Oh Holy Night!

If we keep up the way we are with Lincoln, he'll be rotten to the core! This child is spoiled!

Santa brought his sword and his awesome Camelback water bottle. We got him a fun little laptop thing and some other miscellaneous toys and goodies. His cousins hooked him up with a big wheel and some blocks as well as a slew of other toys. He got a double Mr. Potato Head kit from Toy Story 3, a tent and a little Spongebob chair from Auntie... the list goes on...

If I didn't know better, I'd think he got more than he deserved. He has been a pretty good boy this year, though. He is also incredibly grateful for everything he has received. He kept telling me all day today, "Thank you for my toys, daddy." It doesn't get much sweeter than that.

I suppose I have to change the name of this blog in the coming months, as I won't be keeping separate chronicles of my children. I may even export this one to a new format and set up a new name as well. 

The new little peanut is giving mommy fits already. He or she is flip-flopping around like crazy at night, which causes Genevieve to get nauseous until she falls asleep. We got some new ultrasounds a couple of weeks ago and I will be adding a new album for those as well as a new Christmas album for this year. Both will be linked at the bottom of this post.

Other than the bit of illness, the pregnancy has been going quite well. Fetus is fine and everything measures properly. We are about 20 weeks in and the due date is May 8th, in case I didn't already update in an earlier post. I can never remember what I have or haven't written (I suppose that means I need to update more often).

Here are the new albums: Christmas 2011 and Ultrasounds

It's late and I'm exhausted from the past 3 days of Christmas, so I'm not posting any specific pictures tonight. Maybe next time! 

Happy Christmas or Holidays or whatever to everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful and happy holiday whether you spent it alone or with friends or family. We had a great one this year and the new year looks promising as well.

Christmas Time is Approaching

 Lincoln is very excited about Santa's arrival. He went to see Santa at the Lakeside mall again this year and he didn't even cry during the pictures! He did, however, forget to ask Santa for his toys and he was rather upset with himself for that. Luckily, we still have time to write Santa a letter and let him know what Link wants.

 This year, Lincoln wants "a sword and toys", which could pretty much mean anything...

 We had our friend Mike take a few family photos for this year Christmas cards and I will post them once we get the cards ordered. We got the Christmas tree up yesterday during the day and then last night before bedtime, he helped us decorate it. He loves that the tree is up with lights on it. He keeps walking around it saying, "Christmas tree is beautiful!"

 We are still getting through a bit of a cold with him though. We have a doctor's appointment this week, so hopefully we'll get him well again. We also have an ultrasound visit Tuesday and I just realized while writing that last statement, I never mentioned that we have a second child on the way now!

 We tried all summer for a second and we finally got it right! The appointment Tuesday would ordinarily be for finding out the sex of the baby, but we are keeping this one a surprise from even ourselves. It's not like Lincoln cares or even understands and we DEFINITELY aren't repainting the room. I think I like the excuse I've heard from many other people about not finding out: "Life has so few big surprises, why not give yourself one?"

 The next baby is due around the beginning of May 2012. Getting Lincoln into his room FINALLY is my top priority for home projects before the end of the year. And before you get all judgmental on me for not having it done already, remember that we are ambitious and without much home owning experience, so when the crazy design we chose to do on his walls became too much to handle, we had to make a plan B. I have one final coat of paint to put on the ceiling and then the design wall has a quick fix to be done and he can move in. We have a big boy bed and some brand new bedroom furniture that needs to be assembled and then his old dresser can move downstairs.

 Finally, Lincoln is growing like a weed. Over 30lbs already and standing just under 3 feet high. He is speaking 6 and 7 word sentences and from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed (and even sometimes in his sleep) he is talking about something. There is still a fair amount of gibberish in his vocabulary, but I would estimate he speaks actual English about 60% of the time now. He usually wakes up and says, "Daddy, I'm awake now! Daddy, wake up!" I get him out of his crib and he tells me, "Daddy, I brush my teeth?" We get brushed and then it's "Daddy, I wanna go downstairs." As soon as we get to the living room, one of two things comes out of his mouth. Either "I wanna eat. I want a bar." or "I wanna watch (time, oh, Power Rangers, Dinosaur Train, Veggie Tales...etc.)" So i spend the first hour of my day everyday playing servant to my son. "I want my juicy", "I want to eat pot pie", "I fight you all day". This is the life! I think my favorite is definitely "Daddy go to work? I want a kissy!" every time I put my coat on, even if I'm just going to the car to get something. He's definitely something else...

 Of course, I can't end the first post of the month without some new pictures. I added about 3 or 4 to the At Home With Lincoln album. These were in preparation for the Christmas card pictures that Mike took. I also added a few more that I found from Kally's wedding. Those are in the Kally's Wedding album. Enjoy!

From At home with Lincoln

Lincoln's First Suit

  My cousin Kally got married tonight. Is was one of the best weddings I've ever attended, aside from my own. The food was great, the venues were amazing and, of course, the ring bearer was the cutest!

From Kally's Wedding

  He upstaged the groomsmen with his vest, an article none of the others received... Then, he did a great job by walking down the aisle nice and slow, holding hands with the flower girls all the way. When I get my hands on some of the professional pictures I'll post them. 

  He did get a bit tired and crabby during dinner and of course we had to leave early due to Lincoln's bedtime. All in all he had a great time and so did we! Thanks to Kally for having us and for including Link!

Birthdays and Halloween and Fall

  So Lincoln turned 2 recently and he got all sorts of presents. Then Halloween came and he got all sorts of candy. October is a double win for him now that he is big enough to trick-or-treat on his own. He dressed as Finn the human from a cartoon called Adventure Time. Here is a picture for reference:

  It's about a post-apocalyptic world where Finn is the only human left and his talking magic dog friend Jake helps him fight monsters and an evil wizard called the ice king. They save princesses and just generally are totally ridiculous. It's one of those cartoons that has just enough funny innuendo that I love it as much as Link. So Gena made him this costume:

From Halloween Past and Present

  ...and he went trick-or-treating 3 nights in a row! Halloween was on a Monday this year, so Lincoln, mommy, grammy and pappy went to Romeo Saturday afternoon for some downtown tricks-or-treats. Then Sunday evening, our friend Malice's church had "trunk-or treating" where everyone parks in the church lot and sits on the trunks of their cars to give out candy. Finally, we took Lincoln to Roseville for real Halloween on Monday night. We walked about 3 blocks before he and his cousin got tired and wanted to quit.

  While it was fun to watch him walk around from house to house and say "thank you" to everyone so politely, we did have an issue for a couple of days after trying to get him to stop asking for candy every five minutes.
 
  Below are samples from 2 new Picasa albums. One is his second birthday album, which will expand as I get all the images sorted out. The other is a Halloween album. I'm dropping all Halloween images into this one in chronological order from now on. The newest ones will be at the top and the older ones will be lower.
 
  One final note, today Lincoln discovered the wonders of a pile of leaves and how much fun it can be to play in it. I recently raked our front yard (not that it did any good) and left the leaves piled until the city comes to collect them. We dropped Link in before going to get his hair cut and, although he was hesitant at first, he ended up loving it! Here is a picture. I also have a video to upload soon.

From At home with Lincoln

2nd Birthday

Halloween Past and Present

Again, I've been away too long

I suppose once a month is reasonable since things aren't changing nearly as quickly as they were. Lincoln has learned sentences like "Daddy, I want choco." And "Thank you for my toys." Although, they don't come out quite right all the time. He is very polite and usually says please and thank you when asking for something. He knows a lot more about the workings of the world around him these days too. Sometimes, as we are getting in the car to leave, he likes to play a game where I shut the car door and he yells "open the door!" to get me to come back in the back seat and tickle him.

His birthday was quite eventful. On Friday, he got a sweet kitchen set from Grammy and Pappy along with a few other small bath toys and food related items. He also got his wish for cake, as Gena treated him to the cupcake station that afternoon. He had been yelling "I want cake!" for a week leading up to Friday.

We held a small gathering of family to celebrate yesterday and Lincoln had a blast. He got a little frustrated when we made him move on after opening each present, but he got over it after he realized that every time he put one down, he got something new. Everyone was so great, he has too many gifts to play with all at once. We have been opening them slowly since last evening.

I posted some new pictures and I have a video to upload of him opening gifts. He has grown enough to actually be into it this year. The new album for the birthday pictures is here.

And here are a couple of the pictures:

From 2nd Birthday

From 2nd Birthday

I've been lazy again!

I should be attempting to update this thing at least every week or so and here I go not doing it for a month.

This weekend is the DIY fair in Ferndale. It's a huge festival that celebrates the artistic atmosphere in this city. There is a huge stage that blocks off Troy street and bands play all day long. There are a bunch of tents set up behind the stage area with local artists and craft makers. I love this festival. Every year it gets bigger and more wonderful. This year there are some new companies displaying products and ideas that are quite unique. There is this great new place going into Allen Park, just around the corner from us, that offers people the opportunity to learn how to use large equipment to produce their products. The place is called Tech Shop and the idea is that not everyone can afford a laser cutter, but for a monthly membership fee you can use theirs. It's a pretty awesome idea and what is even more awesome is that we know one of the guys behind the idea.

Lincoln loves these kinds of events because he is a people watcher like his parents. There are always interesting people to see at these things and this year is no exception. We may seem weird to some people, but there are definitely weirder people out there. Especially when ICP comes to town.

So Lincoln will be 2 next month. He is running around like a mad man all day long. He speaks in full 4 word sentences. He is really good at telling us what he wants. He goes to sleep on his own a large percentage of the time. It is definitely a great age for him. It's an even better age for us!

Since it's been getting a bit colder lately, we haven't been able to get as much play time outside. I do try to get Lincoln into the bike trailer and go for a ride as often as I'm able. We got him a couple of really cute sweaters from H&M so now he's the trendiest kid on the block. Our neighbors across the street moved out at the end of August leaving us with virtually no Lincoln aged children in our area. It's also a bummer because they were some of the best neighbors we have. I guess we are kind of on our own.

On a final note, I haven't been taking nearly as many pictures lately. We will be doing his 2 year pictures soon, and I have a few new ones as well as video to upload. I will add those to the blog in the next few days. I'm back to school again so I have a bit less time to get things done online. Keep an eye open for another post soon and throughout the winter I should have new pictures and posts to put up frequently.

Summer is waning...

While I have completed several of the infrastructure projects I set up for myself this summer, I still feel a bit unfulfilled about my progress this year. I guess I set some unrealistic goals for myself, but I thought I would have more summer to get things done. The garden hasn't produced nearly enough, the backyard is pretty much all weeds and only one of the two rain barrels I installed are actually functional.

I suppose I can take solace in the fact that we did do a lot of other fun things. We have been up to the cabin twice this summer which we only succeeded at doing once last year. We also made it to the zoo several times and we found out there is a really awesome pool near our house. Lincoln has had a pretty eventful summer. He has played with bubbles, squirt guns, dogs and cats and the sprinkler. He has been the park many times. He got to see the rhinoceros with his Aunt and ride a bike with mom and dad on many occasions. He even got to ride in a kayak and on a jet ski. That's one lucky kid if you ask me!

There are some new pictures of him with the kayaks up north as well as a few others from around the house in the album to the right. I haven't been updating as diligently as I ought to, and for that I apologize. I'll attempt to be better about it from now on.

Here is one from the album:

From At home with Lincoln

The peanut butter bandit!

A peanut butter bandit has committed an act of terror on our local park. I live in the SW part of Ferndale and we frequently take our 2 year old son to the little park behind Machpelah cemetery on St. Louis St. between Marshall and Fielding. Today, to our disappointment, someone (assumedly a child or young teenager) had decided to take a large jar of peanut butter and ruin our fun by spreading the gooey stuff all over 2 of the slides, all of the swings and on various other areas of the playground. It was most disappointing because Lincoln loves to slide.

We decided, after seeing the massacre, that it was too hot to play anyway and elected, instead, to go to Target to get a pool to lounge in. No such luck. Target, Meijer, and K-Mart had all sold out of inflatable children's pools. We ended up coming home disappointed and made fruit smoothies to ease our suffering.

More Videos

So I finally got some of his new words on video. This is just a sampling of all the things Link can say now.

Almost all the words I know in 2.5 minutes from Lucas Harrison-Zdenek on Vimeo.

I'm amazed everyday at how advanced he seems to be. It is normally said that boys take a lot longer to develop verbal skills than do girls. I think it has a bit to do with the fact that we read to Lincoln everyday and before bed every night. We also never use baby talk with him, so there is very little of the "baby" stuff in his lexicon. I'm not sure what part the sign language played, but he now uses both simultaneously.

A couple of quick sentences! from Lucas Harrison-Zdenek on Vimeo.

I suppose I should have realized this a long time ago, but I am only now coming to the conclusion that I sound a little arrogant about our parenting choices. I would guess that most parents think that what they are doing is the best thing for their child. And I have been known to say "He/She isn't our child dear. If he/she were, we would be doing things quite differently." I have always been a "to each his own" type of person, but when it comes to Lincoln I feel like we have made all of the best decisions for him. He is incredibly healthy and active. He is making wonderful progress intellectually. I hate feeling like I'm arrogant, but at the same time all the evidence supports my overconfidence. Whatever. I am just glad he is awesome, and that is something we can all agree on.

Just a quick update

I finished uploading a new video of Link last night and I wanted to share it. He doesn't say much here, just draws.

Drawing on the Sidewalk from Lucas Harrison-Zdenek on Vimeo.

I was so fascinated by his focus and concentration. He makes a few strokes, stops to think, and finishes. Then comes to tell me all about it. I am amazed by his maturity all the time, but this day was something special.

Also, today we took him to Metro Park. It was 97 degrees in Detroit and humid and just awful so we took him to cool off at the splash zone they have at the park. There is also a beach, but it is Lake St. Clair...not sure how clean they've gotten it yet. He had a great time. He ran around and got soaked and played with the other kids. It was pretty funny. I think we may take a trip up to my family's cabin next week after the holiday crowds have dropped off. It isn't his first visit to the cabin, but it is a place that is very important in my life and I want to make sure he gets plenty of time there as well.

Happy Fourth of July to everyone. Have fun and don't blow your faces off lighting fireworks!

Uh oh, I did it again!

I let way too much time pass since the last time I posted. This month has been a huge month for Link. He has been picking up words left and right. I can't even count how many he can say now. it has to be in the 40s at least.

Aunt Kara came home from the trail for a little while to go with Grandpa to Chelsea's wedding. She got back in town on the 20th and stayed the night with us. The next day we all went to the zoo. I love the zoo, but it is way better with my sister there. Here are a couple of pictures:

From At home with Lincoln

From At home with Lincoln

I also posted some new pictures of Link playing in his new pool. They are all in the At Home With Lincoln album.

I'm being told it is time to watch the episode of True Blood that we recently missed so I have to end this post now. Perhaps I will try again tomorrow at work!

I think it's safe to say that Summer is here

I hope I don't end up putting my foot in my mouth about that though.

Yesterday the kids were playing in the yard so nicely. Lincoln had his little giraffe-mobile and Ava was playing with some toys by the tent. I uploaded some new pictures to the At Home With Lincoln album. Here are just a couple:

From At home with Lincoln

From At home with Lincoln

I have some of the garden done now and we have been doing some landscaping in the front of the house. There is still a lot to do though, so hopefully this summer goes until mid September to give us enough time to get it all done.

Lincoln says all sorts of new things now. He has recently been all about "Poppa", my dad. We also hear him say "truck, boat, bobby-o, mommy, daddy, done, yesh, no, outside, Charlie, bite-you, Bri, shoes, sock" and a few others that sound kind of like words but aren't very clear. Almost everyday he says something new. I uploaded a video of some of the things he says earlier. I will re-link it here:

Say "Poo-Poo" from Lucas Harrison-Zdenek on Vimeo.

We think he may be getting ready to cut some new molars since he is getting close to 2 and he has been chewing on almost everything in the house lately. He is especially fond of chewing on his fingers and then rubbing his spit all over us.

Home again, home again

We got back into Detroit at 9:15pm last night. Upon getting home we found out that we had a small gas leak in the house which had gone unnoticed until now since the furnace has been running all winter and we shut it off for the week we were gone. We got it fixed; it was a minor thing that the contractors had screwed up when they did the work on the house. We also had crazy felines who had been confined to the basement while we were gone, so that was fun.

Of course Lincoln slept nearly the entire way back, which we hadn't planned for, and so we were up with him until about 1:30am. He slept in this morning and now we need to get him back into a Michigan schedule.

There are more new pictures going up in the California album tonight so check them out. It is mostly just the finish of the trip and some weird stuff we saw from the plane. The weird circles on the ground as we passed over Oklahoma are caused from the irrigation system they use. Apparently the sprinkler pivots from a point in the center of the field and moves around in a circle. Pretty crazy when you first see them, but once you get the explanation it is logical enough.

From California 05-2011

Beach Day!

We went to China Beach today for a beach day. We had a picnic lunch and watched the waves roll in and out. The beach had a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge. I updated the California album today so go check out the new pictures there.

Also, today is day 5 of 6. Tomorrow we are going back into San Francisco to check out some other stuff in the city. We wanted to do Alcatraz, but it costs $36 per person so that went right out.

After the beach, we went to a place called Twin Peaks. There is a really cool lookout where you can see the entire city. The picture of Lincoln below is from the lookout over San Francisco.

Tonight we ate at an awesome vegan soul food restaurant. It was amazing. We had so much good food and even Lincoln ate his fill of vegan mac and cheese. I took a couple of bad pictures of the food but I couldn't do it justice with the iphone.

From California 05-2011

Day three

This is the third full day of being in California and we may get some rain finally. The weather predictions here are all over the place so we have been expecting it to pour all weekend and we got a reasonable amount of sun.

We have been eating the most amazing vegan food everywhere we go. This area is kind of like the way Glasgow was, except in Glasgow the vegan restaurants served a lot of items that we normally wouldn't have eaten on an ordinary day. Here they veganize everything we love to eat! We went to a diner called Saturn which served breakfast all day, so Lincoln had amazing vegan pancakes at like 8pm. We had breakfast that morning at a diner near Jon and Lauren's apartment that served pulled "pork" bbq sandwiches and tofu scramble as well as some pretty good vegan milkshakes. Saturn also had vegan milkshakes, but they were way better.

We had Japanese last night, which was quite frustrating at first, but once I got my food ordered and eaten, it was amazing! We also got to meet Lauren's friends, Neel and Sam. We ate sushi and potstickers and udon noodle soup and seaweed salad. It was pretty awesome.

I'm going to try something new here and geotag the photos so that everyone can see where we are and where we have been. If you look to the right when viewing the image on Picasa's website, there will be a little map which will function as a link to a full google map where you can see where we are in relation to the rest of California and the world. Here is the album, as promised: California

There is a really cool feature about this tagging method through Picasa that lets you see all of the places we have tagged at once on the map. In the very bottom right corner, under the map, there is a link called "view album map". This brings up a google map with the images I have tagged and where they were taken. Check it out! Album Map

New video

This video is totally unrelated to our trip, but I finally got him on camera saying some of his words. Here you are...listen carefully for the "Poo-Poo"!

Untitled from Lucas Harrison-Zdenek on Vimeo.

Oakland, CA

We decided to take a vacation and go visit Lauren and Jon in California. We got on a plane in Detroit at about 7:30pm last night and we got here around 12:10am local time. There was a delay in Denver, which is where we caught a connecting flight, so our total trip was a little more than 7.5 hours. It's kind of difficult to say for sure how long we travelled because of all the time changes. I'm not equipped to do that kind of math!

We just walked over to a farmer's market, went shopping at a Whole Foods and ate breakfast at a little diner. Everything is definitely more convenient for vegans here since there are so many health oriented shops and restaurants. I haven't had the ability to take many pictures yet, obviously, but I will update the blog every day or two while we are here so that everything stays fresh in my mind.

I am putting some new pictures of the plane ride and the baby up. These will be located in the iPhone album like everything else I shoot with the iPhone.

From iPhone

When we are all done here, I will post a new album called California for all the non-cell phone pictures I take with the "good" camera.

Gardening

Lincoln helped me get the garden plot dug today. We also got started working on the flower beds in the front of the house. We spent some time just sitting in the front yard enjoying the sun and pulling dandelions out of the yard and I took a few pictures and video of him. Gena might be right when she says he is possibly an indigo child or even a new soul. He definitely shows a higher level of intelligence than we ever could have expected. The newest development is make-believe. Apparently he was sitting on the floor a couple of days ago playing with his plastic panda and tiger and they were roaring at and playing with each other. This tends to be something older children do, but he was doing it as if he always had.

Here are the pictures of him in the front yard.

From iPhone

Summer is nearly here!!

I couldn't be more excited if I tried! The vertical planter for the front porch is nearly finished. I planted the asparagus yesterday and I hope to get the rest of my garden ready this week or next. Dad should be bringing me his roto-tiller to borrow for the back yard and then I can get some grass seed down and we might have a new lawn by the end of the summer.

I've got loads of projects to work on this summer so hopefully I have time to get them all done.

Lincoln is having a blast so far this spring. He likes not having to wear a huge coat to go outside and going to the park is also very fun. We haven't made it back to the zoo lately but maybe we will go again next week.

I just put up some new pictures and I also have a new video uploading right now that I will post here. I got Link to put Gena's headphones on and dance a little on camera. He also got a fancy new tent from Ikea because they were $10 and I felt generous. He loves it and so do the cats. I have another video to post where the cat attacks him through the wall of the tent. I will put that one up later though.

Here is the video and check the top slideshow on the right for new pictures!

Lincoln Dancing from Lucas Harrison-Zdenek on Vimeo.

Boy am I in trouble!

I have really relaxed the use of this blog! How could I have let a whole month pass without updating? In my defense, I have been quite busy. We moved to a new office at my job so there has been a lot of turmoil involved with that. I have also been busy getting ready for the summer, cooking, cleaning and preparing for the hard work of growing a garden and keeping up with all the tasks that need to get accomplished before winter hits again. I have another blog running to chronicle the work on the house and the garden. Here is the link: The Vegan Urban Farmer

This is a year long updater as well to cover how well the gardening and self-sustaining lifestyle works out for us. I am very excited for what the coming months have in store for us. We have a lot of ideas and a lot of ambition to follow through.

Lincoln is nearly running now. We go to the park every day that is nice and he likes to swing and play in the sand. We tried to fly a dollar store kite the other day when it was really windy but the stupid thing kept buckling under the stress of the gusts. I found our good kite but we haven't had time to go to the park and try it out lately.

I posted a few new pictures in the iPhone album and I am posting a new video or two of Link. Check the new one of him on a swing against last Summer's. I think you will be quite surprised...

IMG 0399 from Lucas Harrison-Zdenek on Vimeo.

It's been a bit

...since I last posted. In that time, Lincoln has learned to say "no". This isn't as much of a bad thing as it is a funny thing. Since he only knows how to say "no" he says it in answer to every question we ask. "Lincoln, do you want some juice?" "No". "Lincoln, do you have to go potty?" "No". "Are you hungry?" "No" (and then he makes the sign for food). Even when he wants the thing I am asking about, he says no to my question. I will try to get some of this on video so you can see how convincingly he says it, making it seem as though he really doesn't want whatever it is I'm offering.

We gave him a haircut today. We decided to go with a mohawk since every kid should have one at some point. We were only able to shave the sides of his head before he got too wild to continue, but it still looks pretty good. Here is one picture from the new haircut album I've added to Picasa.

From haircut

That is about it for now. We made it to the zoo a little more than a week ago in hopes of seeing a polar bear being active, but all we got was both the arctic fox and polar bear taking naps. Maybe we will try again this week.

More playtime

I didn't end up working today so we came down to Ann Arbor for lunch and to walk around. We've been wanting to come down for a while now and today just happened to work perfectly.

One of the places Gena found to take Lincoln is in Saline, which is just outside of Ann Arbor. I think it took us about 10 minutes so get here from Ann Arbor. My Urban Toddler is where we are right now. I uploaded some new pictures to the iPhone album. When I get home I will reorganize them so the new ones are at the beginning. Link is having a fun time playing with other kids and toys that aren't his.

I better quit using my phone to update. I look like one of those bad parents from the cell phone commercials!


- Posted using my iPhone

How are you?

I recently looked back on this blog and read some of the first entries. I know everyone says "Cherish every moment because they go by too quickly." In our case, it seems as if they really have disappeared in the blink of an eye. For us, this last year was one battle after another. Between the birth and buying the house and moving several times, it isn't difficult to remember things based on where we were living at the time they happened. While we have been fortunate to have a roof over our heads the whole time, it wasn't exactly the ideal situation. While reading though, I realized that I had forgotten the wonderful time we had watching him change and grow. Since he turned one and the daily milestones are in the past, I forgot how awesome it was to wake up and see that he knew something different than the day before. I read about the first time we caught his little smile on camera and the first time he laughed. I looked back on the first Christmas after his birth and how tiny he was. The beast of a child that we call ours now holds very little resemblance to that tiny baby we brought home from the hospital. Even the posts I put up from the time we moved into the house are starkly different from the last week or so. There are very few parts of his infancy that I "miss" and I blame that mostly on sleep deprivation and pure exhaustion. I do remember when it was easy to pick him up and it was nice when he didn't move around a lot because we could actually get something done without him in one arm at all times.

I cannot say that I miss not sleeping. We have really fallen into a wonderful pattern lately where Link sleeps nearly all the way through the night. He goes to bed between 8 and 9 and doesn't get up until 3 or 4 and then usually goes back to sleep quickly and stays in dream land until 8. Occasionally I have to get up with him more often than this, but it has become the exception.

He is blabbering A LOT now. It is a little strange to watch him attempt to talk to me because he seems frustrated that I don't understand him. I wish there was a device I could strap around his throat like the dogs in the movie UP. Today he wanted me to know something about the box he was playing with and he even stuttered a little in his attempt to make a word. In the end he couldn't get it out and so he just kept going in his normal fashion and I was forced to nod and smile like I always do. Sometimes he stands at the baby gate separating the dining room from the kitchen and just talks and talks to me. The only "semi-words" he knows are "Da Da Da" and "Ma Ma Ma" which he commonly gets confused while talking to Gena or me. He has been getting better at "baby" and he says "Hi" but not in proper context.

I never understood how characters in movies and on television could understand a language but not speak it, but now I can grasp the concept a bit better. Lincoln doesn't have the anatomical ability to speak English yet, but he understands it pretty well. I can tell him to go get his cup and he immediately looks for it, finds it and brings it to me. If I ask him if he is hungry, he tells me "more" in sign language...which is his word for food, more, eat and drink. We tried teaching him others but "more" and "all done" are the only two he picked up. He knows when I say "bath" to go to the bathroom and yell at the tub. He also knows that when I say "Let's go to bed" or "It's time for bed" that he should go for the stairs and as soon as I open the door he begins his ascent. Pretty cool if you ask me.

One final non-Lincoln bit of news: My favorite band is coming to the Royal Oak Music Theatre in April. I bought our tickets the minute they went on presale so that I wouldn't have to worry about them selling out. A couple of weeks after I made this purchase, it was announced that there would be a contest for VIP tickets to the show and all you had to do was click a link on the band's site and put in your email address or something. So I entered with a couple of email addresses and I made Gena enter as well. We never win these things so I kind of forgot we even did it. A couple more weeks passed and one night Gena and I were putting the baby to bed and she went downstairs to wait for me to get him asleep and come back down when I was done. A few minutes after she closed the door to the stairs I heard the door fly open and footsteps coming up the stairs fast. Before I could even ask what was up, Gena jumped through the door yelling "We won!! We won!! Well, I mean I won!" She had received a voicemail telling her that she was the winner of 2 VIP tickets to the show and that she should call back by the next day to verify her information.
After she verified with the company, we looked at the rules page for the contest. As it turns out, there are only 9 cities participating in this VIP contest and Royal Oak is one of them. After reading a bit further I learn that not only did we have the good fortune of being one of the few cities on the tour to be able to get these tickets, but there will be only 1 pair of tickets per location. This means that among however many hundreds of people who probably entered this thing, Gena and I are the only 2 people who got VIP tickets and we get to hang out after the show to meet the band!! We NEVER win anything. We don't even share a prize with 100 others in the lottery and this time we were the ONLY winners. Pretty freakin' amazing if you ask me. Now the only worry is that Lincoln has a terrible night that night for some reason and we have to come home early or something.

Wish us luck...

New blog design

So by now I suppose anyone who reads this has realized that the blog layout and background have changed a bit. I guess I need to explain why this event has taken place.

For a majority of my adult life I have been a moving person. I have had something like 14 jobs in the past 8 years. I have moved 7 times in as many years. We finally have a permanent situation established in this house and with my job. So now I have to make little changes to affect my world and keep that moving part of me happy. I like to rearrange the furniture to make the room feel new, although that hasn't happened much since we moved in. I also like to change the appearance of the icons on my computer's desktop and of course I enjoy the changes that I have made to the blog. It is like starting fresh without having to pack and move. I like to make these changes frequently. I used to rearrange my bedroom every 3 or 4 months when I lived with my parents. It was a big job sometimes but that made it all the more satisfying.

Give it a try sometime. You may find yourself surprised by how you feel afterward.

Jungle Java

Gena has been looking at places to take Lincoln so that they don't have to be bored during the day while I'm at work. She found out that there are many play areas not too far from us that cater to people in our situation. The first one we tried is called Jungle Java. It's located in Farmington Hills near 12 mile and Middlebelt Rd. We have to play in the baby section so Lincoln didn't freak out right away. Now there are other kids over here so he is having a great time. He does love other children. There are new pictures in the iPhone album and on the linked slideshow at right--->



- Posted using my iPhone

NAIAS

Just a quick update for tonight. Went to the auto show with my dad and uncles. This is kind of a tradition for us every year and Lincoln got to join us this year.
I took some pictures which I will link right here when I get on the computer later. This is a new album that I can update directly from my phone. This means I can update immediately instead of waiting until I can get to a computer. Hooray for technology!! Right?

I am also going to link the iPhone album to the right under the slideshow so the updated pictures can be found more quickly...

- Posted using my iPhone

Planning a new blog...

Since this blog is supposed to Lincoln-centric, I don't feel like it is the proper outlet to express my opinions about my world. Therefore I intend on starting a new blog parallel to this one for the occasional rant about the things I like and dislike. Hopefully a few of you will also follow that one, but I don't blame you if you don't because my kid is definitely more cute to read about than my jaded view of life!

Lincoln is walking across the livingroom without falling now. It is almost as if he was practicing while we weren't looking just so he could impress us when he started. I put the rope to one of his pull-along toys in his hand today and taught him the simple joys of pulling something behind him as he walks. He loved it. The helicopter Aunt Pam got him makes noise and plays music when you pull it and he also has a little snail and a frog that do different things when they are pulled.

I'm going to take a minute to express our gratitude to everyone has helped us over the past 15 months. Anyone who bought us some clothes or a toy from the shower to the first Christmas to his birthday and even this most recent Christmas, we thank you all. Thanks to Sandy for handing down all of Brandon's clothes and shoes. Thanks to Janice for lending us her pre-fold diapers for the first 6 months of Link's life. We extend our gratitude to you all because without you we wouldn't have our house. We wouldn't have a lot of things that make life more comfortable. You all have made having a child far less expensive than it could have been. You all have made it possible for us to enjoy having a child so much more because we haven't had to worry about him having enough to wear or play with. Thank you all so much.

Apparently Lincoln locked the cat in the dry bar today and when Gena asked him "Who did this?" he clearly said "DADDY!!" and then laughed his pants off! Already telling fibs and he can barely speak...I'm not sure I like this.

Also, we got 7 hours of sleep last night. Lincoln went to bed around 8:45 after 45 minutes of trouble getting to sleep and didn't wake up until about 8 am...Almost 12 hours straight!!!!!!!!! I feel totally awesome and I'm sure Gena does too!

This child is SPOILED

We were walking through Meijer this evening, doing some grocery shopping when we arrived at the fish tanks in the pet department. I remember when Meijer had all sorts of pets like hamsters and gerbils and guinea pigs and I think the one in Flint even had birds. The Meijer on 13 mile in Madison Heights has one tall pillar of fish; nothing else. And it looks as if even that is going to disappear.

We normally take Lincoln over to the fish to look at them because he loves to point at the tanks and get excited. Tonight every tank had a sign reading "ALL FISH IN THIS TANK 50% OFF". Then we walked down the supply aisles and a bunch of tank kits were on clearance. We took this as a sign that Lincoln needed a fish tank of his own at home so we bought a tank kit and a heater and gravel and a thermometer and to go into the tank we grabbed the last 4 orange barb fish in one of the tanks and brought it all home. "These fish needed us" has been our motto for the past 3 hours while I set up the tank, heated the water up sufficiently and transferred the fish from the double clear bags into the fresher waters of our tank. They were all swimming together in a school at the store so we thought it best not to separate them. Better chance they will survive together than apart I guess.

So there you have it. We spoil our child...or is the fish tank really for us? I had a tank in my bedroom growing up. I hated having it so much that I refused to clean it and eventually you couldn't tell if the fish were still alive because the glass was green instead of clear. Gena had several fish go to toilet bowl heaven before figuring out that you need a bubbler to add oxygen to the tank, otherwise they die. Despite our overly negative experience with captive aquatic life, we chose to go through it again. We must be masochistic.

So without further adieu, meet John, Paul, George and Ringo:

From At home with Lincoln

From At home with Lincoln

Toothy McGee

So I am pretty sure Lincoln has all his teeth now. There are four molars which he will get around 2, but in the last week he has pushed out something like 8 teeth. Molars, incisors, eye teeth (or whatever they are called).

In other news, we have actually been sleeping a little. There was a night the week before Christmas that he actually slept for 10 hours straight, but we are happy to get nights like last night. He went to bed around 8, woke up once at 2am and then was up for the day around 8am. Pretty awesome to go to bed at 1, wake up once and then wake up again and realize you just slept 5 hours straight. Those of you who get 8-9 hours a night would never understand the glory of getting sleep for the first time in nearly 15 months.

That's all.

The Boy Walks

After many weeks of standing in place and taking one step and falling, Lincoln finally walked today! Gena was in the kitchen so she missed the first steps, but he walked some more right afterward and we caught it on video. I am adding the video below for everyone who reads this.

Needless to say, Gena and I are very proud and excited. He is still a bit tentative about each step, but notice that he turns around and walks back to her...he has been ready for this for awhile.

He's Alive!!! from Lucas Harrison-Zdenek on Vimeo.

Holy Holidays!

So all the big holidays have passed and I kinda got too wrapped up in life to update and now it's the new year and I realize that I should be keeping up on this blog a little bit more often than I have.

I'm not saying it's a resolution or anything, because then if I fail I'll have to add it to the list of failed resolutions. Let's just say I feel like starting a new habit.

So here's what you missed while I was away:

Lincoln had a great Christmas. He got everything he asked for and more and we barely had to get him anything since our family is so generous. I won't list it all, but there was a lot, let me tell you. Luckily one of his favorites is one that Gena and I got him and it doesn't take batteries or make any large amount of noise.

For Christmas this year my favorite gift was probably a Wii Star Wars game that Gena got me, but we also got some gift cards to Home Depot which have been incredibly helpful around the house. I got her some more books and new brakes for her skates.

For the New Year, we decided to have a quiet evening at home and since Lincoln wasn't interested in sleeping, he nearly got the watch the ball drop with us. He finally fell asleep around 11:15 and I may have nodded off while putting him down so I came downstairs with about 15 minutes to spare.

We have been working on getting some things done around the house. The baby's room is nearly complete and we are looking at doing some work in our bathroom upstairs. We have been talking about tearing up the carpet the company put down in favor of the old hardwood floors beneath, but we have to see what condition they are in before we make that move since we don't have the time of money to do a full re-finish of the enormous amounts of wood floor in the house. Looking back at the pictures we took on our first walk through I realize that every room in this house except the bathrooms and kitchen are wood. It will all be beautiful one day, but for now it might end up being uglier than the cheap carpet that was installed.

I will close by saying I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and I hope you all have a happy and healthy new year. It's a fresh new start and we have another 365 to make a difference in our own lives as well as those around us. I will put up new Christmas pictures soon so keep watching.