Where did he learn THAT?

Contributed by Anne, 29 years old
 
Elijah is my sweetheart of 13 months. He has big smiley eyes, a mischievous grin, and messy hair every time he wakes up (just like his daddy). Although he weighs just 9kg, he is no lightweight in our lives! In fact, my husband and I have been constantly amazed at Elijahs antics and development from the day he was born.
 
As a stay-at-home mum, I have been fortunate to witness all the little firsts he has achieved. However, even though I am with him so many hours in a day, I do wonder where he learns to do so many things. I suppose he is a keen observer as he does spend dinners with his paternal and maternal grandparents, aunts and uncles. Its great to have family members around to interact with him.
 
"Where did he learn that?" is a question that rings familiar in my family. Elijah wakes up smiling, crawls at breakneck speed, makes engine noises when playing with his toy vehicles, pulls himself to a standing position and dances by shaking his hips and bending his knees.
 
He puts his fist to his ear and pretends he is on an important phone call when someone says "hello" to him, he pushes sliding doors open and shut without getting his fingers jammed, eats food only with a fork because he can poke them (unlike a spoon), drinks water effortlessly with a straw (refuse his expensive sippy cup), and will pretend to cough, sneeze or laugh if you asked him to. There are just so many other things he has done without anyone specifically teaching him - so it really takes us by surprise when he does them.
 
Recently Elijah has taken a keen interest in shoes, so we took him to buy his first real pair last weekend. Seeing his face light up when we strapped on the blue sandals at the shop was simply heart melting. Now when we say we are going out, he will excitedly race to the door to pick up his sandals. Weve even seen him spend a good ten minutes trying to put his feet into his sandals on his own!
 
This morning, while Elijah and I rolled around in my bed watching Daddy get ready for work, he stopped, pointed to my husband and said, "Da-dee"!  It totally made my husbands day. and I guess I shall now have to patiently wait for the day when he calls me "Mummy". We are certainly blessed to have our little busy bee in our lives.