Mr. E Lately

Elijah is 13 months now and I"m giving myself a break from monthly pictures...getting way too tough.  I just wanted to note down a few new things he's doing lately so I don't forget:

- Taking steps - max 4 in a row and always on his terms (when he stands himself up and is in the mood).  It won't be long now!

- Consistently saying mamamama to me

- Pointing

- Signing "more" consistently

- Playing more purposefully with cars and making car noises, puzzles, putting shapes through holes etc 

- Two molars breaking through on the bottom

- He is also down to one long afternoon naps 1-4pm and it is going great!

- Overall I feel like we're arriving at the top of a long climb up and enjoying some of the rewards!  I just   love this boy!

Bath Time

When we head back to Brazil, we sure will miss bath time here in the US.  (It's very rare to find a house with a tub in Brazil...so it's showers for kids)

 It's been one of the fun highlights of our evenings to see Elijah splashing around having a great time!

Plus then I got to get lots of great embarrassing bath pictures for blackmail in the future :)

Elijah Wesley 1 Year!

Happy Birthday to Elijah!

On our other blog I posted the progression of Elijah growing over the past year, but here I want to add in a few notes of what he has been up to (though right now it's over a week past his birthday so there are a few things he has been doing now that he wasn't doing yet by his actual b-day)

New:  Playing more intentionally such as stacking, putting things into containers, etc, climbing very well up stairs or stairs of a small slide and going cautiously down, paying attention longer to dvds, standing up on his own (but only when he's not noticing - when he notices he gets nervous and sits and goes limp when I try to get him to do it again).  He has also recently has done a few things that have blown us away because he has initiated them completely on his own - blowing kisses and signing more.  He started blowing kisses to a group of our supporters when they were leaving and signing more to Danielle when eating cantaloupe.  I also noticed he seems to be saying mamamama around me lately.  I started to wonder if maybe he was trying to say my name.  Also lately he has been pointing a bit at things.  The other day Danielle asked Elijah where his mama is and he very distinctly pointed at me.  He repeated once and then wouldn't do it again.  In fact, all of these things he can do but he won't do them consistently and some he won't even repeat again at all.  It's almost as if he learned something but has to put it to the side to learn something else new and will come back to it.  This is also true of waving, signing all done, and a few other things.  It's really interesting.

Personality:  When I think of Elijah the adjectives that pop into my mind are: friendly, smiley, cautious, a bit loud and reserved at the same time, discoverer, squealer, mama's boy, a follower (follows older kids' leads), and silly

Routine:  Same as before but only nursing morning and evening.  He has switched to whole milk throughout the day due to his lack of interest in nursing during the day.  He is also recently starting to show the same lack of interest in nursing at night and even sometimes in the morning  so it looks like soon we may be all done.  I am following his lead in weaning and happy with how things are happening naturally and slowly.

Struggles:  Naps - 45 minute ones are still happening sometimes and a good nap is considered 1 hr and 15 or more.  It may be time to drop one.  Another struggle has been boredom.  He loves playing with others and seems to get bored just with me around the house.

Loves:  Stuffed animals and soft blankets, snacks, climbing, playing with other kids or adults, watching videos with music

This past year has been the most wonderful, exhausting, and fulfilling year of my life.  Happy Birthday sweet Elijah!

Halloween Fun

Is it too late for Halloween pictures?  I hope not!  Here's what we did.  We have a few trick-or-treaters come to our house and then we headed over to our church for a fall festival.  It was definitely more fun for Elijah than going door to door in the rain!

I loved this cute shark!

Elijah was dressed as a frog (borrowed the costume) but he was uncertain for quite a while at the event.

He loved playing with this sword that some kid left on the floor 

Elijah perked up a bit when he got to play a game where you picked a duck out of a pool of water.  He won a notepad :)

By the end he was happy and even stole and ate a brownie when we weren't looking!

And he LOVED the bouncy castle

Not big enough to do a sack race, but at least he matched the bag!

Well it wasn't the most exciting Halloween ever, but it's definitely the last we'll have for a while since we'll be overseas, so we lived it up...as much as you can with an 11 month old frog :)

A Ray of Hope

I don't want to be overly optimistic...I don't want to jinx myself after all! But I feel like we've made it past a important hurdle in Elijah's development.  All of a sudden something clicked internally and he is able to do so much more and as a result seems so much happier and independent than he was at 9-11 months.

 Here's a few things that I notice he's been doing lately:

- Organizing/moving things -  I first noticed this when he was taking a bath and rather than just splashing with the bath toys, he intentionally lined them all up on the rim of the tub.  He loves to now take any group of things (socks, napkins, etc) that are out and put them all into something they "belong" in such as on a chair or in a box.  I made him this toy from a milk jug so he can practice with these links (major low budget toy!)

 - He also now goes intentionally over to his walker to get around and he can turn it!  This means he now uses it as a mode of transportation, rather than just a game...makes life nice of everyone!

- Exploring.  Lately he's been checking everything and everywhere in a much more thorough and interested way.  

- A lot less clinging!  Wohoo!

- Making sounds such as "da" or "duk" and no more endless and eternal "ehhhhhh"  like he used to make 24/7

-Clapping

- Signing all done without us suggesting it first

- Obeying (more often anyway!)

- Talking into phone-like objects...not just holding them up to his ear/back of head but actually saying something into it

- Mimicking things we do such as blowing on food or making noise through a tube

- Laughing at things that are funny

- Keeping busy on his own

Poor guy has a yeast infection so the dr says he has to air out hahaha!

To sum it up, it's just been so encouraging to see that there IS someone in there after all haha!  He's sweet and fun and ready to learn and play.  Hi Elijah, so nice to meet you at long last!

11 Months

Happy 11 months Elijah!!

This month I can't get over how much he is doing things that kids do, rather than babies.  Like getting his face painted when we went to an apple festival...

 And moving around between furniture...

 Eating off bowls/plates (though he doesn't do it all the time, only when I have the energy to monitor that he's not trying to tip it!)

 Wagon riding

 Cat petting

 And cat attacking...see the progression below

 Marshmallow roasting

 And tickle/snuggling with daddy (Elijah's had a horrible diaper rash so we've been letting him air out a little every day)

New: Starting to be able to turn the walker (by shoving it back and forth until it starts to turn...not sure if it's intentional or just frustration :), spending more and more time standing up and moving between furniture, walking holding onto our legs, walking (though not very well) holding our hands, clapping, eating off plates/bowls, playing games like peek-a-boo, and dropping things in a bucket, banging pots, etc.  Literally just as I was typing this post, for the first time he did the whole pretending to talk on the phone thing!  SO FUN!  (He then followed it up by pretending to talk on the tube of diaper cream, and a washcloth :)  Also new is eating whole pieces of fruit without cutting. including soft pears and even apples!  (I discovered this when we were at a friend's house and he was several bits into eating an apple he found in their kitchen.  He went on to eat the whole thing!)

Personality:  I could be totally wrong on Elijah's long term personality, but what I see peeking through right now is a smiley and happy, but often reserved and somewhat shy boy.  He likes to test the waters and check things out for a good while before joining in a new situation.  He loves to play with other kids but is more of a follower than a leader...he kind of seems right now that he should be a little brother sidekick.  But it could just be the age so only time will tell.

Struggles: Separation anxiety is a huge one right now (cries for a few minutes when we drop him off in the nursery, screams during independent play).  Basically we've been calling him Saran Wrap because of how clingy he is!  He will literally hold on to my leg as I cook or work out!  I really hope we move past this and have been starting blanket time as of today to work on it since independent play (aka independent scream is not getting us anywhere)

Elijah also just seems frustrated lately in his limitations.  As he gets more aware he wants to play and move around like older kids, but he can't walk yet so it confines him in a lot of settings.  He also can't express himself yet (doesn't say a single word or even try to yet!)  So he just is easily frustrated!

One struggle that has improved is nursing and I'm so glad!  Last month it looked like Elijah was going to quit, but after persistence and patience he stuck it out and is nursing 3 or so times out of the 4 nursing times per day.  Sometimes he still refuses, in which case I just offer him water.

Routine: No changes

Loves:  Any and all food (he has not rejected a single food...even pad thai and curry chicken!), playing with other kids, animals, touch and feel books, and dad.

Mr. Elijah 10 Months

 Yesterday Elijah turned 10 months on my birthday!  It made me think back on how different life was on my last birthday....SO SO different!  I was 7 months pregnant and dreaming of all that was ahead, and I wasn't disappointed!

BTW, we notice from time to time, that Elijah's hair looks strawberry in some lighting...what do you think?  Notice the eyebrows too.

New:  Elijah is spending about 50% of his time standing up holding on to things.  He can also walk pretty well using his walker.  When he first started he would walk 2 steps, fall to his knees, stand back up and repeat.  That's how he got around the living room.  Now, a few weeks later, he can go all the way across the room quickly and with no falling.  The only problem is he can't turn yet, so we have to do it as an activity, where I follow him around turning him as we go.  It keeps him busy though!  He can also walk along furniture, but it's not his favorite thing...maybe because we don't keep a lot of fun things there or maybe because he's just not into it.   Elijah will also walk behind his stroller (holding on), but can't let walk by holding our hands.  

Also, Elijah now can climb up stairs!  It's a fun new development, but dangerous (especially b/c the staircase is set up in a way that it's impossible to block off the first stairs with a gate).  One day Jeyson went upstairs to take a shower and thought Elijah was with me.  I thought Jeyson took Elijah upstairs.  A few minutes later Jeyson heard Elijah hitting on the bathroom door...he had followed Jeyson all the way up the stairs!  

Elijah is also STARTING to wave back when someone waves at him, though it's very inconsistent.  He is also starting to purposefully do funny things (or if we laugh he'll do the funny thing again) like put a washcloth in his mouth and grin, and will play peek a boo a little (looking for us only).  

Elijah is starting to really follow some of the "rules" we've been teaching him.  It's so fun and encouraging to see results!  For example, we've always taught Elijah not to touch anyone's glasses.  The other day, he was all excited and flailed his arms and accidentally knocked Jeyson's glasses crooked.  Immediately Elijah got a HUGE sad lip...he knew he broke the rule.  It's so neat to see him learn right and wrong and to obey.

 

 Personality:  Elijah continues to be very easy going.  He was babysat by a family the other night for the first time and when we got home they kept commenting on how he didn't get upset and was easy going.  I'm so glad!  It will make life easier as missionaries as we'll continue to be in new situations.

Struggles: Temper tantrums have improved during diaper changes, but they're still an area to watch.  We also are struggling at bath time because he wants to stand up in the tub! But the biggest struggle this month has been nursing!  Nursing has been pretty easy for us until this month.  All of a sudden Elijah is loosing interest and even getting upset when I lay him down to nurse.  He can even throw an angry temper tantrum because he is just doesn't want to have to stop playing to drink and refused to latch on.  He much prefers drinking out a straw!  But at 10 months it's a little too early for him to go to milk, so I really want to continue at least 2-3 nursing sessions a day for the next month or two.  I am not very successful at pumping, so I've just been giving him water if he refuses.  But it has been a very trying, tiring, frustrating, and emotional struggle for me, but we're almost at the finish line of the 1 year goal and even if we don't make it, I consider the past 10 months a huge success!  Things change so quickly in a short time though, so I"m hoping to make it over this bump yet.


Below are some of the goofy outtake pictures from our photo session.  These pictures are getting harder and harder as we go!!!!

Routine: Same as last month, but the nursing schedule has been a bit crazy!  He's almost always taking awesome 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps now.

 Loves: Wheels on anything (bikes, strollers, etc), going on bike rides, grapes, a little soft blanket with a  stuffed frog face we're borrowing (I hope he doesn't mind when we have to give it back!), sucking on his middle and ring finger, eating, crawling, sticking his fingers in our mouths :)

Some days are tough and I want to hand him off to a babysitter all day so I can get back to my old life and routine for the day, but I can't tell you how much I love this boy.

 So full of life, and so sweet.  It's a privilege and a blast to watch you grow into the boy God made you to be!

Sleeping Accidents

Nights around here have been rough lately.  Thankfully it has nothing to do with Elijah.  He is still sleeping through the night as good as ever.  The problem has been me and Jeyson.  Twice in past few nights we have had sleeping accidents.  

First, about 4 nights ago I was sound asleep.  I'm not sure exactly what happened (I was sleeping after all!) but Jeyson turned over onto his stomach and on his way over elbowed me in the eye...hard!

It was quite a frightening way to wake up!  My eye got swollen up pretty quick and was still swollen a bit the next day, but not to bad...at least not compared to what happened next!

Two nights ago I was sleeping and half awake went to turn over.  Unfortunately, this was the exact moment that Jeyson sat up and made a big gesture of throwing off the covers since he was hot.  And... 

to make a fast and painful story short, I now have a big fat lip.  This one blew up right away and got worse by the second.  I knew when it was painful to talk after a minute that it was going to be bad the next day.  The whole left side of of my upper lip is PURPLE and it's under the skin so it's going to be on those ones that take a long time to heal.  

This better stop or I'm going to have to start wearing long sleeves and sunglasses or maybe put a roll between us at night (you sisters will know what I mean :)  

Roast Radishes

Roasted Radishes...who knew?  

The other day I got some radishes on sale because Jeyson loves them.  I think they are WAY too strong!  But I put some in Jeyson's salads but there were still so many left.  I did a google search of ways to use up radishes and I found the idea of roasting them.

I sliced mine into coins and mixed with olive oil, s/p, and some Italian spices and popped them in the oven at 450 until they looked brown and roasty.  

Verdict?  Delish!  They totally lose their bite, yet are still a very unique flavored root veggie.  Perfect for fall or winter nights or when you have left over radishes.  

What would we do without Google? 

Family Pictures

I'm a little behind blogging, but about a month and a half ago, a friend of a missionary came in town who is a college student studying photography.  She offered to take some pictures of us and Elijah and I was so excited because we've never had anyone even semiprofessional take pictures of us or him.  She took tons of pictures and they came out great!  Here are a few of my favorites: