I have both Easter pictures and Evan’s birthday post to write, but instead of eating Easter candy I stole from the kids and sitting on the couch this morning I went for a walk. I am feeling the “summer is coming” stress and really regreting bascially everything I’ve eaten for the last 9 months, so I’m making a conscious effort to increase my activity level and decrease my candy consumption. At least I will, after all these Reeses Eggs are gone.

Sunday:

When it comes to vintage spring dresses, she’s covered

HEY GUYS I FOUND THE EGGS THEY’RE OVER HERE

I sold this wrap. I’m pretty sure it was because of this picture.

Monday:

We did this a lot this week

No, that’s not disturbing

This art is delicious

Tuesday:

That’s supposed to be MY spot

Happy to be outside

WTF is this? It doesn’t look like nursies.

Wednesday:

Caroline the creeper

Every. Single. Wall.

Sad baby needs daddy cuddles

Thursday:

He loves the baby in the mirror

Porch ennui

LASHES

Friday:

The kids have asked to have this happen again EVERY DAY since

Neither of these children plays piano

Sure. Go ahead and eat that cardboard. Hashtag third child.

Saturday:

Saturday morning photo session

Why are you letting this goat eat me?

I’m going to steal this one.

I need a weekend to recover from our super busy weekend. I also need the weather to get above 70 degrees just for ONE DAY so I can open every window in the house. “Fresh linen” scented candles can only do so much when you haven’t had any fresh air inside in 6 months. Plus we all pretty much permanently smell like goats, so that’s not helping.

On his actual 8 month day Linc slept through the night, then took a 4 hour nap. He woke up a zillion years older. He’s bigger. His face looks different. He has more HAIR.

I don’t object to the sleeping, like, at all. But I object to the growing. I object to his thinking he is a KID and his sudden need to stand all the time. I don’t like the standing so much because when he stands on me he digs in with his grabby little toes and I end up covered with bruises. He does it when he’s nursing too – kicks me in the arms and face hard enough to leave marks. I feel like I’m being abused by a tiny, deaf old man. Saying “no!” has no effect unless I use a really angry voice and then it just makes him cry. And then I’M the jerk who made a baby cry.

I can’t even keep track of how many teeth he has anymore. He’s always teething, so I’m assuming more than the 8 I can see in the front? He mostly deals with it by biting me and my clothes, although sometimes I can talk him into biting an actual teether for a few minutes. But NOT the kind you put in the freezer for teething relief. That’s just ridiculous, in his opinion. He also really really likes to nurse for the teething pain, which means we’ve been doing a lot of nursing. A loooooot. He’s still ambivalent about food, unless it’s pizza crust (hashtag third child hashtag baby-led weaning) but I’m working on it. The day when I am not his only food source is in the distant future but I can almost see it.

Linc is in 9-12 month clothes and 12-24 months hats, because his noggin is epic. He has a bunch of soft-soled shoes but when I put them on his feet all he does is slide around and then fall on his face. I’m really looking forward to warm weather when he can just wear onesies and a diaper and get filthy throwing himself in the dirt.

Likes include standing, cruising, biting, eating paper, sister, brother, the dog, the cat, water, shoes that do not belong to him, scooting, sleeping, Mommy, smiling, friends, being worn, snuggles, nursies, breaking stuff, chewing on cords.

Dislikes are loud noises, being told NO, falling on his face and anything else he previously liked 5 minutes ago but changed his mind about. Like, say, this month’s photo shoot. He was NOT INTERESTED. And also got snot all over everything. Very attractive.

8 Month Milestones (from Caroline’s 8 monthday post)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Says “mama” or “dada” to parents (isn’t specific) – Eh. Sometimes says mamamama or dadadada but I don’t think he’s really talking?
Passes objects from hand to hand – Easily

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Stands while holding onto something – STANDS ALL THE TIME
Crawls – One legged monkey scoots, but yes. He’s completely mobile.
Points at objects – With like, one finger? No.
Searches for hidden objects – Yes. Especially if you’re hiding it specifically so he won’t choke on it.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Pulls self to standing, cruises – Call him Royal Caribbean, he’s a cruising machine.
Picks things up with thumb-finger pincer grasp – I think he mostly ham-hand grabs stuff still.
Indicates wants with gestures – He can do the sign for “nurse” and basically does it constantly. It’s his only want.

I completely forgot to do this yesterday. I wasn’t too busy or anything, I just totally forgot. That might be the first time in 227 weeks.

Sunday:

You can only tell this is the “before” because my roots are greasy. The after is the same, just cleaner.

Luckily I have a full time hair dresser at home

Taking a picture of my back is hard

Monday:

Friends

Shamrock Shake aka I SURVIVED FEBRUARY GIVE ME ALL THE SHAKES

Old school Duck Tales is excellent dancing music

Tuesday:

Still an arms up baby

MEAT I WANT MEAT

I dunno lady, the hat AND the rainbow might be too much

Wednesday:

She needed a friend to wait for the bus with her

My Tula accessories are ridiculously cute

Can you tell by his legs I wear him a lot?

Thursday:

Hopefully the LAST time I wake up to this until next winter

Lap Nap

NO YOU CAN’T COME BACK IN. GO PLAY IN THE SNOW.

Friday:

Caroline talked her baby friend into playing “Take pictures of me because I am so cute”

Sweaty baby head looks VERY GINGERY

Wine and a heating pad for my horrible sinus pain. Neither helped.

Saturday:

You can tell the weather is warming up because she moved from sleeping right next to the electric heater to the sunshine spot

Caroline wants to take off her coat (it was like, 34 degrees)

Birthday party crazy

I think I am allergic to March, because everything is still so frozen and snow-covered there’s no way this crazy sinus pain is related to actual allergies. There’s no pollen yet! Nothing is blooming! Why do my eyeballs feel like they’re going to burst out of my head?!

I gave in and took a Sudafed (the non-meth-making kind) and it helped a lot, but it also hurts my milk supply so I can’t make it a regular thing. Although I suppose I could just chug water and eat a ton of cookies and say the calories are “for the baby”. That sounds like it might help with the sinus pain too.

It’s March now, so why is it snowing?

Sunday:

Multi-tasking: Nursing and yoga

Baby’s first official dance party

Help-yourself candy bar totally blew their mind

Monday:

STOP THINKING ABOUT CRAWLING

First successful crib nap!!

Big version, little version

Tuesday:

She is not so sure about this side-swept bangs look

Old Man Lincoln demands you get the GOOD cheese, not the STORE BRAND cheese, you hear me young lady?

Luck o’the Davises

Wednesday:

I’m super thrilled about her new favorite game

Making sure he loves fish as much as I do

WHERE’S WALDO?

Thursday:

LOOK AT ALL THE STUFF I CAN PUT IN MY MOUTH

So over me

Evan obviously needs boots

Friday:

We are both bad at lipstick

Guilty face

Now that’s impressive baby wearing

Saturday:

No I will not stop taking pictures of his eyelashes

Go ahead and judge my dinner choices but also please judge these IDIOTS who don’t know how to PULL FORWARD in the line.

The, uh, face of a kid who ate three tacos

It’s snowing. Again. I haven’t heard a single plow, so I’m assuming we’ll have a delay in the morning if not a cancelation. If they can get the roads even the least bit clear I am dragging my children out to someplace public, like the aquarium or the seaport, so I can wear them out and escape my house. I am really, really tired of my house. I am having the urge to repaint and redecorate ever room again, which is expensive and also mostly impossible with three kids to keep track of. It’s more likely I will just throw out a LOT of stuff in the next couple weeks. Does anyone want 47 souvenir glasses from various restaurants and a huge pile of baby advice books?

I think 7 months is too many months. I don’t like it.

This morning I started looking at first birthday party ideas and then immediately had a minor breakdown and decided there was NO WAY I was letting Lincoln turn one anytime soon. I realize that’s not really up to me but since he’s still such a nice little baby-ish baby I’m going to just enjoy it while I can and not plan an elaborate party 5 months early.

For the record, Linc is (probably) not my last baby so I might be a little careless when it comes to truly enjoying every baby moment. But he is taking his time a lot more than Caroline did – even though he is fat and huge he still FEELS like a baby when it comes to the amount of care and cuddles and effort required. I don’t mind as much as I thought I would. It helps that nursing was easy peasy this time around. It also helps that he (mostly) sleeps well, so I’m only occassionally exhausted to the point where I feel like dying. So the “hold me all the time, don’t leave the room, carry me around” part isn’t the worst.

Plus also he’s adorable. I love his squishy little face SO MUCH.

I’m not kidding when I said he is fat – at this age Caroline was still in 3-6 month clothes while Linc is busting out of his 9 month stuff. I bought him an 18 month sweater last week because I was afraid he would outgrow the 12 month size before it warms up around here. I’m assuming once he’s really mobile he’ll burn through all the calories he’s been hoarding. At least I hope so, because he already eats every 90 minutes during the day, I can’t imagine him eating more often. Although he seems to be a fan of people food as well as nursies – pretty much anything I hand him he eats.

The big changes in the last month have revolved around sleep – he decided he wants to sleep on his stomach. That doesn’t work in the rock-n-play so we replaced it with the pack-n-play and he’s back to being a mostly good sleeper. He also has finally FINALLY started napping in his crib. I suppose I could have made that happen before if I had pushed it but with the big kids’ schedules it’s really hard to spend an hour fighting with him about it. Now that he’s ready it’s only a 10 minute process. So far. In a week he’ll probably decide he hates the crib and I’ll just throw the whole thing out.

So for RIGHT NOW, likes include white noise, belly sleeping, being warm, hats, nursies, cuddles, being worn, being carried, his sister, his brother, biting things, water, floating, dogs, cats, old people, riding in the cart, toys that make noise, people food, pulling hair, singing, and blowing raspberries on my boob while he’s supposed to be eating.

Dislikes include air blowing on his face, being tired, and this god damn 8th tooth that is taking forever to break through.

#sorrynotsorry for way too many pictures…

7 Month Milestones (Originally from BabyCenter, now from Caroline’s 7 month post – also, if you go look at Caroline’s post you’ll realize just how bald poor little Linc really is)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Sits without support – If he would JUST sit he’d be really good at it. But he thinks he can crawl which leads to a lot of face planting.
Drags objects toward herself – Yes, grabby baby is very grabby.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Lunges forward or starts crawling – Super close to crawling and monkey-scooting, but not mobile enough that I’ve started babyproofing yet.
Jabbers or combines syllables – He’s very talky, I just have no idea what he’s saying.
Starts to experience stranger anxiety – He gets mad when I leave the room but tried to leap into a nice lady’s arms at the grocery store. My children as a group have no stranger fears.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Waves goodbye – Uh, no. Not even close to waving.
Stands while holding onto something – Yes, but not reliably.
Bangs objects together – Yes Anything that helps make him louder is good.
Begins to understand object permanence – Is that when they understand peek a boo? Because he totally loves peek a boo.