Notables

There are a few new developments in Elias' world that I thought I'd share all in one post.

Talking
Elias isn't talking yet, but he's starting to become a little more intelligible in his babbling. He'll say "bye bye" and "dada." (Of course he says dada first! He'll say the syllables mama, but he doesn't know it's me yet, I don't think.) He even says "Bye bye, Dada!" He'll say "Ah da," which means all done. He'll say his version of his name, which is "Issssss." (CUTE!) He'll say ball ("ba"). And he says "ba ba" which means about a zillion different things, but usually it means "big boy."

Edited to add: I knew there was no way I was remembering all the things Elias says, so with Justin's help I've come up with a few more. Some other things he consistently says "ba ba" for are Bible and bottle. I was actually very impressed this morning when Elias finished his breakfast, and Justin took him over to play. Justin asked him if he wanted to read a story, and Elias said "ba ba!" He knew they usually read his Bible then! He also loves to mimic the "sh" sound, so he'll repeat any word that ends in "ish" like fish, dish, or wish. He loves to draw out the shhhhhhhh. And lastly, he can do several animal sounds when asked what that animal says - "woof," "baa," "raa" (lion), "moo," and he even said something resembling "quack" the other day!

Napping
He's still taking two naps a day, and it will still be several months before he's down to one in the afternoon. However, I'm concerned about this transition because right now his strong nap is in the morning, and his afternoon nap is hit-and-miss. So I'm trying to be proactive in planning for this by limiting his morning nap so that he's tired in time for the afternoon. It's working pretty well so far! In the morning, I try to wake him up after he's been asleep about an hour. (If I let him be, he'd sleep 2 or 2.5.) So then by the time his afternoon nap rolls around, he's tired again and ready to nap, and we get another 2 or 2.5 out of him. Sweet! I'm so thankful for such a good sleeper. (Thank you again and again, Babywise!)

Teething
He FINALLY has his sixth tooth (top left)! And his seventh, eighth, and ninth, are all making bumps in there! For a kid who's doing so much teething, it doesn't seem to bother him at all, for which I am truly thankful. It seems like his top left molar is on its way in, so we'll see how that goes.

So those are the big developments for us these days. Stay tuned!