Block City!

Elijah loves the blocks that Grandpa Bob made him for Christmas, and just recently has begun expressing a desire to build larger things than just stacking a few blocks and knocking them down. Last week he and I built quite a large block city (we used all the blocks!), with Elijah as the chief designer and Mom the construction labor. Elijah just loves designing and building new cities every few days, and can spend hours playing with them.

Great work, Mom! Now let's start playing!

As you can see in the picture below, Elijah has bridges, ramps, garages, and even a corral for his animals. Eli told me just where to put the roads, the ramps, and the bridges and, trust me, he knew if Mom didn't listen to exactly what he wanted! Mom's design input was not needed, thank you very much! The only suggestion of mine that he took was the addition of garages to park all his cars (they are the yellow blocks in the picture).

I love seeing new aspects of Eli's personality come out, and to see how his mind works. Maybe he'll be an engineer like his Grandpa someday, or an architect like his Great-Grandfather! He is certainly showing a love for building and design at an early age! And I'm having so much fun playing with him and building these cities too. Being with Eli is such a joy!

Tumble Bears.

Lexi and Tori take gymnastic classes and are in the age group called "Tumble Bears." Elijah loves watching them do their handstands and somersaults and cartwheels, and tries to join in as much as he can. Over a month ago Mom snapped pictures of the three of them playing together with Lexi and Tori doing handstands in the hall while Elijah crawled underneath their legs. I forgot about the pictures until just now, but I thought I'd post them anyway. Eli has taken to running around and trying to tumble like them in the living room while yelling what I finally deciphered just this week to be "tumble bears." I'm guessing he heard Lexi or Tori say it, and it's pretty cute.

I made it under Tori, now I'm heading for Lexi!

Good thing the girls are so good at handstands!

Hmm, I don't think I'm doing this quite right.
I think I'll just head back through now!

More Elijah Quotes

Elijah is such a fun little guy to be around, and he keeps us in stitches he is so funny. Here are some of the things he has been saying lately:

• I got Eli up one morning and asked what he wanted for breakfast, and he said, "pizza," and ran and got his fake pizza that goes with his play kitchen. I told him that it was breakfast time. To which he replied, "No. Pizza time!" Now every time we do have pizza Eli yells, "Pizza time!" at the top of his lungs.
• One night at dinner Eli climbed up in my chair instead of his high chair. Jon asked him where Mommy was supposed to sit and then said, "Should Mommy sit in your highchair?" Elijah replied, "No," so Jon asked him why not. Eli looked at me and then said, "Too big." Can't argue with that, I guess! He's right, Mommy is too big for his chair!
• Eli was asked one night (I can't remember why), "Do you love Mommy?" He said, "No!" "Do you love Daddy?" "No!" "Do you love Grandma?" "No!" "Do you love cookies?" "Uhm, yes!" At least he knows what he loves! And it's hard not to love cookies!
  

Little Backseat Driver

Jon, Eli, and myself were driving home last week and there was a car in the left hand turn lane whose rear end was sticking out in my lane still, so I asked Jon if I should go around. Before Jon could even answer we hear Eli from the back seat telling me, "Go around! Go around!"

We thought he was still napping, but he was awake. And in the mood to be a little back seat driver it seems. The cute thing was that he was actually looking out his window and motioning me to go with his hands. Of course, once I did comply with his instructions and went around, he still kept telling me, "Go around! Go around, Mommy!"

Uncle Jon and Missy-Mommy.

Now that we are able to spend more time with family, being back in Grand Rapids and all, Elijah is hearing Daddy being called "Uncle Jon" and Mommy being called "Aunt Missy" a lot more. After the girls left one day a week or so ago Elijah was looking for me and asking for Missy. He found me and started yelling, "Missy-Mommy, Missy-Mommy!"

Then late last week Jon was coming down the hall with Elijah in front of him, and Eli ran to the supper table to tell us that, "Uncle Jon coming! Uncle Jon coming!" Jon tried to explain about his name being Jon to other adults and Daddy to Eli, and that Daddy described the relationship they had, but Eli didn't quite get that. :) I guess to a little one it would be hard to understand why Mom and Dad answer to different names at different times. We're reinforcing that he's supposed to call us Mom and Dad and not by our first names, so the majority of the time we're Mom and Dad, but occasionally one of our other names slips out. It's cute, but kind of weird, to hear your son call you by your first name!