Good times for babies and mamas

I usually don't just give a time table of what we do during a day, but yesterday was a great day and I have to blog about it.

First, I acutally set my alarm clock and exercised before Lincoln woke up. This might seem insignificant, but I felt great all day yesterday. I wasn't stressing about how I needed to exercise at night, and I felt I had already accomplished something by the time Link woke up. It didn't even matter that it was only 6:30am when Stinky Link started talking!

Mid-morning, Link and I went to the library for storytime. It was a special day, because storytime was cancelled and they had Little Gym come for a demo. Lincoln had a blast on all of the Little Gym equipment: he loved the songs and games that we played with the other kids and parents. I felt like a proud mama, because all 3 instructors told me how wonderful he was doing. He was doing somersaults (with help), balancing on the beam, and climbing the foam blocks. I can't wait to take him to a free class at Little Gym soon. I'm sure I'll get suckered in to joining!

Mom treated us to Cafe Gouda, a very yummy restaurant, where I havn't been in forever. I was glad to get the calories, because I was about to do something fun for myself...

I went my first clogging class at Sims Country Cloggers, way out in the country. I started dancing when I was very young and stopped before High school, but my favorite classes were tap classes. Clogging is like tap, but the metal taps aren't screwed tight like tap shoes: they flap a little bit. I seriously loved every second of clogging. It was so fun to spend time with a friend, wear fancy red clogging shoes, and to dance again! I'm bummed there isn't class next week, but excited that we have a mini-recital in February for a fundraiser to benefit the dance school.

I will post pictures of me and my fancy red shoes as soon as I can learn to use them better!

Free Fridays

The Hickory Science Center has free admission on Fridays. Link and I take advantage of this often! It is such a fun place to take him, and I know he loves it. We went last Friday, and it reminded me of the Children's Museum in Portland. I haven't blogged about it yet, and it will give me an opportunity to post pictures of Lincoln (which I never do).

The day after Christmas, Dave's parents and the 3 Shinsels took a 4 hour road trip to Portland. We stopped at the zoo first. As we were parking, we saw this lovely train.




For those of you who don't know, Lincoln LOVES trains. He makes train noises, he prefers to play with trains, he likes to watch trains on tv, and he has lots of train books. So, it was a chore to pull him away from the train to go inside the zoo. The only way we got him to do it was telling him there was a train inside the zoo (which there really is!). I wanted to make it to the monkeys because they give the primates presents the day after Christmas. The workers decorate their cages and have wrapped broccoli and other goodies for the animals to open. I was so excited we made it to the chimpanzees just in time to see the workers decorate the cages. When they were all done, they let the chimps out. Link and I were standing in front of the females. They were totally lame and took their presents where we couldn't see them anymore. So, Link and I headed over the males, right when they let them out. The bigger male came barging down and was so excited to see the presents, he let out some loud chimp noises and banged on the glass a couple times. I could feel Link tensing up, but thought he would be ok. THEN, some scared kid started crying. That was it...Link started hysterically crying. It took a while to calm him down after that! At least I know what his nightmares are about now.

It was freezing at the zoo, so we left for some food, extra layers of clothing, and for naps. We took care of everything but the naps, Link refused to sleep. I swear he was too excited for what was about to happen...we were going on an actual steam engine train ride at the zoo! They only run the train during the summer and for a couple weeks during the Holidays. The zoo is decorated with tons of lights, and the train goes around the zoo to see all the lights, which takes about 15 minutes. I didn't think we were going to make it on the first train ride around, but we were so stinkin' lucky to get the last seats...right in back of the engine. Ok, maybe I was more excited than Lincoln, but we seriously had the best seats.

We saw all the lights and we heard the engines whistle and we saw the whistle's steam and then we saw this...

Classic huh? He was so wiped out, he fell asleep for the last 5 minutes of the train ride.

The next day, we went to the Children's Museum, which was just as cool as the zoo. Why is everything so much MORE fun when you have kids? They had this water play area, where we spent lots of time.

They also have a play area for kids under 3. Lincoln had fun in that room looking at the fish and going down the slide. Here he is posing with his Grandma and Papa.

We had so much fun in Portland and we will continue having fun on Free Fridays!

I'm in Love

I'm just saying....look at those eyes

and that sticky mouth.

I'm in love!


Thanks Mama Shinsel for making the yummy cinnamon rolls and Papa Shinsel for capturing the moment.

Blogger, I missed you!

I did miss blogging these past 3 weeks. Here's what I didn't miss when we were in Oregon...

cleaning house,

cooking meals (not that I do much of that),

working, and

cloth diapers

Besides blogging, I missed...

these cuties (my parents),


these toy trains, and

warm NC winter weather.

There's not enough room to write what we will miss.

Grandma and Papa (I'm sure Link will have withdrawls),

siblings,

cousins,

weekend trip to Portland,

this indoor playground, and

birthdays...we celebrated 3 while we were gone.

Link has changed quite a bit over these 3 weeks. He has a ton of hair now ( so sweet!) and his vocabulary is expanding. Some new words are dude, bird, and help. He loves to give hugs, and when Dave and I are hugging he comes over to be part of the action. He puts one arm over Dave and one arm over me (we call it double hugs.).

Before I forget...

Just a quick blog before I forget to write (type?) it down...Link said his first sentence! As I was struggling to feed him lunch (more on the struggling later), he sweetly said, "Hi Dad." and waved to Dave as he walked in the door.

And most importantly, MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!! Lots of love and hugs to family and friends who are are away from this season.

Christmas Time is Here...

I know I am not alone when I say, "I love Christmas!" I love all the traditions I did as a kid and the new ones we will start with Link. I love the decorations and the fact that we don't have a ton to put up: I can just appreciate others. Mostly, I love the fact Christmas is a lot more fun when you have a little one!

We started the Christmas season off with vising Santa at the mall. The second Link saw Santa, he flipped out. I don't know why we put our kids through this, but below is a picture of the said flip-out.

Things got better when we put up the tree at my parents house. Link "helped" a ton with the garland and putting the ornaments on (pictures to follow soon).

We also visited Tanglewood park to see all the Christmas ligths. I wish I had a video of Link's face. His eyes were huge and his lips pooched out as he said, "Ohhhhhhhhh." He also liked the fact he got out of his car seat during the drive through the park.

Now here are just some random Link facts: He is signing again...he signed more to a man at church when the man said, "Are you coming back for more." He signed please to a lady with chocolate ice-cream while out shopping. I can tell he gets frustrated when he doesn't know the words to say or sign, and I'm not getting what he wants.

I'm scared of what the age 2 will bring....he is already sas talking. He shakes his finger at me and says, "No, no no" when I say it to him. He also has no fear: he climbs on everything and thinks I'll be there to catch him.

His new favorite word is papa. He has scored some major brownie points with my dad for saying it, and I hope he won't get confused when he visit his other papa.

Monkey Joe's

Lincoln and I met the playgroup at Monkey Joe's yesterday. I had no idea what it was before we went. It is only the coolest place ever! Kids 12 and under can come and play on their inflatable playgrounds. They even have a couple toddler areas where the little ones can play without a parent right beside them. Adults can assist younger kids but aren't allowed to bounce (Dang!). All the kiddos had fun but all the moms did too. One of the slides was so steep I even had to do my roller coaster scream--good thing Link thought that was funny. Two other things I liked about Monkey Joe's: it was clean, and they are really strict about security (Link and I had matching bracelets on). After playing there for 3 hours, I thought for sure Link would take a long nap; however, he continues to surprise me and only took an hour nap. Just when I think I have him figured out...

He continues to make me and Dave laugh. Lately, he has been sticking his tongue out and making funny noises. He was doing it all during Monkey Joe's. His facial expressions crack us up too! If only I had a camera on my all the time. His new favorite word is turtle, but he can't get the "r" in there yet. Gotta go, he just learned how to climb his toy chest...