I remember always wondering when we would first get to see our child's personality. I was so intrigued by the idea that there would be some things that would just be Elijah, not taught or seen but just him. It's been there, really, all along but lately it seems every day he does something new that we laugh and say, that's just Elijah. I wanted to collect a list so that my poor mommy brain will not forget all of them a few years from now.
1. He loves his belly button. He will play with it, show it to you, anxiously look for it when wearing a onesie, and calm himself when he can find it again.
2. He plays in the crib before falling asleep. Sometimes he walks across it like Frankenstein and sometimes he plays peek-a-boo all by himself, all completely in the dark.
3. One of his first real words was his name. He still says it perfectly and even believes that he can spell it. It sounds like E-Ah-E-Ah Elijah. But he's very convinced that he's spelling it. Sometimes when I spell words that I don't want him to hear like e-a-t or d-i-n-n-e-r he will start spelling his name. So precious.
4. He puts his phone (or really any toy) up to his ear and pretends to call or talk to someone. Usually it's Gaga but sometimes it's Granddaddy.
5. Speaking of Granddaddy, he gets his very own special dance when mentioned.
6. I have always asked him "Who loves you?" when we are driving in the car. I then go through the list of loved ones, "Does mama love you? Does dadda love you? Does Grammy love you?..." and after each one he will says "Yeah."
7. If you mention a tissue or blow your nose, he will blow his as well. In fact, if he's fussing and you ask him if he wants a tissue, it will stop the fussing in its tracks and he will immediately start blowing his nose.
8. He will say shoo shoo about his diapers and the trash.
9. He is IN LOVE and I mean obsessed with our Shark vacuum. Let's be clear now, it's only the cordless one. The other one terrifies him into a tizzy but the cordless one is his one great love. He will find it no matter where you put him down in the house and could play with it for hours. See what I mean, that's just Elijah.
10. He will bring his stuffed animals over to you and stare at you patiently until you snuggle them. He will then want to climb in your lap and snuggle as well. Heart melting.
11. A few months ago, he started pointing at things and waiting for you to tell him what it is called. He still does this rather adamantly until you let him know what it is. Sometimes he says "dis" when he points. He can also point to an object if you ask where it is, especially the vacuum.
12. He picks up invisible pieces of trash and brings them to me to throw away. Sometimes he hands me invisible blueberries to eat out his bowl.
13. He loves to say "Addie" and "Leah," two of his cousins' names.
14. He will politely return books to the shelf when asked... if he's in the mood to do so. He will excitedly bring multiple books to be read over and over.
15. If you ask him to sing his ABC's, he will start dancing and say E-Ah-E... plus many other random sounds, believing he is singing a beautiful rendition of his favorite song.
16. Speaking of songs, when he is his most wiggly, typically during the most inopportune times to be wiggly such as diaper changing time, he will freeze immediately the minute I begin to sing him a song. It's absolutely magical. He can be fussing and thrashing around and the second I start into Dites- Moi or Edelweiss, he's completely calm and watches peacefully until the song is finished.
17. If you ask him to sing Wheels on the Bus, you get a very minion like version of that song as well with some pretty awesome dancing.
18. His tantrums, for the most part, are totally silent and last for a few seconds. They are rather entertaining and I have contain my laughter most of the time.
19. He loves to look through photo albums or our old photo calendars. He will point to every person on every page.
20. He loves cheese, but not colby jack. He adamantly hates colby jack.
21. When he hugs, he likes to hug both sides of your body.
22. He is a climber. He will stack toys, turn toys over, drag baskets across the room in order to climb onto something or over something.
23. He has a little stool that he loves to sit on but even more he loves to turn it upside down and squish his body down into the legs and sit in what must be a very uncomfortable position.
24. While his words are very few, every so often he will look up at me and say "Be happy Mama." There is just nothing like that.
25. He hates Cheerios. As it turns out, he also will not eat the sweet potato puffs we bought him simply because they are also shaped like Cheerios.
26. He loves playing the piano. He will sit on the bench and just play right along with whatever is being played.
27. His go-to comfort position, thumb in mouth, hand rubbing ear.
28. One of the most special things about Elijah is that I believe he can sense when people need to feel loved. He will reach for someone or hug someone at church or when we're out that he doesn't even know but who needed it. I've watched him do it time and time again and each time it's even more special. We've always known that God would use him in amazing ways and it seems it's already beginning.
Well that's just a very short compilation of things that aren't really new tricks and that are not going to be found in any developmental chart, but that are just Elijah. They make him unique and remind us that God made him so special and knew what joy he would bring into our lives.
