he can't stop won't stop!

For the last few weeks, Dane has been OBSESSED with practicing his walking by clinging to our fingers and walking around. Tommy is basically his slave in this exercise, because Tommy is too nice to ever say no to him. (I, on the other hand, only agree to do it for limited amounts of time.) So Dane and Tommy will just walk around our apartment for half-hour intervals, Dane with his arms up high and Tommy bending over to reach his little arms. When he wants to walk, he will crawl over to you, pull your arm towards him, snatch your finger with his vice-like grip, and just start walking. He doesn't bother to see if you're coming--he'll just keep pulling on you until you get up and start following him around.

matchy matchy boys!

Dane is always VERY focused on the hard work he's doing. Walking takes a lot of concentration.

Although he's LOVED walking with our help, he hasn't really taken more than one step on his own--at least, until today! Becca was watching him during the day while I worked, and when she dropped him off at the end of the day today, she mentioned, "He was taking a bunch of steps today!" So I set him down standing up and he just got this big grin on his face and walked right over to me, pretty unsteady but all on his own. He went over to their house this morning not walking and came back taking up to 12 steps at a time! He is SO thrilled about it--every time he walked by himself this evening he'd start grinning and cackling and clapping for himself, looking at us expectantly waiting for us to start clapping and cheering too. And of course we're just as excited as he is. We'll get some pictures of him walking eventually.

Also, when Tommy got home, I brought Dane outside to meet him and had Dane walk over to him to surprise him. We had been just meandering, walking slowly along the sidewalk with Dane looking at the worms and wood chips and other fascinating elements of nature, but when I pointed Tommy out to Dane and he saw him, Dane started marching, walking as fast and as determinedly as he could over to Tommy, saying "Ooooh! Ooohh! Oooooh!" He knows what he wants, and what he wants is his daddy.

And to end, a few adorable pictures of Dane giggling while Tommy takes off his shoes and socks (for some reason the funniest thing to him all the time):

Parenting with a capital P

Check out his big boy haircut! It makes me sad, still. I miss his long hair.

I think we're starting to get to the point where we're having to do actual PARENTING. It's really weird to think about it that way. Most of the stuff we've had to do so far as parents has been just keeping this baby alive and making sure he's getting enough food and sleep. That's not to say it hasn't been stressful at times, or that we haven't worried that we're doing things wrong--is he getting enough fluids? Is he constipated? Is he sick? All of those things run through my mind on a regular basis. But now, on top of all of those physical concerns, it's becoming clear that Dane is getting to the point where he understands things and is really learning things. So we're having to start thinking about discipline (okay, not seriously, but kind of) and teaching and all sorts of real Parenting things, where what you say and do matters more than just if they get enough food.

I mean, look at this boy:

He's playing a JOKE here! He's biting on the spoon and holding it in his mouth and laughing about it because he knows he's being silly. How does he know how to do these things? Every time he does something new I am always amazed and wonder when and how he figured it out. I love that he's learning how to be silly though. When he's really happy (usually in the evening after dinner when Tommy and I are both home and playing with him) he'll sit down and turn his head back and forth really fast with this big grin on his face and then he'll stop and wait for us to laugh at him. 

He's also starting to be naughty. I'm watching another baby who's around the same age as him one and a half days a week, and he absolutely does NOT like having her around. He gets so possessive and upset whenever he knows she's here because I hold her too. How dare she encroach on his space? Last week, I was holding both of them on my lap reading them a book, and he looks up at me, and then reaches over and grabs her arm and squeezes it with his little talons, obviously trying to hurt her arm. I kept pulling his arm off and saying "No," but he kept reaching over and doing it over and over again! I mean, how naughty is that? I kept wanting to laugh, but I'm pretty sure that's not the best response if you want him to stop doing something.

He also bites me ALL the time. He sometimes will bite Tommy, but he never bites anyone else, and he bites me several times a day. It's this total mommy-love-affection thing, where he goes into kiss me and ends up biting my shoulder or cheek or leg, but it obviously hurts and I try to tell him every time that it's not okay. He can be super, super whiny when I'm doing anything other than sitting on the floor playing with him--it's definitely gotten worse since I started watching our other friend.

But anyways, he definitely has ideas and opinions of his own now. We are all trying to navigate him growing up like this. He is definitely our baby still, but I've been looking at pictures from when he was first born the last few days while working on our photobook for 2012 and I cannot believe he was ever so small.

My only real question is, how has it happened so fast? 

a few random cute pics

and, to make up for the lack of dane pictures in the last post . . . 

we made waffles for breakfast on saturday and let dane chew on a few strips of waffle. he LOVED it--he was chewing, gnawing, swallowing, so happy to be able to actually eat the stuff he was putting into his mouth. it was awesome. we've had friends tell us about different ways they're feeding their babies (same age as dane) and that made us not afraid to let him try and eat this. and he loved it so much it made me want to give him more grown-up food soon again.

and this morning, he rolled over while i was getting ready to change his diaper, and he was so happy just lying there on his stomach. he usually hates tummy time but he was still kind of waking up so he just lay there so happily for at least ten minutes. it was pretty dang cute. 

hello, cute boy!

happy birthday to cole!

my baby brother is turning 12 today. twelve--that magical age where you finally graduate primary and become a young adult! (or so you think.) crazy! last year on his birthday, we skyped with the family and told them that i was pregnant. that was cole's birthday present. this year, we're hoping to skype and let him see his favorite nephew for his birthday present. we aim to please! (seriously, it's actually what he wants.)

he is quite possibly the most dedicated uncle dane has. not that all his other uncles don't love him or anything, but have any of them written dane poems? i don't think so. just cole. thanks, buddy. we love that guy.

in other news, and to add on to our present to cole: more recent pictures of dane!

seriously, i am not sure why we would ever buy toys for this boy. he is happiest when i leave him alone and he can somehow pull out the diaper changing pad on top of him (he was lying like this for maybe 25 minutes happily playing with it),

with the wipes (the only thing that has enticed him to roll over for the last three weeks),

with the carseat cover (he also happily played with this for 20 minutes while i wasn't in the room),

and his feet. FEET ARE THE BEST! but only when he has no pants on. for some reason, pants really prevent him from reaching his feet.

random post-bath cuteness.

and, a photo essay by dane: "why i really actually don't like my bumbo," or, "i've fallen and i can't get up!" 

(editor's comment: ^^ this one ^^ is my favorite)

and, lastly, prepare yourself for some ULTIMATE CUTENESS!

okay, the end.

staying at home

dane wearing his first pair of jeans yesterday. way too big, but way too cute.

chubby cheeks on their way to church last week.

you know, before you start staying at home with a baby, you just wonder, "what am i supposed to do all day?" and you very quickly figure out that you're doing basically what you did before--keep the house clean, make dinner, do the laundry, run the errands, etc.--but adding on the jobs of feeding the baby, changing the baby, playing with and interacting with and teaching the baby. you do everything you did before, but it takes 3 times as long to do it all. it's a billion times more fun having that baby around than just staying at home by yourself, but it's also much more exhausting. and really, i'm not sure why. dane doesn't move yet; he doesn't cry at all unless he's begging to be put down for a nap; he's almost always happy to just sit and watch me cook or clean or exercise and he's ALWAYS happy whenever i'm talking to him or reading to him or playing with him. and i love doing it! but for some reason, most of the time, by the time tommy gets home i just really want/need to take a bath.

i'm always having it reinforced to me that the only way to not let things drag and end up feeling blah by the end of the day is by staying busy. keeping things picked up, doing the dishes, exercising, going for a walk, going to the library, reading our books again, making dinner instead of just lounging around. it's the days when i think i'm too tired or too busy to exercise or shower or make dinner that i end up feeling worst at the end of the day--so it's in everyone's best interest if we keep moving! it's just that the days where you need to do that the most are the days where you want to do that the least. it takes a lot of willpower, a whole different mindset--since i'm not being forced into activity by school-related deadlines, i have to force myself to do stuff without anyone else caring or watching. because that's when i'm happiest.

sometimes, i get overwhelmed thinking about the future, realizing that this is what i'm going to be doing for the next however-many years, and this is the easiest it's ever going to be, with just one baby. it's really, really intimidating to think that far ahead. the only cure for that kind of thinking is to quit thinking about it and just enjoy the here and now while we've got it. which i really do think we are doing. speaking of which, there's that baby boy now, waking up from his nap--i'm going to go snuggle him and feed him some more.

5

today is a big day in the leininger household. for several reasons, both having to do with the number 5.

first, it is the 5-year anniversary of my first date with tommy. five years ago, we went and ate pupusas together. and the coincidences were just piling up, too good to be true. i knew that this actuarial science major who ate pupusas and was the fourth of nine kids was destined to be in our family. (well, it just took another year and a half to REALLY convince me.) i vividly remember sitting across from tommy at the el salvador restaurant on center street, him wearing a LAPD t-shirt, me thinking how cute he was.

5 years ago. 5. 5. 5.

wow.

tonight we are going to celebrate this milestone by going to eat pupusas again. . . . but this time with our baby in tow.

again, wow.

also, dane is 5 months old today. i know, it's ridiculous. tell me how ridiculous it is.

okay, here are some pictures. from TODAY! as current as they can be.

his favorite new trick: eating his feet. it's impossible to change his diaper and give him baths right now because he just wants to be scrunched up in a little ball eating himself.

i finally put together his exersaucer yesterday and he's a big fan. he hasn't really gotten the whole "standing" thing yet, but he really likes the toys and being able to be upright and playing.

the day of love

how could you not be in love with a little boy who loves YOU so much that he starts panting when he sees you, who gives you the world's biggest grin when you save him from their naps, who tries to eat every part of you whenever you're holding him, who sometimes can't finish eating because he makes eye contact with you and then just keeps smiling and laughing because he remembers that you're there? all he wants, all he needs to make him happy is ME (and his daddy). what else do you need in life?

and how could you not be in love with a man who wakes up early to clean the house without you knowing, who comes home from a long day at school hoping for a chance to play with his baby and who always wants to be the one to rock him to sleep, who buys you flowers the week before valentine's day so they'll be cheaper, who will watch cheesy movies with you whenever you want (even when you still won't watch the dark knight rises with him), who will sometimes call you "lovergirl" when he texts you during the day?

these two guys are promising to give me a rockin' valentine's day celebration tomorrow. even though we don't actually have anything planned--every day with them is a day of love.

and also, happy 55th anniversary to my wonderful Myres grandparents today! we love you!

a lot of firsts

this week has been kind of a bummer week, because tommy and i have both been sick off and on with a sore throat and stuffy nose. luckily, no really bad coughing like the last cold we got in december, and even more luckily, dane still hasn't caught it. but we (especially i) have been pretty tired and grumpy all week long, and not very motivated to anything exciting, which means dane and i have spent a lot of time just lying in bed reading books and playing with toys. he doesn't seem to mind.

but this weekend, we actually did some new stuff. we gave dane several firsts: his first haircut, his first race, and his first taste of rice cereal. the race was planned, but the haircut and the cereal were spur-of-the-moment decisions (i know, we're just going CRAZY around here!), and we made sure to document them for posterity and his grandparents.

first haircut: friday night
dane's hair was starting to look like gollum's in the back--i'm sorry to say it, but it was true. long and stringy and hanging over his ears. he's also totally getting some bald spots from where he sleeps (only on the left side of his head, and in the back). it's been doing that for months, actually, but i finally decided it was shaggy enough. we didn't even touch the top of it--that can get as long and crazy as it wants to, as far as i'm concerned (for now)--but just trimmed the sides and back. and of course, i totally butchered it--went way shorter than i wanted to--but oh well, i think it still looks better than the gollum look.

before:

during:

(don't worry, we never put the bumbo seat on the table usually. this is just for the haircut.)

after: 

hahaha i can't stop laughing at his hair now. it's so cute, even when it's not a good haircut. i'm glad i didn't touch the top. i'm not even going to show you a good shot of the back, because it's so uneven. but man, it's HARD cutting a four-and-a-half-month-old's hair! he didn't stop moving the whole time!

first race: saturday morning
the krispy kreme challenge was yesterday morning! i was really, really nervous for us to be doing it with dane. i kept thinking we were crazy to be bringing a baby out in the freezing cold weather at 8 a.m. to run a race--but then we got there and tons of other people had their babies in strollers too! and it turned out that it wasn't even too cold. i wasn't nervous about how dane would handle the stroller, because he always just falls asleep and is really happy in his stroller rides, and we had several blankets to keep him covered up and warm.

however, dane did a great job, for about the first mile, until he got jolted too much or something and then he screamed the rest of the way to the krispy kreme. we felt really bad, but there wasn't much more we could do than try to run faster to take him out, haha.

tommy ate all 12 of his doughnuts,

but i only managed to finish about 5. but that's a 5-doughnut improvement over the last time we did the race!

dane was totally happy the whole time we were eating our doughnuts and holding him, but as soon as we tried to put him back in his stroller to run back, he started screaming again. it was very sad. but again, there was nothing we could do. so eventually he fell asleep after screaming for another mile or two.

the verdict: we did not fully complete the challenge, because we didn't do the running and eating within the time limit of an hour. (tommy totally could have, but he was nice and waited for me.) but we did run the whole five miles, and my knees didn't hurt at all. so i think it was a win-win day. 

first cereal: saturday night
we got home from the race and crashed, spent all day napping and reading (and working on the computer, in tommy's case). after dinner, we decided to try to feed dane some cereal, something we've been thinking about but putting off for no real reason other than laziness. long story short, he hated it, of course. after about four bites he started crying, and we decided it was time to stop.

the unsuspecting victim (notice his classy bib, with a shakespeare quote on it (thanks to the colemans/bodines for sending it!))

oh, well. better luck next time!