I swear he grows up overnight!

This is an amazing time! My baby is literally changing by leaps and bounds from one day to the next. Right in front of my eyes. I can't believe how much Elijah has grown over the past week. Here are a few highlights...

Friday night (around 2:30 a.m. actually) I woke up to the sound of Elijah babbling to himself. Not crying or fussing... just talking to himself. Now, it's usually not a good thing when he's awake at 2:30 am, so I went to check on him. What I found was him sitting up in the crib talking to what I assume was the shadows on the wall (it was a full moon). When he spotted me he held out both arms as wide as he could and squealed "Daddy!". "Nope, just Mommy. But what in the world are you doing up at this hour?" He was back asleep almost before I could get the passy in his mouth and cover him up. I think he sat up in his sleep and it woke him.

So one new trick is sitting up from the crawling position. I know he should have mastered it months ago, but he's a little behind. This lead to crawling somewhere, sitting up, then pulling himself up to stand holding onto furniture, baskets, railings, boxes, etc. The problem is that he's not very good at going back down again. Monday he took his first real spill while trying to "walk" from the coffee table to a laundry basket- skinned up his chin a little and bit his tongue. I think it scared him mostly.

He also believes he can walk by himself. When I stand him up and hold his hands he steps on his own. He just uses me (and other objects) for balance. I don't think it will be much longer before he balances on his own too.

Which brings me to his next trick... hanging over the side of his crib. Sitting leads to standing -- which leads to climbing and being a real monkey! The past few days when I go to get Elijah up from his nap I find him standing in the corner of the crib, leaning over the side, or trying to reach toys or other things in his room. Yesterday he managed to grab the string for the blinds (which was blowing around in the breeze) and pulled them all crooked over to one side. I really need Manny to lower the mattress now to avoid any real tragedies (like an escape act).

And now for his new words:

• Of course the old - momma and dadda
• He calls my dad dadda on his own (because every man is dadda to him), but he will repeat papa when we say "grandpa" over and over.
• Wa-Wa for water
• Na-Na for banana
• Ba for bath
• Dah for dog
• Lah-lon for lion
• Ba-Ba for bye-bye
• Good - just like that. (yes, he really says the whole word!)
• Mmm for more
• Puh for plum
• his interpretation of our dog Annie's name is "Ba-Bo", "Bo-Bo", or sometimes "Ba-Ba" -- I have NO idea where he gets this as it doesn't sound anything like the word Annie or Dog. He just made it up. :)
• and my personal favorite... "Eh-lah-la" for his name!!

Plus he's getting very good at drinking from his sippy cup by himself. And he's doing better at feeding himself with a spoon. (still messy, but better)

Well, speaking of my little guy - he's just arriving at the office with my Mom. We're off to have lunch with his Great Grandma and Grandpa. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this schedule?!

I will update with details about our DATE NIGHT soon also...