Merry Christmas!

It was a good Christmas. My parents and sisters were able to escape the snow in the Pacific NW and make the drive down to Tucson. They arrived on the 23rd. My Grandmother was supposed to fly into Phoenix on the 23rd, but due to the snow she rescheduled for the 29th. She missed X-mas proper, but we saved her presents for her. We hope that she can make it down here still, but the weather in the NW is unpredictable right now.

Lincoln had a good first X-mas. He thought that the wrapping paper and the stacks of presents looked pretty interesting. He didn't have too much interest in the opening of presents or what the boxes contained...but some of the wrapping paper, boxes, and bows were good enough to play with. Pretty typical baby stuff. Lol.

He got lots of cute clothes. Onesies, play sleepers, and shorts/t-shirt sets. Everyone did pretty well buying ahead of him with 9-month to 1-year sizes. He is a very large boy and is almost completely in 9-month clothes, although we still pour him into some 6-month stuff. ;) He got some good toys and other fun baby goodies (bibs, teethers, pacifiers, books, etc...). All in all a pretty good haul for a 5 month old!

Here he is opening up his 1 obligatory X-mas eve present. A cute "I'd rather be camping" onesie. He liked the box, and once we got the onesie out of the plastic, he promptly started exploring it by putting it to his mouth (see pic). Please forgive the baby-boobies, as he was pretty warm that evening so we opened his sleeper to help cool him off.

Here are Andy and I on X-mas eve.

Here is my mother helping Linc open his stocking on X-mas morning.

Here is some fun playtime with daddy Andy in the evening.

5 months old already!

Well Linc is now 5 months old. Can you believe it? He weighs in at a whopping 23.5lbs and 28.5" long! A very big boy for his age! Linc has rolled over from tummy to back probably about 10-15 times in the past 2 weeks. They seem to be on accident, but I guess if it happens more than once it counts. He has learned to like tummy time more and more, so he seems to enjoy the time spent on his belly, and doesn't try hard to learn to roll. He appears to be attempting to crawl. He wiggles a ton, and ends up pivoting on his belly, and he can creep about 1 foot in any direction it seems. It is a start!

We had his neurology appointment on the 18th to follow-up on his last EEG. The EEG showed no seizures. So the Keppra seems to be working in controlling the focal seizures. Yay!

The neurologist was also very pleased with how Linc is progressing developmentally. He said that Lincoln is on target, and even advanced in his sitting skills, which is very good, and seems to correlate with what the PT therapist said during his evaluation. We can only hope that this good news continues.

Pictures from the last couple of weeks:

New family member!

Announcing our new neice!

Jocelyn Kathleen Follett was born on Jason's birthday, December 7th, at 6:10 PM. She weighed 7lbs 1 oz and she was 19" long. A tiny little squirt for being 10 days over due. But she is adorable. See for yourselves...

We think that she kinda looks like Linc did in that first picture. Maybe its the Blatchford nose? ;)

Congrats again to the Folletts on their beautiful new daughter!

A quicky

A few corrections to the quilt post. I guess that I am a terrible guesser. I think that I only got 1 or 2 right. Bah!

The cactus = Cassie Pollock

The horse = Crista Rokita

The sun = Rosi Thorne-Bushey

Linc update:

He had his PT evaluation on Tuesday and he is doing pretty well. He is ahead of the game on his sitting and leg skills. He is a bit behind on his reaching/grasping skills. The PT thinks that during the 2-3 month period while he was having his seizures is the time when those skills are developing. She thinks that he just skipped his hands and went on to his legs. She will be seeing us weekly for the next 2 months to work with him, and prescribed more tummy time to strengthen his shoulders, because she thinks that this is the main issue. He is not crazy about tummy time, so it is a battle to try to keep him entertained and happy while he is on his belly.

Family update:

Sarah is still pregnant, so we were all wrong in out bets that Jocelyn was coming last week/weekend. Sarah is thinking that it will more likely be this weekend. As of today she is 40w, 6d pregnant. The midwives want to induce her at 41w, 6d if she hasn't gone into labor yet. The prospect of another whole week of pregnancy seems to be very frustrating for poor Sarah. But we wish her all the best, and are hoping that labor begins very soon!

Andy's family left here last Sunday. They seemed to have a good time. They went 4-wheeling, and golfing, helped us work on our patio, bought 8 fish for our fountain (all of whom have gone missing...but curiously the fountain pump does not seem to be working any longer...) and spent a lot of time hanging out, chatting, playing with the baby, drinking and eating.

My family will be arriving in town on the 22nd and my grandma will be flying in on the 23rd. They will be staying through the 2nd. We are hoping to recruit some help in working on installing our new counter-tops!

Pictures!:

Long awaited...Family & Friends Baby Quilt debut!

Here it is!!

A special thanks to all of the contributors! They are listed below next to their squares...or the squares that I am guessing that they made if there are no indicators in the design. Please correct me if I attribute the wrong square to you! Lets see if I am a good guesser...

Crafted by Betsy Semmens (?)

Crafted by Eleanor Smith (Linc's G-Gma)

Crafted by Debra Hughes (Linc's Gma)

Crafted by Cassie Pollock

Crafted by Kim Garcia,

text reads: "May God bless you every day of your life! Amen!"

Crafted by Joe Blatchford (Linc's Uncle)

Crafted by Michael and Alejandra Casson (?)

Crafted by Frank and Andrea Fergel (?)

Crafted by Sarah and Heath Curtiss,

text reads: "May you be strong and disiplined like your father, patient and persistent like your mother, and like them both our friend. We look forward to knowing you."

Crafted by Jocelyn Mullen, (Linc's G-Aunt).

Crafted by Jessica Rowland in Africa (not sure why Blogger flipped it on it's side).

Crafted by Jamie Hughes (Linc's Aunt),

text reads: "There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse" (again, not sure why it got flipped sideways)

Crafted by Carolyn McLintock (Linc's G-Aunt)

Crafted by Nesmary Hernandez

Crafted by me, Linc's momma!

Crafted by Kathy Blatchford (Linc's G-ma & master quilt crafter!)

Crafted by Donald Hughes (Linc's G-Gpa)

Crafted by Jennifer Hughes (Linc's Aunt),

text reads: "No matter how much cats fight, there are always plenty of kittens. -Abraham Lincoln" The kittens represent 'Todd' and 'Clay', our 3 year old cats.

Crafted by Christa Rokita (?)

Crafted by Jason & Sarah Follett (Linc's Uncle & Aunt, and the master quilt making planner!)

The squares are all very beautiful! Andy and I are overwhelmed by how wonderful the quilt has turned out, and it could not have been done without any of you guys! This quilt is very special to us, and will someday mean a lot to Lincoln as well. Thank you so much!

Can you believe it? 4 months old!

I am a little late in posting this, but Lincoln is now 4 months old!

Official 4 month picture.

For comparison...
3 months, 2 months, and 1 month.

He has changed quite a bit this past month. He has started to try and sit up, and enjoys sitting supported. He also has gotten a lot more active during tummy time. He has started working with our EIT "Service Coordinator" Jana once a week. Basically it is play time with someone other than mommy or daddy. We have a PT evaluation coming up this Tuesday. I have a feeling that she will say that he is basically on par with his development so far, and that she will only come 1 time a month for therapy if we would like. We will see. There may be some things that I am unaware of where he has some physical development weaknesses.

In other news we went to Linc's 4 month well-baby and immunization appointment with Dr. R. Lincoln is 27" long (98%), 20lbs 8oz (off the charts), and 42cm head circ (50%). Basically pretty good and healthy. The doctor said that I should encourage him to sleep through the night, since he obviously doesn't need the caloric intake. Right now he is pretty consistently waking up 1 time per night around 2-3am. We may have to look into some sleep training methods after Andy's parents leave. From some of the info I have been reading we have gotten into some bad habits of feeding him to sleep, snacking type meals, and cat naps. Oops. Oh well. I am sure that we will get this all figured out at some point.

Because he is doing so well sitting supported and has shown significant interest in grown-up food while Andy and I eat, the doctor okayed us to start Linc on solid foods. He has done very well with his single grain rice cereal these past 3 days. He is never very sure about it, but eats it all up, so he must like it okay at least. So for the next 2 months we will be doing "stage 1" foods, things like rice cereal, barley cereal, wheat cereal, fruits, and veggies. All of these things must be introduced 1 week apart to make sure there are no allergic reactions. This solid food thing is pretty exciting for me. Our little guy is growing up so fast!!

Okay, here is the best part...more pictures!

Andy and I are doing well. We have been busy busy here at home doing some remodeling projects. You know us...we always seem to have a new project going on. We will post pictures after Christmas, as we want the changes to be a surprise to both of our visiting families.

Andy's family is coming tomorrow, as I mentioned earlier. Everyone except Sarah, who is still pregnant last we heard (she is due Nov. 27th, Thanksgiving day). Andy and I have a little bet going as to when she will have her baby. Andy thinks that she will go on her due date, which would be pretty cool to have 2 holiday babies (Danny was born of 4th of July). I think that she will have Jocelyn on Dec 1st (sorry, if you are reading this Sarah). We both think that Sarah's baby will be right around 8lbs.

Andy's family will be staying for the week, and we have some fun acitivities planned. Golfing, 4-wheeling, drinking, eating, relaxing...stay tuned, I am sure there will be more.