Elijah at 18 months

33 inches tall,  23.5 pounds

Elijah is talking constantly.  He is very adept at baby sign language, thank goodness, because he can be very insistent on what he wants to communicate.  Otherwise… well, here’s a list of Words Only We Can Understand:
-na-na: monkey-lovey (Maybe comes from “banana?” or “Nigh-night?”)
-na-ni: Here, take this.  Repeat incessantly until parent grabs object.
-ma-ne: anything dairy.  Milk, yogurt, cream cheese, and nursing (though as of his 18-month birthday, he is fully weaned.)
-oo-wa: water
-fwitty: drink.  (maybe comes from “thirsty?”)
-aa-paa (with a laugh): potty (He loves throwing tissue into the toilet.)
-fwa fwa: dog (woof woof)
-maaa: cat (meow)
-whee whee: (shortened from oh-whee-oh-whee-oh.) firetruck.  We’re working on this one!
-da-ta: dump truck
-toe-ta: tow truck
-eh-ta: excavator
-sid-see: skidsteer
-ba-ka: backhoe

Elijah is starting to really play.  He now makes “vrrooom-vrrooom!” noises as he pushes his trucks around on the floor.  He hits his plastic play golf balls with plastic golf clubs (though swinging wildly… We’re working on form, Uncle Larry!) He knocks down blocks with glee.  He loves reading books, and does that delightful “reading/babbling aloud” with an open book that toddlers do.  He is constantly on the move.
He is into mimicking: sweeping the floor like I do, pushing the vacuum, pretending to put on make-up when I do, sitting the same way David does on the couch.
A few days ago, Elijah found my bottle of eye-drops, and held them gently up to his monkey’s mouth like he was feeding it a bottle, announcing “Baby!”  He then covered the monkey up with a blanket.  (There is a new baby at the school nursery, and Elijah and friend Chelsea are fascinated by her.)
Opinions… It now matters to Elijah who feeds him. If Daddy starts feeding him yogurt, Mommy can’t take over.  Daddy must finish.  We can’t move his high chair around the room and expect him to eat from it.  And eat with a high chair tray? No way.  He expects to eat at the table.  Elijah is developing tastes, as well.  One week he will adore a certain food, like broccoli, then the next day look at you in disgust (or worse, yell and cry) when you serve it to him.  We’re praying for grace and wisdom in this area of opinions/wailing.  We don’t want a finicky eater, but we don’t want food to become a battle-ground, either.
Friends: Elijah loves seeing his buddies Chelsea and Lily, and talks about them often.  He gets into the car, happily bouncing, when told he is going to see them.  He even plays with them, which is unusual for this age, we hear.
His passion continues to be tractors.  He yells in excitement when he sees construction equipment in traffic, asks people to draw him tractors, he wants to see tractors on the computer (thank you, YouTube!).  A standard greeting is “TRAC-TA!”  His Poppi thinks that “tractor” can be also used as an adjective for wonderful, such as “This is such a tractor day!”

monkey then-and-now

 about a week old…

at nearly 18 months old

Elijah’s monkey (“Na-na”)  has become very important to him.  He asks for it if he gets hurt; he clutches it and bravely runs into nursery at church or school.  Wiggly Warriors teacher, Ms. Pat, told me we could never forget the monkey again, that it was too important!  So we bought 2 more identical ones.  One for everyday use (mostly at sleep time), one for the school nursery, and one “just in case of disaster.”  They actually sell these loveys in packs of three at the store, a brilliant idea.

Sadly, today we forgot the monkey on our rush to church.  Bleary-eyed from being out late at a goodbye party with David’s lab, and disorganized from the piles of boxes stacked around the house, we left the house without the na-na.  We dropped Elijah off at the nursery, hoping just maybe the toy tractors would distract him from the beloved monkey long enough for the church service.

Now, Elijah is famous for this monkey at the church nursery.  It solves all of his tears, and he requests it.  A few weeks ago, David picked up Elijah from the nursery and LEFT THE NA-NA.  We discovered this on the church steps, and David quickly ran back to get it.  When David asked the worker for the monkey, she turned to the other workers announcing, “We are missing the Na-na.  Everyone, we are missing the Na-na.  We need to find the Na-na.”  We laughed because every one of the workers knew exactly what she meant.  Elijah’s pretty proud of this monkey, and often holds it in the air, announcing to a stranger, “NA-NA!”  This is my monkey.

Today when we picked Elijah up from the church nursery, the worker, a man this time, while pulling out Elijah’s diaper bag to give to us, says, “I have just 2 questions for you.  WHAT is a na-na, and WHY isn’t it in this bag?!”  Apparently, Elijah spent most of the nursery requesting, “Na-na? Na-na?”  He kept pointing at the diaper bag (where it usually is to be found) and he and the worker went through every pocket “several times” looking for the na-na.

We’ll never forget it again.

Albuquerque

The big news for our family is that we’re moving to Albuquerque, New Mexico! For those who may be geography challenged Albuquerque, (or ABQ from now on… it’s a long name to spell!!) is located in the Southwest directly south of Colorado. Although many may think of it as a desert, ABQ was established in the 1500’s around the Rio Grande valley by Spanish missionaries and sports a number of trees around the river area. The city itself is located about a mile high with the Sandia Mountain range hemming it on the east side rising another 5000 ft to ~11,000 ft. The city’s population is around 850,000 people.
Apparently, it’s supposed to have 4 wonderfully mild, but distinct seasons… a high of 90 and a low of 40 degrees throughout the year, and 300 days of sunshine. It’s sleeting outside here in Boston as I write this.

A picture of ABQ from looking east from Petroglyph National Park
So after spending seven wonderful years in Boston we have accepted a position with the Air Force Research Labs at the Kirtland, Air Force Base. I will be the program manager for the University Nanosatellite Program, a program I was involved in both at Taylor and BU. The program funds a 11 universities to build a nanosatellite and walks them through the design phases. At the end of the two years we pick a winner who will get their satellite launched.
I'm really excited to be working with the group I'm being hired into. The majority of the labs are fellow engineers who work on exciting science and technology spacecrafts. I'm hoping to build some good relationships with members of the AFRL team in a variety of areas. In particular I will have two excellent collegues working on the Nanosatellite Program with me. So we’re trading the sand of the beach for the sand of the desert…  We’re going to dearly miss our life here in Manchester-by-the-sea, but are looking forward to God leading us to the new adventure in New Mexico. Below are some pictures we took from our previous visits to entice you to come visit!

Mount ranges outside of ABQ

Elijah in Petroglyph National Park

Home we put an offer on and going through the mortgage process

Halloween 2010

Elijah picked out his own Halloween costume this year.  He was riding in the shopping cart’s seat, when suddenly he started jumping up and down, shrieking “GIR-AFFF!”  I wheeled him over to where he was pointing, and he pulled the giraffe costume off the hanger, hugging it to himself, saying “gir-aff!"  It was on sale.  I bought it for him.  The whole way home he sat in his car seat, hugging the costume, saying “gir-aff!” over and over.  We hung it in his room.  It became part of his bedtime routine to say goodnight to his costume.

When we put it on him, he laughed at himself in the mirror, pointing and shouting “gir-aff!”

Manchester-by-the-sea puts on an annual Halloween parade for the costumed children, called the “Wobblin’ Goblins.”  Of course we had to do it again this year! 

All the shop keepers come out of their stores along Beach Street and hand out candy to the kids.

Elijah didn’t know what was in the shiny, crinkly things he was picking up, but got a kick out of it.  David was annoyed that Elijah kept passing up the Reese’s cups for things that were in shiny wrappers.

Our friends Kendra and JR brought their daughter, Chelsea, dressed as a butterfly.  Chelsea and Elijah are old friends, regular play-dates, and fellow “Wiggly Warriors” at the nursery at my school.

This is how we do Halloween in New England.  Hats, scarves, coats, and little ones in fleecey, hooded costumes with sweatshirts underneath!

Our parade ended at the community center for munchkins and coffee, but we took the little ones to the playground.  Their fuzzy suits made them fly on the slides, much to Elijah’s delight.

Guest Blog: Oma

We had a fantastic time in Boston. Elijah entertained us royally!! He is such a people person and so communicative. He has signs for a lot of things and enjoys being quizzed on the signs and sounds that things make. His favorite word is still "tractor". He says it even when there is no tractor in sight. Poppi thinks it is a word that means something is wonderful as he says it most when he is excited. He loves backhoes "back -ka". One morning when we were walking and turned a corner he kept saying "back-ka". We said," sorry there is no backhoe" but when we turned around and crossed the street, sure enough there was a backhoe. He had either seen it when we turned or heard it. He also told us there was a choo-choo coming long before we heard it.
On Wednesday we needed to be at Jamie's by 6:45am so we could babysit while Jamie went to work.  Poppi and I felt like we did real grandparent duty since we were babysitting. We walked down to a little cafe for breakfast and Elijah ate a whole piece of french toast and half a sausage. And that was his second breakfast!

We walked and toured all over Boston on Sunday. We took the famous Boston Duck tour and really enjoyed that. They let Elijah "drive" the boat part. He cried when he had to give it up. We ate at Durgan Park Restaurant where my Mom (Nana) and Dad used to eat when they lived in Boston. On the menu it says-- "We've been in business so long your grandfather probably ate here  -- and perhaps your great-grandfather too". We had to take a picture of Elijah, Jamie, and Nana with the menu. 

We drove around seeing the trees and beautiful New England homes, beaches, little touristy shops and the apple farm. We ate -- clam chowder, prime rib, pizza, fried clams & onion rings, and lobster roll.

Elijah has a special sign for Nana whom he has nicknamed "Yaya". We think that is to distinguish her from his monkey lovey - na-na (nah-nah). At the first dinner Elijah did something cute and Nana clapped her hands to each side of her face and exclaimed "Oh my". Elijah thought that was a riot so kept repeating it. When he wanted to get her attention he clapped his hands to his face. They also had a game they played in the car. Nana sat in the front seat and Elijah in the back, he yelled "Yaya" and she laughed "ha ha ha". He thought it was hysterical and kept it up.
Now that we are home Elijah is still asking about Oma and Papa (Poppi). The other day when he came in the house he ran to the computer, pointed and said "Oma, Oma" because he wanted to Skype with me. Of course I am only too glad to reinforce that behavior!