Spotlight on Elijah

I’ve been thinking lately about how I decided several months ago to write a little ‘spotlight’ for the blog about each of our boys, and when life started to get busy a couple of months ago I didn’t get around to writing the last two for Eli and Camden. So I was home from church with Isaac and Courtland who weren't feeling very well yesterday, and they both happened to take naps in the morning and I got a chance to get write this and get the pictures ready. So, here goes:

Eli will be five years old next month, and he loves to play with his brothers, he especially loves doing anything that his big brother does. Eli likes to play the piano just like his big brother – although he doesn’t know the correct notes to play, he ‘plays’ several of the songs that Kolby does, tapping out different notes, but holding each note for the correct amount of time so that we can tell which song he is imitating. He also likes to play with baby Courtland lately, picking him up and carrying him around the house or holding him on his lap. Eli loves his preschool class that he attends two mornings a week – he likes to learn new songs, play, do art projects, go to the gym, and listen to his teacher, Mrs. Freed, read stories. Eli can write his letters and is learning to read a few words – we have recently started to pick a new word for him each time we do our family scripture study and we will read along and then pause for him to read each time we come to one of ‘his’ words, and since we started doing that a couple weeks ago he has a handful of simple words that he can recognize now, so that’s pretty fun. Eli loves to sit and ‘read’ the books that he and his brothers pick out at the library. Eli is one of our most athletic boys – he is always the first to learn how to climb to the top of the swing set, twist his swing up tight so he can let go and spin around in fast circles, or (most recently) climb his way up the pole in the center of the basement play room until he can touch the ceiling. We love Eli’s adorable laugh, and his ability to say funny little phrases, make funny faces, or use silly voices to make everyone else around him laugh too. Although I find myself thinking of Eli as ‘the funny one,’ I am also reminded of how sweet he is when he tells me that my dress is beautiful (even when I’m just wearing a night gown), or when he remarks about the beauty of a rainbow, a flower, or a pretty painting in a quiet, sincere tone. Eli has recently started working with a speech pathologist a couple of afternoons a week because he has a little lisp, and although he has fun playing the games and doing activities with his speech teacher, we can see him working on improving how he pronounces certain sounds in his words lately, even when he’s not in a speech session, so they think that he probably won’t need to continue therapy for more than just the remainder of this school year. And Eli really is an adorable little boy – he is so photogenic, and I love his little freckles on his nose. Especially over this last year Eli has become a very good little helper. He likes to do his daily chores of cleaning the dining room floor, picking up in the study, and helping put the toys away, and sometimes he will even vacuum the rug (one of Kolby’s chores) before Kolby can get to it. Eli is a little sweetheart, and he is such an important part of our family.