Happy...

...birthday to my dad, who turns 51 today. Last year, for his 50th, I was enormously pregnant and unable to make the trip to Iowa to help celebrate. This year, too, we couldn't get to Iowa, but I was happy to spend the day with Charlotte instead of with my bulging belly. I love my dad, and I love seeing how he's fitting well into his new role as grandpa.

...Mother's Day to all the mothers in my life: my mom, my mother-in-law, my grandma, and Jeff's grandma. We were happy to promote you all to the next tier up in mother-ness (grandma, grandma, oma and great-grandma, respectively).

...baby Charlotte has been making some leaps and bounds lately. She's started climbing the stairs (gulp) making necessary the quick scramble to improvise a baby gate. She's saying quite a few more words ("buhbuh" for bubbles, "boh" for book, "bah" for ball, "gleen" for green, "lalalow" for yellow, "boo" for blue). She's starting to give kisses, which usually means puckering up or humming and pressing her head onto your face.

...is what you will be when I post a new video of Charlotte later this week!