Comic Relief

Dane's personality has proven to be a very goofy one; he loves it when he makes us laugh. With the recent addition of all his babbling and crawling, we've had many opportunities to laugh at his funny moments. Whether it's his cheesiest smile, his joy when showing off his new skill of bouncing, or his babbling to Wheel of Fortune at night, he's our comic relief in a time when it's much needed:)

Just call him Woody

Dane's been trying out his new teeth on pretty much everything. So we have to forgo a clean house in favor of a slightly spit-covered one while he keeps popping out his pearly whites. We'll be done soon, right?! Only like a year to go...

Sunglasses

Our goofy dude...

Crab

Since we always put up pictures and videos of Dane being his typical happy self, I decided to give a little taste of what he's like when he's not grinning. Just so we remember:) See if you can see the sad story of how hard his life is in the pictures below...

Play Ball!

Dane got his first taste of a big boy ball last week. He's been sick pretty frequently lately, so we're trying to keep him occupied inside and as you can imagine, we're running low on new ideas. So, when I found an old exercise ball, we decided to give it a try. We play bounce on the ball, and catch, with Dane in Dad's lap. He LOVES it! A true boy, indeed:)

Snotty

As many of you know, Dane has been sick pretty consistently all winter. Croup, sinus infections and just plain old yucky colds, he's had them all. As soon as the cold weather rolled in, so did a snotty, congested little one. He just hasn't been able to kick them, but at least he's still happy. We're really thankful for his happiness, as the year has been rough enough on it's own. This is a snapshot that you could see pretty much anytime you'd drop in over the last couple months.

Big Chompers

Check out the growth on Dane's first couple teeth!

New skills

Dane's been learning in leaps and bounds lately, figuring out what actions elicit certain emotions from us, what actions will get him what he wants and where he wants to go. I also had my first experience with disciplining him, which was a total eyeopener for how difficult it can be. He's been very drawn to an outlet that's eye-level for him. It's the perfect size for his little fingers to poke into and he knows it. After repeatedly catching him over there and saying and emphatic "NO" when I pull his hand away, I realized he wasn't getting the point. I found him over there again, and said no, but accompanied that with a slap on his hand. He immediately looked up at me and started crying, which of course made me cry and scoop him up to comfort him. I'm going to need to get better at this before he's a teenager!




He's also scooting in a much more coordinated way, showing us that he's getting ready to really crawl, and starting to pull up on whatever he can. He'll pull up, look over and give me a huge smile, like he's saying "Wasn't that cool, Mom!" It's really cool to feel a real connection with him and know that he feels a connection with us as well.

Dane's visitors

Lately, Dane's been getting more visitors than we have. I mean, I thought we were fun, but I guess that he's so cute, we're totally second billing. Our good friends, Jason and Steph, from Utah made some time for us on their way through the midwest. While chatting with them, Jason's watch was sparkling, and Dane made the decision to start scooting to reach it! Thanks for that incentive! Then my sis came down for a few days again, as she was catching up with a few friends around the area. We had lots of fun giggling with Dane and watching him decide which one of us was mom. Even with different hair color, he seemed like he was sizing us up a couple times, unsure who was who:)

Finally, Dane and I headed back to WI so I could do a kick-boxing instructor certification class on Saturday. The Andersons gladly agreed to watch the little man for the day and it sounded like they had a great time while I kick-boxed for 5 hours:)