Ezra is 16 months!

Okay, I'm not gonna lie... These photos are from exactly one month ago... WE'RE BAD PARENTS! Or whatever. I'll take a couple today and put them up. Oh yeah, happy 4th!

Oh, Daisy.

Developmentally, Ezra is moving along. He climbs ev-er-y-thing right now, but he doesn't always know how to get himself down (from standing on the coffee table, for example). He's started throwing little tantrums, but luckily for us he yells, not screams. He also turns in circles when he does sometimes, and it can be really hard not to laugh.

He's making progress on words - I feel so hesitant to say he's "saying" things now because he's clearly said some things a couple of times, but then I don't hear them again. But his favorite thing to say right now is "hot." I think because he can actually say it very clearly, everything is hot. It's kind of perplexing. He also said "water" (wawa) for the first time this evening. He says "day" for Django and he says "out" pretty well. He was saying "ice" really well but hasn't for a few days... is that a normal thing for y'all? It's like he knows he can say it, so he works on something else or something.

His excited face.

My favorite thing he's started doing is pointing to features on his face. His favorite (or the one he remembers most often) is his nose. He points to it and we say, "Ezra's nose!" like he's just done the most wonderful and exciting thing in the world. He's been experimenting with his eye (or really tear duct), and he knows our tongues and ears but hasn't quite gotten those on himself consistently yet.

He's also started trying to put our shoes on for us. I don't know, it seems so strange, but it's fine that I end up wearing two different shoes that are Stephen's some days. At least he doesn't try with his shoes on my feet; there's no helping them.

"Leetle leetle leetle leetle!" is what his grandpa sings to him.

He loves to read books over and over (and over and over) again, but lately he hasn't been "reading" them by himself much. I think now he's more interested in what the things in the books are called than just looking at the pictures.

He didn't gain weight from his 9 month well visit until the week before his 15 month visit (I kid you not), so he was in the 20th percentile for length, 5th for weight, and 90th for head circumference. Yes, he has a Muenich noggin. Love it!

 Watch this. It's short and amusing.

He's still kind of a perplexing eater: loving things one day and refusing to eat them for weeks after (or ever again, in the case of steamed carrots). I've been trying to get him on a snack-meal schedule, but I definitely don't have it down - I try to feed him and he eats like 2 peas and 3 cheerios and a teensy piece of apple and then his behavior falls apart 30 minutes later because he's starvicating.

I think he maybe should be saying more words, but I'm not really worried about it. He's a stubborn little person with a great deal to say, and more and more of it is becoming comprehensible. He's such a delight to us. He still has to be one of the happiest toddlers around. Love you, Pez!