Elijah is 18 Months Old!

We are officially halfway through Elijah's second year of life outside Mama! And I have to say, the first five months were on the tougher side but this last month, he has really blossomed and matured.  His attention span is increasing by leaps and bounds, his verbal expressions have exploded and through it all, his sweet, generous, loving and affectionate disposition has not wavered. He still stops what he is doing several times a day to come over and give me hugs, kisses and snuggles.  He does the same with his Daddy and the dogs and is happy to shower his grandparents with love as well!  He thrives on hugs and kisses and I just love it!

A few months ago I had some concerns about Elijah's speech development, mostly because he hit all his milestones incredibly early (walking the day before 8 months, sitting unassisted at 4 1/2 months etc) that I think I had unrealistic expectations of his verbal skills. My Aunt Cathy is a child speech pathologist and was a great resource to me, and was very reassuring that Elijah was advanced for his age and that his speech would probably "explode" by 18 months. Well, she was right! I was also unaware that sounds for things count, such as a cow says "moo" or "mmmm" for yummy food. So far, this is Elijah's vocabulary:

Mama - Mama or Mom Mom
Daddy - Dada
Pop- Pop (this is what he calls my Dad and the first person Elijah to call by name besides Mama and Daddy. Needless to say, Pop is tickled)
Up please - Up Peez
Down - Down
Go- Go
Bye Bye - Bye Bye
Ball - Ba
Baby - Ba Ba
Good - Gooooood (He uses this very appropriately when eating something tasty, if I asked him how he slept etc)
Bath - Ba
Yum - Mmmmmmm Good!
Boat- Boat
Banana - Nana
Duck - Du
Elmo - Um Mo
Night Night - Ni Ni
Eat - Eee
Bonnie - Ba Neee
Bubble - Bubble
Uh oh - Uh oh
Dog - Gog
Book - Boo
Bird - Bir

Animal Sounds: I have read this counts as words
What does a cow say - Mooo
what does a sheep say - Baaaa
What does a dog say - Arf!
What does a cat say - (very gently) mooooowwww (This is our favorite because he lightens his voice for this one)
What does an elephant say - pft! (mama taught him that one!)

He can identify his: According to Aunt Cathy this also counts as words
Eyes (by blinking)
Nose (by wrinkling it up and breathing in and out of it really hard)
Tongue
Mouth
Tummy
Feet
Piggies (toes)
Head
Ears

Signs - Chip and I chose not to teach baby sign to him and to instead focus on verbal skills but his Baby Babble video has some sign in it and he picked it up on his own. He does the following signs

More - He uses this to mean more food, do again (like if we are playing a game) or just if he wants something in general. This has become basically his request sign.

All done - he made up his own sign for all done

Eat - he picked this one up from the video just today. I happened to look over and see him doing it but I'm not sure if he will use it consistently, especially because he can actually say "eat".

Elijah's favorite things are bananas, Elmo, Bonnie and Wrigley, Granmumsy, Pop, Grandmother and Granddad visits, sitting on Mama's big belly (I usually have to scoot him down),brushing his teeth,  helping (with anything!), his daily smoothies, going bye bye, playing at the part, his little tikes playhouse, his new airplane ride, baths, books (he has lots of favorites that Mama and Daddy read several times in one sitting)  and swimming.

His dislikes are when Mama leaves the room (though the separation anxiety is getting MUCH better! He actually loves going to the nursery at church now. He used to cry.), being told no when he wants to watch Elmo, plain coconut almond milk (I'm having to get creative to get his calcium intake up!), when it is too hot to play outside and when Wrigley steals his food. This has really started to upset him. But he still LOVES his Wrigley!

In the month of October, Elijah got FIVE new teeth, pretty much at once! I think he is getting a teething break right now which we are enjoying because I know teething makes him pretty cranky. Hey, bone pushing through the soft gum tissue would make me pretty miserable too! But through it all he remains my sweet and loving boy and now that those teeth are through, I have my happy boy back!

I can't express how much I love mothering this little boy. These past 18 months have been the best of my life and I still, at times, cannot believe he's actually my child. I am very excited to share him with his new little brothers and we spend time every day talking about the babies in Mama's tummy and loving on them(he gives them kisses and snuggles on my belly), talking about how cool it is to be a big brother and just enjoying Mama's big belly.

My baby boy just continues to grow up before my very eyes.  His Daddy is often taken back by pictures I send throughout the day at how much he looks like a little boy and how little he looks like a baby.

We spent the days leading up to Elijah's 18th month day with my parents in San Antonio and I got a TON of awesome photos of Elijah so I decided to use that as his 18 month birth photo shoot!

We went to a pumpkin patch while we were in San Antonio and Elijah wore his Halloween costume (Elmo!) so I could get some cute, festive shots. 

My sweet little Elmo

Elijah had a blast frolicking among the pumpkins!

Sweet smile!

I <3 that smile!

Bright eyed boy!

Having fun as always!

"I spy something ORANGE!"

So many pumpkins to choose from!

Love how cute this costume is, even from behind!

He picked one!

Elijah had a great time as always on our visit to Sea World!

Enjoying the ferris wheel

One of Elijah's signature faces

Having a great time!

Such a sweet little laugh

We made sure to catch the Sesame Street show and Elijah enjoyed lots of attention!

He just loves the characters!

Enjoying the Halloween themed show!

Nothing cuter than a little boy on overalls!

Hugs from Abby!

One happy little boy

We brought Elijah's Elmo costume for the photo op!

Big Elmo and little Elmo!

Such a cool photo!

Some fun at home with Pop!

Looking handsome with Pop!

Love my preppy boy!

So handsome!

Trying on Pop's glasses

"Up please!

Looking quite studious!

Silly guys!

Pop loves him so much!