Lincoln Update 22-26 Months

He has grown so fast! At around 22 months he was doing a lot with similarities: he would show me his word cards and then go and find the actual object. He just did this with his ball card...showed it to me and then held up the actual ball. He also did this with the keys card and then went to find his keys and brought those to show too. Lately Lincoln has really been using the word "mama" in reference to me and points to me a lot and will say mama. Now if I'm doing something else he will be sure to say "mama" and then talk to me to make sure I know he is talking to me. We were playing a CD and one of the songs was B-I-N-G-O and he came over to me and said "mama O", which is one of his favorite letters. He recognizes it everywhere! Another song also says stuff like touch your toes, stand up tall, march in place and he will repeat those the best he can, but it also says jumping jacks which he can say really well! I'm so happy that he picks words and phrases out and attempts to say them.

I guess a big thing that happened around 22 months was me going back to work part-time. Lincoln started going to a daycare called La Petite Academy. I researched many places and really liked this one. It has been great! At first he didn't like it because it was really the first time that he was without me for long periods, but after a few days he was just fine and now looks forward to school.

We moved to our new place mid-October and Linc not only graduated from his crib to his toddler bed, but he graduated to his own floor of the house! The basement floor is his domain. He has his bedroom (biggest in the house) and his play room. He likes it, but doesn't always want to play down there unless we are there with him. Linc really likes leap frog Amazing Alphabet and Numberland. He is quickly learning all of his letters and numbers 1-10. By the time he turned 2 he was able to identify about half of them and would spot them all over the city as we drove or in stores. Now he can tell you every single letter of the alphabet, numbers 1-10 and can count from 1-10 (for the most part)!

He has been really into cooking and loves the play kitchen. For Christmas Grandma and Grandpa Perez got him a little play grill and he loves it! he plays with it every day and is always cooking for us and shares all the food. Sometimes he even just carries the food around with him. When he is at places that have the play kitchens he always plays with the food and cookware.

Goodness I feel like there is so much to say about Lincoln, he has seriously grown so fast and so much! He continues to be a really good eater and loves chickens and dippings. He generally eats his vegetables first, but loves candy!

Some of his favorite things to watch: bananas in pajamas continue to be a favorite, winnie the pooh, spongebob, and his more recent favorite Cars!! He can watch that movie over and over and over and he can spot Lightning McQueen in any store. He also calls any red car Lightning McQueen.

Lincoln is very polite and will always say please and thank you/gracias. He is so polite that it is hard to say no. He always asks for things like "mama, more cars please", "dada more candy please". His language has definitely blossomed! He is really good at asking and telling. I ask him what he did at school and he will tell me a few things. One day I asked him what he did in nursery at church and he said sunbeams, I asked him if he sang the song and he said "yesh". I actually peeked in on them through the little peep hole and saw that they did sing sunbeams so I was very impressed. We love how he says no and purses out his lips.

He loves talking on the phone and has several of his own phones that he uses. The funny part is that when he talks on his phone he will pace back and forth like Dave does when he is talking on the phone. His favorite person to skype with is "Rah-Rah".

He loves to read...especially with dad! He has a set of 4 books that he reads right now before bed and he has them all memorized to the point where he and Dave read them together. He will ask for each of them by name and will be sad if he doesn't get all 4 and of course he gets them because there is nothing better than a child who loves to read! Goodnight Moon, Five Little Pumpkins (he does the voices like Dave), Go Go Bobo Opposites and Shapes. I have seen him at school sitting listening to books and when we read to him here at home he just loves it.

We went to Memphis for Christmas and Linc got to hang out with his cousins. They loved playing the Wii and dancing. Linc has loved dancing since he was a little guy and has learned many new moves as well as creates some of his own. I think his favorite parts about the trip were seeing the big house with the lights and music and hanging out with grandpa and exploring the woods with dad. For several weeks after we got back Linc would ask for Grandpa and the "agua luz", which were part of the big lights display.

Lincoln is a really good big brother. He loves to share with Oliver and now that Oliver sits and plays Linc always brings him toys. He does try to climb on him and sit on him sometimes, but luckily I'm never too far away! He is so lovable all the time. He will go up to Oliver and kiss him on the head or sometimes he will take out his pacifier, give him a kiss and then put his pacifier back in. When Oliver is in his jumper Linc is right there playing with him, sometimes sitting on the side of the jumper.

He always has his stuffed animal friends with him. At night they all sleep with him and he knows each of them by name. In the morning he will collect them all and make is way up the stairs holding 3 or 4 big stuffed animals. Since he has gotten into cars he now carries around a few little cars and trucks too!

He is very good at identifying and recall. Every time he sees the netflix logo he says bananas because he knows that's how we watch bananas in pajamas. He can also tell us who's phone is beeping and we can be playing and he will hear a phone and say mama phone or dada phone. He loves dadas phone because it has lots of home videos that he likes to watch over and over and over. Oh, which reminds me: Linc had a winter concert at his school and his class sang Jingle Bells, which he sang pretty well. At grandma's house over Christmas he would find little jingle things and sing his song and we even got it on dad's phone!! Some of the songs he now sings are: Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, follow the prophet, popcorn popping (with the hand moves), eensy weensy spider, wheels on the bus, once there was a snowman, I am a child of God, twinkle twinkle. He also directs music and moves his arm pretty similar to the music director. Oh and lets not forget the music on the radio: he loves his songs!! Gangnam Style is one of his favorites and he can watch that video for hours if we let him. He even calls the guy in yellow Uncle Jon. He likes to bob his head to the music and will sing pieces of some songs (Taylor swift Trouble he likes the e-e-e parts, another song that says eh-eh-ooh).

Linc loves to wear hats, especially dad's baseball caps. We got him one of his own that is a little big, but he looks so cute in it! I also got him a little table and chairs, which he loves to sit at. He has really gotten into coloring so he does a lot of coloring at his table.

Now that Oliver sits in the high chair Lincoln sits with us at the big table using his bumbo as a booster seat. I think he actually started wanting to sit at the big table before Oliver used the high chair. He has gotten really good at turning on the tv and dvd player and will sometimes disappear downstairs and then I will hear a movie on and realize that he got bored of being upstairs and went downstairs to watch a movie and play.

He likes to play outside and go to the park. He likes the slides and playing tag/hide and seek. He also likes playing at the mall play place and riding in the little car machines, especially the bus. He got to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for his birthday and he loved it!

He is a very big helper and loves helping with cleanup, sweeping, mopping, taking his diaper to the trash, or any trash to the trash, putting dishes in the sink, vacuuming.

He loves scooter rides with dad in our backyard and collecting sticks, rocks, and leaves. He likes stickers brushing his teeth, even more now that he has a lightning mcqueen toothbrush and spongebob toothpaste.

Some more things I want to remember:
-when we pull in to the church parking lot he says "church, yeah!"
-when we get home he always says "coat off, shoes off"
-he can identify supersaver, target, walmart, sams club and knows that area of town they are in. I think he knows the town better than Dave!
-He loves car carts and knows that super saver has a kid cookie for him whenever we go. 
-when we pull into our driveway he says, "mama, look, home...yeah!"
-when we are in the car he will say "mama ba-bye, kincon ba-bye, bah-ber ba-bye", when I ask where they are all going he says, "kincon school, bahber school, dadda school, mama works"