15 Months

A couple days ago, Eli turned 15 months. The biggest growth we have seen this past month is with his speech. He is beginning to copy things we say. The first time I noticed it was when I told him not to get stuck (when he was playing with the door) and he said "geh guk." I looked at him and asked, did you say "get stuck?" And he said it again. Since then, he has repeated many more words. One of my favorites is "hallelujah." When we listen to "Your Love is Amazing" in the car, he says hallelujah (well, his version of it anyway.) Some of these things are just repetitions, but other words he is starting to use and understands the meaning. He loves to say "Nah-nah" which is Nala. He can't say the "L" sound yet. That is not to be confused with Na-nuh (different "a" sounds) for banana. Both of those words he uses on his own when referencing them. His new thing is "bye bye water." We say that to end his bath time. It comes out "ba ba wa wa" and he waves. Again, he was just repeating at first, but now he does it before we do. He says "Mama" all the time. Sometimes its for me, other times he points at other things and says it (like a Philistine soldier in his "Samson" book.) It's fun to see him learn. Here is what else he has been up to:

He gets into everything! Here he signed me up for a game of 208 card pick up.



One of this favorite things to do is play in the sprinklers. It's a nice relief to the scorching heat of late.



Here he was when he was sick. Poor fellow. We thank the Lord he is fine now.



While he was sick, he found comfort in his baby chair and in sitting with Nala on the porch in his stroller. (Notice the toy he is holding. It's his "puppy" that he sleeps with every nap and night. He loves it. "Puppy" is one of the words he says really well.)



We are in trouble... Eli climbs everything he can.



He also likes to do this. He'll stay like that until I tickle his tummy.



He loves Friday mornings when Mama Saida brings us vegetables. He always gets his own tomato to munch on.



Whenever he sees a lion or when we talk about one, this is what he does.



It's hard to tell from the front, but he's got a nice little curly fro growing. The sides have not grown at all so he is sporting quite the mullet/mohawk.



He has started dragging us to where he wants to go. If we don't give him our finger, he goes for our toes!



Nala is his best friend.



She puts up with him so well. Here he is giving Woody a ride on her back.



We have a book we read every day called "Tiny Bear Bible." In it are poems that tell Bible stories. One is about Zacchaeus. A line in that poem says "Jesus looked up and said 'maybe, I can come to your house for tea' " Whenever I read "maybe" I put my hand in the air. Then Eli began to do it too. Now when we turn to the page, he does it first. He also does it whenever I say "maybe."



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