Lincoln at 18 months

Lincoln man, you are eighteen months old! That's a year and a half. It's kind of a big deal. 

And the best age ever. 

This is the first time you've reached an age milestone and you actually woke up looking bigger to me. We laugh because we look back at pictures of you when you were a little squirt, just a couple of months old, and we can't really recall you growing, you seemed like the same Lincoln, just with less teeth and hair. Your personality started shining through way before you could actually say anything– you've been hilarious for quite a while.

Lately? You are such a big kid. You love anything that goes– cars, trucks, vans, trains, planes, and will exclaim "TRUCK" whenever you see anything on wheels. This includes a trashcan that a janitor was pushing through Target yesterday.

You're all about eating with a fork, and mimic how I told you to "poke" your food with it, except it sounds like "poo poo" which you now tell us you did in your diaper. On the Fourth of July, actually, you told your dad you had to go number 2 (with some extreme grunting, I believe, I wasn't present) and he took you upstairs and you went poo poo on the kid potty! We were so excited and sang some songs and did a poo poo dance, you love to talk about poo poo now. Sometimes you tell the truth and you really did go in your diaper, and other times I think you're just telling us about poop. Not gonna lie, we loved your poo poo on the potty so much, if I were you I'd probably humble brag about that for a long time too...

You have become an expert kisser, especially on the lips. You lean in really close to my lips, say "mmmmmmmWAH!" and lay one on me, and I love it. Every once in a while you lick my face instead, which you think is funny (it is, it is funny). I am really taking advantage of the fact that you love to give kisses because I'm sure once the terrible twos are upon us, you may not enjoy that as much.


You're getting really good at talking, and for a couple of weeks you would get really frustrated because you couldn't tell us stuff, but you're getting SO good at it! You'll attempt to say pretty much anything, and some times it sounds like absolute gibberish, but you're attempting it and we're so proud.


Some of your words currently are: tuck (truck), CKKKK (car), boon (balloon), ball (ball), bock (box), Lobo (all dogs), bool (bull-- we went to a Durham bulls game, and there's a bull in your kid's Bible, so now you point to the Bible and say 'bull'), go, turtle, purple, toos (shoes), tocks, (socks), pits (pants), butta (belly button), nose, ot (hot), baba (banana), pool, watah (water), poo poo, and my current favorite: NACK (snack).

Suddenly, my name is mommy like 50% of the time. Most times I'm still mama, and sometimes I'm a weird combo of the two mama-ee, but literally one day it happened. Dada is still dada. Luna and Lobo are still lobo. And you've gotten great at trying to say other people's names. Our dermatologist, Tracy, nearly cried on Tuesday when you said teetee at her. You also said Sarah, say say. Working on our cousin's names (Oliver) and Aunt Cassidy and Aunt Olivia, but you've got Charlie down (also tee tee) and Gigi and Pop Pop.

You had a freaking blast at story time at the library on Tuesday. You sat on the floor when the teacher said to and did for a while, until you realized there was no consequence for running around. This is just like you do when friends come over to play, you run around shouting "yay!" and applauding. I didn't intervene until you knocked a baby over because it was hilarious and you were so happy to be there, I wanted you to run around and be happy.

You like to pray with us, most times. You at least know that when we say "let's pray!" we're gonna hold hands, bow our heads and talk to God. It's funny to watch you do it. At dinner, when we pray you'll stuff some bites of food in your mouth, one in each hand and sometimes tuck one in between your shoulder and chin (maybe our prayers take too long??) and hold our hands even with food in yours. You say "baaaaaaaby" at the very end (amen) every time. Sometimes you'll super enjoy a toy or a food you're eating and you'll be yay-ing and clapping and we'll stop and thank God for it for a minute. I have no idea if that's teaching you anything about God, but it is really helping me to slow down and thank God for these moments. They're my favorite, man. And God has really blessed us!

Tantrums come and go, and typically can be easily explained by frustration with communication, not getting what you want (waffle fries, ahem), missed sleep or teeth. It looks like all your baby teeth are in (!), just waiting on those two year molars. I'm sure they'll be here any day now, or wait to ruin Christmas.


You're taking one nap a day, eat a good three meals and two 'nacks. You wear size 4 diapers (should probably be a three for weight and skinnies, but your poops are fours) and 18 month jammies. Your 18 month pants are too big in the waist, but your 18 month shorts fit fine. Most 12 month stuff still fits, but I went ahead and packed it up since it was mostly cold weather stuff and it's July and one million degrees outside.


Dada puts you to bed every night, and you guys have an awesome special routine that occasionally I like to ruin. New diaper, PJs, brush teeth, lotion on your face, books, sound machine + music, snuggles, sleep. Lately you've been rolling around in bed falling asleep on your own, which is nice. You will babble and talk and sing to yourself and we love to hear it.


I put you down for naps on days Dada is working, and we snuggle and I look forward to it every day. I know some day you won't nap anymore or you'll hate my guts and I savor our pre-nap snuggles. You fall asleep pretty fast (toddle hard, nap hard-- as I like to say) and so sometimes I hold you for probably too long. You love your blanket, and your lobo and baby in your crib with you.

We love you, big kid! So thankful you are ours. You make our family so great and joyful.
Happy half birthday!


All the photos from this post come from a Real Life Session we had with our friend Amber from Langhoff Creative. We loved having her document our day and are so grateful for these images, we will treasure them!