C A T

Now that we're well into spring, my rule of "no getting up until it's light" is no longer working so well.  This morning Elias tried to climb into bed with me at 5:43 am.  Sure enough:  it was getting light already, and some birds were singing. Gotta update that rule... Anyway, Elias wasn't about to return to his bed and instead proclaimed "I read book."  Fine.  I rolled over to go back to sleep...but of course it was a doomed attempt.  Elias returned in about a minute with his arms full of books which he unloaded onto my bed, clambering up after them.  He set up shop and proceeded to open the first one.  I feigned sleep.  He started turning pages and identifying letters.  Then he started saying the sounds of the letters:  "C"... "A"... "T"...  I peeked.  He was pointing to the word "cat."  He stayed on that word, pointing to each letter and saying the sounds, slowly, then in quicker sequence.  "C..A..T ....C..AT ...C.A.T ...CAT!...Frog!"  Wow!  He really was reading it!  His proclaimation of "frog" at the end wasn't the sounded-out word; it was a reference to his Leapfrog video, from which he learned the sounds of the letters.  He recognizes his written name, but this was the first I've witnessed him sounding out a word for himself.

So, that was worth waking up for after all...although I still wish I could sleep in.

obsessions

Like many toddlers, Elias gets swept away with various obsessions where he just seems never to get enough of something.  Some are relatively constant (Thomas the Train), whereas others seem to wax and wane.

He's actually lessened up quite a bit with his reading obsession.  Reading a book with me is not longer the very best thing he can think of doing, at any time and for unlimited times.  He still does it more than any other kid his age I know, and we still read several books every night, but now he'd rather watch TV and sometimes play outside or with his toys.

TV...ugh.  He'd watch all day if he could.  He watches in the morning as I get ready for work, and sometimes in the evening while I make dinner.  At other times he's prone to beg insessently for it, following me around trying to get me to accept the proferred remotes (which in his eyes constitutes a binding contract that he does indeed get to watch), but if I'm consistent with limiting it to those times he's pretty good at grudgingly accepting it.  Usually it's DVDs or PBS, with a strong preference for Thomas.  The best way to wean him away without too much trauma is to turn it to a cooking or travel show.

His love of music continues. For a while he spent much of his playtime operating the simple CD player I got him, carefully choosing, inserting and playing his own CDs, always at full volume whether he was dancing to it or simply using it as "background." It only had a lifespan of a couple months before he removed one of the operating components, and very sadly for him I haven't replaced or repaired it yet.  Just before going to sleep I sing him songs.  His favorite right now is Amazing Grace, and he knows all 5 stanzas--and immedately calls me on it if I transpose words or verses!  He also especially likes Old MacDonald, There's a Hole in My Bucket, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Joy to the World.

He (and I) love my iTouch because of the music, but mostly the games.  It's amazing how quickly he learned to navigate around on that thing.  Sadly, due to a leaky-sippycup-in-the-diaper-bag incident, the backlight stopped working, which pretty much renders it unusable.  When he asked for it ("game? game?") and I sadly reported it was broken, he immediately ran to the other room, opened up the high drawer of the sewing table (which I didn't know he was aware of), found the screwdriver in there, and ran back to me and tried to "unscrew" the iTouch.  After all, that's how Mommy fixes Thomas the Train when his batteries run out!

Catch up

Today is the 2 year anniversary of Elias' (or at that time, "Ashenafi Carrie Cook's") legal adoption in Ethiopia!  I think "two years already?" but in another sense it seems an entire lifetime ago.  I'm planning the April Ashenafi Adoption Anniversary BBQ tomorrow to commemmorate it.

It seems like Elias has grown up so much since my last blog.  I often identify things I want to post, but when it comes down to actually doing it, I'm just to busy or tired.  People often told me that having a child will make me feel young, but I've yet to experience that--just the opposite!  Come to think of it, those people tend to be childless, or have older kids which they had when they were very young themselves.  Anyway, he's grown a lot taller, to 38," although hasn't gained weight since perhaps November, so lost all remnants of babyfat.  Suddenly he's in all 2 or 3T clothes, and keeps growing out of his shoes.  It made a big difference in his appearance when I gave up on his beautiful curls and gave him his blisfully easy buzzcut.  These mealtime pictures were taken just 2 months apart:

Easter was fairly uneventful.  It was nice that the daffodils and other early signs of spring coincided so well this year.  Elias was not very enthusiastic about easter eggs.  We dyed about 2 dozen the night before.  At first it was hard to keep his attention, but he warmed up to it towards the end by firmly directing which dye an egg went into, and for how long.  Easter morning he pointedly refused to find or even investigate all the plastic eggs filled with candy which I "hid" around the house, despite my urging ("No egg, no egg, Mommy"), although later in the day he did drum up some enthusiasm for finding real eggs outside.  A highlight for him was after he'd found them all and I let him sit and smash a few.  

The most lasting impression was Elias' new-found love of chocolate.  The next morning he woke up, stumbled out of bed barely awake to meet me in the hallway, and rather than his normal "Good morning, Momma!" or "I awake now" he looked up at me with a hopeful "chocolate??"  Every day since then he regularly asks for chocolate--and gets some, too. Seems we haven't even dented the original stash.

Pottytraining has been slow, mainly because I haven't been pushing it.  I just discovered he much prefers using the "real" toilet rather than his expensive potty & baby urinal, so I predict more rapid progress now.  Yesterday was his first day of staying dry all day at daycare--yeah!

Thank God

I love praying together with Elias just before he goes to sleep.  I thank God aloud for various things and he enthusiastically adds to the list.  It's not something I "taught" per se, but he has always chimed in on his own.  It just makes my heart melt, and brings to a focus the purity of such prayers to the Father. The most common expressions of gratitude are for beans, white horses, brown horses, and songs.  Others are books, TV, broccoli, various people he knows, Simon (the cat), chickens, outside, and my favorite, Mommy.  Then he might top it off with "God keeps us safe!"  Amen!  Last night he added a new one:  Eee-pee-yo-ya. We thank God for what?  Eee-pee-yo-ya.  Hmm--oh!  Ethiopia?  Vigorous head nodding:  Eee-pee-yo-ya.  Yes!  We thank God for Ethiopia!

Besides being blown away by how terribly endearing and cute it is to hear him pray about "Eepeeyoya", I was also surprised, since I've rarely mentioned Ethiopia to him (although I did point it out on a world map yesterday).  Most nights I do remember Ethiopia and the people and situation around his coming to me, but that's in my own prayer time.  I was convicted a little to "share Ethiopia" more with him.  Plus of course it's a good reminder to always keep his birth country in our prayers.

Bedtime

I got a few cute pictures of Elias tonight just before he went to bed.  He's been successfully moving his bedtime later and later.  Instead of 7-7:15pm, I'm now lucky to start getting him down by 8, and all too often it's been closer to 9 when he actually gets tucked in.  I'm trying harder now for 7:30-8.  I know sleep is very important for him, and having a few hours to do household chores or just veg after he's asleep is important for me.  He'd always been so incredibly easy to put down at night:  quick, no crying, hardly any fuss.  Now he endlessly stalls with everything he's got--"Mommy read book?"; "I drink water?"; "Poopy diaper?"; turning on music and madly dancing to it; getting deeply involved in Thomas the Train; crying; tantrums; going limp; volunteering to clean up or fix something; and when all else fails, making a run for it.  That's Stage One.  Then Stage Two:  milk and songs in the dark in my room.  He tries to escape and cries there, too, which is new (although still managing to stop enough to request favorite songs).  When he senses the end of Stage Two approaching he tries to request yet more songs or ask for another bottle of milk.  At last, Stage Three:  into his bed, covered up, kissed goodnight, and quickly left with the door barely ajar.  He generally stays put then...for a few minutes.  Then often he'll come quietly creeping out, always right to me to show me he's not in bed.  Usually it'll be "Hello, Mommy.  Hello.  Goodnight, Mommy", waving, smiling, even laughing.  Occasionally he'll be even quieter and request food, drink, a toy, another diaper change, or to sleep in my bed instead.  A la "Super Nanny," he gets marched right back in to bed, and although the number of times per night has dropped, about 50% of the time he still makes at least one attempt to get up again.  The most consistent thing seems to be that I myself am eager for bed after this drawn-out production.

Ick ick ick!

Of course I like to write about the endearing little tidbits and extraordinary feats Elias surprises me with.  It IS an Elias brag blog, after all.  Some other surpises aren't so wonderful.  Still, they're part & parcel of raising a child, and posterity's sake I'll record one such episode.  Some may find this funny, but those of you who are squeemish about bodily functions should perhaps skip this one.  (TS, this means you!)

I was getting an early start on my taxes last week, and making pretty good progress.  I was hunched over typing numbers into the new tax software I'm trying this year.  Elias had been coming in and out of the office but now had wormed his way behind me in my high-backed chair, and was climbing up and down my back and playing with my hair.  I was pleased he was entertaining himself to that degree at least, and pleased with my own progress, so was very much focused on my task.  It was close to his bedtime, yes, and--was that a whiff of diaper?  But I was getting so much done!  I'd get him changed into PJs in a few minutes.  I tuned him out, picturing a stoic lioness on the savana covered with squirming, wrestling, biting cubs.  Elias started tapping me on the back of the head, then reaching way down my back under my shirt.  Focus! Focus!  Then I felt something wet at the back of my neck, followed by little fingers--was he licking me again and playing in the spit?  Just a few more numbers; focus!  Whew, what smells? Foc---HEY WAIT!  I turned around, and there stood Elias, who had somehow managed to get off his incredibly full diaper and was dabbing it--the inside of it, mind you--on the back of my neck and smearing it into my hair and down my shirt.  ICK! ICK ICK ICK!  I sprang up and whisked a surprised Elias off to the potty, stripping us both down as fast as I could, the whole time saying Ick! Ick! Ick!  After our respective shower/baths I spent well over an hour cleaning up, for he'd also stepped in his diaper and left poopy footprints around during a brief escape just after the initial discovery.  This may be the first time I was really grossed out by Elias' bodily functions; and boy, was I.  That night as I was finally getting him down, way too late, he kept repeating "ick ick ick!" chopping his forearms up and down for emphasis--not reflecting his own feelings on the matter, but just copying beloved, excitable, (smearable) Mom.

Needless to say, I still have to finish my taxes.

Today's Tidbits II

At church today Elias ran up to the director of children's ministries and said "God keeps us safe!" (their first memory verse from this fall).

After church we played in the snow a little. It was nice and sunny, but more importantly, the single-digit temperatures we've been dealing with lately have departed. Elias likes stomping on top of the snow and occasionally falling through. I took out the little disk sled I got, and Elias did his first sledding in the front yard. He was of course fearless, but after just a couple runs was more interested in taking off in search of the neighbors' horses. We haven't seen them all winter, but he still asks about them in some capacity several times every day.

After a more-reasonable (2.5hr) nap today, we made muffins.  Elias puts the paper cups in the tin, adds the mix and milk, and madly stirs it, all while trying to keep me from "interfering."

As we were sitting down to dinner, Elias spelt his name!  This is actually his second spelling feat:  he already spells "action" along to his "Kids in Action" CD.