A milestone reached: Elijah's first favorite toy

I think I can officially declare, for the first time, that Elijah has his first favorite toy.  A couple nights ago Daniel and I were hanging out with Elijah for a few minutes before his bedtime.  We pulled out almost every toy Elijah has and offered them up to him briefly.  There was one that seemed to catch his attention more than all the others- a dinosaur.  I clipped it onto his car seat.  The next morning on the way to day care, he didn't cry.  Instead, he played with his dinosaur.  This morning- the same.  He grabbed onto the tail of the dinosaur (which makes a crinkling sound) and fingered the silk tags hanging off the end.  This kept his attention for pretty much the entire 25 minute drive.  I promise I watched the road too, but I couldn't help looking in the mirror a few times to glimpse Elijah playing.  I am elated that I finally found something that will keep him from crying on the commute to and from day care.  I think it is incredibly adorable the way he plays with it.  I have never seen him reach out and grasp anything so deliberately.  And I've never seen anything hold his attention for that long (except me or his Daddy).  I think this is the beginning of him being able to actually play with toys and hopefully play independently!  So maybe I won't have to spend every one of his waking moments entertaining him.

Also, last night he slept from 7:30 until we woke him up at 6:30am.  He definitely has some bad nights, but we are SO lucky that at least once a week (and often multiple times a week) he sleeps all the way through the night.  And he's been like that since he was really little.  I think the first time he slept through the night was around 6 weeks.  He never wakes up more than twice a night.  Lately, Daniel has been taking the nighttime feedings.  This has helped my fatigue and stress level so much.  I still have been getting up to pump once a night, regardless of whether Elijah wakes up or not.  I'm working really hard to increase my milk supply and it seems to be working so I'm not going to mess with it.  Today was the first day in probably 4 weeks that I've been able to provide all the milk for him without thawing any from the freezer.  I think having him sleep through the night helps with my milk too.  If he doesn't wake up, I'm not having to feed him a ton of milk all night long.

I know this is so cliche, but it's absolutely true.  No matter how exhausted I am, or how much I wish I could have a few minutes of time to myself, one smile from Elijah makes me more happy than I've ever been in my life.