15 months old

Dane had his 15 month appointment and everything went great. He is growing right on schedule and weighs about 25 lbs. It is really true about what people say regarding each stage. It seems like each month just gets better and better. I would really have a hard time saying which one is the best. Since Dane was born we have been doing play dates with five little boys and now they are starting to interact with each other. They are starting to play with toys together and take each others toys away too. It is so much different than watching the girls play. When the girls get upset with each other they scream but the boys just poke, tug, hit and yell as well. I can't imagine what it will be like when they are 3 and they just beat each other up instead. I just say let them go for it for now. We have been enjoying playing at the indoor play place at Zona Rosa while it is so cold outside but soon enough we will be able to go to the park. As far as inside the house Dane is really into watching Jacob on the laptop or on the XBOX 360. He also love to push anything around so we got him a lawn mower that makes lots of noise. He also likes to ride non-motorized toys around the house. He got a motorized 4 wheeler for Christmas but he just wants to push it around instead of ride it. That boy is going to have some muscles! His communication is getting so much better as far as what he understands. He still talk A LOT about nothing in particular though. He is not so much interested in repeating as he is in just babbling. I think he has always been way more focused on motor skills than verbal skills but he is still soaking it all in. Lately the frustrating issue is eating. I was really trying to feed him a balanced and nutritional diet when he was a baby so that he would eat anything, especially veggies. For some reason he has become the most picky eater. It is like he has entered a texture crisis. The only thing he wants to eat right now is basically fruit and crackers. He doesn't want to touch any meat or veggies. Although it sounds easy I have the hardest time making him lunch and dinner because I really want him to eat something nutritional. I am just hoping that this blows over soon.

Alabama 2011

Last week Dane and I surprised my friend Lauren in Mobile, Alabama. I was crazy enough to take Dane on a flight all by myself while being 5 months pregnant. I admit it was probably not the smartest thing I have done but it was sure worth it when I got to see the surprise and excitement on Laurens face when we knocked on the door. Overall considering Danes age and his activity level he did really well. If we would have had direct flights it would have been much easier but overall I am so glad we did it. The weather was so much nicer than here in Kansas City. We were able to go to the park and take walks most every night. Dane really enjoyed all the attention and affection he got from Chris and Lauren while we were there. Chris tried his best to wear Dane out but quickly realized it was not going to happen. Dane is like the energizer bunny, he doesn't get tired. The two of them did sit down a couple times to play some playstation 3 but Dane was a little confused by the controller Chris gave him because it had a cord. He was like "what is this???", he is used to carrying a wireless xbox controller at home. It is funny to think our kids wont even remember controllers having cords on them that will be so old school. Chris did his best to get Dane to watch some football but it is going to take a little more to convince him. One of Danes favorite things to do was go up the stairs over and over and over. It wouldn't be so bad but I can't seem to get him to understand he can't just walk down them. He will just step right off the top step like he knows what he is doing. I finally got him to just go up and down the bottom 3 or 4 and he still thought that was cool. Now that I am updating the blog I realized that Lauren and I didn't make it into any of the pictures :( but here are some of Chris and Dane.