More Christmas Gifts- The Playcenter

For Christmas this year Nana and Papa got a slide/swing/basketball goal playcenter for Elijah, and he has had non-stop fun playing on it since the morning he saw it! We ordered the playcenter from Taobao which is like a Chinese Ebay, and we were surprised by the excellent quality of the product we received. Almost daily, we take Elijah downstairs to our little playroom area in our business office, and he has the time of his life. This Saturday morning we have invited one of his friends to come play with him on his little playcenter which should be so much fun!

Elijah loves to ride this little horsey! He is such a perfect cowboy in training.

We have a up and coming basketball star!

The slide is super fun. When he makes it to the floor he keeps sliding right out the door!

And the swing...this is actually Elijah's first time to ever swing as we have never seen a swingset anywhere here. He didn't know what to think of it at first, but he loves it now!

More Christmas Gifts- The Car

For Christmas Gigi and Pops gave Elijah his very own car, and he was absolutely thrilled about it! It is a Mickey Mouse car that looks like a mini-Volkswagen bug which is so cute. The really cool thing about it is that it came with a remote control so he can ride in it while we drive it around for him. He has learned that he can switch the remote control part off and drive it himself, but he is still a little "cared" to do this on his own, or so he says.

The car's current home is on our business office which is in the apartment right below ours, and everytime we pass by the apartment in the stairwell, Elijah exclaims, "Che che!", which is the Chinese word for car, signifying to us that he is well aware of the exact location of his treasured car, and that he wants us to let him ride in it as soon as humanly possible.

This has truly been such a fun gift for all of us!

Cheesetoast and Hot Cocoa- YUMMY!

Ever since I was a little girl, I have fond memories of a breakfast tradition that took place at my Nana and Papa's house- cheesetoast and hot cocoa. I often remember walking in the kitchen to see a baking sheet full of buttered bread slices topped with delicious sharp cheddar baked to perfection. And beside it on the stove was a large pot of steaming homemade hot cocoa. It was not these two wonderful things alone that got me excited but rather the anticipation of how they were to be eaten- the cheese toast dipped in the hot cocoa first and then heartily enjoyed. So I have passed this tradition onto my family as well. All balk at first, but David soon discovered this little oddity created a delicacy not to be missed. This Christmas Eve morning Elijah was invited to join us in the dipping frenzy which he much enjoyed. I'm afraid though we may have created a little dipping monster as he no longer wishes to eat his cheese toast without hot cocoa "dip" alongside!

Gingerbread Cookies with MeiLi's Family

During Christmas week, we had our helper and her family over for dinner to celebrate this Advent season with them. After dinner we decorated gingerbread cookies which they had never done before, and which her son really enjoyed!

Elijah offering his cookie to daddy.

Elijah loves this family! He cries everytime they have to go home.

Elijah and "GeGe" as he calls him. You cannot see it, but they are holding hands in this picture. Elijah cried when he had to let go of GeGe's hand.

Our Family Christmas- Christmas Eve

So this year, we decided to change things up a bit according to some new convictions and ideas we have about Christmas traditions- desiring that our traditions would strengthen our faith and help us love Jesus more.

Thus, we decided to give and receive family gifts on Christmas Eve. This is in part, an attempt to allow all of our attentions and devotions to be on Christ on Christmas day. So on Christmas Eve morning Elijah woke up and was so excited about the wonderful gifts that were given to him- not that they were deserved, but that because we have been richly blessed by God with him and with so much, we want to bless him as well with these gifts expressing our love for him.

Waking up and walking into see his car garage. He really loved it. His favorite thing is to press all the buttons that make little car noises. After realizing what this toy was, he ran to his bedroom, pulled out all of his cars, and with arms full carried them back into the living room to play with them in the garage. It was precious.

Elijah also got a little talking phone from MawMaw (David's grandmother) which was quite possibly his favorite gift of the morning. He had played with this toy at a friend's home so I knew he would love it. He has been "talking" on the phone non-stop since Christmas day and especially loves all the sounds the animals make!

Elijah also got a little barn that makes animal noises. This is definitely another thing that he just loves. He loves animals, singing "Old McDonald", and tractors so this toy was right up his alley.

Elijah also got a little chair of his very own. He spends a lot of time in this chair just sitting and looking at books which is really sweet.

More Cuteness...

This is just such a fun stage of parenting, and I just love all the ways Elijah makes me smile, laugh, and love better.

• We live on the 5th floor, and at night our stairwells are really dark, BUT if you make a loud noise, like clapping or yelling, the lights automatically come on. So for a long time, when I carry Elijah up the stairs, I often yell "whoo" to get the lights to come on. Well, Elijah caught on to what I was doing, and now everytime we walk up or down any stairwell, day or night, Elijah starts yelling "whoo". It is so funny. And just last night, we walked into our apartment, and it was dark, and Elijah started walking around the apartment yelling "whoo" to get the lights to come on. So cute.


• Elijah is really mimicking a lot of what we say which is really fun. I often say to him "please choose to obey mommy", to which he responds "bay". I also often tell him to "please use your words" instead of whining to which he responds, "words".


• He is really perceptive about where we are in town and what else is near there. For example, anytime I take him for a walk near his friend Roman's neighborhood he immediately begins calling out "Moman!" Or when we drive near the stadium in town he exclaims "Ship!" as this is where the pirate ship playplace is. He also knows exactly where every single riding lamb (it's a little cartoon character that you can sit on and ride for 1 yuan) is in town. Every time we pass one he yells out something that I cannot understand, but which I assume must be his own language for "lamb ride".


• He is "singing" a lot these days- mostly his own made up tunes, but sometimes ones that will sound vaguely familiar with ones we often sing. My favorite is to hear a word inserted mid-tune that lets me know what he is singing about but that just seems odd...like "cream".

Daddy and His Buddy

Christmas Party for Friends

We had a little party for a few of our closest Chinese friends to celebrate this Advent season. We had chili (our friends each ate 2-3 bowls!), rice, cornbread, and lots of cookies and snacks for dessert. We all had a wonderful time talking and sharing, and we even got a few cute pics along the way.

Our friends- ZW, LP, J, YT, and EH.

This is one of Elijah's favorite people- YT. She is so sweet to him and really seems to love him so much. He always smiles and laughs when she is around.

This is Elijah's little friend- EH. She is 3 years old (which she is showing us with her fingers). She is always really shy around us, but opens up completely with Elijah which is really sweet.

Baking Cookies...

Well, I finally got the chance to do something with Elijah that I have always longed to do with my children... bake and decorate sugar cookies. He loved playing with the dough, sprinkling the flour, rolling out the dough (though he mostly just hit the dough with the rolling pin), cutting out the cookies (and putting little fingerprints in them for me), and watching them bake. I am thinking that since he was such a good helper, I just might have to put him to work on dinner tonight!

Patting the dough and posing for a picture.

Rolling out the dough.

Realizing that the dough was still a little too sticky so sprinkling some flour in.

Cutting the cookies.

We made all shapes of round cookies so that they'd fit perfectly in the little gift boxes we found.

Lifting the cookies off the counter to put onto the baking sheets.

Cute Things Elijah is Saying and Doing

So Elijah has been doing and saying some of the cutest things recently.

• When he wants to do something by himself he proclaims over and over "ziji" which is the Chinese word for "myself".
• When he puts something back where it belongs or puts the right block through the right hole on a toy, he exclaims "yea!". I'm sure he picked this up because I am always saying "yea!" to him when he does things well.
• He still struggles with certain sounds: "f", "l", and "w". Thus, "fan" becomes "dan", "light" becomes "deng" (actually this is the Chinese word for light), and "water" still remains "ma-mer".
• He calls out "mama" all day everyday and then when I respond to him he begins talking to me in lots of jibberish which seems to make perfect sense to him.
• One word he can say absolutely perfectly every single time is "cookie". Go figure!
• He loves to crow like a rooster (he hears them all day from the patio below our apartment).
• As can be expected he often confuses Chinese words and English words which makes it difficult for us to know exactly what he is trying to say at all times, but which encourages us to know that he will someday be bi-lingual.
• He shouts out "Jesus" randomly and always joins us in saying "Amen" at the end of prayer times.

Now for one of the cutest things he is doing right now...

Christmas Pics...take 1

In an effort to make up for last year's lack-o-pictures we have taken lots of Christmas pictures so far this year. Here is a sampling of the first batch. More to come soon!

Our little man just clowning around! He loves to roll all around on our chairs and couches!

Giving Christmas shoogs!


Look at that sweet little angel.

Making Ornaments

This year was our first as a family to attend the annual Christmas fair in city about 4 hours from us. There were so many wonderful things there that really reminded us of Christmas- people singing Christmas songs, handmade things to buy for gifts, samples of coffees and candies, and wonderful friends. While we were there, we made sure to stop by the kid's craft center to make ornaments. Elijah made a pretty star and tree (though we somehow lost the tree on the way home). He actually seemed to enjoy making the ornaments and I, of course, had fun doing that little activity with him. I am saving the star for a children's tree that we will hopefully start doing in the future (once we have more ornaments made by our sweet children to adorn the branches). Until then, we will keep crafting together!

The Sweet Smell of Christmas

When I was a little girl, there was a delightful little book that I just loved to read, and sniff! It was my favorite. Now, Elijah is enjoying reading and sniffing his very own copy of this sweet story- The Sweet Smell of Christmas. Almost every night without fail when I ask him to pick out a book to read before bed, he walks over to the bookshelf and pulls off this little book, saying "smell" as he carries it over to our reading chair. He sits in my lap, drinks his bedtime milk, and waits eagerly for the smells to come up page by page. There are several unique smells, but his favorite seems to be the hot chocolate. It is really so fun to see him enjoying the same things I did and to kind of relive my childhood through him.

Big Shoes to Fill

So Elijah is at the stage where he loves to try on everyone's shoes and try to walk around the house in them. He gets frustrated at times because his feet slip out of the shoes, and sometimes he falls down because, well that's what happens when you wear shoes that are 12 sizes too large! Mostly, he has tons of fun and makes us laugh in the process.

The other fettish at the moment is his toothbrush which you can see in his hand. He gets up on his tippee toes and reaches his little hand in my bathroom drawer to retreive his toothbrush. Then he proceeds to carry it around all day, everywhere saying "teeeees". So cute.

Reading is where it's at!

Elijah has really come to enjoy reading which we are so thrilled about. We have been reading to him since before he was born so I guess it should come as no surprise that he would take an interest. Recently, he has started going in his room and choosing some books to read all by himself. He usually pulls out a book at random, but these past few days he has been getting all of his holiday books out (Valentines, Christmas, etc.). I guess he is just as eager for Thanksgiving and Christmas to come as we are!

Like Father...Like Son

Morning Mischief!

We started room time with Elijah a while back, and it goes differently at different times. Sometimes he cries (A LOT) about having to play by himself in his room, and sometimes he sits and reads and really seems to enjoy himself. Yesterday, he was very quite during his room time, so after a few minutes I decided to peek in to see what he was doing. This little video shows how much mischief my little angel can get into in just minutes! He is such a mess!

Pooh Bear 'Brella

Nana bought cute little umbrellas for each of the grandkids: Xander got Mickey Mouse, Kylie got Princesses, and Elijah got Pooh Bear. From the moment I walked in the door with the umbrella until now, he has not put it down. He loves loves loves it! He takes it everywhere, getting stuck in all the doorways, and loves to play peekaboo with it. Thanks Nana for the fun prize!

Let's Tidy Up!

When we visited a friend, Elijah spent endless amounts of time pushing a little doll stroller around thier house. Since he enjoyed it so much, I decided to get him something to push around our house too. Knowing that every man needs to know how to clean house, I opted for a cute little vacuum cleaner that sings, talks, and even makes vacuum sounds. He just loves it!

Nana Comes for a Visit!

Elijah and Nana ride the choo-choo train round and round the tracks. He absolutley loved this!

Elijah sits high on Nana's shoulders to try to touch the leaves.

Elijah and Nana had such fun playing in the ball pit! Thank you Nana for all of the wonderful memories. We miss you so much and love you immensely!

Peekaboo!

Our First Refrigerator Art

Mama's Heat...

Recently, I got a new bike so that I could take Elijah with me on errands around town. We have loved riding together nearly every day, and especially love our family rides to the lake.

On a side note, I love to give everything a name, just to make it more interesting. Thus, my fiery orange bicycle is properly named "Mama's Heat"!

Dipping Pitas in... Hummus and Baba Ghanoush!

Last weekend we had a wonderful Mediterranean meal with lots of delicious dips. I made hummus, baba ghanoush, and tzatziki which I was just sure Elijah would turn his nose up at. However, he surprised us by how much he really liked it. He saw us dipping our pita bread into the dips, and he wanted to try it too. Soon, he was hooked. You can see that most of the dip ended up on his hands and face, but he sure did have a lot of fun!

Elijah's First Train Ride

This past weekend, I took Elijah on his first train ride. The ride was just under 2 hours, and though it was a little crowded and hot, he really seemed to enjoy it. As usual, Elijah made lots of new friends along the way, and by the end of the ride, he had stolen the hearts of pretty much everyone around.

Room Rearrange

This past week, we had to lower Elijah's crib down to the lowest rung since he was attempting to climb out of it, and is definitely capable of doing so. So in doing that, I lost the last little bit of under-the-crib storage space I had, and had to come up with a new solution. I had brought a little infant-care cart from the States, and decided to put it together to store the extra things. Then came the dilemna of where to place the cart so we shuffled some things around a bit, and ended up moving the little toy trunk in front of the window. In no time at all, Elijah had climbed on the little trunk and proceded to read a book. It reminded me so much of pictures I have of myself when I was a little girl- sitting and reading all by myself. So sweet.

Learning Time Fun

Several times each week, I do "learning time" with Elijah. I get ideas from lots of places, but my favorite is a book I have called Slow and Steady: Get Me Ready which has a new learning activity for every week of a child's life from age 0 to 5.

Elijah really seems to enjoy the activities we do, and I can see that he really does learn a lot of new things through these times. This past week one of our activities was learning about textures and how to scoop things up and fill up containers. We made a big mess, but we had so much fun and hopefully learned some things along the way.

Dancing Machine!

Elijah has become quite the dancing machine! If he hears any music at all (and sometimes even when he doesn't have music) he will just start randomly dancing. His latest move is "the spin" which you can watch him perfecting in the little clip below.

In The Village- Throwing A Rock

A Fun Weekend

This past weekend some dear friends of ours came to visit with their two boys, and we had such a wonderful time. We played outside a lot, went to the park for a picnic, went swimming at the pool, and spent lots of time just hanging out together. Elijah really enjoyed playing with their boys, and was thoroughly worn out at the end of each day. It was such a memorable weekend.

Dancing Machine!

As promised... a video of Elijah doing his little jig. He is hilarious!

My Sweet 15-Month Old Boy!

Elijah at 15 months- 27.5 pounds (83%) and 32.5 inches (83%)

Wearing 18-month clothes and size 5 shoes

Out of all of the stages of Elijah's precious life so far this is definitely my favorite. I love all of the things Elijah is able to do at this stage: walk (almost run), climb (he mostly loves to climb on the couches), dance (I absolutely must post a video of this!), talk (his favorite words to say are "night-night", "baw" (translated "ball"), "boo" (translated "book"), "baa" (he says this when the water is running for his nightly bath), "milk" (which sounds more like "mo"), "moo" (the sound he makes when he sees a cow), "doe" (this is his prounciation of "dog")) , sign
"please", "more", "all-done" and "milk", play by himself, "read" books (he just sits in our laps or by himself on the floor with a book and flips through the pages talking to himself in his little baby language), hug, wave to everyone (he used to only wave bye-bye, but now he waves every time he sees someone), motion for something he wants, and laugh with us (and sometimes at us).

He still does not like to "give shoogs". In fact, every time I ask him if he would like to give me a shoog he shakes his head "no"- makes me laugh every time. He does not like to be told "no" though he is fairly obedient when we do correct him. He is still very cautious (he slipped on a freshly mopped floor in our kitchen, and now anytime he sees even a drop of water he will stand completely still and call for us until we wipe up the water!) and not as curious as most children his age.

He absolutely loves the outdoors. Every time someone walks out the door he holds his little hand up to signal to me that he wants to go too. As soon as I tell him that we are going for a walk, he runs to the door to get his shoes on! Once we are out, it is a fight to get him back in. This is of course because one of our neighbors always wants to hold him when they see him, and then he works his magic on them, and they ask me to let him stay out a little longer so they can take him to see one of their friends. In the end, the mommy wins, and I bring Elijah in, but it is not an easy battle.

He loves choo-choo trains. He has several train books, and they are his favorites. He has a little toy train that he can push, and one that he can ride, and he always wants to play with those. Just today he was looking through his train book saying "choo-choo" and "whoo-whoo" which are the very sounds we make with him when we are playing with the trains.

Elijah is still an incredible sleeper. At 15 months he still takes two 2-hr naps in the day and sleeps 12 hours at night! Can that continue forever?

He has gone through kind of a selective eating phase recently and will only eat a few bites of anything before he says he is done. I think this is mostly due to the fact that he drinks about 1.5 quarts of milk each day. Is this normal? I think we are going to cut back on the milk a little and see if his eating will pick up again. I'm not stressed about it at all though as he is a "xiao pangzi" (little chub), and because I give him vitamins everyday.

Elijah, you are such a joy to me, and I am so thankful for the amazing privilege of being your mother. I love you.

David's 31st Birthday!

David turned 31 this past Wednesday, and we are at the end our our week-long birthday celebration- that is how we do things around the Patrick house.

On Wednesday morning I made David a birthday breakfast with french toast, bacon, and homemade applesauce. Then he got to open all of his wonderful presents. His favorites? The Life videos by BBC, lots of new books, and gift cards. David worked for the morning, and I took Elijah to Wal-Mart to do our grocery shopping. Let me just stop here for a moment to say that taking him to WM is a lot less convenient than it used to be now that he sees things that he wants (like any kind of ball) and knows how to ask for it (we tought him how to say "please" in sign language... can you unteach that?). So I went up and down the aisles getting toiletries and groceries to the consistent tune of Elijah calling out for things and then rubbing his tummy in a circle (the sign for "please").

The birthday celebration continued at dinner with a couple of dear friends who we invited to share the occasion with us. David grilled steak and shrimp, and I whipped up roasted garlic mashed potatoes (I absolutely loved roasting the garlic, and it was so delicious), ceaser salad, baked stuffed tomatoes (my dad's original idea) and garlic bread. For the birthday cake we had Boston Cream Pie (quite possibly my new favorite cake). We all had a wonderful time, and David had a great birthday.

Then for the finale, David and a bunch of other guys went on a birthday hike. They all came home so worn out, but having had such a great time.

So happy birthday to my sweet husband. I love you so very much!

The Pool

Just to finish up the posts from Thailand...

Elijah absolutely loved the pool. In fact, he cried when we took him out of it. Every time he awoke from his naps, he immediately began begging to go to the pool. We are so thrilled that he has finally come to love the pool, especially after his initial loathing of it.

Elijah striking a pool pose.

The Beach

Elijah loved walking up and down the beach in the warm water.

Elijah and mommy with the sun to our backs.

Love those footprints.

Enjoying the first time in the ocean.

The Outdoor Shower

While we were in Thailand to take care of some medical needs, we decided to take a few days as a family to rest, refresh, and restore together. We had a wonderful time at a resort on a private beach. We spent time swimming, napping, eating, and just being together. We realized that we have not taken a family vacation like that ever that we know of, and we decided we definitely want to do it more often. Elijah had so much fun with lots of new experiences. One of his favorite "new" things to do was play in the outdoor shower. Each time we would come up from the beach to the pool, he would always reach his arm out, point to the shower, and make some grunting noises to signify that he wanted to play in the water. The first time he got in, he was a little afraid, but after a few minutes he was hooked. These pictures and videos are just precious!

Ebelskivers

For my birthday, David gave me a really fun gift set that included a recipe book, pan, and mix for Ebelskivers. An ebelskiver comes from Denmark and is like a little spherical pancake that has a filling inside. They are really fun to make and really delicious to eat! So for our first try we made vanilla ebelskivers filled with blackberries. We all enjoyed them so much.