Lincoln: Delightful!

Lincoln is usually joyful and happy making him fun to be around. He smiles and laughs a lot. Most mornings he wakes up in a happy mood and talks to himself in the crib for a while before demanding to be let out. He likes to start his day before Kara or I like to start our day, so he's the alarm clock in the house. Bentley is, of course, already up and downstairs reading, but for me the day starts with a big smile from Lincoln. 

Lincoln is always eager to help. He loves to help great-grandma. He likes to deliver the newspaper into her hands after he wrestles it from Jake or Viva's hands when they bring it inside after collecting it from the end of the driveway. If they don't give it to him, he screams bloody murder and they get in trouble for aggravating the sixteen month old. After great-grandma takes the paper out of its protective plastic baggie, she gives the baggie to Lincoln and he throws it away.

Lincoln loves to help Evan. Evan is pretty much helpless, so Lincoln does a lot for him. He brings him his pacifier, burp cloths, bottles, blanket, socks, toys, and balls. He's always trying to help Evan. Last week Kara had Evan wrapped up in one of Lincoln's favorite blankets. Lincoln didn't throw a fit; he handled the problem in a very mature manner. He located one of Evan's blankets and brought it to Evan and then he took his blanket away. Sometimes Lincoln throws toys into Evan's playpen for Evan to play with. So far it's only been small toys, but if Lincoln decides to share some of his larger toys it could be dangerous to his baby brother. We'll have to put a stop to that helpful habit.

Lincoln likes to hang out with Bentley, Jake and Viva. If the older children are making ornaments, he wants to join the party. If they are putting together Lego sets, he wants to get his hands on a few Legos. If I'm doing math with Jake and Viva, he's usually at the table with us grabbing the pencils, markers, pattern blocks, coins--whatever he can get his hands on. (I prefer he not join us, but he does nonetheless.) When we do puzzles, I bring out a puzzle for him to work on.

Lincoln is charming. It's such a refreshing change from his older, often snarly siblings. If we ask them to help us, sometimes we get very uncooperative faces and attitudes. Five and six year olds can be quite uncharming. Even when Lincoln isn't happy, he's still delightful.

Lincoln is a delight. He puts a smile on our faces many times during the day.