Walking

Well, I was getting pretty anxious about this one, but as of December 15, at 15 1/2 months old, Elijah is walking. For that first week, he was only taking a few steps at a time, but over the last week he has discovered that most of the time he prefers walking over crawling. When he falls, instead of just breaking into a crawl, he'll carefully stand back up and try again. And his new talent he's learned just over the past couple of days is the pivot. That's pretty cute to watch. This is a very careful and serious task that he does with great concentration. And he's getting really good at it.
It's amazing how this one milestone literally changes your baby into a toddler. He looks so grown up now that he's on two feet. And he looks so proud of himself everytime he stands up that it's tough not to smile and show your own pride while you watch him.
So, one more milestone passed, and one more worry relieved.

Dress-Up

In the past few weeks, Elijah has become very interested in dressing up while he plays and we're just hanging around the house. These are just a couple of pictures of some of his favorite things to wear. He thinks his sunglasses are pretty cool, but the coolest thing is to wear socks on his hands. And he seems to prefer these pumpkin socks over all of his other socks. Once he has the socks on, the loves to clap his hands together either for the sound, the feel, or maybe both. He also likes trying to pick things up with his sock hands, but once it gets frustrating enough, he'll frantically pull the socks off to get the job done. But he immediately needs the socks back on once he has what he needs. This morning we were playing in his room and his outfit consisted of a onesie, a snow hat, one shoe and two pairs of socks on his hands. He's pretty entertaining!

It's a Girl!

For anyone who hasn't heard yet, we found out last week that our new little baby is a girl. Much thanks to the sonogram tech that wiggled, pressed and shook my belly from all sides in order for us to find out! We are very excited about the news, but it's amazing how different it is from the first baby. When we found out that we were having a boy the first time, it was a pretty emotional experience and very exciting. This time, we both just said, "Wow, a girl. That's cool." And then went on with our days. I think I'm feeling this way for two reasons. First, I had convinced myself that this one was going to be a boy, which has actually proven to me that I really wanted a girl much more than I wanted to admit. Now I think I'm just a little in shock with the idea. And this leads me to my second reason for feeling the way I do. I think there's a part of me that's a little scared about having a girl. There are so many neat and fun things that go along with having a girl, but when I start to think about adolescent and teen years, it makes me nervous! Girls have to deal with so much stuff that boys don't and I think it will be very hard as her mom to know that she is having to go through that stuff. But I know it's just part of life.
So, all this to say that yes, I am very excited to be having a little girl. I have always wanted one just like I have always wanted a boy, and I am incredibly blessed to be able to experience them both. As far as all of my other emotions about it - I'm pregnant. If I wasn't worrying about what she will be dealing with 15 years from now, I'd be worrying about something else.

"The greatest gift you can give your children is not your riches, but revealing to them their own."
- Max Lucado