In the past two weeks, he has really starting verbalizing a lot more, and trying to imitate words. Here's our vocabulary so far:
Up (with a good "p" on the end; Up now means I want up, out, down, go)
Da/Do for Duck and Dog (they sound real similar. :)
car
attempt to say 'truck'
spontaneously starting signing "more" and saying "muh"
ball
da/daddy
uh oh
no
shakes head no, which is really cute actually
attempts to repeat a LOT
He's at such a sweet age; brings me things he picks up off the ground (no matter how tiny!) - loves to hug us and his other favorite people like grandparents, putting his head on our shoulder, that kind of thing. I love when he hugs me and pats my back or neck.
He can follow simple directions, such as bringing us items (go get your diaper), or throwing away stuff. He actually likes to throw away things and I've had to rescue more than once a sippy cup, bowl, that kind of thing.
I was surprised the other day when he actually played the "find your body parts" type game, and he pointed to eyes, ear, nose, mouth, hands, feet, tummy, belly button, and teeth. And hair. He will point to items in books too, and tries to say several of them, like "boat," "tree," "key." I love hearing him say words and try to say words!
I love that he is trying to communicate now, and that it's a little easier to understand what he wants. I can give him choices for snack items, because now he is showing preferences. He doesn't say "drink" consistently, but we do try to get him to say "drink" or "milk" when he wants his cup and not just point and make noises. He doesn't imitate "thank you" or "please," or "bye bye," so hoping those come soon. He waves "bye" about 50% of the time.
Favorite items continue to be cars and trucks (the play kind and real ones!). He loves to watch cars go by when we walk outside, and points to them. It's a real treat to see the school bus go by, and the driver always slows down and waves at us.
We go for a walk every day, down to the mailbox to get the mail and play on the little playground by the boxes. Our neighbor Philip almost always joins us. Eli loves to go to his door and knock on it. The two boys are very close in age, and tend to always want the thing the other one has (matchbox car, riding toy), but you can tell they enjoy playing around each other. Philip comes to knock on our door too; he's so cute, saying "hi! Hi! hi!" repeatedly when he sees Eli and waving at him.
Eli seems to really like his daily routine. He is sleeping from around 7:45 pm or so until 7, 7:30 in the morning, sometimes a little later, and takes a 2 hour nap during the day. He's also really getting into books, and likes the same ones read over and over. I'm pretty tired of Hop on Pop and Goodnight Gorilla, but that's ok. I love that he is loving books and I really do enjoy making them part of our nap and bedtime routine.
Our couple friends watched Eli last night for us while we went to a meeting. I can't tell you how much my heart swelled with pride over my little boy as our friend kept telling us how incredibly sweet and good he was! He just played with his little cars, watching the Cars movie (his first real movie to watch by the way, we just bought it last week), ate some of the dinner she had - he wouldn't go to sleep for her, which I didn't expect him to - but other than that, was just perfect. I was (and am) so proud of him! It's such a neat feeling. You see other parents talk about their kids and how they feel, and it's like yeah yeah, I gotcha. But when it's your own kid - you GET IT. That feeling you can't explain, how much you love the child, the pride when he does something, how cute and adorable he is - no one else gets it just like the mamma and the daddy!
We are actively pursuing adding to our family through adoption, just starting the process. As I think about these feelings for Eli, I constantly am thinking of our future child too - what will he/she look like, what will the personality be like, how old will he/she be.....and I can't wait. Now that I KNOW that "feeling," what it's like to have a child, parent a child - I can't wait to share this love with another one. To steal a phrase from a popular book - at least I think it's a book - this much I know is true, we are ready to add on to our family. How this addition is going to come about, well, that's still a little fuzzy as we explore these different routes. But as I lay out all my feelings of love, and pride for my child Eli, I also delight in the knowledge that I will get to have these same feelings for his sibling in the future! Doug and I both feel the leading of the Lord to go through adoption at this point, so it's just a daily step by step process of what to do next to continue following His lead. I am so thankful to the Lord for blessing us with this beautiful gift of Eli, and pray He will continue to bless and expand our family!
here are some pictures from today's visit to the park......
Hello there duck!
I like how you're flapping your wings!
Look, I can flap too!
I ran out of bread, sorry about that!
bye duck! see you next time!
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