2 years + 10 months

We have had a busy and fun month OUTSIDE!  The weather has been nothing short of amazing, and Lincoln's knees prove it.  He has worn shorts and a t-shirt for five consecutive days and has scraped his knees to the point of bleeding at least once each of those days.  He also has bruises on his shins and blisters on his ankles from running around in Crocs with no socks.  The poor kid is not going to have any skin left by the end of the summer!

He loves the "digger stickers" (i.e. Bob the Builder Band-Aids).  They really became stickers, too, because we received them as part of a picture hanging kit for a wedding shower gift 9 years ago, so there wasn't a whole lot of "stick" left to them.  Plus, whenever I gave one to Lincoln, he'd tear off the small gauze pad in the middle and just put on the sticker.  I started giving him as many as he wanted and let him stick them wherever he wanted (see picture on left).  However, after three more scrapes in one evening that resulted in some pretty bloody and raw holes, I finally got out some large square patches and made him wear them to give his knees a chance to start healing and to just plain protect them (see chair picture)!  Fortunately, Lincoln is really tough and barely even cries.  As soon as I pick him up he's fine.  It obviously doesn't slow him down much (see picture on right).

Lincoln has made the transition to his big bed better than I expected.  I spent the first few days/nights laying down with him for naps and sitting in a recliner chair in his room at bedtime until he fell asleep.  I didn't get much done (other than playing lots of Words With Friends and reading a short novel on my iPhone in the dark), but it was kind of nice to be forced to sit and rest.  But I can't do that every night, so I had to slowly wean Lincoln of my presence.  I spent some quality time sitting in the hallway for a while, but he quickly adapted.

We have developed a pretty good bedtime routine that includes Emily, too.  Sadly, it doesn't include snuggling in the chair together while reading books anymore, but it's working.  I'm still not sure how Lincoln would do having someone other than me put him to bed, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  We have the video monitor set up and have kind of gone the same route as we did with Emily.  After being put to bed, the kids can do whatever they want quietly as long as they stay in their rooms.  It's kind of amusing watching Lincoln's antics.  For some reason, he also tends to occasionally enjoy sleeping on the floor.  I would say about 25% of the time he ends up on the rug with his Thomas pillow, blanket and pacifier.  This often happens after he has stripped his bed as shown in the picture.  I'm sure it's just a phase, so we just smile and shake our heads.

I also want to note that one of my biggest fears about moving him to a big bed was that he would drop his nap completely like Emily did.  While he might occasionally skip it or we have something that prevents it, he still needs it.  When he's really tired, he actually goes upstairs and puts himself down for a 3 hour nap while Emily & I finish eating lunch.

Lincoln continues to try hard to keep up with his big sister.  There are a few easy iPhone apps that he enjoys playing (a little too much perhaps).  However, I've noticed that he has begun to recognize individual letters such as A, T, O, W, X, etc.  He also does a pretty good job counting out a small number of objects (six or less).  He mostly has the basic shapes down, but we're still working on colors.

One cute thing Lincoln has really gotten into lately is praying before meals.  His prayers are becoming more intelligible, but are still a lot of mumble-jumble.  He starts off by saying, "Deah God, tank you for da beau-ful nice day" and then proceeds to list some things we have done or are planning to do that day.  He ends with a big "Amen!"  I think it's funny that he also calls pears, "pway-ehs". 

Another sort of cute thing is Lincoln's frequent request to "Hold me!"  This is directed only to me and is used when he's hurt, tired or just wants a little love.  It's nice to have a snuggler, but it kind of gets in the way when there are things that have to be done, like cooking supper and doing laundry.  It's a lucky thing that Lincoln is still lightweight for his age, so it's still a possibility to pick him up and hold him when he needs it.  I love my little cuddle-bug!