Some Bot-y is One!

It's appropriate that I'm writing Lincoln's one-year update on Valentine's Day because it was one year ago that we got to spend our first official overnight and full day with him at the hospital in their weird hotel-like room. I can still feel the joy and relief I experienced that night one year ago when I finally felt like he was really ours. I just love this little guy so much.

In the last month he's learned some new tricks. He started pulling himself up onto furniture.

Which evolved into his interest in redecorating his room.

Which evolved into him standing just so every time we put him down for a nap. 

We had a nice month of Lincoln on a sleep strike due to his newly found ability to stand up in his crib (and inability to get himself back down) and one nasty month of growing basically all of his teeth at the same time.

Every nap and bedtime was spent laying Lincoln down, hearing him screech as soon as I walked out of the room, hearing him stand up in his crib, so I would go back in, see him standing in the position above, same corner, same hands longingly outstretched, to which I would lay him back down, rinse, repeat.

Not only was he REFUSING to go down for sleep without an hour long up and down battle, he was also waking up at least once a night...but for a straight hour and a half.

It was a struggle, but I finally feel like his sleep is regulating itself again...until the next batch of teeth comes in anyway!

Lincoln's favorite things are Legos and the dishwasher. The sound of Legos clinking or the dishwasher opening is quickly followed by the sound of a little Lincoln scurrying across the floor towards the fun.

Here's Lincoln's one-year picture!

And here's the crabbier version because I'm sure one day we'll all want to remember what he looked like when he was ticked as a baby.

Here's the weirdo baby version just in case future us is interested in that as well.

Here's the middle-child-needs-some-attention-too shot.

Here's what Linker's up to:

• Up to 50th percentile on all his stats. He was just barely under 20 pounds at his 1-year check-up. 
• Size 3 diapers.
• Still fits most of his 12-month clothes but is venturing into 18-month.
• Says Dada, Mama (conveniently learned this one during our month of sleep battling), "Up High" (Jeff always plays the high-five game: up high, down low, in the middle, too slow with the older boys and Lincoln has caught on.), baba, books, hi.
• He loves to wave hello and goodbye.
• He is a major cuddle bug! If anyone is laying on the ground, he views it as an invitation to snuggle attack. I workout in the mornings while Lincoln crawls around. At the end of most of my workouts, there is an ab section, where I lay on the ground. Lincoln always gleefully books it over to me as soon as I hit the ground, then he perfectly lines himself up against my chest, sucks his thumb and happily snuggle-supports me through the end of my workout. 
• Along with his love for snuggling, he is completely content to sit in my lap. He is my first child to just be content to BE. Eli and Carson were always crazies and would never sit still, but Lincoln prefers to be plopped in my lap with his head on my chest over anywhere else. 
• Even though he's a major snuggler, he's not a needy snuggler yet. He prefers to be held and cuddled, but he's happy to roam and explore. He's really into cruising along furniture and checking out every nook and cranny in our house.
• HE CAN GO UP AND DOWN STAIRS! Our baby gate broke with Carson, so we were stressing over not having a gate for Lincoln. We just practiced stairs with him for a couple of days and he picked it right up. He can now confidently go up and down stairs. He loves the freedom of being able to get around to check out what everyone's up to.
• Takes two 1 1/2 hour naps a day. In bed at 7:00, wakes up between 6-7. 
• He thinks his older brothers are hilarious. I was looking at old pictures the other day and he squealed every time Carson or Eli popped up on the screen. 
• He's a major mama's boy which I am LOVING because I know it will be short lived. I love my little Linker Lou. He's so sweet, happy, friendly, smiley, and fun. He's a dream!

Eli and Carson helped me pick out what cake to make for Lincoln's birthday. We decided on a robot cake. It was fun to make!

Eli is our biggest birthday fan. He loves people's birthdays. Mostly because his birthday is last and with each birthday that passes, he realizes it's one birthday closer to his, but still, the excitement was there.

We went to the aquarium on Lincoln's birthday with my friend Leslie. We should note here that Lincoln's birthday is the same week as mine, and we remember how the older boys were on my birthday...

They were mildly better on Lincoln's birthday. Eli was actually great. Stayed right by me through the aquarium and generally listened to me when I asked him to do something. Carson was a crazy man. There's something in Carson's brain that says, "Hey. Let's run in the opposite direction of mom as fast as we can and ignore all of her frantic screams to get my attention."

There were at least 3 different instances where I completely lost Carson for more than 5 minutes. That was fun. I think his problem is that he has to check EVERYTHING out before he can commit to what he wants to do. Since we had never been there before, everything was new and interesting and had his attention and he was wrapped up in seeing all he could at his own speed whether we were with him or not. It was a touch crazy.

And don't even get me started about the 15 minutes we spent waiting for the sharks to be fed. Followed by the 15 more minutes of listening to some guy tell us useless information about sharks while we continued to wait for the sharks to get their lunch. Followed by everyone around us abruptly leaving. Followed by me and Leslie looking at each other and saying, "Wait. Did they feed the sharks?" Ending with the employee announcing, yes, the sharks had been fed and we somehow managed to miss the whole thing. Ha!

It was fun. I love going somewhere fun for birthdays as an excuse to get to do something we don't usually do. It was great to meet up with Leslie and see our kids running around together.

Of course we couldn't get together without a selfie. It should be noted that this was taken after I had safely strapped my runaway into his carseat where I knew he couldn't escape.

After Jeff got home from work, it was time for cake! I was reading through some past blog posts the other day and laughing about how Eli and Carson's personalities were so evident when they were babies, but we just didn't know them well enough to recognize their quirks. It's funny to see them get bigger and see that their personalities have always been the same.

If I were to guess a funny trait about Lincoln that will linger on throughout his childhood, it would be his quick hands. He cracks me up! He's like a tiger. He sits quietly. Locks his eyes on what he wants, but waits for the right opportunity. Then when he knows what he wants is within reach, he strikes. And he's fast! I first noticed this when he was taking a bath and I held a cup in front of him. He struck it out of my hands so fast, and he had great aim. This became a game we now play all the time in the bath. He still surprises me with his precision and speed.

Then on his birthday, I put his cake in front of him. There was a sucker on the top of the robot's head which was juuuuuuuuuuust barely in Lincoln's reach. The moment it was close enough, Lincoln swiped it and had it in his mouth before I could do anything about it. It was so funny!

We've started calling him quick hands. I feel like he's going to be the type of kid who is always quietly getting into trouble and getting away with it. We'll see if I'm right! Until then, I think he'd make a pretty good basketball player, so I'll try to channel his abilities in that direction before he learns how to use his powers against me.

He was also a fan of the oreo on his cake.

Grandma and Grandpa Excell were able to video chat with us while we opened Lincoln's presents which was super fun!

Carson COULD NOT help himself from ripping open every one of Lincoln's presents. Lincoln didn't mind.

It was a fun first birthday for our littlest man. Lincoln brings so much joy, peace and giggles to our family. He oozes with sweetness. He's exactly what our family needed and I'm so glad he's ours!