Linc driving with Will

Whilst not one of Linc's chrissie presents, he certainly enjoyed cruising around with his cousin Will in this little red car!

Merry Christmas

Linc had a lovely christmas, spending christmas day with Mum's family, and boxing day with Dad's family who arrived around lunchtime. He was spoilt rotten, with some fantastic gifts that continue to hold his attention. Thankyou to all (including Santa) for the wonderful presents! The pic above is Linc with his Lion strider which he absolutely loves. He is so good at walking around the house holding onto it.

It has been a quiet christmas so far, with a trip planned to Sydney for New Years Eve (although we will NOT be going into Darling Harbour to watch the fireworks!)...

Linc climbing Mt Everest

The family did a quick trip to the border of Nepal and Tibet to visit the spectacular Himalayan Mountains. Whilst there we took the opportunity to climb Mount Everest which is 8,848 metres (29,029 feet) above sea level. See, you just learnt something, didn't you!

First tooth

Finally Linc's first tooth is coming through. It doesn't seem to be causing him heaps of bother, but he certainly knows it's coming by the amount of sucking/tonguing he's doing...

5 more sleeps till Christmas

Mum and Dad were explaining the concept of Christmas to Linc last night - he seemed intrigued... like he was planning to wait till Mum and Dad fall asleep before sneaking out and opening his seven hundred presents...!

The feet...

Well what can be said about Linc's humongous paws! Hopefully he'll grow into them and become an Olympic swimmer...?!

Linc does love his bathtime

His hair is growing quite thick now, it's actually down to his eyes. Mum doesn't want to cut it cause she likes the sheepdog look...

Merry Christmas!

It's been a rather unpleasant week to be parents i'm afraid - Linc fell ill last friday and got a fever. He was very unhappy. It's very hard to see him so sick when there's nothing you can do about it. Unfortunately it turned into a chest infection and he's now on antibiotics - which he hates, so it's a struggle to get him to take it morning and night...AND it's bright pink, so it gets on everything (why is this so?!).

Anyhow, he's slowly getting better, with his poor little cough on the way out, so we went out christmas shopping today - and met SANTA! So, if you know Linc, what do you think his reaction to Santa would be? 1 - crying, or 2 - happy as larry. If you guessed 2 you'd be...wrong. He cried and cried and it took us ages to calm him down enough to get a photo - hence his eyes are still a little moist in the final shot!

General update

As Linc hurtles towards 10 months old (!!) he has become unstoppable in his quest to explore the entire house. The ol' baby-proofing has been a bit hit and miss so far, with some things being extremely difficult to relocate. He's taken to playing with the Onkyo hi-fi system and turning the volume up really loud - then screaming cause it frightens him! Oh dear...! Anyhow, it's great to have him follow you around, as he loves being in the same room as you - and yep, that includes the toilet where he'll bang on the door whilst it's occupied...!

Dad bought him a new toy today - a Fisher Price Baby Grand Piano - he absolutely loves it - as demonstrated by the below photo...:

Linc attends Anthony's Dedication Ceremony

Yesterday the family did a day-trip to Sydney to attend Anthony's Dedication Ceremony at West Ryde Baptist Church. It was a lovely ceremony and was followed by a great big cook-up back at Anthony's place. Linc also had a dip in the pool with Anthony and Jeremy as it was a very muggy day (although not like today which was 40 degrees in Sydney!).

Crawling...

Linc is now officially crawling. Whilst he has been semi-mobile for a little while now, he has just recently got the whole crawling action going on - but (and you can't blame him) he isn't a fan of crawling on the tiles, so he much prefers crawling on the rug or carpeted areas (of which there aren't many in the house)!

9265g 13 November

Lincoln had his 9 mth checkup on Friday. He now weighs 9265g (a gain of 630g in a month!) and is 74cm tall (gained 5cm in 3 months).

This means he is in the 50th percentile for weight, and 75th for height.

Lincoln at Jeremy's 1st birthday party

This weekend Lincoln attended Jeremy's first birthday party. It was a farm animal theme, and even featured bails of hay and a saddle! There were no animals (of the furry kind), but there was still plenty of mess from the mini-humans! Linc had his first go on a swing and actually really enjoyed it!On another note, he has just learnt to sit down from being on his tummy which is a big achievement. He's also discovered that he can pull himself up in his cot and so thinks it's really funny to go walking around the cot when it's time to go to SLEEP! Unfortunately the unforgiving wooden sides of the cot have seen him cop a couple of bruises when he's fallen over, but nothing too serious.

General update

Not a great deal of news. Lincoln still sleeps from 8pm to somewhere between 7am to 8am. He gets up, has a bottle, plays for a bit then has breakfast (usually some kind of fruit puree and farex), then back to bed for a sleep before lunch (which is usually some kind of puree meal!). He then plays for quite a while, before having another bottle and an afternoon sleep before dinner (again, some kind of puree meal followed by yoghurt/custard or whatever is on the menu). Then it's a bottle at around 7.30pm and bed at around 8pm!

The main thing is that Lincoln is semi-mobile lately. It started with rolling around on the floor, but now he's actually pulling himself forward with a half-crawl thrown in. He hasn't quite got the concept of proper crawling just yet, but he's not too far off. What he loves, however, is walking around holding onto Mum or Dad's hands. Second to that is walking along in front of the couch while he holds himself up. We can't put him down too near the couch anymore, cause he turns around, grabs hold of the couch, and lifts himself up!

And then there's the remote controls - we spend $70 on a whizz-bang colourful toy that makes noises and lights up etc. and he's more interested in grabbing one of the seven remote controls that end up spread around the lounge room... and of course, he shoves them in his gob and smashes them on the couch for fun...Dad loves it when he does that. But luckily when they stop working you usually just have to dry out the batteries and they start working again...

Claire and Sam's wedding

This weekend the family drove to Shoalhaven Heads for the wedding of Claire and Sam. It was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect (although a bit windy) and Lincoln was extremely well behaved. He had a great time playing with Amelia (Fiona and Steve's daughter) and even took the time to pose for some fashion shots in his new 'special occasion' outfit!

8635g 13 October

Linc was weighed today and came in at a healthy 8.635 kg which means he gained about 575 g in the last month. Also of note is that he managed to stand himself up (from sitting) using the couch- twice, so definitely not a fluke!- and has started chewing on rusks!

Linc watches his first Bathurst 1000

With Mum off to work on Sunday it was just the boys at home, looking forward to 161 laps of close racing at the Supercheap Bathurst 1000! Linc appeared to enjoy watching the cars go around - and was over the moon to see Holden's first win at Bathurst since 1995.

Linc's new car

Last week Mum and Dad bought a new car for Lincoln. Mum's old Mazda was getting a bit tired so it was decided to get something a bit newer - 20 years newer to be precise - and bought a Ford Focus! Okay, actually it's for Mum (for her birthday!), but with six airbags, EBD, ABS, ESP and a 5 star ANCAP rating the safety features were the main selling point!

Dad can't believe a Ford now sits next to the Holden in the garage...!

Lincoln now 8 months old

Linc has hit the big 08 mths old with no real news to report. He's primarily onto solids now, which sometimes proves challenging - if he doesn't like something, he has a rather eloquent way of...spitting it right back out at you...!

Linc experiences his first big thunder storm

Last Tuesday night (22/9) Canberra had a HUGE thunder storm roll through. It started in the evening and went well into the night with some huge thunder claps (from VERY close lightning) occurring at around 2135hrs - right when Linc was trying to sleep. He woke with a fright each time there was a big thunder clap, but quite quickly went to sleep again, with no crying or anything! The below graphic shows the lightning strikes from 1800hrs 22/9 to 1800hrs 23/9.

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Linc at Kid City

Last weekend the family attended Linc's cousin Sarah's 4th birthday party at Kid City. Linc had a mixed time - he wasn't sure about all the screaming kids, but he appeared to enjoy playing in the ball pit and going on the slide with Dad!

Linc's devilish side

Linc can be a little devil sometimes - it's rare, but Dad managed to capture one such moment on camera...!

Linc really is a clown...

Told you!

Linc HATES Harley Davidsons...

Witness the sheer terror as a hoard of Harley's roar by where we were having lunch at Port Douglas...I'm okay............WHAT THE!..........MUMMY, DADDY!.......

FNQ to the NT - photos from Cairns

A wet, chilly Canberra morning - Linc prepares for take-off!

Port Douglas markets

Linc attracting the local wildlife

Linc meeting 'Psycho' the croc

Linc with the grandparents at Hartleys Crocodile Zoo

Linc jumping for joy!

Linc in the pool at Cairns Esplanade

How cool are my new Havianas?!
Linc at Palm Cove

FNQ to the NT - photos from Darwin

Dad - are you sure this lagoon is clothes-optional?

Hey Linc - what did you think about swimming in the lagoon at Wangi Falls? SWEET!

Linc's new friend Kinesha

Linc meeting a children's snake

Linc's new frowny-laugh

Linc and Aunty Suze

From FNQ to the outback - mega blog

The family is back! It's been a hugely successful trip showing Linc some of the most beautiful spots in Australia.

We started off on Saturday 29 Aug departing Canberra at 0625 (yuk) for Brisbane. Both Mum and Dad were a bit nervous about Linc's first flight but after some initial fussing as we climbed to cruising altitude, he soon fell asleep in his own seat (thanks Qantas). And as a matter of fact, the baby seated in front of us made more than enough noise for most of the flight anyway!

We landed in Brisbane just ahead of schedule and thank goodness we did - as Linc filled his nap on descent into Brisbane! The smell permeated throughout the cabin but everyone just grinned and pretended not to notice... Gotta love the Qantas Club baby change room! We just had enough time to give Linc a feed and drink before it was time to board the flight to Cairns. Again, thankfully Linc was an angel and we arrived at Cairns airport which is undergoing major reconstruction - despite this we eventually found some very excited grandparents, tracked down the rental place and headed to our luxury accommodation at Sunland Leisure Park. The whole family had a quiet afternoon and went to the club for a buffet dinner.

Sunday we got away from the cabin at about 1030 and headed for Port Douglas to spend the afternoon at the markets. It was a challenge to try to feed Linc without getting cooked in the sun or overrun by green ants. We then walked around the Port Douglas markets perusing stalls, dodging hippies and mixing with the (other) beautiful people.

Sunday night the grandparents looked after Linc so Mum and Dad went out on a date for wood fired pizza! We then had a lovely stroll along the esplanade. It wasn't too long before we had to dash back to make sure our little baby wasn't missing us only to find that Linc was fast asleep after watching the football with granfolks.

Monday we got away at about 1130 and headed to Kuranda. We visited the butterfly sanctuary and Linc loved it - even trying to grab the butterflies - although they did make him jump when they flew towards his head! From there we had some lunch, had a look in the shops along the streets then went to Barron falls (which was pretty dry due to a lack of rain in recent months). We departed Kuranda and spent the afternoon on the esplanade having coffee and checking out the superyachts - We saw 'Helios' worth $45m and even spotted the 'Keri lee' which was used in the movie 'Fools Gold' starring Matthew McConnaghy and Kate Hudson (1 star) - in the movie it was called the 'Precious Gem' - you can actually charter it for USD120,000 per week. We then left the esplanade, picked up some fasta pasta and took it back to the cabin to watch the Raiders thrash the Knights.

Tuesday got away right on check out time at 1000 (phew!). Headed to Hartleys crocodile zoo and took Linc on the boat ride to feed the crocs. The first croc jumped out of the water and made a huge snapping noise as it bit at the meat - and boy did Linc jump! From there we headed to Palm Cove and had coffees at Angsana Spa and Resort (which is where Mum and Dad had their honeymoon - ohhhhhh). Linc finally got to try out his new Havianas and clomp around in the sand which he seemed to enjoy. Keeping in mind we had a plane to catch (to Darwin!) we chowed down at Yorkeys Knob and dashed to the airport for our 2035 flight. Yet again, Linc charmed the hosties and so we got a spare seat in between Mum and Dad - but it didn't help with the view as on a Boeing-717 the back row (23) is directly adjacent to a Rolls Royce BR715 jet engine sitting 30 cm from the window! The hosties spent most of their time playing with Linc and so he slept very well when they eventually had to serve the other passengers - we eventually touched down in Darwin 15 minutes ahead of schedule at 2230 to a very excited Aunty Suze!

Mum and Dad decided to slow the pace down a little as little Linc caught a very minor cold and was feeling the effects of the heat. So for the majority of the stay in Darwin we hung around Suzie's brand new apartment and let Linc dictate our outings. He appreciated the rest, although we did drag him out to the Territory Wildlife Park in 36 degree heat with 367% humidity. We had a relatively decent look around (and caught the bird show) but poor Linc was the colour of a beetroot so we headed for the air-conditioned comfort of the brand new Mazda 6 (courtesy of Uncle Tony) and back home.

Other notable adventures include a trip to Litchfield National Park to see Florence Falls (and the water-holes), and Wangi Falls - where Dad and Linc went swimming! It was funny to see all the Asian tourists flocking to take photos of the little blonde haired, blue eyed nudey boy frolicking with his Dad in the lagoon!

We also visited Aunty Suze's friend Mark, who had a crocodile, 7 blue-tongue lizards and a children's snake, and was responsible for a whole tribe of children! Linc didn't seem too worried about the snakes or the lizards and seemed interested in the strange feel of their scaly bodies.

Our final adventure was a cruise on the Adelaide River to see the jumping crocs - the cruise we went on is the only one where you turn down the road past the Windows on the Wetlands - would highly recommend it! These crocs were quite lazy though (not surprising considering they get feeds at 9am, 11am and 3pm each day! They didn't even snap their jaws together like the one's at Hartleys.

Then it was time to depart, and with final goodbyes we headed back to the airport where we jumped on a 767 and had the luxury of a seat between us for Linc to sleep on. We arrived in Brisbane on time and with a quick nappy change, feed and drink, it was time to jump on the plane for the final flight home.

It was unfortunate though that Qantas failed to accommodate us (like they did with the other 4 flights) and we didn't get a seat for Linc in between us - whilst there were plenty of seats available to do this, the hosties (a bloke who looked like he will never have kids and a crusty old child-hating Cruella DeVille type hostie) refused to assist saying that as we had not paid for a seat for Linc that he couldn't have his own (but that I could move to another row if I wanted - how generous of them)... Yes, very not happy about this - but Dad wasn't about to let it ruin his holiday, and pinched an extra packet of biscuits and cheese for Mum from the trolley as it went past thereby ensuring he had the last laugh... ha ha ha! So as a result of this, Linc hardly slept the whole flight and had to be entertained for almost 2 hours - luckily the gentleman sitting in the third seat in our row quite enjoyed entertaining Linc - which was pretty funny for Mum and Dad also - picture a Police Tactical Response Group-sized guy hiding behind a book doing 'peek-a-boo'...!

A hand-picked selection of photos from the 1,112 (3.77 gb) taken during the trip to be posted shortly!

Linc prepares for his first plane trip

This weekend the family is off on their first BIG holiday. First challenge is getting up in time to catch a flight to Brisbane (at 6.05am) then from Brisbane it's on to Cairns for a few days to catch up with the travelling Grandparents. From there it's a direct flight to Darwin to see Aunty Suze. Mum and Dad are sure looking forward to the challenge of keeping Linc entertained whilst on the plane!

In the meantime Linc continues to grow well, and is eating solids and loving it (yep, even the pumpkin!). His sitting is improving, but he still sometimes overbalances with his 50 to 90th percentile head!

Linc hosted the mums and bubs group this week and did a fine job. He certainly kept them in line along the way as demonstrated in the below photo. Here Linc is telling everyone to be quiet as he's telling a story!
And here's a lovely photo taken tonight after a big day visiting Aunty Jo.