Lincoln Lately

Lincoln is a great helper.  He hasn't yet reached the age in which it's a burden to do something to help out around the house. Oh, sure, he takes eye roll cues from his brother occasionally but for now, he still thinks helping is fun.  Any ideas on how to keep that intact?

Running the Dyson is fun for anyone!  I love that thing!  

Lincoln had an altercation with the head of one of Jackson's friends on the trampoline.  It led to a pretty serious black eye that lasted for over a week!  In the same week, he was "chewing on a toy?!?" and said "Mom, my tooth is loose!"  Yes, my 4 and a half year old had a loose top tooth.  I was afraid and pretty mad since it will be a year or MORE before it comes back in now.  Even the tooth fairy let him know it was unacceptable and that it was clearly too early to start losing teeth!  So for the foreseeable future, Lincoln will be rocking the snaggle tooth.

We go to story time at Wendy's on Tuesdays.  This particular Tuesday Lincoln asked to be a pirate.  I thought it was appropriate for him to have the patch over that eye since it was already a huge black eye.  It's a good thing he's so darn cute!

Lucy had gotten into some sort of trouble and had to be put into her crate.  Lincoln did the honors and no one checked on her for a while because she was in isolation.  It was nearing bedtime and she was whining to get out more than normal.  I ignored her at first but when I was brushing my teeth, I had to see what the problem was.  I looked into her crate located in the bottom of our closet and this is what I see!  The cat must have been lounging in the crate when Lincoln put the dog in.  Both of them were stuck inside the tiny crate.  I'm not sure who that punished more, Lucy or the poor cat!  Either way, it was funny.

Lincoln (and his black eye) called me from the kitchen recently.  On his banana phone.  He also called PawPaw and Santa Claus.  Who needs an iphone 5 when you can use this for communication AND it turns into a snack later!  WIN!

We were at church and Lincoln asked to go in with us.  We let him and he was content for most of the service.  

Towards the end he whispered to me "Mom, I really want one of those mints that doesn't taste like anything and one of those tiny cups of apple juice!"  

It took me a minute to register what he was asking for.  

Ah, communion. He wanted to partake in communion.  Not for the spiritual aspect which he is still a bit too young to understand but for the novelty of the "nothing mint" and the tiny juice cup.  

This week we were going to eat lunch with one of my friends.  I told him we were going to a cafe and he could get chicken tenders.  He said "I don't want chicken".  I didn't argue with him I just went on and got my shower.  I was drying my hair when he comes to me with the peanut butter jar.  

"Mom, could you open this?"  

"Sure son, what are you doing?"

"I'm making my own lunch!"

So I go into the kitchen to find THIS:

He has everything spread out and is doing a mighty fine job at it.  I couldn't squash his effort so I just requested he clean up when he was done.  He also did a great job with that.  He mentioned his lunch box was too high and I told him I'd get it but before I could, he'd gone upstairs and pulled out a piece of carry-on luggage that he deemed his lunch box.  Suits me just fine.  I was really impressed with his lunch making skills.  He even added carrots which made momma proud that he put in vegetables!  Because of his valiant effort, I threw in some chocolate covered raisins to round out the lunch and because he was just SO darn cute doing it.  

On the way to this particular lunch, I was telling him like many times before how I would miss him next year while he's at school and I only have a crying baby sister for a lunch date.  He's pretty pleasant and entertaining nowadays.  

He was eager to tell me, "If baby sister is crying, you just put some milk in a bottle and shake it up then give it to her."

OK, not sure where he learned his baby rearing skills but I pressed on for more.  He continued.  

"If she still cries then you just give her the paci in her mouth," he went on, 

"AND...if she stinks...you take her to the bathroom and you change her diaper!"

Well then, it sounds like he's got this big brother thing totally under control.  I couldn't wait to share that one.  Lincoln's baby rearing techniques 101.  It's going to be interesting for sure.

I wish I could convey the difference between these two brothers.  All kids are different but these two couldn't be more different when it comes to pajamas.  Jackson puts on whatever he first lays his hands on.  It doesn't have to be pajamas, it doesn't have to be clean or right side out, it doesn't even have to be HIS and he will put it on and proudly wear it until morning.  Many a day, it's backwards AND inside out and he could care less.  Lincoln on the other hand will ever so carefully remove his pj's in the morning taking extra precaution to make SURE they are not wrong side out.  If they do get turned around, he will politely bring them to me at bedtime to have help turning them.  Also, he is a big fan of his zipper pajamas.  I have unsuccessfully tried to buy some footless zippers in HIS size but the 3T hanna andersson's seem to be the end of the line for Lincoln.  I told him last night that he and my niece Allie Gray currently wear the same size pajamas.  She's 16 months old.  He's 4.5.  Sure, they are a little short on him but he has stated refusal in putting them in the too small bin just yet.  I'm not totally ruling out cutting the feet off of some feety pajamas but that's more of a "nana job" than it is for me.  Besides, according to Lincoln, I'm going to be busy bottling and diapering pretty soon.  

Lincoln's self sufficiency is an endearing character in him.  His ingenuity can probably be attributed to his father but it's fun to watch.  He's too short to reach the lights in the house, the sink to wash hands and the garage door opener.  The lights he resolved to using a spatula to turn them on.  It works well and now he's just tall enough to do a "jump hit" of them also.  The sink, he simply climbs up onto the edge and teeters on his stomach while he washes his hands.  The garage door is much higher up.  Probably for a reason, like not letting 4 year olds out.  He simply grabs the nearby broom handle and uses it as an "extend an arm" to press the button making the garage door go up.  Luckily, he's not bad at wandering off without my permission so it's actually helpful sometimes.  Getting snacks is a different story.  He all too often "forgets" that he has to ask permission to have snacks between meals.  Selective memory.  

We had steaks recently and Lincoln asked for "some of that 49 sauce" to put on his.  He was referring to the Heinz 57 sauce Jason introduced them to.

Lincoln regularly talks about how things will be "when baby sister POPS out".  We haven't gone into much detail about how the baby gets out necessarily.  But his graphic conversation doesn't paint a very pretty picture of her POPPING out of my stomach like a kernel of popcorn.  Either way, he's realizing his little life is going to change when baby sister arrives.  Enter "middle child syndrome".  He's lived his whole life fitting into the role, now he gets to OWN it!

This morning, I packed the boys leftovers for lunch.  When Lincoln got home he announced, "Mom!  Thanks for the sloppy john in my lunch!  It was so good!"