Happy Birthday Chris

We recently celebrated Chris's 29th birthday with his favorite breakfast (German pancakes, whipped cream, and berries) and having some new friends over for dessert of German chocolate cupcakes, fresh fruit, popcorn, and Trader Joe's grapefruit soda.  We also took a long weekend and made a trip to Vancouver the next day while the Dyer's kindly watched Esther.  It was a great birthday.

To celebrate his 29 years of life, here is a list of 29 things you might not know about Chris:

1. He used to be extremely shy.
2. When he was little, he would only wear long sleeve shirts because wearing short sleeves felt too exposed.
3. He still sort of thinks he has blonde hair like he did as a boy.
4. When he was little he didn't like root beer or ice cream.
5. According to his Grandma Judy, Chris was one of her most cuddly and sweetest grandchildren.  I couldn't agree more.
6. He likes to tease. 
7. He did not take notes in college.  
8. He doesn't like to talk about himself.
9. He likes to talk about ideas.
10. He likes people to challenge his thinking and will likely challenge your's
11. He thinks cloudy weather is bad weather.
12. He loves to take walks in cities, especially at night.
13. He has a prolific talent for inventing nicknames, especially for Esther. 
14. He likes to hike, bike, climb mountains, snow shoe, and rock climb.
15. He aspires to live in a converted industrial urban space with exposed brick and a wall of windows.
16. He is either absent minded...or excessively focused on one thing and one thing only.
17. If he spends all day working in Excel, he will dream in cells and charts all night.
18. If he decides, he will teach himself to do most anything (plumbing, electrical, and web design to name a few)
19. He is in love with his laptop.
20. His favorite retail store is REI.
21. His greatest annoyance is inefficiency.
22. He rotates wearing the same 4 polos and about 5 tees everyday for years now and many of his clothes are starting to look quite threadbare.   He would rather Esther or I buy new clothes instead of him.  
23. He gives excellent back massages without expecting one in return. 
24. He lets me cut his hair to save money, even though I had never done it before and once it was so bad we had to shave his head almost bald.
25. He used to think people sleeping with their mouth closed were only faking.  That is, until he had his deviated septum fixed and realized the you really can breathe through the nose.
26. Despite his adamant refusal to sing in public, he has a lovely voice and uses it often.
27. The harder the challenge, the more Chris is motivated and excited to work on it. 
28. Most nights he goes in to check on Esther while she's asleep and then asks me if we can wake Esther to play with her.  I say no.
29. He is often Esther's preferred source of comfort and always her preferred source of play.

Happy birthday to my best (and sometimes only) friend!!