Colorado 2015 | Day Four

Friday | July 31

{Nails, Brewery tours, and eating out for dinner}

Porter cries at 4am and he's soaking wet, peed through his diaper, pajamas, crib sheets, etc. Boo-hiss, this hasn't happened in a long time and I'm zombie-style changing his diaper, searching for a new onesie or something to pass for pajamas, and throw down a blanket over the wet crib sheet because I don't know where the extra bedding is at my mom's house. Also: exhausted. I have become a major pansy with night time wakings, considering I endured much much worse for many years with the other kids. I also give Porter a bottle after all of this because now is definitely not the time to get strict with crib bottles, man.

Cecelia is crying at 6:15 and I lay with her until 7 in her tiny bed, *not* sleeping, but begging CC to let me. Once their clock turns yellow I send her in to Nate who goes upstairs with her. It should be noted here that sister never quite understood the concept of our bedrooms being downstairs, and the main living space upstairs. She is so used to our house with the bedrooms upstairs she would always, always ask to go 'downstairs' when we were already in my mom's basement in her bedroom. Same for when we were upstairs at the kitchen or family room; she would always say 'we need to go upstairs to play in the playroom.' Ah, child. A difficult concept,  I suppose.

Porter is up at 7:45 and I hear mom and Cecelia come down (or is it 'up'?) to get him. I finally catapult myself out of bed after that but I'm still tired and super parched. OMG this dry air is insanity, zero humidity means we are all waking with chapped lips, dry noses and throats, and red eyes. 

Breakfast with the family, I shower, and finally Truman wakes up at 9! Sleepy head is having an excellent time on vacation, I think. The three girls of our group went to the nail salon at 9:30, because it's usually a tradition for mom and I to get manis/pedis when we are together. We can't always make this happen but we have announced it IS happening now and Cecelia loves tagging along. The dudes stay at home and my dad, my brother and Truman go to the driving range while Nate deals with Porter-fights-a-nap. He texts to say that Porter's bottle leaked all over him and P is really displeased with life in general. Fun times, glad I'm in getting my toes fancied and not maneuvering a mad baby right now!



Mom and I get our pedicures, and Cecelia sits on my lap and picks out blue, orange, and sparkle nail polish for her manicure. Mom and I then get regular manicures instead of our favorite gel variety to let our nails rest a bit, but this was a big mistake because we both smudged the polish within seconds of walking out of the salon. Oops. CC was especially adorable during our chick date and very well behaved. We all head next door to get a few crucial groceries, such as La Croix (I am a total goner with this stuff all of a sudden) and sister makes me pick Lime as a flavor to try. I know it's very unlikely that I will enjoy this flavor and Cecelia loves to taste my 'sparkle water', but I don't think she'll love it anyway. But the 'green water' is a must, apparently, so I get it and am not a big fan but whatever. Not sure why I feel the need to include this detail of the day but I really do love La Croix and want one after typing this post. 

Sweet nail, right?


Snacks when we returned home, a classic GoGo creation.



We got back to the house, ate a quick lunch and then me and the big guys went to New Belgium for our favorite brewery tour. The tickets for the tours sell out two months in advance and we totally forgot to check until the week before our trip, and they were all gone. But then Nate kept randomly checking back on the site and found four tickets for Friday at noon, so he swiped those immediately. SCORE. Seriously, if you are going to Fort Collins and you even remotely like beer you should do this tour. It's 90 minutes long, is FREE, the tour guides are extremely personable and FUN, and the company itself is top notch. They are really into leaving the smallest possible carbon footprint, the employees all get a vintage New Belgium bicycle for their one year work anniversary, and the climate is all about having a ball and enjoying life. Also the beer is phenomenal and they give you about 5 smallish glasses through the tour. Yes, five. You even get to pull your own from the tap to begin the tour and we had two different beers right off the bat this way. Our tour guide this time kept calling the glasses 'sippy cups' but there is nothing infantile about the amount of beer one can consume during the tour. After much education about the hops, kegs, sour beers and wine barrels, canning and bottling processes,  and the differences in their many beers you get to slide down a spiral metal slide to end your tour. So yeah, it's pretty freaking fantastic and this is obviously not biased or sponsored or affiliated in any way, I just get very amped up about this brewery tour! Maybe the numerous beers fog my opinions towards the obvious but brewery tours are fun. My notes from the tour: 'so so awesome'. Ha! Also, I say that my favorite beer is either Slow Ride IPA or Fat Tire, which is shocking because I'm positive I've had their most popular beer before (Fat Tire) and didn't like it. But in the past year my tastes have majorly changed and I am not as into wheat/sweet beers. But I freaking love IPAs and hoppy (?) beer now. Nate is very proud of me I think;)














After our tour Nate bought a tee shirt because he is a sucker for purchasing memorabilia after a fun experience like that. My brother bought the same one and I tried to find a shirt I'd actually wear but (shocker) I didn't think any of them would really look right on me/short and boxy. Then dad left around 1:30 to go home and help mom with the children who might be waking from their naps shortly. Built-in babysitters are the best!

Nate, Michael and I then decided we should go to Fort Collins Brewery for our second tour of the day, this one wasn't a place we tried two years ago on our last CO trip. It's a much smaller brewery and isn't quite as national yet, so we knew the tour wouldn't compare to New Belgium but it was still informative and interesting (no free beer during this one).  We each bought a beer after the short 15 minute tour and sat at the bar to enjoy and chat. This might be my favorite part of this day just because we could just sit and chill with my brother who I don't see nearly enough. My favorite beer here was one of their smaller batch ones, the Blackberry Basil Wheat. Nate and Michael did not approve of this one, FYI and since Nate was our driver he stopped drinking beer and changed to water. Someone has to be responsible I guess!

Selfie of me is after the second tour when I was a wee bit tipsy :/


Then we went to Old Towne for coffee at The Bean Cycle. This was our favorite of the numerous coffee shops we tried last time and it didn't disappoint this round either, but I sort of nursed my iced latte because my beer buzz was hitting hard by now. We drove home, reunited with kids, and got plenty of hugs and smiles from the goobers. 

Next it was time for dinner and we drove to at Pablos Pizza for the main event. Taking three small children to a restaurant is always such fun (sarcasm) but it's certainly more enjoyable with four adults to assist in the chaos! Mom and dad love Pablos for their fantastic gluten free crust and it's quite kid friendly and delicious, everyone ate a ton of pizza and behaved shockingly well for eating out on vacation. 



We had to say goodbye to Mike after diner, as he was driving to Colorado Springs for a final night before moving back to Missouri. He's been in Colorado getting his masters until now, when he moves onto the next chapter of getting his PhD in Social/Personality Psychology (I think that is the right term) from Mizzou. I mean, if you know my brother you are aware that he wasn't the most academic in high school and now he's mister scholar! So proud of him, obviously, crazy to think he is moving back to mid-Missouri and my parents are now in Colorado. 

Also, Truman is obsessed with Michael's cat, Margo. Mom had texted me this picture earlier in the day. And then Michael had to leave, wahhhhh.



The kids were sad to see Uncle Michael go but we quickly whisked them to Spooners for frozen yogurt which was a great distraction. And tasty! The kids loved the gigantic gummy sharks we let them get as a topping and I'm not sure they could even finish their entire cups. Porter is an ice cream hound (and pizza, too, for that matter) and had no problem 'sharing' my fro-yo. 




We headed back home, the kids all got a bath, and I put Porter down. Then while mom was reading to the big kids Nate and I walked to watch sunset. 



It never gets old and I know we were such tourists staring at the mountains and orange sky, but come on! We continued to discuss all of the inspiring house paint colors on this walk and I found my favorite, taking a sneaky picture (really awkward if this is your house, sorry!).

Perfect grays!

Love these flowers so much, they were everywhere in Colorado. I can't remember what mom called them.

Home at 8:30 and we did our part of Truman and Cecelia's bedtime. Once they were down Mom, Dad, Nate and I watched Catching Fire. We realized we had all seen it before and apparently I missed the fact that the next movie is already out on DVD, too. Stopped the movie at 10:45 because we were all dozing off/ready to have nightmares from the intensity of this movie. And then I stayed up until 11:45 to finish my book (Gone Girl) and knew I'd have even more nightmares!  Nothing like ending a nice, peaceful day on vacation with lots of MURDER on the mind, right?

Colorado 2015 | Day Three

Thursday | July 30th

{Hiking in the mountains}

I wake up to Porter crying at 4 am and come dangerously close to going into his room, but I'm not really sure what I should do. Luckily he falls back to sleep before I have to decide. I forgot that the power had flickered the night before and so the kids' Tot Clock was yellow at some obscene hour. We hear them talking very loudly at 6:15am and I could NOT deal, Nate fixed their clock and then laid with them on the couch downstairs to keep them from going upstairs too early. At 7 am he let them go upstairs with my parents and we followed shortly. Yawn, vacation sleep is tough with three littles, huh?

Porter is fussing a bit but doesn't seem to actually be awake, so we start breakfast without him. Nate and I have our baked oatmeal outside on the patio, the kids are eating with my parents. I hear mom ask them, 'So what do you guys want to do today?' Cecelia answers, 'Sing happy songs! And share, have fun, and sit at the table while we are eating.' HA!

At 7:45 Porter was up for real, so I got him and dressed him for the day, setting him up for breakfast with my dad.


I made egg sandwiches for Nate and I and we started getting ready for our hike on Horsetooth Mountain---a place we hiked twice last time we visited Colorado. I would link to my old posts here but I get very angry about the fact that somehow over 1000 of my photos on Flickr were deleted by some stupid app on my phone (apparently). So a lot of my CO trip pictures are just missing in the blog posts along with some others from that time of the year. I can feel my blood pressure rising just typing about this, but thankfully I do still have the images on my external hard drive. BUT STILL, so not cool Flickr, even though they say it's not their fault. 

There are two trails, one that goes all the way to the top of the rock and is pretty steep but amazing views once you get there. And the other trail is a lot flatter but has a beautiful water fall on the path, we did that one last time with my brother and this year we just wanted to do the steep rock trail for some exercise/scenic views/good old fashioned Colorado fun. I mean, I didn't bring my nice camera and my selfie stick for nothing! Let's get some top-of-the-world shots! (Okay, fine, old post from Horsetooth Rock and old post from Horsetooth Falls).

We left the house at 8:45 and arrived at the base of the trails at 9:30. We knew it would be a 2.6 mile hike to the top of the rock and I remember it being pretty easy and not too terrifying. Turns out that hiking in the blistering July sun is a lot harder than late October because there were a few times I had to stop and catch my breath and started worrying about passing out from the thin air. Seriously, altitude is no joke! A few times we saw other hikers coming back down the mountain, like a mom with a teeny tiny baby in a Bjorn and a group of tween girls and I felt a renewed sense of confidence in my ability to not die on this trail. If they can do it, I surely could pull through!! But dude, it was hot and hard to breathe and really freaking steep at times! At the very tippy top of the rock we sat and soaked in our surroundings at 7300 ft elevation. It took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the top and it was oh, so worth it.

We have to get to the top of *that* thing?? This was probably at the last 0.3 miles and I can't believe I didn't take a picture before now. Oh wait, yes I can. I thought I might be dying before this.


See the 'horse tooth' behind us?


Pictures never do this view justice though. Happy that some random  shirtless New York bros were sharing the top of the rock with us, and since they asked us to get their (very muscle-y) picture I asked for a return favor. Also, selfie stick with and without video, an apple and a Clif bar were had. I had already chugged my entire 25 oz water bottle and Nate joked with me about not stealing his (I have issues with drinking a TON of water and like to sneak his stash of H20 sometimes). 


Itty bitty clouds in the distance are my fave.


Panoramic

Again, doesn't do it justice at all. Nate likes to take pictures sometimes, too.


Got the selfie stick, no worries.


No Nate. This is NOT the vision I had for this image. At all. The worst, can't even see the mountains.


We hung out on the top of the mountain from about 10:45-11:15 and then headed back down. So much easier walking down the trails but it was kind of difficult when the gravel would slip under foot and I think my legs were even more sore from our descent than our climb! We got to the bottom in an hour, so we refilled our water bottles and hopped in the car at 12:15. We were home at 12:45.

We ate lunch (starving!) and played with the kids a bit but Nate, my dad and my brother all left by 1:00 for their tee time. That was exactly when I put both Porter and Cecelia down for their naps and then took the best shower of my life, who knew your ankles could turn into one giant dust magnet while hiking? Porter fought this nap until around 2pm when he finally gave in, my mom went for a walk while I read some of my book in the recliner. And then, oops, I passed out and took an amazing hour-long nap. I cannot remember the last time I napped but it was probably on maternity leave and it was glorious. (There are several notes in my phone about this time of day being so awesome with the shower and the nap and the resting, so it must have been a really great nap). I made mom and I iced coffees and we chatted a bit, and watched HGTV while Truman was on the iPad for his quiet time. 






Finally at 4:15 we decided to wake Cecelia from her 3+ hour nap. Porter woke up at 4:30 which meant he took two 2.5 hour naps this day. NICE. We all played in the backyard with silly string (a classic GoGo activity, the messier the better) and I took lots of pictures of the madness. We also played in the basement and I got a kick out of really noticing all of the old toys from my childhood, watching my kids play with little bits of my memories.















We made dinner (crockpot southwestern chicken on nachos!) and then the guys returned home around 6:15, so we could all eat together. Then Mike and Nate began playing backyard football with Truman. My mom kept one of the old Nerf footballs and they just don't make them like this anymore, Nate was obsessed with this ball and they played for what seems like hours (and we also asked to bring the ball home with us). I also got a few pictures with my brother and I with the kids, and then one of 'the original four' plus the kids. 

Has an 'owie', don't 'cha know?


Uncle Mike love.


Family part one.


Family part two.


<3


Can throw a spiral better than his mom.


We put Porter to bed at 7:45 and the big kids at 8:45. The sunset happened in between those two bedtimes and I got a few more pictures by sneaking outside to catch the final glimpse of the sun. 




Next I have 'beer, Jimmy Fallon, and bed at 10:45' written on my phone. Should have really typed this all out sooner as my memory is already fading! 

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.



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.


Loves slides now.


And being on playgrounds nearly naked, standing up, etc.


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? ;(


Crawling on top of picnic tables at the fair, loves cream puffs.


Smiling his cheese smile in socks.


Attempted knee socks in CO to cut down on the rug burn. Two babies.


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.'





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.


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.




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.



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.


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.


My favorite picture from State Fair this year: typical in that the big kids are fighting over the same cow and Porter looks confused.


Ah, State Fair comparisons!!


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.


Well child check. He weighs about 23 pounds and is probably going to surpass Cecelia sooner than later, my chunker.


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.



This girl loves her baby.


Even though he is all in her biz lately.


All three vertical! Isn't getting old yet.


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.