a few more april happenings

it may SEEM like all we do is sit around and take pictures of dane, but we actually haven't taken hardly any pictures this month. in between general conference sessions on sunday, we did go outside and have a little photoshoot (and by little, it was definitely over 100 pictures, which i have successfully cut down to about 20. or maybe 25).

I AM COMING FOR YOU... BEWARE THE DOUBLE CHIN.

also, BEWARE THE DROOL.

but really, the most important thing going on here is that dane got his first tooth! and, actually, his second. i thought his smile was the cutest thing ever before he got teeth, and turns out i was wrong, because NOW it's the cutest thing ever with two little teeth poking out of it. but you'll never know that because it's impossible to actually get it on camera. this is the best i could do. sorry!

and then last, but definitely NOT least, we were supercool parents and went to the SMASHMOUTH concert for free at duke. and we brought dane. also, we left early because of dane. it was really loud and i was paranoid about it hurting his ears and destroying his hearing FOREVER (seriously, i know, but it wasn't even that good of a concert anyways. they didn't even play all-star until after we left.) 

we were there with all the undergrads and then also with our friends libby and russell and their baby. all the drunk undergrads were SO JEALOUS of how cool we were with our babies at the free concert! especially with how tommy was wearing dane in the baby bjorn. 

(thanks libby, i stole these from your blog.)

once the concert started, we tried to cover dane's ears but he wasn't having it, haha. 

the smashmouth guy seemed like someone i would NEVER want to be in the same room with, much less ever even have a conversation with. he got up on stage and the first thing out of his mouth was, "LET'S GET *&#$#@$*(# DRUNK!" and basically just repeated stuff like that over and over again until we left. classy character.

this picture just cracked me up. dane's face.

we are hardcore! coolest parents ever!

i should tell a story about smashmouth though: one of the first times i ever actually talked to tommy was at a BYU hockey game that my friends went to and his friends went to and we ended up sitting by each other. and we bonded at half time because they played all-star and we both knew all the words, and we sang along and embarrassed our friends who were sitting by us because smashmouth wasn't even cool in 2008. but i STILL know all the words, and guess what? i bet it was that night that tommy fell madly in love with me. so it was totally worth it. 

so that's why we HAD to go to the free smashmouth concert, although it was a bummer that we had leave early and missed the song that brought us together in the first place. but oh well, we'll just make dane buy us tickets to a smashmouth reunion concert in 2035 when he has an income of his own to make up for it.

dane and the ladies

there were approximately 15 other babies born at around the same time as dane in our ward. and that's not even exaggerating that much. the mother's lounge is always full to the brim with people having to take turns at church. so dane has lots and lots of friends, and we've had fun hanging out with the other people with babies.

today, we met up with joanna and baby sally at the duke gardens, and dane loves her.

ruby comes with her mom when marya comes to visit teach me, which happened today as well. (although these pictures are actually from february--they were way more interactive and happy to see each other today!) dane loves her.

and then there's naomi--her dad nathan carpools with tommy to school, and i babysat her a few times while her mom carolyn was working. so these two have hung out a lot actually, and (guess what?!) dane loves her. (there is a trend here.) i had to take pictures of them together whenever i babysat her, because TWO babies are just exponentially cuter than one baby. it's so awesome when there are two babies sitting next to each other--don't ask me why. even the maintenance guy who came over to fix our light today while ruby was here thought it was so cute. so i've got a lot of dane and naomi together.

naomi also loves dane.

and this moment was awesome, because they rolled over right next to each other (i did not even put them there) and they both wanted the same book, and they linked arms while both trying to get it. THEY LOVE EACH OTHER! it's unfortunate because naomi's family is moving to austria in a few weeks so we're not going to be able force them to date or anything like that. but if they ever do end up dating, we've got some great photos for them to see.

SPRING

it is no secret, people--i LOVE north carolina in the spring. (and the fall. and i don't even mind it in the winter . . . but NOBODY loves north carolina in the summer.)

it's always surprising to me, every year, how happy i get when the flowers and the green leaves start popping up everywhere. because in california, you never notice when the seasons change. there's never a week where ALL OF A SUDDEN things are warmer and you realize you should pull out your shorts  and that winter is going away and everything starts to look more cheerful. it was during my freshman year in provo that i first understood the amazingness that is spring . . . and let me remind you--IT IS AMAZING.

of course, in north carolina, there is the weird problem where you have about two weeks of yellow pollen dust that coats everything. but even that is counteracted by the beautiful weather and beautiful flowers and beautiful leaves that cover the trees again after they looked dead all winter. dane and i have been going on 1-2 walks a day for the last few weeks, and we usually go outside and sit on a blanket for 45 minutes or so until tommy comes home, right at the end of the day when neither of us are feeling like we can make it any longer. it makes me so happy to have such perfect weather and wear shorts (it also makes me happy that i FIT INTO most of my shorts . . . hooray!) and it makes dane so happy to be outside, period. that boy could sit outside with no toys and no people and be happy looking around and watching a few cars drive by, and he could do it all. day. long. (if only he didn't need to nap and i didn't want to do other things every once in a while.)

we've been to several fun places with all of this nice weather. we went to the NC botanical gardens in chapel hill for the first time with my friend from NC state and her baby (who is two months older and about twice as big as dane).

and then today we walked around the duke gardens, which were in FULL BLOOM and gorgeous. i don't know if i'd ever seen the gardens in the spring before, and they were awesome!

tommy came and said hi to us because we weren't too far from his building. right after this, i fed dane some sweet potatoes and he got them all over his whole outfit. amazing.

also, dane skyping

dane and i skyped with my family today while tommy was home teaching and it was the first time that he'd actually interacted with those floating faces on the screen. they started playing peek-a-boo with him and he was smiling right at them. they sent us these video screen shots they took of him smiling at them, and he's all dressed up in his sunday best--too cute not to share.

this first one we labeled "dane, the scholar."

it's so fun for us to watch dane grow. it's almost like we can literally see the new thoughts entering his head sometimes. since we've both been here from when he was a helpless blob (sounds bad, but it's not, of course), every little step he's taken is so amazing. even when they're not giant milestones, it's so impressive to watch him develop. for example, his hand control is really amazing--he can pick things up that even just a few weeks ago he would drop really fast. some of his toys have mirrors on them, and he  has finally figured out that he can see himself (or at least some baby) in them, instead of just chewing on them indiscriminately. tommy went into the kitchen the other day, and dane leaned so far in my arms to see him in the other room that he almost fell out--whereas before he used to forget that you existed if you went into the other room. holy cow, it's amazing to see how he's progressing. this whole parenting thing is so mind-blowing. all the time.

family pictures, part two

we got the rest of our pictures from sarah and i wanted to make sure our families got to see them. no more commentary is really needed for these pictures. they're just too great!

p.s. check out http://sarahelaine.com/.