DANE IS SO CUTE

My mom asked for some more pictures of Dane, and I realized we hadn't uploaded our pictures from our camera for the last month. So here are a few cutie cute pictures of our boy this last month. 

My dad gave Dane this wooden spoon for Christmas, in the middle of Dane's spoon craze. He drew a picture of himself on one side and Dane on the other. Now, we can tell Dane to go get his spoon with Grandpa on it and he'll run and find it in his toys. He likes to give Grandpa kisses and say "Papa!" when he's playing with this spoon. We all teased my dad about being so funny making this spoon when he gave it to Dane, but now he is loving all this attention that Dane is giving back to him.

Dane loves, loves, loves spending as much time outside as we will let him. He loves just wandering around our apartment complex office and playing with the furniture and on the grass.

Seeing these two walking and holding hands makes my heart just burst.

Dane and Indie are crack-ups! They wanted to climb into the pack n' play after Indie was done napping in it one day and were having such a blast rolling around in it together. They played for about twenty minutes, shutting the bathroom door on me and laughing when I would open it back up on them. Best time EVER.

A few days ago during dinner, Dane started frantically pointing over to the fridge and yelling "Buh buh! Buh buh!" We couldn't figure out what he was asking for, figuring he wanted some food from the fridge instead of his actual dinner. Nope, we figured out he saw Bethany's volleyball picture hanging on our fridge and wanted to hold it and look at it--and give it kisses! Auntie Buh-buh is a huge favorite around here. He is for some reason always especially excited when we see her specifically on Skype and is always looking for her in pictures. 

He loves wearing Daddy's shoes and trying to walk in them.

And Mommy's socks. They were pulled up over his knees and looked just like he was wearing leg warmers all morning long. He wouldn't take them off!

This is the fake smile I get when he actually agrees to smile for the camera.

LOVE this picture!

Just hanging out in bed with Daddy, talking on the phone and kissing it.

I know we've said this about every single age and stage with Dane (okay, not every single stage...), but we think this is the best and most fun we've ever had. He is SO funny and smart and opinionated and naughty and big and sweet. It is definitely the best being his parents. (Even though we have to spend twenty minutes every night cleaning up the detritus he's strewn EVERYWHERE around the apartment. It's still the best.)

Ode to North Carolina

As I posted while we were there, our trip to Plano was not ideal. I threw up everything I'd eaten for the last month, and Tommy ran around to visit apartments without me. But also, we got on the plane to come home and realized the other bad thing about our trip: we didn't even really like Plano all that much! There were plenty of nice apartment complexes, but hardly any of them had any grassy, green space at all (which matters a lot when you have a stir-crazy toddler who loves running around outside). There were no trees ANYWHERE, which seems like a glaring omission when you come straight from North Carolina where you literally see nothing BUT trees while you're driving anywhere. And it seemed like everywhere we went there were just tons of chain restaurants and stores all organized so neatly in this grid street system, and we were aching for the quirkiness of Durham with its winding, name-changing roads and small indie stores and "Keep It Dirty, Durham" bumper stickers. We sat on the plane and both felt depressed about leaving this state that we have grown so attached to over the last four years.

Now, I'm not trying to complain about moving to Plano, because I feel very strongly that we will be happy there, that we will love it there, that we will find out the good things about living there that weren't so obvious on that first disastrous trip. But that apartment-hunting trip made me realize how much we have loved living here in North Carolina. We are so totally comfortable here. I haven't used my GPS to go anywhere in Durham for probably a year (and when we moved here, I was sure I would never be able to do anything without it, ever). I go to Kroger and half of the workers there KNOW ME and ask about Dane when he's not with me. They give Dane balloons for free because they know he loves them and have conversations with me about the flavor of Bluebell ice cream I'm buying. Dane and I have a beautiful little schedule with playdates, Music Makers, library storytimes, and swapping with Indie. We have our favorite restaurants that we talk about going to all the time (El Cuscatleco, Only Burger, Mellow Mushroom--but hey, there's a Mellow Mushroom about a mile from Tommy's office in Plano!). But there are still so many places in Durham we haven't been to that we've wanted to and I feel almost panicky that we are never going to do it and that we will never be back here (because in all seriousness, why would we?).

Durham has been so, so good to us.

Although I am scared for that first year of living in a new place, with no friends and not being comfortable in a new ward and adjusting with Dane this time, I know it will be good. I know we will be happy. I just also know we will miss North Carolina like crazy for a while too.

things

He loves collecting those spiky balls and walking around with them in our "yard"

Things Dane likes to play with:
-the tupperwares on our shelf in the kitchen
-pots and pans
-VHS tapes
-potholders and kitchen towels
-everything in our bedside stand drawers

Things Dane doesn't like to play with for more than 2 minutes:
-his actual toys

Things Dane has been doing lately:
-throwing tantrums
-hitting us when he's mad
-feeding himself with a spoon and fork (and doing it beautifully!)
-building towers and knocking them down
-climbing up on our couch (first time)
-roaring like a lion
-giving kisses and hugs
-pointing out his aunts, uncles, and grandparents in pictures and saying their names
-saying new words every day ("please," "have it," "juice," "choo-choo (Cheerios)")
-understanding absolutely everything I say
-nodding or shaking his head for yes/no (it is so cute it kills me)
-asking for Dada all day long, wondering where he went
-flirting and fighting with Indie and talking about her all day when she's not here ("Ee-ee!")

Things that I have been doing lately:
-running after Dane
-stressing about my unmotivated class of students
-watching Parks and Recreation (all six seasons, working my way through. It's suuuuper important)

Things Tommy has been doing lately:
-running 16 miles at one time (marathon training!)
-stressing about Young Men's fundraisers
-frantically writing his dissertation (his defense is in 1.5 weeks!!)

Things coming up that we are excited for:
-my family coming to visit in two weeks!
-we are going to DC for a few days with them!
-Tommy's family is coming to visit for his graduation!
-we are going to visit both families in May after that!
-our trip to Cabo San Lucas--without Dane!
-my roommate reunion in New York City in July! (SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!)
-Tommy's new job!

Things coming up that we are not excited for:
-choosing which apartment complex we are going to move into in Plano
-packing and moving
-saying good-bye to our friends, the Durham 4th ward, and the beautiful trees of North Carolina

murphy's law

Murphy's law is real. And my old last name is Murphy. You do the math.

Wednesday was one of those days where everything did go wrong--just in a little tiny things all day long, but I had just had it by the end of the day. Of course, there were some good things that happened too. For example: I tried to put a bowl back in the cupboard and ended up knocking a cup to the ground (anti-Murphy's law: it didn't break!). Indie got sick and had to get picked up early. Dane took a really short nap. Library story time was a bust. I wanted to buy a bagel at Bruegger's and had forgotten my wallet (anti-Murphy's law: I found five dollars in the glove compartment and used it ALL to buy two bagels with cream cheese and then ate them both. By myself.). I had signed up to go help an elderly woman in our ward whose mother just passed away, but she wanted me to come right when Tommy was going to Young Men's so we were going to have to send Dane to YM with him and I'd have to go pick him up later (anti-Murphy's law: it didn't take as long as we'd thought and I got home before Tommy left! And I had a great time chatting with her).

Anyways, it wasn't that bad of a day. Just a long one. But Murphy's law has struck again.

We flew to Texas yesterday to look for apartments. We had lots of plans and a loooonnggg list of apartments we wanted to visit to decide where to live. UNFORTUNATELY, I apparently caught Indie's stomach bug, because I was up literally all night long throwing up. Oh, and throwing up at our dinner with Tommy's new boss and coworkers last night (luckily, not in front of them--I made it to the bathroom). I was so dizzy and dehydrated and still violently throwing up this morning that we ended up going to the emergency room for some fluids and anti-nausea medication. So now I have spent all day laying in bed whining about my stomach (see, I'm even blogging about it) while Tommy runs around trying to visit apartment complexes by himself, haha.

Is that not bad enough? Guess who else caught it? Dane, who is staying with our friends in North Carolina and threw up four times last night. (POOR BABY and POOR BUSBYS. You guys are CHAMPS.)

MURPHY'S LAW! CURSE YOU!

yum, yum, yum.

Something I have noticed about parenting: there are some phases that make you want to rip your head off and then take a two-week-long nap, and some phases where everything is so amazing and you are so obsessed with your child and he is just cuter than anything ever and you just want to EAT HIM UP all day long because he is so cute and smart and delicious-looking.

We are currently in one of the good phases. Dane has been SO cute and SO funny and SO smart lately, everything he does makes me fall over with all the adorableness. I KNOW I AM BIASED but this is how I feel. Tommy agrees with me, so it must be the truth, right?

Some awesome things Dane does:

-He has been napping around two hours a day. THIS IS A MIRACLE! (After his first year of life being a pretty noncommittal napper, I am soooo thrilled by every nap that is a decent length.)

-He is OBSESSED with Tommy and ME! This is a new thing--finally Mama is just as great as Daddy. He not only says "Mama" and "Dada" when he wants us, but he'll just walk around talking about us to himself. "Mama... Dada... Mama... Dada..." Like we are just the best things he can think about all day long. 

-He loves, loves, loves giving kisses and hugs. He gives Indie hugs about 12 times a day. He gives me hugs about 40 times a day. He just runs up and says "HUG" and then leans his head onto you and snuggles you.

-He gets very sad and hurt any time you say "no" to him. His eyes well up with tears and he starts sobbing and then--just wait!--he runs to you to have you give him a hug! So every time he gets in trouble it leads to more hugging and loving. It's impossible to be mad with a child who wants you to comfort him after he gets in trouble FROM YOU. 

-He is talking up a storm (for him). He learns new words every day, like "squirrel" and "plane" and "truck" and "chicken"--it is the BEST to see him learn a new word and point at something and say it. He is so pleased with himself whenever he figures another one out. 

I am not kidding--the last two months have been so happy and awesome. I am just living it up because I know there will be harder months to come (like when we're living in Texas in 110-degree heat all summer!).

And of course, a few pictures from my phone.and some more stories to go along with them.

Another adorable thing: he insists on running around naked after his bath for about an hour before we put on his jammies. He gets very offended at jammie time now. And he loves it when Tommy gives him a cape made out of his blankets--he'll run around wearing this cape for as long as it'll stay on. 

He is obsessed with balloons, of course. For Valentine's Day, we went to the grocery store and got a new balloon because he COULD NOT RESIST the balloon display at our store. I snapped it onto his jacket and he was absolutely thrilled to run around with it.

This is the background on my phone right now--the snow day!

One day a week or so ago, I put him in the Bumbo with a few cheerios to entertain him while I started dinner. Then a few days later, around dinnertime, he climbed into the Bumbo, grabbed the tray and tried to put it on, and then pointed at the cheerios and yelled for me to give them to him. HOW COULD I RESIST?

He used to be really into me and Tommy reading him books. NO LONGER! He insists on reading to HIMSELF now, 90% of the time. He gets super mad when I try to sit on the chair with him, but he will happily sit in his chair, choose a book from his book pile, make me give him THE EXACT RIGHT ONE (batting away any other books I try to offer him), and then turn through the pages by himself. He will even say the words that he remembers to himself. This book below is called "Peekaboo!" and he flips through the pages saying "Peeboo... peeboo" over and over again. 

I told him to read the book to his baby, and he did.

Dane has never been that interested in TV, but I turned on the Lion King the other day when it was freezing and snowing outside and we had no chances of going anywhere else. And he absolutely loved it. He sat and stared at all the animals and made the noises when they came on the screen--he was roaring at the lions for about 5 minutes straight. His attention only lasted about 20 minutes, but it just killed me to see him so happy about it. And then the next day, he started doing his elephant noise and walked over to the TV and pointed at it, and looked up at me so expectantly and hopefully. He was just totally asking to watch Lion King again. It just killed me, it was so cute.