Your kids always surprise you.

This post is from Linc's dad Sam.

I really can't believe that it has been a year since we did  this blog. Seriously. Paradoxically, though, it seems like much longer than two years ago that Linc was born. Wierd, huh?

Those days after his birth with the tubes and the monitors, the fear and anxiety, and all the hand scrubbing in the NICU sink stations, they all seem very far removed; like a story that happened to someone else, not events in which I actually participated.

Linc was in that NICU mainly because of his refusal to eat. He had a little difficulty oxygenating his blood too, but mostly it was his eating that was the problem. He still has that problem. Speech therapists specialize in teaching people how to eat, not just speak, and Linc had a Speech therapist the moment he was born. He still has one today. Her name is Kim and she comes to the house every Monday at 1:00. She is awesome.

Kim and Liz and I have been trying for months now to get Linc to eat more solid foods and to feed himself. You see, the only things he will put in his own mouth are things that he knows for sure are not edible. Legos, magnetic letters, hard plastic balls, etc. But he will not put food into his own mouth. We try to teach him this essential life-skill by introducing him to a variety of foods and showing him through our own actions how to eat that food. It's actually hilarious to watch. Kim and Nico and I will all hover around his highchair and place bites of food in our own mouths and then in Linc's. Then the three of us will all chew very dramatically and very slowly in the hopes that he will mimic us. Who knows why, but for some reason this requires us all to also open our eyes as wide as we possibly can and arch our eyebrows. And then, if Lincoln actually chews the morsel in his mouth we all explode with praise and applause. Well, then Linc happliy applauds his own success and usually spits out the precious bite in his excitement. It's all very comical. And messy.

This is a slow process and has not been horribly successful so far, but we are very patient. Being a parent of any child, "special needs" or no, requires that virtue in abundance.

So imagine my surprise when I substituted in for Linc's Sunday school teacher this past Sunday morning. Here's the scene:

Four adults are corralling and entertaining about six toddlers in a small classroom. One of the adults declares that it is now snack time. All the children are quickly picked up and placed into booster seats built right into the top of the table in the corner. In front of each child is placed a small Dixie cup half-filled with goldfish. I'm thinking that we just won't give any to Linc as he will just throw them around the room, but before I can say anything, the other substitue teacher/dad hands him a cup. Lincoln promptly dumps the cup over and picks up a goldfish. So far, he is doing exactly what I expect...

Then he puts it in his own mouth and bites it!

No speech therapists. No mimicking. No encouragment. No applause.

"WHAT?!" I yelled, "Dude, how long have you been doing that?!" Lincoln doesn't answer me. He just smiles a cheese-covered, buck-toothed smile, and he grabs for another goldfish.

Kids...

-Sam