more of Van's birthday!

i'll spare you the 3 1/2 minute video of Van eating his cake. if you've ever seen the kid eat a banana you can imagine how it happened - he basically pureed it through his teeth. pretty funny. we celebrated with his friends Jack and Caden and families and Grandma and Pa. thanks for celebrating with us, all! :)


for the sake of journaling, i should document some of Van's favorite and milestones when he turned 1.

height: 33 inches (95%)
weight: 23 lbs 4 oz (50%)
head: big

favorites...

• food - bananas and meat of any kind
• song - In the Leafy Tree Tops (always has been)
• game - wrestling
  
• activity - climbing stairs (at home, at the park... anywhere...) and anything sissy is doing - making dirt soup in the backyard, taking a bath, etc.
  
• toy - balls and your Buzz Lightyear push cart Grandma and Pa gave you for your birthday
  
• attachments - blankey and Froggy (Froggy used to be Emery's, but I told her one day it would be nice if she gave it to brother - which she did! so cute!)
  
• book - Baby Face, Pajama Time (thanks to mom's acquired "reading rap" skills from Auntie Bek) and Gallop
• TV show/movie - his weird parents still don't have a TV but he sure gets giggly when sissy is watching Dora in the car on vacations - I think he has a crush on her
• favorite person - mom. he loves me!
  

milestones...

• words - mama, dad, sissss (for sissy), ba (ball), nana (banana), woof, bye bye
  
• words he's said once or twice - "hi da" (hi dad), amen, potty
• claps with music, dances to music (he's a crazy dancer!), feeds himself everything including oatmeal and cheerios with milk (holds, but doesn't exactly use, the spoon), climbs on things as tall as he is, mimics letter sounds really well, does "up and down" and "open and shut" in the wheels on the bus

and...

• laughs the hardest - when he plays with Emery
• dad says what he loves the most about Van is his laugh, how he always is exploring and moving, unless he's cuddling and how sweet he is

here he is doing what he does best - first, cuddling and then climbing stairs and laughing