Five Years / Fifteen Months

So, as promised, here's my follow-up post about the happenings around about a month ago (I still want to do a post more about our house-buying shenanigans, but I won't bother with that just yet).

As it turned out, our anniversary fell squarely on moving weekend (or the weekend after, which is basically the same thing), so we didn't get a chance to go out of town or to a fancy dinner or really anything too special, except of course, you know, buying and moving into a house and everything.  There were still flowers and reminiscing about the blessed day five years ago, as well as anniversaries since then, but there was also a trip to Home Depot and a little frustration at trying to get this or that fixed or functioning.  It was enough to be together and have a nice place to live and be, and then we can celebrate more fully and appropriately sometime down the road.

After that we reached another little milestone in The Boy's lifetime, and at 15 months he's doing great.  His personality is definitely starting to show a little more prominently, and he's starting to assert himself (which is fun but also a bit bewildering at times).  He loves to make a mess at mealtime and is starting to be a little more selective with his preferred foods.  His favorite foods are bananas and Graham Crackers, both of which he will eat at pretty much any time and in almost no time.  He still sleeps like a champ, with the occasional (brief) episode at night or the occasional short nap (the new church schedule we just switched to might do a real number on the nap/lunch setup on Sundays, so we'll have to see how that goes...).  He loves to put things in and out of other things, and he can play with his set of IKEA stacking cups for ages.  He plays with any and every toy he can find, even if it's not a toy, and each night it's amusing to go around and pick up all the debris the li'l tornado has left in his wake throughout the day, just because you never know what you'll find or where.  He is very vocal, and says a handful of words, but definitely does plenty of animal sounds.  He sometimes growls for a good long while, no matter what animal he sees in a book or what animal sound we ask him to say.  He's very good and usually silent in the car.  He just stares out the window with a somewhat bemused expression on his face and watches the world go by (unless of course we're on a two-minute drive home from church, when he might probably fall asleep, and unless of course we're on a late-night roadtrip drive home, when he might fall asleep for a little while and then never fall back asleep again, much to his dismay... and the dismay of everyone else in the car).  But really, 98% of the time he is just an absolute delight, and his funny faces and tub splashes and squirmy diaper changes and elated wanderings around the house are a joy to his parents and all who meet him.  It's the best thing when your little one runs across the room just to be close to you or jumps into your arms with a huge, 7-toothy smile on his face.

Now it's time for an Instagram photo onslaught!

Make it blue!

You can be a champion too if you eat Kanine Krunchies!

The Boy who would be king.

Bath time with Daddy!

So many animals in this one!

Just a little pounce.

Bobo, Robin, Robin, Bobo.

He loved the splash pads this summer!  It took a little bit and he still mostly likes to skirt around the edges and flirt with the little spouts, but he still finds the whole thing pretty delightful.

The wonderful thing about Bobos is he's the only one!

Blurrily getting into things with cousin Nora.

Matching bedhead!

I really didn't mean to give him a scar on his forehead (L), but Elise definitely did (R).

Bleurgh, mushy stuff.  He'll change his tune one day.

Pop Rocks in my shave ice?!?  Oh my yes.  I love how Little Mister caught me taking the picture.

We finally made it to see the balloons!  (Okay, we missed the launch, but at least we saw some this year.)

The best of friends.

Time for a little visit to Prydain.

He's doing a little detective work of his own, I guess.

Just a family of cows at Chick-fil-A.  That tail!!!

Checking out the new Bean Museum (mixed feelings...) but he sure loved all the lions,  of which there was an abundance.

His first Disney crush?!?  He kept toting it around and giving her little kisses.

He just mostly likes to get around during these movie happenings, truth be told.

That's it, enough people have called him "her"...  time for a little trim.  Still so handsome.

Saying hello to Nana and aunties on the neighbors' U-Haul truck.

Pay no attention to the Christmas presents on the cart, young man.  We love a good consignment sale.

The one that started it all for me as a lad.  His first viewing didn't have quite the same effect as mine did.  Ah well.

Happy year-and-a-quarter, son!  You are a beloved child of ours indeed.