Tricks!

OMG! Where did the time go? It feels like just yesterday I had a baby!  When I look back at the last year, I cannot believe how quickly it went.  Porter grew from a little baby to a little boy.  He learned to hold his head up, to use his voice, to eat his hands and then his feet.  He learned to sit up, to stand up and to scream to get his way.  He discovered his doggie brothers and how to play peek-a-boo.  He learned to sleep through the night and to take off his own socks.  All of this happened right before my very eyes.  I am amazed at the amount he has changed in a year and cannot imagine what the next year will bring us!

In just the past few weeks he has learned a ton of new "big boy" tricks, as I call them. He can now communicate with us and is able to understand what we are telling him.  It's amazing how he has morphed from baby to little boy.  His new tricks in no particular order:

#1- His first word is "hi."   He says it every time anyone walks in to the room and always does with a huge smile on his face.

#2- Waving hi and bye.  Daniel taught him to do this in a mirror and now all we have to do is say, "wave hi" or "wave bye bye" and he flaps his little arm in the air.

#3- "Go and get your ball."  I asked him to do this the other day and he crawled right over to his ball and threw it at me.  Daniel asked him to get his water today and the same thing, crawled right over and took a swig.

#4- Pointing- He just started this while we were in Texas and pointed to a lake full of ducks. Tonight I asked him where the doggies were and he pointed to Ralphie.  Too cute.

#5- When we ask him, "what does a cow say" he oooooo's back.  The "m" doesn't make the moo, but it's so darn cute, I hope he always leaves it out. :) (The only videos I have of the actual "ooo" are all on my camera and are too big to load onto this page.  I promise to have my phone on and ask him 100 times tomorrow!)

#6- He can play peek-a-boo by himself.  We throw a blanket over his head and he will pull it down and cover himself back up over and over and over (and over) again!

#7- Playing with ball toys.  We sat with him for just a few days showing him how to put balls in this super annoying chicken toy.  One morning, I looked up when I heard the ball drop into the slot and was shocked that he had done it all himself. It's amazing how quick he picks up on new things.  On the airplane I showed him how to put the window shade up and down and it he did it over and over and over again.  Just tonight I showed him how to move the light switch up and down and he did it all by himself (over and over and over again).  :)

#8- He's just starting to copy noises I make and one day they will sound like words: doggie,  uh-oh, bye bye, mmmm and duckie.

#9- We're pretty sure he has our names figured out. He cries for Mama when he's sad and says, "Hi, dada" all the time.

#10- Using a spoon- He can't load it with food just yet but my days of spoon feeding him are over.  He can take it from my hand, shovel it into his mouth and happily  hands it back to me for more food.  He also loves to brush his teeth.  I brush first and then hand it over to him.  Who needs toys when you have a $1.25 stick with bristles on the end!  He gums that thing for 10 minutes after I hand it over.