18 Months

Happy 1 1/2 Birthday to Charlie and Jake!

The family at a recent zoo outing.

Jake

31 1/2"

24 lbs, 3 oz

Some of Jake's new words this month are "cah" (anything that moves and goes "voom"),  "cah-ker" (for cracker snacks), and "oh-mo" (for Elmo).  I don't know what it is about that Elmo, but the kiddos sure do love him!  He also sometimes says "bu-bye" when he waves - picture arm stretched up high with his wrist on his forehead, hand waving up and down.  One day a little while after Scott left for work, he said, "bu-bye...dada?"

Jake has nearly mastered the art of climbing.  If we turn our backs for a split second, we often see his head pop up in unexpected places.  He also has the hang of going down the stairs on his belly and sometimes wants to try going down the "big boy" way holding onto the railings. 

Charlie

31 1/4" 

20 lbs

After breakfast one morning, Charlie had a pretty long little chat with me.  While still sitting at the table, he looked over to the play area and said (and partially signed), "Awll.  Play car, down?"  Sure enough, as soon as I got him cleaned up and down from his chair, he toddled right on over to his toys and played with some cars.  We've also caught him repeating "two..tee" when we start counting.  I don't think he associates the numbers with "how many" yet, though.  I think it's from us saying, "1, 2, 3...Go!" so often when sliding, throwing a ball, or pushing a wind up car.  Some other favorite sentences this month include, "Bye-bye wa-yer" when we drain the tub after bathtime, and "Bye-bye doggie" as we watched a huge inflatable dog balloon get deflated at the end of the game at the baseball park.  Charlie is also working on names this month, and has quite a few down pretty well, including Dada, Mommie, Nanala (Nana + a mysterious "l"), PaPa...tractor! (the boys rode with Papaw in a tractor this spring, and one of our pictures in a family album has Papaw on his tractor), Ma-mee (Grammie), Mmmmat! (Uncle Matt).  He loves flipping through his new family "pich-er" book, and is getting close on many others as well.  

Charlie also caught a gnarly case of Hand-Foot-Mouth disease this month.  The picture below might be the exact moment that nasty little bug made a new home.  Poor little guy was covered in blisters, much worse than Jake or mom, who also had the great fortune to get the virus.  Oh, and FYI, I do not recommend getting this as an adult.  Ugh. 

Charlie playing with a stuffed doggie at the zoo's bug exhibit...and maybe some unwelcome "bugs" as well. :(