Yolande

1. I gave my blog it's monthly face lift today, so for those of you who read through Google Reader, you may want to see the new decor:) I'm completely guilty of reading blogs the lazy way through GR, too, and miss the real layouts.

2. I've spent my day off doing the following: sleeping until 9 am [went to be at 10 pm!], laundry, car wash [it was hideous and felt neglected], and scouring the internet for our anniversary trip. My new idea: KEY WEST! I'm still keeping Napa and Boston at the top of our "must see" list, but right now the beach is calling. And we've always wanted to see Key west. Look at these pictures and try not to drool:

Do you see what I see? The LOW in May/June is 78 degrees. The low, people. The highs are in the 80s which is my ideal temperature. This aspect sells me instantly on Florida. Also, I really want to keep this vacation under 2k for the hotel [5 nights], flights, and food/drink. It CAN be done but we just need to research a bit. I'm also toying with the idea of Mexico because it's usually inexpensive but we'll see. Right now I'm all about Key West but I have to run it by the big guy when he gets home.

3. Apparently, I might have the day off tomorrow. My boss and co-workers basically told me on Saturday that I looked "tired" and "worn out" the whole day. I think they feel sorry for me and my dark circled eyes because I've been working my arse off there then attempting to work 0n the house in the evenings. So they've pulled some strings and told me to call in the morning, just in case they get hit hard with new evals, but otherwise I'm off tomorrow! Cross your fingers that we don't have a rash of ankle fractures on our death trap ice because I'd LOVE another day to breathe. Not to mention that Nate also has a day off so I could actually spend some time with my husband for once. Shocking concept, I know.

'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. ;)

Since I did a baptism recap for Truman and Cecelia, I must do one for Porter in the name of keeping things equal in blog reporting. I wonder if I will always care about equality in my efforts of documenting each child's life? I mean, I know it doesn't mean I love Porter any less than I love Truman if I can't keep up monthly posts until age two, or the fact that I still haven't made Cecelia's second year album, or Porter's pregnancy album. I'll get there, children, someday!

On December 28, Porter was baptized at our church...which admittedly, we have not attended consistently in the last year. I don't know why but I felt sort of guilty when I emailed the church office to ask about baptizing Porter. Like, Hey! Remember us? We had another kid five months ago. Can we baptize him now? I shouldn't have been surprised when the office staff and the pastors were extremely understanding of our MIA status on Sunday mornings. They gushed over the picture I sent of the kids, saying we must be incredibly busy but what a wonderful phase of our life this is. Busy but wonderful, yep!

We chose December 28th just a few weeks prior, when I realized that my parents, my brother, and Nate's brother and girlfriend would all be in town that Sunday visiting for Christmas anyway. What better time than when most of our extended family is in the great state of Wisconsin anyway? Of course, Memaw and Pepaw wouldn't be here but it was Memaw's birthday on 12/28, so she and Porter were connected on their big days despite the distance.

The church said that this was typically a low attendance Sunday with so many members traveling for the holidays, and that there were already two babies being baptized at the 11:00 service. At first I was kind of bummed that Porter's baptism would be shared with two others, hoping it wouldn't take away from the special personal attention we've gotten each time before.

The other hesitation I had was about Poter's outfit. I wanted him to wear Truman's baptismal outfit that my mom made him four years ago, but Truman was a monster baby and was older than Porter when he was baptized at almost seven months. But I tried on Tru's old vest, tie, and shorts outfit and smiled when I discovered my fatty P-man filled out his big brother's outfit quite well. Both boys rocked it, really, and how special that they could each wear an outfit made by their grandma? Cecelia wore my vintage baptismal gown so her 'special attire' factor wasn't lacking, either, don't worry. (EQUALITY!)

Long white socks complete the outfit and make it more winter-appropriate, I think, don't you?


I'm glad we stuck with this date because it really couldn't have gone better, big group at the altar and all. The later-than-we-usually-do-church service at 11:00 was awesome because Porter snoozed for a bit at home before we left and we didn't have to bust our butts to get out the door by 8:00 am. One glitch was that Cecelia consistently asks to take her nap by 11:00 on the dot most days. This day was no exception and by the end of the service she was passed out on various grandparents, but at least she didn't emotionally melt down in protest of a different schedule!

Our big group sat in front and off to the left of the pulpit, and the big kids had crayons and family members to entertain them. Porter was a little grumpy about being in one place for so long (i.e. longer than 2 minutes) so I had to get up and walk around with him a bit before his moment to shine. Once it was time for the three families to come up, Porter flipped a switch and showed off big time with his social skills and eagerness for the spotlight.







He was the youngest of the three boys being baptized, and his two sponsors were both of his grandmas. We had close friends as sponsors for Truman and Cecelia but this time I really wanted our moms to be the 'spiritual guide' for sweet Porter. Both women are such inspirations in life anyway, and their faith and love for our kids deserves a special title. Godparents = Grandmas this time around. Love it.

There are three pastors at our church which worked out nicely, since each pastor took one baby for the actual baptisms. Pastor Margaret baptized mister P and he literally beamed at her the entire time, as if he was really excited about getting his head wet. She came up with a sweet Bible verse for our boy, one that I hadn't heard before: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothes me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness…" Isaiah 61:10a. She also told everyone that Porter's name means 'door keeper or caretaker' and had me carry Porter up and down the aisles to show him off to the congregation. Truman didn't hesitate to walk along my side this entire time, smiling and probably mouthing things like, 'This is my baby brother, isn't he cute?' to anyone that was looking at him. Quite the contrast to Truman sobbing when walking up and down with Cecelia on her big day. Ah, Truman. CC was asleep already at this point, but I know Tony brought her up front for a bit since she really wanted to be included. Then she passed out and didn't care anymore. Oh well!



Favorite picture of the day since both of our boys are grinning like hambones.


Lucky boy to have these grandmas in his life.




The pastors had the parents state our intentions to raise our children with knowledge of God, had the sponsors state their intentions to support us, and then each parent said a prayer for our baby. The pastors lit the three candles at the altar and we all prayed together one last time. Porter was a dream baby during this entire time at the front and he sort of made me want to cry with the gravity of it all. Our last baby, trying our best to raise him with solid values, knowing that he is so very loved by his family and by God, the support of our loved ones standing up there with us as 'seasoned' parents. It was an awesome moment and every bit as sweet as it was the first and second times!







After church, we all came back to our house and had an amazing brunch prepared by Lois and Tony. Nate and I supplied the coffee and gluten-free scones (my mom and also Jon's girlfriend have Celiac's) but everything else was made by my in-laws. So yummy and I loved having everyone around our table for this and many other meals over the holidays.

Also, I got a new lens for Christmas (the 24mm f/2.8) and have been going a little nuts practicing with it. In love, and what better excuse than a new lens to make me take hundreds of pictures?


Proud parents.










What a fun day for all of us, so happy our families were here for this big event!