Bye Bye Self

Elijah is pretty solid when it comes to the major consonants. He does the “Mama” and the “Dada.” As far as I’m concerned he doesn’t need to know anything else. All I need is the ego rub of being referred to as “Dada.” And no, I don’t care that he also refers to Grover as “Dada.”

But luckily for him, he’s continuing to develop beyond the big M and D. He’s recently discovered the B. Which is useful in requesting the ever important bottle. He also is learning to say “Bye bye.”

Most of his blinking, beeping toys will say “Bye bye” when Eli ignores them for more than a minute. Many times, Eli will respond with a “Bah Bah.” Which makes his blinking, beeping toys infinitely cuter.

Diana has also been training him to do “Bye bye” when I leave in the morning. She has also incorporated the hand wave. So, every morning I’ll stand at the top of the stairs, sweating in my ten layers of Evanston cold protection and Diana will say, “Wave bye bye to Daddy. Say bye bye. Say bye bye. Say bye bye. Say bye bye.” Grover will pace back and forth as if to say, “SAY BYE BYE ALREADY!”

Slowly, put surely, Eli will say, “Bah bah.” And incorporate the now famous hand wave. The greatest part is Eli waves by turning his hand towards himself and bends his fingers, essentially waving goodbye to himself. He also looks at his hand inquisitively as if to say, “Holy cow, someone is waving bye bye to me.”

I don’t have any new photos, so please enjoy another in my series, “Eli Wearing Underpants On His Head.”