Kiddopotamus

Now that Dane is eating a lot of "real" food, we've started using those rubber bibs with the catch all lip so that whatever he drops or spits out goes directly into the bib. Dane has caught onto what happens with that bib and now he either:
A) Puts the food in the little catch all
B) Picks things out of the catch all and puts it back in his mouth
C) Lifts up the bib to tip everything out of the catch all and all over himself (as seen in Exhibit A below).

We are making headway with his eating but I still have to give him some baby food a few times a week just to make sure he's getting his fruits and veggies. He really likes turkey dogs and Morning Star veggie burgers and strangely enough, navy beans. I often chop up broccoli, carrots and cauliflower and mix it with smashed up navy beans. My Pampered Chef chopper has gotten more use in the past month than it did in the 3 previous years I owned it! He will also eat broccoli and cauliflower with cheese, pancakes, scrambled eggs, cereal bars, grapes, peaches and any type of cracker.

Exhibit A:

12 Month Checkup

Dane had his 12 month checkup today. They vaccinate these kiddos for EVERYTHING under the sun now. When I was growing up if your cousin had chicken pox and you hadn't had them yet, it was off to their house to be exposed. Now they vaccinate for chicken pox. This poor babe has had more shots in his first year of life than I've had in my almost 33 years of existence (33 really?? ugh). So today he got 3 shots and they've moved them from his thighs to his arms because he's walking. He handled everything pretty well considering they pricked his finger for a blood draw and then moved on to 2 shots in one arm and 1 shot in the other. We didn't have the most understanding nurse either, so that didn't help the situation. They did warn us that each of the 3 shots sting a bit when going in so it was a bit different than his past vaccination experiences. Thankfully it's over and the nurse told us that it's the 12 month and the 5 year shots that are the worst...so I guess we have 4 years to go until we have to endure that again! The nice thing was, our friends Brooke & Steve live about 5 minutes away from the doc's office and they invited us over for happy hour after Dane's appt. So, Dane got to play with their kiddos and keep his mind off his sore arms and we got to have cocktails with our friends! So...now to the details...please don't judge me, I promise I feed this kid but he's just busy, busy, busy and seems to burn off every calorie he consumes! His stats were:
22.6 lbs......25-50 percentile (skinny, skinny, skinny)
31.5 inches...90-95 percentile (good news is, he's tall!!)

Famous Dane

Channel 5 news in Chicago does a 1st birthday segment every day. Tim & Teresa sent in Dane's picture for the segment so Dane was on Channel 5 news in Chicago! I don't think they're overly proud grandparents...do you???

Happy 1st Birthday, Dane!

Wow! What a whirlwind year it has been...I still remember the day Dane was born like it was yesterday and it seems like it was! Everyone tells you that life flies by once you have a child and I never realized how true it was until Dane came into our life. I have relished this year and feel so unbelievably blessed and fortunate that I get to stay home with him. I so much appreciate Cameron's hard work to allow us this luxury. Today I am incredibly thankful for a happy, healthy, active boy who came into our life exactly one year ago to steal our hearts! At the age of 1, Dane:
- walks everywhere, definitely preferred mode of transport
- says mama, dada, hi and go
- tries to climb on and in everything
- has weekly playdates with Colin, Mason & Kaylin
- loves, loves, loves his doggie brothers
- is really starting to mimic what we say and do
- still isn't all that interested in "real" food so his main meals still consist of baby food
- loves meatballs, bananas and peaches
- has 4 teeth, got his first at 11 months and has been popping them out since then
- goes "baby-a-tonic" when we put shoes on him, he just sits...refuses to walk
- has a very contagious belly laugh
- is just a happy-go-lucky kid

*I went a bit overboard with his video...it's 13 minutes long!*

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Take Me Out to the Ballgame

On Saturday we celebrated Dane's first birthday with a baseball themed party. We had everything they offer at the ballpark...cotton candy, licorice ropes, peanuts in the shell, cracker jacks, popcorn & hotdogs. I think we ended up throwing a parent's nightmare party due to the amount of sugar we offered to all the kiddos! There were some woundup little ones around 4pm when the party ended...and I got to send them home with their parents! :)

Instead of doing a cake, we had cupcakes and Dane got a "1" smash cake. He dug right in and seemed to love the frosting. Once he had his fill, we took him up and put him in the bath. He was happy until I accidentally doused him with the shower (dousing myself in the process). There were lots of cameras flashing, so here is a short copulation of photos from Dane's party...enjoy!

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Happy Valentine's Day!!

Dane's First Haircut

On Saturday we took Dane to "Kidsnips" at our local mall for his first haircut! They have all those fun kiddie chairs like cars, hummers, etc for the kiddos to sit and get their hair cut. Dane got a classic old convertible and he was "driving" for part of the time. He did really well, but I did have to hold his arms down because he kept trying to grab the scissors.

2 Adult Nights Out...In A Row!!

Wow...I had a weekend of adult nights out. This is the first time I've gone out 2 nights in a row since I had Dane almost 1 year ago! It was nice...Friday night I met up with Brooke for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants that happens not to be very kid friendly so we don't go there much anymore! Cameron stayed home with Dane. Saturday evening Cameron & I met up with our college friends. We had dinner with Luke, Nicole & Joe and then Jackie & Denis met up with us afterwards. Thanks to Tim & Teresa for watching Dane again!