boys vs. girls

You know how it's such a stereotypical "boy" thing to like tractors and trucks and cars, and a "girl" thing to love baby dolls and purses and trying on their mommy's shoes? It has BLOWN MY MIND to see Dane totally embody so many of those boy stereotypes without any sort of prompting on my part. I don't think I had ever even said the word "tractor" to him before he started talking about them on his own and screaming every time we drive past them. Now that he's facing forward in the car (as of last week, while we were traveling--so worth it!), he points out every single truck and bus on the road and won't stop until I respond to say "Yes, that's a truck!" We were walking around our complex yesterday and he pointed out every car and stared at every one as they were driving until they were out of sight or parked. This obsession literally popped out of nowhere and has been one of the most adorable things to see. 

And because we have Indie over a lot, I can compare the two of them--and she shows little to no interest in all of the vehicles that Dane gets so excited about. She DOES spend way more time playing with and hugging the few baby dolls we have here at our house, which Dane has shown not much interest in, except as anatomical models for him to point out their eyes and ears. It is so funny to see the two of them and to realize how these stereotypes are created and reinforced by real life. And so cute to see them both so happy doing what they love.

Dane's other obsessions: Sparky the dog, his monkeys, and his blankie. Somehow he now requires all three of them to sleep, and he's now tall enough to reach into his crib and pull them out and drag them around the house all day long. He always wants me to cover him up with his blankies when he's sitting in a chair, like so:

Saying "cheese!"

Saying "cheese!" to Sparky, making sure he's participating. 

Getting ready for prayer/FHE.

We pulled out these awesome jammies today with Yoda on them and I LOVE them. They are hilarious. I always love how Dane is completely unconscious about what he's wearing and could care less what's on his shirt or if his diaper's sticking out in the back. 

12 Dates of 2014: April

A quick note: One date a month seriously feels like A LOT of work when you have to find a babysitter. I know we have tons of friends who are willing and happy to watch Dane for us when we want to go out, but the problem is actually leaving Dane at their house and crossing our fingers that he will be nice. He's been very attached to us lately and doesn't like either of us leaving, even if the other is staying with him. Last night we tried to put him down to sleep at a friends' house and he screamed and screamed and screamed like he was being abandoned somewhere totally scary, so we ended up just letting him stay up with us and he didn't go to sleep until we got home at 10:00. It stresses me out, honestly, thinking of leaving him somewhere and wondering if he's crying and making life hard for the people watching him. But I'm always glad when we do end up getting out in the end. . . . It's just a lot of work to actually get out there! And I really feel like it's a good habit to keep up. It's only going to get more and more complicated and difficult to go on dates as time goes on, but obviously we want to keep doing it, so might as well start now. I think this goal of "12 dates per year" or once a month might become a permanent thing, as long as we can continue to plan it out.

But anyways, for this month, we ended up having dinner at the Angus Barn. Tommy has talked about going to the Angus Barn in Raleigh for a while. It's a kind of upscale steakhouse in the area, which I've heard a bit about while living here but never really thought we'd actually make it to. But this weekend, we decided that we'd have a graduation celebratory dinner there with Devin and Cathy, as a last hurrah fancy dinner together before we move to different states (boo hoo). We decided we'd use part of Tommy's signing bonus to pay for this fancy date (because we are usually more of a $10 a plate kind of people). When we pulled up, I was absolutely blown away by how huge the building and the parking lot were. I was kind of picturing a normal-sized chain restaurant, but it was actually this huge, sprawling, giant red barn basically just surrounded by forest and a beautiful lake (and the freeway and airport right next to it, of course). It was really awesome. 

We got there early (a miracle!), so we walked around the parking lot and saw some of the lake and the "Kicking Booth" (a nineteenth century North Carolina invention, if I remember correctly). And then we went inside and enjoyed a delicious, fancy steak dinner that we were 100% pleased with. The food was amazing, the company was amazing, the place itself was amazing. And the dessert was amazing--we got their chocolate chess pie, which was apparently rated "in the top 10 best chocolate desserts in the country" (according to our waitress), and we loved it. All in all, we had a great time. 

Happy graduation to Tommy and Devin, part 1! (Pretty sure they're going to get a lot of graduation dinners and experiences in the next few weeks.) And thank you, Angus Barn, for a wonderful evening out.

stalling

Baby's first selfie... so tender!

Dane is already such a manipulator. He is soooo good at stalling when it is time for bed. Tommy usually puts him to bed, and the last thing he does before walking into Dane's room is have Dane give me a kiss. Dane will usually refuse to kiss me, but the second they get to Dane's door he turns around, puckers up, and says "Mmmm! Mmmm! Mmmm!", looking back at me and clearly begging for a kiss. But when I come over to give him a kiss, he giggles and laughs and rolls away and won't let me kiss him... Until they start to walk into the bedroom again, and he's begging for another kiss from Mama. (Tommy said the other day while I was gone, Dane started doing his kissy face and asking for Mama, apparently thinking I would just appear every time he wanted a kiss because he knows I can't resist, even when I know I'm about to be denied.)

And when we get into the room to put him down, he wants to rock in the rocking chair and just play games or have us tell him stories about lions (very nice lions), and when we start to get up to put him in his crib, he points to the chair and in his very cutest voice says, "Chair? Pease? Chair? Pease? Mo? Pease?" I mean, how can you resist? What are you supposed to do? He is a MASTER of manipulation . . . I am afraid for when he gets older and his brain is even more developed.


Also, here are some cute pictures of Dane loving our friends' new twin babies. He talks about them all the time. Their big brother's name is Evan, and Dane always says "Evan... Baby!... Dog." (Because Evan has two babies and two dogs at his house. Dane loves the babies and is terrified of the dogs.) We got to babysit the twins the other night and Dane was IN LOVE. He kept rocking the babies' carseats, because we were doing it to help put them to sleep (don't worry, Tommy was supervising). In the top picture he's looking at me and saying "Sleep!" because they were starting to shut their eyes.

NCSU Farm Days

I love NC State. I mean, let's be honest, I wasn't as invested in being a Wolfpack member as a I was being a Cougar while I was at BYU, but I do love that school. And one great thing about NC State (and something that Duke and UNC make fun of NC State for, just showing how snobby those schools really are, hmph) is that they have a history as an A&T school, and still have a big agriculture program. And they have this event in the spring called Farm Days, where kids are invited to come see farm animals and learn about them. It's cute and adorable and overwhelmingly crowded with every single parent and child who live in the Triangle area. Dane and I went on the last day a week or so ago. Our ward playgroup was planning to meet up there, but we went early so that we could get back for Dane's nap. But Dane LOVED, loved, loved seeing the animals and getting to pet some of them. The lines were super long for some of the animals (especially the baby chicks) so we didn't bother doing those (because Dane could not fathom standing still for anything; he was running around like crazy the whole time and I was just trying to follow him) but we still got to see the lambs, goats, cows, horses, and tractors.

He couldn't believe that there were real baby sheep in there for him to see!

Petting the little lambs. We kept talking about being "nice" and "soft", and he's totally picked up on that and now will come up to me (or someone else) and say "Ni, ni" and stroke you pretty gently. (It's adorable, of course.)

They had long, long lines for kids to be able to climb onto the tractors and pretend to drive them, but like I said, Dane waits in line for no one. But he didn't really notice that you could get up on them--he was happy enough to just walk around them and see them. (He did have a tractor on his shirt too!)

Mesmerized by the cows...

Trying to get a picture with me, to prove I was there!

I told him to go touch the cow, and he ran up and started grabbing it and hitting it. 

The other great thing about NC State is that they have a creamery (just like BYU!) and they sell their own ice cream as well. At Farm Days, they give out free ice cream to everyone who comes. Dane was sooooo excited to have some, but even more excited to spoon it out himself. So proud of himself. 

It was an awesome little outing, especially for this little man who is super into all animals AND all modes of transportation right now (especially trucks, buses, and tractors). It was the perfect little event for him. We had a great time.

a visit from Grandma and Grandpa! (and Auntie Buh-buh and Uncle Cole!)

We had an AWESOME week this week with my family visiting. They came out here for a week, for Bethany and Cole's spring break. They wanted to go to DC while they were here, so we spent a few days there with them too--which was very interesting with a toddler, since most museums are not super Dane-friendly. But hands down, the best part of having them with us was seeing how happy, happy, happy Dane was with them. ALL week long, he had such a blast seeing "Papa" and "Mama" and "Buhbuh" and "Co!" He said all their names, he would ask for them whenever one of them would walk out of the room, and he was so HYPER all week long with all the excitement of having them around. I kept saying, "He's not always this crazy!" because he really and truly was just going crazy the whole time we were with them. It was adorable and hilarious and a little psychotic all at the same time. So we had a GREAT time with them, and Dane has been asking for them ever since they left yesterday.

So I just wanted to post a few pictures in no specific chronological order, so that I could email them to my two missionary brothers who will be checking their emails soon. I thought they'd appreciate seeing some of these pictures. 

Buhbuh, Dane, and Mama.

Dane and Grandma!

Grandpa and Grandma came bearing gifts, including this cute kid's t-shirt for the University of Albany, whose mascot is the Great Danes. It was adorable to see him running around with this Great Danes shirt on!

Of course, one of the days we were in Durham we had to take them to the Duke Gardens. (We are kind of at a loss for what to take visitors to when they come, other than the gardens...)

In front of the National Archives in DC!

Dane loved all the animals and dinosaurs at the National Museum of Natural History.

It was raining the ENTIRE day on Tuesday, so we were walking around and getting soaked the whole day. But we braved the elements, dang it, and still did some good stuff!

I thought Dallin and Austin would appreciate this.

A Murphy family inside joke: we have a picture of Bethany when she was about two touching a moon rock at a museum in Houston, and she has the grumpiest, poutiest face ever. We wanted to reenact that picture touching this other moon rock at the Air and Space museum in DC.

We took Dane on the little merry-go-round on the Mall, and he loved it!

The last remnants of the cherry blossoms (all the ones that didn't get knocked off with all the rain)--and my parents on their 27th anniversary!

Dane wearing his new sunglasses he got from G and G.

That one time we went to Mount Vernon and didn't go in because it was so expensive and there was such a long line, but we still took a picture outside of it and pretended like we'd been there:

Dane and Uncle Cole at Monticello.

Dane after he'd escaped the SUPER-BORING house tour of Monticello, exploring the beautiful grounds and gardens.

Basically 90% of what went on all week--going to historical sites but spending most of the time talking to Dane instead of looking at the old stuff.

Beautiful southern trees in Richmond.

Grandpa Murphy--this one is for you! This is us in front of the Simon Murphy house in Virginia, just like you wanted us to visit. Do you love it?

Dane was SO SO SO cute, sleeping in the car. He needed his monkey blankie by his face and Sparky the doggie on the other side and then he'd fall right asleep. So adorable. 

So sad saying good-bye to Grandma and Grandpa before they left.

Dane REALLY, really loved my dad. He asked for Papa all day long and wanted him to hold him whenever he saw him (for at least a few seconds before he'd want to get down and walk around again). He's definitely got a thing for the men in his life! (First daddy, now grandpa.)

Right before they left for the airport. We miss them already! Dane has been asking for them all day yesterday and today. 

We owe them a big THANK YOU for coming to visit us and letting us tag along on their trip to DC. It was really fun and we felt really lucky to be able to go there with some family who made Dane's antics seem all warm and fuzzy rather than frustrating. We had a great time with them and can't wait to see them in just another month or so, when we come visit in California.