a few cute things

-Dane has started to do this funny thing where when we read books or he sees pictures and there is something he wants in that picture, he'll grab at it and whine and then look at me with a pitiful pleading look, like, "Why can't I have that?" He started doing this with several books that have pictures of cupcakes, where he'd try to pull the cupcakes off the page and beg for some to eat them. It's since progressed to basically anything he likes, from tractors to dinosaurs to his bed (from some pictures we were looking at together). I don't know where he got this idea but he does it all the time now, and it just cracks me up.

-Sometimes I'll ask Dane for kisses and he'll push me away and grunt, like "Ughhhh!", but he's laughing and totally knows that he's teasing me by denying me kisses. He sounds just like a teenage boy who's been kiss attacked by an annoying aunt. It kills me and makes me just want to do it over and over again so he'll keep grunting at me.

-Dane can run now, like actual running with his feet coming off the ground and bouncing up and down. It's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen.

-Dane and Daddy have this great bathtime ritual. When we're finishing up with dinner, we'll start asking Dane questions like, "Do you want a ... baloney? Do you want a ... banana? Do you want a ... baboon?" And he knows that we're just teasing him and starts screaming "BATH! BATH! BATH!" So we get him out and he runs into the bathroom and Tommy gives him his bath. They play in the water for a while and do their bath thing while I do the dishes (or just relax). Then when they're done, Tommy gets Dane out and Dane comes out of the bathroom stark naked and runs to find me and jumps up on me, screaming and laughing and getting me all wet and clinging to me with his wet naked body. So I have to run with him and get his towel and get a diaper on him, because I am always afraid he is going to pee on me. But it's become a regular thing, that every night he runs to find me and wants me to hold him after his bath before he does anything else. It's like I'm included in the bathtime fun. So cute.

Helping Daddy with his tools.

-Dane has all of a sudden started saying three-syllable words. He woke up from his nap last week saying, "A-ni-mal!" so clearly and perfectly! He used to say it like "ammal," which was totally fine, but somehow he figured out how to say it correctly in his sleep and now says it all the time. (Although he also now calls his morning oatmeal "animal" so we're working on that.) He also said "Applesauce!" the other day too. It's so crazy amazing to watch this tiny person make these small strides in learning. Last week he couldn't do that and this week he can, and it's so fun to see him and be aware of every single little incremental step he's taking in growing.

-Dane and I had this three-day-long fight over drinking his milk. He wouldn't drink ANYTHING for several days and I was trying every way I could to get him to drink. I finally was getting so mad at him and was frustrated to no end, and I was worried he wasn't getting enough fluids. Then Tommy came and rescued us and realized that Dane's milk had just gone totally sour. So THAT'S why he was refusing to drink anything or put it in his mouth at all. Whoops! And it was totally my fault! I felt extremely silly and sorry for getting so frustrated with him. Too bad he doesn't know the word for "sour" yet! We fixed that problem and he's back to drinking just like normal again. Finally. Oh, the mistakes you make as a parent.