Yolande

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

'He'll be two NEXT MONTH,' is what I'm telling people lately when they ask Porter's age. And all of a sudden he seems to be every bit of age two. Every.stinking.bit.

There was a span of about ten days when I swore that Porter was getting sick. He was incredibly cranky, and irritable, and would melt into a puddle (of high-pitched screams) whenever he couldn't get his way. He was clingy and basically a hot mess for those ten days. Nothing ever came of it, I don't see any gigantic teeth gleaming through his gums or any obvious illness that peaked. I think it was just a phase, the start of his two-year-old personality. When looking to Nate for comfort and guidance regarding this wretched phase, he simply said, 'How old is Porter going to be next month? Don't you remember CC at age two?'

Big guy!!


Long legs!


And I honestly do not recall her tantrums, although I'm sure if I read back over the blog archives it would all come flooding back at me. All that I remember about Cecelia was that she was an excellent big sister when Porter was born, and she would have been about twenty-six months then. Nate rolls his eyes at me when I claim recall failure but I truly blocked it out of my memory. Survival mode at it's finest, I guess (or newborn memory blur, take your pick).

NEVER FORGET, JULIA OF THE FUTURE!


This one cracks me up, shopping at Target, tears rolling down his face, but obliged us when we had him try on a hat. He wants that toy which is not for him.


Back to Porter: he seems a little less psychotic these days compared to that rough little stint, but still throws himself on the floor and chucks trains at his siblings, throws his food down, and yells things like, 'NOOOO, CECE!' on the regular.

His newest naughty habit is that when we tuck him in for bed or a nap, he always demands to sleep with approximately 800 trains in his crib. But now we will say goodnight, walk downstairs, and about 5 minutes later we will hear each and every train crash to the floor as he tosses them over the edge of the railing. Then he will do a grand finale by throwing his beloved Duckie lovey over the crib rail (we can watch the whole show on the video monitor), and will start yelling for me. I will retrieve Duckie and usually some trains, he will quickly flop down onto the mattress pretending to be innocent/tired, and will eventually fall asleep. But the sound of trains smashing on the floor will be a nice marker for this time in our lives with Porter-P. A part of his soundtrack to life, if you will.

An old shirt of Nate's from the 80s.


Besides pushing some major buttons, Porter is pretty much amazing. He is hilarious and a total copy cat when it comes to his siblings. He will fake cry if Cecelia is wailing about something for real, he will follow Truman around and do anything the kid wants, and he will sigh EXTREMELY loud like his mama does sometimes.

Must run down this hill a hundred times, mom.


The other day I took Porter grocery shopping alone, while Nate took the big kids to Costco. P and I had a blast together and I think he really eats up alone time with one adult! But I had to get a video of him saying 'Yuppie Hill' over and over and over again. Yuppie Hill is the brand of eggs we buy and I said the name once in the store, then he became a broken record and repeated it a million times with his baby lisp. I freaking love this kid so much, he is so weird and delightful.

Chocolate face, can't quite reach the pedals.


One big occurrence for mister P is that we switched him to forward facing in the car seat. Yes, it is one month shy of two years and I realize it's incredibly unsafe compared to rear facing, but even if we waited until three years it would always feel scary at first. The first time he rode facing forward he was giddy and smiling and kept looking at Cecelia as if to say, 'Hi! I can see what you see now!'



Favorite hobbies include splashing in every single rain puddle available, then complaining about being wet. Searching for a Bobcat working truck that he calls a 'bot-cap'. Looking for the wild turkey that has been hanging around our house lately, along with bunnies, birds, and squirrels. Porter loves animals so much that the other day, out of the blue he said, 'Mommy? Zoo, animals, big!, lion, bear, tiger, scary.' I mean, how is his little mind working like this now? He was just sitting by himself, playing with his trains when he told me he was thinking of the zoo animals and how some of them are 'scary.'. So, so fun!

Another favorite phrase is ,'No, I do it.' I hear this constantly when I try to pick him up to walk down the sidewalk, or help him up our stairs. In fact, he won't really ride in the stroller anymore unless we force the issue by using the straps and several snacks for distraction. He also likes to ride on Cecelia's hot pink tricycle but it takes about a million years for us to get anywhere this way. One Saturday morning we took a family walk to the Farmer's Market, Truman and Cecelia rode their bikes while Nate walked along side of them. I got stuck with Porter on his tricycle and it literally took us an extra hour to get to the Farmer's Market, including three failed attempts at me putting him in the stroller until I finally just dealt with the tantrum and booked it with the screaming child hanging halfway out of my stroller. He also hates diaper changes and brushing his teeth---basically anything that he cannot do alone is the WORST according to Porter.

Our epic trip:


What happens when we put him in a stroller?


Lois noticed that Porter is incredibly smart when she said something about how we were going to our friend Sam's party later that night. Porter looked at her and pointed up the street, right to Sammy's house, and said 'Sammy party!'. I mean, how does he know directions like that already? Blows my mind and never gets old to see him start to seriously understand the world around him.

I've had at least three people come up to me in the past week, asking me if *that* is Porter? These are other parents who last saw Porter in the spring and all of a sudden he's like a different child: tall, lean, a little boy instead of a baby. Waahhhhhh!!

Showing me his belly after eating a big meal at Culvers.


Sleeping is about the same, one long nap from around 12:30-3:30, bedtime at 7:30, up for the day around 7:00am but his record of sleeping until 9:00am has been attained several times. Thank goodness for summer schedules and Grandpa Tony, who Porter adores and requests after every nap. Tony now has all three kids on Mondays and Wednesdays as I work from about 9-3, then Friday mornings when I try to be home by 1:00. So far so good, and Porter is doing a decent job sharing Tony with Truman and Cecelia now.

Bros.






Eating isn't his favorite thing, but he'll graze most of the day and sometimes surprises us with what he can put down the hatch. Newest favorite is mayo on bread, cut into strips. Not a big fruit or veggie guy but we are working on it. Will eat any type of sugary treat you place in his vicinity though, so watch out.

Smoothie love.


S'more love. (and those baby blues!)


Porter always amuses us and he is a great mix of sugary sweet with a pinch of salt. I don't know how we got by without him in our family and I have a feeling he will be our wildest child yet!

The littles. Their relationship is something to behold, I love watching them interact (most of the time, anyway).


Matching tank tops!!! Not sure how long this will last but Truman adores it, so you better believe I will oblige as long as possible.


Nature walk in the woods with these two, we saw a deer and Porter almost lost his mind.


Catching some butterflies, duh.


One more month until TWO, Porter!! Love you so much, you little stink pot. ;)

Double digits already? Who took my squishy newborn and replaced him with a toddler-esque little dude? Let me simultaneously scream, 'No, slow it down!' and 'I adore each new phase, bring on the next!' because I can't decide which way to feel about this milestone.



oh, the changes.


I kind of like how I divided up the nine month post according to the hot topics in baby life: eating, sleeping, and motor milestones/achievements. Not that our lives can be fully captured in three topics but those are certainly the biggies, no?

Eating:
Let's analyze solids first and wait for the breastfeeding discussion a bit, shall we? Truman eats three meals a day plus one or two snacks but in the past few weeks he's caught his mommy's picky eater gene. At first he only wanted to feed himself and avoided all things spoon related and then that quickly morphed into him only wanting to eat what suited his refined palate at that very moment, which of course changes daily. Sometimes fruit is a hit and sometimes it totally fails. Sometimes graham crackers are like gold around here and other times they must taste like dirt. Basically we are happy when the kid agrees to eat ANYTHING we put in front of him because he definitely has opinions on what is good enough for his taste buds.



He tried his first french fry the other day at a restaurant and of course he chowed that down in record time. Sweets are always a success story, too, so I really do think he is trying to assert his opinion about food these days. Great. Grand. Wonderful. I guess the fact that he is gaining weight and eating 'enough' is what we'll go off of and I'll try to stop stressing about my kid tossing food on the ground, as if it's his personal mission in life to feed Henry the dog 5 ounces of people food a day. :) Needless to say Henry is a BIG fan of Truman these days.



The milk saga continues around here as Truman now nurses only once a day (if that), in the mornings right after he wakes up. That is when he is still sort of sleepy and cuddly and patient enough to wait for my let down. Otherwise, every other attempt at nursing is a no-go and usually leads me to feel like a total failure breastfeeding mom. I hate seeing him push me away as he turns his head to search out a new form of entertainment. But no matter how dark, quiet, and calm of a place we 'nurse' it doesn't work out anymore because this kid is simply on the move and cannot be bound by my boob. His distractedness is even affecting bottle feeding these days, as he can't sit still long enough to take in a whole bottle without NEEDING to get down and play/touch/search for various objects. I admit that when he is too restless for a bottle it does make me feel a little bit better about myself and my 'slow milk flow' because if the fast bottle doesn't cut it in Truman land then it must not be a personal thing against the tats. In fact, I'm certain that Truman is weaning himself from breastfeeding simply because he is a busy-body now and it's not because he doesn't love me. Isn't it sad to know that it took me a long time to be okay with this revelation, and not feel upset about it? He will usually take about 4 bottles in various amounts, totaling around 20 ounces each day. I'm sure you don't care about that but I'm big into milk numbers these days so you must oblige me.



So most days we get a loner nursing session in before we start our day, and sometimes even that is a struggle, and then it's me and my beloved/hated pump for four sessions each day. I am basically an 'exclusive pumper' now and I am usually pumping about 2-4 ounces less than what Truman takes in bottles in a given day. I counted up my freezer stash and we still have 200 ounces left but we have started to add an ounce of whole milk in breastmilk bottles occasionally because of our pending Missouri trip (leaving on Saturday 1/1 and not returning until Saturday 1/8!!!!). I won't have access to my stash down there so I need to make sure we have enough milk on hand or I will be incredibly ticked if I have to buy formula during our vaycay. Seriously. Two more months until his birthday---I am totally going to lean towards the finish line tape on this one and make it at all costs. And so whole milk is my friend to cushion our trip with a little extra milk padding. Wish me luck!

(Dressed up for his first Christmas!)


Sleep:
A much happier topic around here. (Sigh. Smile.) I'm beaming as I tell you that Truman now sleeps through the night about 90% of the time. Pause: let's remember that until he was 8.5 months old he NEVER EVER slept through the night, not even close. So this is still relatively new and awesome and is my one redeeming fact when I get sad about the lack of breastfeeding. Most of the time he goes down at 7:00 or 7:30 and sleeps until 6:30 or 7:00. Of course there are still times when he thinks it's necessary to begin a party in his crib at about 5:00 and then it's a tough call on our part---do we just start the day early since we can't really complain about a nice long sleep stretch like that; or do we have Nate give him a bottle to see if that will stretch it out a little more? Decisions decisions. Luckily we don't have to make that one too often.



Truman naps twice a day now, and has fallen into a pretty solid routine of passing out for about 2 hours in the morning and at least 1.5 hours in the afternoon. Gone are the days of 4 mini-naps and I can see that he'll be a once-a-day napper pretty soon. Again: such a big boy!!!

(spoiled, happy baby)


Milestones/achievements:
As if there was ever a doubt that my son is the product of two first-born, stubborn Germans--he proves he has his own agenda and is just now starting to army-crawl. Yes, I know that most babies check this off the list much much earlier than 9.5 months. But he totally didn't feel like it before, you know? It's like he felt his parents pushing him to crawl and so he defiantly ignored us and did it on his own terms. Now he is all about pulling himself forward on his belly and it practically became an obsession of his lately. Like, 'MOM I HAVE TO CRAWL TO THAT SPECK ON THE FLOOR OR I'LL JUST DIE!' type of a thing. Cute but not so cute when we have to actively guard all the non-baby type things in the house now. I'm sure it will only be worse when he is walking--but if we stay on this slower than the norm path it might be well past his one year birthday for that milestone.



Not up on all fours yet, but close. Not pulling to stand yet, but close. As I've said before this gives me great practice as a new mom who tends to be a little psychotic about my son because I'm learning to let him do things on his own time and not freak out as much. (stop laughing, I'm trying!). What's that saying about all babies doing things on their own clock, when they are ready? And the whole thing about not comparing your baby to others? I'm telling myself that Truman is perfectly healthy and isn't 'delayed' but he has a mind of his own. It seems like he prefers to focus on one task at a time, giving 100% of his attention to it until it's mastered, then he is able to move on and focus on something else. He might not be the first of his friends to crawl or walk but I have to remember it's not a race. He'll hit all the milestones when he is good and ready, I suppose. He is the boss and I'm not. Chalk that lesson up to motherhood's biggest pill to swallow.



He's gotten really into saying, 'Da Da' when he sees Nate. Simply adorable, right? But then again, he says 'Da Da' when I request that he says 'Ma Ma' instead. Not cute. Still waiting on my moment in the spotlight over here! He'll try to imitate a lot of sounds we make and sometimes he gets close. But when in doubt he always revert back to the old favorite 'Da Da.'



If there was a 'Like' button for opening and closing drawers, Truman would hit that baby about a million times per day. Drawers = sweetness. Also totally sweet? Watching objects fall from hand onto ground. It's totally mesmerizing to toss toys and food and everything possible and see how they fall.



Still clapping and waving and shaking head vigorously to say 'NO!' He will also making a farting sound with his mouth on command which is our prized trick of the month. Actually, imitating us make all sorts of sounds is a new fun thing around here and sometimes I swear Truman is trying to talk to us and relay actual information to us through sounds. His faves are still yelling, squealing, and making high-pitched vowel sounds in order to wake the neighbors. We are using baby signs when we think of it and I know he 'gets' some of it, some of the time. Yes, we are totally that couple who signs to our baby and it's actually pretty fun if you ask me. Signing 'more' and 'all done' and 'milk' and 'doggie' are the most frequently used signs when we can remember to use them.



In other news, he now has six freaking teeth. His two top middles came through this month with authority and are basically the cutest things in the world. Speaking of growing things, his hair is getting pretty awesome. A few long strays here and there and it's really filling out compared to his bald days.



Oh, and for at least a month, if not longer, diaper changes have become my least favorite activity. In fact, Nate and I might become professional alligator wranglers because Truman has perfected the alligator roll during changes. I know some of you can picture it: remove old diaper, and as soon as the new one is ready to go on, the baby starts to spin so you grab him by the feet and he keeps spinning. Thus the alligator roll. Horribleness all around. I've actually gotten really good at applying a diaper and various articles of clothing with Truman on his stomach or sitting up, or even crawling around. Sometimes I need to catch my breath and drink a recovery shake after those diaper changes because they are absolutely draining.

(our little hippie baby, straight outta San Fran)




So here we are at ten whole months. Sleeping more, staying in one place less, and worth every second of it. Bring on 2011 because 2010 was freaking awesome. :)