Porter at Thirteen Months

We've entered into slightly-annoying-monthly-age-report territory, calling Porter 'thirteen months'. I promise that most of the time I actually say 'he's a little over a year' in real life but for all blogging purposes, this will be another monthly update-o-Porty. He really has changed SO much in the past month since his birthday, it's rather shocking and awesome and nutso. One thing that hasn't changed: we love the crap out of this kid. He is the coolest.

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Big happenings in the past month?

Porter can officially CRAWL all over the house. Let us pause for a second to reflect on this 'milestone' because as of his birthday he literally could not propel himself forward at all. He couldn't even get up on all fours. He never really rolled much except from back to belly. He certainly was not pulling to stand and had really poor standing balance when we'd help him into that position. And now the kid is incredibly mobile, crawling with his favorite quasimodo one-legged drag like he's on a mission. Because he *is* on a mission to make me regret ever wishing he would crawl. The dog food and water bowls are his favorite new toys and he's pulled over a small wooden kiddie chair onto his face at least once with this newfound mobility. Sitting down in the bathtub is for babies, apparently, and the boy will NOT stay put ever. I also caught him teetering over the edge of the stairs once so yeah, mobility is cool and yet SCARY!

Will for sure face plant on concrete very soon.
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Loves slides now.
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And being on playgrounds nearly naked, standing up, etc.
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His one-leg crawl means that the top of his left foot and his left shin are super dry and almost calloused by now, but they were really red and rug burn-y at first. I try to keep socks on him to protect that little foot and I guess at some point he will have to wear actual shoes, but I'm not quite ready for that step.

See that red spot on the left foot? ;(
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Crawling on top of picnic tables at the fair, loves cream puffs.
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Smiling his cheese smile in socks.
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Attempted knee socks in CO to cut down on the rug burn. Two babies.
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Besides the crawling, Porter also learned how to roll both ways (I mean, seriously? At a year?? I know.), can pull to stand, can get back down from standing without freaking out, will plank, and honestly looks like he wants to take steps. I still don't think that part will happen for awhile but maybe it will occur before the eighteen month mark I had in my head for this slow mover. He also successfully climbed up one of our wooden stairs today and seemed mighty proud of himself for this task, especially as his siblings cheered him on and were all 'no, Porter, do it like THIS'. No, kids, we do not teach the baby to climb stairs. We simply shut the doors at the bottom of our stair hall and pretend not to hear his screams of defiance when we tell him 'no.'

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So yes, yes, you guys were all right when you said, 'He is just going to take off one day/He is fine/He'll probably do everything at once.' True story. Phew. This boy does things in his own way in his own time.

Besides the big fat mobility topic, I also wanted to share the words Porter is using because he might be my most verbal baby yet. (Yep, Cecelia's post here didn't mention many words but she was walking; Truman's is here, he wasn't quite a chatter box yet either). A lot of the time he will simply repeat (easy) words that we say and I caught some of that adorableness on video the other day somehow. But besides copying us upon request, he will actually say real words on his own, too.

He will say 'more' and sign for it, usually when he is hungry or if he spots food that he wants.
He will say and sign for 'milk' if he's thirsty, which can either mean milk in a cup or in a bottle, but he *really* prefers his 'bah-bah'. He will say 'go' and point when I ask if he's ready to go. He just started to say 'ow' with proper inflection, but doesn't say it when he gets hurt (he wails then)---it's more for our entertainment. He can say 'mama' and 'dada', 'gaga' means Henry dog, he'll say 'bye bye' and wave if he's had enough of you (or just whenever I ask him to say goodbye' to someone). He says 'uh-oh' and his new favorite is 'ball'. Which of course just sounds like 'bah' but it's important to note his love for all balls, all the time.

Also loves daddy and water.
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Eating for Porter is hit or miss. He seems to be super picky with what he'll eat at each meal, one second loving grilled chicken breast and the next time he throws it all on the floor without batting an eyelash. Porter LOVES to throw food and cups and it's really becoming an issue for me because Henry is getting fatter and our refrigerator is getting more empty and Porter is being a diva;) But truly, I never know what he will consume but we keep trying new foods. His current favorite is probably the crusts from his big brother's PBJ sandwich---delicious!

Also loved fudge pops in CO. Yikes.
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The transition to a cup has been moving very slowly although he will drink whole milk instead of formula without issue. So I guess we've switched to whole milk from formula but I'm using what we have left right now, will be crazy to think we might consume even more whole milk than we do with just Truman and Cecelia drinking it. We easily go through 3 gallons a milk per week around here and Nate and I don't even drink it! But will still be nice to be totally done buying formula, too. Porter definitely knows what he wants and is adamant that he gets it immediately, and he's on a bottle kick. He throws sippy cups after he gets a little taste from them, not always but sometimes. He was drinking his milk from cups at Lori's and now all of a sudden he only wants a bottle there, and refuses to hold it for himself with Lori, too. Crazy, since he won't let me give him a bottle here, he has to be mister independent with it for mommy. Again: this guy knows what he wants and is turning out to be a little....stubborn.

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Nate called him a 'hot head' the other day and also asked, 'Do we have two Cecelias on our hands instead of two Trumans?" This statement came as a shock and OBVIOUSLY Porter is his own person, but we've always compared the two boys in their laid-back demeanors. We've always said that Porter takes after Truman with his happy-go-lucky, 'easy' attitude. Lord help us if Porter turns out to be as emotional and hot tempered as his big sister instead (Love you, sis, but you're the most exhausting...in a good way, of course). ;) Time will tell. But Port-Sport can be a little dramatic and emotional already, goodness.

Sleep is fairly consistent these days, still dropping his morning nap about half of our days at home together. Otherwise a nap around 9 for about an hour, and again around 1 for about two hours seems to work well for him. If just one nap, it's around 1 and can be as long as three hours if I'm very very lucky. Bedtime is at 7 (maybe 7:30 if we are feeling wild) and he wakes most days around 6:30. But the past few weeks have also included a nightly wake up around 3 am when he gets very very angry until I give him a bottle in bed. We are working on it, but apparently the sippy of water I keep in his crib is blasphemy .

Found all three in the crib last weekend like this, seriously the sweetest. P didn't seem to mind having company.
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Porter has a lot of tricks up his sleeve that are worth mentioning, just to prove he is SO interactive and full of personality. He loves to shake his head 'no' at me when he does something naughty, i.e. the throwing of all objects, scratching is own butt when naked, crawling lighting fast to the stairs. He will do the classic 'so big' hand gesture, waves, and points constantly. Porter loves to ask for 'high fives' and will give them without warning, one time he kept slapping Nate's face over and over again and then I realized he was trying to give him a five without Nate's hand. Hahahaha!

We have a big dancer on our hands and it's the cuuuuuutest. Dancing and looking at animals (first State Fair experience!) might be his ultimate favorite things in life at the moment. And playing in water. Here is my new way to get anything done in the kitchen: sink baths to contain him and let him splash like crazy.
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My favorite picture from State Fair this year: typical in that the big kids are fighting over the same cow and Porter looks confused.
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Ah, State Fair comparisons!!
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My favorite trick has to be Porter's open mouthed kisses because they are so sweet and so aggressive, sometimes unprompted. He will fake laugh at us sometimes if he hears us laugh, he will fake cough if we cough, and he does the 'ahhhhhhh' after taking a drink. He enjoys sharing his food with us, meaning he will take a bite off his plate and then will hold a bite out to myself or Nate and won't relent until we pretend to take a bite as well. He also really likes to hand us tiny leaves and berries and bits of dirt that he finds outside, which is obviously much better than his previously preferred way to deal with them: stick anything in his mouth.

Cool dude.
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Well child check. He weighs about 23 pounds and is probably going to surpass Cecelia sooner than later, my chunker.
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Actually he probably is shoving most everything in his mouth because he HAS to be teething. He still only has six teeth which he's had for many months now. He's been a little more fussy and on edge since we've come home from Colorado and I hope it's teething and not his ears or something. But, knock on wood, thirteen months and hasn't had an ear infection yet so it's probably just teeth. Or the fact that he knows what he wants but can't always get us to understand his needs. Porter thinks he is a big kid and wants to do whatever CC and Truman are doing but he gets upset when he can't keep up.

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This girl loves her baby.
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Even though he is all in her biz lately.
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All three vertical! Isn't getting old yet.
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So it was a great month for Porter-man: he became quite mobile, is a chatter box, flew for the first time to Colorado, went to State Fair, and his personality is off the charts more and more each day.

3 comments:

  1. I love reading your very detailed posts! I 'just' had my first baby... ahem 10 months ago so love reading what I've got coming up. Although my girl decided to walk at 9 months so we had to full on baby proof stat. A 4 floor townhouse means a lot of stairs. Lucky on the no ear infections! We've had 4! :/

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  2. So fun! It is neat to see how much can happen in a really short period of time. All 3 of your kids are precious. I'm still hoping for a 3rd but the hubby is pretty adamant that he's done (grrrr). Cecilia's legs are sooooo long - I guess all 3 of your kiddos are destined to be tall! Porter weighs the same as my 2 1/2 year old - she's on the small side, ha.

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  3. The second year of life is seriously the most fun, I think!! They are just SO cute and developing so fast!!

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