Here's a summary of things that Elliot is passionate about.
Shoes. His shoes, mom's shoes, all shoes are good shoes. He will go to the shoe box when you tell him to get his shoes- it's one of the first words he understood.
Demonstrating his shoe love
Very baffled when he saw his shoes on display at walmart.
Legos! His Lego train is definitely his favorite toy. He can play with it for HOURS.
Climbing on furniture and pushing buttons. He somehow accessed the projector advanced menu and it took us a while to figure out how to fix it.
Stuffing more food into his mouth than actually fits
Staring at other kids
Drinking from the big straw cup
These splendid rings can be chucked across the room, stacked, or worn as colorful accessories
Fulfilling his civic duty
The grate is the most fun part of the park, although the slide is more and more fun
He is almost always happy when he's outside. Let's see how true that is once we pass 100 degrees.
Sharing, aka "forcing my goldfish into other people's mouths"
Elliot took his first steps on April 18th. That put him 2 days shy of 16 months.
He has been standing up on things for a while now, but this kid definitely takes his time with things. He started standing unsupported a few weeks earlier, but would never do it on command. If we tried to get him to do it, he would bend his knees and flop right down. Walking is shaping up to be the same. We can occasionally get him to play the "walk back and forth between mommy and daddy while they applaud wildly" game, but usually he has to instigate it for it to work.
He is walking more and more, but still short distances. The best part is that when he walks to someone, he ends it with a complete trust fall/swan dive/tackle hug. Then he'll pull away to clap for himself.
Walking practice with Aaron and Benjamin
Reminds me of an old-west duel. Especially since Benjamin's tagline is "Hey, Partner" in his gruff voice.
Standing by a fountain
People keep telling me that he's going to get into all sorts of trouble when he starts to walk, but I don't know if that's true. He is a super speedy crawler and an accomplished climber, so walking won't let let him go anywhere he hasn't already gotten into. He just collects more head wounds from falls now.
Elliot & Andrew have a symbiotic relationship where Elliot loves watching other kids and Andrew loves attention. He would always make sure Elliot was watching before doing something cool.
Highly entertaining activities for the both of them
I walked in on this. I hope my kids love reading as much as their cousins do!
Elliot got mildly jealous of Eli at one point.
sizing up the competition
"I can totally lie on a blanket like a newborn!"
After this it quickly deteriorated to the point where I had to rescue Eli from Elliot rolling on top of him
Rebekah made this in school a while back. I'm so glad that I married into a family where I get to be an aunt!
Now for the highlight of the trip: Benjamin's birthday party! It was Spiderman/Star Wars/Inside Out themed. A true recipe for success.
The new 3 year old steps up for the first swing at the pinata
I feel kind of bad about this one. I caught a big ol' grasshopper in the back yard and put it on Elliot's leg to see how he would react. The grasshopper must have been already injured or old or something, because Elliot managed to pick it up and proceeded to throw repeatedly on the ground.
Checking out his bug
His standard "look at this mom" pose
He was in his serious mode that he goes into when checking out something new
Let's just say that the grasshopper wasn't in great shape when I eventually took it away from Elliot. I don't think he realized it was alive.
When not playing in the gravel, Elliot likes to push around his lion thing that mysteriously stops and starts making sounds. We thought the battery was long dead, but it somehow started working again for one day, then died again. Weird.
Elliot with his lion walker
Cracking up because it was playing music when he pushed the nose
This one has been our favorite lately. We frequently watch it before going to bed at night.
He just says it so cute! I love how his lips purse out.
This is very typical of Elliot lately. His favorite thing has shifted from 'cords, especially ones plugged into outlets' to 'buttons of all varieties, but especially the power strip off button that makes mom reset the clock on her nightstand.' He frequents this room to turn the monitor off and on.
Here's some typical playing and chatting in his bedroom:
I found this curtain rod box when cleaning out a closet. It has become one of Elliot's favorite toys. It is usually propped up on the bookshelf so that he can drop cars and other small objects down the slide.
Our Stake Activity this weekend had a petting zoo! Honestly, Aaron and I were more excited about seeing Elliot interact with the animals than Elliot turned out to be. We were surprised because he really likes petting our friends' dogs.
He did not appreciate being shoved towards a goat
Hand curled to avoid contact
Checking out a nice sheep
Being intimidated by another goat
Elliot quickly decided that the hay was way more interesting and fun to play with than the animals
He made an exception for the tortoise that all but crawled into him. He gave the tortoise a few pats.
Facing down a pig
He got a bath after because his whole body smelled like hay
