Friday, July 25, 2014

15 Months!

Porter is 15 months old today!
He hasn't really made any progress on the walking front. He still walks behind push toys and holding our hands at lightning speed and cruises all over the house, but he will still only take one solo step at a time and that is only if he's tricked into it. He is still not really a fan of standing on his own. If we let go of his hands and leave him standing up, he will stay for a few seconds and then sit down. He even makes the disappointed groan when he does it. He's just not interested. 
His speech is a completely different story. This kid can talk. He repeats tons of words. His new words lately are bye bye, yep, da (dog), ba (bird or bug), ababa (alphabet) and iPad. He repeats "I love you" now. He also used his first two-word phrase last week, "uh-oh Pah Pah" (uh-oh Paxton) when Paxton was being crazy and dropping stuff at Braum's. 
He can understand a ton of things we say and follows our commands really well. He points to his nose, ear, hair, tummy and sometimes eyes. He points to himself when Gramsy asks him "where's Gramsy's baby?" He could point out all my sisters when asked and tried to say all their names. 
He has gotten a little pickier with eating lately. He will shake his head no if he doesn't like things and make a disgusted noise. He will also throw food down if he doesn't want it. He still loves bananas (and pretty much all fruit) and will drink milk non-stop. 
He's still such a cuddler. He slept with me two nights on our vacation and each time he woke up during the night, he rolled over and cuddled to go back to sleep. He still needs some cuddles in the morning before he's ready to get down and play, too. 
He loves cars, toys that make noise and books. He is obsessed with our iPhones and will whine for his "app" when he sees one. He likes to be outside, especially in the water or sliding.  
He has been able to drink from a straw for several months now, but has recently figured out that our drinks are better than his. Now he always wants my drink. He is good at pointing at what he wants and saying "dis". He will also go over to the refrigerator and bang on it if he wants milk or go to his high chair and yell "up" if he's hungry. 
He is such a happy and sweet little guy. He's getting at least four teeth right now and aside from being a little more of a mama's boy than usual and exorbitant amounts of drool, you can't even tell. 
His trademark right now is saying "boom" whenever anything falls or makes a loud noise. It cracks me up every time because he will just be sitting there, playing calmly and someone on TV will trip and he'll smile sweetly and say "boom". 

Sunday, July 6, 2014

The 4th

Since Jared and I have been together, we have only spent one Fourth of July doing anything except the Edmond parade, a cookout, another cookout and the UCO fireworks. This year it was up to us to find our own traditions. 
Breakfast on the Fourth is donuts. It just is. It's American. I haven't had a Krispy Kreme in probably a decade...and after this visit I remember why...but the boys loved them. 
We headed to Carrboro for the morning. Our friend's husband's band was playing there and it sounded like a fun festival. 

We got tattoos...
And Porter played in the water table while Paxton jumped in the bounce house. 
Then as we were walking out to the car, we passed the fire station and the garage was open. There was a firefighter standing there and he told the boys they could look around and gave them little fire hats. 
Even the bounce house couldn't beat a fire hat and seeing the inside of a fire truck for a certain three-year-old. 

Since we were so close to Trader Joe's and since I have been begging Jared to take me since moved here, we got to stop and get some groceries. Paxton got to push his own cart. He loved it. The people whose ankles and carts he bumped into didn't. 

After naps, we cooked out and then had cake. Paxton helped me make our flag cake the night before and had been talking about it constantly. He thought it was a birthday cake, so we stuck candles in it and sang happy birthday to America (well, Paxton sang happy birthday to me). 
Then we did some smoke bombs which Paxton thought were amazing....
...especially when Jared would throw them up in the air after he lit them...

We also let him hold a sparkler when he asked (after I made Jared hold one to make sure the sparks wouldn't burn him). 
He and Porter both got to do Pop-pops too. 

Then we gave our sticky boys baths and loaded up for the fireworks. We went downtown and watched from the top of a parking garage. 
Porter was obsessed and kept pointing at them and then looking at us to make sure we saw. Paxton thought they were awesome and kept asking for more when they were over. 

It was a really fun day!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Pullen Park

Our weekends have been really busy for the past few weeks with Jared playing football on Saturdays and then me helping at the church nursery on Sundays, so this weekend we decided to take Sunday and have a family day. 

We started the morning with brunch at Benetis.  
Paxton couldn't stop talking about the pancakes. 

Then we went to Pullen Park. It's a park with a train, a carousel and a kid's boat ride in Raleigh. It was pretty awesome!

We let Paxton ride the boat by himself the first time. He had a blast. 
The second time, Porter got to go too and he loved it even more. 
They waved at us every time they saw us. 
And Porter cried when we got him off. 

Paxton started begging to ride the train as soon as he saw it. We tried to get him to play on the playground a little first, but when he wants something, he wants it. 
Our last stop was the carousel. Paxton was really excited at first and picked out a horse to ride. 
Then I told him the horse would go up and down and he looked incredulous...
...and nervous...
He hated it. He cried the entire time. 

We took him straight to the sand and water area where he skinned his knee and seemed to forget all about those scary horsies...until that night before bed when he got tears in his eyes and said "no have a bad dream about horsies. Horsies are scary" and shattered our hearts into a million pieces.