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

Dear Lincoln,

I am so sorry! I have been awful about writing letters. Between blogging on the family blog and making videos, I feel like I just don't have any desire to write letters! I hope you never think it's because I don't love you enough! I can't even describe how much I adore having you in our family! :)

I want to write you about your blessing! We blessed you February 21st and were able to do the blessing in Davis County! That was so fun because we were able to have almost all of our friends and family there! :) That being said, it was also extremely stressful! Bentrly threw up the day before we left, but he seemed okay on the actual day we were leaving, so off we went. The night before we blessed you Bently woke up in the middle of the night screaming that his throat hurt. Needless to say the next morning we were all exhausted. Especially you! You did not want to sleep outside of your crib! You resisted napping our whole trip! So you were very very cranky!

The night arrived and Bently was miserably sick. And you sweet baby were miserably tired and cranky! I was standing in the back holding you so you wouldn't cry. It was time for the blessing, the whole room was super quiet. That's when you decided to projectile vomit all over the table behind me. It was pretty funny! The table made it much louder and every body heard it and had a good chuckle!

Then it was time for you to be blessed. I handed you off to your Dad and sat down to listen. Of course I cried quite a bit through your blessing! It was beautiful!

A few thins you were blessed with:
To be athletic
To be a leader and have other look to you and follow your example.
Lincoln you're being watched over by many special spirits and your Uncle Jonathan is watching over you.
Blessed to take a princess to the temple and to lead your family in righteousness.
Blessed to be healthy and strong.

You screamed through the whole blessing. I mean screamed. The  minute it was over and everyone took their hands away you immediately stopped screaming. It was actually pretty funny how immediate it was. Like a light switch turned off. :-)

After that you got passed around a lot and even caught a few naps! It was such a special day and I was so grateful, once again, to have you as my son! My beautiful little boy. Words could not describe how much I love you!

On a totally different note, you slept in your bed the whole night last night! Now you usually start in your bed, but end up in my bed for at least half of the night. Well last night you went into your crib at 9 and didn't wake up till 4:30! :) It was incredible! I can't remember the last time I went had that much uninterrupted sleep! Then I fed you and actually stayed awake to put you back in your bed! So basically, you slept all night in your own bed! It was amazing! You are such a wonderful baby and I am so grateful to have you handsome boy!

Tomorrow your 6 months old and I can hardly believe it! But I'll talk more about that tomorrow! ;)

Love,
Mom

Dear Lincoln,

You son are getting so dang big! I can hardly believe you are that same 7 lbs baby I had just 4 short months ago! The first year of life is so crazy because you change so much! Every single day I swear you seem older and bigger! :) You can now hold things in your hands! It's crazy that you can grab onto something and play with it. Aka stick it in your mouth! I feel bad because I'm always forgetting you have this ability. I'm constantly not bringing toys for you to church and other places. I forget that my baby is old now and gets bored just sitting there.

Let me tell you son, you always make church an adventure. I spend a LOT of time in the mothers room and in the hall. Especially last week, you were just not a happy camper! And before church you had a huge poo blow out! It was so disgusting and stinky. I don't remember my other kids having stinky poos but you do. They smell awful!

I love you so much handsome! I can't believe you are just a month and a half away from being half a year! It doesn't seem like you've been here 4 months already! I hope you know I love you so much! I love that you smile so much for me! It always brightens up my day!

Love,
Mom

p.s. You will get blessed this upcoming Sunday and I can hardly wait! :)

Dear Lincoln,

Fussy baby is back. You went through a stage of being an easy baby, but you are not that child anymore. Now don't take me the wrong way, you aren't the most horrible baby. In fact if you were my first you might even seem easy. But with having two other children, it makes everything seem harder. That said, tonight you weren't fussy. Even though you had barley napped and should've been cranky, you weren't. You were extraordinarily happy! Your Dad and I just relished in the moment. We ignored the show we were watching to watch you. Watch you smile and talk like you always do. You talk all the time. Your Dad always tells me he loves listening to your stories! We even got a couple giggles out of you! :) You smile makes my day little man! :)

The other day I got out my tripod with a goal. I was going to get a picture of you and I together that I loved! I didn't think it happened. I was absolutely frustrated. But then as I was editing I found one! The perfect picture of you and I. I love it so much! In face there were a couple that I love. I love them not because they're perfect. But because they're us. You and me. Our relationship in pictures. I can't even tell you how incredibly lucky I am to have you as a son. I love you so much sometimes I worry my heart will explode!

Love,
Mom

Dear Lincoln,

I can't believe it's 2016! That's right today is New Years Day! This year is going to be a big one for you especially. You'll learn to walk, talk, roll over, crawl, and walk! Oh and eat solid foods! Man alive you are going to be quite productive this year! ;) I can't wait to spend 2016 with you and watch as you grow into a big 1 year old!

I love you my precious son!

Love,
Mom

p.s. I took your 3 month pictures today and boy was it rough. I was almost in tears at one point. I hope we got at least a few good ones!