Baby Anson is ONE!

Little "Anson Bo" (short for Anson Bo Banson) turned one last week! We celebrated with both grandmas and Grandpa Carl, which was great. Grady had his last day of school celebration in the morning, and Anson was able to join in on the fun...


Grady examining something yucky with his new magnifying glass (from his teacher)



Birthday Boy and Dada



G enjoying his pizza



I think A was trying to get out!





Then Grady showed us the hole he has been digging in the playground



And we went for a swing...



Both boys played on the climber







After naptime we all opened some gifts with Anson





One of his gifts from us was this Bert puppet, since he really seems to like Bert





sheer joy





Grady loved him too



The Grandpa Carl, Grady, and Dada got to work building the Thomas motorized ride-on we got for Anson





checking it out...



And it's horrible! I am sure he will grow to love it...



He did really like the rocking police car from Nana and Papa



After gifts we all went out to dinner at Mimi's, a really great place for kids.

Grady and Nana



Gaga taught Anson how to do "so big!" - here he is demonstrating



They brought him a piece of cake (chocolate mousse), and he loved it, of course

I think he thought it was another smash cake!





SO what is Anson up to at ONE!?

He just took his first few steps yesterday (May 25th). He has been standing on his own more and more and gets VERY proud when he does so. Yesterday he walked from me (and Grady) back to Dada (and Grady - he just ran back and forth) a few times. It was great that we were all there to cheer him on!

He still loves food. LOVES LOVES LOVES. He especially enjoys meat (of all sorts) and fruit. He often eats so fast that I cannot keep up putting food down for him. He never really took to purees, so we don't try them too often anymore. He pretty much eats what we eat.

He now has 9 teeth (one molar and one more almost through). He's been OK with teething - not great, but at least he still generally sleeps.

He's a good sleeper in general - about 11.5-12 hours at night and then 2 naps still (one about 1.5 hours and one about 45 minutes). He goes to sleep on his own with a binkie, lovey, and a sleep sack.

He is pretty lovey now (actually more then he used to be). I find him coming over just to nuzzle up to me, especially when sleepy.

He is still stranger shy, though he is getting better. And he did amazingly well when Mama and Dada went to Mexico for a few days. I couldn't believe it!

He loves to play with Grady and basically follows him around. But he generally plays independently extremely well.

He loves music and will bop along to any little song you sing or any music from a toy. It's super cute. Music also really calms him down.

He loves the water, and is really enjoying pool season so far!

As for verbal skills, he babbles quite a bit, using gibberish to tell little stories. He also says "Mama" and "Dada". He really enjoys blowing raspberries, and if you blow them back he will usually crack up. We can go back and forth for 5 minutes with raspberries, cracking each other up. He also officially says his first animal sound. If asked "what sound does a doggie make?" he will do this blowing thing with his mouth (like the end of "ruff"). I have Nana to thank for that one! He signs "milk" and "all done".

At his 12 month appointment he was 95th % in length, 55th% in weight, and 88th% in head circumference. A good size baby!

We love our little Baby A and could not imagine life without him!