DanPar's progress, 15 months on the outside!

All right, here it is. DanPar's progress report, and my excuse to show off pictures of the cutest kid ever.

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Communication

He's signing. WHAAAAAAT??? I started signing when he was about 5 months old, and stopped signing when he was about 6 months. But picked it up anyways.
He started pointing to cars, and moving his hand over his chest like he's got a toy car, saying "Vvvrrr!" (Thanks, gearhead grandpa!) We taught him that animals don't go "Vvvrrr," but they walk around, going "Doop doop doop!" So now, if it moves, it is either a car "Vvvrrr!" or an animal "Da da da!"
So that's weird.

Zebra on wheels? We cut him some slack on this one.
It's a car AND an animal.

Also, he goes full-baby-speed around the house saying "Woof!" (his favorite word), even when there's no toy dog, real dog, or picture of a dog, in sight. He just likes barking. And I love him so much.

 Communication conclusion: Our child is a dog.

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Social interaction

DanPar likes other people. But he likes me even more. This makes him a really hard dude to pass on to other people, so I can do anything else ever. However, it's still undeniably sweet when he lunges halfway out of people's arms to reach for me, as I try desperately to stay completely out of sight.

Making friends with other babies at the library, whether they're real or not!

It takes a bit more work to make him smile than it used to. Shuffling cards just doesn't cut the mustard anymore. But! He just started realizing the difference between normal faces and silly faces, and just a couple days ago, he started laughing with every sweep of the broom. And that's awesome.

This is DanPar's silly face, in response to my own!

We try to go to storytime at the library every week, and we've been doing well to spend time with his cousins, at the zoo and at the museum! I still feel like I'm isolating him, but perhaps that's just because I feel pretty solitary most days anyways!

He's the cute guy on the left, next to Jaina and Cody!

  Social interaction conclusion: Still a hit with the ladies!

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Sleep

I'm about 90% sure we screwed something up here.

Our adorable little sleeper.

About once or twice a week, he'll wake up in the middle of the night, and he will not want to go back down. So, I'll take him downstairs, and play with him. (Or more likely, play YouTube on a tablet, curl under a blanket, and hope he doesn't eat something too inedible.)

Such a sweetie!

We're supposed to be weaning him off of nighttime milk, but he knows when he doesn't get his dairy dose, and he screams as long as it takes. And, in the middle of the night, it's easy to just take him and lay him down next to us in bed. Which is probably also something we're doing wrong, so now he'll wake up with little baby fists smacking us in the face. But they are adorable little baby fists nevertheless!

Aunt Brittany carrying the little rascal!

 Sleep conclusion: We've created a monster.

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Food

Perhaps this isn't right, but in my head, I've got three solid food groups in regards to feeding the DanPar. Protein, grain, and fruits/veggies. So when we sit down for a meal, I'll read comics aloud while getting his food together.

Getting ready for lunch with Batgirl!

	Protein	Fruits/Veggies	Grain
Active	Freshly sliced pieces of ham.	Pineapple bits, cut right to size.	Precisely 1 handful of cereal.
Lazy	Freshly scooped scoops of peanut butter.	Carrot sticks that I bit in half.	Approximately 1 handful of cereal.
Whatever	Freshly reopened leftover shredded chicken, I think.	Here’s an apple. Good luck, kid.	Ugh, I don’t know, a handful of cereal or something.

Yum yum healthy!

Yum yum BURRITO.

He has a wonderful appetite for the fruits and vegetables, and it's weird how much he eats like a real human now. Right now, we are trying not to introduce juice or desserts to his diet. We learned our lesson about spoiling, when grandma and grandpa decided that fruity Cheerios would be a fun change from his normal fare!

I told him he had to finish his Cheerios before getting Cap'n Crunch.
He was not happy about this ultimatum.

  Food conclusion: Made up food pyramid works, I hope.

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Motor control

He walks, he goes up and down stairs, he opens ajar doors, he can take snacks from a container, he closes and opens simple lids, he throws things, he claps like nobody's business, he opens board books and turns the pages, he goes on tippy toes to grab things that are dangerous and/or fragile, he sits on stairs, and he kicks balls across the ground.

Everything seems to be in order here!

He's pretty much a full-on human. No climbing yet. Thank goodness. Right now, the hardest part of keeping up with him is that he'll walk around to play with things, and I'll sit down next to him. And then he'll go somewhere else, so I'll stand, go over, and sit. Aaaaaaaaaand repeat.

Someday when he's a famous athlete, this picture will be worth billions.

He made that blanket fort all by himself. Not even kidding.
(Okay, definitely kidding.)

  Motor control conclusion: Shrimpy little human, but definitely a human.

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So there's our precious little boy, DanPar the Magnificent. He's growing up really nicely, and I'm really lucky to have a guy like him. He's mischievous when he's done being sweet, and he's sweet when he's done being mischievous. And I couldn't be prouder.

Lunar New Year Resolutions

January came, but I was not in the mood for the new year. I managed to give my wife a big ol' smooch at midnight, but that was about as far as tradition went. I didn't want to come up with resolutions. I'd just successfully done a whole year of 100 pushups per day. And the whole Christmas season left us with more than enough cleanup.

So, 2016 started off with stress, and no clear improvement plan. Just survive another year.

Then February came. Let's go ahead and call it February 8th, so that it lines up with the Lunar New Year. Suddenly, I felt the need to improve. This is one reason I read books. Books have the ability to tell us things from another perspective without watering them down or exaggerating, as social media tends to do. And I'm not sure what happened exactly, but in February, I suddenly felt that I needed to keep working on me.

So. Here's what I've got for 2016:

Diet to lose weight

I can't just say "Eat healthy", because that wouldn't be completely true. It might turn out to be healthier than normal, but my diet is definitely more about "Let's lose weight!" than "Let's get healthy!"
And here are three reasons why.

1. I want to look good.

I used to teach my class how to draw me. They always forgot the muscles...

I know I've got weight here and there that isn't helping. And no doubt, I'm a big dude. But how awesome would it be if I had a tight-fitting shirt, and instead of "Well, good morning belly!" my thoughts were, "Well, hey there MUSCULOS!"

2. I want to have more energy.

Gotta keep up with this kid. He wakes up ready to roll!

Quite simply, the more I weigh, the more I have to lug around. Muscles are fine, because they're doing the lugging. And when it comes to being a Dadmaster, I could sure use all the energy I can!

3. I want to be able to feast without feeling bad.

I want to eat a huge burger like younger Woody,
but not be tubby like younger Woody.

Sometimes, my brother-out-law comes down from Fort Collins, and decides to put his legit chef skillz to work. And when he does, and I spend a day drinking wine and eating a huge Philly cheesesteak, I don't want to feel bad about that.

So, what am I doing? Pretty much, when it's just me and the boy, I eat only super lean proteins, vegetable carbohydrates, and little to no fats. It's Phase 1 from State of Slim, if you're so curious. All about boosting metabolism and losing weight. But, when Jessi comes home, I eat normally. Mac n' cheese, fajitas, go out 'cause we're lazy, all good. Just don't go crazy on purpose. (Dinner tonight is BUTTER AND ICE CREAM!!!) It usually turns out that I've had 750 calories by the time she gets home, and I tack on another 750 through dinner and my evening snacks.

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Write a book. Any book.

I've been coming up with legitimate stories since middle school. What I need to do is make them well. But, before that, what I need to do is MAKE THEM. I've always had trouble actually getting my nose to the grindstone and just cranking them out. Plus, I hate editing. Buuuuuuuuuuut, if anyone wants to volunteer to read my story so far and let me know how badly I've done, I'd love the help!

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Become a better person.

I feel like a great person. But that self-satisfaction is often what keeps us from improving ourselves. To get biblical, "To whom much is given, much is required." To get Uncle Ben-ical, "With great power comes great responsibility." To get paraphrasey, "You think you're great! Wonderful! That means you can do more!"

So, I devise to keep a little item in my pocket every day, to remind me of a certain aspect I want to exercise.

My items hanging out in some tropical place on my mouspad!

• Gear: self-improving
• Boring. I make lists, inspect my routine, and check that I'm making progress.
• Dinosaur: creative and adventurous
• Here, I try to make food, gifts, anything, and don't hesitate to head out the door.
• Soldier: honest and grateful
• This one is hard, but gratitude usually takes off the sting of "I'm just being honest!"
• Woody car: a person I'd like to be
• All the times I've been proud of myself? I want to make more times like that.
• Batman: friendly and proactive
• Get out and talk to people! Don't laze away, pick up a broom or a pen and paper!

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Make it to 2017.

Nothing new here. For anyone. Make sure groceries get bought, walls stay upright, friends stay friends, bill stay paid, babies stay healthy, gears keep turning. One day at a time.

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P.S.
(I realize all these blog posts have been about me. I promise, next one will be a DanPar one. It's gonna be awesome.)

P.P.S.
;  y b ghb fhopf hylg jj c bg jkgv,
-DanPar

Such a sweet and happy guy!