Lincoln is Three!

Lincoln is my baby. I adore him. He is such a sweet little boy.

But he's three now. Hardly a baby anymore.

He is smaller than average. Strangers who don't recognize his diagnosis look really confused when I tell them his age. Some of them are insensitive enough to say things like, "Wow! He's so little! I would have guessed 18 months!" Then I get to say, "Well, he has Down Syndrome." And they look embarrassed and awkward. Serves them right.

But I have to say, he is pretty darn advanced. So advanced that the state won't give him disability benefits, because he isn't delayed enough to qualify. Which is awesome and annoying at the same time. He's been flourishing at preschool, is talking more and more, and is mastering climbing stairs with minimal help. His sign language continues to be impressive. And his fine motor skills are on par with typically-developing kids his age. Amazing.

He is curious and engaged and into everything. He is incredibly social. When we go out places, he waves and says "Hi. Hi." at everyone we pass by. He has picked up a couple cute habits from other kids at preschool, like raising his hand and saying "Me!" when I ask who wants something. He also says "Mine!" a lot, though I don't think he knows what it means--he just uses it to voice his displeasure (like when he didn't want to actually get washed during bath time..."Mine! Mine! Mine!"). He is learning letters and colors, and can identify us by name (Daddy, Mama, "Bee," and...he's still learning to say Mason's name). His favorite things to watch are Signing Time, or anything with animals or singing.

Unfortunately, his birthday falls two weeks after Bree's, and the celebration was a little anticlimactic. I didn't even get his presents wrapped in time. Also, he wasn't feeling well. Luckily, he is still young enough that we got away with basically doing nothing on his actual birthday, April 15th.

But I did make an ice cream cake, because ice cream is his favorite food in the entire world.

It was only one day late.

So on April 16th, Lincoln blew out his own candles.

On the 17th he actually ate some of his ice cream cake. (He was feeling better by then)
And he opened his birthday card from Grandma and Papa Wallace.

Hi Gramma and Papa! Thank you!

On the 19th, he finally opened his presents.


All in all, it was a small celebration. But we are totally okay with that. Thankfully, Lincoln is too.