the way, and then we'll toss it."