Arizona '08

We visited Grandma Shannon and Grandpa Mike in Arizona in early April. It was quite a change for us as far as the weather goes. It snowed in MI less than a week before our departure, and it was warm enough to play in an outdoor pool in Arizona. Which we did, as you can see. We only ventured into the pool once, but Elijah played in the water quite a few times.

At some point we went and bought bubbles, and it immediately became one of his favorite things to do outside. We had to have three adults involved in this play, however. One to blow bubbles, one to stand guard by the pool so he doesn't fall in, and one to follow him around to make sure he didn't run into any cacti (for his and the cacti sakes) in the excitement of chasing the bubbles, or "babu" as he called them.

We had some fun activities along the way, too. One morning we visited the desert museum. We saw all kinds of snakes, lizards, scorpions, and believe it or not, even fish (go figure!) The was a skunk sleeping behind glass.

Elijah looked at it and inquired, "Goggie?"
"No, baby, that's not a doggie."
"Wa-hoo?" (That's his word for "rabbit," one of his earliest.)
"No, not a rabbit, either. It's a skunk."
"Ka!" he said and walked away. If it's not a doggie or a rabbit, it's not worth his time and attention.

We also had a chance to visit grandma's Chipotle restaurant, of which she is a manager. Elijah usually gets a large quesadilla when we go to Chipotle, and eats every bite of it. Or at least every bite that is neatly cut. He rejects any that are not even or have cheese hanging out on the sides. Zealous workers of the restaurant loaded his quesadilla with almost double the cheese, and I didn't think he'd finish it. Amazingly enough, he did, thanks to grandma who cut it into perfect squares for him.

We found a great little park next to a school across the street, and spent an evening there, going down the slides (grandma got seriously zapped by static electricity!) and playing in the sand. When we were walking back to the car, I couldn't resist taking a picture of Ryan and Elijah walking hand in hand.

Travelling with a young child can be difficult, especially when it comes to sleeping. Once again, our super tent saved the day. I love that thing! We didn't skip a single nap and bed time was never a problem, and that's with a 3 hour difference between Tucson and Detroit. Even still, the trip wore Elijah out enough to take a two hour nap on the plane during our flight home.

Every trip has been marked by a noticeable jump in Elijah's development, and this one was not an exception. All of a sudden he finally started repeating words and even short sentences after us. Before, all our attempts to encourage him to speak were met with a stare. Not quite blank, not exactly defiant, but no words came out. Now he'll happily repeat anything we ask of him, or at least make an attempt, and sometimes he picks out random words from our conversations. One of the first was "metaphor" and "groggy," and the latter has evolved into "gwoggy goggie" (meaning "groggy doggie").