A trip to the park and new tricks

The sun was out on Saturday, so we took Elliot the park near our house. He loves the swing. And the wood chips.

Elliot seems to be pretty normal for his age, but he's the only child I've spent much time with, so each new skill he picks up just blows me away. Here's some of what he's been up to lately:

- "cooking" for Grammie with his Ikea play kitchen, serving her, then "washing" the dishes
- he sort of says "mama," "dada," "up," "down," and "cracker"
- he asked for "more cheese to eat" yesterday using sign language
- he understands how to pet the cats gently and he laughs and laughs while he does it
- he likes to pretend to turn our dining room light on and off by pointing to it while Ed works the remote
- once, when I was sad because he had temporarily misplaced an awesome toy from his Auntie Heather, he looked at me very sympathetically and then gave me a big hug
- he likes to clap for himself when he's finished something (like a meal)
- he helps me put wet clothes into the dryer and generally likes to assist with everything we do
- he brings his Scootababy to Ed and says, "Up!"
- every night, he pulls a stool up to the sink and brushes his teeth with us -- he gets upset when we make him stop
- he likes to hold Ed's iPod up to his ear and say "hai-yo!"
- he waves bye-bye to the phone after friends and relatives call (we put them on speaker for him)

So again... I realize this is pretty normal, but all this new stuff is amazing to us first-time parents. :) Elliot is more and more fun every day.