Huntington

For Elijah's birthday, we enjoyed the afternoon at the Huntington. Elijah's idea of a good time was crawling around and finding rocks and water to play with. He was not as interested in strolling through the gardens or touring the galleries.

1st Birthday, Part 2

Dustin's parents drove down for Elijah's birthday weekend. We spent the afternoon at the Huntington (but that's for another post), and then Grandpa and Grandma joined us for dinner.

The Birthday Boy

Elijah showed off for his grandma and great-grandparents by taking four steps (a first!) to his daddy, who sadly missed it because he was on the other side of the glass, grilling our dinner.

Elijah was excited about the return of the candle.

Chocolate cake is yummy!

Elijah gets to try chocolate sorbet.

It's easier to bring the bowl to your mouth than to bother with a spoon.

1st Birthday, Part 1

We celebrated Elijah's birthday with my family an evening early.

Outside play

We're enjoying our beautiful weather.

"Peek!"

Elijah has made big strides this month in language development. He now says, "Peek!" with a huge grin.

Other words:
--dada
--baby
--hello ("lull-lo")
--uh-oh

Occasional use words:
--bread
--ball
--mama (got to make the list somewhere! :))
--bye

And he has signed "more," although not consistently. He likes to take my hands and guide my hands to make the sign. His babbling sounds more word-like each day. It is so fun to watch him use sound to communicate!

11 Months

My baby turned eleven months two weeks ago, but we're a bit behind.

Elijah is now an expert cruiser and crawler. He is proficient enough to be able to move objects while in motion. This has led to a love of moving items around; he is very interested in manipulating his environment.

He also likes the challenge of obstacles. He likes to see what he can fit under.

Did I mention that he likes moving things? In and out is a favorite! He works hard at his organizing tasks.

This month we installed a gate at the top of the stairs, giving Elijah free reign of the upstairs and handy slots for sticking things through.

His fan club is still alive and well; his friends like to chant, "Elijah! Elijah! A-boing, a-boing, a-boing!" (accompanied by lots of jumps).

He's getting close to talking. He says a great "Dada!" and has other words he's used on occasion (like "bread" and "ball"), but then they drop out of circulation. He loves seeing what sounds he can make with his tongue.

He keeps on getting more entertaining. Tonight at dinner, he kept saying, "bay-bee" over and over. And then he would get so excited over his control of sound that he could only get one syllable out before dissolving into laughter, expectantly looking for his applause.

Cousins

This past weekend, we headed out to Arizona to visit my sister and my grandparents. Aren't the cousins cute together?

Helper

(For the record, he does normally wear pants; they were removed due to mud from helping me work on the patio)