Standing up!

Out of the blue, Lincoln has decided he likes to be on his feet!

He pulled up on the ottoman last night and I managed to get some super-fun photos:

"Aaaah! I'm on my feet!":

"Hey, where'd the newspaper go? More, please?":


Since George took the newspaper away, Lincoln went for his nose instead.
Honk!:

This really is random. I about fell over when I found Lincoln standing in the crib, crying, at 6:15 AM. He was stranded and, I think, confused about how he stood up in the first place! It was a surprise because, before yesterday, he had only pulled or pushed up on his own a few times--usually he needs our help.

He still doesn't walk very much when we hold his hands and try to get him to take steps. He mostly just falls toward us with his torso and head while his feet remain planted and looks at us like "What the heck?" I'm betting he'll start getting into it, though!

Really, though, I'm not that worried about him not wanting to walk. We can put off that day for a long while! I'm not ready for it for two reasons: one, when Lincoln is walking, he won't seem like my little baby anymore :( ; and two, I'm not ready for the whirlwind of climbing & getting into everything that I know he will be!

Meeting Uncle Chris & Aunt Katie

My big brother Chris & sister-in-law Katie came into town this weekend & met Lincoln for the first time.

Katie, Lincoln, Chris:

We had a good time! We celebrated Dad's birthday on Saturday (it's today; he's 63. Happy Birthday, Dad!) by eating at TGIFriday's and then eating chocolate pie at Dad and Mom's. Yum!

All of the "kids" pose for a picture:

George, Lincoln, me, Zack, Chris, Katie

Katie, Dad, Chris, Mom:

There was so much sibling love in the air! Just look at Chris and Zack:

You can tell they miss each other so much, can't you?

Dad opened a few of his gifts Saturday night and will open the rest today: double gift days! Lincoln got him a tie, slippers and some chocolates. Mom got him a cool soundbox (for lack of a better word) that includes a CD player, cassette player, and most importantly, a turntable:

We spent the rest of the evening going through Dad & Mom's record collection & jamming out to the sound of vinyl. They have a ton of records!!

All in all, it was a good visit, and Lincoln did great with all the fun. See you next year, Katie & Chris!

Griswold Family Halloween

Meet our little Lincoln Tiger!

As always now, it is difficult to get a good photo because little man won't sit still.

In this case, it was helpful, because I got an action shot

(albeit from far away):

Lincoln tiger on the prowl!

Here's the story of Lincoln's costume:

We have no money, so when I found the costume on eBay for $6.74 (including shipping!), I was thrilled.

The costume was marked 0-12 months, so it should have been perfect.

Except that it wasn't.

The hood was too big and everything else was too small.

We had to scrinch up his arms to get them in (which he hated), I could hardly get the leg snaps snapped, and there's no way the crotch snaps would close. No. Way!

And after we finally got him in, the elastic around the legs was so tight that I couldn't get a finger between it and his leg--so I unsnapped those, too. So Linc was mostly just in the costume from the waist up. And the hood kept falling down over his eyes, driving him crazy!

Lesson learned: Never buy costumes on eBay, or if you do, try them on your child before the big day.

Anyway, we finally got Lincoln transformed into a tiger, and we set off.

We went to John and Kristy's to say hi (thanks for the puffs & pirate duck!), and then we went to Trunk or Treat at church to say hi to Grandpa and Grandma. Thanks for the book, puffs and goodies, Gpa and ma!

Lincoln was a bit overwhelmed with everything and couldn't really figure out what was going on, but loved looking at all the people and kids dressed in crazy costumes.

We got home, handed out some candy to the last of the trick-or-treaters, and went to bed.

Then the doorbell rang at 10:35: teenage idiots trick-or-treating.

George told them to go away, and then grabbed his baseball bat (since he doesn't have a gun) and stalked around outside for a few minutes to make sure we didn't get "tricked."

Definitely a Griswold Family Halloween.

Here is Lincoln's Halloween video for your viewing enjoyment:

And here is Lincoln's "Man, I'm beat!" pose

after the craziness of his first Halloween:

PS I am REALLY irriated with Blogger for screwing up all of my carefully-inserted line breaks. Why does it shove everything together when I publish?! Anyone know how to fix this?