End of April

I realize I still haven't documented the trip to Michigan in words (nor gone back to add in the Koch visit), but Elliott is so full of words these days, I have to hurry to catch up just to our regular life. It's hard to imagine but maybe in a week he will no longer be repeating "Go Mommy's car Daddy's car Mommy's car" like a broken record.

The obsession with standing in the front seat is waning a bit, but it's getting clearer and clearer to see that Elliott is definitely a people person. He spends a lot of time cataloging people we know. He's particularly fond of reciting his preschool roster: "Miss Elizabeth, Mister Peter, Carsten, Baby Lola, Baby Nora, Max." Playschool (the program we do together) includes "Paula and Molin" (mom and daughter); "Katie, Joey and Baby Tony," "Kathi, Alex and Baby Ben," and "Sathya and Gautham." He knows that "Susan-Sawyer" gave him a little wooden car for his birthday (and that they hosted a great birthday party on a rainy day at J.W. Tumbles, where Elliott happily bounced around the room trying out all the fun stuff. We'd only done a trial class but never enrolled at a kids gym). At that party Elliott gave the delicious gluten-free cupcake a try but kept asking instead for more blueberries (and pineapple).

Elliott also knows that Julia and Baby Joel are connected to Monica, even though they weren't there when she drove us to the airport. Elliott had a great time jumping in the moon bounce at Julia's birthday party. On solid ground, he is just starting to lift both feet off of the ground in a small jump.

Elliott knows that we went over to "sing Happy Birthday to Ethan" one Friday for playgroup. Ethan is the other boy on the riding toy in the photo that shows Elliott in his current habit of riding his hat down low over his eyes, if he doesn't put it on backwards (which he does the other half of the time).

One time we went to the library and then the grocery store with friends, and now he asks frequently to "go grocery store with Salome, Sara? Go library?" After just a few trips on the Metro in the past month, Elliott is now a big fan. He keeps saying, "I go Metro train with cousins. Meg. Gillian. Robin. Aunt Jenni." We all went down to meet up with Ed and John a few weeks ago after their rainy Cherry Blossom 10-mile race. Until we were on the way home, I kept Elliott in the Ergo to keep him warm and dry (that's probably when he got so enamored of his "tights" or Baby Legs).

Often when we pull into our driveway, Elliott asks for our neighbors two doors down: "Jen? Preston? Go Preston's house." We met them for dinner Friday night (we walked on a gorgeous evening) and got a bonus of seeing the fire truck come down the street (so the firefighters could stop for ice cream; Elliott is pictured with Preston and his dad, Randall.) Elliott can also also say, "Mommy's name is Jessica. Daddy's name is John."

We had a fun trip the other day to Frying Pan Farm Park (with Sathya and Gautham), after which Elliott said some newly clear sentences like, "I saw chickens today," "I go on a tractor ride," and "I saw piggies nursing. Piggies nurse mama pig." The whole drive home (during which I expected him to sleep), he was reciting from memory the first full page of Everywhere Babies and singing songs. He's now launching into Music Together songs on his own, mostly songs from our current session but also others we haven't heard in a while. He started spinning around the floor Thursday while I was in the bathroom at a doctor's office singing "Dizzy go round, dizzy go round, around and around and around." He recites little talking rhymes "I had a little frog" and "Jack Be Nimble." He also likes to sing "Twinkle Twinkle," with which he signs, and he often goes in between that and the ABC's, which he does pretty well but almost always after "Z" says "Chimpanzee says 'ooh ooh ah ah,'" followed sometimes by "Owl say "hoo hoo hooo'" The associations crack us up.

We are still experimenting with the potty; he often tells us when he's going but is able to hold the rest until we get on the potty. A few times he's woken from nap and even nighttime with a dry diaper and then goes on the potty, but I don't think he's ready for serious diaper-free time in the house yet. Maybe some in the yard...

Food is interesting; sometimes he does well feeding himself with a fork and spoon; sometimes he says "Mommy feed you" and wants me to feed him with a spoon. Sometimes I make his food into a train on his tray and he then shoves it in his mouth with his hands. He's eating a little better at school after a few months of not eating much (and that after a beginning of eating a lot). A few months ago Elliott looked to have had a growth spurt and was more on par in height with his age-mates, but he is back to looking rather short, and, though he still sports some cute cheeks, he's leaner these days.

Elliott enjoys stickers a lot and, I'm told, is quite adept at picking them off the page without help. At preschool, he made this lovely tissue paper flower; the co-oping mom said he stuck the papers in glue and on the page all by himself and that he loved the crinkly texture. I almost cried I thought it was so pretty, so I took a picture of it along with the previous week's creation. He's more interested in drawing on paper than his hands these days and can really fill up a page evenly with scribbles, but he can also do circles. We haven't encouraged anything beyond that. But he has just in the past few days gotten in a "Look, Mommy!" phase. Whatever little thing he does, whether stacking blocks or putting wooden vegetables in a plate or finding some obscure thing and finding a way to stand on it, he has such pride to share. He hasn't really adopted the "by myself" phrase, but he does get excited to say "I did it!" or, sometimes mixing pronouns, "You did it!"

Since Elliott has woken earlier the past few weekends, I've put in the Yoga Kids DVD in order to get a little practice in before breakfast, and he's starting to try to do a few of the poses (and less climbing on me, at least if the video is running). He's clued into our clothing and will ask, "Mommy exercise?" or "Daddy go to gym" or "go running." He's pretty cool with me "going to work in the basement" on nights I'm not actually tutoring, and John puts him to bed almost exclusively. However, today John spent a lot of time with Elliott and took him to Ultimate, so I tried putting him to bed, nursing for a little bit and then just lying next to him like John does. It might have been the decaf I drank or just the boy's developing brain on fire, but he was chatting up a storm, singing "Tickle tickle tickle" and tickling me, fondling my earlobe and asking "Mommy wear earrings? No." He's also into talking about what parts of anatomy people have, and that was a favorite topic tonight, too. He seems to be in love with language at the moment. Oh, I've also made a draft of a little calendar for him with photos of our activities, so now he knows that the garbage truck - one of his loves - comes on Friday, and he's started to do a lot more "today," with a little "yesterday" and "tomorrow" that are less accurate.

Well, it's late, so I'll close by saying it's a crazy and fun time that keeps us on our toes!