Life with Elijah

Yep, this picture pretty much sums up what it is like to live with my full-on little man!  He does everything 120%, both the good and the ugly.  There is literally never a dull moment when he is around, and he brings out much laughter and many heart-attacks.  Just today we were at a pool celebrating both America's and David's birthday, when for the 27th time I lost track of Elijah.  I yelled across the pool to Jeff, "Do you know where Elijah is?".  When my friend laughed at my slightly panicked expression, I informed her that I end up asking that question approximately every 20 minutes all day long.  And that boy is FAST!  Seriously, nobody should be allowed to move that quickly who has such poor impulse control.

Here are two recent stories that highlight the joy it is to have a little boy like Elijah in our home.  The first happened just a couple of days ago when Elijah decided to go poo on our dining area floor instead of the potty (both boys spend most of their time at home with naked bottoms since they use the toilet much more consistently that way).  I walked into the room to see a large and stinky deposit on the floor and the bottom half of Elijah covered in mess.  I quickly scooped him up and set him on the bathroom floor when the doorbell rang.  It was three men who had arrived to check our gas meter.  All three of my kids were completely naked and the pile of poo was not more than 2 feet from them, so all I could think to do was grab a towel, throw it over the pile, and pretend there was nothing unusual happening.  While I was on the phone with Jeff asking where our gas card was located, Elijah decided to run back into the room to say hello to everyone (he can't ever pass up a chance to be mr. social) and the poor gas meter man who was in the house had to try and dodge a very unpleasant attempt at a hug.

The second fun adventure with Elijah was on stage at church for David's dedication.  We made the last-minute and fool-hardy decision to take our whole family up front for the dedication time during those nostalgic and naive moments where we thought about how sweet it would be to have the whole family together.  So Jeff is holding David and I am holding Elijah.  In less than 10 seconds he is squirming and asking to stand by himself.  I whisper urgently, "If I put you down, do you promise to stay right next to mama?"  "Yes", he replies, and like a complete moron I decide to believe him.  Of course in no time flat he has started to wander across the back of the stage and I am trying to subtly (in front of 400 people) move slowly after him.  As soon as he realizes he's being followed, he breaks into a full-out sprint across and off the stage (did I mention he's fast?).  So I have to give up all pretense of calmness and go sprinting after him lest he actually makes it out of the sanctuary.

Once he is retrieved, I haul him back on stage and vow to not put him down for anything.  In another moment of mama brain lapse, I put on a bright smile and whisper to him as he screeches and squirms, "Do you want to tickle mama?"  Instead of tickling me, he begins to swat vigorously at my face and I hear gasps of surprised amusement from both the congregation and the pastor.  At this point I am desperately wishing I had brought a roll of duct tape to tie him up because I could get away with it and no one would think badly of me for doing it.  But instead I find the pacifier and he magically decides to snuggle down happily on my shoulder.  That's my boy.  Slapping one minute and snuggling the next.  As we climb down off the stage, I smile at Jeff and say, "Yep, we are officially 'that family'".  You know, the one that makes everyone else feel better about their kids, because no matter what else they did that day, at least they didn't run away and then slap their mom in front of 400 people.  You can view a part of the service on youtube courtesy of the other family having their son dedicated at the same time at http://youtu.be/ZBRKLfwEIRY   Yep, it includes both the escape and the slap.

I love that kid with all my heart!