Almost five

Elijah's daily commentary is so entertaining and I am constantly kicking myself for not documenting his witty little remarks. I'll try to do better. In the meantime, there is much to report about our nearly FIVE year old boy. He is a prolific artist and comes home from school with stacks of drawings. He used to be focused on mazes but has now taken an interest in maps, buildings, people and machines. He drew the cutest alien the other day and I recently found a few dinosaurs too. He often includes text in his work and there are occasionally strings of random letters/numbers. Sometimes he embellishes his drawings; he writes words or little pictures on small scraps of paper and then tapes the scraps to the main picture. One of my favorite Elijah creations with a mezzuzah which he drew in marker and then cut out. It even had a few Hebrew letters. I assumed this was school project but Elijah informed me that he just decided to make one.

He is still great at entertaining himself. In addition to drawing, he enjoys building with his over-sized blocks, twisting pipe cleaners, playing with his veterinarian kit and tinkering with Legos. He still loves stuffed animals and usually has either Cow, Lobster, Goose of Blue Dog in tow. Elephant has disappeared but Elijah doesn't seem to care. I am sure he'll turn up. In the past, he was generally happy for others to do things for him but he is a bit more independent these days. He helps pick out his own clothes and gets dressed all on his own. With prompting, he buckles his own seat belt and brushes his own teeth. He is very intent on opening packages without help, and I love that he can fill up his own cup with the refrigerator's water dispenser.

So much to love about such a little person. There are butterfly kisses at bedtime. The sound of his voice and all the funny things he says. I especially love listening to him talk to Blue Dog and switch voices when Blue Dog "talks" back. As long as the sun is up, we let him slip into our bed and I somehow even like his morning breath. He is very sensitive but increasingly able to tolerate things not going his way.

Elijah has never shown interest in babies and has certainly never asked for a sibling. I'd describe his initial reaction to the pregnancy as ambivalent (at best). We started to announce the pregnancy around three months and I was having a particularly hard time keeping it a secret from the boy. We'd initially planned to let Elijah "figure it out" on his own, but once we started telling everyone I thought we should reconsider. I brought it up with Amiel but he wanted to stick with the original plan. Figuring Elijah would find out soon anyway, I went along. Literally minutes later, Amiel called up his sister to share the good news. He was sitting at the dining room table and Elijah was at the other end coloring. "We're pregnant!!" he announced. Elijah did not respond whatsoever. "Amiel!" I exclaimed, "Elijah is sitting RIGHT there!" Amiel waved his hand and insisted Elijah wasn't even paying attention. Yeah right, I thought. Elijah is ALWAYS paying attention. "Elijah," I asked. "Did you hear what Daddy just said?" He briefly looked up with a dead pan expression, "You're pregnant." I scooted over next to him, "Do you know what that means?" He said "no" and didn't look up. "What did it mean when Deba Bebba was pregnant?" I inquired. "She had a baby in her belly," he replied matter-of-factly. "So what does it mean?" I pressed. "You have a baby in your belly," he said. I futilely attempted to engage him in conversation for a moment more but he was clearly disinterested. It wasn't the response I'd hoped for but it wasn't unexpected either. At least he didn't object outright!

Thankfully, Elijah has slowly started to show interest in his little sister. He is certainly amused by my growing belly, particularly the portruding belly button. He sometimes rubs it and occasionally tries to talk to his sister. It'd be an exaggeration to say he's excited about her arrival, but he is certainly curious and also very sweet to his Mommy. I am no longer able to pick him up and he is very understanding of this. When I have a hard time standing up or picking things off the floor, he is eager to lend a helping hand. We like to joke around about how baby Anne loves Haagen Dazs and make sure to enjoy it together as much as possible.

Even though he's nearly five and very much a BOY, there is still a part of me that thinks of him as my baby. About a month back, he was snuggled on my lap and I referred to him as "my baby." He pointed to my belly and announced, "I'm a boy, that's your baby!"