Porter is Concerned

Rightly so, over this flashing headband with purple feathers for Grammy's Halloween decorating party.

5:38 a.m.

Today's wake up was even earlier. Porter is adjusting his clock in the wrong direction it seems.

5:50 a.m.

Porter has been very consistent in his wake up time this week since our return from NY. Tonight we managed to keep both kids up past 8, so maybe there's hope for a slightly later morning tomorrow. The next trick is to keep me from collapsing at 9pm each night so I can actually make some progress around here.

Flight Delay

Thanks to airline incompetance we all got another chance to sleep in the tipi. We also get to stay for apple harvest festival! Thanks, Continental.

Sleepover with G-pop

Matilda decided to spend her last night in NY sleeping in the tipi with her grandpa. She was giddy with excitement as they climbed into the tractor to drive out there. I am very interested to see how the night goes!

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Today was an especially good day to be on vacation.

We did some more apple picking. After a late night return from Charlotte last night M was particularly tired today and took several apple breaks.

With Ella in the orchard.

Porter tried to convince us he could eat this pumpkin.

With more snacks, this time a tomato and a beer.

Porter sits with his new glow worm while the family chats and G-pop grills shrimp & chicken for the feast.

Wonderful birthday fun.

A Glimpse

We are having a fantastic trip and the time is all going too quickly. There are too many pictures to even take the time to look at them all, so here are a few random selections of vacation so far.

Aunt Gia was duped into carrying our big boy around the apple orchard where we picked, bought cider and ate hot doughnuts. Uncle Brian was the real sucker though because he had to wear him UP the hill.

Porter got his first spin in the baby swings. We discovered he is a huge fan.

Matilda sat happily in the pond, mucking for hours. She neglected to take her boots off first and they are still drying out.

Porter really enjoyed a hike at Taughannock Falls today, as did the rest of us.

Now, I need to get to sleep because who knows what time Matilda will wake up tomorrow and start begging to go back in the hayloft.

Drinking Problem

Since we started letting Porter have sips of water a few weeks ago he has become a man obsessed. He watches our every move whenever there is a cup/bottle/beverage of any sort around. At restaurants he goes into flailing fits as the busboy comes by with an entire pitcher of water. We have drawn the line at beer, mush to Porter's dismay.

In other beverage-related news, as we walked through the grocery store recently I heard Matilda say, "Brown milk, hmmm, that's weird!?" Poor sheltered girl, if only she knew the wonder of chocolate milk.

Ready for Pugs

Porter discovered over the weekend that he is very interested in dogs!

Anchovy Crazy

Matilda cannot get enough anchovies. We've bought & eaten more anchovies around here in the past four months than in our whole entire pre-Matilda lives. Her favorite pizza topping is anchovies so when we made pizza last week, she got 1/3 all to herself. The other 2/3 were spinach & strawberries, an unlikely, but delicious pizza combination we recently discovered.

Last night I made a huge salade Nicoise that we (with our neighbor friends) devoured. In the foreground is greens, steamed potatoes and grilled tuna, the background platter contains greens, steamed green beans, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, olives, hard boiled eggs, and anchovies - all dressed with a light tarragon/onion dressing. This salad is rapidly becoming a favorite around here since it is so fast, yummy and full of our favorite things.

Tonight Matilda requested anchovies again on her salad and ate almost the entire can herself. I think she'll be disappointed next time we go to a salad bar and she discovers that anchovies are not a standard offering.

Assistants

Apparently, it takes a lot of people to write a blog post.

Gimme Pancakes

When Matilda woke up yesterday morning she wanted pancakes but was reluctant to wait the time it required for me to whip up some batter. She was, however, perfectly happy to wait long enough for us all to get dressed, walk two blocks, and wait for her order of pancakes and bacon to be filled!

The rest of us were also quite content with our pancakes.

Ball Oasis

Today's smoke avoidance activity was an indoor playground. We usually find other things to occupy ourselves but today I finally caved & took Matilda to bounce out some of her stir-crazy energy. She jumped in the bounce house and dove in the ball pen for 3 solid hours!

Sunday Snaps

Porter says, "What, no donuts for me?"

Matilda requested to be a pirate when it was time to get dressed on Sunday. This was what we could come up with.

Tim got a hold of an Atari, providing Matilda with her first taste of video games. I haven't played it yet, but look forward to a taste of my youth.

Porter likes tv a bit too much. This is the blank look he gets whenever he's looking at the tv or computer screen.

Matilda documents the huge mudslide Gaurav made for me. Yum.

Porter's 4 Month Check-up

Since there is little hope of ever completing a baby book for Porter (Matilda's has yet to be started), I better just keep documenting this stuff here. Porter is 97th percentile for height and weight: 18lb 15oz and 26.5 inches.

Porter's list of skills at 4 months is similar to his sister's at that age, with a few key differences. At four months he is super smiley and does laugh, but he makes us work a lot harder than she did. He is especially stingy with the laughs. Porter seems to be a bit of a worrier with a concerned expression often (Where could he have gotten that?). While he was sick last week he started sucking his lower lip for comfort, which only adds to the worrisome look. He just started on Saturday being able to stand supported, slightly ahead of Matilda. He can sit up using his hands for balance. He will amuse himself endlessly with his hands as Matilda did- sucking on them, looking at them, folding them together like he is plotting something. Porter is less skilled at actually holding things and gathering toys compared with M at four month- we liken his meaty fists to those claw machines, imagining that he's just reaching out to see what he pulls back with each time. Tonight was the first time he played with the "angry blocks." We gave this plastic set of blocks that nickname after they would endlessly infuriate Matilda as they got away from her. Porter was having the same trouble and couldn't quite get a grip on them, resulting in much yelling. However, his dexterity is improving so fast that even in just the past week we can see a difference - soon he'll be assembling model airplanes I am sure.

Porter has just started grabbing his toes and his man business, which is a bit dangerous during a poopy diaper change as he comes up swinging with a soiled hand. Porter has rolled over belly to back, but not often - our pediatrician pointed out that he has a lot more girth to move around. His list of favorite things include his baths, sucking on his fingers, and his sister, possibly in that order. Car rides are not yet on the list of favorite things, but he's yelling a lot less, so we are making progress.

Doing Our Part for Energy Conservation

Sunday night:

Monday mid-day:

Tuesday morning:

I did finally change him this morning, since 48 hours seems like it should be the limit. Usually a poop or spitting episode dictates an outfit change, but Porter has been very clean these past two days it seems.