Almost Three!

Elijah has had an eventful three months since his last update.  He’s now 3 months shy of turning three.  He has generally matured, learned new things, stepped up to being a big brother, mastered the potty, shown us natural talents, and stayed sweet.  We love our bright red head!  Elijah is the source of many laughs in our home and, by far, gives the most hugs and “I love you’s”.

Our little man is growing up so quickly that it is hard to believe some of the things he says and does sometimes.  We think he gets a lot of it by mimicking Josiah.  Elijah does a great job of singing his alphabet and counting, though not always correctly.  (He says “H I J J L M N O P”  and completely misses “T U V” if he is singing by himself.)  He’s also gotten really good at identifying colors.

Elijah has turned into a wonderful big brother.  He went through a phase of wanting to be babied by his “Mama” before Joshua was born and I was really worried that he’d be jealous, but he has done great and insists he’s not a baby, he is a big boy.  It makes me sad, but proud that he’s stepping up so well.  In fact, he’s made his bear his “baby” and is very diligent about taking good care of his own baby.  Thankfully, he still loves for us to cuddle him and sing “Baby Beluga” after bath time each night, though each time I cuddle him he seems that much bigger to me in comparison to Joshua.

When we first brought Joshua home, both the boys though the solution to keeping him happy was to have this snow globe playing music near him constantly.

Also before Joshua was born, Elijah was going through a very defiant stage and I’m happy to report that that has subsided (except at dinner time and bedtime!).  He has actually entered a new stage where he constantly tells us how much he loves us and everyone in the house, loves to give hugs and kisses, and is as sweet as pie.  His sweetness has won many people over.  One time Jacob and Elijah were walking around the back of his barn and barnyard as Elijah was looking at all Jacob’s stuff and asking about it.  Most of the it in that area is broken stuff in need of repair just waiting (and waiting) on Jacob to have spare time to fix up.  Jacob was already feeling down about things he uses on a daily basis breaking down and Elijah must have picked up on his overwhelmed tone.  Elijah sat down and asked Jacob to sit down next to him so he could give him a hug, then proceeded to tell him he was sorry all his things were broken.  He’s such a sweetie!

So cute and sweet!  Laying on the back of the couch after I turned up the cushions to vacuum under them.  They later became a slide to the ground :)

The greatest achievement Elijah has made, according to me, is potty training.  He was so easy to train!  We have been amazed and thankful.  We knew he was ready, but definitely didn’t expect him to take such an interest.  As soon as he figured out what he should be doing, he did it on his own without prompting.  He’s now completely self sufficient, though if I don’t catch him right after he’s finished going  #2, there may be some undie smears :)  It’s very cute how he asks for his tractor book as soon as he sits, but he’s usually finished before I can retrieve it.  Now to get him out of diapers while sleeping…

I’ll spare him the embarrassment of the very cute picture I took of him actually going.  I won’t claim that peeing in the yard equals potty trained, but you get the picture, and it’s much easier than moving indoors for a potty break.

One thing that has become apparent about Elijah in the last few months is that he is very interested in music.  We have known for awhile that he seemed to be inclined towards playing instruments because while the other kids in the family bang on the piano, he gently played it note by note for extended periods and when I dug out my violin, Josiah played it haphazardly while Elijah pulled the bow slowly across each string, listening as he did it.  At this point he plays his kids instruments as much as he does his trucks and tractors and he was begging to play Jacob’s “tickitar” (guitar) until we got him his own for Christmas (which is actually a ukulele).  He cracks us up because he likes to hang his arm over the side of his horse bed, which resembles the shape of a guitar because of the sway of the back and rump, and strum it calling it his ticketar.  It seems we have a talent to foster.

Look at those toes and cheesy grin!

Other things that Elijah has enjoyed entertaining himself with lately have been fake phone conversations, playing farm and construction site with and without Josiah, and fixing random things with his tools.  He is going through a phase of constantly using our old phone to make phone calls and carrying on long one sided conversations.  He’d tell us beforehand to be quiet because he was going to be on the phone.  I loved it because it kept him quieter, too!  And when the boys play farm or construction site together, they use these deep voices to talk in character and it keeps Jacob and I laughing.  Elijah’s newest thing is pretending he has a hat like Dave’s on “Imagination Movers”, which is one of his favorite shows that his Aunt Carla recorded for him.  Dave pulls his hat off his head and magically pulls out large items needed to solve a problem.  Elijah is always pretending to pull needed items out of his pretend had with lots of drama while saying “we’ve got a problem!”.  Too cute!

Fishing from the laundry basket with Mama’s sewing tape…I mean from Elijah’s boat using his fishing pole.

He loves to put on any big socks he finds laying around.  Here, he has my slipper socks on.

Elijah has been such a joy to us.  He’s fun, full of imagination, and as loving as can be.  We’re already looking forward to celebrating his third birthday, though I can hardly believe he’s that old already.  How can that be? 

Pressing on towards three…onward ho!