Lincoln Update 18-21 Months

It's so hard to catch up when I get behind on Linc-o updates because he is growing and developing so fast! It seems like when Oliver was born Linc grew overnight!

18-19 MONTHS:
He has gotten really good at flipping through books with mom and finding the things I ask him to point to. I remember we were working with one book and he only knew one or two things and by the end of the week he knew almost everything in the book! Some of his new words were bowl, juice, door, no more, Oliver, Walmart, and rainbow. Lincoln is really good at sharing, yes that's right! He knows how to share and has no problem doing it. If you ask him to "share" with someone he will give whatever it is to that person. He is really good at sharing his treats, especially with the other kids in church.

Lincoln has started walking down the stairs like a big person, he never really wanted to turn and go down the stairs and has always wanted to walk down like us. With lots of practice  he got it down and now goes up and down just like a big person. I love having a good little helper around! Lincoln will find little pieces of trash and take them to the trash to throw away. He also continues to help sweep, mop, vacuum and clean...you have to train them young! Lincoln has had the cutest jump for the longest time where he will bend down and then pop up while lifting one leg high off the ground. Well the time has come and now Lincoln does super big jumps and gets both feet off of the ground! Lincoln has also learned how to maneuver his fire truck toy on his own and rides it all around the house. He loves his new brother and always wants to give him hugs and kisses. Lincoln also showed me a new trick where he can hold two of the ball pit balls in one hand. He is always amazing us with the new things he teaches himself.

20-21 MONTHS:
Life has been so crazy since Oliver was born.  Linc was 18 1/2 months when Linc was born and it seems like that is about when I stopped writing things down to help me with the Linc updates. Wow so now I have to go from memory and I know I'm going to be missing so many things! In the past couple months Lincoln has grown and developed so much! He is finally enjoying nursery and has no problem staying...it took about two months! He is also getting way better at being with others while we are gone. He loves to play with other kids and likes to hang out outside playing with the neighborhood kids.

 He is doing a lot of imitating these days, not only with his actions, but words as well! We are realizing we need to watch what we say and how we say...especially while driving! He says new words everyday and I'm always surprised because he seriously just says them out of nowhere. He is also getting really good at expressing himself and his needs. He tells you when he wants to get "down" and uses that one a lot! He sees dad and pats his own head to indicate he wants to see the scooter and the helmet. He always finds the "moon", loves playing with "keys", likes his "shoes" and "socks", makes the sounds for all the tools, says "choo choo" when he hears the zoo train, talks in a monster voice, knows what a fire truck says, loves to point out pictures of "mama", "dada", "ah-ver", and lincoln. He loves to say "ba-bye" and wave to lots of people and things (and I love how he leans forward a little when he does it). He knows all his stuffed animals names and can say them all! We always ask him which stuffed animal he wants to sleep with and he will answer us each time: Mr. Bear, Charlie, Big Ben are some of his favorites. Speaking of his stuffed animals...he LOVES them!! He always carries them around and even took Mr. Bear to his first dentist appointment. He cuddles with them and gives them hugs and kisses. He shares his drinks with them and all his food. I love when he walks around with them and holds them under his arm and how when we are getting ready to leave he will always go and grab one of them to take with in the car. Linc knows how to throw a frisbee and loves playing baseball, football and basketball. His newest favorite thing to say is "go go football" each time he sees anything football related or the Husker N.

He is so sweet and will come up and give me hugs or just want to lay and cuddle with me. He loves tickles on his face, head and back...probably because it is so relaxing! He loves to get his hair done and then look in the mirror and smiles. He is getting better at brushing his own teeth and instead of just sucking on the brush he is starting to actually brush. Oh and of course he says toothbrush. He continues to love to read and now when he looks at his go go bobo books he will actually say: go go go bobo. Oh and one time Linc brought me a book with the page open in one hand and in his other hand he had Mr. Bear...He was pointing to the bear in the book that was riding on the bus and then holding up Mr. Bear and showing me. At first I didn't realize what he was doing and then I realized that the bear looked just like Mr. Bear and Linc noticed the similarity. Linc has been into throwing the ball and hitting it himself with the bat. Lincoln still loves to be held and is so playful and happy. I love that now he knows when he wakes up in the morning he can call out for me and I will go get him. I also love how he dances and is getting more and more dance moves. Dave is showing him some and his newest is putting both hands up in the air and shaking his arms and head.

Some other things he does: jump spins, tackles his stuffed animals (especially his big frog), blows bubbles into his cup when he drinks, identifies the trash man as "yuck" and also says that when he sees me changing Oliver's diapers. He is also starting to ask to go to the bathroom, which he doesn't actually have to do, but wants to sit on the toilet. Another thing I enjoy is when I go to check on Linc because he is being too quiet and I see him sitting on the floor with all of his books flipping through the pages. Well I hope this was a good enough update...although I wish I could just record every little thing I see him do because I know there is so much that I am leaving out.

Oliver 2 Months

Time has been flying by! I have to admit I haven't really had the time to keep up with the blog or to record as many things as I did with Lincoln...Oh great, I'm one of those  moms!! I'm doing my best though and we are getting lots of pictures. Oliver had a very big second month! When he was 6 weeks old he had his first airplane flight, first trip away from dad and brother, first trip to the beach and first wedding where he got to where a baby tux! His personality really started to show around that same time and he has since become a very happy baby with lots of, as we say in our family, "big smiles".

He did really well on both plane rides and slept for both of them. On the way home we even had an hour and a half period where we were just stuck on the plane. Everyone commented on how adorable he was and how good he was. The flight attendant even took him around on the plane.

Oliver was blessed right before we went to California and we had lots of family in town. He enjoyed all of the cuddles and meeting lots of new people.

He is growing perfectly! I guess he takes after Lincoln.

Lincoln Update 22-26 Months

He has grown so fast! At around 22 months he was doing a lot with similarities: he would show me his word cards and then go and find the actual object. He just did this with his ball card...showed it to me and then held up the actual ball. He also did this with the keys card and then went to find his keys and brought those to show too. Lately Lincoln has really been using the word "mama" in reference to me and points to me a lot and will say mama. Now if I'm doing something else he will be sure to say "mama" and then talk to me to make sure I know he is talking to me. We were playing a CD and one of the songs was B-I-N-G-O and he came over to me and said "mama O", which is one of his favorite letters. He recognizes it everywhere! Another song also says stuff like touch your toes, stand up tall, march in place and he will repeat those the best he can, but it also says jumping jacks which he can say really well! I'm so happy that he picks words and phrases out and attempts to say them.

I guess a big thing that happened around 22 months was me going back to work part-time. Lincoln started going to a daycare called La Petite Academy. I researched many places and really liked this one. It has been great! At first he didn't like it because it was really the first time that he was without me for long periods, but after a few days he was just fine and now looks forward to school.

We moved to our new place mid-October and Linc not only graduated from his crib to his toddler bed, but he graduated to his own floor of the house! The basement floor is his domain. He has his bedroom (biggest in the house) and his play room. He likes it, but doesn't always want to play down there unless we are there with him. Linc really likes leap frog Amazing Alphabet and Numberland. He is quickly learning all of his letters and numbers 1-10. By the time he turned 2 he was able to identify about half of them and would spot them all over the city as we drove or in stores. Now he can tell you every single letter of the alphabet, numbers 1-10 and can count from 1-10 (for the most part)!

He has been really into cooking and loves the play kitchen. For Christmas Grandma and Grandpa Perez got him a little play grill and he loves it! he plays with it every day and is always cooking for us and shares all the food. Sometimes he even just carries the food around with him. When he is at places that have the play kitchens he always plays with the food and cookware.

Goodness I feel like there is so much to say about Lincoln, he has seriously grown so fast and so much! He continues to be a really good eater and loves chickens and dippings. He generally eats his vegetables first, but loves candy!

Some of his favorite things to watch: bananas in pajamas continue to be a favorite, winnie the pooh, spongebob, and his more recent favorite Cars!! He can watch that movie over and over and over and he can spot Lightning McQueen in any store. He also calls any red car Lightning McQueen.

Lincoln is very polite and will always say please and thank you/gracias. He is so polite that it is hard to say no. He always asks for things like "mama, more cars please", "dada more candy please". His language has definitely blossomed! He is really good at asking and telling. I ask him what he did at school and he will tell me a few things. One day I asked him what he did in nursery at church and he said sunbeams, I asked him if he sang the song and he said "yesh". I actually peeked in on them through the little peep hole and saw that they did sing sunbeams so I was very impressed. We love how he says no and purses out his lips.

He loves talking on the phone and has several of his own phones that he uses. The funny part is that when he talks on his phone he will pace back and forth like Dave does when he is talking on the phone. His favorite person to skype with is "Rah-Rah".

He loves to read...especially with dad! He has a set of 4 books that he reads right now before bed and he has them all memorized to the point where he and Dave read them together. He will ask for each of them by name and will be sad if he doesn't get all 4 and of course he gets them because there is nothing better than a child who loves to read! Goodnight Moon, Five Little Pumpkins (he does the voices like Dave), Go Go Bobo Opposites and Shapes. I have seen him at school sitting listening to books and when we read to him here at home he just loves it.

We went to Memphis for Christmas and Linc got to hang out with his cousins. They loved playing the Wii and dancing. Linc has loved dancing since he was a little guy and has learned many new moves as well as creates some of his own. I think his favorite parts about the trip were seeing the big house with the lights and music and hanging out with grandpa and exploring the woods with dad. For several weeks after we got back Linc would ask for Grandpa and the "agua luz", which were part of the big lights display.

Lincoln is a really good big brother. He loves to share with Oliver and now that Oliver sits and plays Linc always brings him toys. He does try to climb on him and sit on him sometimes, but luckily I'm never too far away! He is so lovable all the time. He will go up to Oliver and kiss him on the head or sometimes he will take out his pacifier, give him a kiss and then put his pacifier back in. When Oliver is in his jumper Linc is right there playing with him, sometimes sitting on the side of the jumper.

He always has his stuffed animal friends with him. At night they all sleep with him and he knows each of them by name. In the morning he will collect them all and make is way up the stairs holding 3 or 4 big stuffed animals. Since he has gotten into cars he now carries around a few little cars and trucks too!

He is very good at identifying and recall. Every time he sees the netflix logo he says bananas because he knows that's how we watch bananas in pajamas. He can also tell us who's phone is beeping and we can be playing and he will hear a phone and say mama phone or dada phone. He loves dadas phone because it has lots of home videos that he likes to watch over and over and over. Oh, which reminds me: Linc had a winter concert at his school and his class sang Jingle Bells, which he sang pretty well. At grandma's house over Christmas he would find little jingle things and sing his song and we even got it on dad's phone!! Some of the songs he now sings are: Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, follow the prophet, popcorn popping (with the hand moves), eensy weensy spider, wheels on the bus, once there was a snowman, I am a child of God, twinkle twinkle. He also directs music and moves his arm pretty similar to the music director. Oh and lets not forget the music on the radio: he loves his songs!! Gangnam Style is one of his favorites and he can watch that video for hours if we let him. He even calls the guy in yellow Uncle Jon. He likes to bob his head to the music and will sing pieces of some songs (Taylor swift Trouble he likes the e-e-e parts, another song that says eh-eh-ooh).

Linc loves to wear hats, especially dad's baseball caps. We got him one of his own that is a little big, but he looks so cute in it! I also got him a little table and chairs, which he loves to sit at. He has really gotten into coloring so he does a lot of coloring at his table.

Now that Oliver sits in the high chair Lincoln sits with us at the big table using his bumbo as a booster seat. I think he actually started wanting to sit at the big table before Oliver used the high chair. He has gotten really good at turning on the tv and dvd player and will sometimes disappear downstairs and then I will hear a movie on and realize that he got bored of being upstairs and went downstairs to watch a movie and play.

He likes to play outside and go to the park. He likes the slides and playing tag/hide and seek. He also likes playing at the mall play place and riding in the little car machines, especially the bus. He got to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for his birthday and he loved it!

He is a very big helper and loves helping with cleanup, sweeping, mopping, taking his diaper to the trash, or any trash to the trash, putting dishes in the sink, vacuuming.

He loves scooter rides with dad in our backyard and collecting sticks, rocks, and leaves. He likes stickers brushing his teeth, even more now that he has a lightning mcqueen toothbrush and spongebob toothpaste.

Some more things I want to remember:
-when we pull in to the church parking lot he says "church, yeah!"
-when we get home he always says "coat off, shoes off"
-he can identify supersaver, target, walmart, sams club and knows that area of town they are in. I think he knows the town better than Dave!
-He loves car carts and knows that super saver has a kid cookie for him whenever we go. 
-when we pull into our driveway he says, "mama, look, home...yeah!"
-when we are in the car he will say "mama ba-bye, kincon ba-bye, bah-ber ba-bye", when I ask where they are all going he says, "kincon school, bahber school, dadda school, mama works"

Oliver's 1st Month UPDATE

 Oliver has been adjusting really well! I realize that he really loves to be held and cuddled. He is super alert and has a very strong neck just like his brother Lincoln when he was his age.

 Lincoln had a picture similar to this one on the love sac with the star blanket so I had to get one of Oliver too! I even caught a smile in one of them!!

Oliver hangs out in his swing, usually on the table so crazy Linc won't get him! He doesn't mind his swing, but he prefers to be held for sure.

 Oliver's birth day gift took some time to get here. We got him a build a dinosaur, which is tradition in our family...well something from build-a-bear. Lincoln enjoyed opening it for him.

To celebrate Oliver's first week I did his first impression! I love his little hands and feet. He is the youngest I've done so far and they came out pretty good...I can't wait to finish it!

 Oliver is becoming quite the sleeper...not just during the day, but isn't waking up too much at night. I definitely appreciate that. It could be because he is in our bed and loves to sleep with mommy and daddy.

 Oliver had his first zoo trip already and slept through the whole thing! It's okay though because we documented it for him so he can remember what he saw...or didn't see.

 He wasn't as impressed with the bear as much his big brother was...maybe another time.

 My sweet little cuddly baby sleeps so comfy in my arms. I have been trying to spend time with both Oliver and Lincoln. Trying to find the balance between both has been a challenge that any mom of two has to learn, I wonder what it will be like with #3!

Oliver had his 2 week check-up and is gaining twice as much as expected...way to go! He was also born with tears, which doesn't normally happen. The consequence of that is plugged tear ducts. He had a really bad one in his right eye, but we got it all taken care of. He still has a little plug once in a while on his left, but nothing to worry about.

Linc loves playing with all of his old toys and sharing them with his new baby brother. Oliver smiles a lot in his sleep! It's one of my favorite things because I will be holding him and look over and there he is smiling.

 Oliver lost his umbilical cord pretty early, but had his first real bath around 3 weeks. He didn't really like it and cried almost the entire time...good thing Linc was near us to bring him his pacifier!

After his bath, he was so relaxed and just laid on the couch calmly. His hair fluffed out nicely once it dried.

We took another trip to the zoo for clown day...Oliver was awake for some of it, but on the walk home he fell asleep. I had to take a picture because of how he was sitting with his arm on his leg and his hand on his face...such a cutie!

 I can't believe how fast the first month went by! Oliver is really growing and he is growing fast! He has already gained about 4 pounds since birth (11 pounds 7 ounces) and has already grown half an inch (21.5 inches) People always think he is older that one month because of his size and I always get compliments on his awesome hair (faux hawk). Many people wonder if I actually style his hair and I tell them he styles it all on his own!

He had a wonderful first month of life and continues to enjoy and explore this world. I like the picture above because he is looking at Linc like "hey who is this little guy holding me".

Mini Mr. Fix It

 Linc loves the scooter! Each time we come home and the scooter is in the garage, it will be the first thing he goes to.

 He also loves helping Dave fix it and has become really good with tools. He finds screws on his toys or on anything and will point to it and then point to where he knows I keep a screwdriver upstairs. He is a smart little guy.

Dave and Linc take a break sometimes and head to the gardens. Linc loves looking at the fishes and running around of course.

Finshing: Dad and Linc

 Dave took Linc fishing the first week Oliver was home to give him some special dad time. They went fishing at a lake here in Lincoln.

 Dave said he had fun fishing for about a half an hour and then was over the whole fishing thing, but still wanted to play.

A half an hour was all they needed though because they caught like 3 fish in the first 15 minutes in the special cove that they found. Dave let Linc reel the fish in and Linc was really good at spinning the string to bring them in. Apparently, Linc enjoyed grabbing the worms and tried to put them in his mouth. He also enjoyed doing some cool spin moves on the beach and of course throwing rocks into the lake. They had a fun time for sure!

Oliver's First Days Home

The day we got home Linc took some time to get to know his new brother...he really took a liking to him and gave him plenty of kisses. He also missed his old car seat so he took some time to sit in it. It looks like he is screaming for someone to get Oliver off of him, but it's his big smiles!

The next few days were pretty good, but we had some rough moments with Linc and Oliver...let's just say Linc gave Oliver a few love taps. I never left them alone, but Linc has some quick hands and a once he made Oliver cry...he has such a sad face and it made me feel so bad! Things have been way better and Linc for the most part just gives him hugs and kisses (although sometimes he will want to try to pick him up on his own).

 Linc loves to hold Oliver so these are some pics of my 3 boys just hanging out. I love the way Oliver is looking up at daddy.

 Linc loves his little brother!

 Big kisses from big brother to little brother.

 Dave trying to get them situated.

Lincoln holding his little brother's hand while Oliver lets out a big yawn. Oliver enjoyed his first few days in the world and adjusted quickly to his new situation...as did Linc.