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. ;)

In the name of 'keeping it real' for you, dear readers, this post is going to contain complaints. A smidge of whininess. A veil of negativity. Because everything is NOT awesome at all times over here and I feel I owe it to you and to myself to write about the challenges and difficult moments we've been having, instead of just focusing on the happy stuff.

Porter turns eight weeks tomorrow and since I skipped his weekly post last week, I'll turn this sob-fest into an update about our boy.

(Siblings are still madly in love, we all are, really!)




Overall, Porter is still freaking awesome. He is smiling so much that it's almost too much to handle the cuteness. He might even be getting close to a chuckle here and there with all of those open mouthed grins he flashes our way. Oh, the validation that comes with a simple smile, assuring me that this child DOES actually like me a little bit.

Could you die?








We've been calling him so many ridiculous nicknames, but we just cannot stop the madness: Portie, Porter-P, Port, and P-man are all favorites around here. Cecelia will regularly ask 'Where Porter P?' and she tells strangers that is his name when they ask. Whoops. I sort of love it though. And doesn't he look like a 'Portie'???



One big change in the past week is that we all re-joined our gym and even put all three kids on the membership this time. Mister social has been awesome in the 'Kids Clubhouse' and seems to be the star of the show. Many of the workers in the baby area are grandmas and cannot get enough of Porter---so they do not mind to honor his request and hold him the entire time. I was worried he would scream during my workouts and they would have to come and get me, but so far that hasn't been the case. I'm only gone for about an hour or so and I have to time our feedings and diaper changes to happen right before we leave, so it's been fine in the five times I've gone so far. He usually doesn't sleep there but he does seem really happy and stimulated when I return, so that's a big event for this little man. Being watched by someone other than family? Check!

(hanging out at the duplex before dinner with the in-laws---such a sweet moment sitting on their porch with my boy, reminiscing about the days we spent with baby Truman here).


The only time he will really truly cry is when he is over-tired, hungry, or overstimulated. He still loves to be swaddled, sucking on the pacifier, and walking around with us. If he is particularly fussy, we will do all of those things OUTSIDE and he will usually calm down right away.

He also loves selfies, obvi.


His naps are all over the place and he is making it known that crib naps will not be met without a major fight. One day he DID sleep in the crib for 2 hours but that included one nursing session and one cuddling from mommy to make it through. Otherwise he will only sleep for 15 minutes in there and will be done, but obviously SO tired. He sleeps in the Ergo and in my arms like a charm though. Go figure. Really looking forward to a time when his naps are more scheduled because right now we have no idea if he will sleep for 15 minutes and be awake for 2 hours or vice versa. Still a newborn with this part of life, for sure!

A particularly awesome swaddle by me, right before he napped in the crib for 2 hours. Big time.


He's nursing well, usually every three hours or so during the day. Porter will make it obvious when he is full, by pulling off and squirming around, as if to say, 'That's enough of that, lady, do something else with me!'. Which is great because he seems to be old enough to actually interact with us a little more! I completely forgot about the play-yard we had in the attic, but I pulled it out last week and he loves staring up at his little friends as they frantically swing past his head (since his siblings cannot let him play ALONE, duh). P loves ceiling fans and will stare at them happily for some time if he's in the right mood, and I even caught him flashing his gummy grin at a ceiling fan the other day. Sweet boy just seems so happy. Most of the time.

Chunk thighs!!!


Hi, friends.


The flip side is this: he still HATES his car seat and he's not sleeping the best anymore. Which means I'm pretty much emotionally spent after every trip we take in the van, hearing my baby scream so hard I think he might gag. And I'm sleep deprived, hence the negative veil over life right now. Here me out so we can move onto happier things: but the crappy stuff must also be recorded in the name or REALITY with a third baby.

The car seat thing is not totally new to us, since I remember Cecelia hating it, too. But her eight week post did not mention this horror anymore and it just seems like Porter is not getting even a teensy bit better with time. He seriously screams hysterically from about 5 minutes into the car ride until I pull him out once we've reached our destination: both of us sweating, he has scratched his face, tears rolling down his cheeks. It is just dreadful and seriously affects how we plan our days, obviously. I posted about this on IG and FB and got some really awesome ideas to try----like removing the infant insert, covering up the window since it seems like it's motion sickness (not mad until we are moving, not really mad when in the seat inside the stroller), using extreme white noise, and maybe even considering a convertible car seat. I mean, he has fallen asleep ONE TIME EVER so far, so it's not like I would miss the ease of moving him from place to place without interrupting a nap. I'm desperate here. This sucks.

(He really does hate it, swear)


Another thing that totally sucks? Sleep deprivation that slowly builds up to the point of mental instability. Porter used to be a great sleeper, frequently stretching 4-5 hours at a time, with 1-2 wake ups per night. I figured it wouldn't last and it hasn't, because in the past week it's just gotten so....sloppy around here. Last weekend I started putting Porter in his crib at night, inside the Boppy for a little elevation that he seems to like. I started to miss the kid-free 'unwinding' hours after bedtime, because I was holding him while he slept in the evening and then carrying him upstairs when I went to bed myself. So therefore, I started placing him in the Boppy in the crib instead of just holding him after the big kids went to bed. It is really nice to form some sort of bedtime routine with all of the kids and the unwinding from 8-10pm is truly magical.

He will usually sleep for about 4 hours in the crib, which takes us to 11-12am. Not bad. But I've also started nursing him in the glider and attempting to replace him in the boppy/crib without luck. Usually I will fall asleep sitting upright in the rocker and now my neck and back are all jacked up. If I do remain awake despite the incredibly sleepy nursing sessions, Porter will either snap his eyes open immediately upon being laid in the Boppy or he will sleep for an hour MAX after that first wake up. Last night he was awake five times total, and nearly every hour from 3-6 am. If I cave and just take the kid into our bed with us (gasp, I know!!) he isn't the best at nursing side lying so constantly having my boob out for a non-stop milk sesh doesn't really work either. Sitting up in bed to nurse = jacked back and accidentally falling asleep again.

As I type this, I have him in the nursery in the swing to see if that works for bedtime like it did when he was just a few weeks old. Aaaaannnnd 50 minutes into sleeping in the swing he was crying and wanted to eat. Awesome. It's not even 9:00 yet but my baby has already woken up once for the night, so we aren't even getting a good stretch at first now. Blech. Maybe it's a growth spurt? I like to blame everything on those.

(update: he did sleep from 9-2am after that first wake up, which is awesome! Then was awake to eat again at 4, 5, and 6. Meh.)

My life blood:


I'm with you, P.


So basically, it's been about a week of this nonsense when I'm so tired at night I don't even know how many times we've nursed. Waking up at 11 or 12 for the first time, and then 1-2 hours thereafter isn't the WORST but holy hell, it's pretty bad. It all adds up over the days, too, and starts accumulating this giant black cloud over my head that makes me think, 'This is awful, I'm a horrible mom, my kids obviously all hate me and won't listen to me EVER.' Really productive thoughts, I know, but I'm sure many of you out there can relate to the nightmare of sleep deprivation. I've been here many times with the other kids and hope we figure something out with Porter soon. I realize he is only eight weeks old which is why I feel so torn between 'must be strict with a schedule and get our lives back on track' and 'he's too little anyway, just do what works and don't stress.' This is why it feels so sloppy and inconsistent because I am too tired to decide what to do, if anything, about this change in his sleep.

No, it's not the end of the world. Yes, newborns mean sleep deprivation and I knew this was coming. But still--I think the lack of sleep combined with a lot of other 'life factors' that I will not get into right now, make everything worse. I had another paragraph here full of complaints/anxieties not related to Porter but deleted it. Because really, life is good even when it's sort of murky and tiring.

Love watching the kids at night!


Writing this all out makes me realize that both the car seat and lack of sleep both show that Porter really just prefers to be held. If I could stand up and walk around with him all night he'd surely sleep like a charm. And if we were in the 1940s when people just held their babies in the car, he would be fantastic. Alas, no such luck. My little cuddle bug sure knows how to turn on the charm and MAKE me want to hold him at all times but it's just not feasible, little guy!

He really isn't so little anymore and mostly seem so LONG these days, but I have no idea what he weighs. I do know that reading Truman's eight week post makes Porter seems super skinny (though still bigger than Cecelia was) because T was a porker!! Porter is still in 3 month clothes but could definitely bump up to 3-6 soon because of his length. I love his chunky thighs and his super alert eyes that make him seem like a REAL baby now, and not so much of a newborn.

Also, I really love to dress him in stripes. And yes, the bowties were made by my mom and are freaking adorable. Nothing like dressing him to the nines on a random Tuesday 'just because.' Ha!


So really, besides all of that garbage up there about the car and sleep, things are good. I'm just tired and not in the best mental place because of it, but I know it will eventually get better. Because Porter is still the best and those smiles? They absolutely help with the crappy moments. He is such a sweet, happy baby and we all love him so much. Now only if he would sleep better at night and tolerate traveling by van....gotta have goals, I suppose!

Love you, Porter-P. You are the best.