boyhood

After the first night back home Elijah woke up a different child. The change was almost palpable. He ran around the apartment happily squealing and jabbering and using new sounds, and being more vocal than ever before. We initially thought it was just because he was happy to be home. But the next day and the day after he was still "talking" away, and other signs made us believe that more has changed.

All of a sudden he started keeping eye contact for longer and is looking at us with more understanding. He responds to commands, like "Climb the chair" or "Give your bear some milk." He somewhat did that before, but it wasn't consistent.

His signs are maturing. The sign for "more" has evolved into its true shape instead of just clapping his hands; the sign for "eat" has migrated from his ear back to his mouth (very handy when you need to distinguish between "eat" and "sleep"); he is doing new signs like "flower" and is clearly trying others, although they are yet indistinguishable. But most animals are still "bears," except for "duck" and "pig," which look very close to "milk" when Elijah does them.

Another change is that now when you tell him to come here, he turns around and runs in the opposite direction! It is very cute. :) He went back to crawling and walking in the "bridge" position (on his hands and feet), but now he does it just for fun, as walking has been the primary way of getting from place to place for over two months now.

As I watched him play in the piles of sorted laundry last night, I thought that he hardly fit the term "baby" any more. He no longer strikes me as one. The best way I can find to describe this latest change is a transition from babyhood to boyhood.