2 years + 7 months

Another month has flown by for Lincoln.  It seems like he has grown taller lately, so I finally took some measurements at home.  He is now 36" tall and weighs 28 lbs.  Those are in the 35-40th percentiles, which is a huge jump from most of his previous measurements.  He's still a skinny little thing, though!

Lincoln has entered full-fledged toddler stage with some impressive tantrums and boundary-testing (although Emily hardened me, and I rarely get flustered or lose my cool).  He was a real stinker about eating this month.  He would oftentimes refuse to sit at the table at mealtimes, and only when everyone else was pretty much done would he show up to eat--sometimes even completely cleaning his plate.  This is a picture of one such instance.  I recently decided that we needed to break this habit before Christmas travels.  At the first meal Austin set Lincoln back in his chair about 20 times.  Then I made Lincoln stand in a corner until he was ready to come eat.  Amazingly, he stood there quietly for about 5 minutes and then willingly joined us.  The next couple meals he had to stand in the corner again, but it didn't take as long for him to rejoin us.  Lincoln willingly came to supper tonight.  Let's hope that little lesson was learned!

Another little phase Lincoln went through this month was a sudden onset of separation anxiety.  He has been the kid to run into a childcare room without a backward glance for as long as I can remember.  Then one week he just started screaming whenever I left him anywhere--even in familiar places with familiar faces.  Of course, he also sometimes screamed when I picked him up because he didn't want to leave. :op  He has been okay the last two times at church, so I'm hoping this phase is also passing.

Lincoln continues to develop his verbal skills.  Some of his popular phrases are, "Dat's mine!" "Me, too!" and "Please help me."  His favorite, though, is excitedly clapping and exclaiming, "Yay--you did it!"  He says this for many simple activities like when you cut up his food, park the van, pick up toys, get something down off the shelf, etc.  He said it to Austin last week when Austin changed his diaper. :o)  It's pretty nice having an enthusiastic cheerleader around!

Lincoln can sort of sing parts of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me" because I sing these to him every night before bed.  He can also recite parts of "Humpty Dumpty" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb."  The funniest thing is listening to him almost completely recite "Cobbler, Cobbler mend my shoe.  Get it done by half past two.  Stitch it up and stitch it down, and then I'll give you half a crown."  I noticed him doing this while pounding a plastic screw with his plastic hammer.  Then I remember that in the nursery rhyme book we often read, the picture illustration that goes with "Cobbler, Cobbler" is a picture of a man hammering nails on the bottom of a shoe. :o)

Lincoln is always trying to keep up with his big sister, and that includes playing board games.  Emily got a lot for her birthday, and Lincoln likes to "play" all of them.  You can kind of play a simple, modified version of some of them with him, but he mostly just likes to dump all the pieces and cards out.  I swear we pick up every game 3x/day.  And for some reason, Lincoln thinks we have to read the directions for "I Have" every time he gets out.  He pesters you until you actually read some of the words.

As displayed in the meal picture above, Lincoln has very dramatic, and oftentimes hilarious, facial expressions.  He can go from square-mouthed pout to sly grin with the flip of a switch.  Lincoln & I often make and mimic funny faces across the dinner table.  We all love our little schmoozer!