16 months

Hello Mr. Personality, how are you doing? It amazes me every day how happy and entertaining my little monkey is. He is such a charmer that it just melts my heart regularly.

In the past month, this kid has not only turned on the charm, but he's getting so good at being a little boy that I'm not sure what to do. You love to play in the dirt, throw the dirt, and eat the dirt. You've started waving bye-bye to every person and object you find. As the water drains from the bath tub, you wave. You wave at the TV once it's turned off. You wave bye-bye to the remnants of a dirty diaper as it is flushed down the toilet. Such a sentimental little guy you are. You also wave good-bye to people too, and are getting very good at giving hugs and kisses.

You march to the beat of our own drummer - well, not march so much as groove to the beat of your own music. It seems these days that you've got a little soul in every step you take with hip wiggles, shoulder rolls, and jazz hands.

I guess it's a bit flamboyant, but it's pretty cool. You love to sit on the counter top at grandma's house and get your groove on to any song that's playing on the stereo.

You are good at posing for the camera, standing in the bathtub, turning off the lights, and throwing garbage away. You also seem to have a photographic memory. Dad put a ceiling fan in your room about a week ago and not only do you try to show your fan to every person that comes to your house, you also know that grandma has ceiling fans and spent all day pointing at them. At auntie Haley's house yesterday, you immediately remembered that she has a cuckoo clock and just giggled with pure delight when the birdie popped its head out.

You don't talk much, but understand, I think, thousands of words. We may be partial, but you are definitely the smartest little boy all of your family knows. Your vocabulary is starting to grow, little by little, too. To date, these are the words you say regularly, or someone has heard you say it at least once:
book
ball
baby
banana
lawn mower
drink (dink)
baba (grandpa)
dog
up stairs
down stairs
open

There are also a lot of words you mimic, but I guess that doesn't really count as talking.

Sometimes, I think you love everyone else more than me, but that's probably not true. Yesterday at the airport though, you didn't want me to even look at you and to get our picture taken, uncle Willie had to hold you, because you wouldn't touch me with a 10 foot poll. Today however, you seem to like me alright, even if I took you to Wal-Fart this morning (sorry about that. it won't happen again).

You've inherited a strange sense of humor from your dad and think picking your nose is Hi-larious! Picking your nose, throwing stuff on the floor, throwing food into the air and catching it in your mouth - the staples of life, right? You also do this strange thing with your dad that I just don't get. The two of you will stare at each other, and dad will slowly blink his eyes. When he opens them again you die laughing. Crazy boy.


As usual, I don't know what I would do with out you. After being stuck in meetings all week, knowing that today was our day to hang out was the only thing keeping me going. You are my best bud, and I wouldn't have it any other way.