Childrens Museum

This post is long overdue- Especially since we went to the Children Museum on February 3rd. FAIL. But- Better late than never! ;)

We have been going to the Phoenix Childrens Museum the last few months since the 1st Friday is Free. It is insanely busy, but Vander absolutely loves it! Since we are cheap, we will probably continue to only go on the 1st Friday of every month until my cheap butt decides to break down and buy a pass :)

 His favorite- Putting balls down the pipes

 Touchtown!

 Playing with sweet friend Maeli

 Painting water on the rocks

 My little artist

 A little overwhelmed

 He spent 15 minutes just walking up and down this tiny black "ramp"- If you can even call it that.

 The cousins all riding together :)

Learning time

Transportation Day

This Saturday we took Vander to Transportation Day in Ahwatukee. Its safe to say that he couldn't care less about any of the modes of transportation. His favorite part of our morning was the mini petting zoo. He LOVED the big fat disgusting pig. He pet every single animal, but in the middle of our petting zoo extravaganza our memory chip on our camera filled up. :( By the time he was running around petting everything in sight we were frantically deleting pictures. Our bad!

He absolutely adores animals, pretty much any kind of animal. This petting zoo had cows, chickens, goats and a pig and he loved every single one of them!

 Checkin everything out

 So excited about watching the train

 A little unsure at first

 And.. queue extreme excitement about the animals

 Pointing at the pig

 Checkin out the goat

 Petting the goat

 Telling Daddy all about it....

 Sup...?

 Playing some games

Showing off his award

Loftin' with daddy

A few weeks ago Joel started on a grand adventure building Vander a loft "Play Fort" for his playroom. Joel has spent countless hours in the garage measuring, cutting, priming and painting wood. Vander has come to LOVE spending time with his daddy playing in the garage. He wanders around and basically distroys our garage, but he absolutely loves it and thats what matters.

Joel hard at work :)

 Vander just starting by dumping milk all over the ground and then walking through it

 Dumping out our bin of painting supplies

 Trying to paint himself with the edge painter

 Just exploring

 Life is wonderful :)

 Putting stuff on his head- His new obsession

Still hard at work amist the craziness.... ;)

14 Months and obsessed ;)

Van is 14 months today! I have said this like a trillion times.. but WHERE DOES THE TIME GO??

Recently Vander has a new obsession. Actually I take that back- he has a whole list of obsessions... They are as follows....

-Chocolate Milk... a twist on his favorite (milk) has turned him into an obessed chocolate milkaholic

-Lucky Charms- He will have a full meltdown if he really wants some

-Fry Frys (as daddy calls them)- He LOVES french fries. I can't imagine where he gets that from.. He eats them by the handful... I also don't know where he gets THAT from ;)

-Sleeping in random places in his room- His new favorite place, behind his crib in the corner

-Playing in the toilet - Disgusting- but its true....

-Showers/Baths- this also goes along with running around the house naked before his baths. He giggles with joy as he runs freely all over the upstairs

-Books- this has been a favorite for many months- but the obsession continues

-Zebra Blankee- I cannot wash this blanket unless hes awake and when he sees me put it in the washer its devastating. He carries it with him all over the house- usually around his neck or over his head.

-Going outside- He walks to the front door and back door all the time going "eh eh eh" and pointing at the handle. All he wants is to run outside.

Beyond obsessions- This is what Van man is up to these days....

-He is VERY busy- LOVES making huge messes in a matter of minutes

-He loves his daddy and adores wrestling with him

-He loves the doggies- Mostly beating them with foreign objects- but its not rare to see him hugging Max or just laying on him

-Cartoons keep his attention for about 2 minutes- Hed rather watch animals or shows with real people

-He knows what he wants. He is strong headed and stubborn

-He is a jabber box. The kid NEVER stops jabbering. He will get close to your face and talk to you just so you know hes talking to you and that you're paying attention

-He loves to RUN and even more being chased

-He couldn't care less about play places. In fact, he usually runs OUT of the playplaces at the mall so we have to watch him carefully

-He is very independant and can keep himself busy during the day for hours

-He is terrified of toys that flash red or make loud crazy noises

-He is a cuddle bug and loves arm, back and leg scratches

-He makes us laugh over and over each day. Hes a silly boy!

-He is just TWO months away from being a big brother and has absolutely NO idea :) But he will be an amazing big brother!

-He is the BEST little buddy in the world and we adore him more than words can express!

Some of his most common and most recent nicknames...

-Boo

-Boozer

-Boozey

-Duder

-Van

 A common sight in our house- Carrying around his mini blankee

 Van and Grandma at daddy's softball games. He looks calm here... don't be fooled...

 How my home office looks at the end of almost every day. Courtesy of Van.

 His favorite sleeping spot- under and behind the bed

 Shovelin those Fry Frys.... by the HANDFUL ;) Thats my boy!!

 His FIRST coloring experience!

His first picture :)

Back to life...

The insanely terrible, horrible, misrable illness that my son had for the past 4 daysturned out to be an Ear Infection. We finally broke down and took him to the Doctor and I was positive they were going to tell me that it was a cold and to just keep giving him Tylenol. Thank GOODNESS I went to the Doctor, because the Infection was discovered and antibiotics have brought my sweet baby back to life!

It is absolutely amazing how quickly he turned back into our little angel. So grateful for modern medicine!

Here's our little man- back in action!

 His first time actually playing in the play place at Chandler mall. He loved it! Look how disgusting that glass is though... ew....

 He LOVED going down the slide, backwards and on his tummy

 He loves playing with his daddy. Joel is the funniest man alive- According to Vander :)

 Eating his VERY favorite food- Pancakes. He eats 10 every morning, every one of them in one bite.

 His other love... Milk.... its that serious...

 Mmmmm- Happy Clam

 The adorable look Joel and I get when we are working and Vander wants us to play. How can you resist that face?

While our change to a toddler bed has been a HUGE success- We still have days that we come in and he is in random locations in his room. We have learned that he likes to shove himself under things, such as his crib... his rocking chair..... Makes me feel terrible- but he obviously likes it!

Softball Nights

Since Vander can now walk like a champ, keep himself entertained and climb up and down stairs, softball nights have become MUCH more enjoyable! I do however feel like I'm saying "No" every 5 seconds. "Don't put that in your mouth", "Don't run over there", "Don't climb on that".... AHHHH...

Ear infection and all, Vander had a blast at daddy's softball games this week. Now that Bop Bop (Grandpa Craig) is playing on the same team at Big League Dreams, I get to enjoy the night with my mom as well. LOVE IT!

 Busy busy busy... Playing with the rocks

 Very easily entertained by the drain

 My future baseball player :)

 What good would a softball post be without pictures of Joel playing? :)