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.