Elijah-isms

the process of Elijah bowing :)

Elijah is the funniest little kid lately, 

as you can see from his bowing and jumping pictures above. 

he likes to quote and act out movies, 

he loves balloon swords, 

he asks to wear his sweater every time we go outside even though it's like 80 degrees,

he thinks the blender is the most amazing thing, 

he likes to push & motivate me on our runs ["Go faster, Mom!!"]

he gets worried about sand in his shoes after being at the park, 

he asks lots of questions all day every day, 

when he wants something he'll say "how about ____, mom?"

he loves it when we cheer for him {and will then proceed to bow},

he's obsessed with the blue chalk that fell off our balcony, 

he likes to look through our old pictures and point out everyone he knows, 

he has developed opinions about his outfits each day and would rather wear his cowboy boots,  

he likes to get tickled on our bed {only on the bed though}, 

he looooooves the Hokey Pokey, 

and he knows too much and is way too smart for his own good. 

this boy is all that and a bag of chips. 

he tests me, refines me, and makes me better every day. 

as much as i tell Adam i go crazy being home, i know my life would not be as joyous without him.

love that funny, crazy little guy!

my boys

like father...

like son! 

melts.my.heart.to.mush!!

i should've made Elijah do the same pose as Adam's picture. 

because let's be honest, that pose is basically golden. 
as is Adam's whole outfit... can we discuss that for a second?

{sea lions} tigers & bears

after only seeing my parents {maybe} once a year since we got married and they moved to the Marshall Islands, it has been a treat to have them able to visit a couple of times this summer already and spend time with us!
since Elijah was born, they have only seen him a few times so it has been really special for me to see them interact with him and watch him learn to trust & care about them.

one of those special moments happened this last week when my parents took their three Utah grandkids to the zoo.
there were moments where Elijah was really shy.
but then there were other heart-melting moments when Eli would sit right next to my dad to share chips.
or let my dad carry him on his shoulders and listen to him talk about the tigers.
or let my mom help him go down the slide at the playground.
or run over to my parents to show them a cool animal.

i have been waiting for these little moments ever since Elijah was born.
and now that my parents live much much closer {in the states!}, i am so grateful they can be here to watch him grow up and have that sweet relationship i have been waiting for.

  

 

thanks for the epic day, grandma & grandpa!!

buzz

remember when Elijah’s hair used to look like this?

and it was so perfect and adorable?

now his hair looks like this.

 

and i’m totally devastated!

Adam was convinced that Eli’s hair was too shaggy and needed a haircut.
{“it is out of control!” he would say}
i kept fighting it and told him i love his hair
{and so did everyone else right?? he didn’t believe everyone else did too…}

he kept bugging me about it until finally i said he could give him a little trim to even out Eli’s hair since the top of it was kind of crazy/weird looking with this one really long tuft of hair.
and then…. a little trim turned into a full buzz!

i admit i got teary eyed as i watched those precious curls fall to the floor.
“it looks terrible!!” i kept shouting and the buzzer made its merciless way over my little boy’s head.
i couldn’t even bear to watch but when i would walk away Elijah would call out for me.
{he knew it was wrong too!}

now my sweet, blonde, curly-haired little baby looks like a big kid that just got home from baby boot camp.
every time i look at him it gives me a shock cause i am waiting to see all his little curly q’s.
[guys. it took so long to grow his hair too!! he was so bald before!]

i guess the one good thing about his short hair though is that it makes his face look especially chubby.
and we all know chubby little boys are the best!
and of course he is the cutest little chubby boy around!

but his little curls better grow back or so help me…

from Eli’s perspective

[this post might not be funny/cute to anyone else but it’s something me and Adam laugh about and want to remember about our funny little guy :)]

the other day Elijah figured how to get to the camera app on Adam’s phone and decided to take pictures of everything!
he loves flashlights {or anything in light form} so when he figured out that if he pushed the camera button a big flash would appear it was immediately a hit that kept him busy for a few minutes.
Adam and i didn’t even realize what he was doing or taking pictures of until we looked at his photo album later and saw all the things Eli deemed picture worthy.

i know these pictures are obviously of nothing seemingly important to anyone else.
but for one reason or another, me and Adam love them.
we love that they each symbolize something that we will remember Elijah’s childhood by.

like his little chubby feet that you can see peeking out at the bottom of each picture.
and the way he crosses his legs on the couch.
and the way he has to explore every room every day.
and his little chubby BYU football picture on the desk in his room.
and the way he hangs by Adam and i as we do the dishes.

and {almost especially} his love for the vacuum!
that kid loves the vacuum even though they got off to a rough start.
every day he asks, “vacuum? vacuum?” and likes to point it out any vacuum he sees [at other people’s houses, on TV, he even thought the lawn mowers at Lowe’s were vacuums].
so the fact that he took a little picture of it from his small point of view just makes me happy.
such a sweet memory i’ll have of him for years to come!
:)

the kid drives me nuts some days
{especially when he hasn’t slept through the night in the last couple months… ugh!!}
but i absolutely LOVE that chunky/funny/sweet/cute/silly little man of mine!!
and i’m so glad i have these little pictures to remember this fun stage in his life!

summerfest

on Friday we went to Orem’s Summerfest to check out the sites and attractions.
it was a lot of fun just to get out of the house and walk around outside and Elijah LOVED it!!

he was SO entranced by all the carnival rides and loved watching them spin, flip, and twist.
he got so excited as we would get closer to the rides and i’m sure if he could, he would go flip with the big kids on the Zipper.

they also had a helicopter that the kids could look around and take pictures with but Elijah was not very interested since it didn’t do cool tricks or have people screaming from it.

[looking and pointing at the other rides, clearly not interested in the helicopter even though it was pretty awesome]

since he couldn’t go on the big kid rides, we decided to let him have a go on the carousel.
it was love at first sight!
he was so excited to see all the “horthies” and “shickens” (chickens) and couldn’t wait to ride on it himself.
[why they only had horses and chickens on the ride is beyond me…]
and since Elijah is going through this “every bird is a chicken and i love them” stage, it was like he died and went to heaven to actually be able to ride one for 5 whole minutes.
he could not stop smiling!

 

he thought he was such hot stuff riding the merry-go-round.
he didn’t like us to hold him and would get mad at us if our hands got too close.
and then he would yell “hiya-yee-haw” and wave to everyone as they passed.
seriously. in heaven!

when we started to walk back to the car, Eli started crying as the rides shrunk away in the distance.
he was so mad we were taking him away from the greatest place on earth.
wait til you experience Disneyland, little kid!