Lincoln at 2 1/2 years old

-He is our "Mr. Independent." If I try to help with something he promptly lets me know that, "Lincoln do it."
-He loves riding his Strider bike- he is getting so good at lifting his legs up and balancing as he is going around.  He is getting 'Super Fast' as he would say and sometimes Norah and I have to jog in the stroller to keep up with him.

(yes his pants are very short for him--- It was a chilly morning so we got the pants out from last year-- He has def. grown. :)
-Can be very winey when he wakes up from his nap. If we go in his room because we hear that he is awake he freaks out-It is super annoying.  I guess I should be happy that he still naps on 'most' days for at least 2-3 hours.  The days that he doesn't nap, he usually just plays in his room- usually reading books or chatting to himself.
-He sleeps pretty good at night.  We haven't been getting him to bed until 9 or later the last month or so and then he usually sleeps until 8 am or so. Lincoln thought it was so cool when I let Norah lie down by him for a minute. He was pretty upset when I said she was going to sleep there with him.

-He is pretty hit or miss when it comes to eating.  Some days he eats and will try most everything and other days he wants nothing to do with anything (well except sweets and juice, which he will eat anytime, anyday). He def. has a sweet tooth. He still doesn't like many meats.
-Is quite the chatterbox.  Over the last couple of weeks he has really started putting longer, complete sentences and thoughts together. He really does say the funniest things.
-Some of the things that he is constantly saying to us, "What's that?"  "Whatcha doing Mom?". It is cute but gets old at the same time.
-He still LOVES Norah. Loves her so much that he wants to lie right by her, lie on her, or straddle on top of her. I can't count how many times each day I say, "Get off her" or "Leave her Alone." He believes that she can do more than she actually can. He can be quite devious around her. If we tell him not to do something, he still tries to do it--- just a little more slyly.

-We have also been babysitting Andrew once a week while Izzy does her student teaching. Poor Norah gets ganged up on.  I think she like it though--- most of the time.

-We started potty training about 2 weeks ago. It started horribly that morning- def more accidents than successes... but than that afternoon something just clicked and he was doing great. Very few accidents at all. He even went poo in the potty. He is still doing pretty good with pee. He usually doesn't have an accident unless we give him a ton to drink and then we forget to remind him to go. He hasn't had an accident when we have been out-- except church of course.  Our biggest issue has been that he refuses to go poo on the potty. He waits til I put a diaper on him for nap time or bedtime and then poops--- or on occasion just goes in his underwear. It is getting old---  Not cool at all. We've tried about everything to get him to go but nothing has worked.  He also refuses to go on a 'normal' sized toilet (which we are also working on).  It makes church difficult for sure- or if we are going out for a long period of time. I must say that potty-training so far is pretty high on my list of Worst Parent responsibilities.  Can't I just pay someone to come and do it for me?
-Good at putting things together...
-Loves to play outside... doing anything.
-Def. prefers cars, trucks, balls- really anything all boy.
-If we are watching a sporting event on TV, he always says we are watching the Red Sox (which is true a good part of the time).
- He loves being my 'sous chef' in the kitchen.
-He always wants to 'help'- although oftentimes him helping is only slowing the process down. But at the same time it can be very handy to have such a good helper around to get stuff for me etc.
-Loves to play with other kids; especially kids that are a little older than him. He seems to be a bit of a bully with the younger kids(we are working on that).
-He likes nursery... I think too much. We were informed by the nursery leader that he takes toys away from the littler kids.
-Likes to climb on everything.
-Is good at counting things-- and can count to 20 pretty good.  Knows all his shapes, colors and can identify simple patterns.  We are still working on the ABCs.... we have a long way to go. :) He basically can only identify 'A' and 'O' consistently.
-Loves the van because it has a TV that he can watch on long drives. We found out that he loves the movie "Aristocats."
He really is such a good- happy- funny little boy! We couldn't ask for anyone better.