22 Months Old

Lincoln has survived to the ripe old age of 22 months. He's starting to get such a personality and that makes every day an adventure with him. Needless to say, Aaron and I laugh a lot when Lincoln is around because of all his crazy antics. The picture above pretty much describes his personality...he's a ham. His vocabulary is improving every day. He's started putting two or three words together at a time. He'll say things like "night daddy" or "more see-yo (cereal)" or "rad-dit go side? (rabbit go outside?)" And he's a little parrot, repeating the last word of almost everything you say to him. When he tells you what he wants, and you repeat it for clarification, instead of saying yes, he says ok! Like you've already agreed to it. For example Linc will say "Mama teat?" and I'll say "You want a treat?" and he'll say "Tay! (ok)" like you were the one who suggested it and he thought it was a great idea. It's funny. He's also finally starting to learn his name. He calls himself "kee-kan" or "dee-dan". He likes to sit on my "flap (lap)" to read stories. One of his favorite snacks are "bay-pees (grapies)". And he's trying very hard to learn that he needs to be quiet while the baby is "sweeping (sleeping)".

Speaking of sleeping, Lincoln has been a terrible sleeper since Ivan was born. He almost always wakes up at least once in the middle of the night. Sometimes it's for a diaper change, sometimes he wants a drink, and sometimes, I guess, he just feels like being awake and letting the world know about it....loudly. He has kind of a weird sleeping quirk, as in, he takes random objects to bed with him. It started slowly. I bought him a teddy bear, he never really seemed overly attached to it, but I always put it in bed with him, so that if we were sleeping somewhere besides our apartment he would still feel like there was something familiar with him. One night we couldn't find the bear, and surprisingly, he asked for it. So we substituted with a stuffed baby. Then we found the bear, but the next night, he wanted Bear and Baby. Then for Valentines Day Grandma Swan sent him a little stuffed dog, we had just been to Vancouver for Christmas and Lincoln really liked their dog Mo, so he started calling the stuffed dog Mo Mo, and wanted to sleep with all three. Then for Easter, we got him a stuffed rabbit. "Rad-dit" is now part of the sleeping crew too. AND lately he's been wanting to take to bed a toy as well. Usually whatever he was playing with when I announced that it was nap time. At first it was just something like a matchbox car, so no big deal and I let him take it. But then we went out of control. Here are some of the things he's taken to bed: his turtle bath toy, measuring cups, wooden spoon, spatula, the punkpin gut scooper (can you tell he plays in my kitchen drawers?), a giant magnifying glass (this one is starting to be a regular, he almost always asks for it), plastic train, his sippy (he doesn't care if there's water in it or not, he just wants the cup), books, the plastic outlet protector cover thing, tennis ball, etc. I usually let him pick one thing (if he asks) to take to bed with him other than the four stuffed animals, because I figure it's easier to let him sleep with a toy than to deal with his tantrum because I'm taking it away. As long as it won't hurt him, I let him. Here are some things he's asked to sleep with that I would not let him take to bed: my keys, giant blue bouncy ball, his backpack dog with the long long tail (meant as sort of a child leash for when you are in crowded places), computer mouse, drum sticks, and a balloon.

Linc loves to play outside, ride his bike, watch the big kids play, climb up on the back of the couch and look out the window (and pop the screen out!), eat "nacks and teats (snacks and treats)", do anything with Daddy, push the shopping cart, go to nursery, read books, sing songs, and get into everything. Oh, and a few weird things, he likes me to clean out his ears and wash his hands, but he hates to have his teeth brushed or his diaper changed. He likes to put on "show-shun (lotion)" and chap stick, and will only let me clip his finger nails if he gets to choose which finger I'm going to do next (which often times includes my fingers as well as his).

In two months he'll be two. Wow! It'll be interesting to see what that brings our way, since he's already head-strong and stubborn (which I'm sure he got those traits from Aaron, haha, just don't ask my mom about it or she'll probably tell you the truth.) But ya, we love our little Linc-a-doo and we love watching him learn new things and try new things, and we mostly always love listening to him chatter all day long.