Goodness

Chewing on a cheese stick and crossing his legs. That's our boy!

Today was a rainy day, so Dan was able to come home from the dropzone early and spend the afternoon with us. We always love having Daddy at home! We have had a really good day, and a good week overall. Elijah has done a lot of fun new things this week that we have clapped and cheered about endlessly.


He was fascinated with the rain. He stared out the window for a long time, just checking it all out.


I asked him where the rain was and he pointed at the window. He points at everything these days.

For some reason, he has never been interested in clapping. He has been banging blocks and toys together for many many months, and that is basically the same motion as clapping, but he has never clapped his actual hands together. The other night at dinner, he just decided he wanted to start clapping. I squealed so loud I'm pretty sure the neighbors covered their ears. Elijah is clapping!

Then, at the same meal, I thought...you know, I have been trying to get this kid to feed himself with a spoon for so long, I'm going to see if it will happen right now, as long as we're on a roll. Maybe it was the clapping that motivated me. I put some food on a spoon and handed it to him, and he fed himself! More annoying squealing came out of my mouth.

Then later that day, Dan and I were sitting with Elijah in the living room as he played with his trucks. We have been practising animal sounds repeatedly for months. Elijah was on his hands and knees, looking at us, and I said, "Elijah, what does an elephant say?" He thought for a second and then did an ARRRRRrrrr noise and at the same time lifted his arm up, like the trunk. Again, we cheered like crazy people.

Today I noticed that he is saying the word "up." It sounds more like "uf," but it's great!

He has a little toy Noah's ark boat that has animals that go inside. He knows every single animal and every sound that each animal makes. He retains things so well. I'm so proud of him.

Along these lines, we have managed to work things out so he can be in PT and OT twice a week, at two separate places. I really want to give him every chance possible to improve his skills. The lady who evaluated him this week thought that it would be a good idea to get him on the waiting list for speech therapy, too. She said it is a pretty long wait, though, and not to expect anything. Well, we got a call on Thursday and there is an opening on Thursdays for us. How exciting! I am so happy about this.


I figured out a sneaky trick today. If I turn on one of his favorite shows, he will stand up in front of me for at least 10 minutes. It is enough distraction to keep him from caring. GO ELIJAH! You are using your legs!

The chunky little man is in bed and Dan and I are going to watch a scary movie. I get to watch my husband scream like a scared little girl, yay! :) (Really, he does.) Thanks, everyone, for the comments about the mystery bumps. Based on all of your info, I have made a mommy diagnosis of allergies. There is something he is allergic to, I just don't know what it is yet. I guess we'll start eliminating things from his diet to figure it out.






Do you like the blue socks? He looks like an old man.


Pretty sure his back molars are coming in because he has been chewing on his entire hand all day. Oh, and look at that beautiful face.