Lack of updates in the picture department continue to be entirely Peter's fault, or rather, Peter's-boss's-fault. So sad, but there's just been no time.

On Callie updates: she's learned how to jump and hop successfully, her vocabulary has exploded to include pretty much every body part from eyebrows to elbows to thighs, in addition to all the major stuff like 'TOES!' and 'TUMMY!'.

She can also count out loud to about 15, which not-so-coincidentally also happens to be approximately the number of steps it takes to get up our stairs. I started counting them as she'd walk up, and now she can fairly reliably count them herself. She definitely have 1-6 down cold, but she's doing well with higher numbers too.

Except for occasional confusion on interim hues like lavender and teal, Callie also has her basic colors down. Her favorites seem to be blue, green, and pink if her drawings are any indication, but yellow and red seem to be more fun to say.

Her only verb is 'go' right now, and she uses this to string together all manner of words. "Baby go nap", "Daddy go work go car", "Mommy go....WUNCH! (lunch)", "Wiwah (Lilah) go play go ball", etc etc. She understands others, but just doesn't use them in sentences. Despite her difficulty pronouncing L's and R's the pediatrician isn't worried, and in fact thinks she's very verbally advanced for her age, which is great considering she was at or a bit lagging behind the average skillset at 18 months.

I take the kids on walks around our block (up a HUGE hill) and down to the park almost every day, and especially on the trip out it is nonstop chattering about cars, dogs barking ("doggie go WOOF!"), school buses and trucks, boys, girls, and anything else she sees. Not all of it is intelligible, but a good deal.

And on 'so cute it breaks your heart' news, Callie is now consistently saying "Hi!" and "Goodbye" or "Bye Bye!" with enthusiastic waves to almost everyone now. She also FINALLY said "I love you" when I said it to her before she went to bed. It was very gratifying to hear it, especially given the tantrum levels of late.

Callie's just chugging along and doing very well. She's healthy, friendly, and still tantrums less than most kids her age. YAY!