Happy Birthday Porter Pie!

My baby is one!!

An entire year has passed with Porter and I keep playing the game, one year ago we were doing this and one year ago we were doing that. It is truly amazing how a child can change in the course of a year from being a blob of baby to a communicating laughing, clapping, almost walking, always smiling baby boy!

This time last year I was beyond exhausted and I asked Porter every day to not grow any bigger. I loved that he slept on me and made little cooing noises all day long. An entire year later I am telling him to stop growing up still because my little baby is almost not a baby anymore.

He is truly a joy to play with these days.  He can express happiness when he is pushing a toy that helps him walk around the house and can express frustration when we close him into his car seat. He can tell me using sign language that he is "all finished" and when he wants "more". He laughs when we laugh, and laughs even harder when we drop hammers on our toes. He loves to flop upside down and be carried from his feet.  He loves reading books, mooing like a cow and touching his nose when you ask him.  He loves broccoli and sweet potatoes and hates cow's milk.  He laughs hard when we chant "chug chug chug" when he's swigging water from his sippy cup. He has this infectious fake laugh that he does when he wants to entertain us or a crowd of people.  It makes us laugh until our belly's ache and makes him do it more and more.

Last weekend we threw Porter an amazingly fun birthday party.  The thought of having all our friends and the explosion of babies in our tiny house was not something that could work.  Daniel discovered a small brewery called Asbury Provisions, a stones throw from our house, when he was writing his thesis.  We talked to the owners and decided to throw his party at their place.  It was absolutely perfect!  The space fit all our friends, the kids played with toys on the floor, the food was delish and Porter ate his cake with a smile on his face the whole time.  The best part was that we didn't have to clean up or do any dishes after the event!  We were able to talk with all our friends and Uncle Lex documented the entire event on camera.

I can't wait to see what the next year holds for Porter.  Soon he'll be walking and talking and that just blows my mind.  I can't wait to learn more about his personality and see who he becomes as he grows into a child.  I love you P.

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.

Rock and Roll!!

It's been two weeks since the Rock and Roll half marathon and I'm so very proud with myself that I did something so amazing. 10 months and 2 days after having a baby, no less!!  I went on my first run yesterday since the race and although my hips are still a little painful, it was great to get out there and enjoy some "me" time again!

Twelve weeks ago I signed up with a Fit-For-Mom's running group and pledged to stick to a running schedule, to run with my fellow mama's on Saturday mornings at 8 AM and enjoy every second of it- right?!  98% of the time, I did enjoy every single second.  I ran with friends, gave Porter plenty of fresh air, got Eazy a lot of time out of the house and saw some beautiful new running trails during the time.  

The training was great and I started my first run by taking a picture of P and me.  I then decided to take a picture after every run and document my 12 weeks of training. 

I remember this week being so difficult- I had to run 3 miles and did not know how I would ever survive!  I also remember thinking that 4 days a week was A LOT of running.  It's amazing how quickly 3 miles felt like a drop in the bucket and how 4 days a week was nothing when something becomes a habit. 

That bottom one's for you, KVV! xx

I can't help but notice how little hair P has at the start of these pictures.  Three months is a long time in baby time- he started crawling and pulling up all during this time. He became an amazing eater and a good sleeper during this time.  He had a five week breastfeeding sabbatical, I started back to school, he started with his first nanny.  He began to love books and started to dance to music.  He figured out how to play in his crib and let Mama and Dada sleep in a bit longer.  He began to notice kids and be entertained by them.  He mastered sitting in a restaurant high chair and sprouted three new teeth during this time.  It's amazing how fast he changed from a little baby into a little boy.  

Here's a group shot of our running group before the race. Some of us have one kid, some have two. Some girls stay home, others work full time.  Some had run half-marathons in the past, others, this was their first race. Regardless, we all made a pact to run together and did it- what an amazingly hard thing for any mom to do!

There I am! So fast they could only get me
after I wizzed by!

My cheerleaders!

Finished at 2:17:25! (10:28 miles)

4482/8129 overall

473/949 in my age category

2457/5266 for all female racers

Irma

People are always asking me how things are going with the new nanny share and with Irma.  Things are great! Really, I couldn't be happier with the situation and feel so lucky with how things fell into place.

Back up...way up...

Meg and I met almost exactly 17 years ago.  It was bid day with our sorority and during a funny group picture of all the incoming freshman, Meg stuck her shoe in my face and kept it there as we posed for our round of pictures.  I was immediately annoyed by her.  Then, that night, we were headed out to our first fraternity party and I went to go tell Meg, the "annoying shoe girl," that we were ready to go.  I opened her door and there she was, sitting on a couch, surrounded by (what I remember) as 25 boys.  She told me that she would be right there, but first she had to curl her hair. The annoying shoe girl now became the annoying hair curling girl with way more guy friends than I had ever had.

It took plenty of cheap fraternity beer, but that night we bonded and have been best friends ever since. The annoying shoe/hair/boy girl became my travel buddy, roommate, shoulder to cry on, matron of honor, vacation friend, talk on the phone every day, share clothes with, laugh until you pee your pants, call at 3 am for anything, name your dog together, best friend.  I don't know what I would ever do with out her. Flash forward to today and now our kids are becoming best friends.  They get to spend every single day together, playing, eating, learning and laughing with Irma.

Sushi Zanmai was the only place were I used my fake ID.
Looks like it worked!

Later this night we hitchhiked home and were picked
up by Mike the cop who dropped us right at the front door
and then asked for our numbers!

This was taken the day that I faked being sick to get out of my shift
at the Lazy Dog and was fired the next day- worth it!

Freshman year

Drunken pen fight! (Please note the matching
tube top outfits)

Body shots didn't scare us!

Frat party #999

This was taken at about 3am during an all nighter. I don't think we
got any studying done all night. "Symmetrical!"

Sorority house randomness!

Irma works for us Monday thru Friday from 8-4.  She lives in Northglenn (near my school) and conveniently passes by our house on her way to Meg's.  On her way in, she stops by the house and picks up P.  This is super nice for Daniel and allows him to leave for work right from the house.  She then heads to Meg's and spends the day with the babies and Grayden joins them in the afternoons. We pick him up at her house at 4 and he is nothing but happy, well cared for and showered with kisses when we walk out the door. Irma is a Spanish speaker and on top of amazing child care, also speaks Spanish to the kids all day.  It's a perfect situation.

As a bonus, I get to see Meg, Grayden and Ashlyn many times a week.  Some times we stay late and go for walks, shop, have dinner or pop the babies onto the boobs and catch up on the week! I can't imagine my life with out her and feel so lucky that Porter will love her as much as I do.  <3 Love you dudie. (PS- Now I'll know if you actually read this blog or just tell me you do!)

Look who's standing!!

Pigs DO fly!!

I'm happy to announce that after a 5 week sabbatical, Porter has decided that he'd like to be breast feed again! 

Sunday morning, like so many mornings over the past 5 weeks, I offered the ole boob and was shocked when he actually latched on and decided to have a fresh breakfast and not one pumped from the dreaded udder machine. I was so shocked that I didn't even want to breath from fear that he would realize that it wasn't a bottle. But, he didn't and kept right on feeding. He did it again at 11, again at 3 and let me feed him before bed! The same today-- I fed him this morning and again before bed!!! Woo hoo! It's a miracle! I'm on cloud nine. 💙💙💙