18 Months

Here's our little man after he had a spray bottle war with himself (one of his favorite pastimes). It's hard to tell from the photo, but his shirt is ABSOLUTELY SOAKED!!! He doesn't much care for drinking water, but this is one way I can trick him into rehydrating... give him a spray bottle. He'll drink most of it by spraying it in his mouth and the rest ends up on his shirt. 

He also loves throwing balls. He walks around with a tennis ball in hand nearly every waking hour. He hasn't learned to catch yet, but he is VERY good at throwing. In anticipation of his throw he'll say, "Ahhhhh...." and then when he releases, he says "Dee!!". He is OBSESSED with putting small objects in bags, or a box. He especially likes boxes with slits on the top. He's gotten quite good at stacking blocks and when he gets one to balance, he applauds himself every time. He also applauds himself every time he throws something. Maybe I give him a little too much positive reinforcement.

It is a struggle to keep Lincoln's hair under control. He starts out the day with an orderly hairdo (as seen below), but after the first nap, it looks like the picture shown above. He was very upset with me when I took that picture because he wanted to snuggle for a minute before really waking up. My favorite thing is to snuggle with him before he goes to sleep and for a BRIEF moment after he wakes up. When I go to put him in his crib to go to sleep, he knows that I'm going to kiss him, so he'll smack his lips multiple times in anticipation. He's been very liberal with his hugs and kisses lately and it makes Matt and me melt.

Lincoln loves to read. If I'm ever sitting on the floor, he'll run go find a book and then come over to me, turn around and back up into my lap so we can read it. He loves thumbing through books himself. A few days ago, after I got him out of his crib, I had to run do something with Bennett. When I came back to his room, I found him chillin' in the recliner with the book we read the previous night. He can't get in the recliner by himself unless he flips the footrest up. Then the recliner stays still while he hoists himself up in it. Pretty cute.

He has become a burp master. He totally pushes them out. Not sure if it was Auntie L or Matt that taught him that behind my back.

He HATES it if his hands are covered by his long sleeves. He'll pull his shirt almost completely off if I don't pull his hands out.

He has gotten to be A LOT more verbal even in this last week. Words he says include:

• Daddy
• Mama ("Ba ba")
• Ball ("Ba!!!")
• Uh-oh (which he says when he makes a mistake AND when he throws things off his high chair on purpose)
• Book ("Buh")
• Shoe ("Jew")
• Drink ("Digga digga digga")
• Baby (as in baby Bennett, "Di di")
• Jesus ("Je da" or "Di di")
• Get down ("Di da")
• Gukgoo (which is "Peek-a-boo" in Korean)
• Hi ("I")
• Yeah
• Yay

He's not super consistent with the use of words, but he's been trying a lot more to repeat things I say. I shower him with praise for any effort even if it's not even close to the actual word. He's catching on, though. He has lot's of other ways of communicating, like saying "Uh, uh, uh!!" while pointing at something he wants. He'll point to the cupboard where we keep bread, cookies, crackers, etc when he wants a snack. He also puts his hands out to the side and shrugs his shoulders (as seen below) when he's "All done" eating, or being in his car seat or stroller. We've been working on the alphabet and he can say "O", "E", "I", "T" and "S".

He has started nursery. It's Korean-style nursery, so that means he must take his shoes off before going in the nursery room. That also means that he may end up in with the Young Women, Primary or anywhere else in the church building or perhaps even outside in the parking lot. I'm trying to learn not to be too over-protective cause Koreans just let the ward watch their kids, whoever that might be. I did hear him near the kitchen where they were boiling water in a pot on the floor to make rice for a linger-longer. I couldn't take the thought of him being scalded so I went out of RS and found that he was just playing outside in the rain screaming in delight while the nursery leader was helping make the food. He was just about to sit down in a puddle when I got to him. At least puddles don't do any lasting damage. He loves nursery and doesn't even look back once when he goes in.  

You could tell he had a good time at nursery by the looks of his shirt afterward. The nursery leader gave me a "Choco Pie" after church for him to eat later. She said he liked them a lot and that he had already had two. She also apologized to Matt and said that Lincoln had eaten some crayon. He's eaten black Playdough on my watch so whatever. 

Last, but not least are his stats:

Weight: 26 lbs 4 oz (50th Percentile)

Height: 31.5 inches (25th Percentile)