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.