Jesus' birthday

Elijah (at breakfast, between spoonfulls of cheerios): Mommy, is today Christmas?
Mommy: No, today is Monday, and Christmas in on Friday.
(We have previously discussed that Christmas is Jesus' birthday.)
Pause.
Elijah: So, how old is Jesus?
Mommy: Oh, about two thousand years or so.
(Thinking pause, then back to his cheerios.)

things we love

Elijah: "I love balloons, presents, bears, lady bugs ... and girls!"
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Elijah, watching a girl in a pretty dress pass by at church: "Mommy, see, there's a girl over there!" Then, shaking his head: "But I don't know what her name is."

pre-school nativity program

Elijah was one of the three wise men at his pre-school Nativity program. Grandma Rachel, aunt Chelsea, aunt Doris and Kathryn came to witness his first on stage performance.

four years old

Elijah turned four! We celebrated twice: once on the actual birthday and then again a couple days later with Grandma, Grandpa and aunt Chelsea. Elijah also celebrated at pre-school and then at church school. He loved the whole thing this year! He joined in the Happy Birthday song to himself every time and requested it later whenever we'd pull out the leftover cake.

how to tell a girl

Elijah: "Mommy, you are a girl! Girls wear dresses, you wear dresses, you are a girl!"

Pretty good logic, I'd say. :) It's a good thing I recently started wearing skirts on occasion. :) Or we'd have one really confused boy!

counting bites

At meal time:
"Elijah, you need to eat two more bites, and then you can be done."
"OK! Zero... One... Two."

Heather and her dress

Elijah, after coming home from pre-school: Heather did NOT wear a dress today!!
Mommy: Really? What did she wear?
E: I don't know...
M: Did she wear pants?
E: Yes, maybe she did. But she will wear a dress next time! Yes, next time she will!
M: Do you like it when she wears a dress?
E: Yep.

a real turkey

The teachers at Elijah's pre-school asked the kids what they would do if they heard a knock at their front door and a real turkey was standing there. Below are their responses. I thought you'd get a kick out of them.

- Play dress up with him.
- Climb on his back and fly over the trees.
- Play games with him inside and then tip him over and smash him like a bug.
- Poke him in the eye. (A girl said that!)
- Play basketball with him.
- Trap him and put him in the garage and then dress him like a baby.
- Play outside with him. (This was Elijah's response.)
- Throw him in his cage in my garage.
- Say hello and play baseball and football and basketball with him outside.
- Tilt him over and hid him under my bed.

Sweatshirt

Elijah's pre-school teachers asked the parents to bring in a picture of their child with something or someone they are thankful for. The children are learning the concept of being thankful and the picture will be used as an aid since it's not an easy concept for 3 year olds to grasp.

We spent a few days trying to decide what/who should be on that picture. Mommy and Daddy? Grandparents? The bunk beds? The book "Mouse Soup"? They were all plausible candidates, but in the end, Sweatshirt won. Yes, Sweatshirt is now a proper name and is therefore capitalized and used without an article. It (often referred to as "he" in English and "she" in Russian - Russian nouns are gendered) continues to be a constant companion in times of trouble, a soothing friend, and a compliant playmate. It is so important in Elijah's life, that Sweatshirt is not allowed to ever leave the house for fear of being lost. I shudder to think what would happen then.

But what do you do when you best friend can't go with you everywhere? Well, you get other friends. Elijah has two other sweatshirts that are allowed to travel with him. One goes to church with us, and the other is used for overnight trips.

Sweatshirt has multiple nicknames. Some of them are sometimes applied to the two substitues, but most are reserved for the real thing. Here they are, in the order of preference and usage frequency: Ney, Gofe (a take off on the Russian word "kofta"), Wha-ha (Sweatshirt's first name dating back to when Elijah just started to talk) and Si (I couldn't tell you where this one came from).

The picture you see here is the one that was taken to pre-school today: Elijah and his best friend Sweatshirt relaxing on a red bean bag.

smoothie-mobile

Elijah made this little car all by himself and proudly announced, "This is car-smoothie!" I think he meant something like a "smoothie truck" (similar to an ice-cream truck), but I like to call it the smoothie-mobile. I was thoroughly impressed with his little creation (thus the picture and the post!), complete with a chef driver, a driver's seat, a steering wheel, a blender (that's the yellow cone with a black lid) and a green start button! He informed me that that's the button you need to push to make a smoothie. Everything else in this smoothie-mobile is completely symmetrical, except for that one start button. Can't you just see this thing zooming around town selling freshly made smoothies? Yum!

he likes me, he likes me not

Daddy: "Elijah, I like you!"
Elijah: "No, you don't! Because I don't taste good!"

breakfast

I was getting my breakfast downstairs when my work phone rang on the second floor. I didn't think running upstairs with a full cup of hot tea was a good idea, so I yelled to Ryan over my shoulder as I dashed up the steps, "Ryan, would you bring be my breakfast, please?"

Later that day Elijah was talking on his toy cell phone. He went around a corner and yelled from there, "Daddy! Would you bring me my breakfast? I am on the phone!"

a doctor, a crayon, and cookie monster!

After Daddy did an impersonation of Cookie Monster (while reading a book to Elijah), our Cookie Monster toy moved from the bottom of the toy basket straigh to Elijah's bed, where he's been spending every night (and a good part of most days, too). Not only that, but Cookie Monster gets a good night kiss from Mommy and Daddy right after Elijah and Sweatshirt (his favorite pal of all times, pictured below for your reference). To top it off, Elijah consented to wear a Cookie Monster costume for all of our Halloween events, albeit only after we would solemnly swear to take it off him as soon as picture time was over and not a second later.

plymouth apple orchards

Elijah's pre-school class went on a field trip to Plymouth Apple Orchards this Fall. They learned about how bees pollinate the apple trees, took a wagon ride, and got to pick apples and pumpkins. Oh, and did I forget to mention cider and donuts? Yum! The best part is that parents got to come, too!

another visit from Russian grandma

Grandma from Russia came to visit us again at the end of September. We had two weeks full of travel and visits with friends and family. We started off by spending two mornings downtown Detroit trying to get her a Canadian visa. Upon success, we took off to see Niagara Falls in Cananda. Our friends Marvin, Doris, and Kathryn joined us for this two day adventure. We saw the Falls, swam in the pool, hung out in a hot tub, ate out, and generally had a great time. Elijah's Russian once again improved more than I expected and he continues to speak it far more than before the visit. I also hear him jabbering and singing in Russian to himself. It is music to my ears!

uncle Tim's and aunt Billie-Jean's wedding

In the middle of September we took a trip to Suffolk, VA, to be at uncle Tim's and aunt Billie-Jean's wedding. While the rest of us enjoyed special time with family and friends, Elijah was mostly occupied with grandma Shannon's iPhone.

wheels

pre-school reports

"Heather wore a pink dress!"

"Dawn has a brother AND a sister!"

"We had cheese-it's for a snack. I said, 'Mrs. Workman, may I have some more cheese-it's please?' And she said, 'Thank you for asking me nicely!' And she gave me more, and I said thank you!"

no surprises here

Daddy, kissing Elijah Good-night: "I love you."
Elijah: "Do you?"
Daddy: "Yes, I do."
Elijah: "I am not surprised to hear that!"

trip to WA

We took two weeks to visit family in Bremerton, WA this July. Below are some pictures from our trip. But first, here are some fun things that Elijah said during the trip.

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Daddy: Elijah, we are going to Seattle to see great-grandma and great-grandpa.
Elijah: Yes, we are going to see Attle!
Elijah (upon leaving the plane in Seattle): So, is this where Attle lives?

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Elijah (after one of the first visits to great-grandma's and great-grandpa's): Where's great aunt Chelsea? (Explanation: In Elijah's mind, aunt Chelsea always goes with grandma and grandpa, so if we are seeing great-grandma and great-grandpa, there has to be a great aunt Chelsea somewhere nearby).

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Elijah: Mommy, I don't have a question for you. I need to go buy one at the store!

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Elijah (having just gotten on the plane in Seattle to go back to Detroit): I want the clouds down!

Elijah on the plane on our way to Seattle with a monkey stuffed upside down into his seat belt.

Swinging with great-grandpa and Daddy.

Watering great-grandpa's tomatoes.

Stop and smell the roses.

Picking cherries.

Eating cherries.

Swimming with Nathan.

Elijah with great-grandma Lindley.

At the ocean with Mommy.

At the ocean with Daddy.

At the ocean.

what starts with an L ?

Elijah and Mommy were playing with Russian alphabet letters and finding words that started with them.
Mommy: Elijah, this is the letter L. What starts with an L?
Elijah: ALlie! (That's grandma's and grandpa's dog.)
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Mommy: This is the letter B. What starts with a B?
Elijah: May Be!
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Elijah (the next day playing with the English alphabet): Mommy, this is the letter Y! What starts with a Y? Y did you go potty in your underpants!

colorful questions

Elijah (at breakfast, exploring the word "question"): Mommy, I have a question for you!
Mommy: OK.
(silence)
M: Do you have a question?
E: Yes!
M: Well, what kind of question?
E: An orange one!
M: Really?
E: Yes! And a blue question, and a red question, and a yellow question, and a green question, and a purple question!

pk no more

For those of you who may not know, PK stands for "pastor's kid" or "preacher's kid". Elijah officially qualifies to bear the title since his Dad is an associate pastor (and does preach about once a month). Elijah will maintain the title for a little longer (until the end of June), at which point he will have to lay it down, perhaps for good.

The reason is that Ryan has resigned his job as an Associate Pastor of Trinity Church in Livonia, MI effective the end of June in order to ... become Orthodox. And yes, that was a capital "O" - Orthodox as in Eastern Orthodox. As soon as we begin attending an Orthodox church in early July, he will be a layman like the rest of his family, and Elijah will no longer be a PK.

what's your name?

We were at an upholstery shop ordering new cushions for our glider (the old ones were ruined in storage). The lady at the counter made conversation with Elijah, "And what's your name?" "Elijah," replied Elijah, but it sounds more like "Eyidya" still. She tried to clarify, "What was that?" He looked at her very seriously and spelled, "E-L-I-J-A-H. Elijah!"

ducks in the pond

We have two small ponds in our back yard. Two ducks come to splash in them every day. Elijah checks up on them several times every day and lets me know if they are gone or if they are back. One morning I overhead the following conversation:
Elijah: "The ducks are back!"
Daddy: "Yes, there are two of them! A mommy duck and a daddy duck!"
Elijah: "Where is Elijah duck?"

countries

Many years ago, when I first came to the U.S., I bought a place mat with the map of the world, thinking it would be kind of fun to brush up on my political geography. My plans never materialized.

A couple months ago we dug out that place mat to use for Elijah. It's laminated and easy to clean. Daddy showed him a couple of countries and it was an immediate hit. He can't get enough of it! We learned the big ones first (he liked the big orange one - Russia!) and then moved on to smaller ones. We even made it a little more challenging by naming each country in two languages. The two videos below are both in Russian, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out what's going on.

two grandmas

Two grandmas came to visit us in December '08 and January '09, one of state and one out of the country. Their visits overlapped for a few days in January, during which Elijah had no lack of attention. Here are a few videos from their visits.

three year old check up

Name: Elijah
Age: 3 years 1.5 months
Weight: 33.95 lbs (0.5 lb less than 6 months ago) - 69th percentile
Height: 39.75 inches - 82nd percentile
Favorite drink - Chocolate Milk, closely followed by Apple juice
Favorite food - Cheerios for breakfast, quesadilla (with guacamole and sour cream) for lunch, cheerios for dinner
Favorite dessert - ice cream
Favorite country - Russia
Favorite island - Madagascar
Favorite person - Mommy ("I just LOVE Mommy!")

love triangle

Elijah's latest discourse while sitting on the potty (in Russian): "Mommy loves Daddy. Elijah loves Mommy. Daddy loves Michael." (Michael is the senior pastor at the church where Ryan serves as an associate).