"Good Job!"

Charlie is 15 months old today. Holy cow. I seriously, literally just put Gracie's last pair of 18-24m sized pants away (though they were leggings, so you know, stretchy), and already baby boy is sneaking into that size!

This past month he's really been working on his vocabulary. He says "Daddy" for Mommy or Daddy, "Day-cee" for Gracie, "Doh" for toast, "Di" for drink or "Joo" for juice, "Hi" with a wave and "Di" for bye, "Uh" for up when he wants to be carried, "Uh oh" when he drops something, "Huh" for hug, "Tuh" for truck, and he is working on "Heh" for help.

But my favorite thing that he says is "um" which means Yum, which is what he says instead of FEED ME.

And my second fave is "Deh-dah" which means "Good Job!"

He tells himself this all the time. When he walks all the way across a room. "Deh-dah!" When he puts a crayon back in its box. "Deh-dah!" Even when he asks us for something, like a drink, and we give it to him, he tells us "Deh-dah!" Good job, Mom and Dad! You really hit the nail on the head with that sippy-cup pass off. You guys are the best! Deh-dah!!!

This poor kiddo has had a rough couple of months. Back at the end of January he started crying all the time. I'm not kidding. ALL the time. We were at our wits end trying to figure out what to do with him. At first we thought it was his teeth--he was working on molars then, and we thought for sure that was the culprit. He wanted to be held all the time. He wasn't sleeping well. It was awful.

Finally we wised up and took him in to the doctor, and found out the poor kiddo had a nasty ear infection. Four weeks and three antibiotics later, he is finally seeming like his old happy self again. We missed that sweet little smile and giggly face. He's got an appointment on Friday to make sure its really cleared up.

And meanwhile, he's started cutting MORE teeth. For some reason he waited to get his fangs last, so he's got 4 incisors popping in right now. You can see the little white spots where they're almost pushing through (yowch!) in this cute smiley tub picture.

He's also all about Daddy right now. Whenever he hears his papa come home he starts running (with that slant that says IF YOU DON'T CATCH ME I WILL BE EATING HARDWOOD FLOOR) or power-crawling toward the front door, and immediately asks "Uh? Uh?" (pick me up!! I love you!!) Like so:

How could you resist that cute face and the outstretched arms?! (You can't.)

His other loves are:

Climbing into cupboards to play (we have an empty one just for him in the kitchen).

Eating bananas, strawberries, pancakes, french toast, quesadillas, or toast with jam. (He does NOT like cheese alone!)

Playing with Gracie and/or her toys. (He spends a lot of time with a talking princess wand that says "Why HELLO little Princess!" He's very secure in his masculinity, so its okay.)

His green blanket (which he sleeps with every night).

Trying to do grown-up things, like using a fork or dumping water on Gracie's hair to rinse it in the bath (she doesn't like this as much).

Walking.

Playing on his truck.

Eating pretzels.

Opening jars we think he's not old enough to open.

Finding dirty socks and carrying them around and/or putting them in his mouth and shaking his head around like a puppy.

Playing at the gym.

And of course, being hugged, kissed, and loved.