a little Eli love

i feel like now is a good time as any to share some of my favorite things about Elijah right now. 

even with all his screaming and hitting and whining and other typical terrible-two-like symptoms, he's really sweet and fun when he wants to be. 

{sometimes i just need help remembering that after his fits. ;)}

he's actually at a really fun age {when he's in a good mood} and i love seeing him learn new things and come up with new phrases each day. 

some of my {current} favorite things about Elijah are: 

:: when i give him choices for snacks/lunch/anything he says, "Hmmmm, let me think about it, Mom." 

:: he was recently obsessed with Tangled and has now moved on to Shrek 2. i prefer Tangled. 

:: when we would watch Tangled, during the song "I See the Light" Elijah would grab both my hands, look at me, move my hair back like Flynn does to Rapunzel, and ask me to sing. it is the sweetest thing ever and melts my heart to absolute mush. 

:: he still loves to cuddle. he'll find a spot right in the crook of my arm or legs if they are curled up and lay next to me. i hope he never grows out of that. 

:: we read scripture stories before bed at night and we first read about Nephi in the Book of Mormon. ever since, Elijah loooooooves talking about Nephi. i even taught him the "Nephi's Courage" song and maybe that was a mistake cause he wants to sing it all the time. he goes around the house saying, "I will go, I will do!" and throws his arm up in the air. the.cutest. 

:: and with reading stories of Nephi, comes more ways to convince him to do things. we have been trying to teach him about listening and obedience, which is a common theme in the scriptures especially Nephi's story {Nephi 3:7}. so if he is misbehaving we will say, "what does Nephi say?" and he'll say, "Nephi says sit down." he doesn't really but it gets the point across... 

:: he has become so independent {yet is still so needy} lately. he is constantly saying, "ZaZa do it! ZaZa do it!" [ZaZa being what he calls himself :)] i love it especially when he wants to help me do something. win-win.

there are a lot of other things i love about this little boyfriend of mine. 

i know that i stress out a lot and still have A LOT of learning to do in the motherhood department with how to handle toddlers. 

but i still seriously LOVE this little boy and know my life would be not be as joyful without him! 

and i would definitely miss squishing those chubby cheeks!!