our Great Dane

One of the best things Dane can do lately is filling in the words in books we read and songs we sing. I am always amazed at how quickly he can memorize how books go (either that, or he can already read and we just don't know it, HA). He can start filling in words when we pause after just reading it three times. One song that he loves for us to sing to him is "Sweet Baby James" by James Taylor, although we of course sing it as "Sweet Baby Dane" for him. He calls it the "young cowboy" song (because of the first verse), and he loves to say his own name in the chorus, like this:

"So goodnight, you moonlight ladies, Rockabye Sweet Baby--" "Dane!"
"Deep greens and blues are the colors I choose, won't you let me go down in my dreams, and Rockabye Sweet Baby--" "Dane!"

He is obviously trying to sing and match the tone that he knows the word should be at, too. He also corrects me when I say that the young cowboy is "dreaming about women and glasses of milk," and says, "Glasses of beer!" (I obviously changed the lyrics because I felt weird singing to the baby about beer, but now he's heard the actual song and he is wise to the ways of the world.)

Dane loves for us to tell him stories when we're rocking him before bed. He loves the three little pigs, Goldilocks and the three bears, and made-up stories involving himself, Sparky, Dumbo, Lightning McQueen, and Winnie the Pooh. He's started telling his own stories now too, usually when we ask him to. The other day, we were sitting on the couch, and he said, "Mommy, I tell story. Once upon a time, Dane saw Dumbo. Naughty boys tease Dumbo. Dane fly on Dumbo's back! Dane happy!"

We've been reading Are You My Mother? a lot lately, and I'll always ask him afterwards, "Who's your mother, Dane?" and he says, "Mommy!" Yesterday afternoon, he was playing with his cars, and he said, "Yellow car be my mother, Mommy." So I guess I'm getting replaced by a matchbox car. Good luck, car, have fun.

He's started saying, "Mommy so pretty!" while I'm getting ready in the mornings. It KILLS ME. Also, he's learned the word "bootiful!" and says it randomly as well, like when we put the Halloween tablecloth on our table.

I said, "Dane, you're a smoothie monster!" and he said, "No, I smoothie car!" Not sure if he got it...

pregnancy woes and deep thoughts

You know what I hate? Stuff like this:

I was at the OB a while ago reading a pregnancy magazine in the waiting room, and there was an article written by some woman talking about her super-strenuous pregnancy workouts. She ran 3+ miles a day until she was past 20 weeks, and then alternated doing other stuff after that. She was advocating staying fit while pregnant because it helped her with the delivery and helped her lose the weight really quickly after the baby was born.

I read stuff like that and all I want to say is ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Um, duh, wouldn't we ALL like to stay fit and in shape while we're pregnant. Wouldn't it be nice to gain exactly the right amount of weight so it all melts off magically after the baby is born. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to exercise regularly and to do all those regular workouts you keep up in normal, non-pregnant life. WOULDN'T THAT BE NICE.

But articles like that (and people who manage that) do NOT take into account what pregnancy is really like for the rest of us. Are you telling me that you don't have to throw up when you move too much when you're pregnant? Are you telling me that exercise doesn't literally make you vomit? Are you saying that you don't need the extra half hour of sleep in the morning when you've been waking up seventeen times a night more than you need that really great trail run you had planned? Well then GOOD FOR YOU. Send me your plaque from your half-marathon you ran when you were seven months along and I will congratulate you.

I am obviously just bitter right now, because I am sixteen weeks along with this pregnancy and still throwing up more days than not. I'd hoped it was going away, but it almost seems to be getting worse. I am feeling discouraged about how long it's been and really, really wanting to feel better.

I remember having a conversation with a friend when Dane was just a few weeks old about how every woman has something that's hard for her with having babies. Some people have trouble getting pregnant, some people have miscarriages, some people have really hard pregnancies, some people have postpartum depression, some people have colicky babies, some people have a hard time breastfeeding, some people have all of these things. Having babies is just dang HARD. I really don't understand why this is--some of these trials are some of the hardest things people have to go through. We believe that we're supposed to have babies and we're supposed to have families and we're supposed to live and grow together. But truly, there has to be a reason. And I think God makes these things hard for us because it is the most worthwhile thing we should be doing--and if it wasn't hard, we'd be taking it for granted. I know I would be. I know I still probably am. If having kids wasn't so hard, we wouldn't learn what we're supposed to learn from the experience and this life--and, there would probably be an even worse overpopulation problem since everyone would be having babies left and right.

I just want to say, I know that my experience with pregnancy is not the worst and that it's not even that hard. I may feel sick and throw up a bit, but it'll go away and I can function--and there are people who have it much worse. After this last year, I know there is much worse to go through. And we're so lucky to have a magical boy like Dane already. I have just thought a lot about this question--why are there trials associated with every step of the process with having kids?--and I think if I look at it thoroughly and think about it more and more, I learn more about life and our purpose here. And it makes these small trials I do have much more bearable.

taking care of ourselves

I am a little bit alarmed with my state of mind lately, because I can literally not get myself to do anything useful. Ever. I have not done one bit of housework other than making dinner and (occasionally) doing dishes in probably a month. I am trying to be better, if for no other reason than it is not fair to Tommy! But I am so tired lately that I seriously cannot make myself do anything other than do something fun with Dane in the morning and read or nap or grade during his nap. 

This is because I am pregnant, blogosphere. I'm sorry to any of our friends who I haven't told yet but probably should have, but there's a good reason: see above paragraph. But look at how cute Dane is in his little shirt announcing it! We sent this pic to our siblings a few weeks ago.

Yep, baby #2 is coming in April 2015, and we are excited. 

Wow, this is the worst baby announcement blog post ever, but I'm so lazy right now I don't even care.

Along with and kind of related to that, we have been doing an amazing job of taking care of ourselves lately. We have had more doctor's appointments in the last two months than we probably ever did for our whole marriage. We all had dentist appointments (Dane's first and Tommy's and my first since we lived in Utah--whew!), Tommy had a physical, I have had several OB appointments, Dane had his yearly ped check-up, we all got flu shots, and I had three moles removed at the dermatologist, one of which they had to go back and dig out more so I now have a giant two-inch scar in my thigh that's stitched up and very itchy. (I think I'm up to 15 moles removed now--yay for beating skin cancer!) We have never had so much healthy stuff going on since, being grad students, we never used our minimal health insurance for anything, but now that all this stuff is covered, we're being really proactive. I hope we can just keep it up as a good habit, since I'm usually terrible at any sort of thing that's just routine maintenance (like haircuts, cleaning the bathrooms, etc.). 

We also had a good spiritual boost this weekend watching General Conference. Dane was a dream this time around and was so happy just playing with trains or blocks on the floor with Daddy while we watched/listened. It was the first time we actually got to pay attention to most of General Conference since he was born (except for maybe the first one, when he was 3 weeks old). Later on I'm sure we'll have to get more creative to get him to be happy, but it was so much easier than it's ever been. Conference was very good this time, I felt. I loved many of the talks, like Elder Holland and Pres. Uchtdorf (but I like them no matter what, I feel like). I feel motivated to be more loving and forgiving to others and to myself. 

Snuggling with Mommy and watching the prophet.

Using the train tracks to spell out Dane's name (although he had no idea, of course). 

These two cuties let me sleep in on Sunday morning and made our favorite traditional orange rolls together. It was so adorable--Dane LOVES helping in the kitchen and even though it takes longer having him help, it is so cute to see how excited he is to help. And the orange rolls were amazing. 

But seriously, how cute are they together?

Our lives are super not-exciting right now, but most of that is my fault for being a lazy bum. But we are trying to act a little more like grown-ups, by doing things like choosing appropriate health insurance and having regular doctor's visits and even looking into buying a house (yikes!!). And I'm turning 26 this weekend and Tommy's big 3-0 is in November, so we're getting up there! (Big joke.) I guess having kid #2 come along means that we are really and truly becoming adults, although I still catch myself acting like an angsty thirteen-year-old sometimes. Does that ever go away? Someday I hope it will. 

from the mouth of a babe

Dane, while carrying Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore out to the car this morning: Hi Eeyore! Hi Pooh! Eeyore Pooh we go to store! Eeyore Pooh I happy!

Dane: I spill lots oatmeal all over my polar bear jammies. (Super long sentence!)

We were reading books together, and Dane just looks over at me and says "Pretty dress, Mommy!" and rubs my shirt appreciatively.

In church on Sunday, talking to two kids in the pew in front of us during sacrament meeting: "These mine shoes. These Dane's shoes. They handsome!"

He is always checking with me to see if I'm happy. "Mommy happy? Mommy happy?" If I am in a bad mood and tell him I'm not happy, he gets really sad. And then about twelve times a day, he'll say, "Mommy, I happy" and give me a hug.

This is maybe TMI, but every morning when we go in to get him from his bed, he tells us, "Big GIANT poopoo!" I don't know where that came from but obviously one of us started it.

Dane has the BEST memory. He will randomly tell me about things that happened months ago. A few weeks ago he started talking about Kenzie playing baseball--and we went to see one of Kenzie's softball games when we were in Utah in MAY. Before he even knew what baseball was. He knew what he was talking about though--he said, "Kenzie throw ball to other girl! Kenzie baseball!" He also will randomly mention his friends from North Carolina still. Just yesterday he talked about Indie and then Becca (Indie's mom). We haven't seen them for over three months and he still remembers them. And he's been talking every day about very specific moments and details from his little birthday party at the non-balloon festival. It's pretty impressive!

me and my boy

I really, really need to be grading some papers right now--I have twenty of them just hanging about, making me feel guilty that I haven't started on them at all--but I just don't really want to do them and I'm procrastinating with everything else I can think of doing. I've worked on my visiting teaching report, organize playgroup for tomorrow, scoured Facebook for anything interesting (still nothing) . . . and now I'm blogging.

I'll work on those papers tonight. I swear I'll be productive later. (This is the worst part about teaching.)

Can I just tell you that I love my little guy? Dane has turned some corner and become, on the whole, such an easy-going, mellow little friend to be around. Can I just tell you--HE PLAYS BY HIMSELF NOW. For twenty or thirty minutes at a time. Sure, sometimes it means that I find things like this when I come find him, but I don't care. It's soooo worth it. (At least for now, since he's staying out of the fridge and pantry. . .)

Also, this--he loves playing and "hiding" in our hamper and crawling around in the dirty clothes. Lovely.

Part of this might be that we've just gotten him some better toys that he loves (like his bday presents), but part of it is just that he is older and wiser and happier all around, and doesn't lie at my feet crying while I try to make dinner any more. He does drag a stool over and insist on helping to make dinner, but that is soooo much easier to deal with. He loves helping me make cookies--maybe we should make some more today.

We spend our mornings going to one of several places: 1) the park, 2) the library/storytime, 3) church Institute class (with a nursery that Dane loves), or 4) playgroup. We spend our afternoons with him napping and me working or reading. I no longer stress about him taking short naps or feel like the world has ended when he wakes up early. I just get him up and we play trains or even (gasp!) watch a show together.

It is a good little life we've got here together. It can be boring at times--we need to spice things up this month and do something exciting one of these weekends--but we are happy together and finally, after two years, we have got a serious easy groove going. (Knock on wood.)

Also, I don't know about you, but I am soooo excited about Halloween, now that I've bought Dane a costume. He was minimally interested in the Winnie the Pooh costume, but LOVED the Elmo costume and was so happy to be wearing it, so that's the one we got. But I'm sorry, HOW cute is he in both of these?

(And also, I only paid $4.50 for the costume from Kid 2 Kid, so it was the perfect Halloween costume shopping experience.)