Kids say the darndest things!

I have just GOT to keep up with our family blog so I don't forget the hilarious things that Elijah says!

Today, we were walking through a parking lot and Elijah says, "Whoops, I just pooted."  I said, "Elijah, that's not nice to say."  He said, "Ok.  But it's ok if I just say 'I backfired.'"  I said, "I guess that's fine."  Now all afternoon he's said, "Whoops, I just backfired."

Believe it or not, he got that phrase from his Nana... :)

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We're Ready for the Cold Weather to Stay!!

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Pajama Week

I was looking at pictures I took this week and realized Elijah was in his pajamas for almost every one.  Maybe he just looks so cozy in his pj's I didn't change him until later in the day....I don't know!  But it's a recurring them in our recent photos.

 Our little recording artist

Watching TV with friends

 Making an interesting pumpkin face

Playing with some cool things Daddy borrowed from church for a project...we took advantage of them!

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Hangers, Hangers, Everywhere!

Elijah is completely obsessed with clothes hangers.  I'm not exactly sure why.  If he sees one, he has to have it.  And (being the little OCD child that he is) he usually likes to have two of the same color, and won't give up until they match.

I think this obsession is only fueled by the fact that he has been going with me to volunteer in the LifeLine Baby Boutique each Monday morning.  There are so many clothes, which equals so many hangers!  Not only are there so many hangers, but there are so many different colors of hangers to choose from!

There are great and different toys for him to play with while we are there, but nothing keeps him more occupied than the clothes hangers.  So strange!

We went shopping on Saturday for the first time since this obsession and he freaked out every time I picked up an item of clothing!

I really think we need to find him the "barrel of monkeys" toy, because he really likes linking them together and hanging them from one another.  (Perhaps this is how someone else invented the barrel of monkeys!)

Well my little monkey is stuck on hangers right now....wonder what the next obsession will be?!

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We love Fridays because Daddy is home!

We had a fun morning with such great weather!

Well...Elijah and I had a fun morning...Daddy worked hard!

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Just Chillin'

I'm not sure who taught Elijah this or if it is just an innate male characteristic...decide for yourself!

Yesterday, Elijah wanted to get up on the couch (that he has not quite yet discovered how to climb for himself), so I helped him climb.  Once he was up there, he pointed for me to get him a pillow.  When I propped a pillow beside him, he then said, "More pi-yo."  And, since he had apparently appointed me as his servant for the moment, I propped a second pillow beside him.

And hardly a second later, he was totally kicked back...

By the time the third pillow was added, I didn't think my child was going to move anywhere...

But apparently he is still a toddler...it's just lasted a few seconds!

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I love this boy!

A sweet friend of mine let me borrow some cute clothes of her (now 6 year old) son and I could hardly wait to get this shirt and vest on Elijah.

What I didn't realize was that he would look so grown up when I got him dressed for church Sunday morning.  I could almost eat him up he was so cute and I just had to take a picture.  

Even though it's blurry, I was surprised Elijah worked with me.  I said, "1...2..." and he said "Go!" with a big smile.  (We interchange "1, 2, 3" and "ready, set, go" around here these days!)

I do love this kid!

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Elijah is 18 months old!

...Crazy! Time is just flying by and it is amazing how much more Elijah is talking each day and how much he is learning.  He had his first "real at our home babysitter" today that wasn't a grandparent while I went on an outing with some women in our church.  He's such a big boy now!

As promised, here are a few more pictures from my phone:

Elijah & Pop Pop

Everyone we see with a white beard is "Pop Pop"!

For some reason I think it is the cutest thing to watch Elijah read in the car!

Elijah's feet were dirty the other day, so I gave him a wipe and he started cleaning!

An unusual cuddle session while Elijah was sick last week.  Love it!

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My poor baby!

Elijah woke up twice last night screaming. When I went in to get him, he was burning up! Fortunately, he was able to get back to sleep and actually slept in this morning, but he still had a fever throughout the day. At it's highest, his temperature was 102.something and he hardly wanted to eat today.

To be as hot as he was, he really was a trooper. After I FINALLY got in touch with a nurse, I went out to get some children's Motrin at the pharmacy just around the corner.

I asked a lady from my church who works in the pharmacy to help me find the medicine. As we were talking, Elijah kept pointing to me and saying "Mama". It was hilarious. As if he was defining who I was and making sure everyone knew about it. He did the same thing when we were checking out.

I kind of liked being "claimed" as we walked around! Or maybe Elijah just wanted to make it clear that he belonged to me and no one should touch him. I guess he already knows he wants his mama when he's sick.

Even when Elijah was not feeling well, he still managed to crack me up! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for him.

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Day Trip to Greensboro

I have been dying to go to the Greensboro Children's Museum since we discovered it online a few weeks ago. We finally went this morning to let Elijah play!

It was pretty fun and great to see everything, but I think we did take Elijah a little prematurely. Even so, he had a great time. It was just funny for me to watch him gravitate toward what he knows. In the toddler area, Elijah just wanted to play with the blocks (which is his love in life right now) even though there were tons of awesome things to climb on and see.

He did decide to get up and test out some things after he watched a girl jump like crazy on this...

He probably would have just stayed there all day, playing with blocks, even though there was an airplane, a train, and a firetruck to explore.  We had to practically drag him away so we could help him experience the other stuff.  And when we did...

He still played with the "kid size" firetruck...

when the real truck was just a few steps away!

He still stood by the table with the trains...

...taking forever to notice the big train right beside him!

...But he was wiped out after less than 2 hours.  It really was fun to watch him play and I look forward to going back when Elijah's a little older.  

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Walkie Talkie!

...That's all our boy does!  Well, he does yell and run as well.  Basically, he's just non-stop.  But I love it!

I can't believe Elijah is almost 1 1/2 years old.  It's really just flown by.

He totally threw us for a loop last night when Justin was reading and he counted by himself to 8!  Usually he just points and says, "1, 2, 1, 2."  But last night it was all the way to 8!

Another funny thing he's caught on to is saying, "Honey."  When Justin leaves every morning I say, "Bye, Honey" and one morning Elijah copied me.  Now he just randomly calls Justin and I honey.  Kind of weird, but funny!

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Blakley Basketball!

...looks like this these toddler days...

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So...take another peak at the pictures of Elijah finger painting yesterday.  Now it's today, and I don't have any pictures...so you just have to imagine his spontaneous remake of that. But this time, think ketchup and mustard! As soon as I added the mustard on his tray tonight, it's like his inner artist came out! Hmmm...there is a problem with needing to use the high chair to do craft projects!

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finger painting!

It was a rainy morning around here, so I decided to be crazy and let Elijah try out some finger painting.  He wasn't sure about it at first (well, after he immediately tested it out as food) because he didn't want it on his fingers, but then he warmed up to the ideas.  Here's some evidence:

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parenting confession

So....Elijah is quite the mimic.  And he has been for quite a while.  When you realize that your child will copy anything you do and the "power" that you have over him, you perhaps start to think of ways to take advantage of this.  (Ok, so you may not do this, but apparently Justin and I do)!

This means that we randomly have discussed teaching Elijah that the name for an elephant is really giraffe or something like that.  Well...Justin decided to take it a step further and threw out the idea of teaching Elijah to hit someone when he heard the name of a certain animal.  (Think Pavlov's dogs).  We both agreed that this would qualify as bad parenting and decided to leave it alone.

{Insert long, stressful car ride at bed time here.}

In just a few minutes we indeed became the aforementioned bad parents.  Justin and I usually sing a song from Elijah's signing video called "The Pets I Love" when we are in the car with Elijah.  (Pretty much the equivalent of Old McDonald).  After we sang this song for a little while, we ran out of animals to sing about and Justin (pay close attention that he initiates this!) decided to start telling Elijah what sound a hippo makes.

Now think about this.  Do you know what sound a hippo makes?  Right, we don't either.  So Justin and I are in the front of the car with Elijah's car seat right in between us in the back.  Justin (initiating!) proceeds to show Elijah that a hippo (gently) slaps Mommy on the cheek.  We (yes, both of us, I admit) demonstrate this several times.  Next time we are out of the car talking about what sounds animals make....sure enough...Elijah remembers that hippos slap people.    In fact, we discovered today that it is much easier to get him to tell us what a hippo does than it is to get him to give us a kiss now.  So sad!  We are officially bad parents and now the "redirecting" has to begin.

It is kind of scary how much "power" we hold in teaching our children.  I'm so glad Elijah is a quick learner, but from here on out we will utilize this for positive learning experiences.

And not for what is going to get him kicked out of preschool one day.

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water!

It's so good to be feeling better again.  Today we spent some fun time with the water hose.  Turns out that Elijah with a hose =  great fun, great pictures, a ridiculously wet dog, child, and Mama!

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