He must have inherited this from his mommy . . .

Elijah has developed a strange obsession with Grandma Amanda’s purse. He loves playing with it, and will content himself for quite a while just picking it up, pushing it around, turning it over, etc. He gets upset when Grandma gets ready to leave on the days she takes care of him, but we can’t tell if he’s more upset that she’s leaving or that the purse is leaving! He’ll crawl towards the front door after Grandma, whining the whole way – until he reaches the magical purse, which he promptly pulls down and starts to play with happily. We’ve tried giving him other purses, but he only wants one – Grandma’s. It’s become so funny, that when Grandma leaves on Wednesday nights we say “Bye-bye, Grandma. Bye-bye, purse. See you next week!”

I love my Grandma (and her little purse too!)

Elijah the Nature Boy

Elijah absolutely loves being outside. He just lights up when you get him out there for walks and to play in the grass or go to the park. I’m really looking forward to being home with him this summer and spending lots of time outside together!

I'm so happy to be outside!

Stories from Ohio Part 2: Playing in the Park

On Saturday we all (except Jon who was sick) headed to the park with the kids for a picnic lunch and some quality play time. What a hoot! Eli went in the baby swing at the park and loved it! He would giggle every time he lost his tummy on the swing, and would also sit in the swing contentedly and watch his cousins run around. Another favorite was this whale that kids could sit in (Eli just stood on the seat) and make wobble all around. I took pictures of all the kids playing together, but since this is our blog, I’m just posting pictures of Elijah. :)

Lunch Outside Tastes Better

Wobbly Whale, Oh What Fun!

All tuckered out . . .
After the park we went to the arboretum, saw beautiful flowers and walked on a nature trail. Eli was a little tired and not quite as happy there, but it was a long day for him, and a lot of time in the stroller. It was so nice to be outside though, and to have fun with the family. I think we definitely need to get a swing for Eli, though - he had such a ball on the one at the park!

Whee! I love swinging!

Stories from Ohio Part 1: Walking with Toys

We had a wonderful family weekend at Scott and Jill’s house in Ohio, and one of the highlights for us was seeing Elijah figure out how to walk around behind a walking toy that Scott and Jill had. Eli was a little shaky at first and had to get used to the toy moving forward pretty quickly. By the second day there, though, Eli was cruising all around, as happy as a clam. Scott and Jill said we could take the toy home for Eli to enjoy, and now he’s been cruising around our house too. Our living room isn’t as large as Scott and Jill’s though, so he has to turn quite a bit. I think his favorite place to walk is on the sidewalk – he gets to be outside, and he can just keep going and going without bumping into things!

Crawling (the socially acceptable “real” way) Finally!

Eli is officially crawling now – on hands and knees, not just commando style. Last week Thursday (April 20th), Jon and I were sitting in the tv room and Eli was on the floor playing, when he got up on his hands and knees and crawled across the floor to me and stood up! Jon and I clapped and congratulated our little man, and he looked so proud!

The day before Grandma Amanda had been taking care of Elijah and had let him play with his diaper off for a bit. He didn’t care for the commando (literally!) crawling style then (rug burn in sensitive spots, ouch) and took to being on his knees and elbows until his diaper was back on. Maybe that inspired him to keep crawling in an elevated position – who knows! Either way, since that Thursday night Eli has been getting more and more confident on his hands and knees and been doing less and less of the army crawl. So far he’s pretty close in development as Jon was when he was little – Jon started crawling properly around 11 months, and Eli too! If he stays with Jon’s schedule that means he should be walking in about 3 more months. Watch out world, here comes Elijah!