Yolande

Porter at Twenty One Months

Gah, I'm late with this update, and I know you were all worried when 4/11 passed without a post about Porter-P. Alas, I am a slave to the concept of equal documentation between children and there will only be three more monthly posts after this one. Because at age two, I stop doing them and THEN WHAT?? What will drive me to blog at all after my baby doesn't need my rambling voice to recap his monthly happenings anymore? Wah.

So old and distinguished, probably can read his own blog posts already.  :)


Porter thinks he is a big kid lately. He refuses to sit in a booster seat and now sits in a regular chair at the dinner table, even though his little chin barely reaches the plate. No matter, since he sits still for approximately five minutes to eat then says 'down' and is over it. I can't decide if he is a good eater or not---I don't think he is all that adventurous as he knows what he likes and rarely deviates from it, no matter how many other options I'll put on his plate. His favorites are yogurt, pizza, bread crusts with mayonnaise on them (so random, such a third kid thing), PBJ, and chips. Porter loves 'dips' and will scream for them more than most other food types. Well, cookies and M&Ms are his ultimate favorites in life, and if I make my M&M cookies he will try to pick out the candies first and then will eat the rest of the crumbs. He knows what he wants, this is for certain.

So happy on the swings!


Loves selfies, duh.


He seems super long and lean like he's lost his baby belly, but I know that compared to 2-3 year old Porter this guy is still 'chubby'. But he's really thinned out and is running constantly, eating very little it seems, so no wonder he doesn't seem gigantic and fat anymore! He comfortably wears size 24 month clothes, 2T seems a little big, and 18 months are usually too short but he could squeeze into them if needed. And I'm pretty sure last summer he was wearing 12-18 month clothes so as I pull out his warmer weather clothes, some of them still fit from last year! This is absurd and usually doesn't happen with my kids until they are much older and wearing clothes for longer than one season.

Long and lean!


Toddler body proportions slay me.


Hi, big kid!


The biggest obsession for Porter is definitely trains, and specifically all of the Thomas trains. He will name them now, pointing to them in a book and on TV and in 'real life' with our toy trains that are scattered across every inch of our house. I believe his favorites are 'Diesel 10' which he calls 'Ten', Spencer which sounds like 'Pen-durrrr', and Gordon. 'Gord' is still the bees knees around here but this month brought the ability to name 20 or so trains. Also he will request to watch Thomas and will actually sit down and watch a full episode without getting distracted. He will play with the three train tracks we have set up in the basement for a solid 10-15 minutes before calling for help. I love watching his little mind at work when playing with trains and I hope it continues! For we have many-a-Thomas shirts for the 2T-3T size little boy.

At Easter church service, double fisting the trains of course.




Can handle his Kindle with the best of them, usually picks Thomas or Daniel and watches it without interaction! Julia, the mom to one child, would have NEVER approved of this milestone but Julia, the mom to three kids, is super excited about this.


Ports is still a good sleeper, going down around 7:30 and sleeping until at least 7:00. Sometimes he will go through a phase of waking up earlier around 6:00 but thankfully that hasn't lasted more than a week or so. Also he still naps for 2-3 hours in the afternoon and really despises being woken up to get his brother at school. Porter needs to sleep with one giant Snoopy blanket, about three Aiden and Anais blankets, his duckie, 3-4 trains, and a billion stuffed animals. And two books. Then he makes me carry down all of those blankets with us after he wakes up, because sometimes he'll make a pile of blankets in a random place and will just lay face-down on them.

Loves him some duckie, filthy, filthy duckie.


Snuggles before a bed, a newish part of the routine that I looooooooove.


He's a goofy dude who loves to get a laugh, especially when they come from the mouths of his siblings. He'll pretend to be a dog and say 'woof woof' and pant, then he'll crawl around and scratch at my legs. Hilarious to CC and Truman, of course. And speaking of animals, Porter is truly obsessed with all animals and definitely at a perfect age for the zoo. His mind is blown when we see any ducks or geese and seeing bears at the zoo was probably the highlight of his entire month. He wouldn't stop telling everyone about the 'bay-ah' and then he would go on a tirade about every other animal we saw, and what they were doing (high! birdie! head! wa-wa! monkey! ooh-ooh-aah-aah! mump (jump!) ) The list goes on but let it be known that we have an animal and a train lover on our hands. Also a talker---Porter is still crazy verbal and it's awesome to hear him communicate mostly understandable thoughts!



What else about my little dude? He still loves his mommy and gets a little picky about who is going to help him do things. He usually says 'no, mama!' if someone else tries to help get him down off a chair or change his diaper. The last one is super fun for me. I've been telling Nate he needs to remember what it's like to change a disgusting diaper but *funny* how Porter just won't allow it :/



He's really into saying 'bye' to everything. 'Bye, wa-wa! Bye, plane! Bye, duckie! Bye da-da!' It's my favorite, even when he says goodbye to his privates as I replace his diaper. Also, he wants to be naked all of the time and sprints away from me when I'm changing him, just to feel the breeze on his skin or possibly because he likes to have me chase him down.

I also chase him around Costco, pictured here.


My favorite Porter activity is when he rides his sister's hot pink tricycle. We finally got him a helmet so he can ride the tricycle and also ride in the Burley with Cecelia on family bike rides (key!). I foresee many afternoons playing in our backyard this summer and as long as P doesn't wander off to explore the woods (he does have a tendency to follow birds), it's going to be a great time with this growing babe.

I mean....


We had a good Easter with Porter this year, but egg dyeing was not the most pleasant.


And yet, it's such a treat to watch our little caboose grow into himself. We are all pretty smitten with Porter and the feeling can be mutual. He can also hold his own and will purposefully push Truman and Cecelia's buttons, so I hardly have to worry about our little 'baby' of the family. In fact, Nate and I think he is going to be the toughest and wildest one of the bunch! Hold me.


We love you so much, Porter-P. This month and every month, words fail me to describe how amazing you are!
xoxo
Mommy