Growth & Appearance: People keep asking us if you have red hair. To me, it appears brown on top and blond in the back.
You have four teeth on top and four on the bottom.
You love wearing shoes on your feet which is funny because I have yet to put shoes on your feet. Instead, you’ve picked up on the fact that we all wear shoes and in an effort not to be excluded, you come crawling up to me often with your brother’s shoes in your hand pointing at your feet.
You’re wearing size 4 diapers, size 18-2T clothes. You seem incredibly tall.
Eating: You’re still a champion eater, but you’ve developed some preferences. Some days you simply eat more than others. And you may refuse something you loved just the day before. When you don’t like the food sitting in front of you, you like to swipe your hands from one side of the table to the other making food fly everywhere. Sarah loves this.
You’ll eat, or at least try, everything. Your current favorites are watermelon and bananas.
I’ve cut our breastfeeding sessions in half with hopes of weaning, but then I got emotional about it, so we’re sticking to four feedings a day plus 1-2 bottles of frozen breast milk. You’re able to drink from the bottle on your own.
You have a serious desire to use silverware. You’re always wanting to be just like us. Your ability to do so, however, sucks. It does keep you entertained, so oftentimes we give you a spoon.
Sleeping: You are officially attached to your blanket. It’s funny how that happens. You love to snuggle with it and often point and whine while you’re on your changing table until I grab the thing out of your crib and put it in your arms. Then you like to put it over your face and play peek-a-boo. You’re quite the peek-a-boo fan these days.
We had to move the noise maker out of your crib because you not only figured out how to turn it off, but also how to reach your little arm out of the crib and unplug the cord from the wall.
Breastfeeding puts you to bed most nights, but some nights you’re still awake when I put you down. When this happens, we can hear you playing with your activity center. Eventually you fall asleep on your own, without a fuss.
You wake up around 8am, nap from 10:30am to 1pm, nap from 4:30pm to 6pm, and go down for the night around 9:30pm. When we’re out and about, we forgo the second nap. Sometimes we pay the consequences, but most of the time you function off of whatever sleep you get in the car.
Talking: More than words, you point and whine. You point at everything and expect everyone to obey your commands.
You’re good with D’s and are able to say “down”, “done”, and “dog”. You say “hello” whenever you have a phone in your hands. “Boon” is “balloon” and “ka” is “car”. And, oh yes, you say “mama”.
Development: You dance anytime there is music on. In fact, one of your favorite things to do is to crawl over to the record player, pull yourself up, and turn the music up as high as it goes while you drop it like it’s hot.
To say you’re still crawling is kind of a lie. You’re more like motor-crawling. You’re faster than all hell and often crawl up on all fours without your knees touching to get wherever you’re going as fast as possible.
You’re able to stand without holding onto anything, but it always has to be on your own terms. Anytime we try to put you down on your feet, you drop to the floor. But when you’re playing, you’ll let go of whatever you’re holding onto and stand without a problem. You’ve taken a couple steps on your own.
You like books, especially the touch and feel books. You’ll grab a book and bring it to me to read to you.
I have little doubt that you are right handed. You do most everything with your right hand.
You’re a climber. You love climbing onto chairs and rocking back and forth. It’s totally safe and not scary at all to walk into a room and find you on top of a chair rocking back and forth. The other day Papa found you in the bathroom; You had climbed into the empty bathtub and were playing with your toys.
You suck your thumb, but not on a regular basis and not for any real length of time.
The toilet paper is almost always unraveled from the roll and the baking supplies are almost always strewn about on the kitchen floor. We ought to childproof the kitchen cupboards, but there’s not much in there that can cause anything more than a mess.
You’re still ridiculously strong. You love pushing your highcahir all over the house. And when your arm comes down on my chest when we’re playing on the floor, there is definite force behind it.
You love to laugh.
Favorites: Hands down, the four wheeler is your favorite. You spend the better part of the day on that thing and have got quite good at maneuvering around every corner of the house. You’re on that thing so much that when you opt to get down, we comment that you’ve chosen to “de-saddle”.
You love using a pen and paper. I think you got this from Hooper. My pens are constantly missing from my desk. You also love playing with the plugs; unplugging the record player is a daily occurrence.
My computer mouse is always on your wish list. And you love balloons.
Forgive me. I posted this over on the Mine Style Blog some time ago but wanted it saved here for Van’s future reference.
Things I love about the room: There is tons of natural light. Unfortunately, in the summer months this means it’s also the hottest room in the house. Our house was built in the 50’s and the windows are still the original. If anyone wants to donate to the new window fund, send your dollars my way. Why are windows so expensive? Seriously, it’s glass, not gold. But whatever, I digress. I love the angle of the ceiling, higher on one side and then sloping down. Most everything in the room was mine as a child or bought second hand, and I love that.
Things I hate about the room: We replaced the carpet when we moved in three years ago and it needs to be changed already. I’d love to put in wood floors or some deep shag carpet. The rug is from Cost Plus, but I’d love to change it out for this one from Target just for a change. I can’t seem to keep the door clean to save my life; the smudges serve as evidence of the dirty hands of the toddler that refuses to use the door knob. We took the crib bumper pads out only to find Van crying with his leg stuck through the bars, hence the random assortment of books that serve as our quick fix (I think I left those in for at least one of the photos). The clock on the wall does not work. Ho hum. I had intentions to fix it, but I also have intentions to have a clean house. I have neither. I’d also like to change the blinds or add curtains but my indecisiveness leaves me stuck with what the house came with.
Where things came from: The framed prints came from a trip we took to Cuba, when I was pregnant for the first time. We didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl but agreed that the room would be built around those prints. The crib (Sparrow made by Oeuf), the danish dresser, and the knock off Eames chair were all bought off craigslist. Many of the books and toys were my own as a child or picked up along the way from thrift stores or flea markets. Van’s gray triangle onesie is from this etsy shop. The boxer needlework is perhaps one of my favorite things in the room and it came from this etsy shop (This one and this one are still available for a mere $5). The wall book shelf is from Pottery Barn Kids and the floating shelves are from Ikea.
just like that, he was named.
The future: We’d love to move both of the boys into the same room. When that happens, I have visions of making their room a bit more grown up with an old vintage map of the world.
You can check out Hooper’s room here.
Van, you scoot a lot faster when Hooper’s bottle is within sight. Hooper, you know your brother is fond of your cup. I watched the other day as you moved your cup close enough for Van to reach, waited for him to put his hands on it, at-which-point you grabbed the cup and ran away.
