Days of Elijah Day 15

Greetings!

It's a cool, damp evening here in Elijah's city, but nearly as "cool" as back home where the overnight low's are below zero. Brrr....Maybe I'll just stay here instead of going home. Ha! Just kidding! :-)

So, really there is not too much new Elijah news. He continues to be a little more excited to see me each day, so that's good. Not that I need the ego boost (well, maybe I do), but it shows he is learning to recognize me and hopefully start bonding to me. Tonight though, he impressed the "grumpy nanny" (I really should be nicer - she did smile a few times today) "nanny in charge" with how he signed Mama as soon as he saw me. Frankly, I was impressed too. That's the first time he's done it. I showed her the difference between mama and papa, and then he signed papa too. He hadn't been doing that as much lately, so that was good to see too. The past week, he would sign mama, but say "pa pa pa" and look at the door, so I knew what he meant. The nannies then were talking in Russian about mama and papa, so who knows what they were talking about. :-) (Click here if you want to see the correct sign for mom and dad. Oh, and I'm not sure I explicitly said this before but mama/papa are pronounced the same way in English and Russian. That makes it easy for all of us!) ANYWAY...every little step for the little guy counts!

Oh, I brought in my (borrowed) Ergo in this morning to try him in it. My thought is to use this to get him through the airports instead of a stroller. It took him a little bit to get used to it, but he did alright in it. He snuggled in for a little bit, so that was an added bonus. Since he's only 20 pounds, I'll keep him in front. I can control his hands better that way. (Read that to say I'm afraid he'll pull my hair if he's in back. :-)) It was perfectly comfortable for me. Next time, hopefully his diaper won't be as "gooshy" and he'll be more comfortable too.

Another little step...this morning, he sat on my lap for almost an half an hour looking at our photo album. I said the kids' names over and over again, and I think he is starting to get some of them. I asked him to point to them one-by-one and he got half of them right! He even started giving his sisters some smooches too. :-)

Tonight, I brought the laptop in again and watched part of a new Baby Signing Times DVD. He likes and does (sorta) the sign for airplane, esp since I make it really big with sound effects. Ok, I just looked and I guess I'm doing "fly" instead of airplane. He doesn't care though! Hopefully, he'll like the actual flying as much as doing the sign.

Guess that's about it for Elijah news. Amazing how I can ramble on about nothing, isn't it? LOL

Oh, last night, I went to church at 5:30. I just left my visit a little early and took the bus there. Anyway, this church has a ministry to the deaf, so we worshipped in all 3 languages. It was pretty cool. Well, I guess I was the only one singing Christmas carols in English, but the pastor preached in English and it was translated for the congregation. I was a little surprised how hard it was to stay with the music when everyone else is singing in a different language, even with very familar Christmas songs. Then, I went out to eat at Cafe Kredo (yum!) with one of the missionary families. They have 4 kids - ages 9-16 - and homeschool as well, so we had a nice visit. I was able to tell them about the Sonlight curriculum that we use.

And I supposed you want pictures. I seriously only took 2 this morning and that's it!



Pretty content on the couch today. Thanks to Mel for the inspiration to bring "Leap" the frog along. He's getting to enjoy it a bit more each day. (It sings the ABC song.)



It's hard to tell here, but this chair's cushion goes way down in the back right corner. We never dared sit in it. I'd probably never get out again! He likes to throw his toys back there.