ELI! How are you 16 months old already? It feels like you should still be a tiny baby, but it also seems like you've always been here.

These days, you're growing like a weed, you're curious about everything, you're mischievous and you're chatting up a storm. It seems like you say a new word every day. You love to make people laugh  - you know what makes me and your dad laugh, and you'll do it over and over, looking at us to make sure we're entertained.

You're running everywhere now. You'll actually help tidy up, which is nice. If we ask you to put something away in your basket, you do it, then clap. Very helpful. You love animals and you get excited every time you see any critter. You're really good at making animal sounds too and you've expanded your repertoire past the same old farm animals to things like snakes, owls, and monkeys.

You adore music and dancing and you still love bathtime and being read to. You'll also pull a stack of books out of your baskets and read them for a surprisingly long time. Now that the weather isn't as crazy and cold you're able to get out more to play in the yard and go for walks in your stroller, and you're great at pointing out things like birds and trucks.

The only challenge with you is mealtime. You're developing a little bit of pickiness - one day you love sweet potatoes, the next day, forget it. I made Nutella crepes on the weekend and figured that would be the best thing ever and you wouldn't eat a bite. Things you consistently like to eat are bananas, cereal, yogurt, rolls, avocados, cheese, and blueberries. Everything else is 50/50. I've figured out that I can hide pretty much anything, including veggies, in your yogurt and you'll eat it.

You're starting to mimic things we say, so we've started to really make an effort to keep the bad words to a minimum. You want to do everything yourself - walking instead of being carried, using your spoon instead of being fed, carrying things at the grocery store - you are very independent. You're very social, not even the tiniest bit shy, and such a chatterbox.

Happy 16 months (and one day), big E. You make us laugh and bring us joy every single day!