1 Year Old!!!

It is almost impossible to believe that Elijah has been in our lives for a year already. The time has flown by yet it seems like forever ago that Nick and I were waking up every 2 hours through the night to feed Elijah and change his diaper. It has been a great year and before we know it we will be sending Elijah off to college. It seems like he is developing leaps and bounds every week. He is now proficient at crawling and standing with the aid of furniture. His vocabulary is pretty extensive. He loves to say "ball" and "bye". Grandpa Houvener taught Elijah to say "light" when he visited them in Midland for a weekend. He also loves to say "daddy" and "balloon". He also imitates the cats meowing and Delia barking. And he will imitate noises that we make like if we throw a ball and say "boom" he will do it too. He is also imitating motions, we are trying to teach him the sign for more so when he wants more food he signs instead of whining.

Elijah successfully made it through two birthday parties. His first was in Midland at Grandpa and Grandma Houvener's. His aunts and uncles, grandparents, and great grandparents attended. His Grandma Houvener made him a Backyardigans birthday cake that was really cute. He didn't really know what to do with it. Most of it ended up on the floor. Elijah was also more interested in playing with the birthday cards instead of opening presents. He got some cloths and books. Also, a kit to make his own stepping stone and artwork. And of course he got some toys too. He got a really cool baseball mit chair and baseball ottoman from Grandpa and Grandma Goodman. We are excited to get a new house where Elijah can have his own room to put his chair in.

The second party was at our house in Kalamazoo. Friends and some family that are in Kalamazoo attended. It was only a week later than the other party but Elijah improved a lot in his cake eating skills. He ate most of his piece and was covered in frosting. He loved it! He also improved in his present unwrapping skills. He got lots of toys and made the cutest face when he got a huge stuffed elephant from Benjamin.

On his actual birthday Elijah got to go to the doctors and get his vaccinations. He was not to happy about that. The doctor said he is looking good. He is in the 50th percentile for his weight at 23 pounds. I thought that was light but I guess not. I have always been really paranoid about his weight since our scare at 4 months when he hadn't gained any weight since 2 months. He is also 30 inches tall. Already 2 1/2 feet! That is the 67th percentile for his height. My prediction is he will be tall like the Burlews. We are also working on weaning him off the bottle and just giving him milk. We were having an issue with getting Elijah to drink out of a sippy cup so the pediatrician suggested we try a straw. So we bought some children cups with straws and Elijah started drinking from them right away, no issues. After the doctors appointment we went to Babies R Us and get a new big boy car seat. Elijah loves it and is so stinking adorable in it!!! Every time you look back at him when we are riding in the car he giggles and smiles.

The helmet is now only worn at nap time and bed time. When Elijah had his appointment in July his head had improved another 2mm. So now he is at a 4mm difference. We wanted to just stop the wearing of the helmet but we decided we would try to get a little more improvement with just having Elijah wear the helmet while sleeping. He has an appointment mid August. If there is a change, great, if not that is okay too. Either way we will have him stop wearing it after his next appointment. He has already made such a drastic improvement and 4mm is such a small difference that on an adult head it won't even be noticeable.