Monday, March 31, 2008

Easter Weekend

The Egg Hunt

Well, I wouldn't exactly say that he hunted, but Noah was delighted at the idea of gathering eggs and putting them in his very own basket. I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember doing it last year, and he seemed to think this was a pretty fun thing to try out!

Once Noah discovered that some of the eggs were plastic and filled with candy, he stopped for a taste test. And then things became serious business for a while...
We had such a great time watching Noah run around and collect eggs at his great-grandparents' house. It was a cool, but sunny evening & we had lots of fun.

Of course Lincoln didn't participate in the egg hunt, but he seemed to be enjoying himself anyway! We sure love that smiley little guy.

Easter Morning

So, I doubt this will turn into a tradition, but this year we had a "family" Easter basket. Each of us got a chocolate bunny...then Noah got matchbox cars, stickers, and a sippy cup, and Lincoln got pacifiers. The candy was for all of us to share. We just put it on the porch and rang the doorbell for Noah to find (how else do you "hide" a basket that big?).

It was a lot of fun, but like I said...I doubt we'll always do it. Who knows what our kids' personalities will turn out like, but I was a child that liked to hoard and ration my candy, and my Easter candy was particularly special. Therefor, it was a good year if I finished all of it before the next Easter. It would have been devastating to me to watch my brothers devour all of our collective candy before my eyes. So, even though a community basket sure was easy this year - I'll expect individual baskets to start again next year (although I won't expect much hoarding from our 3 & 1 year old).

Dad generously let Noah dig into both of their chocolate bunnies.

Hey - this stuff is pretty good!
Lincoln & Noah in their new (matching) Easter outfits. I can't resist.

Noah affectionately refers to his grandparents by an association. So, Mark's parents are the "horsie grandma and grandpa" - he gets to go see the horses that live in a field adjacent to their house when we visit. And, if he's just referring to Mark's mom then she's "mama delicious" (since she uses that word often). Really.

So, you can understand the chagrin of my mom in being "mama ogre" or "elephant mama". Alas, it is such. He refers to my parents as the ogre grandparents since they have a Shrek toy at their house that he likes to play with...and to my mom as the elephant grandma since she recently bought him a cute stuffed Horton the elephant that he loves.

So...here he is doing a little egg hunt inside at the ogre grandparents' house on Easter.

Originally I hadn't planned on including one of our family Easter pictures since none of them "turned out" (certainly not because we didn't try, both indoors and out)...but then I decided that I should post one anyway. After all, this is more realistically our real life with a baby & a 2 year old, right? :)
And, just in case we hadn't eaten enough sweets I made some cupcakes...
We hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Friday, March 14, 2008

Four months!

Well, Lincoln turned four months old yesterday!
We went in for his check-up today and here are the stats...
Weight: 18 pounds, 11 ounces (95%), Length: 26 inches (87%), Head: 46 cm (off the chart big - over 100%), Smile: 110% adorable, Cheeks: unmeasurably squeezable!

We got these pictures taken today and I had to choose this one of him sucking on his fist since that it what he does all of the time right now. Another bonus of this picture...it shows those cute little "rubber band wrists"!






Here's our little dude - just hangin' out.










If Lincoln isn't sucking on his fist, then he usually has a binkie in his mouth - or this fish rattle. His favorite place to sleep right now is our recliner. He's his daddy's boy, I guess :)


Pardon his cough at the beginning of this clip, and his raspy voice (he's just getting over his first cold)...but his little giggle is so darn cute!

Monday, March 3, 2008

Gotcha Day!

As many of you know - the adoption community affectionately refers to the day that adoptvie parents are placed with their child as "gotcha day". Today, March 3rd, is Noah's gotcha day! While we naturally still love to celebrate Noah's birthday, his gotcha day is a very special day too. It is the day that we saw him for the first time, and became his parents.

That week between the day of Noah's birth and the day he was placed in our arms was the longest of our life. We cannot adequately describe in words the joy that we felt when his sweet birthmother placed him lovingly into our arms. We will forever be grateful to her for her selfless, loving decision.

This picture was taken just after placement, still at the agency office. His birthmom had dressed him in this cute yellow bumble-bee outifit & wrapped him in this yellow blanket. He was our peaceful, perfect gift from heaven.

We pretty much just stared at him for a week straight in our hotel room...since we had no other distractions and couldn't leave the state until inter-state legal paperwork cleared. It was nice to have that time together before returning to Mark's crazy school & work schedule. Here are a couple more pictures from Noah's original gotcha day. I love the one of him and Mark...it was like he already knew who dad was.