birthday party (2 yrs old)

Elijah's official birthday party (theme: doggies) took place on Friday afternoon right after his nap. (It took an hour and a half to convince him to take a nap that day, and, fortunately for us all, he did, albeit a short one.) It was a small gathering: the two grandparents, aunt Chelsea, the three MI Tolls and the two parents. Oh, yes, we can't forget Allie the dog, especially since she too wore a party hat. Elijah, by the way, didn't care much for his, so we took it off as soon as the candle was blown out (by Daddy). But I am getting ahead of myself. It all started with opening the gifts.

One of the first gifts opened was a pair of Curious George slippers. Perhaps we should have waited to open that present, because from that point on we had a hard time keeping Elijah focused on the task at hand. He'd pull off a strip of paper, then turn around to hold his new slippers and make a monkey sound. We'd get his attention again, only to lose it once more to the slippers 10 seconds later. Finally we hid the slippers behind aunt Chelsea and got back to opening the rest of the presents. However, shortly afterwards he opened a stuffed puppy, and that proved as distracting, if not more, than the monkey slippers. There we were back to 10 second attention span periods punctuated by excited "Goggie!" exclamations and love expressing hugs (see below). The situation was exacerbated when Elijah opened a second identical stuffed puppy. Double joy! Double love! Double distraction.

It took us half an hour to open the presents. For the record, in addition to items mentioned above, Elijah's loot from the party included: a magic drawing board, Wedgits (played with mostly by Mom and Dad so far), Toysie Snappers, a couple books (a musical book and Spot's Magical Christmas), two CD's by Gemini, and a couple coloring books. I think I remembered it all.

Predictably, a doggie themed party had to include hot dogs for dinner, and hot dogs go well with fries. A Russian beet salad is an excellent, although not traditional, complement to them both. In honor of the occasion I baked a cake (my first one ever!) using a Jello Cake recipe. I am pleased to report that it turned out rather well, although Elijah refused to even try it. I don't take it personally. He refuses everything and anything that even remotely looks like bread.

Well, that's about it. Perhaps those who were present at the event can share their own accounts in the comments section. :)

french fries and ketchup

Elijah likes french fries (who doesn't?), but have recently discovered that he likes them with ketchup, too. Or, should I say, he likes ketchup.

Ryan, aunt Chelsea, Elijah and I went out to eat a couple of days ago. After Elijah ate his chicken and vegetables, we let him have his fries. He happily ate them for a few minutes before he noticed a small cup of ketchup sitting right there on the plate. He took his fork, dipped it into the ketchup, and tasted it. We didn't want him to eat the ketchup straight, so Daddy showed him how to dip fries into it. Elijah took to it right away. He'd dip the fry into the cup with ketchup, and then slowly and carefully suck the ketchup off of it. Then dip the same fry again. Suck the ketchup off. And again, over and over, the same fry, until it was soggy like a wet noodle, at which point we'd give him another fry and continue trying to teach him to bite the dipped end off. But our efforts didn't amount to much.

colors

Elijah knows his colors. We think he has known them for a long time, but couldn't say the names. It makes me wonder what else he knows but can't say yet. Anyway, here are the colors in Elijah-ese:

green - ghee (his favorite color)
blue - bhue
red - e ("red" minus the "r" and the "d")
yellow - ee-oo (once again, "yellow" minus the consonants)

second birthday

Elijah turned TWO on December 11th!

We started the day with a delicious Eggo waffle, followed by the first round of opening birthday presents, which included a toy telephone and a new outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Ferguson. Then we played together till lunch. While Elijah was napping, another set of presents, this time from Grandma Shannon, arrived at the door: cars, a spider man, blocks and more outfits. Of course, Elijah wanted to play with them all as soon as he got up. He knew what cars were and what to do with them, but he wasn't so sure about the spider man. The blocks looked neat, but when it came right down to it he didn't quite know how to build with them. But he happily set on my lap while I played. :) Afterwards, he selected several color cylinders from the set and carried them around for a while.

Later in the day we read his favorite book for a very long time, and practiced sounds for geese, donkeys and sheep (these are the animals in the baby-Jesus-in-the-manger picture). Exciting though it was to learn the goose and the donkey sounds, nothing compared with the joy on his face when he saw pictures of puppy dogs (see bottom left picture above where Ryan captured him in the middle of saying "goggie!")

After dinner Elijah took a long celebratory bath, and he got to open one more present before bed, this time from Mommy and Daddy: doggie pajamas (oh, the bliss!) Life could hardly get any better, and yet the official birthday party was still coming a few days later. But that will have to be a separate post.


P.S. I should mention one other birthday present that had to be given to Elijah about two weeks early because he accidentally saw it and wanted it immediately. It was a baby MP3 player (the only one of the kind I was able to find) sponsored by his Russian grandparents.

kid in a basket

Just chilling.

What is Christmas?

Elijah's favorite book of the season is, appropriately, a Christmas one, called What Is Christmas? He received it from Grandma Shannon last Christmas, but hasn't really gotten into it until now. He wants it read to him over and over and over and over (and over). I've been known to ready the book more than 10 times straight in one sitting (and then suppress an urge to destroy the book :)). We are not sure what attracts him so much, but our bet is that it's a picture of a puppy on every other page.

cookies

We held out from giving Elijah cookies for almost two years, but how can you resist the temptation to give your child a homemade oatmeal raisin cookie? Naturally, we gave in. Needless to say, he loved it. Mmmmmm, cookies and milk! He liked it so much that he said the word right away, "Cookie!" and asked for another one. (That is probably the only word he says that's absolutely right; "goggie", meaning "doggie", is a close second.) We said later.

We kept our word and offered another cookie the next day. He got all excited, but didn't finish it. Not sure if it was a big lunch or he got distracted by a toy, but he left a small piece on his tray and said "Ah-dah!"

The next (third) cookie got eaten only about half way. His eyes lit up at the sight of the fourth, but when it came right down to it, he pushed away my hand and shook his head. I guess two years of training in vegetable appreciation are paying off. ;)

rare specimen kept behind glass

toddler bed

The new bed arrived on Monday and was immediately put together by Daddy, and none too soon! After we ordered the bed, for a while we felt like we might have over reacted and that perhaps there was no need to jump the gun. One escape attempt doesn't mean he is going to try it again any time soon, so what's the rush? But it turned out it was a good thing we acted quickly. It took about 10 days for the bed to come, and the last two mornings before it arrived Elijah tried to get out of his crib (one time to retrieve a blanket that he had just thrown out of the crib, and the second time he just woke up, said "Ah-doh", and wanted out right away).

I read somewhere that it's a good idea to keep the crib handy when going to a toddler bed just in case the child doesn't take to it well right away. It wasn't really an option for us, but it worked out just fine anyway. Elijah LOVES his new bed. When Ryan showed it to him for the first time, he immediately knew what it was, and wanted to play "going to sleep" for a while. He'd climb onto it, lie down, then get off. We were concerned that since he could now get up himself he wouldn't stay in bed when we put him down for the night or just his nap, but he hadn't gotten up once in the few days that we've had this new sleeping arrangement. Although we can no longer prolong our mornings in bed. As soon as Elijah is awake, he gets out of bed and turns on the lights.

Funny enough, finding a top sheet to fit this toddler bed turned out to be quite a chore. I finally found one at Amazon, but I feel like they are overcharging, so we are using a twin-sized pink-striped one for now. :) As for a pillow, Elijah seems to be plenty comfortable without one, so we figured no need to worry about that one quite yet.

All in all, the transition has been a smooth one. It appears it was harder for me than for Elijah. He has slept in the crib since he was less than two months old, and moving him out of it gave me this sad my-baby-boy-is-growing-up feeling. (I took a few pictures of him in the crib after his very last nap in it.) But he doesn't seem to miss the crib at all. And I have pretty much gotten over it by now as well.

a near escape

A few days ago we had one of those break through days when a child all of a sudden makes a leap in his development. Or it least so it seemed. We woke up to a string of impatient "HI, HI, HI, ...". As usual, we hoped to ignore the greeting and steal a few more moments of rest. Our basement bedroom is usually pretty dark, which makes for great sleeping any time of day, but also makes for difficult waking (at least for the two adults in the room). However, that morning Elijah was not inclined to wait. As Ryan looked up at the crib, it looked like Elijah's arm was hanging over the rail, which is often the case. But we quickly realized that it was no arm. Elijah was straddling the rail. We think he got a little startled to discover himself in such an unstable position and froze for just a moment, which gave us just enough time to throw off our blanket and retrieve him before he fell down. Talk about a quick awakening and an adrenalin rush!

About a half an hour later he surprised us by saying two new words: ball (bah), and car (cah). We never coached him to say these words, unlike many others. Yet all of a sudden he just used them like it was normal. And even that wasn't the end of his tricks.

That same morning he finally figured out that he doesn't have to beg us to hold him up so he can turn the light switches on and off (a fascination he's had since before he turned a year, and it doesn't seem to wear out). He climbed on the couch and happily played with the lights for quite a while. Up and down, up and down, like a little monkey. Was it his Halloween character that inspired him?

It was a fun day. I love watching him do new tricks and say new words. You should hear him talk on his toy phone (or a remote control) in his gibberish, and giggling as if someone was cracking jokes on the other end.

And, by the way, a brand new toddler bed is on its way.

animal sounds

You can probably guess which animal sounds he is making, even though the animals are named in Russian. But just in case, they are: monkey, dog, sheep, and snake, in that order.

monkey

It all started when we decided that two pairs of pajamas weren't enough. Somehow we kept finding ourselves out of clean PJ's for Elijah, and decided we needed more. The cutest pair Costco had at the time had monkeys all over it, and for some reason Elijah instantly fell in love with it. His other PJ's have a bear on them, and he likes bears, but somehow doesn't really think it's all that cool to have one on his PJ's. But the monkey pajamas are a whole different ball game. So, when Grandma asked what costume she should get for Elijah for Halloween, it was a no brainer. He was meant to be a monkey this year. (If you look closely, you'll see that even his shoes have monkeys on them.)

Elijah didn't go trick-or-treating, but he did visit Grandpa and Grandma's office in the morning (below), and then helped hand out candy in the evening. He was quite interested in the bowl of candy, mostly for the sole purpose of dumping it out on the floor, but we kept it well out of his reach. And if you are wondering if he got any candy, the answer is no. The only desert type thing he gets once in a while is jello (unless you are counting the carrot cupcake from his first birthday).

last warm days of the year

ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma

You may have picked up on the fact that I have been waiting for a long time now to hear Elijah address me as "mama." I mean, it's cute when he says it when prompted with a question, but not quite the same. I imagined what I'd do when it finally happened, how I'd make a big deal out of it, and clap my hands, and say "Yay!" and run to him, and hug him and kiss him. Oh, those were beautiful dreams! They were shattered this morning at 5 am.

Elijah woke up early (5 am) and started by saying "Hi" to us, as he usually does. Then he barked like a dog for a little. We tried to ignore him hoping he'd go back to sleep (fat chance, but one should never lose hope). If he wants to be up at 5, that's his deal. We are not getting up any earlier than six. And then it came: "Ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma!" Oh, NO! Not at 5 am! Not when I am half asleep, and don't want to encourage him in his wakefulness, either! Why couldn't it have been some sweet moment while reading a book or playing together outside? How was I supposed to let him know that it was a beautiful sounds to my ears, and that he should do it more, and at the same time make it clear that night (and especially early morning) is for sleeping, not talking? I wish he had picked a different time. But as it were, I ignored the "ma-ma" I've been waiting for all this time. He hasn't said it again all day. Bummer.

new words

Elijah is finally answering "Ma-ma" when I ask him "Who am I?" thus making my day every time. :) But he is still not addressing me as such. How long do I have to wait?

Meanwhile, he learned to say "Wow," which sounds pretty much as it should, and krug, which is Russian for circle, but sounds something like "kgh." No matter, I know what it means. We are now working on "rectangle." :)

the boy and his horse

Unlike Allie, the horse is Elijah's. He got it a few weeks ago, and was not quite sure what to make of it for the first few days. But that didn't last long. He soon mastered mounting it and rides it a few times a day now. And, as all real cowboys do, he carries his milk with him every time.

I took about a million pictures of him on the horse, and noticed that Elijah was actually posing for each picture! That was a first.

the boy and his dog

Well, Allie is technically not Elijah's dog, but I am sure he wishes she were. She is definitely his favorite, and not just among dogs. Many mornings the first sound he makes when he wakes up is "Awoo, awoo, awoo" - his very own imitation of the dog sound. When we come out of the bedroom to say Good Morning to Grandma and Grandpa, he completely ignores them, looks for the dog, and does more barking imitations and "dog" signs. He also likes to pet her, but he is not allowed to. The problem is, the child is allergic to the dog. Claritin is keeping most of the problems at bay, but we still don't want to push our luck. He tests the boundaries, and Grandma once caught him rubbing Allie's back with both hands while no one was looking. But most of the time, he is content to just sit next to her, especially outside. Allie has a spot under a tree with a good view of the road, and Elijah comes over and sits nearby on the grass. It's rather adorable.

When Allie was away this weekend, he kept looking for her everywhere. They had a happy reunion. Allie sniffed Elijah, and Elijah giggled with delight. Then he brought her a friendship offering: a dry leaf. The thing is, Allie likes to chew on leaves, and Elijah is happy to keep a steady supply coming (below). The picture above is from a time when Allie got a new toy, and Elijah was pretty jealous. He followed her everywhere and kept wanting to take the toy when she wasn't looking. But we told him it was the doggie's toy, and he seemed to understand that that meant he couldn't play with it, just like the doggie was not allowed to play with his toys.

lunch time conversation

If you ask Elijah, "Can you say Mommy?" (or any other word) he will just stare at you and say nothing, even though we know perfectly well that he can say it just fine, and he knows what the word means, and we've heard him say it in the past. He just plain won't perform on demand. He will, however, say things when he decides it's time.

Daddy (to Elijah, showing him a plate with a hot dog on it): "Elijah, what is this?"
Elijah (beaming with delight at the sight): "Hoh-gah!"
Daddy (to Mommy): "It will be fun when he starts talking more."
Mommy (to Daddy): "Yeah, it would be nice if we could start with a simple Mama."
Elijah (without the slightest pause, looking at Mommy with the broadest smile): "Mama!"

doctor in training

Elijah wearing scrubs.

reading

Elijah likes his books. He loves it when we read them to him, but he also likes to page through them himself and look at the pictures. One of his favorites is an "I Spy" book. The video below was taken back in Oak Lawn, shortly before we moved. I heard him saying gibberish, but there were clear "sentence" divisions, and each sentence started with a long "Aaahhh." As I looked into the living room from the kitchen, I saw him sitting there with his "I Spy" book (each page of which, of course, starts with an "I spy..."), turning each page, and saying his "sentence." By the time I got my camera out, he was almost done, but I caught the end of his "reading." Here it is.



The next day at church, he read a printout of the church business meeting agenda to himself out loud, following the same sentence pattern, tracing the lines with his finger, and holding the paper upside down. :)

water table

Ever since Elijah discovered water toys in his bath, he has loved playing with water. If you tell him "Let's go wash your hands," he will look around for a cup to take along. It makes perfect sense: who would want to waste an opportunity to catch running water into a cup and then dump it out?

Back in Oak Lawn we didn't have a lawn where we could set up a water table, but now it's different. Not only is there a back yard to play in, but there's also a garage to store this toy when not in use! Shortly after moving to Michigan, I found a water table on craigslist and we've used it a few times before the cold spell hit. It can keep his attention for close to an hour, and he is ever so serious pouring that water from cup to cup, from cup onto the driveway, or onto the water wheel. I have a little video of him doing it, but I took it sideways and don't have the right software to rotate it... :(

"hot" and "oval" (and "outside")

We have two new words! They are "hot" and "oval." "Hot" sounds more like "hoh-hoh-hoh," and "oval" lacks the final "l." In fact, Elijah's "oval" is actually in Russian (yes!), but it sounds a lot like English. You just have to stress the second syllable instead of the first. Daddy objected to counting "oval" as a new word on the grounds that it was just too random. I agree that it's rather random, and I would have preferred my child to say "mama" before he said "oval," but we take what we get. Daddy did finally agree that it indeed is a new word after Elijah clearly responded "ovah" to the question "What's in your hand?" when he was holding an oval shape from a sorting toy.

He also has a very distinct sound for "outside." It is different from any other "word" he says, but I can hardly hear the actual "outside" in it. Daddy claims that it is becoming "outside." We'll see. From what I can hear, it can as easily evolve into "ulitsa" (Russian for "outside.")

cowboy hat

Elijah found this hat in a box in his grandparents' basement. I hate using the flash when taking pictures, so the cutest one came out all smudged. Thus, you'll have to settle for second best. But you are such a patient audience, and you never complain, so I thought it would be OK. :)

PeaPod Plus

For the last year plus we have shied away from too much travel primarily because it really messed with Elijah's schedule. That is, until a friend told us about the PeaPod (thanks, Katie!) You'll have to follow the link to see the picture, as I haven't taken any with Elijah in it. Once we purchased one, sleep during travel ceased being an issue. No more walking Elijah to sleep for his nap, and no more putting up with a wound up child climbing all over us in bed at night for an hour or so long past his bed time. We kept the PeaPod out for a few days before first use so that Elijah would get used to it. The first time we put him down for the night in it, he cried for about 3 minutes. The second time it was 30 seconds. After that he completely accepted it as his alternate place for sleep. Hooray!

I debated whether to do this post at all, but decided to do it just in case someone out there has a baby who hates the Pack'n Play but needs a place to sleep while travelling. And no, I am not getting paid for this post, in case you are wondering. :)

the big move

We moved from Oak Lawn, IL to the suburbs of Detroit, MI on August 28th. Well, at least Elijah and I did. Daddy drove the truck the following day. We considered all driving on the same day at first, but changed our mind. Elijah would have been in the way when the truck was being loaded, and I would have had to watch him, so I wouldn't have been much help. Thus, we decided to take Mr. In-The-Way and Mrs. Not-Much-Help out of the picture. As friends from church were starting to load the truck, I drove off to Michigan with some of our most precious and most needed possessions, including, but not limited to, the china set (a wedding present that hasn't been unpacked yet), the child, and the child's bed. Four hours later we were safely at the grandparents' house, where we've been ever since.

Daddy arrived with the truck the following day with most of our stuff (a good amount was left by the road side as it didn't fit into the truck, and that's after we gave away a love seat and a recliner, and took a few large items to the dumpster.) Oh, well. The following day Daddy and Grandpa transferred the contents of the truck into a storage unit utilizing their best jigsaw puzzle skills. Having returned the truck, we sighed a sigh of relief and settled at our new temporary place of residence.

good bye, friends

Our last Saturday in Oak Lawn we had a BBQ with a group of friends from church. It was good and sad at the same time. At least for Ryan and I. For Elijah, it was a chance to test his stamina by being outside for over four hours. He loved every minute of it. He played with a water table for close to half the time, and then drove this little blue car for most of the rest of the time.

park in oak lawn

It has been my practice to avoid any reference to our exact place of residence for as long as we lived there, but now that we've moved, it doesn't matter any more. So here it is, our favorite park in Oak Lawn, IL. It was one of the two parks within walking distance, but unlike the other park, this one had lots of shade and we didn't have to walk along noisy Cicero Ave to get to it. That's how it became "our" park. Elijah loved it. He loved "driving" the fire truck (he has an awesome "car" sign for it), going down the roller slide, and climbing up to it again. He loved riding the horses (not pictured here) and running along a suspended bridge (not pictured, either). He also loved playing peek-a-boo in a crawling tube. He could spend hours there, if I let him. And when he'd be all worn out, we'd sit on a bench together and have a snack: gold fish, or watermelon, or a peach. The peach was by far his favorite. I don't know if Elijah misses the park, or if he even remembers it, but now that I am looking at these pictures, I sure do.

hot dogs

We have dutifully tried to feed Elijah only the healthiest foods available. While broccoli and green beans remained at the top of his gastronomic preference list for a long time, he never made any effort to say the words. Even the blueberries (to which he is still addicted) and peaches get requested by sign language. The only food exciting enough to try and say its name turned out to be a hot dog! We do only buy Hebrew Nationals and hold that they are the best tasting hot dogs in the whole wide world (well, maybe I should restate that: they are the best tasting hot dogs among those that are least bad for you; there are plenty of delicious varieties out there, but I shudder to think what kinds of mystery ingredients they are stuffed with). But still! Is a hot dog really that much more exciting than whole wheat pasta? Or a delicious beat? Or steamed mixed vegetables? Apparently so. :) At least every pot of boiling water in our kitchen, no matter what it is intended for, is likely to be greeted by a high pitched "huh-guh" these days.

extracurricular activities

Watching a child day after day can become challenging. I can't say Elijah is not a perfect little boy, but let's face it, perfect little boys whine, too. And they get bored. And they teethe. Their feet get stuck in the crib and they wake up from a nap early in a cranky mood. And they don't want hot cereal for breakfast because Mommy dumped too much salt into it. The list goes on. So it helps to have scheduled things to do to bring variety to our days. After all, there are only so many times a day you can put together the alphabet puzzle. Enter extracurricular activities.

Now, I am not sure if you can actually call them "extracurricular" since there's no real "curriculum" Elijah is following, so feel free to suggest another term. Meanwhile, we attend a gym class on Fridays and go to the pool about once every three weeks (that's how long it takes me to recover from each trip :)).

Turns out, Elijah doesn't really like crowds. Who is surprised? Raise your hand. I guess it only makes sense with two parents on the introverted side, with one of them way off the chart. When the pool got too crowded today, Elijah opted for a chair and a bag of gold fish. Once the fish were gone, we just went home. Neither is he interested in paying attention during the structured part of the gym class. While other toddlers (ok, they are mostly older than Elijah) are sitting in a circle singing songs and counting to ten, he is off doing his own thing.

Having something special to do every once in a while helps maintain my sanity and creates great memories (it also makes for great pictures!) Today at the pool, after taking the picture above, I sat down on the ground next to the chair from which Elijah was observing the chaos of the pool. Almost right away he got off the chair and wanted to nestle next to me. Now, how sweet is that? :)

plastic slides

This is what a plastic slide does to a perfectly good haircut. (All right, he hasn't had a hair cut yet, so how about a hair do?) The static on those things is incredible!

vacation

Daddy took a vacation a couple of weeks ago, and we spent part of it with Grandpa Gary and Grandma Rachel at their cabin. The cabin is located right by a lake, and having observed Elijah at a local pool, I didn't want to have to chase him around in the water. Instead, we brought an inflatable pool with us. We filled it up with well water (very cold!) and set it in the sun to warm up by the afternoon. Elijah, however, didn't want to wait that long, and was in the cold water way before lunch. We all sat around in chairs and watched him play, and he even posed for a couple nice pictures. My plan was working perfectly. The child was happily occupied in a safe environment, and we could relax and kick back.

Not for long. In the afternoon we went down to the lake having dressed appropriately for the occasion (see picture below). Elijah was fascinated with such a huge amount of water and kept signing water over and over again. Shy at first, he soon realized the fun potential of the place, but the life jacket was in his way. So we took it off. Contrary to my expectations, he didn't try to go deep. But he was rather unstable in the sand, so someone always had to be close by.

The result of this adventure was that the next day he refused to play in the pool. He wanted the lake, which meant one of us had to play the life guard. In the end, it worked out all right. Worn out by the sun and the water, he went to bed at a decent hour, so Ryan and I were able to enjoy the last Harry Potter book for a few hours before we crashed as well.