Becoming Brave

Elliot had two big milestones this week. First, his pal Hayden invited us to his 1^st birthday party on Saturday night. There were about 25 adults there and a few children. Elliot didn’t cry or fuss one time because of stranger fright. He played with the toys alongside the other kids, and by the end of the evening he was bold enough to take toys away from other babies, and was pulling himself up to other adults at the party. We were so proud of him. He ate about a cup of guacamole, birthday cake and ice cream—the dinner of champions.

Based on his courageous turn on Saturday, we decided to give Gymboree another shot. And this time he was a big boy. He didn’t cry at all, not even during the parachute game which he usually fears. He crawled up to the other babies, he helped himself to toys in the boxes, and he even crawled through some of the activity tubes. He also did a lot of clapping. I was so happy to see that he is finally getting over his fear of other people. The first thing we did on the way home was call Dad and tell him how brave Elliot is. He was very proud.

We came home to find that Abby had eaten a half dozen chocolate chip cookies—just helped herself to the ones in a Ziploc bag on the countertop. I guess she wasn’t happy about being left this morning.

This past week Elliot likes to clap, especially for himself when he thinks he's done something clever. He sometimes waves hello when you say hi to him, but he isn't into "bye bye" yet. He likes to stand things upright on the table, like the telephone or bath bottle. He took a bubble bath with mom and thought that was fun.