12 Months!

We all survived our first year as a family!

Vander is getting more and more personality all the time. He is still happy pretty much all of the time. He is always up for doing something new. He loves having fun and laughing. There is definitely a stubborn streak in there though. He definitely wants to do things his way and gets mad if you don't let him do things. He is very mischevious too, like when you tell him not to do something he smiles and does it anyways. Overall I would say he is a goofball, that is definitely what I call him the most!

He is walking scary well now. I would say he walks over 80% of the time, maybe even 90%, enough that it is starting to be unusual for him to crawl. And he is always getting faster and more confident with his walking all the time. Dylan thinks we are only two weeks away from running. Wish us luck!

One of my favorite things about Vander is his eating! He eats as often as you will feed him and usually he eats a lot. One night last week he ate a whole cup of pasta and was just shoveling it in his mouth. His current favorite foods are still strawberries, cheese, avocado, zucchini and potatoes probably, but we recently gave him raw tomatoes from pico and he devoured them! I hope he maintains even a sliver of his current diet as he gets older. We have started ordering his own food for him when we go out to eat. I would say he eats about one third of his meal and bits of our meals too. Vander likes having utensils, but he isn't great at using them quite yet.

His favorite activities are opening and closing doors and giggling about it while you tell him what action he is doing. He loves pointing to things and having you tell him what they are. Vander loves carrying around his bucket toy. He cracks up about hiding in corners and cubbyholes.

He is chatting well. He tells the dogs "out" and points, just like mommy. Ha ha! He just started saying "up" to be picked up; we usually try to make him say it before we will pick him up. He is trying so hard to get us to understand him! It will be so nice when he can talk so we can know what he wants. I know I will regret wanting him to talk since he will probably never stop!

Vander loves being outside. He constantly wants to go out and gets mad when you bring him back in.

He loves people. He still has no stranger danger and will let anyone hold him. He loves watching other kids, especially other kids. He loves giving all of his grandparents great big hugs.

He is such an amazing little person! I love him so much :)