No is my middle name.

I'm would be shocked if years from now we don't discover that for the majority of his life Elijah thought his full name is Elijah No Gutierrez. After all, this is what he hears a gazillion times a day. Here's a small sampling of what he heard just yesterday.

Elijah No, don't chew on that electrical cord.
Elijah No, don't put your face in the doggie water.
Elijah No, don't smash your fingers in the lazy Susan.
Elijah No, don't throw mommy's phone.
Elijah No, don't pour olive oil on the kitchen floor.
Elijah No, don't unroll all the toilet paper.
Elijah No, don't chew on the plunger.
Elijah No, don't throw your cottage cheese.
Elijah No, don't lick the floor.
Elijah No, don't turn off the computer.
Elijah No, don't pull the x-box down.
Elijah No, don't dump out mommy's coupon book.
Elijah No, don't touch the hot oven (ours is old-fashioned).


Gosh, what's a boy to do with all these rules? I feel like our days are so negative sometimes. I wish I wasn't constantly correcting him. And he's not even walking yet... yikes.


OK, he's not always misbehaving. Sometimes he surprises me. Yesterday I think I saw a glimmer of OCD in him. (seriously) I know how much he likes to put away his toys so I dumped out a pile of plastic blocks, cars, and balls in the middle of his floor. Then I gave him 2 containers; a bucket and a plastic case type thing. I was kind of showing him how to make his cars drive around and how to stack up the bocks and stuff. And with absolutely no prodding from me, he started to not only put away his toys - but ORGANIZE them! All the blocks and balls went into the bucket and all the cars went into the plastic case. At first I thought it was a coincidence. So when he would pick up a toy, I would switch the containers around. He would look, think about it, then place the toy into the appropriate container. Each time I noticed him purposefully putting them where he wanted them I would encourage it. "Very good Elijah, putting your toys away is so nice..." Then when the floor was clear, I dumped them out and watched him do it again. I'm amazed sometimes at how smart he is! :)


Recently one of his favorite games is stacking things and putting toys inside each other. You might see, for example, some matchbox cars inside the back of his dumptruck, or several blocks or animals stacked neatly on top of his piano. Or, like yesterday, a row of carefully placed tonka trucks lined up on the windowsill. So silly! Funny the way his little mind works.


Then later, surprisingly, my constantly busy boy came over to me with book in hand, and crawled right onto my lap for me to read to him. That was a first! He never sits still long enough to finish a book. I'll admit, he was due for a nap, and I did have his blankie. But still. I love when he cuddles up to me on his own.

So, enough Elijah stories for today.