Elijah is so enamored with his fork and spoon that he is starting to refuse to eat finger food at dinner time. Lunch is not a problem: sandwiches and fruit are still fine to eat without utensils, but dinner must be eaten with a fork or spoon or both.
Tonight we got Chinese takeaway (for the first time in I can't remember how long - at least a year). We ordered some spring rolls because we thought they'd be easy for Elijah to eat. They were so large that we ended up having to cut one up into pieces because there was no way he'd be able to tackle the whole thing in one go. Of course, Elijah, after tasting some fried rice and satay chicken, went for the spring roll pieces... with his fork.
Spearing a small piece of spring roll with a blunt fork is not easy. I think I'd probably even have trouble with it. Even though we were clearly eating spring rolls with our fingers, he didn't want to stoop that low. It took a lot of convincing (and a few tantrums of frustration along the way) for Elijah to try eating with his fingers. Eventually he gave in.
And the spring roll was devoured with much relish.
On the same shopping expedition as was mentioned in the last post, Elijah started to threaten having a tantrum in the middle of the centre. I stopped and asked him what was wrong.
"Balloon, please."
Sure enough, we'd just passed the Foxtel stand, resplendent with white and orange balloons. You may recall that Elijah is quite fond of balloons, especially those at the Foxtel stand. So we turned around and walked back to the Foxtel stand, hand in hand.
Me: "Ask the man nicely, Elijah" E: "Balloon, please." Foxtel guy: "What was that?" Me: "He said, 'Balloon, please.'" Foxtel guy: "What colour would he like?" Elijah: "Balloon, please." Me: "It doesn't matter, he just likes balloons."
So the Foxtel guy handed over a white balloon to a very gracious Elijah, who said, "Thank you."
He then held the balloon-on-a-stick tightly in his little hand for the rest of the shopping trip.
Daddy and I were chatting in the kitchen while Elijah was sitting in the hallway with a book. We realised he was saying something that sounded like "naughty car". We listened harder.
"Not a car Not a car Not a car Not a goat Not a car Not a boat Not a car Not a train Not a goat Not a car"
Weight - 11.605kg, down 85g in the last month however... Height - 86cm, up 1.5cm in the last month!
We're putting the weight loss (which isn't anything to be concerned about) down to a tendency to be pickier with food and an increase in activity. I think this boy is heading towards the six-foot mark. He's going to absolutely tower over his Mummy!
Over the past month or so, we've been encouraging Elijah to say "please" and "thank you". We also started using the prompt "ask nicely". We were quite pleased and proud to discover about a week ago, that Elijah had started saying, "Cup, please!" and other requests without prompting. Every time he did, he was told he had lovely manners.
Imagine our astonishment when we realised we could actually stave off tantrums with these new-found manners! Whenever Elijah starts to throw a tantrum, we prompt, "Ask nicely." He immediately stops the tantrum and politely requests whatever item was out of his reach. Bliss!
Unfortunately, he hasn't got the cognitive or emotional development to realise that you can't always get what you want, no matter how nicely you ask. So unfortunately, when Elijah is not given the item he requests, a new tantrum starts. This kind of tantrum is not quite as easily extinguished. Distraction doesn't always work.
Pinched this from Quilly's blog. Funnily enough, some of the traits are already becoming obvious. Time will tell how the rest of the analysis will pan out.
What Elijah Means
You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.
You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.
You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.
You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you. You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries. You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice.
You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.
You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.
Location: National Museum of Australia Event: Demonstration of Quarantine dogs at work, celebrating the centenary of the Quarantine Act in Australia Date: 10th January, 2008
Location: National Museum of Australia Display: 1923 Citroen, first car to be driven around Australia (1925) Date: 10th January, 2008
Incidentally, Elijah really wanted to ride in this car. It took a lot of explaining before he understood that we couldn't get to it.
Yesterday, we bought a dirt-cheap umbrella stroller for Elijah to ride in when I go for walks in the morning. Ordinarily I would carry him on my back in the ergo, but I've noticed as he's gotten bigger, my posture has suffered and I'm using the wrong muscles to compensate for the shift in weight. Having him in the stroller means I can walk as fast as I want and as tall as I want.
Elijah was surprisingly taken by the stroller. He enjoyed me taking him on a test drive in-store and he loved pushing the stroller to the checkout. In fact, he threw a tantrum at the checkout because he didn't want the lady taking the stroller to scan the barcode!
This morning, I took Elijah out for a ride in the stroller. After 25 minutes of serious pavement pounding, we arrived back home. As soon as I started folding up the stroller, the tantrums began.
"No! Stro-yer!"
I had to distract him with a book. Throughout the day he has intermittently spoken about the stroller. If this is his reaction after two days of stroller ownership, I think a toy stroller might be a good idea for his birthday.
Elijah has free reign of his room now that he sleeps in a bed.
We had a lot of trouble getting him to go to sleep last night because his nap extended late in to the afternoon. After a period of extended silence, Mummy risked peeking in to his room, only to catch him mid-shuffle (he was wearing his all-in-one sleeping bag/blanket), retrieving one of his books from the bookshelf. He was quiet only because he was reading(*) his books instead of trying to go to sleep. He didn't go down to sleep until sometime after 9pm.
He woke up before 6am this morning. He was quiet but I knew something was up. Something was.
It took him about 40 minutes to move through almost all of his Dr Suess collection.
This one is going to be a handful.
(*) I'm aware that in this case reading is from a local dialect that roughly translates as Look at the pretty pictures. However, anyone who has seen him do it would understand why reading is entirely accurate.
Elijah, for some unknown reason this morning, was saying, "Tuesday, Monday," over and over again. So I thought I'd see if he could say the other days of the week.
Because Elijah was slowly destroying his cot by rattling the side (he broke one of the sliding mechanisms and then the screw came up and was ripping holes in the bed head), we decided that maybe it was time for the cot to be converted into a junior bed.
Elijah watched Daddy pulling the cot apart and putting it back together without the sides with great interest. Daddy told Elijah, once the construction work was done, "This is Elijah's bed."
"Lijah bed! Lijah bed!" Elijah said, walking around the bed and inspecting it from all angles. He was very proud to have a big boy bed all of his own. He climbed up onto the bed with Eeyore and sat there, pleased as punch!
We closed the curtains for the photos, so he wouldn't be silhouetted. Of course, we hadn't finished re-organising the room when Elijah started to play, stand and dance on the bed. He's so used to having total freedom in the cot, that he didn't realise (and couldn't be told) that he couldn't do such things on the bed.
We watched him fall in slow motion.
Head first, straight into the window.
He didn't go through the window, just hit it, but the force caused a lot of damage. I think he was frightened more than hurt, but he did have a bit of a graze on his head that we didn't notice until much later when it was scabbing up. I know for a fact that Daddy and I have a few more grey hairs now. And we have a little less money, too.
So how's that for a milestone? First bed and first broken window in the same day.
As for how he's going in the bed now, all I can say is he needs to get used to not being such a nocturnal acrobat. We've already had one back flip onto the floor in his sleep tonight. Let's hope he learns quickly.
Updated at 11:45pm: He's looking rather peaceful now.
