Okay, maybe I worked a little bit faster.
But I definitely didn't smile as much ;)
Here is a fire hydrant flow of photos for you from Anthon's 16th month of life.
(March 17-April17)
When Matthew feeds Anthon, he does all the feeding, to avoid making a massive mess. It partly (well, mostly) drives Matthew nuts that I let Anthon feed himself because it gets food allllll over. All over himself, all over the floor, all over, well, everywhere else, too. haha, but I'm telling you, Anthon is SO stinking happy when he feeds himself! I just love watching him! From figuring out how to turn that dang spoon so the laddle portion will get to his mouth, to smearing yogurt all over his tray, to, yes, smearing whatever peanut-buttery thing is in his hand into his hair--the kid LOVES it. And so do I.
They redid the brick outside our apartment; this provided Anthon (and many of the workers) days of entertainment. I don't think I'll ever again take for granted people who wave at babies and interact with them--he LOVES it.
This month was a lot of being outside, as the weather heated up. (And didn't heat up, as you see in the below picture)
My little Christmas Story Baby.
As
most of you know, I LOVE being outside. Anthon, as you may have
gathered, what with his hat-putting-on and shoe-putting-on-attempts,
does as well.
Parks
are a hit. Though, MUCH more terrifying with his increasing mobility
and ability to walk around the play structures.Seriously, if I could
count the number of mini-heart attacks I have....
Death grip, people, death grip.
This is one of my favorites of he and Matthew.
Puddle jumping (or...stepping), as well as just being out in the rain are included in Anthon's list of favorites this month. Gosh. His little face just kills me.
This picture combines rock throwing AND rain. Win, win, win.
Rocks,
people, are his LIFE. He gathers them, throws them, gathers them again;
carries them around with him; has a whole pile in his stroller for when
we go on walks.... He's also taken to throwing rocks in sewers and
loves to hear them splash; he looks up at us with the cutest little
expression of excitement after each throw/drop.
You name it, as far as rock loving is concerned, and he does it (and loves it).
He
first discovered the phenomena of rock throwing by our downstairs
neighbors back patio, where his initial awe was as a result of the noise
they make when they hit the other rocks. For the first while, we would
just sit in piles of rocks (like the pictures above), throwing rocks.
His rock throws were often accompanied by an epic sound effect
(something like a gunshot noise...haha) and followed by an excited face
(something like the picture on the right above) to share the excitement
with mom or dad. Eventually, dad (naturally) introduced Anthon to
throwing rocks into the pond. His world was blown. And will, surely,
never be the same.
Blanket rides made an official appearance this month. These are a
childhood staple in Matthew's household, and there are dozens (if not
more) family videos to prove it. We're happy to continue the tradition
:)
To transition to our next love this month, you'll notice, along with the rocks in the cupholders and hands below, that Mickey Mouse accompanied Anthon on one of our walks. This month, Anthon LOVED Mickey. A present from our adorable elderly neighbors, this little guy has secured himself a place in Anthon's heart, along with a few other stuffed animals.
Yes...just putting his stuffed animals in his highchair and feeding them.
OKAY, is he not going to be the world's BEST big brother one day??
Okay, to sum things up. Anthon's favorites include:
-rocks
-yogurt
-cheese
-the color orange
-being outside
-hats
-puddle jumping
Words he's saying, (though not super often)
-mah (mom)
-dah (dad)
-hi
-bye
Moments I want to never forget
-Anthon sitting in my lap helping me type letters on the keyboard to enter in our Pampers Rewards :)
-Anthon sitting in my lap with me, using newspaper to wipe off the windows and holding the bottle while I spray it
-Anthon's 'super excited' stance, where he marches off, stops suddenly, tilts his upper half forward, puts his arms straight back, and makes a 'wooooo' restrained, TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT for this little body kind of noise
-Anthon pulling me in by my neck as I'm holding him at bedtime for loves <3
Month 16 was so fun.
The rest of summer has been just as fun.
Stay tuned....for another two months of updates; they'll be here....eventually ;)
(March 17-April17)
As I mentioned before, household chores are a whole new ball of fun.
Anthon sits on the dryer and throws things into the washer for me, and
then pushes things from the dryer door, into the dryer to be dried. SO
stinking fun.
Helping me change his sheets... hahaha
Helping me vacuum....
Did
I mention? HATS. This child had one serious love of hats this month.
Granted, it was still chilly enough that we wore until April. He also
mastered the art of putting hats on himself. And, as pictured, anything
we help him see as a potential hat. hahaha. My nail polish bag makes
just the perfect size hat. I put in on my head once to be funny and he
has seen no other valid use for it since.
This is how Anthon lets me know he's ready to go outside. Shoes off the shoe rack and hat on his head.
I
am also convinced that Anthon's hats never look cuter than when he puts
them on himself. Be it caty-whompus or hippie style, homeboy knows JUST
how to wear a hat, you know, when he's putting it on himself.
Also, one of the cuter things you'll ever hear....
One
of Anthon's bears has a hat that Anthon gets out everytime we read 'Go
Dog, Go'. Whenever we get to the 'do you like my hat' page, Anthon puts
on the bear's hat. He then takes it off when we turn the page.
I
think it's safe to say walking around Target is one of our favorite
family activities this month. Many of our cutest pictures have been
taken in this red-walled wonderland.
Easter
this year was a blast. Bubbles, coloring, and playing with plastic eggs
were by FAR the favorites. We actually never did an Easter egg hunt, as
Anthon was so enthralled by merely dumping the eggs out of their
respective bags/buckets multiple times a day that Easter egg hunting
simply escaped us. The dumping of the eggs would be the first thing he
did when he walked into our front room. We would help him put them
(back) away after playing with them about seven times a day. He LOVED
them.
Coloring also became part of that ritual. If, by coloring, I mean,
dumping out the eggs, and then dumping his box of crayons on top of his
coloring book after getting it out. haha. He colors a little too, but
mostly dumps. I think when either Matthew or I sit to color with
him, we end up doing most of the coloring while he moves on to another
activity.
And a very color coordinated Easter Sunday picture to boot...
When Matthew feeds Anthon, he does all the feeding, to avoid making a massive mess. It partly (well, mostly) drives Matthew nuts that I let Anthon feed himself because it gets food allllll over. All over himself, all over the floor, all over, well, everywhere else, too. haha, but I'm telling you, Anthon is SO stinking happy when he feeds himself! I just love watching him! From figuring out how to turn that dang spoon so the laddle portion will get to his mouth, to smearing yogurt all over his tray, to, yes, smearing whatever peanut-buttery thing is in his hand into his hair--the kid LOVES it. And so do I.
This
was the first month Anthon really used spoons. Mostly, he just wouldn't
eat until he had a utensil in his hand, though he wouldn't necessarily
use said utensil. I think life became a lot easier when we finally
bought baby spoons. After realizing him using an adult spoon was the
equivalent of me using a wooden cooking spoon (both the size of our
respective forearms...), I decided it was the motherly thing to do.
We
got our first pet this month--Bart, or, Bartholomew. He's a black dolly
and we love him. Anthon, at naptimes and bedtime, after waving goodbye
to his toys and the front room, then comes and waves goodbye to his fish
in the tank in our room before heading (blanket in hand, bink in mouth)
to his bedroom. It's beyond adorable. We also got two guppies--Homer
and Illiad. They're orange and Anthon loves them.
Which leads me to my next point...
The color orange.
Take a moment to look through the next two pictures. Notice anything....orange?
haha,
Anthon LOVES orange. He will dump out his whole box of crayons and then
only use or carry around the orange ones. In a room full of balls, he
only picks up the orange ones and carries them with him. His orange
ballapalooza ball is the almost always in hand, while any other colored
balls come and go.
General
Conference was this month. Anthon was asleep for one of the sessions,
which means the majority of our conference looked like some derivative
of this:
haha,
Easter eggs, drawing pictures for Anthon instead of taking notes, being
entertained by/entertaining little man. Please note the dumped crayons
and plastic eggs, per my description above :P
Surprisingly,
it wasn't too hard to still get a few somethings out of conference. A
tender mercy from the Lord to those raising his kiddos here on Earth :)
Anthon
for some reason woke up at 5 or 5:30 quite often this month. Brutal for
me, fun for Matthew, as he got to share some breakfasts and farewells
with Matthew in the mornings!
They redid the brick outside our apartment; this provided Anthon (and many of the workers) days of entertainment. I don't think I'll ever again take for granted people who wave at babies and interact with them--he LOVES it.
This month was a lot of being outside, as the weather heated up. (And didn't heat up, as you see in the below picture)
My little Christmas Story Baby.
This is one of my favorites of he and Matthew.
Puddle jumping (or...stepping), as well as just being out in the rain are included in Anthon's list of favorites this month. Gosh. His little face just kills me.
This picture combines rock throwing AND rain. Win, win, win.
You name it, as far as rock loving is concerned, and he does it (and loves it).
He
first discovered the phenomena of rock throwing by our downstairs
neighbors back patio, where his initial awe was as a result of the noise
they make when they hit the other rocks. For the first while, we would
just sit in piles of rocks (like the pictures above), throwing rocks.
His rock throws were often accompanied by an epic sound effect
(something like a gunshot noise...haha) and followed by an excited face
(something like the picture on the right above) to share the excitement
with mom or dad. Eventually, dad (naturally) introduced Anthon to
throwing rocks into the pond. His world was blown. And will, surely,
never be the same. 
To transition to our next love this month, you'll notice, along with the rocks in the cupholders and hands below, that Mickey Mouse accompanied Anthon on one of our walks. This month, Anthon LOVED Mickey. A present from our adorable elderly neighbors, this little guy has secured himself a place in Anthon's heart, along with a few other stuffed animals.
Yes...just putting his stuffed animals in his highchair and feeding them.
OKAY, is he not going to be the world's BEST big brother one day??
Okay, to sum things up. Anthon's favorites include:
-rocks
-yogurt
-cheese
-the color orange
-being outside
-hats
-puddle jumping
Words he's saying, (though not super often)
-mah (mom)
-dah (dad)
-hi
-bye
Moments I want to never forget
-Anthon sitting in my lap helping me type letters on the keyboard to enter in our Pampers Rewards :)
-Anthon sitting in my lap with me, using newspaper to wipe off the windows and holding the bottle while I spray it
-Anthon's 'super excited' stance, where he marches off, stops suddenly, tilts his upper half forward, puts his arms straight back, and makes a 'wooooo' restrained, TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT for this little body kind of noise
-Anthon pulling me in by my neck as I'm holding him at bedtime for loves <3
Month 16 was so fun.
The rest of summer has been just as fun.
Stay tuned....for another two months of updates; they'll be here....eventually ;)
