14 months

Okay so I was going to do everything in one big post but the other one had way too many pictures and was getting kind of long so I decided to split them up.

I know I say this every time but Eliel amazes me each and every day.  Lately, he is becoming more and more like a toddler.  He doesn't use bottles anymore, drinks from a sippy cup on his own, and even requests different things to drink (milk or water) using sign language.  His use of sign language is incredible and has definitely been worth all the training.  It has alleviated many tantrums and time spent guessing what's wrong or what he wants. Eliel can now sign when his diaper is dirty (fairly reliable although sometimes he's still dry).  He can also sign nap, t.v., blanket and pacifier. 

Eliel knows where the DVD's are and how to put on in the player if I hand it to him.  He will even push the player closed!  If you ask him to go get his shoes on, he will go to the coat closet, get his shoes and meet you at the back door.  The only problem is you have about 30 seconds to meet him there before he voices his frustration of waiting for you! :)  You can tell Eliel to put a toy away and about 75% of the time, he will put it back where it belongs.  Other times, he will just drop it right where he is standing.  We still don't have child locks on our cabinets and I'm guessing we won't need to have any.  Eliel knows which cabinets he's allowed in and he even knows which items he's allowed to play with inside those cabinets.  In the event he opens one he shouldn't be in, he will close it as soon as you ask him to.  I honestly didn't think he could learn to distinguish things like that so well so fast.... he must be gifted! :P

 The one thing Eliel has learned to love is the outdoors.  Once he goes out, it's hard to get him back in.  He loves putting on his 'outside shoes' and stomping around on the porch.  He enjoys playing with his red ball and is still trying to figure out how Nugget uses that doggy door. 
He loves to start walking in one directions and generally won't stop unless something is in his way or you turn him around.  Today we walked with our lawn mower all the way to the end of the block and he probably would have walked into the street had I not stopped him.  Nugget likes to follow him of course!
Eliel still has yet to say any real words but we're definitely working on it.  He is very close to saying 'bath' and generally says 'da da da' repeatedly when you ask him where Daddy is.  He also works really hard on saying 'fan' since he loves them so much.  The 'f' sound is a really hard sound for any little kid to make much less a kid who doesn't say any words at all.  He tries to make the sound by putting his two front teeth on his bottom lip.  He does that a few times and then reverts back to his 'ba ba' sounds.  He's too funny!

This past week we took Eliel to a class at the library and while he had fun, it took him almost half the class to get accustomed to it all.  He also just stared at the librarian for the longest time as she sang '5 little monkeys'.  It was kind of funny.  My goal is to start taking him to story time at the library now that he isn't napping in the mornings anymore.  Hopefully that way he'll get accustomed to being around other kids some more!  I can wait to see what's in store for this little guy in the coming month.  Maybe our first word? :)