Two Growing Boys

Elliott's role as a performer in our house continues to respond to two influences.  First and foremost, Ian has clearly become Elliott's biggest fan and Elliott realizes that.  I was in the kitchen yesterday when I heard Elliott belting out loud but obviously fun natured screams.  I went to check on him to make sure he was OK and to make him aware, in the event he was OK, that his outside voice had somehow snuck inside.  What I found was a giggling Ian sitting at the opposite end of the couch where Elliott was producing high pitched squeaks.  As the pitch and frequency of the squeals increased, so did the giggles.  This show, without my intervention, was obviously going to continue until the audience grew tired, and there seemed little prospect of that.

Elliott's expanding vocabulary also keeps things interesting.  It allows him to communicate more of what his mysterious mind is thinking to more people and sometimes to non-people.  He was watching Barney the other night during one of the rare moments he allows himself to be entertained instead of being the entertainer.  I heard him snap at the computer he was watching - "No Baby Bop, it's a firefly, not a star."  I guess Elliott felt if Baby Bop had acted out the scene as many times as he had watched it, it was beyond unacceptable that she/he didn't know the difference between a star and a firefly.

Katie was helping Elliott get out of her car last week when Elliott playfully told her to "stick a sock in it mama."  She was more concerned with where he had picked up the phrase than the fact her son had just suggested she fill her mouth with a foot garment.  

"Where did you learn that?" she asked him.

"Papa Hoss," he said, climbing out of the car and racing on to the next activity. 

It was somehow comforting the influence originated within the family and not at school. 

Elliott is growing up in so many ways.  He got himself completely dressed this weekend.  Shirt, shorts, socks and shoes.  The shoes were put on the right feet which earned him extra credit.  He did need help getting his head rushed through his shirt in time to avoid the claustrophobic panic that comes each time his world is eclipsed by the inside of a pullover; mama was more than willing to prevent that crisis.

When we were at the park on Sunday, Elliott couldn't wait to show me how he could slide down the sliding board on his belly.  Katie seems to think he is probably not allowed to do this at school and his excitement was more about getting away with something than the fear itself.  He showed no hesitation in riding his belly down the spiraling drop-off, so if he was getting away with something, it didn't appear to be the first time he had, which makes it no less likely that mama is right.  It is all irrelevant though, I had the only boy on the playground brave enough to slide on his belly.  I believe the boy waiting in line behind Elliott would have did it too, only his mother made it clear to him he was not allowed to do what "that other boy" did.  It started to rain shortly after creating the perfect excuse to escape with the bad boy of the playground.

Little Ian is not exactly sitting still with his development.  He has been working on crawling.  So far, most of his movement is backwards.  I'm not exactly sure how he does it, but when he gets up on his hands and feet his momentum carries him backwards.  Grandma says it works out nice.  When she wants to keep Ian away from something she just sets him in front of it and within minutes he'll be several feet away from it.  Let the debates on torture continue.  In one of the videos below, you can see that Elliott is trying to work with Ian on his movements.

Ian is also expanding his vocabulary.  He is big on baba baba, but I swear every once in awhile I heard a dada dada in there.  He ate some of Katie's sweet potatoes at dinner this weekend and seemed to enjoy them, although not as much as the ice cream he had at the little shop in town Saturday.  He topped the 20 pound mark for the first time this weekend, pulling him within 7 pounds of his big brother and putting himself within a few months and several scoops of ice cream of taking over the role of big brother.  

Please enjoy the many videos below and the added pictures.  You can see firsthand the joy they bring to our lives and why we are so very blessed to have both of them.