Majesty Elijah

The day all of Elijah's dreams came true!

Al and Mika, both right next to him!

And not even running away!

And then it got EVEN BETTER:

Mika LET HIM FEED HER.

I was amazed. 

So was Cate.

With Aaron back to homeschooling again, our old co-op graciously let us rejoin (hooray!). Elijah doesn't love it, but he'll go to class when Tessa is teaching. She may have to bribe him with fruit snacks, but he will go!

Preschool class with Miss Tessa

My older boys love to play war games with our tangrams and our plastic cubes from Grandma Sara. She bought them for us to use to teach math, but they are mostly used to wage war. One morning Elijah asked for the cubes and shapes and put together his own campaign. He even made me take a video to send to Seth. 

And, in a fun development, Elijah has started drawing/writing!

He'll grab a piece of paper and a pen or marker, then fill an entire page with doodles:

Other Elijah things:

-His preschool teacher, Miss Kathy, is super fun and will sometimes greet the kids at the door dressed up in a costume. One week it was the Cat in the Hat. Elijah was very, very nervous. He didn't take his eyes off of her from the moment he got out of the car. He also gave her a wide berth as he walked in. She thinks it's hilarious. 

-Speaking of preschool, Elijah hates it. But not really. What he actually hates is getting off of screens in order to go to preschool. Once he's there he has a blast. So we have implemented a 'no screens before preschool' rule. And if he throws a fit about screens, he loses them for the day. Doesn't seem to be quite as effective as I'd hoped, but we're trying.

-One day after putting on his shoes: "I'm all shoey! I'm ready go outside!"

-Elijah LOVES music, deep in his soul. None of my other kids have been like this. We'll have music playing on Google and he'll just sit in the recliner, listening. It's almost like he's in a trance. This is one of the best ways to get him to calm down when he's upset: just turn on some interesting music on Google and he will be enthralled. 

-In the afternoons Jon & I try to talk a walk together, which means Elijah has to come in the stroller. He doesn't love this tradition since it tends to interfere with his screen time. But he goes. One day when I told him to get ready for a walk, I heard him singing to himself, "Who's going to go on a walk? Not me! Not me!" He went anyway. 

-Elijah doesn't want to be called Stinky anymore. I asked what we should call him instead. The answer was "Majesty Elijah Mark Blood." Well then. 

Hard to believe he's almost four!