3 years + 8 months

Lincoln looks so handsome and grown up in his new train vest & shirt!  I had to get him something a little dressier for the funeral. 

Lincoln absolutely LOVES preschool.  Every time I pick him up he jumps up and down saying, "I had fun today!"  He also loves his teacher, "Missalissa" (Miss Melissa).  That's a hard name to get out for some of those preschoolers!

Starting a little before Christmas, Lincoln started needing a late afternoon power nap again.  It's the tricky time when he easily falls apart at night if he doesn't nap but stays up too late if he does.  He probably gets some kind of nap in a few times a week.  If you cuddle up with him on the couch or lay down in his bed with him after 2:00pm. he'll probably fall asleep--especially on the weekends.  The trick is not falling asleep too long yourself!

I'm officially declaring victory over Lincoln's drooling this month.  For the last 1-2 years, he has still drooled on occasion.  After consulting with an OT through the AEA a year ago and reading a book she gave me, we decided he was just forgetting to swallow.  This was especially true when he was tired or concentrating hard on something--like reading books at bedtime.  After subtly reminding him to swallow and wipe his chin each time, he has slowly improved over the months.  A couple months ago he stopped needing a reminder and would loudly suck in and swallow when he felt it accumulating.  There might be a few occasions where a drop or two still slip out, but it is much improved.  Praise the Lord!

I need to take a video of Lincoln's current standard prayer (mealtime, bedtime, anytime).  It goes something like this: "Dear God, Thank you for this food and for the beauuutiful nice day where we can do all our jobs.  Keep Daddy safe as he comes home from 'cago (Chicago) and So-comerica (South America) with the 'lympics (Olympics).  In Jesus name, Amen."  I have no idea where the So-comerica 'lympics came into his head even though they will be in South America in 2016.  We certainly don't have any plans to travel to Brazil!

Lincoln received some nice new trains for Christmas and still LOVES playing with them for hours.  He was also able to purchase some new ones plus a new Thomas DVD with the Christmas money he received.  The bad thing is that now he thinks he can go buy whatever train or DVD is in his head at the moment.  He constantly talks about going to the train store or "bideo" (video) store.  I'm kind of nervous about taking him back to Target.  It looks like I'm going to have to make a new set of money jars for him and set up a Spend/Save/Give plan like Emily.