Changes A-brewin’

Where is Elijah?
Today, for the first time, I came out of the bathroom and I didn’t know where Elijah was. He wasn’t right outside of the door where I had left him and he wasn’t in the kitchen where I thought he might be. Oh, he must be in the living room. Nope. In the dining room? Nope. At this point, I’m starting to feel a slight bit panicky, which is somewhat irrational. I mean, there aren’t very many places he could be, our house isn’t that big, and the rooms are mostly baby-proof (as far as I can tell). I start to think, is he under the table? No. I walk a little further and it turns out he was in the kitchen all along; he was just out of my sight when I looked the first time. The wonderful thing is that Elijah is exploring and isn’t content to stay in one place. Looking for Elijah is an awesome place to be.

Seriously, did he really do that?
Elijah is so determined to walk; so much so that he doesn’t like to be set on the floor. When you set him down and he’s in the mood to walk, he fusses and cries. He won’t crawl; he just bounces on the floor and complains. It’s frustrating for both of us; I can’t walk him around all of the time and he’s frustrated that he can’t do it on his own. (I take the frustration as a good sign of his cognitive abilities, but that’s a whole other story…).

This past Friday night, he really caught me off guard. We were unpacking our van from a visit to Elijah’s grandparents. We set Elijah on the floor so that Andy and I could unpack. Elijah was not happy. He wanted us to walk him around the house and was so angry that we were not complying. And then, I watched in amazement as he pushed up onto his feet and arms (I think it’s called the downward dog in yoga). He then proceeded to “walk” on his hands and got himself into a standing position – completely on his own! He took a few steps forward – on his own! – where I proceeded to grab him because he was about to crash into something and because I was in utter shock that the little guy had just managed to stand up and walk all by himself.

Of course, Andy was unloading the van and didn’t see it. “Um, Andy,” I said when he came inside, “Elijah just stood up and walked by himself.” Andy looked at me like I was crazy. “No…” he said in disbelief although he knows that I would never lie about such a thing. Elijah hasn’t done it since, although not for lack of trying. He really, really wants to walk. Each and every day he is literally a step closer to walking. How amazing is that?

Mountain Climber
A few weeks ago our School OT and PT encouraged us to teach Elijah to crawl over the step in our sunken family room. I hadn’t worked on it too much with him. I tried, but he wanted to walk over the step as we’d already taught him how to do that. And then last night, he did it! Andy noticed that Elijah was trying to get over the step and so both of us helped him get to the other side. And then Elijah got it. Now he crawls over that step with ease like it’s no big deal. Tonight, when Andy got home from work, Elijah got himself out of the family room and crawled to the door to greet his dad. I got all teary-eyed. What a feat that was! Now he’s on his way to becoming a mountain climber. In my mind, he has already climbed Everest.

Here's the mountain climber in action...

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