Tidbits about our Elijah

Elijah has been on a sassy kick where he will not allow us to call him anything but "Elijah," and sometimes not even that. I am realizing how many different names I call him, now that I have to censor myself so much. Here's how things go down when I forget:

"Good morning, Sweetie!"
"Not Sweetie, no!"
"Oops, I forgot. Good morning, Elijah."

or

"Elijah Daniel, please do not pour milk on your head!"
"NOT ELIJAH DANIEL, NO!"

Depending on his delivery and the amount of sass involved, it may or may not result in a time-out. I hope this passes soon. I miss calling him fun nicknames.

While I'm on the sass topic, here are some other sample conversations that can be heard in our house on a regular basis:

"Elijah, would you like to play outside or inside?"
"Inside!"
[I shut the garage door in preparation for inside play.]
"Go outside?"
"No, you made the decision to play inside for now. We can't change our minds every two seconds."
"GO OUTSIDE?"
[Silence.]
"GO OUTSIDE!??!?!?!?!?"
"Ugh!"

or

[Quick side note: Elijah loves milk these days more than ever before.]
[After dinner, I put his milk back in the fridge. Elijah hears the fridge close.]
"Milk?"
"I just put your milk away, Sweetie, I mean, Elijah."
"MILK?"
"Ok, but you will need to come sit at the table again."
[He continues playing.]
"MILK????"
"Elijah, what did I just say?"
"MILK??!?!?!!?!?!?"
"Ugh!"

Onto some more fun things! Elijah has always been a book lover, but lately he is more interested in books than ever before. He will sit in the middle of a pile of books and "read" through them on his own. He has amazing retention! If we have read a book together more than a few times, he remembers most of the words on each page (by sound, not sight). He has even started showing interest in the actual words (by sight), pointing at and asking what each one says. I can say a word out loud and he can tell me the letter it starts with (aside from the tricky ones, like "chair"). He does it the other way around, too. If I ask him to tell me some words that start with the letter M, he will rattle off four or five M words. Grasping letters and sounds (numbers, too) has always come really naturally for him. I think reading isn't too far off!

Although he adores books, he has a serious problem with book covers. If a book comes with a cover, he immediately takes it off and says, "Frow garbage?"

Lately he has randomly been fake sneezing and/or coughing. I don't have a clue where he got this, but he knows it makes everyone laugh so he does it a lot.

When Dan is at work, Elijah constantly asks about him. "Where Daddy go?" Then he answers his own question: "Daddy working dropzone. Jump airplanes!"

He is still super interested in sign language, so we continue to add to our signing "vocabulary." We are learning animals and colors right now. Every night before bed, while the two of us are snuggling in the rocking chair, we sing a song from one of his signing dvds. "It's time to eat, eat, what a treat! Eat, eat, eat. [insert food] I'm all done now, wash it down, with my favorite drink! [insert drink]" We cycle through the song a few times, while signing and singing, using different foods and drinks each time. He could sing/sign it a hundred times in a row without getting tired of it.

We still are not getting anywhere with potty training. I will admit that I start to panic whenever I think about it because I feel like such a failure. I ask myself, Am I doing something wrong, or is he just really really not ready yet? Or is he THAT strong-willed (this is very possible)?

I will end with a potty training-related conversation from the other night:

[I had just gotten Elijah out of the bath and his diapers were downstairs.]
"I'm going downstairs to get a diaper, Elijah. PLEASE do not pee on the couch."
"Ok, Mom."
[3-second pause.]
"Mom? I pee on couch!"