Eli's personality began to come alive (in an Eli sort of way) at 11 months. He could be found doing one of two things: sitting or humming or both.
He began to climb onto couches and chairs with ease, still a favorite pastime. In fact, he even eats breakfast and lunch in one of our little blue chairs now (seen in one of the Josiah and Eli pictures here). My favorite "sitting" story came one Sunday morning. Jake and I were getting ready in the bathroom, and Eli joined us too. He was next to the toilet, and he started getting very frustrated. I thought he was stuck, but when I moved him away from the toilet, he got even more upset. My genius husband figured it out, "I think he wants to sit on the potty seat." Sure enough, he was trying to sit on his brother's potty seat! I let him sit on it, and he sat contentedly on the potty seat for several minutes.
Eli also enjoys humming. This is up there in the top 3 for favorite Eli characteristics/mannerisms! You know the sort of sing-song way we say "peek-a-boo" and "uh-oh"? Well, those are the two "songs" he sings over and over. It is very sweet! When we are in church his humming volume increases big time because he likes the sound of his voice echoing.
The cutest, though, is when I used to find him perched in his little blue chair--all alone in the kitchen, hands folded, humming to himself.
I think Eli might also be a candidate for tonal languages like Cantonese or Mandarin because, unlike his brother, who would try and say words we asked him to repeat, Eli copies our intonation. He "tonates" (the word I use to refer to his version of talking) words like: good boy, thank you, amen, the end and many more.
Josiah, on the other hand, has grown very interested in his letters and the sounds they make. A while ago, I tried to introduce letters to him. He didn't seem interested, so I backed off. But a few months ago, something clicked. He notices letters everywhere now! At mealtime, he's even been known to find letters in his curly fries and today he even found a letter "F" in his bread (and he's usually spot on with these letter sightings in his food).
Also, here is a random prayer he prayed a few weeks ago. Before starting he told me he wasn't going to disobey anymore. Anyway, the prayer went something like this:
"Dear God,
You made everysting: donkeys and gorillas and horses and donkeys and chipmunks and people who don't obey. Jesus, I need you to help me. Stink you for this food. Help daddy to be a light. Help him to get his plans done. Father, I need you to help me obey. In the Lord's precious, bless-this name, Amen."
And now for a photo dump, captions when needed.
Josiah was gave us sticker "mustaches." I think he missed when it came to Eli!
Caught! (He was recovering from an ear infection, so it's perfectly fine!)
