Elijah is 2!

Holy cow...we have a 2 year old on our hands!

I still want to take an official 2 year pic, but here's for now

On our other blog, I posted about Elijah's birthday party, but here I thought I'd post a little update on what Elijah's up to these days.

Loves: Watching Curious George and Peppa Pig, anything related to cars, trains, planes, boats or bikes, playing with other kids, coloring with markers, doing puzzles - real and virtual on the ipad, milk, going down slides, climbing, his chewable vitamins (BEGS for more than 1 a day!), being understood now that he's talking more

New: Talking!!! He just took off at 23 months while visiting my parents in the US.  He started the visit refusing to even say words he knew and had said before, and finished the visit repeating just about anything.  Now a few weeks later he is even initiating communication, pointing at things, answering questions, and showing comprehension of non tangible concepts.  VERY cool! Also new is not being SO into his frog blanket anymore and not sucking fingers so much, or really noticeably at all.  He lets us and likes to put toys in his crib.  We keep a little hanging basket of toys he can play with when he wakes up.

Routine: Up between 7-8, nap 1-3 or 4, sleeping around 7:30pm

Struggles: Sleep, though I can't blame him.  The past few months have been crazy with guests and traveling so our routine has been totally off, but he was GREAT through the whole thing.  Then, once it was time to get back to normal, he started having sleep trouble.  For about 2 weeks he was waking up at 5:30 am and screaming!  Then it was short naps (only 1 hour ish!) and screaming when it was time to  go to sleep/nap.  It was exhausting and draining for everyone!  But we really tried to stick our routine and after a month now he is walking up solidly after 7 (we're working on getting back to our 8am wake up time) and he's back with 2 hour naps (working on getting back to 3 hours) and going down great again.  Phew that was crazy for a while!  Though I read it's common around 2 yo so maybe it doesn't have to do with the traveling.  Glad we're back to normal though!

Words Elijah says: meow, Sam, dog, woof, dad, mama, choo choo, car, counts with me to 3, go, stop, no, cup, milk, juice, more, please, shoe (hew actually :) , egg, ear, ball, moo, quack, duck, neigh, roar, poopy, star, moon, night night, bye, book, thank you, all down, down

Some of the words he shows us he knows and will repeat but doesn't say on his own: head, hands, foot, diaper, mouth, nose, belly, chicken, bread, carrot, chair, table, baby, no thank you, up, cow, horse, help, bath, and many more

More Morning Funnies

Here's another breakfast funny from this guy I don't want to forget

E stole and tried on my glasses the other day when I wasn't looking!

We were eating breakfast - crepes, bananas, and pineapple slices.

Elijah was eating his food while I decided to put jelly on my own crepe.

Elijah saw me do it and gestured for me to put some jelly on the piece of crepe in his hand.  I did.

Then he gestured for me to put jelly on the crepe in his place.  I did.

Then he held out his whole banana for me to put jelly on that too.  I did.

THEN he held out his whole pineapple slice for me to put jelly on too.  haha!  I did.

This guy is really thinking now...all kinds of fun ideas floating around in his head!

1 year 9 months

Elijah just recently turned 1 year and 9 months.  Time for a quick update so I can remember how he's growing and changing.  

First, a few sleeping shots of him OUT during a nap.  I love that bum in the air!

 And this was him hanging out in his crib kicking his feet out of the bars and chilling one morning when I went in.

Elijah and Elijah at a father's day event (the school made him pinned the tie on Jeyson).

 These last two are at least 2 months old but too cute to exclude.  We were on the way to the park to ride bikes and eat a snack.  We turned around to the back seat and E had put on his helmet (backwards!) and was eating our picnic food!

 Oh well, guess we'll keep him!

(Since personality and routine are pretty much stable now, I will exclude those subjects)

Loves: Curious George (OBSESSED!) and sometimes Peppa Pig episodes, going to "school" two mornings a week, train set, cars, playing with Jeyson's tools, breakfast, walking in puddles, drinking straight from coconuts, 

New: Appreciating humor in movies and real life situations and laughing about them even when he's alone, understanding his train set and the idea of pushing the trains along the track and downhills, ditching cloth diapers for now (life is too crazy as we adjust), saying a few words!!  holding hands when praying, 

Struggles: Temper tantrums, not wanting to stay in timeout, wanting to take his frog blanket everywhere, not wanting to sit in his seat at meals

Words said clearly everyday: bye, come, mama, (always said maMAmaMAmaMA) uh-oh, WOAH!

Words I know he's saying everyday based on his imitating our tone: all done, thank you

Words he knows but only says when he feels like it: Tschau (pronounced chow...bye in portuguese), car, ball, moo, meow, quack 

Morning Funnies

This kid brings unending joy to our lives.  He's just so goofy as he tries to figure life out.

Here he is trying to start our beetle with a key in the engine

The funniest thing happened at breakfast, and I wanted to make so I don't forget it.  

Elijah was eating a tortilla with jelly on it for breakfast (don't ask!) and I was reading him a book.  When we read books he's ALL about taking hold of our hand and using our finer as a pointer for him to point at everything for us to say what it is.  So, he took my hand and pointed at the picture of Abraham looking at stars.  

He points my finger at Abraham, I say "Abraham"

He points my finger at stars, I say "Stars"

He points my finger at a hand, I say "Hand"

He points my finger at a beard, I say "Beard"

Then, to my surprise, he points my finger on his tortilla (accidentally getting jelly on my finger), and I say "Tortilla"

Seeing the jelly on my finger, he points my finger up and into his mouth for him to lick off the jelly!

I don't know if I just needed a laugh, or if it was a you had to be there moment, or maybe it was just the factual and studious way he did it all, but I was rolling laughing.  And of course Elijah wanted to be in on the joke so he would point my finger at more things in the book and CRACK UP exaggeratedly as if he were in on the joke.  This kid is too much!  I love being his mom.

Almost Settled

It feels like with each passing week, we are significantly more settled and at home here.  I don’t feel anymore like I’m just on a trip waiting to go home, I am really starting to feel like Boa Vista is home.  I’m shocked to actually feel that way in such a short time, and would have thought that it would take longer, so that’s great.   Getting air-conditioning for our bedroom (the 84 degrees we set it at feel like an igloo compared to the rest of our house!) and getting our car and just generally getting in a routine have helped a ton!  But there are still a few missing puzzle pieces that are keeping us from feeling totally settled:

-       A table - We ordered one over a month ago and it’s taking forever!  The most affordable way to get a table around here in the Amazon is having one built for you.  Unfortunately, that comes on Brazilian time!  I guess I should have gotten a hint when the man we ordered it from said he would be cutting the wood down to make it!  Although we’re eating off of a card-type table and it’s working, it would be so nice to feel like we could actually have people over for a dinner!

-       Internet!  The company still has no idea when they will come out with more available lines in our neighborhood L  This is keeping me from staying current on emails, our budget, connected with family, etc.  We do get a very very very slow 3 G connection at times and we can do some things at the hangar, but we’d love to get this solved.

-       A church – We have been visiting around but haven’t settled yet on where we will go. This makes it hard to build relationships there, so we’re hoping to get settled in the next month or so.

Aside from those missing puzzles pieces, lots of great things have been going on.  We had our mission team over for a Brazilian “churrasco” (bbq)  No table was required since it was outdoors, and it was a lot of fun. 

I also went to a course at the airport to get an id page so I ca enter the airport whenever I want.  Since it is a real, official airport,  you can’t even get to the Asas hangar alone without the badge.  Jeyson did his course already, but I couldn’t at the time we were first getting settled.  So now I’ll be official and get free reign! 

And this picture really sums things up for me about why this is all worth it.  

The other day Elijah and I stopped by the hangar and our two planes were out on the patio getting ready for take off.  One was preparing to take 2 missionaries and native Brazilians to a village.  The other was getting loaded with everything from bags of bread to an umbrella to a dog (in a cage)! To be delivered to another village.  Even though we miss family and many of the comforts of life, this makes it all worth it.  We feel so privileged to spend our lives this way, making outreach possible in the most remote places.  What a joy to really be part of bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth! 

18 Months

Well Elijah is actually 19 months now, but I took these pics when he was 18 months and wanted to jot down a few things he has been doing.  I’m mostly still disconnected online so haven’t been able to update this family blog at all, but still wanted to include this update with my other ones. 

Personality:  Elijah continues to be a bit reserved and generally very calm in social settings.  Tonight we went to a carnival and put him on a trampoline with kids 2 and under.  Although he was the oldest and biggest, two of the younger boys where going wild running and jumping.  Elijah sat carefully and explored some balls and checked out the springs of the trampoline.  Once the other kids left and the trampoline was still, he started to crawl around more.  We thought he wasn’t enjoying himself until it was time to take him off…he was quite upset!  Although he is reserved, Elijah is very kind and pleasant to other people.  If someone drops something, he often picks it up and hands it to them, even if he doesn’t know the person.  He also has gotten bullied around by more aggressive kids a few times, but he never hits back.  He also still enjoys being held in new settings, like the nursery.  When Elijah is tired though, a new side comes out!  He gets energetic and wild…sometimes fun wild and sometimes tantrums!  In our home though, Elijah always is much more outgoing.  He loves to have fun and goes crazy having fun in the bathtub, even by himself.

Loves: Cars, trucks, bikes, trains…anything with wheels this boy is obsessed!!!  He constantly makes engine noises when he sees anything that has wheels and even when he rides in the backseat of our car!  The joy of his life is when we let him sit our parked car and pretend to drive.  He loves to play with toy automobiles and point them out in books too.  And as of the past few days he has even been distinguishing trains as having “toot” noise.  This kid’s getting smart!  He also LOVES Curious George episodes.  He has even watched the whole hour plus Curious George movie when we were in a meeting and didn’t move!  He also loves reading books, is starting to understand wooden puzzles, playing in his kid pool, pancakes (he ate 3 ½ of them for breakfast the other day before we cut him off!), “helping” to cook by stiring, coloring (including coloring on the walls of our house!!!), his green frog blanket “pickles”, riding his trike, our cat, and riding/jumping on Jeyson’s belly like a horse.

New: Finally saying a few things – uh oh, quack, and “ba” for both me and Jeyson.  Occasionally he will also say moo or toot for a train.  Can’t blame the guy with some many languages to learn!  Having a few mini conversations, such as the other day he heard a car drive near our house.  He said to me “Ba?” asking if Jeyson was arriving.  I said, no, it’s not Ba.  He looked at me insisting and made a car noise to show that he had heard a car and who else could it be??  Very fun!  He can also now get himself into the car and into his seat and back out again.  I still have to buckle, but what a help!  He can now match up pieces of a wooden puzzle to where the go (when the picture is the same under), though he can’t put them in yet.  He can put matching shapes into a shape toy if I show him which whole they go in.  He can peddle his trike forward and pack using his feet on the ground.  He eats really well with a fork or spoon and often does it with his booster seat at the table.  He can understand when we tell him to help clean up his toys or get something and bring it (when we use gestures), he uses his snack cup, loves his music table (even loads snacks into it himself and pushes it around the whole house so he can eat his snack while he plays!) and he even ate a banana out of the peel the other day.  He’s really becoming fun and interactive, a little buddy to have around as I go shopping or do things around the house.

Struggles: Temper tantrums when he wants something and we say no to it.  The need to get Elijah involved in some activities.  Not wanting to hold hands in settings where he needs to for safety.

Routine: Wakes up at 8 eats breakfast, plays till about 10:30.  10:30-11:30 I try to give him a table activity like coloring and spend time reading and coloring with him.  11:30-12:00 lunch.  12-1 play, sometimes some Curious George.  1-4 nap 4 – snack, blanket time, play 5 Curious Goerge if he didn’t watch before while I cook dinner.  5:30 Jeyson arrives and they play together.  6-7 dinner 7-7:30 bath, books, 7:30 bed

Don't want to forget these little things

This boy...what's he not up to these days?

He's all about coming with his own ideas these days...like putting dad's hat on while "mopping" the garage!

Here's what life is like on a typical morning:

Breakfast going great....he always STUFFS himself!

 And he's all about the point these days...he points at EVERYTHING!  Even at nothing in particular just to see what options might possibly be offered at him.

Then when I'm not looking....he sticks a piece of cheese on his head!

Where did this kid come from???

Then it's all about bringing me shoes.  He constantly does that because it's his signal that he wants to play outside.

So out we go...he can't get enough of this boy play

Into puddles...footie pj's and all!

He LOVES cars!  This jeep had to do some off-roading!

And then...when you least expect it....

He puts a garbage can on his head and is wielding a stick!!!

Ok...what can I do next??

 A minute later, he's into one of his other favorites...carrying things around under his chin! 

Not with the other pointing pics, but his is a very common pose for him...he bends his wrists and points with one finger on each hand...always making a "humm??" requesting sounds to go with it :)  

 It's these small things...I don't want to forget them :)

Elijah is 1 1/4

Phew!  Two months with no blogposts here...life has been INSANE!  I've barely been able to keep up with life and our ministry blog, much less a FUN blog!  But here we go again with a fresh start, starting with catching up on what Mr. E is up to.

I can not believe this guy just turned 1 1/4!  Where has the time gone?

After our stuff moved out I realized I had sent all my bowls and he had to have cereal out of a measuring cup!

Hair cut from Oma

New:  What isn't new??  Elijah is doing SO much more now than when he was just 1 year.  He is a full time walker now.  He still falls occasionally when there is a wet or uneven surface, but it's getting rarer these days.  He says "bye" and "night night" and "baba" (mama from what we can tell) and "dada" sometimes.  He doesn't yet respond to questions or commands (such as point to daddy or give me the comb) but he talks when he wants to.  Elijah give sweet kisses (again only when he wants to), always with a big mmmmmm sound effect.  He goes to sleep amazingly!  Lately we've put him in the crib with his frog blanket and he literally waves at us and says "bye"!  He also says bye with a funny accent...sounds like he has a southern drawl!  Since he doesn't say any words in Portuguese yet, he says bye in English to everyone and they think it's hilarious!  I even had a woman come up to me on the street and say that she works at a grocery store and heard Elijah saying bye to the cashier the other day! Elijah also loves to point.  He points at everything!  And often says "dat" or "dis" to go with it.  Does it mean "that" and "this"??? Not sure!  He signs more a lot, even when he doesn't need more food, but just wants to know if there are any other options out there :)  He also now has all 4 molars fully in.  He is also getting more cleaver and figuring things out...good and bad.  Recently he figured out he can stuff unwanted food into the side of his high chair!  Tonight though, it backfired.  He shoved his meat down there when we weren't looking.  Then, he tried a piece for the first time and realized he liked it.  So, he started trying to dig it out...not an easy task!

Personality: I can't tell you how many people tell us how happy and smiley and easy going Elijah is.  He really is quite a charmer and so flexible about who holds him and who he plays with.  He is a bit reserved though and often checks things out and looks at us for reassurance before diving in.  At home he can be a bit of a stinker at times, but what kid isn't?  

Routine:  Changes have been that we are now down to only one long afternoon nap which he takes great!  He sleeps from 1-4.  Also, he completely lost interest in nursing at 13 months, so we stopped.  It had become a struggle by the end.  I was a bit sentimental to stop but it was totally time for both of us and we're both enjoying the freedom it has brought.   We have also been doing some blanket time.  He can do about 15 minutes at a time but often gets in trouble for standing up.  If I was consistent to do it every day, I think we'd do better, but life is so crazy right now.  

Elijah loves to "sweep" and on moving day was trying to pack our broom in the truck the whole day!

 Struggles:  Elijah struggles a lot to play alone.  He gets bored easily and wants to be held, which can be really hard when we're busy.  He does great when there's someone to play with, especially another kid, but has a short attention span on his own.  I've recently discovered that he does much much better playing outside, so we spend more of the day in the yard area now, where he plays much better on his own.  I can sit and use the computer or whatever while he's playing.  He also winds up in time out (in the crib because sitting in a corner was not working since he would just leave!) at least once or twice a day or disobeying.  That might include hitting the computer or throwing food from the high chair even after we say no.  But he does seem to get out of time out with a sweet and changed spirit.

Moving day!

One other struggle over the past 10 days has been a horrible and nonstop case of diarrhea!  Not his fault  obviously, but he is on antibiotics now.  Oh and of course there was the hernia situation and surgery just a few weeks ago.

Also, Elijah HATES sitting in his carseat...it's a full out struggle to buckle him every time!  Once he's in though, he doesn't complain.

Playing in daddy's old beetle that is now for sale

Loves:  Petting, watching, and feeding Sam.  Elijah tries to bring Sam things all the time:  chapstick, coins, etc.  Sam actually lets him pet him sometimes so they're doing well!  Elijah also loves taking trips to the park, anything with wheels and making car noises to go with it, bouncing on Jeyson's stomach, and watching songs on youtube.

Well that's us for now!  Stay tuned more regular updates...I hope!