Happy Easter!

An Easter Egg Hunt right in our own yard! As you can see, mom and dad were having a good time too. (Actually, we could not find the last hidden egg. After seeing some remains of egg shells, we realized that a crow or one of the dogs had found the egg before us and had eaten it!) :)

Amazing!

Yesterday, we spent a little over 6 hours on the road to attend a meeting. While we were on the road, we saw a rhino in the woods. It was huge! We tried to take a picture, but we were too slow and only managed to take a photo of its behind.

When we got there, Elijah immediately got excited when he saw goats and chickens. He had a fantastic time chasing after the goats and chickens.

It was nap time but there was nowhere to lay his head, so I held him and he fell asleep. Usually when he is drifting off to sleep, he wants to be put down and not held. Unfortunately, mom didn't have a blanket or a sheet to use to lay him down, so I took out his diaper change pad, put a diaper and his hat for a pillow, and had him lie there while I used his book as a fan. (The electricity went out.) This amazing little guy slept for an hour and a half, on the hard cement floor, with nothing between him and it except for a thin diaper changing pad. Are you going to be one of those kids who can sleep anywhere, Elijah? So far, you have shown that you can.

Saving Kingdom

I'm not sure why it's called Saving Kingdom, but it's a new amusement park which opened probably two years ago. We decided to check it out last week. It was pretty impressive. It also has a water park section too. We haven't tried out that one but maybe when Elijah is a little older, we will. I just hope that they keep up with the maintenance so that it is still there for us to enjoy when Eli is a little older....

Elijah's highlight: riding the bumper car and the "sky train." He enjoyed sitting in the bumper car more than actually riding around in it. But, he's gonna really like it when he is a little older!

Elijah's daddy's highlight: rock climbing wall! Of course, he attracted a little crowd who all clapped for him when he reached the top! ;)

Mommy's highlight: Watching two men in her life excited!

Something New....

He has discovered moon walking--I mean, walking backwards. He'll try it just for fun spontaneously through out the day. Funny kid...

"Ring around a rosie, pocket full of posies, to ashes, to ashes, we all fall down!" He loves doing it. He asks us to repeat it multiple times. But, I think he enjoys watching mom and dad make a fool of themselves as they fall down!!

He loves to have us read to him. He now brings books over and sits on our lap asking us to read to him.

As of today, Elijah has been completely weaned. I loved the tender and sweet moments with Elijah for the last fourteen months. I actually shed a few tears when I began the process even though I was ready to begin. But, I am looking forward to sharing more tender and sweet moments with my son in different ways as he continues to grow into a little boy.

All day with daddy!

For the first time in Elijah's life, he spent ALL day with just daddy this past Saturday. It was the first time that Paul put him down for his nap time - and he slept for over two hours! We decided that it would be better for Elijah if Paul and he stayed behind at our friend's house near where the conference was going on. When I cam back, he "ran" over to me, but it didn't last very long. He has been so obsessed with cars lately and he wanted to get in the car and play "driving". ;) I was really happy to see that he had a great day with dad.

Today, Elijah said, "Ju sae yo." which translated into English is, "Please give it to me." I was so surprised! And he continues to ask, "What's this?" His new word for the week is, "bubbles." Did I mention that he loves saying, "Uh-oh!?" I can't keep up with his new words!

Uh-Oh and Molars!

His current favorite word is, "Uh-oh!" He takes the David Book Series, "Oops" and brings it to me saying, "Uh-oh!" So cute.

Molars are coming in....no wonder he wants to be gnawing all the time! Hopefully, you will eat better and gain some weight (a month ago, he was slightly under 3rd percentile in weight). I'm going to take him to a veggie shop and weigh him tomorrow....Hopefully, he is close to 10kg so that I can try giving him whole milk. We'll have to see though because I think he might be lactose intolerant.

Owl Babies Part 2

I have to tell this story.

When we were in Thailand, grandma Ann would watch Elijah while Paul and I took some time to ourselves. Initially, he was not always very thrilled to find grandma instead of mom when he would wake up from his nap. But, he quickly adjusted. One day, he woke up from his nap, saw grandma and turned away from her. Then he looked at his stuffed animal friends in his pack and play, picked up Bill from the Owl Babies book and showed it to grandma. He was telling her, "I want my mommy!" Of course, grandma was amazed at his cleverness in how he chose to communicate his desire and need. He is our little smarty-pants!

Owl Babies

We read it together before he goes to sleep. The famous line in the book is, "I want my mommy!" Grandma Ann and Grandpa Phil brought the book for Elijah last year and he seems to really like it. The gist of the story is that the baby owls wake up one night and they discover that their owl mother is gone. The two older owls speculate about why their mommy might be gone, while the youngest baby owl, Bill, repeats again and again, "I want my mommy!"

I started to wean him from his bed-time nursing by taking off a minute every night. Last night, he was a little whiny and was trying to lift up my shirt, signing more. But, I told him that we were all done for the night. He stopped whining and asked me to read the book Owl Babies. We read it twice last night before he fell asleep in my arms. Tonight, he didn't whine at all. He just asked that I read the book three times and then fell asleep in my arms. I think he enjoyed just being snuggled up in my arms... Oh, yes, and I have started giving him one fluoride pill before sleep and he seems to like it as a little "treat" before bed-time now that nursing is coming to an end. I wasn't sure how everything would go, but so far, it has not been stressful. I am really thankful for that.

What's this?

About a week ago, I thought maybe I heard Elijah say the words, "What's this?" But, I thought, nah...he's too young. We were visiting a friend and her kids a few days ago and my friend's five year old says to me, "Elijah just said, 'What's this?'" They were looking at something, I can't remember what...but I guess, Elijah wanted to know so he asked Yoha, "What's this?"

His new words are "Bap" for "rice or food" and "dak" which is "chicken" in Korean. He also says "ball" in English. It's interesting to see what words he picks up in Korean and in English.

He is really into signing. Today, we went to a park and there was a lion statue and he immediately signed to me "lion." His current favorite signs are "clean-up," "chicken," and "helicopter." At times I have wondered whether he really understands the meaning of the word "more" because he has only used it so far with food. But today, he signed "more" because he wanted to get on the slide again. So, I guess he does understand what it really means.

I've been looking for places to take him and we have found a couple of parks that we can go to. They are only open in the late afternoons starting at 4pm during the summer and 3pm in the winter. I wish they were open early in the mornings too when it is cool. The park that we went to this morning opens at 8am, but it is a 30 minute drive. I am looking forward to inviting two local friends and their sons to go to the park with me so that the kids can all play together and I can get to know them better.

We are now down to one nap a day. I took a week to wean him from his nap-nursing and he has adjusted very well. He still asks for it but when I sign to him all done, he whines a little but seems to be able to fall asleep fairly quickly. I feel like he understands what I tell him....I have been telling him all week that every day he will be drinking milk less and less and that it will be "all done." I basically took a minute off each nursing session before his nap, even if he wasn't done nursing saying, "All done." When we got to Friday, he understood, "all done" when I didn't offer him my breast. I don't know how much he understands, but I am going to assume that he does and do my best to communicate with him. It is so amazing to watch him grow right before my eyes!