Lincoln has made some huge strides this month. The biggest has been the complete elimination of his pacifier. I mentioned it in my post about his dentist visit last week. I ended up hiding both of them when we got home from the dentist. At bedtime I just announced that he was a big boy and didn't need his pacifier anymore because he had his blanket, puppy and trains to hold and hug. There was a pitifully sad face and a few tears, but much less than I expected. I laid with him until he fell asleep. The next day I promised him new train engines to hold instead of his pacifier. I ended up driving all the way to Target in Waterloo for the diesel engines named 'arry (I think it's supposed to be "Harry") and Bert from Thomas & Friends. I have had to lay with him pretty much every night until he falls asleep, but it has gone a lot more smoothly than I was expecting (at least a lot less tears). He still asked about it every night, and it took longer to fall asleep, but he was oftentimes too tired to fight it.
One of the reasons Lincoln has been so tired is because I have pretty much given up on regular napping. The weeks before and after the garage sale he only napped twice and for less than an hour each time. It has become much less convenient to have him nap in the afternoons, and even after laying with him for 45 min. he usually doesn't fall asleep. Now he still could use a half a nap or a late nap based on the fact he fell asleep twice in the chair at 4:00pm this week, but then bedtime was harder and later. I'm guessing he probably would still nap more if he had his pacifier, but we're not going back to that again.
Another area of progress for Lincoln has been potty training! I can't remember if I've mentioned much about it before. After the long struggles with Emily, I've pretty much just gone with the flow with Lincoln and not pushed much of anything. However, soon after his birthday he actually peed in the potty for the first time ever (he's been sitting on the potty pretending to go for a year). That led to some successes at bath time. More recently he has also had some successes during the day. It is hilarious to sit and listen to his constant narration about "making rocks" and "spraying water." He is actually much better at going #2. I did put him in underwear one morning this week. He had a couple accidents, which I fully expected and actually wanted to happen so he could experience what it felt like. Unfortunately, the dirty pants didn't seem to bother him. :op It's slow progress, but I'm not in a hurry. I learned my lesson last time. ;o)
The last big area of progress has been verbal speech. To my mom's relief, Lincoln has started making some beginning /r/ sounds. It started with water in the bathtub. We've been practicing a lot with 'arry and Bert. It will take a while, but I'm starting to hear it correctly here and there. Many people have commented how much Lincoln's speech has come along lately and the fact that he's not shy (everyone is a friend to him, he just hasn't met them yet). It's funny to listen to him talk because he sounds like he has a bit of a southern drawl at times. I joke that it's to offset the Canadian accent Austin has developed from working with and talking to his Canadian partners all the time! The one thing I have decided is that when Lincoln doesn't know what something is called or how to say it, he uses the generic word "han-o-heen". I don't know where that came from or what it's supposed to be, but it gets used in all sorts of different situations.
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