Porter- Around a Year & a Half

*The Videos Work Now

I've been keeping notes for this post for several months now. It wasn't until last week when I was all alone in our house recovering from the flu (long story) that I found myself coherent enough to be conscious but not on my feet that I dug a notebook out of my nightstand and wrote down my thoughts.

*Disclaimer- I know these posts can be long and full of extra details so you may want to just skim and catch the highlights, but for me personally I'm so glad I have these little snapshots to look back on as Porter grows up much too quickly.*

This post is a glimpse of Porter at and around a year and half old:

• Porter is such a good, happy, and loving child. Family members tell me as much when they spend time with him, reminding me how easy I've got it. The other night Aaron and I laid in bed monitoring the exuberance of this baby girl in my belly and we can't help but be a little terrified of what we're in for.

(P.S. I didn't know there was a hole in my shirt- It's been added to the mending)

• Porter can stack blocks 6-8 high on his own. However, he seldom makes it that far without our encouragement because once they're 4 high it's more fun to crash them.
• He cracks me up when he pretend dresses himself. He drapes things like socks, towels, and t-shirts across his shoulders after imitating the motion of putting a shirt over his head.
• This kid LOVES music! He made this inclination clear to me when we were working on coloring together and he took 2 of the markers and used them as instruments, tapping along in perfect rhythm to my background music. If there is music playing in the house he moves to that room and dances. When we're in the car Porter claps and kicks to the beat, but my new favorite is his singing. He uses his voice to sing along. We see this a lot during our opening song of family home evening. He'll play the piano and sing with Aaron and me. We're going to need a bigger piano bench once Little Miss gets here!
• Read, Read, Read!!! We could spend all day sitting reading in front of Porter's dresser, where he has drawers filled with books. He jumps up from my lap, walks over to the opened drawer, picks a book, carries it back to me, cuddles into my lap to listen to his story, and is happy doing this for hours. I noticed a while ago that Porter has caught onto correct book orientation. In one of his Curious George books there is a picture of George upside down, Porter always has to flip the book when we get to that page. He'll also turn a book around until it's right side up if you hand it to him incorrectly. Aaron and I are so grateful for the variety library trips add to Porter's daily reads! He gets so excited when we go to the library, it's hard to keep him quiet and from pulling all the books off of the shelves.
• With the big 1-8 we sent Porter to nursery at church. Aaron and I had been debating for weeks about whether or not Porter needed a special nursery worker called to make sure he was having a positive experience in nursery and not being left out of activities because of his Down Syndrome. I had heard stories from other parents of children with Down Syndrome where their children were ignored, and I wasn't about to let that happen to P. Porter's Church Aunt "Kyla" even had herself all lined up for this calling because she loves him so much! Aaron convinced me to let him go alone for a few weeks with him and Kyla taking turns going into watch how Porter did. I should have known that Porter wasn't about to be left out of anything and was overjoyed to be there! My only concern now is Porter's petite size and the large size of the bully that goes to class with him, sigh. As soon as we open the door to drop him off he grins and is the only kid not crying, he's a fan!
  
• Bath time is still one of Porter's favorite things. He's recently started washing himself and cleaning up all his bath toys when he's finished.
  
• We've noticed that bath time is more exciting for Porter these days because it's the beginning of his bedtime routine. It goes like this: bath, PJs, snack, brush teeth, Daddy story time in the rocker, then he switches to sitting with Mom in the rocker and we both get tucked in by Daddy who receives goodnite kisses followed by a prompt shove to leave because once P is tucked in it's Mommy time! Porter and I read the same book every night before bed, "I Love You, Baby". Once we finish the book I get my goodnight kiss, look my boy in the eyes and remind him that, "I'm gonna love you forever!" I cradle him in close, turn off the light and sing him 2 lullabies while tickling his hand. This very particular routine relaxes Porter and after his second lullaby I can lay him down in his crib to fall asleep. I adore this time with Porter and must confess I LOVE it when he falls asleep in my arms, so I let it happen often. Sometimes I just sit with him in my arms enjoying that calm peaceful feeling we share during this time when he drifts off to slumber.
• Porter is getting to be 80% accurate at pointing out nose, eyes, ears, and mouth.
  
• For the record Porter is now walking 90% of the time at home. He'll still crawl or bear crawl if it's more convenient but he is very proud of himself for walking. Below is a video of Porter's early walking in October (I would take him to the church on Saturdays while his Dad practiced the organ so we could use the gym for walking practice.) The following 2 videos were taken tonight. Just a little extra detail about why these 2 are so excited to see each other: Aaron had a conference call at 5 tonight that was scheduled to last about 30 minutes. We decided not to let Porter see Aaron so he wouldn't be upset when Aaron had to go back to work. The call ended up taking around 2 hours and when they finally got to see each other they had to play. P's in his diaper because I'm being a good Mom and he was feeding himself. As you can tell he doesn't like being naked at all! ;)






• Porter uses toddler jargon. We'll hear clear words in a sting of nonsense. It's just so cute! My personal favorite is when he uses his serious voice to scold the dog. His intonation is unmistakeable and he'll end his nonsense sentence with a very stern, "Sydney!" Porter may or may not use this voice with his parents. :)
• The only show he really watches anymore is Mickey Mouse Club House. Everything else loses his interest and it's the reason I can't bring myself to downgrade our cable package. Porter especially enjoys watching Mickey after he's been playing hard and needs to unwind.
• Marshmallows - Porter will do anything for marshmallows. If the pantry is left open it's only a matter of time before Porter comes walking out with our marshmallow Tupperware. It's so hilarious to us. He did this the other night while I was preparing dinner so I told him he couldn't have any. Undeterred, P took the rather large Tupperware and climbed the stairs looking for his Dad who just can't say no. I'm pretty sure after he climbed the large flight of stairs with his bundle in tow Aaron felt like P deserved a few mallows.
  
• Porter can finger feed himself and has done extremely well with his fork & spoon the last 2 weeks. And, Praise The Lord, Porter can finally use a sippy cup with unthickened fluids without aspirating!!! It's so nice to know he's hydrated.
• We're seeing more pickiness when it comes to food. He's definitely letting us know what he doesn't like and can be a stinker about eating. He still eats well, I just sometimes have to try 2-3 things before he's willing to eat.
• Porter is still aware of strangers but loves making friends. Everywhere we go he is quick to wave while offering a "Hey" or "Hi". The other night at our church building Porter was walking up to each person taking them by the hand and saying, "Hi". Oh my goodness! I'm an outgoing person, but I can't keep up with him!
• Around Thanksgiving Porter started talking to his sister! I had assumed he was too young to understand, so I had never tried to teach him that I was carrying a child. He once again showed me how close to Heaven he still is! Sister is the recipient of many pats (they'll need to be a little softer when she comes out, but he's already learning), "Hi"s, "Hey"s, hugs and cuddles. I can't say for sure but I think he's excited to have her in the family.
  
• Porter watches sports with his Dad. Aaron says Baseball is his favorite and the only thing he doesn't really enjoy watching is basketball.
  
• Here's a list of the words Porter uses: daddy, bye-bye (pronounced dye, dye), yeah, tree, pretty, Mom, again, book, cool, drink (comes out 'ink'), Jesus, All Done, Doggy, Sydney, wee, Quincey (my parent's dog), up, go, no, more, love you, hi, hey, and hey you. *It should be noted that Porter will use a word once and then it will disappear so I'm terrible at remembering to write down what he says.

Porter continues to be the greatest joy in our lives! He has taught us to live each day in the present leaving the future to be worried about when it arrives. We've learned how to better listen to and accept God's will for all of us because we HAVE to trust in God where Porter is concerned and it's a lesson that spills over into all areas. I'm so grateful for this gift, I didn't even know it was something I struggled with- I guess ignorance is bliss. I'm at peace with our lives and sure in our happiness. It's difficult not to be happy when you spend your days lovin' on this sweet child!

We're Back

My friend Dani posted this on her blog yesterday (just have to add I love her blog, the photos, stories, little moments, but mostly her lovable family) and I'm pretty sure I've read this somewhere before but the part she took from this really touched me.

I've copied and pasted it here so I have it to look back on:

President Gordon B. Hinckley: "You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of these meaningful, significant things. Some of them may be funny. Some may be of significance only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experience."

My favorite line, "Some maybe of significance only to you." This is true for this family and while the blog is far from a complete record it's something I LOVE looking back through.

More posts coming, hopefully another one tonight!

Hiatus

Hi Friends!

This past Friday we moved our office down into the basement to clear a room for Baby Girl. Exciting right?! It's going to take some time before the office is up and running again, including our desktop computer. That means no Internet for me, so you won't be seeing much of anything from me. :) I could use Aaron's laptop in the evenings, but I like to spend the evening with the boys, feeding them, cleaning up after them, laughing with them and getting ready to take care of them the next day ;) Sooo... blog posts take a back seat . I miss being caught up on your lives and knowing what's going on but the break is nice in its own way too.

Here's a little clip from our evening. We recently got Porter's ELAP results (a developmental evaluation) and he did awesome! One area of concern is completely my fault: self-feeding with a spoon & fork. I haven't let him. He's shown interest for over 6 months now, but I'm a lazy control freak and I got tired of cleaning up those messes everyday so I've let him down here. That changes now... tonight after dinner I set the boys to work on some instant pudding. That's the video clip below. When it was time for bath I dished up some pudding into a shallow bowl, gave Porter a spoon, and let him go to town. Baby Steps people! :) Pudding won't clog your drain, it cleans up very easily and Porter had a great time feeding himself.

{Can you tell how I feel about messes from my groan at the end? I'm really obsessive 2nd tri of this pregnancy.}

I hope to be back in the social networking world soon, until then we're missing you!

Christmas 2010

Folks I'm just going to get this done so it stops haunting me. Let me tell you about our Christmas.

After a long night of coughing and being up with Porter we decided to nip whatever it was in the bud with a breathing treatment. He took this first one really well. The illness got worse as the day progressed and it became obvious P had croupe.

We made Porter's favorite for Breakfast: crepes with fresh fruit and whipped cream. We couldn't get him to eat much, however, because he had seen the presents that had magically appeared under the tree and that's all he wanted.

A quick Mommy Note: Around 3 am we decided to bundle up and go sit in the cold winter air with Porter to open up his airways. I'll never forget the sparkle in his eyes when he saw all the presents for the first time under the tree as we came downstairs. I kept thinking "what a clever boy to notice something was different and to know they were gifts".

Porter was super excited but I didn't catch many smiles on camera this year because he wasn't feeling great.

"Okay I'm looking at you Mom, can I open this yet?"

We thought that Porter would be more interested in the paper than the gifts like he was last year; were we ever wrong! It was all about what was inside all the pretty wrapping and playing with it as soon as possible!

I love this picture! We got P a hooded lion bath towel because he has outgrown his monkey one. He gives monkey kisses every night when we hang him up to dry so it was so cute to see him welcome Lion with a kiss.

Aaron got new running shoes, I guess after 500 miles it's time for a new pair.

He also got a water belt which he's excited to use for his training.

I got these delicious 100% cotton bath sheets and a pair of slippers from P. It's the little things that add a bit of comfort that make me happiest.

Aaron also surprised me with this fun kitchen tool. It's so I don't have to scrape the sides of my mixing bowl every other minute when I'm preparing cookie dough, etc.

He loved opening his gifts!

After Christmas morning at our house we headed to Aaron's family's Celebration. We had a yummy Ebelskiver breakfast. We avoided all sugar with our crepes so we could enjoy the sweetness of this meal.

Aaron's parents always have stacks and stacks of gifts and it was no different this year.

Porter was lucky to find a spot to sit. Can you see he's a little overwhelmed with all of it? Thanks Mom & Dad for your generous gifts!

They gave Porter a Cozy Coupe and this is P anticipating his Dad finishing assembling it. It's now his favorite spot to watch TV.

We had to wait a day to go visit my parents because of Porter's illness. My step-dad Gregg was also sick with pneumonia this Christmas so when we did get together he and Porter were quite the pair. For some reason I didn't have my camera in the room with us when we started to open gifts, but since Porter was feeling better he was so cute when he opened his gifts. He was so excited to open his power wheel four-wheeler. I went rushing for my camera but I missed it. Here are a few after the fact.

"Can we open it?!"

I was a little shocked my Mom purchased such a thing for Porter. My grandpa Von bought these for my brother and I when we were little and we drove her crazy with them. She just smiled and said it's her turn. She even found an extra small one for our extra little guy!

Aaron and I received this Electric Pressure Cooker from my parents. It's pretty sweet! It cooks brown rice in 15 minutes and chicken in 6. When you cook meat in it you get the most tender flavorful bites with it. I'm excited to learn and explore the many different uses for this.


I just wanted to finish this post by sharing that the excitement, celebration, and family time for Christmas is wonderful. However, some of our fondest memories and moments this Christmas season were spent as a family in our front room on the sofa reading stories of Christ and/or sitting all clumped together on the piano bench singing Christmas songs. We're truly grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ!