I could fill a book with Elijah stories. Here are a few of the most recent ones...
Elijah always goes with me to the grocery store. Its our thing. We go, we shop, we sample, we have a great time. We usually end our trip with a stop at
Sonic's Happy Hour, but we keep that to ourselves.
A few weeks ago we went on our normal trip. Before we got started we headed to the bathroom. Elijah has realized that he is a boy and should be going to the Men's bathroom. I have decided that I need to let him have some independence and I can't hover over him all his life. We've had extensive talks about not talking to or ever going anywhere with a stranger, no matter how nice they are and so on. I went into the girl's and he went into the boys. Before he walked in he stopped and said, "I know Mom, don't talk to strangers and wash my hands." Everything went fine. We met a moment later back at the shopping cart and started our shopping. About 1/4 into it he said he needed to potty again. I told him he would have to hold it. We continued on. When we got to the deli counter we had to wait in line a while.
Eventually he said he couldn't hold it any more and had to go. I was still a person or two away from ordering so I walked him to the bathroom. It was just around the corner, seconds away. I told him when he was done to come right back to me. I dropped him off in the bathroom and headed back. I decided I couldn't do it. He is my baby and its one thing to let him go in by himself, but its another to not be standing right outside the door. I was already back at the counter and it was my turn. I told her quickly what I needed and headed back to the bathroom. I hadn't been gone 10 seconds. I knew he wouldn't have even had time to finish. I stood right outside the door. Now I was getting myself worked up. Every second seemed like an eternity. An old man who looked like Jerry
Sandusky walked in...I couldn't stand it...Then, all of the sudden I heard him let out a cry. MY BABY WAS CRYING! I burst through the bathroom door loaded for bear. I was yelling "Elijah, whats wrong? Elijah!" Luckily there was no one standing at the urinals. Just then Elijah comes shuffling out of the stall, pants around his ankles and is crying. He says "there's no more toilet paper." I say, "just go into another stall!" and he shuffles off. I back out of the Men's bathroom and finally take a breath. I am sweating and my heart is racing. A minute later he comes out and says "Mom, what are you doing here!? I was gonna meet you back at the deli counter." I said I got worried and wanted to make sure he was okay. He replied with, "I'm fine Mom. I would have been fine." He grabs my hand and we walk back to the deli counter, pick up our meat and finish our shopping. I think I grew a few gray hairs, but we're fine!
Elijah is like any other 5 year old little boy. He is always making us (or anyone close by) watch him to see how fast he is. Beau and I always laugh though because Elijah runs flat footed just like me and I've always worried that he inherited my
athleticism. I wasn't
awful, just not very good. Anyway, before school started back the kids and I went to the gym on a Tuesday. After my
Zumba class there is a
KidFit class. The kids only get to go in the summer since they are normally in school on Tuesday. Elijah was so excited to go to his "
exercise" class. At the end she had them all line up and said they were going to run the length of the basketball court and back. I've never seen Elijah run against kids his age so I wanted to see how he
fared. Dead last. Ha! To give him some credit he was not feeling too well and could barely breath due to his allergies. He also didn't seem to care at all. He ran over to me saying, "Did you see how fast I ran!?" I said, "Yes, I did...you were great!"
Beau has been taking the kids to a lot of basketball games lately. He goes to watch the youth group kids and Elijah, especially has a blast. Beau said he just asks questions the whole time wanting to know every rule of the game. At one point something good happened and Elijah starts yelling and woo
hooing. Beau looks at him and Elijah has his middle finger up in the air waving it around while yelling at the players! Beau jumps on him and pulls his hand down. All the parents around them are laughing. Beau had to explain to Elijah that we don't hold up that finger. I doubt Elijah understood, but he said okay. At least all the parents at the game got a big laugh.
Oh, Elijah...
