last warm days of the year

ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma

You may have picked up on the fact that I have been waiting for a long time now to hear Elijah address me as "mama." I mean, it's cute when he says it when prompted with a question, but not quite the same. I imagined what I'd do when it finally happened, how I'd make a big deal out of it, and clap my hands, and say "Yay!" and run to him, and hug him and kiss him. Oh, those were beautiful dreams! They were shattered this morning at 5 am.

Elijah woke up early (5 am) and started by saying "Hi" to us, as he usually does. Then he barked like a dog for a little. We tried to ignore him hoping he'd go back to sleep (fat chance, but one should never lose hope). If he wants to be up at 5, that's his deal. We are not getting up any earlier than six. And then it came: "Ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma!" Oh, NO! Not at 5 am! Not when I am half asleep, and don't want to encourage him in his wakefulness, either! Why couldn't it have been some sweet moment while reading a book or playing together outside? How was I supposed to let him know that it was a beautiful sounds to my ears, and that he should do it more, and at the same time make it clear that night (and especially early morning) is for sleeping, not talking? I wish he had picked a different time. But as it were, I ignored the "ma-ma" I've been waiting for all this time. He hasn't said it again all day. Bummer.

new words

Elijah is finally answering "Ma-ma" when I ask him "Who am I?" thus making my day every time. :) But he is still not addressing me as such. How long do I have to wait?

Meanwhile, he learned to say "Wow," which sounds pretty much as it should, and krug, which is Russian for circle, but sounds something like "kgh." No matter, I know what it means. We are now working on "rectangle." :)

the boy and his horse

Unlike Allie, the horse is Elijah's. He got it a few weeks ago, and was not quite sure what to make of it for the first few days. But that didn't last long. He soon mastered mounting it and rides it a few times a day now. And, as all real cowboys do, he carries his milk with him every time.

I took about a million pictures of him on the horse, and noticed that Elijah was actually posing for each picture! That was a first.

the boy and his dog

Well, Allie is technically not Elijah's dog, but I am sure he wishes she were. She is definitely his favorite, and not just among dogs. Many mornings the first sound he makes when he wakes up is "Awoo, awoo, awoo" - his very own imitation of the dog sound. When we come out of the bedroom to say Good Morning to Grandma and Grandpa, he completely ignores them, looks for the dog, and does more barking imitations and "dog" signs. He also likes to pet her, but he is not allowed to. The problem is, the child is allergic to the dog. Claritin is keeping most of the problems at bay, but we still don't want to push our luck. He tests the boundaries, and Grandma once caught him rubbing Allie's back with both hands while no one was looking. But most of the time, he is content to just sit next to her, especially outside. Allie has a spot under a tree with a good view of the road, and Elijah comes over and sits nearby on the grass. It's rather adorable.

When Allie was away this weekend, he kept looking for her everywhere. They had a happy reunion. Allie sniffed Elijah, and Elijah giggled with delight. Then he brought her a friendship offering: a dry leaf. The thing is, Allie likes to chew on leaves, and Elijah is happy to keep a steady supply coming (below). The picture above is from a time when Allie got a new toy, and Elijah was pretty jealous. He followed her everywhere and kept wanting to take the toy when she wasn't looking. But we told him it was the doggie's toy, and he seemed to understand that that meant he couldn't play with it, just like the doggie was not allowed to play with his toys.

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.

hot dogs

We have dutifully tried to feed Elijah only the healthiest foods available. While broccoli and green beans remained at the top of his gastronomic preference list for a long time, he never made any effort to say the words. Even the blueberries (to which he is still addicted) and peaches get requested by sign language. The only food exciting enough to try and say its name turned out to be a hot dog! We do only buy Hebrew Nationals and hold that they are the best tasting hot dogs in the whole wide world (well, maybe I should restate that: they are the best tasting hot dogs among those that are least bad for you; there are plenty of delicious varieties out there, but I shudder to think what kinds of mystery ingredients they are stuffed with). But still! Is a hot dog really that much more exciting than whole wheat pasta? Or a delicious beat? Or steamed mixed vegetables? Apparently so. :) At least every pot of boiling water in our kitchen, no matter what it is intended for, is likely to be greeted by a high pitched "huh-guh" these days.

extracurricular activities

Watching a child day after day can become challenging. I can't say Elijah is not a perfect little boy, but let's face it, perfect little boys whine, too. And they get bored. And they teethe. Their feet get stuck in the crib and they wake up from a nap early in a cranky mood. And they don't want hot cereal for breakfast because Mommy dumped too much salt into it. The list goes on. So it helps to have scheduled things to do to bring variety to our days. After all, there are only so many times a day you can put together the alphabet puzzle. Enter extracurricular activities.

Now, I am not sure if you can actually call them "extracurricular" since there's no real "curriculum" Elijah is following, so feel free to suggest another term. Meanwhile, we attend a gym class on Fridays and go to the pool about once every three weeks (that's how long it takes me to recover from each trip :)).

Turns out, Elijah doesn't really like crowds. Who is surprised? Raise your hand. I guess it only makes sense with two parents on the introverted side, with one of them way off the chart. When the pool got too crowded today, Elijah opted for a chair and a bag of gold fish. Once the fish were gone, we just went home. Neither is he interested in paying attention during the structured part of the gym class. While other toddlers (ok, they are mostly older than Elijah) are sitting in a circle singing songs and counting to ten, he is off doing his own thing.

Having something special to do every once in a while helps maintain my sanity and creates great memories (it also makes for great pictures!) Today at the pool, after taking the picture above, I sat down on the ground next to the chair from which Elijah was observing the chaos of the pool. Almost right away he got off the chair and wanted to nestle next to me. Now, how sweet is that? :)

plastic slides

This is what a plastic slide does to a perfectly good haircut. (All right, he hasn't had a hair cut yet, so how about a hair do?) The static on those things is incredible!

vacation

Daddy took a vacation a couple of weeks ago, and we spent part of it with Grandpa Gary and Grandma Rachel at their cabin. The cabin is located right by a lake, and having observed Elijah at a local pool, I didn't want to have to chase him around in the water. Instead, we brought an inflatable pool with us. We filled it up with well water (very cold!) and set it in the sun to warm up by the afternoon. Elijah, however, didn't want to wait that long, and was in the cold water way before lunch. We all sat around in chairs and watched him play, and he even posed for a couple nice pictures. My plan was working perfectly. The child was happily occupied in a safe environment, and we could relax and kick back.

Not for long. In the afternoon we went down to the lake having dressed appropriately for the occasion (see picture below). Elijah was fascinated with such a huge amount of water and kept signing water over and over again. Shy at first, he soon realized the fun potential of the place, but the life jacket was in his way. So we took it off. Contrary to my expectations, he didn't try to go deep. But he was rather unstable in the sand, so someone always had to be close by.

The result of this adventure was that the next day he refused to play in the pool. He wanted the lake, which meant one of us had to play the life guard. In the end, it worked out all right. Worn out by the sun and the water, he went to bed at a decent hour, so Ryan and I were able to enjoy the last Harry Potter book for a few hours before we crashed as well.

first trike

Here they are, grandma Shannon and Elijah on his first trike. No, he can't pedal yet. But he can sit on it. And he can fall off of it, which he's done a few times. Fortunately, the falls (more accurately called face plants) we softened by the carpet in our living room, but they nevertheless deterred Elijah from climbing onto his bike for a day or so. But if you put him on the bike, and set his feet on the pedals, and then push or pull the bike, he'll keep the feet on the pedals for a little bit. The idea is that one of these days he'll figure out how to go by himself. But our practices have been few and far between as it is incredibly hot outside and both of us (Mommy and baby) play better in an air-conditioned apartment.

close up

Grandma Shannon took this close up shot when she visited us about a week ago. I thought it was an excellent picture, so here it is for everyone to enjoy!

stars and flowers

I've been composing this post in my head for weeks, just didn't have the time to actually post it. Elijah's signing has really taken off. But you have to watch closely and pay attention to context a lot. For example, Daddy and horsey look the same. So do flower, cat and eat. This can sometime cause confusion. For example, one time Elijah was playing with his sorting bucket that had circle, square, triangle, and star shapes. He looked up at me and signed eat. When I asked if he was hungry, he shook his head. Then he signed eat again. What on earth? I put him in his high chair, but he wasn't interested in food. A few days later we were looking at a book about Christmas. On the last page, where there was a star over a stable, he got excited and signed eat. It was then that I realized he was signing flower! The shape sorting incident came back to me and I knew he thought the star shapes were actually flower shapes. Elijah does like flowers. We have some outside of our apartment building, and he always points them out to me. But I never thought of flowers as stars, or stars as flowers. Although I do like the idea. It intrigues me to think of the universe as a grand cosmic bouquet instead of it being a vast cold impersonal empty space with balls of burning gas separated by millions of light years.

uh-oh and ah-dah

Elijah is "saying" two more "words," although I am not sure if either of them qualify as words. One of them is "uh-oh." He is more and more accurate about the timing when "uh-oh" is appropriate, like when he falls, for example.

Another "word" is "ah-dah," meaning "all done." He usually says it when he is done with a book (as if saying "I am done with this book, let's do another one"), done playing with a puzzle (as if saying "I don't want to play with this one any more, take it away"), or done being on the changing table. He is usually done being on the changing table well before we are done changing his diaper, so he is lying there, signing "all done" and repeatedly saying "ah-dah," as if telling us to hurry up!

You may have noticed that neither of these words are Russian. I can understand that "hi" is easier than any Russian greeting, but "all done" in Russian is actually just one syllable: "vsyo"! It may be that the consonantal cluster "vs" may be challenging for him, plus we haven't heard him make either "v" or "s" sounds yet. Oh well. I guess I'll have to wait a while longer. :)

He also says "sentences" of random sounds, but the amazing thing (at least to us), is that the intonation and the number of syllables usually correspond to something we would have said to him at the time. For example, he usually plays peek-a-boo with his towel after a bath. He covers his face with it, and we say "Where's Elijah?" One day he covered his face and said something that sounded so much like "Where's Elijah" except that that actual sounds were wrong, but the intonation was exactly right! Once again, these "sentences" follow English inflection, perhaps because English sounds so much more "melodic" than Russian, or at least the expressive baby version of it that Daddy uses does. (Mommy doesn't do baby talk in Russian, so maybe it's not as exciting for him to imitate. Who knows.)

P.S. The next day after this posted was originally composed, Elijah stopped saying "all done" to books and puzzles. Instead, he is now saying it as soon as we try to put on his sandals to go outside. He doesn't really mind the sandals, but he doesn't have the patience to wait till they are on. It's so funny, as soon as we put him on our lap, he immediately says his "ah-dah".

the mind of a child

Ever wonder what's going on in little kids' minds? I do once in a while. Thanks to Elijah's signing, every so often I get a little peek into his thoughts when I don't expect it.

Elijah has learned a ton of signs by now. One of his favorites is "ball," perhaps because he likes balls. He has quite a few at home and likes to carry two or three in his arms at the same time, and then dump them on the floor. Whenever we are passing a large crate of balls at Target or a child playing with a ball in the street, Elijah never fails to sign "ball" with great excitement.

One day we were at a grocery store and I parked the cart with Elijah in it while picking out some veggies. As I looked up to make sure he was still there and OK, I saw him making a sign. At first it threw me off. It looked like he was signing "ball," but we were in the produce section, so there could be no balls. And the I realized that I put the cart next to a large crate of watermelons, and he decided they were balls! It's a good thing he couldn't reach any of them to see if they'd bounce! Another time we came home from a grocery store with a cantaloupe, which Elijah quickly accepted into his ball collection and treated it as such. He took it up on the couch and then threw it down on the floor. The cantaloupe was still edible after Elijah was done with it.

Another one of Elijah's favorites is a sign for "dog." It's supposed to be a pat on the thigh, as if calling a dog, but Elijah's version of it beating his chest with an open palm. Dogs have always been a love of his. A couple of days ago we saw a pretty dog at a park. Its owner was very friendly and let us come close, and Elijah even got a lick in the face, which he didn't mind a bit. As the dog's owner sat on a bench enjoying the weather, Elijah stood right by, repeatedly signed "dog," shook and squealed with excitement for quite a while. A day or so later we went to the same park. Elijah saw the bench where to dog was, went there, and signed "dog." I am pretty sure he was remembering his furry friend of a few days ago. I told him that the doggy was probably at home and expected him to move on. But he did not. We spent about a half our at the park that morning, and every couple of minutes (no matter whether he was on a slide or on a swing) he'd look at me with sad eyes and sign "dog." I never expected him to remember that dog in the first place, let alone be upset that it wasn't there and keep thinking about it the whole time.

already?

Elijah is only 18 months old, but we are seeing something we think are signs of the "terrible twos." Two weeks ago we had a child who, when we said "Let's go eat," ran to his high chair signing "eat," and when we said "It's time to go to sleep," ran to his bedroom signing "sleep." Not any more.

Each time we take a trip, some big changes seem to occur after we get home. We were wondering what the next leap was going to be after getting home from Michigan over a week ago. What we found is that his first an immediate reaction to everything and anything is now shaking his head, meaning "no". He doesn't yet say "no", nor does he know a sign for "no" (although one exists), but he doesn't need either to make it clear what he means. And he does mean it. Trying to put him into his high chair or get him to lie still on the changing table turns into a wrestling match at times.

I hope that all this can be explained by his cold he caught as soon as we got home, but I fear it's more than just a cold...

18 months check up

Height: 33 inches
Weight: 27 lbs 10 oz (after a week of being sick and hardly eating anything)
Head circumference: 48.5 cm
75th percentile

teenage geese

While in Michigan for aunt Chelsea's graduation, we stopped by a small park to see and feed some geese. Needless to say, Elijah had a ball. He didn't get to actually feed the geese, as they were taking bread right out of our hands, and we didn't think it was a good idea for Elijah to hold the bread. But he still got pretty close to them.

puzzle man

Elijah's new hobby is putting together puzzles. They are pretty simple for now, but he's gotten really good at them. Gone are the days when he struggled to fit the pieces in. I haven't timed him, but I bet he can do the whole thing in under 30 seconds. He can sit around for a long time putting these things together (he has a couple), then dumping them out on the floor and starting over. Puzzles became our toy of choice when we need to occupy him with a quiet activity for a while. Although he no longer needs help, he does like to have an impressed audience once in a while. Pictured above is Doris playing that role about a week ago in Michigan. :)

go aunt Chelsea

Aunt Chelsea graduated from high school on June 3rd, and her Chicago branch of the family came to join the celebration. Elijah got to sleep with his parents (to his delight and our frustration, as he takes up at least as much space as each of his parents, but, unlike his parents, he squirms, wakes up and cries if he feels too constrained in his movements).

We wish aunt Chelsea all the best in her college career!

chasing birds

We've shown Elijah the "bird" sign on a number of occasions, but he has never signed it back. A few days ago we met a friend down town Chicago and hung out by the bean for a while. While the boys were chatting, I tracked Elijah as he explored the area. At one point, he spotted a pigeon, looked at me, signed "bird", and took off after it! The bird was quicker than Elijah, and as the distance between them grew, he lost interested and let it go. So no harm was done. :)

maggie and a white cat

We spent Memorial day at Jim (Ryan's internship supervisor) and Charlene's house. Their dog, Maggie, made Elijah giggle his head off when he was about 8 months old. He has stopped laughing every time she'd go by a while back, but is now interested in being chased by Maggie. But Maggie isn't really interested in playing catch.

While visiting, Elijah made friends with a cat that hung out around Jim's back yard. At some point the cat let Elijah pretty close up (under Charlene's close supervison), and Elijah offered it his milk (in a sippy cup)! The cat didn't have a chance to partake of the treat, as Charlene put an end to this sharing pretty quickly. Maggie, on the other hand, didn't wait to be offered the milk. She found the sippy cup on the grass and licked it all over without an invitation.