Good day, folks. We're only three days removed from the beginning of the 5G1B AU and you lucky, wonderful people already get the next installment of it! I had thought about putting this up yesterday, but I was just a tad too busy then, so naturally this would be the day to do it.

Just like with "Humble New Beginnings", a decent amount of this one was written well in advance and I spent those aforementioned three days putting the finishing touches on it. As the summary says, we're now a little over a year after Lincoln was brought into his family's world and he's going to have a particularly memorable day in this written form, complete with time stamps just for the heck of it!

A couple of other things I'll mention since I forgot to bring them up last time around. First, the pets are not involved in this AU at all. That might not come as too much of a surprise given aside from Fangs and a tiny bitty bit about Bitey in "Goth in Command" and the former taking a starring role in "Literally Batty", I've practically never written about the pets in any real sense. The other thing is that select other characters will eventually be reintroduced, but that won't be for a little while longer as the Loud family will take center stage for the time being.

Okay, now that having all been said, sit back and enjoy!

The Loud House is the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and Viacom. The usage of the setting, characters and such is based on nothing more than a pure affinity for everything and is not being used for monetary purposes.

Ages:
Lori - 11
Leni - 9
Luna - 7
Luan - 5
Lynn - 3
Lincoln - 1

5:27 AM

A garbled and static-ridden wailing sound came ringing into Lori Loud's eardrums. She uttered a soft groan as she brought herself up from her bed and yawned.

"Only once this time around? That's a record." She said to herself with a chuckle.

The record in question is that this was the first time in the last several nights that she was awoken by the sound of her baby brother, Lincoln, just one time via the baby monitor placed on her nightstand. She had that installed after she had successfully convinced her parents to move him upstairs shortly after he turned one year old a couple of weeks prior. Her thinking was that she wanted to give her parents a much needed break from spending many months of being woken up on a couple hours' basis tending to whatever needs their youngest offspring begged for.

Taking a moment to stretch herself out, Lori would then step out of her room. As she crossed the hall toward the room where her infant brother's caterwauling originated from, she saw Leni and Luna poke their heads out from their respective bedrooms.

"It's okay, I've got this, you guys." Lori told them.

Her two sisters nodded as they returned back to their rooms. On some occasions, Leni, Luna or both of them at the same time would take care of things should their baby brother need something in the overnight hours should Lori not be available for whatever reason. But more often than not, it was Lori who took the lion's share of the instances of checking up on Lincoln overnight, given she was the oldest and had the most responsibility in her mind, plus the fact she's the only one with a baby monitor in her room, so that gave that extra sense of alertness in responding to such emergencies.

Having made it to the end of the hallway, Lori opened the door the room where Lincoln was, but he was far from the only occupant residing here. The room in this case was also the one Luan and Lynn shared together even before Lincoln was moved in with them. It was an arrangement that admittedly both of them weren't exactly the biggest fans of, since any instance of crying from their brother was something they would bear the brunt of until somebody would come and tend to him.

This early morning was no exception. As their brother carried on in crying, Luan was laying down face first with a pillow over her head in an attempt to drown things out, while Lynn wrapped herself in a blanket and plugged her ears with her hands. Lori couldn't help but laugh slightly at her little sisters' predicaments, but then turned her full attention to Lincoln. She came over to his crib and took her wailing baby brother into her arms.

"Aw, what's wrong, Lincoln?" Lori asked him sweetly.

Her first instinct was to check on his diaper, which was remarkably dry and free of other...surprises. She tried gently bouncing him and then patting his back, but he still kept carrying on.

"Why can't he stop crying, Lori?" Luan asked, poking her head from underneath her pillow.

"Well, sometimes you simply don't know, Luan." Lori responded, "It just seems like there are times where he just cries for no reason and you just got to work through it. Patience, in other words."

Patience, however, wasn't something Lynn was really into herself on the other hand. Even at her age, she had enough of Lincoln's near nightly crying fits since he had been brought upstairs to her and Luan's room. So fed up she was, she grabbed a pillow and threw it.

"Shut up, baby!" Lynn shouted.

Seeing the pillow hurtling in her direction, Lori shielded both herself and Lincoln by raising her arm up to block it. Needless to say, this reckless action by her youngest sister left her displeased.

"Lynn, don't do that!" She chided, "You could've seriously hurt Lincoln, even with a pillow!"

"He annoying!" Lynn said back unrepentant.

Lori sighed, "Look, he's just a baby. He can't help but cry a lot, even for no reason at all. You can't try to hold it against him. Besides, you cried an awful lot at his age, Lynn, and you too for that matter, Luan. Trust me, I should know, because I've often been there to help calm you both down during those times."

While still holding on to Lincoln with one arm, Lori bent down and got the fallen pillow before placing it back on Lynn's bed. Afterwards, she carried her still crying baby brother out of the room and over to her own bedroom, where she shut the door and then sat down in a chair right in the corner.

"Shh, don't cry, Lincoln..." Lori cooed with a whisper.

She kept soothing him for a few minutes until eventually he began settling down.

"There, all better?" Lori said, holding him out so he could face her.

While having him out in front of her, Lori took this chance to admire how far Lincoln had come in just one year. He had a single tooth that was starting to form, a set of freckles on his cheeks just like Luna and Lynn had and even a remarkably full head of snowy white hair, or a "white top" like his Pop-Pop so charmingly deemed it so, complete with one portion of it curiously sticking upward on the side. This on top of the fact that Lori found him so adorable in the little orange onesie he was wearing. For whatever reason, orange just seemed like a color that befitted him and it was all likely due to that drawing that Luan and Lynn worked on during the time in which the family was brainstorming name ideas for him. Since that moment, orange essentially became the choice color for Lincoln and again, it came off like it was meant for him.

Though no longer crying, Lincoln still had a little bit of whimpering and fussing left in him. As an attempt to calm him down further, Lori played around with him a little bit, such as by grabbing onto his hands and raising them up and down a few times. During this, he took a hold of two of his big sister's fingers and surprised Lori with how strong his grip was on them.

This gave her an idea.

Offering up the index and middle fingers of hers again to him, Lori allowed Lincoln to grab on again and then she began pulling her hands upward and made her baby brother stand up, with his tiny feet and legs shaking trying to balance on her thighs. Once he appeared to have a decent footing, Lori pulled up just a little further until Lincoln was hovering a couple of inches up in the air as he held on to her fingers for dear life. This feeling of being up in the air made Lincoln giggled and made Lori smile.

"Aw, look at you!" She said happily.

She allowed him to dangle in the air for a few seconds more before bringing him back down and held him in her arms once more.

Then, she heard something totally unexpected.

"Or-ee."

Lori gasped and held Lincoln out at an arms length.

"Lincoln...were you-"

"Or-ee!"

Hearing that again, she had one of the biggest smiles she ever allowed to come across her face.

"Oh my gosh, Lincoln, are you trying to say my name?" She asked him sweetly.

"Or-ee! Or-ee!" He happily attempted to enunciate.

"Aww...that is literally so sweet!" Lori said, lightly kissing him on the forehead.

Soon after his trying efforts in stating his oldest sister's name, Lincoln was feeling very drowsy again. He began nodding off in her arms as Lori figured he was ready to be put back to bed for the time being. She got up and carried him over back into the room he shared with Luan and Lynn, the latter two of which who were also sound asleep again.

After giving him another quick kiss on his forehead, Lori gently placed Lincoln back into his crib and put his blanket over his itty bitty form. She chuckled when she started hearing tiny, gurgling snores coming out of his mouth.

"See you later this morning, Lincoln." Lori whispered.

With that, she made her way back to her own bedroom so she could grab a couple more hours worth of sleep herself.

7:52 AM

In the kitchen, Luan and Lynn were in the middle of their breakfast when their father came in carrying Lincoln before putting him in his high chair just adjacent to the kiddie table where his sisters were.

"Well, kiddo, today's a special day." Lynn Sr. told his infant son, "You've been a year old for a little bit now and I think it's time. Call this a Loud rite of passage if you will."

He went to the refrigerator to retrieve his son's morning nourishment. But this wasn't going to be any ordinary, garden variety baby food on this particular occasion, because as was implied, Lincoln was going to be given something very special.

When they witnessed their father pull out the stuff in question, even Luan and Lynn Jr. were thrilled as they knew full well what was about to happen.

"Daddy, is that…?" Luan started saying.

"You better believe it, sweetie, because it's time for your brother to try my world famous peach puree!" Lynn Sr. stated gleefully.

His daughters both let out squeals of delight. Everyone in the family adored Lynn Sr.'s peach puree and he always considered it a big milestone where he got to feed each of his kids some of it for the first time, and today was Lincoln's turn to experience it.

"All your sisters had this when they were your age and every time without fail they loved it. I'm expecting the same from you hopefully, little guy." Lynn Sr. said to Lincoln as went back over to him.

With a spoon at hand, Lynn Sr. scooped up some of the peach puree from the bowl and guided it towards Lincoln's mouth. The infant boy looked confused, but then in a first in the family, he turned away.

"Huh? What's wrong, Lincoln?" Lynn Sr. wondered.

He tried again, but Lincoln still wouldn't eat it. Even the age old "airplane to the hanger" routine wasn't doing the trick. This was disappointing his father to quite a degree.

"Aw, this hasn't happened before. No one's ever turned down my peach puree before. You're kind of hurting me here, son." He lamented, "I mean, it's not truly your fault or anything, but..."

"Hey, maybe I can help out, Daddy!" Luan said full of mirth.

Lynn Sr. looked down at Luan and smiled, "Oh, do you, Luan? Well, sure, I guess you can give it a shot."

He handed the spoon over to Luan, then lifted her up so she could be able to reach Lincoln. However, instead of trying to feed him, she brought the spoon up to her own mouth and ate some of the peach puree off of it, an act Lynn Sr. wasn't entirely pleased with.

"Sweetie, that was supposed to be for your brother! I don't know what you were..."

"See Lincoln? It's yummy!" Luan shouted happily after she munched the puree down.

It took a second, but her father appeared to clue in on what was going on.

"Oh, I think I see what you're doing, Luan. You think by having Lincoln watch you eat and enjoy it, he'll learn to like it, too." Lynn Sr. said.

"Uh-huh." Luan replied, then she looked over to her sister, "You try it, Lynn!"

She handed to spoon off to Lynn Jr., who quickly snatched it away and gulped down the remainder of the peach puree that was left. Even for a three year old, she was developing into quite a big eater.

"Yum, yum!" She said while throwing her hands up triumphantly.

Something apparently began clicking within Lincoln because he was babbling happily and reaching his hands out. Encouraged by this, Lynn Sr. got another spoon, scooped up some more peach puree and tried feeding his son again. This time around, he readily opened his mouth and took it in. He chewed and swallowed, then he giggled in delight.

"Wow, look at that!" Lynn Sr. said delightfully, "It worked! Thanks a lot, girls!"

A few more spoonfuls later and Lincoln appeared to have his fill for the time being.

10:10 AM

Midway into the morning, Rita had planned on giving Lincoln a bath. However, she having a bit of trouble finding where her little baby boy was.

"Huh, where could he be?" She wondered out loud puzzled.

She checked each of her kids' bedrooms, including the one where he, Luan and Lynn all shared, but no luck. Admittedly, Rita was starting to get worried.

She came back downstairs somewhat hastily, then one quick glance in the living room put her both at ease and made her laugh.

"Now, what are you doing, young lady?"

She was in this instance referring to Lynn while witnessing the adorable sight of her youngest daughter hauling around Lincoln. She was carrying him from behind with her arms around his little waist and based on his expression and small bouts of babbles, he didn't seem to mind the manner he was being carried.

"Lynn, what's going on here?" Rita asked her.

"He mine brother." Lynn answered in her own broken toddler English way.

Rita laughed, "Well, of course he is, but I need him right now, sweetie. He needs to have a bath."

Hearing that four letter word, Lynn's eyes grew wide and she even gasped.

"No bath!"

Then, she tried turning away and carrying Lincoln with her, but Rita was already right up to her and attempt in gently claiming him out of her daughter's arms.

"Lynn, please!"

"No bath!" Lynn repeated.

A little something of a tug of war ensued while Rita tried in freeing up Lincoln from the befuddling, tight grip his sister had him in. The not so serious struggle weirdly didn't put the infant boy in any sort of distress. If anything, he giggled in the duration of it.

"Who knew I would have a three year old daughter who's already this strong?" Rita humorously stated with a chuckle.

Knowing this, she resorted to a little bit of a cheap tactic by taking one of her index fingers and tickling her daughter's ribs. Lynn quickly got into a giggle and her grip slipped just enough for her mom to pull Lincoln up.

"Gotcha!" Rita said, "Now let's get you all clean and sparkly!"

It only took mere milliseconds after she stopped laughing for Lynn to see her baby brother have been taken from her and immediately she started toddling after her mom.

"No bath, no bath, no bath!" She kept on saying.

"Lynn, calm down, sweetheart." Rita said, looking over her shoulder, "He's just going get a bath in the sink."

"Huh?"

And with that, Lynn's sudden worries were fading. Her overreaction upon hearing Lincoln was getting a bath was entirely based on something of a traumatic experience from a bathing session of her own in the bathtub recently, one her still very much developing mind wanted to block out.

"Hey, since it was kind of sweet that you had concerns for him, want to help me out?" Rita offered.

Lynn took that in for a second, then she smiled, "Uh-huh, Mommy!"

Rita smiled back, "Great! Come on then."

As Lynn let out a happy utterance, she followed along with her mom and little brother over into the kitchen. When they got there, Rita ran some water into the little baby tub which had been put there in advance, then once it had been filled up, she put Lincoln in and also brought Lynn up so she could sit on the counter next to the sink.

For the most part, Lynn's help consisted of keeping Lincoln amused while Rita did all the actual work in bathing the baby boy. He did get a little unruly by splashing around, which Lynn wasn't too high and almost wanted to get him back somehow if it weren't for the fact her mother was present.

The bath had come to an end, but Rita realized she was missing some notable components.

"Oops, didn't get him a new diaper or onesie." She noticed, "I'll be right back, okay, Lynn? Keep an eye on him for me."

Her youngest daughter nodded slowly and Rita went off to gather those things. Meanwhile, Lynn felt more droplets of water being splashed onto her from Lincoln. She got all leery-eyed at him, while he on the other hand didn't appear to have a care in world.

"Stop! You stupid! I wanna…!"

"Wuh-in?"

Whatever less than pleasant thing Lynn wanted to say next came to a screeching halt once that confused utterance from Lincoln came about

"Huh? What you say?"

"Wuh-in." He repeated his confusing babble.

Even in her extraordinarily small understanding of things for her age, Lynn seemed to grasp the unfolding situation and it melted away her growing frustrations.

"Is you say mine name?" Lynn asked.

"Wuh-in! Wuh-in...Wynn!"

If there had been any remaining doubts, that last, more clearly enunciated saying from her baby brother it made know he was indeed trying to verbalize her name. For all her annoyance towards him, be it now or his crying that lead to her pillow chucking indiscretion earlier in morning, Lynn had to feel very happy about this and eager enough to share it with someone, such as her now returning mother.

"Okay, here we go…" Rita was saying.

"Mommy, Mommy!" Lynn excitedly shouted, "He say mine name!"

"Wait, did he?" Rita asked filled with similar excitement, "That's amazing, Lynn!"

"Wynn!" Lincoln babbled.

A surprised gasp came from both his mom and sister following that. Although unbeknownst to them, this had been the second time today Lincoln had began saying one of his sisters' name. If this was harbinger of things to come, three more names may be in the cards soon enough.

12:59 PM

The first hour of the afternoon was figurative inches away from ending, but it had been the beginning for a certain girl of the family to taken in one of her newest interests.

In her room, Luna was sitting on the floor with her eyes closed and gently bobbed her head. She was letting to equal parts calming and invigorating sounds of her dad's record player while it played one of a handful of the records of rock music she recently gotten into.

Since three years earlier, Luna has had a love for music, but up until a few weeks ago, her musical tastes almost exclusively consisted of the classical sort. Besides the actual music itself, that interest showed also from the toys and actual instruments she owned. However, in those aforementioned weeks, her father gradually began introducing her to some of his collection of rock records just for the sake of perhaps broadening her horizons. He didn't really imagine she'd take much interest, but much to his delight, she really was starting to have as much an affinity for rock as she did for classical music.

In particular, it was the dulcet tones of one Mick Swagger that Luna found the most intrigue in and much like when she got into classical stuff, she got handful of newer instruments, including most notably an acoustic guitar she had become very attached to.

She had currently been so focused on the sound of the music playing that it took the combination of the door to her room creaking somewhat open and some delighted babbling to direct her attention elsewhere and to a generally welcome sight.

"Oh, hi there, Lincoln!"

Right on at the doorway of her room was Lincoln on his hands and knees. But ever so wobbly, he began standing on his own two little feet and he took a trio of steps forward. By an attempted fourth step, though, he stumbled and fell down. But he was undeterred and he tried getting back and tried again, but he still couldn't nail his footing down yet before falling again.

"You're getting better, Linc!" Luna said, impressed with his efforts.

Indeed, compared to other recent attempts at walking, Lincoln was actually doing better. Used to be that any time he fell down trying even taking one step, he would immediately start crying. But with every fall came valuable experience and resiliency, and now he'd only cry if he fell down and truly hurt himself in the process.

Opting to instead resuming crawling for now, Lincoln would nevertheless make it over to Luna and he made it clear his intention of being with his third oldest sister here and now.

"Hey, do you wanna listen to this music with me?" She asked him.

Even if he didn't understand the exact context of the question, Lincoln let out some excited baby gibberish that Luna took as an affirmation. She smiled and giggled as she then brought him onto her lap and held him in place.

"This guy we're listening to is named Mick Swagger. He is Dad's favorite and I'm really starting to like him, too." Luna explained.

For the first few minutes of being together, Lincoln listened along with his big sister and even babbled along with some of the singing much to the amusement of Luna. Of course, being a baby and all, his attention span was rather short and he chose instead to direct his entire focus to Luna. Namely, he turned around to look at her face to face and reached toward her while laughing.

"Uh, hey now, please don't do that, Lincoln." Luna tried dissuading him against.

Truthfully, she also had her fill with listening to music and wasn't quite in the mood for playtime with her baby brother at the moment. Looking to do something else, Luna lifted Lincoln off her lap and went over to turn the record player off. While she did do that, she would then look down to see Lincoln holding on to her leg.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

Luna tried to get her little brother off, but he wasn't taking no for an answer and grabbed on tighter all the while he was laughing. She on the other hand was not so amused.

"Lincoln, let go already!"

Even trying to walk away and shaking her leg gently was not sending the message to the little baby. Far from being a girl who really gets easily frustrated, Luna's limits however were getting tested and stretched in this case here.

Luckily, before she could start to lose it majorly, Lynn Sr. just happened to enter the scene.

"Ah, there you are, Lincoln." He said, "Has he been here with you for a little while, Luna?"

"Yeah, but I want to do something else now and he won't let go of my leg, Dad." Luna answered, groaning mildly.

"Oh, well, don't get too upset now, honey. I was coming to get him anyway, so let me help you out here."

Lynn Sr. knelt down by his daughter and gently managed to pry his only son off her leg. The minute he was pulled away and began taken into his father's arms, Lincoln started getting into a fuss.

"Whoa, calm down there, sport!" Lynn Sr. said to him, "I know you like being with Luna, but she needs to have her alone time, too."

As Lynn Sr. walked away with him, Lincoln's fussing turned to into crying while he flailed his little arms over his father's shoulder and in Luna's direction.

Though relieved to be alone again, Luna did also feel bad once he started to cry. She may have gotten frustrated over his clinging on to her, but it was only because he liked being with her just as their father was saying, even though he'll have to learn he can't always be around her. At the same time, she didn't want to hold it against Lincoln knowing his baby exuberance wasn't something he can't help in not doing sometimes and soon enough, she'll be ready again to have some quality time with him.

2:30 PM

Back down at the living room, Leni was in the living room sitting on the couch while juggling doing three different things at once. Those included watching TV, reading a magazine and keeping on eye on Lincoln. He was on the floor just near where she was setting while playing with some blocks. He babbled and laughed as he did all sorts of things with the blocks, ranging from stacking them, knocking them over and even gnawing on them just because he could.

"Silly Linky, they're not supposed to be food!" Leni said as she couldn't help but see him doing the latter.

She laughed while returning to her own activities. For instance, the magazine she was reading centered all around fashion. Though having something of a mild interest in the sort since she was a little bit younger, Leni had begun having a surging wonderment of clothing in more recent times and wanted to take in anything she could get or find regarding such.

At one point in the magazine, Leni came across an advertisement for something else she was getting in to. It detailed a line of cell phones and as if coincidence had it, the TV had also played a commercial over some similar phones as well.

"One day, I wanna get a phone just like Lori has..." She said aloud.

Indeed, Lori was in possession of her own cell phone since a few weeks back and had become very much attached to it. Like clothes, phones were also something that drew Leni's attention recently. She knew there had been all sorts of different types of phones based on what she's seen and been shown. They included the much older candlestick and rotary designs, to the more modern landline types of today, the bulkier cell phones of the 90s to the smaller, sleeker flip phones she's just seen in both types of advertising on TV and her magazine as well as being the one Lori owns herself. With what Leni has known about them some far she could only wonder how much further phone technology can go from here.

However, her thoughts about such would get interrupted by Lynn suddenly dashing past the TV, followed by Luan chasing after her younger sister.

"Hey, be careful, you guys!" Leni told them.

Huffing a tiny bit, Leni refocused on her activities, only for Luan and Lynn to run on by again, this time just right in front of her.

"Guys, I just said…"

But however Leni was going to admonish two of her younger sisters came secondary when she heard the sound of Lincoln crying.

"Linky? What's wrong?" She wondered worriedly.

Leni didn't waste a second more and she got right down to where her baby brother was. It also didn't take long to see why he was crying in the first place, causing her to gasp in horror.

"Oh, Linky…!"

She saw that his right hand was swollen up and also had some kind of strange marks on the back of it.

As all this was being discovered, Leni wasn't the only one drawn over by Lincoln's cries. Though Lynn had dashed off to wherever, Luan had stopped in her tracks and also went over to see what's going on.

"What happened? Is he okay, Leni?" She asked very much concerned.

"I don't think so, Luan." Leni replied distressingly, "Look, his hand is all…"

Before Leni went any further, something else caught her eye. She saw the footwear her younger sister had on and it raised her suspicions.

"Hey, can you lift one of your feet up for me, Luan?" She requested.

Luan appeared confused, but she otherwise complied and brought her left foot up. She was wearing a pair of sandals and Leni noticed right away that the underside of it matched up with the imprint on Lincoln's little hand. This lead her to gasp again and reach a troubling conclusion.

"Oh no...Luan, I think you accidentally stepped on Linky's hand!"

It was something she didn't ever want to think could be true, but unfortunately, even Luan understood the evidence before her appeared to be undeniable.

"I did…?" She muttered sadly.

The gravity of her mistake hit her hard and she too like her baby brother started to cry.

"I'm sorry, Leni! I didn't mean to hurt him! Please don't be mad at me or hate me or…"

Leni reached out and cupped her sister's cheek, "Hey, shh...it's okay, Luan. I'm not mad and wouldn't ever hate you. I know it was an accident, but please try to be more careful around him, okay?"

Next, following a small smile on her face, Leni brought an arm around Luan and pulled her into a hug, doing the same with Lincoln as well just as his own crying was slowing down, though obviously he was still in a lot of pain.

"Okay, I promise to be more careful, Leni." Luan said when she pulled away, "But is Lincoln gonna be okay?"

"I think he will be, and don't worry, I'll take care of him from here." Leni replied.

After a quick little kiss on the cheek, she let Luan go and redirected her focus back on Lincoln and his hurt hand.

"Here, come up here with me, Linky."

She carried him up onto the couch with her and she got a better look at his hand. It must've hurt a good deal because even the most gently of touches from Leni caused him to whimper each time.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Linky…" She said lamentably, "Wait, maybe I know something that could help!"

Like that, her mood changed quickly. Carefully taking his hand just under his wrist, Leni leaned over and kissed the back of Lincoln's hand. She would follow that up with smaller kisses on each of his fingers as well. Despite the pain he was in, the soft feeling of those kisses from his second oldest sister did have a mild healing touch. Not enough to enact a full betterment, but still a little something to make it better along the way.

Just a few seconds later, Rita had arrived in the living room.

"Hey, is everything okay, Leni? I thought I heard Lincoln crying just a moment ago." She said.

"Yeah, he did, Mom and it's because he got his hand hurt." Leni explained.

Both curious and worried as to what that meant from her daughter, she sat down and looked at her son's hand herself.

"Oh my...what happened?" Rita asked in full on motherly concern.

"Luan accidentally stepped on him while she was playing and chasing Lynn." Leni answered.

Rita let out a gasp, "What?! Well, that's pretty irresponsible of her. Perhaps I need to talk with her…"

"Wait, no, you don't have to do that, Mom!" Leni insisted, "I already did that myself. She feel real bad about it and told her that she has to be more careful around Linky, too."

"Well...all right then. That was the right thing to do, Leni, so good on you." Rita said with a light smile and a sigh, "Anyway, I'll be right back to get a couple of things so we can take care of his hand."

She stood up and left them alone for a moment or two. In the meantime, Leni brought Lincoln close to her in a small hug.

"It's gonna be okay, Linky." She said to him.

"En-ee."

"Huh? What now?"

"En-ee...En-ee...En-ee…"

His utterances were weak sounding as the pain in his hand hindered his burgeoning dialect, but it was patently clear to Leni what he was trying to say.

"Linky...you're saying my name, aren't you?" She wondered with a growing smile on her face.

"En-ee!" Lincoln babbled with just hint more vigor.

That smile on Leni's face reached it's apex and she couldn't be any more happier. She gave her baby brother another little hug and kissed him on his forehead.

"Aw...how sweet of you! You're such a good little brother!"

4:15 PM

The afternoon was getting deeper and at this moment, Lincoln had been spending the last hour and a half in his crib, partly due to having a nap and also due to what happened earlier with his hand getting stepped on. The good news on that front was he wasn't too terribly hurt as a result of a combination of Luan wearing sandals and not her usual pair of shoes which could've realistically had the chance of breaking his hand outright if she stepped on it with those on, the treatment his mother gave him and those kisses from Leni probably did their part as well.

While he remained confined in his crib, Luan had entered the room. She had felt so guilty ever since her accidentally causing such pain to her little brother and felt like she owed him an apology. Given he was awake now, she thought it was a good time to deliver such an apology.

"Hi, Lincoln…" Luan said to him.

She approached the crib and Lincoln couldn't help but act a little fearful when she did. Though it was saddening to her, she didn't entirely blame him at the same time.

"Lincoln, I'm sorry for stepping on your hand. I didn't mean hurt you, honest. I wish I could help in some way…"

She tried reaching for him, but Lincoln whimpered and crawled back a bit. He didn't really have much to retreat to, as both the confines of the crib restricted where he could go and putting any pressure on his right hand still gave him a little pain on top of that.

Frowning with guilt and over her baby brother's pain, Luan was desperate to do something to make him feel better, anything at all. And then it hit her.

Going over to and opening up a drawer within the dresser that housed all the clothes for herself, Lynn and Lincoln, she sifted through it until she founded whatever she was looking for. However, she kept it out of view from Lincoln.

All of this was raising the little baby boy's curiosity as to what his fourth oldest sister was up to and it wouldn't take that much longer for all to be know.

Walking backwards from the dresser up until she felt her back up against the crib, Luan spun right around and showed off both a goofy smile on her face and having a red clown nose on.

On the day of her fifth birthday not too long ago, a clown had been hired to perform in the backyard and Luan had a blast the entire time. That very day saw her take an interest in clowning herself as well as anything relating to comedy on top of that. Now her she was hoping this newfound venture of hers could give Lincoln at least some emotional relief.

"Hey, Lincoln!" Luan said happily, giving the nose a squeeze.

A high-pitched squeaking noise sounded off from the nose and it did appear to put Lincoln in a bit of a better mood. In fact, his curiosity led him to scoot closer over to Luan until they were only inches apart. Next, he reached out with his good hand and grabbed onto the clown nose, giving it a squeeze. The squeaking noise happened again, and as Luan smiled at his efforts, so did he and giggling from both of them resulted.

"Guess I nose what I'm doing, huh?" Luan joked, one of the first she's told.

"Ooh-an!"

With that sudden utterance from Lincoln, Luan gasped.

"Lincoln?"

"Ooh-an! Ooh-an!"

"Lincoln, you're saying my name!" Luan said in realization.

"Ooh-an!" Lincoln repeated, laughing giddily.

And speaking of giddy, Luan reached through the bars of his crib and cupped both his tiny little cheeks. She had on her face one of the happiest and most proud smiles she'd ever have. If she didn't know it before, she now knew that comedy had to be her thing if she made her baby brother happier because of it.

6:33 PM

Just past the half hour mark in the evening, the Loud family had finished up dinnertime and some well earned dessert was up next. On the menu in that case was ice cream, a favorite among everyone, but this night was special in that Lincoln was also going to have his first taste of this all time classic creamy frozen dairy dessert.

"All right everyone, it's time!" Rita announced in anticipatory fashion.

"Oh, I'm so excited! Hold everything, I need to get the video camera in order to document this historic moment!" Lynn Sr. said, dashing off to do just that.

Rita laughed over her husband's enthusiasm, then she directed her attention to the girls.

"Okay, which of you wants to be the one to help feed Lincoln his ice cream?" She asked.

"How about Lori, Mom?" Leni suggested.

"Heh...well, I'm flattered by that idea, Leni, but I have done this whole routine of helping a sibling of mine with their first ice cream literally since Luna was born. I think it's time someone else does the honors." Lori said.

"Well, since you just mentioned her, why not have Luna do it this time around?" Rita wondered, turning to her musically inclined daughter, "How about that, honey?"

"Really? Okay, sure, Mom!" Luna answered delightfully.

Having made the decision of who will be the baby Loud boy's designated ice cream helper, Rita headed to the kitchen and got his serving of the dessert set up. She put together a small bowl of with three tiny scoops of the classic trio of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, essentially a smaller scale of what his parents and sisters had themselves.

By the time Rita returned with the ice cream, Lynn Sr. arrived the video camera also. The bowl was handed over to Luna along with the spoon and then Rita went to stand by the side of her husband.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Lynn Sr. asked.

"Ready!" The girls shouted in unison.

As he got the confirmation, Lynn Sr. hit record and at the start, he turned the camera over to himself and his wife.

"Well, another year, another little Loud getting their first taste of ice cream. Or as I see it, the biggest milestone that this house annually sees!" He said happily, though he did sigh after that, "It'll sadly be the last time said milestone will happened, but knowing it will be with my one and only little boy, I can't think of a better way to close such a chapter in our lives, isn't that right, Rita?"

Rita grinned, "I'd say so, too, honey. But enough about us…"

Their contributions out of the way, the camera turned over to the dining room and to Lori, Leni, Luan and Lynn Jr. while they watched on as Luna approached Lincoln in his high chair.

"Okay, you ready, Lincoln?" Luna asked him.

She scooped up a modest amount of the ice cream and pushed the spoon toward his mouth. At first, it looked like he was having some of the same hesitance that occurred during his first peach puree feeding in the morning. But after giving this more colorful looking substance a few more seconds of a look see, Lincoln slowly opened his mouth and allowed Luna to further push to the spoon until he clamped down. She pulled the spoon out and saw how her baby brother took the ice cream in.

Though he did shiver and made an odd little burbling noise after swallowing, Lincoln squealed merrily.

"Aw, Linky likes it!" Leni beamed.

Buoyed by his apparently likening of the stuff, Luna kept on feeding him the ice cream until he had eaten up the last remaining spoonful of it, even letting out a little burp when he was done.

"Hey, way to go, Linc! Good job!" Luna congratulated him.

"And same should go for you, too, Luna." Lori added, "You handled that very well."

"Ooh-na!"

In that moment of Lincoln's babble, everyone gasped in surprised.

"Did he…?" Lynn Sr. uttered.

"I think so!" Rita said.

"Ooh-na!" Lincoln said again, "Ooh-na! Ooh-na! Ooh-na!"

And for the fifth time today, despite the obvious babyish babbling nature of it all, it was unmistakable what Lincoln was getting across here.

"Aw, Lincoln...that's my name you're saying, huh?" Luna asked very touched.

Not being able to help herself, she put the bowl and spoon aside on the dining table before she gently lifted her baby brother out of his high chair so she could hug him and kissed his cheek.

"Ooh-na!" He said one more time.

"Yeah, there you go! I'm so proud of you!" Luna said, "Also, I'm sorry for getting a little mad at you earlier. You can't help in being a bit much by clinging on to me and I understand. You'll soon learn better and I won't get too upset at you until then."

With that, Luna kissed him again on the cheek while everyone in her family let out an "aw.." in unison. This turned out to be a lot more than a new memory of infant ice cream feeding and certainly was made better for it.

7:11 PM

With the ice cream feeding long done, Lynn Sr. and Rita were in the kitchen having wrapped up finishing with the dishes just as they heard some sounds coming from the living room.

"Oh, you literally almost got it!"

"Yeah, you keep getting better and better, Linky!"

"Huh...wonder what the kiddos are up to." Lynn Sr. wondered.

"Might as well see for ourselves." Rita suggested.

They both headed for the living room and upon entering, they saw a truly wonderful, heartwarming sight.

Right now, Leni was holding Lincoln by his hands as he was standing up, and Lori was sitting on one of the chairs across from both of them, all while Luna, Luan and Lynn Jr. sat on the couch together watching on and cheering. This scene made it very clear to the parents what was unfolding.

"Oh my goodness, are you girls trying to help Lincoln learn to walk?" Rita asked very blithely.

"Yeah, Mommy!" Luan replied.

"He's gonna get it soon, we know it!" Luna added determinedly.

"Well, we love the enthusiasm, girls, but don't be surprised if it takes him a little while still." Lynn Sr. mentioned, "Your mother and I have been trying our best and he's still having some balance issues."

"Yeah, but let's see how they've been doing, honey." Rita recommended.

With that suggestion, everything resumed where Lori encouraged Lincoln to come over to her as Leni still held on to his hands for assistance. Eventually, Leni let go and let him try his best in making it to his oldest sister on his own. He wobbled around some, but he did take a couple more steps forward, trying to get used to the whole process still. He stood in place for a few seconds and with just a little more encouragement from Lori, he walked those last couple steps and successfully made it to her.

"Lincoln, you did it! You literally did it!" She said as happily as she could be.

Her sisters all cheered in response to this monumental achievement. However, what ended up happening next was nothing short of amazing.

Lincoln peered around the chair Lori sat in and saw his parents. Suddenly, he slowly went around the chair, used the side of it for added balance and then astounded everyone by making all the way to his parents without any further assistance, hugging their legs in the end.

"Mama! Dada!" He babbled merrily.

There were no words at first for how proud Lynn Sr. and Rita were for both how their son managed to walk to them on his own, plus the clear evidence that his sisters helped him out greatly in that. With tears beginning to form in her eyes, Rita picked Lincoln up and held him close.

"Oh, your father and I are so proud of you, Lincoln! And you too, girls!" She said proudly.

"How did you do it? You girls must've done something that we hadn't been able to do." Lynn Sr. added.

"We do teamwork, Daddy!" Lynn Jr. said, pumping her right fist in the air.

"Aw…" Both of parents said together…

However, despite the incredible moment they all shared, there was one disappointment in mind.

"Aw, ding-dang darn it, this is a moment I wished we had the camera handy." Lynn Sr. lamented.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Dad. In fact, how about you go get it and we recreate a very similar scene?" Lori offered up, "Sure, it won't have the magic of the first go around, but it will still be an incredible scene to record for posterity, right?"

Now it was Lynn Sr.'s turn to tear up. With a big smile on his face also, he went to the get the camera and soon enough, he would indeed get another exciting example of his son's budding walking skills in recorded video form forever to be viewed.

9:45 PM

The day within the Loud house was close to the end as the evening really was setting in. Four out of the six kids had gone to bed by now, but two were still up at this house.

As he stepped out of his room for a moment, Lynn Sr. saw Lori sitting on the living room couch with Lincoln in one arm while she was helping him drink out of a bottle of milk.

"Hey, shouldn't you be close to getting ready for bed, honey? And shouldn't Lincoln be long in bed already?" He asked.

"Yeah, he should, but he was getting real fussy and thought this could help him sleep." Lori answered.

Chuckling, he rounded the couch and took a seat next to his eldest daughter, placing a hand of her back.

"Hey, Lori, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I know you've been doing so much with Lincoln ever since you recommended he be moved upstairs and have that baby monitor put in your room. But at the same, your mother and I do sometimes worry if you're doing too much. We don't want to overexert yourself or anything like that." Lynn Sr. said.

"No, I get that, Dad, but I have no trouble with it. Besides, Leni and Luna do their part as well in the night and early morning hours, too." Lori brought up, looking up at him, "Either way, I love doing this, I really do. Being there for any of my siblings is literally what I live for the most. There's nothing in the world that gives me more joy than this."

Despite his worries she might be working herself too much in that field, Lynn Sr. still couldn't help but be so proud of how seriously she takes her responsibilities as the oldest sister. There had always been concerns between him and Rita that each new sibling that was introduced into her world would lead to increasing feelings of jealousy and resentment in her, but the exact opposite has flourished instead. From Leni all the way down now to Lincoln, Lori has shown incredible love and dedication for all her siblings by her words and especially her actions. It's the best case scenario every parent will multiple kids hopes for and in this moment, Lynn Sr. loved how that is how things panned out here.

"You know...sometimes I have no idea how your mother and I have raised such a responsible and profound daughter, but we must've done something right along the way." He said, gently mussing around her hair.

"Well...I did learn a lot from you two. That should count for something in how I handle, care for and love my siblings so much." Lori stated admirably.

"Aw, thanks, Lori…" Lynn Sr. said, bringing an arm around her and kissing her cheek, "But anyway, I think your mother and I can stand to do a little more with Lincoln again in the overnight hours. We'll likely install a baby monitor in our room like you have in yours."

"All right, I think I can accept that." Lori said, "And don't worry, as soon as Lincoln is done with his bottle here, I'll take up him back to bed and I'll do the same eventually myself."

"Good to hear. Well, good night, Lori."

"Good night, Dad."

Lynn Sr. stood up from the couch and went back to his room, and just only seconds later, Lincoln was done drinking from the bottle, burping for added emphasis. With a chuckle, Lori carried him with her as she put the bottle away in the kitchen, then she went upstairs and into the room he shares with Luan and Lynn.

As quietly as she could as to not disturb her sleeping younger sisters, Lori put Lincoln down in his crib and put the blanket over him. The combined effects of those and all that milk he drank put him out like a light and he gurgled and snored.

"Good night, Lincoln. You certainly had a big day, didn't you? Having your first peach puree and ice cream, really nailing down this walking thing and even learning to start saying the names of me and our sisters." Lori whispered, "And to think you have so many more days ahead of you and I can't wait to be there for all of them, and I know our sisters feel the same way."

She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead.

"Sweet dreams, little brother. I love you."

Just as carefully as she entered, Lori exited and then headed off to her own room. While she settled in, she chuckled as a final thought occurred to her during her bedtime preparations.

"I'm probably going to be woken up by him though the baby monitor any moment from now, won't I? All that milk has to go somewhere soon. Oh well, such is the life of a big sister...once I wouldn't want any other way."

Well, little Lincoln certainly did have quite the day now, didn't he? They'll be plenty more of that in the years (or each story that goes a further year than the next until a certain point to be more precis) that are to follow.

So besides just a fun little day for the youngest Loud of this AU, I've also began reestablishing some of the sisters' signature hobbies and interests. The slight exceptions are with Lynn's love for sports which will come a little later and aside from her devotion as the oldest sister, Lori's phone obsession was only vaguely mentioned.

That'll do it for now. Rest assured, there will be additional time between not only the next entry in this AU, but whatever else I have in mind, too. Don't want to overwhelm you all with too much stuff in relatively short period of time! Anyway, thanks as always and we'll see each other soon!