18 months old

Lincoln is now 18 months old.  He has grown up and changed quite a bit this month.  He is now up to six teeth with another just about ready to poke through.  He has figured out how to make some fun clicking/smacking noises with his mouth.  I am going to try and attempt to catch them on video.

The most exciting development this month has been Lincoln's rekindled interest in reading and looking at books.  For a long time he really didn't want anything to do with them.  Now he'll easily sit through six books at bedtime.  He definitely prefers interactive books with flaps and/or sounds.  His current favorite is the Farm Peekaboo book because it contains both a cow and a tractor.

Lincoln's language skills are still very slow in coming, but there has been some progress.  In addition to "ma-ma" and "da-da" he also says "ba" for ball.  I'm probably the only one who can distinguish them, but he also has words for shoes, outside and slide--his favorite things.  He says "mmm" (moo) for pretty much any four-legged creature.  He makes his motorboat sound for anything with wheels, and for any kind of bird he makes a sound like "caw-caw" only without opening his mouth.

As can be expected, Lincoln has become quite the honchipick.  For those of you unfamiliar with this Dutch term (that I don't know how to spell), it pretty much describes any kid this age whose curiosity often gets them into trouble.  One of Lincoln's favorite activities is still climbing on top of the toilet to turn on and putz in the water in the bathroom sink.  He also pulls out the sink drain.  If the doors to the bathroom are shut he pulls out kitchen chairs to climb up and stick his hands in the fish tank.  He tries to "help" whenever I'm making something in the kitchen.  The table cannot be set for a meal until the absolute last minute.  Sometimes the coffee pot has to go on top of the fridge.  He has also figured out how to get lids off of markers, so all of Emily's markers and crayons also have to be kept out of reach and/or closely monitored.

Lincoln has also officially entered the "terrible twos" stage.  With Emily we could pinpoint the day this happened when she was 16 months old.  With Lincoln it has been more of a gradual onset, although I have been suspicious for awhile.  He has thrown a number of decent tantrums, a few of which have included a deliberate drop to his belly on the floor for more dramatic effect.  He often resorts to his sad, square-mouthed cry if he doesn't get what he wants.  But we've had lots of practice with Emily, so he'll just have to learn the hard way, too. ;o)

Despite all this, another positive thing this month is the fact that we've rarely had to use the baby gate on the stairs.  I trust Lincoln going up and down by himself.  He also does a pretty good job of not going upstairs so I don't have to go chasing after him.  Emily usually keeps her bedroom door closed anyway, so that removes most of the incentive for going up there.  It's nice not to have to deal with a gate all the time!

Lincoln's check-up is next week so I'll post his measurements then. :o)