Va Beach

Just got back from Virginia Beach where Uncle Nadir is stationed. He hadn't seen Elijah for 4 1/2 months, so you can imagine his shock when he opened his front door and saw Elijah staring back at him. So many changes since last March! Of course, it didn't take long for the shenanigans to begin. Hey, it's what uncles are for...

Elijah loves vacationing. Here he is getting some R&R on a big fat chair...

This next one cracks us up. So glum! I call it his "popeye" impersonation:

Va Beach is gorgeous. It has such a beautiful boardwalk...

Well, it was a great trip although way too short. We missed Nadir as soon as we left. Hopefully, we'll be seeing him again soon, especially since Elijah is literally growing every single day. For example, on Tuesday, he got a new "touch and feel" book from Gramma Joyce and out of nowhere he just started turning the pages and touching and feeling the different characters (whereas before he'd just stare at the pages while we read.) On Wednesday, he raised his arms up for the first time for me to pick him up (my heart is still melted from that.) And then today he grabbed and fed himself some finger puffs for the first time.

What else...oh, I can't tell you how often we find ourselves commenting on how Elijah reminds us so much of Jake! Jake LOVED people. He thought everyone who came near was there to play with him. That's exactly how Elijah thinks. The funniest part of our trip was on the plane ride back. We were sitting up in the 7th row and at one point Elijah caught sight of the sea of faces in back of us. He squealed and squealed as if to say WHAAAAAT'S UUUUUP EVERYONE??!!! LET'S PLAY. If he had a tail, it'd be waggin' nonstop. We miss you, Jake. ~Nasreen

Enjoying the Summer

Thanks to a helpful tip from an experienced mom, Elijah got a new exersaucer to help him learn to stand. It's amazing how quickly it's helped already. His legs don't buckle as much when he's leaning up against the couch or if I hold him upright by the arms. Besides that, he really enjoys all the new activities. Sorry I haven't been able to post any pictures in a while--been busy enjoying the summer. The weather here in Chicago has been beautiful! Below are a few extra pictures for now. Elijah is pretending to be a card shark. You can see in the last picture that he's being literal about it. : ) ~Nasreen

Water Baby

We knew that Elijah loves his bath, but we weren't too sure if that meant he'd love the water in general. He started swimming lessons 3 weeks ago. The first lesson started out real well, until one of the other kids started screaming. The screaming became contagious real fast and so the rest of the swim class looked like this:

But that was 3 lessons ago. Now he's a fish, especially if toys are involved. At this age, the lessons are meant only to help him overcome any fear of the water and to teach him important safety rules. And, of course, to have fun. We imagine it will take a few years before he can actually swim on his own. ~Nasreen