Dear Lincoln,

Hello handsome! :)

So you've picked up a funny word. You say uh-oh. It's adorable! Last night we were putting the older kids to sleep. Well you crawled into Olivia's room and were being very distracting. You Dad called me to come and get you. As soon as I rounded the corner and you saw me you very clearly let out a big, "uh oh!" It was adorable! We all laughed hysterically including you!

You had a rough night last night and tonight doesn't seem to be looking good either. I don't know if your teething or constipated or what but you are up crying in your crib right now even though you were asleep for 30 minutes tops. :( You also fought your afternoon nap! I don't know what's going on but I hope it ends soon. I went to bed last night at 10:30 because I was so tired then you had me up all night you little stinker! ;)

I love you so much! Tonight I pulled out a pair of 12 month sleeper pjs and thought they would be huge on you. To my great surprise they fit you pretty perfectly! Maybe you got a growth spurt! I sure think you look bigger!

I hope you fall asleep soon and sleep all night!

Love,
Mom

Dear Lincoln,

While we were in the hospital I signed up for surveys to come every month about your development. It's super easy to do. I just fill out a bunch of yes and no questions about what you can do and can't do then I send it off. Well to be honest, the past couple months I have been cursing myself for signing up. I don't send out my mail and it's a pain to get stamps and go to the post officer. Really I was probably just being lazy! ;) I thought it was useless anyways because my baby is perfect! (You really are!)

Well then I got the phone call. The phone call from this mysterious place I had been sending these surveys to. They told me you were behind. That you couldn't crawl on all fours or pull yourself up to standing and you couldn't put yourself in a sitting position. They were concerned. Now I'm normally a pretty relaxed mom but they made me paranoid. What if something was wrong! They said if you hadn't accomplished these things by 11 months, we would have to bring you in for an evaluation! Now, I was nervous! Well, you must have known you were on a time crunch, because not even a week after the dreaded phone call, you can do both of those things! I am so proud of you! You crawl all over the place now and get into lots of trouble! ;) Yesterday you pulled yourself up to standing and I was so proud! Last night as I laid you down for bed I hadn't even left the room and you were already standing. This was a problem since we hadn't lowered your crib yet. I didn't see the reason why to why you couldn't stand up or crawl out. So 9 o'clock last night we lowered your crib! And this morning when I went in to get you, you were standing! :)

I can't even tell you how happy I am that you are doing these things! I thought you were never ever going to! ;)

I love you my growing boy!

Love,
Mom

Dear Lincoln,

You've been getting semi close to crawling lately. Pretty much every time I've been putting you on the floor I put you straight on your tummy. I'm a horrible Mom when it comes to tummy time. I don't put my babies on their tummies super often. But I think this is probably why you don't crawl yet. So I've been doing better and I've been seeing improvements. :) Well Monday Dad and I sat on the floor with you, teasingly putting toys just out of reach, hoping you would crawl. You got pretty dang close! Dad said, "I bet he does it before I go back to work!" This was Monday the 18th. Come today we knew it was crunch time! Lucky for us, you did crawl! It wasn't like a classic army crawl, it was a very awkward full body roll kind of thing. But you moved forward! Daddy had the idea to tempt you into crawling with food. So you crawled to string cheese! I was so proud! We got a second crawl on video but you were pretty done at that point! :)

You are such a sweet baby! You are just so content and happy all the time! I love you so much! I am so glad you crawled while Daddy was home! He didn't want to miss it!

Love,
Mom

Dear Lincoln,

You have a new skill, you can clap your hands. You clap all the time. I actually taught you to clap! Every month we get these survey things I signed up for when we first had you. They measure your development to make sure you don't get behind. Well when I got your 7 month one, it mentioned you should be clapping. So I practiced with you for a minute and now you clap all the time! It's so stinking adorable! I love watching you clap with your big grin on your face! It melts my heart every time!

You are such a good baby my boy! I mean, you are just so sweet and amazing! Today we went out to Steinaker lake and you just sat in the sand playing with toys for an hour or so! You were just so sweet sitting there watching us play, laughing at us! And of course, clapping your hands! ;) We also put your feet in the water and you loved it! :) You giggled and smiled the whole time!

You are so handsome and adorable and I just love you Lincoln! You truly are so perfect!

Love,
Mom

Dear Lincoln,

I don't know if you know this but you are 7 months old! I can hardly believe you are just 5 short months from being a whole year! It's going to fly by for sure!

You are so dang adorable my son! You talk all the time. I mean all the time! Unless you are sleeping, you are always  making some sort of cooing noise or growling noise. You also have started giggling and smiling all the time! I stinking love it!

Just this past week you have started to experience stranger danger. Before you usually preferred me but it wasn't a full on cry fit if someone else held you. Now, if anyone but your Dad and I hold you, you have a melt down. There are tears and screaming and leaning towards us. It's not super convenient but to be honest, I sort of love it! I have never had a child really prefer me so this is pretty much amazing! Your Dad got his first hair cut since November and you didn't recognize him for a couple hours. Any time he held you or looked at you, you would cry! It was hilarious and sad. Your Daddy worked very hard to get you to realize who he was!

Dad has started to call you Binkers. I really hate it! I hope it doesn't stick! It all started because Olivia calls you Bincoln. Lincoln with a b. It's not that she can't say Lincoln, because she can. I guess in her mind she has Bently and Bincoln. So  now Olivia and Bently call you Binocln and Dad calls you Binkers. I still call you Lincoln. It's such an adorable name and I LOVE it. It's quite disappointing to be the only one calling you that! ;) Your name is the first one that I have had no name regret with! I really love your name! I hope you like it too!

I love you handsome boy! You sure are adorable and keep me smiling!

Love,
Mom

Dear Lincoln,

Sleep has been a battle lately. You started not liking nap time. You will fight it till the bitter end. But if you don't get a nap than you are cranky as heck. You also don't sleep as well at night time if you don't take a nap. Then, you still wake up multiple times a night. I mean are up 3 or 4 times a night. Sometimes more. It's been very very hard. Especially because I'm supposidly doing everything right. Whenever I look up articles on how to get you to sleep through the night I'm already doing everything they suggest. You are comfortable, you have a routine, you sleep with white noise, I make sure you eat enough before bed. Nothing is working. I've thought lots about letting you cry it out, but that just seems awful! I did it with Bently and Olivia but for some reason I just can't do it to you. Thought that might be all I have left! I've tried everything else! I hope that I don't ruin you some how by letting you cry! I love you with all my hear!

Love,
Mom

Dear Lincoln,

You had your 6 month doctor appointment recently. I really thought you were getting so big. I was sure you were going to be at least in the 50th percentile. Well you aren't. You're actually pretty far from it! You are in the 5th percentile for your height and 35th for length. Your head came in the 75th percentile. I have one big headed baby! I really hope you aren't super short. Thought there are worse things than being short! I also mentioned to the doctor that you don't roll yet. You can roll from your tummy to back, but you have only done it a couple times. You have never gone back to front. The doctor said it was fine but then made me nervous by saying we will watch it and reevaluate next appointment. So start rolling so I don't worry too much! :)

That said, you sit up like a pro. Seriously, I am always impressed when I see you sitting there steady as a rock! You hardly ever fall over anymore. Unless your siblings pull you over, which they do quite often. :) You love to be up and looking around. I think that's why you skipped rolling and went straight to sitting up. You just like to be able to look at everything! :)

I think you learned how to frown today. All day today we caught you randomly frowning. It was pretty hilarious! I don't know how long it will last but I really love watching you frown all the time!

I love you handsome. You are awake crying again. You have had a rough couple days since your shots. You are acting pretty miserable. Not sleeping and crying all the time. It's been rough but I'm sure it's been rougher for you! Feel better baby!

Love,
Mom