Little 'Lijah

I certainly didn't want to deprive my "middle" child and major cutie Elijah of having his own post. Elijah is our resident lover-of-food (although David John is also vying for that title) and consummate organizer. Here are a few stories about my little Bug from the last few months:

One stark difference between Gabe and Elijah is their initial reactions to new foods. Without tasting it, Gabe will immediately declare "I don't like it!" while Elijah will say "I like it Mommy, I like it!" Elijah made this declaration about some hot sauce that I put on the table with dinner one evening. Elijah asked if he could have some on his plate. I explained that it was spicy and that it might make his mouth feel funny, but I put a little on his plate for him to try. He chose to dip his watermelon, of all things, in the hot sauce and ate it. He made a terrible face but doggedly insisted that it was "liscious" and that he wanted more. He continued to dip every piece of watermelon in the sauce and made a terrible face every time. I think it was some show of his manliness.

One evening, Elijah said our nightly family prayer and it consisted of entirely food-related statements. Elijah thanked Heavenly Father for breakfast, lunch, watermelon, peanut-butter and dinner. He then blessed the food (even though we weren't eating anything) and said "Amen."

Elijah loves to pick things up and organize them. He is unable to go to sleep unless every toy is in its place and all of the books are on the shelf and oriented correctly. Last week, he wouldn't start eating dinner until I closed an open cabinet door that was driving him crazy. Hmmm... Marc's son maybe?

Sometimes, Elijah's cleaning means that I can't find something he has "put away". On Thursday I drove to my parents' house since Marc was going to be on call for the entire weekend. I gathered everything that needed to be loaded in the car and put it in a pile in the living room. I then made a few trips to the van to pack it all in. It wasn't until after I buckled the boys in that I realized there were no diapers in the car. I knew that I had put two packages in the pile of things to go out but when I went back in the house they weren't in the living room where I left them. Finally, I spotted them on top of the diaper changing table where Elijah had put them away.

Lately, Elijah has taken to calling me "Honey". I think this is because he hears Marc call me that. I think it is kind of cute but after days of "Honey, I want some more milk." and "I need a hug, Honey." and "I busy Honey." I decided to start correcting him in an effort to get him to call me Mommy again. Yesterday at dinner, Elijah said "Honey, I want more blueberries." I said, "Elijah, my name is Mommy." He looked at me and smiled, then said, "Mommy, you Honey. Okay?"

Elijah has always been very sweet and concerned about other people. When Gabe is in time out (often for hitting Elijah) Elijah will go talk to him under the door and even passes him toys and books. One day, I went into the boys room and needed to look for a box of clothes in the closet. I locked the door so the boys wouldn't feel the need to come in and help take everything out of the closet. Elijah came to the door and said, "Mommy you in there?" I replied that I was. He tried the door but found that it was locked then said, "Oh no Gabe, Mommy in time out." He then pushed a few books under the door.

Last night, Jennifer and Chris Mahoney came over for dinner. They were here when it was time to put the boys to bed. As part of our bedtime routine, once the boys are all tucked in we give them hugs. They often request different kinds of hugs like a "daddy squish hug" or a "baby hug". This time, they asked for a "Christmas hug". It took me a minute before figuring out they wanted a hug from Chris. Pretty cute. Luckily, Chris was up for it.

Elijah is definitely his own person. We hope he knows how much we love and enjoy him and that he doesn't develop middle child syndrome. Marc insists that he is fine even though he was a middle child but sometimes I'm not sure.... just teasing.