For the record . . .

Elijah says:

hi
bye bye
mama
dada
baby
Loretta
Elijah
stick
dirt
rock
yuck yuck
bear
truck
car
bus
choo choo
neck
necklace
mouth
cheeks
knee
water
cup
pancake
olive
watermelon (see previous post)
grape
apple
spoon
walk
glove
out
sun
moon
cloud
no
balloon
kitty cat
ball
hat
hot
cookie
cracker
bread bite
egg
ninny (nursing)
flower
up
down
grandma
pat pat
round (a verb)
sock
shoe
clock
booger
gate
dump
book
bike
boat
bonk
rip

He signs:
more
all done
nursing
buttefly

He makes animal sounds for:
cat
dog
sheep
horse
cow
pig
pigeon
peacock
goose
donkey
monkey
lion
dinosaur
tiger
bear
fish
snake
bee (bug)
owl
bird
duck
squirrel
rooster
chicken
dolphin
turkey
frog

That's all I can remember right now.

Oh, and he has been trying like the dickens to say "ballerina" because of a small plastic figurine on the shelf. The closest he gets is saying "ball" + "watermelon," which actually makes sense, I think, from a musical standpoint (but then again, I am the proud mama).

Watermelon Man

Watch him in action here.

Rocking the indie bookstores!

Awesome little write-up about S P R A W L on their website. Scroll down to find it.

Genius

Probably all parents have moments where they think their kid is a genius. I think it has to do with how totally amazing kids are. They kind of are, all, for the most part, genius. That said, lately Elijah has been blowing me away with what a for reals genius he is! He has started word combining . . . and he can't even really talk, yet. So, for example, this morning he woke up between me and Marty and we were both like, blahhhhhhhhhhh, and he was all, hooooooooooooray, and it apparently took me too long to start to rise, so E grabs my head in his hands and says dee da (translation: up) mama. So, of course, I dee da-ed right away. Another example: we've been working really hard on trying to teach him to be gentle with the cat. We even checked out a book from the library called Tails Are Not for Pulling. So now we ask him: Elijah, are tails for pulling? He thinks about it for a while and then shakes his head no. As of yesterday he started actually saying "no." He says nnnnnnnnu. So this morning when he went to give the cat his daily greeting/morning attack, we said: Elijah, are tails for pulling? And he said: Adn (his "meow") nnnnnnnnnnu. Also this morning he said "dis sssssssssssssssss." Translation: read the snake book. Total genius!

Also just wanted to mention that he's been talking in his sleep a lot. Mostly he wakes up asking for us to read: dis dis dis. One night, though, he didn't wake up but he said "Dada" really loud and then giggled.