what now...

Lately I feel like I've been slacking on my mommy responsiblities. Luckily for me Lincoln is an angel and is super easy. He really requires little from me, but cooking his meals and changing his diapers.

When he was a baby I felt like I was doing a GREAT job "raising" him. I knew what he needed and I was really good at making him happy. I mean in all honesty there wasn't really much to it. Eat, sleep, play, poop. All in a days work.

Well now he's mobile and has a real mind of his own. He knows what he likes, doesn't like and the only downfall is he doesn't know how to express to me what it is he really wants, other than screaming at what he doesn't like and laughing at something he does like. And sometimes all he does is scream and point but I can't quite figure out what it is he wants. This is where I feel like I'm failing him.

He's not super talkative when it comes to actual words. He says mama, dada, uh oh, sit and sometimes doggie, and my dad says he says papa, though I haven't heard it :) But either way he's not overly vocal, but he does babble and baby talk all the time. I'm looking forward to him talking more and being able to truly tell me what he actually wants.

Anyways, I feel like I'm not quite sure what to do with him now. He has a bunch of toys and stuff and he plays with all day but is there more that I should be doing? I'm not real good at "teaching" him things mainly because he doesn't have the attention span. He'd rather just run and go down is slide. I know he's still young so is it ok that I don't sit down with him and teach him things? I mean after all he doesn't go to daycare so I don't know what they do with children on a daily basis other than let them play. Does anyone have any ideas?

Lastly when it comes to feeding him I'm at a loss. When he first started eating baby foods it was super easy. All I did was steam a bunch of veggies and mash them up and feed them to him. Now I honestly find it significantly harder. He loves banana's and eats at least one a day, but other than that I don't know what to give him. I don't want him to eat a lot of processed foods so I don't buy mac n cheese, spagetti o's or ravioli or things like that. I don't find a lot of nutritional value in those things and so have chosen not to give them to him. Most days I can give him a grilled cheese sandwich and he's happy, other days not so much. And when it comes to most meats, they are hard for him to chew if they aren't is super small pieces and even then he struggles with them.

Adam and I aren't really good at eating veggies. So therefore we aren't really good at giving them to Lincoln. Lately adam has been making a lot of beans and rice with not much else. Lincoln LOVES beans and will pick out all the beans and leave the meat and rice. I know we need to get better at adding these into our daily diets but I just don't know how. I eat a salad every day but Lincoln can't exactly eat salad, or peppers or carrots (not steamed) and apples because he doesn't have molars to chew so I'm at a loss of what to do...any suggestions?

Overall Lincoln is a happy, healthy and perfect angel. I just feel like I'm letting him down somehow and I don't know what to do now...or is there even something I should be doing? I want him to be independent and strong so I try to let him figure things out for himself, but like I said should I be "teaching" him things or is he still too young for that?

I'm one confused mama!