Elliot’s first time brushing himself.

Things Elliots Likes

• Sting rays and manta rays
• Excavators and most construction equipment. In fact, he knows the names of many parts of excavators:

• bucket
• boom
• shovel
• cab
• tracks

He learned this from Blippi and my reinforcement.

• Trains — oh my god how he loves choo choos
• Trucks
• Monster trucks
• Water
• Water fountains
• Ice cubes — for to eating! He asks for ice all the time.
• Fish — used to be called “phi” now are “fish”. We go to Pet Smart and look at the fish all the time. Also watch aquariums on YouTube.

Cute Things Elliot Says

• Nake = Snake. Sometimes he just says “sssss” and points.
• Nail = Snail
• Nose = Snow
• Ashaw!! = Attention, Look!!
• Yuck = Look (often with finger pointing)
• Phi = Fish (although he now uses fish, not phi)
• Yaya = Lada
• Hopper = Grasshopper
• Aki = me
• Choo Choo = Train
• Carmen (the neighbor’s cat) — When he calls out to her, instead of cupping his hands around his mouth, he places his hands on his cheeks and says”Carmen!”. It’s very cute.
• Gosh = Skull — in reference to the clay skull Max made years ago and is on display in our bedroom.
• Geh = water
• Me = more
• Poot or pooch = poop
• Kai = horse
• Fire = pacifier
• Corn = acorn
• Fallah = challah
• Not = snot

Elliot calls snow “nose“.

Pics from earlier in the week… (Tue, Sept 8, 2020). EARLY NOSE!

Elliot started saying the letters of the alphabet while watching ABC videos on YouTube. So proud of him!

13 months ago in Maine. Today there is snow on the ground in Colorado.

After weeks of blanketing ash and choking smoke that caused sore throats, today it is raining. A freezing rain which is supposed to be 3-7 inches of snow.

Elliot saw the rain this morning in the master bedroom and exclaimed, “Rain!” while pointing at the window.

I’m lifted him onto the wedding chest so he could peer out at the rain. He was surprised and delighted and excited to see it.

How wonderful to be surprised by something as simple as rain. I forgot that it was like that for me once. But I do remember the joy of snow when I was small.

(more…)

First day of the new school year for Elliot. Max starts tomorrow now that his COVID-19 test came back negative.

It was also the first time Elliot has seen the new Garden Preschool. They’ve been renovating the building since last year.

He wasn’t sure about it. I would not say he was confused, but more curious. Some of the other children were crying. Parents were not allowed inside because of COVID, so I left him at the door with Ms. Sam.

… but not before he said to me, from the doorway, “Mama, come”

Max is still in Spain with Gaga.

Yesterday, Elliot said dada for the first time. Now he’s saying it all the time. Before that, I was mama. He can’t say Aki yet. I’ve tried.

Today at the playground he held out a pine cone to me and said “pine cone?” quite clearly! Loved it. I asked him to hand me the pine cone and he threw it at me 🙂

Yesterday, at Walmart, we went through the toy section on the way to by a bike with no pedals (there weren’t any left). He latched onto a monster truck with remote control and hasn’t dropped it since. He even slept with it last night and during his nap today.

In the beginning, he did not understand the remote control. So after he had been playing with the truck for a while, I moved the truck with the remote control. He was trying to figure out how it moved. It was a lot of fun watching him trying to get the truck to move by itself. I finally showed him how to do it.

At the playground today, he ran after other children wanting to show them his truck. He saw a little girl, probably 4, and said to me “Girl?” Then he turned to the girl and said ,”Girl, truck! truck!” and held it out to her. She laughed and ran away, and he chased her.

The girl left with her mother. As other children came, he did the same thing, although most of them were older and did not want to play with him or did not understand why he was showing his truck.

He also runs after children at the playground saying “Bains! Bains!” while holding up his hands, imitating my zombie chase. He also adds the “chhhhh chhhh sound.” The children don’t understand and don’t know to run from him. It breaks my heart.

On Friday, five days ago, Elliot said “yes” and “ya” for the first time. Previously he would say “kay” then later “okay” for affirmation. Sometimes he would nod his head.

I am not sure why he never used “yes” and “yeah” before — he could say the “y” sound because he says “yaya” for the Lada.

Since Friday, he’s said it many more times, including this morning, so I think it’s going to stick.

We visited an excavator after all the workers left. He LOVED it. I put Elliot in the driving seat. He wanted to start the excavator — the keys were in the ignition. Of course we did not. It was very difficult to get him to leave. Afterwards, at home, Karolina was very upset that I did that, and made me promise not to do it again.

When Elliot sees an airplane in the sky, he looks up, points, and says “plane! plane!” Then he jumps; well, tries to jump — he still doesn’t bend his knees enough to get off the ground. He wants to touch the plane. He most recently did this a couple days ago.

Tonight we went outside and he saw the stars. He calls them dars, and he tried jumping to grab the brightest one — perhaps it was a planet. After he jumped he said, “mine, mine“. To which I replied “You want that You want the dar?” And he said “okay, dar, okay” (which is the way he says “yes”).

Elliot stalking the neighbor’s cat, Carmen.