My sweet boy is back!

This is what my happy boy was doing all night. Smiling his beautiful, cheesy smile at Mama.

By the time Elijah woke up from his nap this afternoon, he was back to his usual self. The reason for his crabbiness after he has been away from home for a night must come from a few different things. He probably doesn't sleep as well as he does in his own bed, and I think part of it is being a little bit upset with us for leaving him in the first place. It would be impossible to find anyone better to watch Elijah than my sister, so I guess we will just have to expect this for a day or so after we have been away.

I've been meaning to share some of the cute things he has been doing lately, but I haven't made the time to type them all out. Every day he does something new. His mind is a little sponge right now and I love watching him absorb every detail about the world around him. We have been going to the park every day that is nice, and usually there are a few kids running around playing. Just recently, Elijah has really taken notice of other kids. He laughs sooo hard when he sees them running around and having fun. It's good to see him interested in that because for a long time he didn't seem to care at all what people around him were doing.



When we sit down to eat dinner, that is Elijah's cue to have us recite EVERY SINGLE THING in his view. A typical dinner starts with him pointing to a million things and then we reply with, "Yes, sweetie, that's a light. Yep, a vent, the ceiling, the floor, the red wall, the white wall, the outlet, your chair, my chair, Daddy's chair, another chair, another chair, a flower, a plant, your bib, your shirt, the kitchen, outside, a tree, the tv, your nose, Mommy's nose, Daddy's ear..." and on and on. He points at everything he can see and then he starts over. It's hard to get frustrated because he is just taking in his surroundings and learning. Every day I try to teach him a couple new objects and usually he still remembers them the following day.

If I have been away from him for more than a few hours, I notice that when he very first sees me, he starts pointing at things around him. I think it's his way of saying, "Look at the book. And the ball. This is what I've been up to while you were gone." He's telling me about his day in his own little language.

When I leave for work in the morning, he has started saying, "BAH!" for bye. I think we could consider that a word, right?

Today when Dan went into his room after he woke up from his nap, he found that Elijah was sitting up in his crib! This is the first time he has gotten into a sitting position from lying down. This is a huge step in the right direction! His muscles are getting stronger every day.

There is a song that we like that Steve Songs sings on PBS right before Super Why begins. Steve sings about shapes and puts them into a fun song and then uses his hands to draw out the shapes in the air. We have seen/heard this song a handful of times and Elijah likes it. It's really catchy, so I am constantly singing it in my head (and so is Dan). The other day I was singing it out loud (again) and I noticed that while I was singing, Elijah was throwing his arms in the air in a jerky movement, trying to imitate drawing the shapes, like Steve does on tv. I will try to get it on video. It is super cute.

I am feeling so much more relaxed tonight after a good, drama-less evening with my baby. I have a book to finish for book club next week, so I better go do that. Dan is spending some time with a friend tonight, and I'm having a hard time resisting the smell of the chili cooking downstairs that we intended on saving for tomorrow night. Mmmmmmmm, it smells so good. Maybe I'll just have a tiny bowl?