Santa Claus is Coming

...to Spokane, but one of his elves has been hard at work building toys here in Ithaca.

Lincoln is always playing with the straps on Jonathan's backpack (which is totally not sanitary) and he always puts the belt on his high chair in his mouth. The kid loves nylon webbing! So, for Christmas, we decided he needs some (much more sanitary) webbing of his own.

Originally I planned to make some sort of land animal and use the webbing as the tail (Jonathan really wanted me to make a jaguar) but, after much debate, we decided on a squid (for the optimal webbing -sucking opportunities offered by its tentacles.) This is what I came up with...


Overall, I'm pretty pleased. I think it's identifiable as a squid, which was my primary goal. There are no patterns for toy squids on the internet (go figure) so I sort of made it up as I went along, although I did reference a rocket ship tutorial, which was helpful. The more I look at it the more I see its (many) imperfections, but as long as Lincoln likes it, I'll be happy.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving at the Beach

Well, we made it back from our trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We had some rain, but overall the weather wasn't too bad. The house we were staying in was SO close to the beach we could run down there anytime we wanted (unless Lincoln was taking a nap...)

We visited Roanoke Island, the site of the first English colony in the New World. It disappeared, so there wasn't too much to see or photograph. There are, however, a bunch of beautiful lighthouses along the Outer Banks that are very photogenic. Here's the Bodie Island Lighthouse:


The beach was the number one attraction, though. Jonathan loves playing in the ocean. I think he would have done that all day, everyday if he could have.

I even got in the water a couple of times. This was a huge accomplishment for me because I am terrified of the ocean.

Thanksgiving Day was our best day, weather-wise, so the three of us headed down to the beach. Lincoln was covered in sand by the time we left, but I think he liked it.

Other highlights of the trip include: Delicious NC Barbecue, Lincoln learning to say "Mama (mamamama)" (he never says it just twice,) numerous people comparing Jonathan to Lancelot (because of the get-up pictured above,) and learning to play the bean game.

This Week From the Craft Department

I decided a while ago I wanted to make Lincoln's Christmas stocking. My big plan is to keep the pattern and use it for our future kids, so all of their stockings will be the same, but be made of different fabrics (does that make sense?) This stocking is by no means perfect (I am still a very amateur seamstress...), but I am pretty pleased with it.


Also, I've become trapped in blogland more and more frequently as of late... There are so many great craft blogs, and decorating blogs, and cooking blogs, and... I could go on for a while. I somehow (don't ask me how) stumbled onto this blog and this awesome tutorial. I thought to myself, "I have a crappy book, a glue gun, and a dollar... I can do that!" And I did. I love my new wreath, but it is very difficult to photograph. :)


I have found MANY other crafty tutorials I want to try... naptime is too short...

So I meant to write this post a while ago and it was originally just going to be devoted to crafts, but when I stuck my memory card in my computer I couldn't believe all the cute picture of Lincoln on there... okay I could believe it (he's so handsome :) so I thought I should post some of them.

Here's Lincoln few weeks ago playing with his friend Norah (she thinks he handsome too :)


They are so cute together...


We got a new shipment of diapers from Diapers.com (I love that site!) and Lincoln played in the box for a little bit, like all children should.


He put this blanket on his own head and then stayed like that for a while (I guess he liked it.)


And here he is, just looking cute during his nap, with his elephant, Charles.

Happy Halloween!

We finally carved our pumpkins today. Lincoln got to check them out a bit first, though.

He's not dressed because I wanted to let him play with the pumpkin guts, but he wasn't too interested once the pumpkins were open.

Jonathan was inspired by Kristopher and decided to try his hand at sculpting the pumpkin. I didn't cheat like I did last year, but probably will again in the future.

Remember what I said about the cute monster? Here he is...

Visiting Baby Asher

Lincoln and I just returned from a visit to Richmond to see my new nephew, Asher. Lincoln loved getting to play with his cousins and so did I.

My mom was still there when Lincoln and I arrived, so it was good getting to see her too. We took the kids to a near-by playground and Lincoln got to ride on a swing by himself for the first time. He loved it.

The trees at this park were so beautiful! We took some pictures under them before we all took a turn on the teeter-totter.

It turns out Aidan and Ava (especially Ava) really like to cook. Aidan helped me a lot making pizza one night, the three of us made cookies the next day, and Ava and I made a cheesecake (she really liked crushing the Oreos with a rolling pin to make the crust...)

Cutting out Halloween sugar cookies...

The finished product.

Lincoln turned 8 months old while we were in Richmond. I can't believe he's going to be a year old in four short months!

And he always likes to make meal time easy for his mama. Lincoln? Make a mess? Never.

And here he is. The whole reason for our visit. Little baby Asher. He is so sweet and little. He has a really sweet little personality and he is so stinking cute!

Here are the 2009 babies side-by-side. Lincoln looks like a giant.

This video is not from our trip to Richmond, but had to be shared because it is just so cute. I'm not tickling Lincoln or anything, just making a clicking noise with my mouth.

Stayed tuned tomorrow for the cutest little monster you will ever see.

Happy Fall!

Apple Picking

The three of us went to pick some apples today at a U-Pick farm. We accidently picked 11 pounds of apples (they add up quickly...) so we're going to be having a lot of apple crisp, apple pie, apple sauce.... anyone have some good recipes?

Mr. Smarty Pants

We've been working on teaching Lincoln a few baby signs and today he signed back to us! We thought he might have signed a couple other times, but it was sort of questionable. There was no question today. He was signing "nurse" while he was nursing (that's why there's just a video of his hand.) I am so proud of him!



And here's a cute picture of him after he finished. You can finally see his two little teeth in a regular picture!


And he got his first toothbrush, so he "brushed" his teeth before he went to bed tonight. He likes anything he can stick in his mouth, so the toothbrush was a big hit!

Bah, bah, bah

Lincoln has learned to make a new sound and it's so cute!



And we're not really sure how this could be comfortable, but he keeps doing it....

Stupid Sears

Jonathan was right. It pains me to admit this. Today Lincoln and I went to Sears and I am incredibly disappointed. My baby is so smiley! He was in such a good mood and he was smiling a ton! Are there pictures of him smiling? No. Are there pictures of him on a raggedy old blanket? But of course. It wasn't worth it. I'm not going back. And I may call and complain. As my dad would say, hurumph.

I'm No Jeremiah

As we know, Lincoln is now 6 months old. Reaching the 6 month mark is traditionally a milestone that deserves professional pictures, at least in my mind. Jonathan, however, has different ideas (when does Jonathan not have different ideas?) So for the last... 6 months, or so we've been debating whether or not we should get Lincoln's pictures professionally taken this month (and by professionally I mean Walmart, or Sears or something, nothing too fancy.) Jonathan thinks the pictures we take with our point and shoot camera are just as good, nay better, than the pictures taken at a store. I think there is something to be said for a white sheet background and a few little props.

We came to a compromise. I would try to take some pictures of Lincoln with our friends' fancier camera and if they didn't turn out we would go to a store. Taking these pictures was much harder than it looks. The main problem being, if I smile at Lincoln, he generally smiles back, but he can't see me if I'm behind the camera. Also, he wasn't in the best of moods during our photo shoot, so smiles were hard to come by. Here are some of my pictures.

I loved the look of him laying in the grass... I just couldn't get a smile :(. I think we're headed to Walmart tomorrow.