dane at one year

Dane on his birthday walk this morning.

Okay, I know I've already written two other blog posts commemorating Dane's birthday, but here are some cute facts about Dane right now, for his uncles on missions and grandparents who don't get to see him very often.

as of Dane's birthday, he:

-probably weighs around 21 pounds (his dr's appointment is tomorrow)
-has NINE teeth (including one molar!)
-loves walking with his walkers, but crawls like a madman
-keeps his tongue sticking out with concentration whenever he's playing with his toys
-loves reading books--favorites include Mama Mama (which he now says "mama mama" at whenever we pull it out), any touch and feel book, Goodnight Moon (he can now point out the moon on every page), and our puppies book with pictures of dogs
-LOVES dogs--whenever he sees one, he starts cooing at it and giggling and can't take his eyes off it until it walks away
-is 100% a daddy's boy. he gets mad when mom tries to take him away from his daddy.
-eats just about anything, but especially loves bread, cheese, meat, bananas, peaches, peas, corn, graham crackers, and doesn't like it when his food is refrigerator cold (picky picky!).
-loves drinking milk, water, and juice, but insists on it coming from a real cup. none of those baby-ish sippy cups for this guy.
-loves bubbles and balls
-is the worst napper ever about 50% of the time (like 30-minute naps and cranky afterwards), and does decent at it the rest of the time
-loves giving open-mouth kisses to mom and dad. he signals that he wants a kiss by opening his mouth and looking up at you and saying "Ahhhhhhhhhh" until you oblige him
-loves it when mom and dad crawl around on the floor with him--he thinks it's the funniest thing EVER
-has a cackling laugh whenever he's proud of himself for figuring something else
-likes throwing toys through the gate down the stairs
-loves his blankie that he sleeps with and gets excited whenever he sees it

He is just the best. It's been crazy reminiscing the last few days and realizing that it really has been a whole YEAR since he was born. For that first week after Dane was born, while my mom was here, I was super emotional and all over the place (as is rather common during the first week postpartum, I am sure). The thing that I cried the most about, though, was that I was so, so SAD that our newlywed stage, our stage with just Tommy and I, was all over. I just thought, "Those were the happiest years of my life! It will never be just Tommy and me together by ourselves again!" Of course I was happy to have Dane, and I even realized that those thoughts weren't even true, but I was very emotional about this huge change in our family.

But there definitely isn't even a competition. This last year has been the happiest we've had so far. It's just amazing how peaceful and happy I am at the end of the day (most days) thinking about how wonderful our boy is. Every night, we go into Dane's room right before we climb into bed at night and look at his beautiful sleeping face, and every night, all the frustrations I might have felt during the day melts away and all the love I have for him makes me so happy. Oh man, I know that this boy was meant to be a part of our family.

The last month has been a kind of rough one for me and Dane. He had this molar come in, and got a cold which turned into a terrible double ear infection, and he's still figuring out how to deal with being babysat and having me watch another baby with him. There has been a lot of whining and crying from both of us. But just looking at the pictures of him from this whole first year, and watching him play with his daddy with a big grin on his face--it's worth it. That's what we've found--the highs outweigh the lows (which can get really pretty low!) in this whole parenthood thing.

So I think we'll keep him.