Photo Friday #67

During my maternity leave it has been important for me to get out of the house every once in a while. The weather has been great so Lincoln and I have taken many many walks. We always made sure to go in the early morning because it gets too warm in the afternoon. Also, we've learned to avoid Tuesdays... that's garbage day and the truck comes around in the morning and makes the sidewalks smell awful. Anyways, we've made Dunkin' Donuts our date spot. For a while there I was getting free coffee the day after a Braves win (just another reason to cheer for them!) Unfortunately that promotion ended, but we still made some trips to get coffee and enjoy the outside patio. Just one of the many things I'll remember from my special time with Lincoln!

 

Family Of Three

I have always enjoyed taking pictures. I have never thought of myself as a great photographer, but I have always loved having momentos and memories to look back on. Since Linoln's arrival I have turned this addiction of photo taking to another level (if you haven't already been able to tell). That's totally cool though, right? I'm simply a proud parent, right? Yes, most of these pictures have been of just Lincoln, but a few have been of our family of three. These are precious pictures in my heart, even if I do look pretty tired in some of them..

Photo Friday #66

Let me start off by saying Lincoln is a noisy sleeper. We've been told most babies are noisy, but I still feel he takes the cake. Most nights go like this... we put him down in the pack 'n play (still sleeping in our room) around 9:00. He usually is ready to eat again around 12:30 or 1:00 and afterwards I put him back in the pack 'n play. Keep in mind he's swaddled each time to keep those flailing arms from awakening him. Then most nights he's ready to eat again around 4:30 or 5:00. At this time he's not sleeping as deeply and begins, what we consider, his "noisy sleepy". At this time I usually put him to sleep in the bathroom so that Joe and I can get a few more hours of shut eye. This probably sounds bad... we have a baby chair in there that he seems to like. Lincoln is not one to enjoy being swaddled once he's starting to wake up. Most times when I get up to feed him he's completely out of the swaddle. On this particular morning he must've had a hard time getting those little arms out. What do you do when you can't get the arms out of a swaddle? You work on the legs instead... Silly baby.

On a side note this little guy slept for a 6.5 hour stretch last night. That's a record! We're making progress. Thank you Lincoln for being such a good baby!

Memorial Weekend And Three Uncles

We spent our Memorial Weekend here at home. But it wasn't just any weekend, we had three special visitors. Joe's brothers all made the trip out to Charlotte to visit us and meet their nephew!

Before their arrival Lincoln and I made a trip to the grocery store. Every time we go he is seriously such a good baby. He must love all the lights and stimulating things around him. He also gets lots of compliments. I suppose he better get used to it, he sure is a cute baby!

Uncle Jed was the first to arrive. Lincoln put on his new Hawkeye gear to welcome him. Thanks to a gift from my college roommate Lincoln sported a sweet Hawkeye tie onesie.

Lincoln also demonstrated his inner John Cena. Anyone a WWE fan??

Then the other uncles arrived. First Travis got to hold our little guy. Trust me, Lincoln did enjoy this, we just couldn't seem to capture his happy face.

Then it was uncle Nick's turn. Again, Lincoln's face shows his hesitation with this stranger, but he warmed up to the boys quickly.

During our 2:00 AM feeding I snapped a picture with my little guy. With all these boys around it was nice to have some quiet time together.

The next morning we lazily got up, ate some breakfast and passed Lincoln around. He seems to be studying Nick closely.

The weekend weather was gorgeous so we took full advantage of being out in the fresh air. Thanks to our new patio furniture we ate most meals outside.

First on the activity list was tennis. We have some pretty nice courts in our neighborhood. With five players we switched out teams and Lincoln enjoyed being outside. Again, he's such a good baby when we do activities like this. As you can see in this picture, he's just one of the boys.

Morning number two brought more baby carrying and Dunkin Donuts. Can you tell which one is wearing Lincoln and who has Carlos? You must be familiar with the movie The Hangover in order to get that joke...

Again the weather was perfect so after borrowing a ball from our neighbors the boys got a few games of basketball in while Lincoln watched. He was probably taking notes for the future when he's right in the action.

We grilled out once again and enjoyed the weather. Looks like Lincoln enjoyed Nick's lap.

All this excitement left Lincoln wiped out. Each night he fell right asleep. I joined him with going to bed myself, but the boys always stayed up. There was either a bonfire to be held or a NBA game to watch.

Lincoln also slept in... like I said, he was tired from all the activity!

The fun weekend had to come to an end. Before dropping the boys off at the airport we snapped a few more pictures. Thank you to Jed, Nick and Trav for visiting. Lincoln loved meeting you all!

Greek Quinoa Salad

We've had lots of visitors lately (thanks to Lincoln!) With visitors brings a reason for lots of good food. Between my mom and Joe's mom I've added a couple excellent recipes to my stash. One of the recipes we tried was found on the quinoa package and we thought it was worth a try. It was one of those recipes where you read through the list of ingredients and already know you'll love it. It's very different than most meals Joe and I make, but we both thought it was a keeper. This is the perfect meal to make and for each of us to bring for lunch during work. On a side note, quinoa is gluten and wheat free, plus is a good source of protein. Bonus!

Greek Quinoa Salad
Adapted from Vigo package (similar to this)

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked quinoa
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 cup calamata olives
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Cook quinoa as directed on package. Set aside and let cool completely. Combine quinoa with all other ingredients. Serve chilled or at room temperature.