Our apartment complex had garden planting event. Really the parents planted and the boys sat in the dirt and tore the leaves off of the plants and tried to eat the dirt. We even found a few worms!
We used spoons to dig holes, no wonder they were confused!
Elijah has a buddy, his name is Jackson and he lives next door. They get to do all kinds of fun things together. Jackson is two months younger than Elijah.
This is Jackson and his parents Kelin and Brett.
Jackson came to spend the day with us recently. Here the boys are having breakfast. (Katie, I got the idea of facing them together from you with the twins.)
Elijah sharing (or reaching for Jackson’s breakfast 
Playtime on the table of fun!
They have so much fun together!
Elijah is loving dogs these days. He LOVES to touch Plato when he’ll let him get close enough, which doesn’t happen often. This is usually what happens. Plato is lying peacefully…
…Elijah moves in and the dog takes off. Poor thing. Everywhere we go, if he sees a dog he says Dog-ah, Dog-ah.
Here are all of my baby boy’s pictures over the last year.
1 week
1 month
2 months
3 months
4 months
5 months
6 months
7 months
8 months
9 months
10 months
11 months
12 months
This is a bit late but here are Elijah’s 12 month pictures with the monkey. He is more mobile everyday and taking a few unassisted steps here and there. He is saying a few words, mama, dada, duck (guck), dog (gah), book (kah). He mostly says the second syllable of the word. He loves to read books and turn the pages. The Spot books are a big hit right now b/c of the flip up parts. He loves to open and close things and to turn off light switches. He still loves to drum and pound on the piano and loves it when Aaron plays the guitar. He likes to pound on the side while he plays. He LOVES dogs, especially Plato and likes to pull on his ears when he gets the chance. He is starting to notice other animals when we are out on walks, squirrels, bunnies, birds. Ducks are his favorite toy animal, we haven’t come across any real ducks yet.
We celebrated Elijah’s First Birthday in Kansas City on May 8th at my parents house. Here is the birthday boy with his Great Grandma Carol at the party.
The gift table.
With Great Grandma Gladys
Time to open presents. Baby’s first cell phone from Grandma Rene (who works for Sprint
Helping to open the presents.
A puppy puppet knitted by Grandma Janet.
This is the birthday pillow I made for him it came with a matching blankie.
This is just a funny picture.
And here is the party cake I made. It was a labor of love. Top tier was banana cake with vanilla buttercream. Bottom tier chocolate with strawberry buttercream.
This was Elijah’s very own birthday cake in the shape of a piano. He loves to play the piano! His was vegan banana with vegan vanilla buttercream
I had to blow the candle out quickly before he touched it. Those fingers are quick!
Trying to play the piano, unfortunately it didn’t make any sounds.
The fondant was so thick he couldn’t really make a dent, so we flipped the cake.
After a little help he had a nice mess to play in.
He never really tried to eat it. He just picked up pieces and squeezed them really hard.
This is about as messy as he got.
Here is the family by Elijah’s tree we planted last summer. We actually thought it had died but sure enough there were leaves sprouting!!
Birthday boy and Grandma Janet
Me and my big boy.
Me and my big boy on Mother’s Day!
Me, and my mom and Elijah on Monther’s Day. Love you Mama!
I can’t believe it has been a year. But what an incredible year it has been. I’ve enjoyed every minute watching him grow and learn. I remember meeting him for the first time like it was yesterday. My teeny baby boy in my arms. Here we are on our first night together a year ago.
I’ve been promising a post on our new neighborhood and here it is, finally. This is in front of our townhome. We are the door on the right and the gate is to our little porch/patio area. The door on our left is our awesome new neighbors. More about them later in the post.
It is a huge complex of townhomes like ours. This is a view looking down the sidewalk in front of our home.
This is a view around the corner where the dogs get to “go”.
This is our view of Lake street, a main district in Oak Park. I’m standing directly in front of our complex looking down Lake street. There is a movie theatre, every kind of restaurant you can imagine and lots of fun shops.
A few blocks down is the Oak Park public library. It is fantastic! Elijah and I have been to a few story times at the library. He loves them!
This is another district in Oak Park called The Avenue just a few blocks down from our complex. It is great too! There is a fantastic children’s toy store called Gepetto’s Toy Box.
Here we are in the park pretending Plato is a horse.
Remember the other green door? Well it turns out we have really cool neighbors. We have so much in common. They have a dog and 9 month old. They use cloth diapers and had a home birth too! Crazy huh? We all went to the park one day to play. Here is their adorable son Jackson playing with Elijah. Apparently he is quite the ham and loves to have his picture taken.
And now for the well overdue 11 month pictures. I think i’ve been putting them off because I don’t want to this to be my last under one year post. After this my baby will be one year old – sigh. Actually in 2 weeks he’ll be one. I am surprised at how sentimental I am about it. Why don’t we want our kids to grow older? I’ve enjoyed all of his milestones so far. I just can’t shake the desire to keep him small so I can rock him in my arms forever.
He has done so many exciting things this month. He learned to wave. He claps and rolls his hands to the “clapping” song. He throws his arms up in the air when you ask how big the baby is “SO BIG”. He plays peek-a-boo by pulling a blanket over his own head. He is cruising around the furniture and has learned how to take off his own diaper. Enjoy the pictures!
Before the big move I had a chance to hang out with a few friends and their kids. Elijah and I went to play at my friend Carrody’s house. Some how I ended up only taking a picture of this. Yep, that’s a toy gun. Why do boys love guns? I don’t get it?
We also went to visit my friend Carrie and her daughter’s Emerson (below) and Easton whom I didn’t get a picture of 
. Elijah loved all of the new toys to check out but Emerson was a bit leery and kept a watchful eye on him.
These pictures are a little old but too adorable not to post. They were taken in Lee’s Summit right before Aaron headed out for Chicago. Elijah is not a big snuggler (much to my dismay) unless he’s sleepy so moments like this are precious.
