EJ is 18 months old today! He is becoming such a big boy. He is full of life and adventure. It’s a rare day when you find EJ in a bad mood, but he is going through the developmental stage of separation anxiety where he cries when I leave him. Fortunately, my “number” has yet to show up on the screen at church when he’s in the nursery so he is able to calm down quickly and find a ball to throw around. He’s pretty obsessed with balls. They are his favorite toy. Just the other day we were at the park with slides, swings, and sand and he kept asking for a ball. He also has an obsession with our ping pong table. He would play ping pong for hours if we let him. I had buy several ping pong balls because my back was sore picking up the three we had. Now you can find ping pong balls in every room in our house. They are the perfect size for his little hands.
He has lots of friends at Lori’s house, where he goes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when I am teaching. It’s fun to pick him up because all the little kids yell “EJ’s Mom” when I walk in. It’s rather sweet. He also learns funny games from the other kids that we get to see when he gets home.
EJ laughs a lot and loves to play. As you can see, he is quite found of telephones. In the picture he has Eric’s cell phone but he also has his own play phone and any remote control works as a phone too. He walks around with the “phone” on his shoulder and talks. At the end of his sentence he cackles. I wish I knew who he was "talking" to because it’s awfully cute!
We also have a lot of “Happy Feet” in our house. EJ loves it when I tap dance for him and he tries to do it too. As you can imagine, he loved the movie “Happy Feet” and now we have "Happy Feet" dance parties in the kitchen where we all shuffle our feet. My dad and I used to dance in our kitchen when I was younger so it’s fun to have a similar tradition.
In addition to Happy Feet, he likes Elmo on Sesame Street and Diego. His all-time favorite is Finding Nemo, who he calls “Mo-mo.” "Mo-mo's" picture is on our baby wipes container and it’s the only thing that keeps him still so I can change a diaper. If Mo-mo isn’t around it’s a serious wrestling match to get his diaper changed. Speaking of diapers, EJ is showing about half the signs needed for potty training so we are holding off on that for now.
We had the little man sleeping until 7 am but this week he is back to old self getting up at 6 am. So much for sleeping in! In the morning he loves to watch us get ready and he can brush his teeth now. He also likes to shave with Eric. We have a razor without a cartridge on it and he carefully touches his face with it when Eric is shaving. It’s really a precious sight.
His vocabulary is growing with his favorite words being banana and uh-huh right now. He wouldn’t touch bananas for the first year of his life and now he loves them. Go figure. He is a good eater and when he isn’t in the mood to finish his dinner all we have to do is “tap” forks with him between bites and he keeps going. It’s somewhat of a game, but it works. Last night I had a heart-shaped Valentines cake for my Bible study and when he saw it this morning he had to have some. After breakfast, he kept pointing at the heart tin and I finally gave in and we ate Valentine cake on the kitchen floor together at 6:15 am. I guess I am a pushover before the sun comes up!
Baseball season starts next week so our lives are about to get very busy. Here is EJ with Eric's baseball cap. I doubt I will see much of the home games this year as I will be chasing EJ around the stadium. Fortunately, there is a playground and a grassy berm around the entire outfield so we should have lots to keep us busy.
We hope to have lots of guests come visit for Husker Baseball this season. We'd love to have you!!
That’s the latest from Lincoln. Take care!
