Dane update

This might be the most obvious statement of the century, but: I have noticed that parenting goes in waves, waves where you're up on the high peak of loving every second and your child is the most amazing creature to have every existed, and then waves when you're down in the depths of terrible naptimes and incessant crying for who-knows-what reason and you're having a really hard time of it. 

We have been on one of those high peaks lately, and it is lovely. Dane has been an absolute angel. Our nonstop, five-hour flight from LAX to RDU was probably one of the easiest flights we've ever had with him (what a present to give us) and he has been the happiest boy ever since we got back, just playing contentedly with his cars and trucks and giving hugs and kisses to us 25,000 times a day. Ever since we got back from Mexico, he's been coming up to us and wanting to hug both of us at the same time, just wrapping his arms around both of our necks and holding us there together close to him. We are happy to oblige for as long as he wants us to. 

He has had a language explosion over the last few weeks. He's starting to talk with sentences! Seriously! He said, "That's silly!" today during lunch (when I was telling him not to throw his food on the floor...) and last night pointed to a car and said, "That car Daddy's car" (although it wasn't). He is learning his colors and knows yellow, blue, pink, and green pretty reliably, and is always asking for his "pink ball" or "blue ball." We came back from our trip and he was saying "Eagle! Eagle!" over and over again after going to the zoo with my mom. I can ask him if he wants something and he'll tell me yes or no, he'll ask for the food that he does want, and he understands if I say it's all gone or we're all done. (Speaking of which, he's also started saying "All donnnnne" and "All gonnnnne" with the N sound instead of just "Ada" and "Aga" like he was before. So cute.) I'm pretty sure all these new words and communication has helped his happiness level too. It is so fun to actually be having real conversations with him.

He has LOTS of opinions and he bosses us around like nobody's business. He's started dictating which sippy cup he wants to drink from: "No, THAT wawa!" Yesterday he saw my hat and yelled till I gave it to him and put it on him, and then he said, "Picture!" And made me go get the camera and take his picture:

And then he did the same thing with these sunglasses. He made me take his picture and was telling me how he was "cool" wearing the sunglasses (Tommy taught him that one). 

He likes hiding in random places, including the guitar case.

He is SOOOOO into hugs and kisses lately. You can see him giving the dinosaur a kiss here. He offers kisses to everyone and everything he sees, without being prompted. He kissed our neighbor Caleb yesterday, without Caleb even looking. He blows kisses to the balloons and the pool and the grass and the random dog he sees down the street. He really is a sweet, tender boy.

And, he loves talking to EVERYONE. He is a social, social boy. He'll see someone down the street and yell "HI! HI! HI!" whether or not they respond. Same as kisses--he'll say hi to all inanimate objects he encounters in addition to the people and animals he sees. He saw this turtle statue at the zoo and bent down to talk to it and said, "Hi, Turtle." (although for some reason the turtle didn't respond). 

He loves little stuffed animals and makes friends with them. He adopted this dog he called "little dog" while he was in Irvine, from Bethany's closet. (He's learned the words "BIG" and "little" and it is soooo cute to hear him say them.)

He is super silly and cheesy too, when he wants to be.

He just gets more and more and more fun every week, it seems like. When he was born, I could only really envision having a BABY, and thought about how much I love the three month stage, and the six month stage, and the nine month stage. And I really, really did love those stages. But oh, this toddler age is such a blast! He is so hilarious and cute and I can tell it's only going to be getting better as he learns to talk more and more. We can't get enough of this kid.