Our big boy slept 12 hours in his own bed last night!  So proud of him.  Of course his own bed is back in our room, next to our bed, as it's been the past few weeks.  Still, he usually clambers out and finds his way into our bed before long.   Friday night he slept in our bed all night.    This past week I've been on the far side of the room next to our little princess, and it took him awhile to work that out.  So now he is bypassing Daddy and running all around the bed at night to get to my side, which is a problem when I'm busy feeding the little lady.   Shane is doing an amazing job of resettling him though.  Perhaps all this time the problem has been I respond too quickly to bring him in with us - too lazy to resettle!  

On Friday night we officially retreated - in the form of moving Eli's bed back into our bedroom.   All winter he's been in our bed, since May.   Taking one step backwards may be the best way to take a step forwards again.

Yesterday Shane was changing the wheels on the car, and Eli ran to get him the drill.  He picked up really quickly, helping Daddy out.

For awhile now Elijah has refused to say goodbye when leaving.   He knows how to wave, but apparently got bored of it.  No amount of coaxing to "Say bye to Daddy!" or "Say bye to your friends!" achieved anything.

Suddenly the past few days he's started saying "Bye".   He says it in this very sweet, soft tone, with a short sound, almost like "By".    He says it when he leaves a room.  He says it when he trots off down the garden.  He says it pretty much anytime he goes through the kiddie gate between the dining room and kitchen.

Adorableness!

Conversation this morning while getting Eli dressed.

"You need to wear pants too bubs"

Runs off yelling "Dad dad dad dad!"

"Are you appealing to a higher power?"

"Nope!"

Conversation with Elijah while offering him fruit from the bowl.   Each nuh-uh is accompanied by a firm and definite headshake.

"Banana?"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Mandarin?"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Sandwich?"

"Grapes?"
"WOW!"

Removes his dummy from his mouth, hands it to me, and chows into the bunch of grapes.

This week Elijah helped put the clean washing away.   I handed some to him on a whim, and sure enough he trotted off to his bedroom, opened the middle drawer at his eye level and shoved it in.    Now he is convinced that every item of clothing goes into that drawer, but I can live with that.   It just makes it slightly harder to find his clothes to dress him!  (I did have everything in nice neat piles by type).   Also, he unfolded most of it while carrying it!

Really loving how helpful he is now.   On the weekend Shane filled my water bottle in the kitchen and then handed it to Eli who brought it out to me.  So sweet.

Today he also walked all the way to the car by himself, down the front steps and driveway.   Of course he's been able to for months but I tend to carry him whenever we're going to and from the car or in and out of somewhere, not putting him down until we're at our destination.   Time to start breaking that habit as carrying two will be hard!   Also finally letting him walk into Reggio by himself - I carry him until we get out of the elevator but then let him head to his room.   Such a big boy.

Another nice weekend. Last week we did the aquarium on Saturday and the local Botanic Gardens on Sunday. This week a bit quieter, but that's what I need.  

Had some progress last Sunday on the "hand holding" front.   Eli worked out that holding my hand allowed him to walk down steps in the park without having to go down backwards or on his bottom.   Still can't get him to hold hands walking along a path though - he seems to think he's being grabbed and protests violently.

He is growing and learning so fast now.  Every word we say he understands.

"Shall we go in the car? It's time to go!"
"Out door!" he shouts as he runs to the front door.

Or this morning, I asked him where Daddy was and told him Daddy needed to get him dressed to go out, he immediately ran through the living room calling for "Dada!"

His book obsession continues, although it's slowed down from the 20 books per day we were having a couple of weeks back.   He now often stops after four or five!   He also now sits quietly looking at pictures and reading to himself, which is adorable.  I guess he's always done that a bit - his good ole reading in the car as a 4 month old!  But much more seriously now.  

Perhaps as a result of all of his recent development - new words, new activities, lots of fun - he is particularly clingy to me at times now.  Not always, he's more than happy to be dropped at Reggio Emilia for the day, and loves to play in the yard.  But he is convinced the only way to sleep at night is next to me.   Quite frankly I don't mind, it's cold and he's a great snuggle buddy!   It's been over a week now.  And when we ask if he's ready for bed he's running to our bed not his.   Even if we insist on him having his bottle in his cot, he will only stay there as long as we're next to him, and as soon as he finishes gets out and runs to our bed - even if he's half asleep.   So we'll see how long that goes on for.   He has been teething off and on, it may be he just wants us nearby for reassurance.  It's certainly easier to resettle him quickly in the night without having to get out of bed!  

In other news, this morning we had a gender scan to confirm, and it's definitely 100% a little sister on her way to join us.   Scary!  I will write my thoughts on that in a separate post.