Several weeks later...

About a week until our parently love is to be divided...

Twice as many pictures to take...

Yes, I have been taking pictures of our Elliot even though I haven't put the time into adding them to this once prolific e-log.

What have you missed? Two months. A lot happens in two months. Especially two months for a two year old.

Where were we last? Elliot was into Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine. He still appreciates these two commercial juggernauts but he has moved fully into a phase which neither of his parents could have predicted.

Clues...

1.) The Sweater, by Roch Carriere.

2.) Hocking.

3.) Maurice Richard.

4.) Canucks.

5.) Puck in the Net!

*side story: Elliot, his mom and his aunt Amanda take a trip to Ikea. They stop half way through to eat lunch in the Ikea Cafe. As is our regular routine, we ask God to bless our food. Mom asks Elliot if there is anything he'd like to pray about. Most often he does. He wraps his hands together and brings them beneath his chin (which everyone has to do according to Elliot - he has become stoic in his liturgy at such a young age). Then he lists some things he is thankful for. At Ikea he lists the usual: "Thank you God for Mommy and Daddy and hotdogs and Auntie Amanda and Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Clayton in China, and Uncle Andrew and Auntie Cara and ... hockey," then his arms went up in the air and his eyes lit and his voice rose as he proclaimed, "puck in the net!" at the top of his lungs. *

Okay, it is likely obvious to you by now that he is obsessed with hockey. We read The Sweater to him a dozen times a day. He watches The Sweater (The NFB's award winning animated short) over and over and over and over and over again. We cut pictures of hockey from our newspapers, find hockey on our television.
Elliot plays hockey with his dad in the living room with his Saskatoon Blades hockey stick from his grandpa. He often plays goalie and says things like "good pass, Dad" or if I am goalie, he will say "Dad saves the puck!".
Back to The Sweater... Elliot has got almost the entire story memorized. It's not a short story like Sandra Boynton. This is a book with a lot of pages full of text.
His favourite team is the Canucks, poor kid.

In other news, Elliot is becoming fast friends with many of our neighbourhood kids. Of course Tate is Elliot's best friend right now. On the other side of our townhouse is another great family with a boy almost the exact same age as Elliot named Caleb. Elliot and Caleb have hit it off really well. Next to them is another young family who are moving in the new year. They have two boys, one is a couple years older than Elliot but Elliot really likes him a lot.

We have replaced Elliot's converted crib bed in his room with a real honest to goodness bed. The same bed his mom slept in when she was younger. The same bed Auntie Amanda slept in until recently. He loves his new bed very much. He sleeps with a pillow now, which is a new concept for him but he has really enjoyed it.

His language skills are amazing. He can communicate clearly with us, and I think it has a lot to do with his mom's encouragement. If he's freaking out, she will patiently implore him to slow down and talk to her so she can know what is bothering him and we have both tried really hard to talk to him as much as time permits so he will know how important it is to communicate with people. Also, he is brilliant. :)

He has been very polite to people. Pleases, thankyous, hellos and goodbyes leave his lips frequently.

Elliot is very excited about the new baby coming and has been a great helper with getting the house ready.

He has also developed a fondness for smarties.

But enough jibber jabber. I'll try to post some pictures.