Well, it’s been a long dang time since the last posted update about our happy family and wanted to rectify that before the update involves weddings, births, and college graduations.
I suppose we can start with how much fun Porter had this Christmas.
Little Man was in absolute heaven. This is the first year that he’s been able to anticipate Christmas, understand the difference between being a good boy and a bad boy, and how that potentially relates to Santa’s generosity. Being the good boy he is, lots of toys were delivered, all of which he’s integrated into the same Star Wars/Diego (from Dora The Explorer) driven play universe. One of Porter’s favourite parts of Christmas was getting lots of time with Uncle Jake and Tia Ali who were happily in town. He talks about them a lot and will pick up the New York piece of his U.S.A puzzle and tell us that they who live there. Ali really took the boy under her wing and wore him out. They had even more fun when my Uncle George came in with his wife, Aunt Ilu, and their daughter, Iona (pronounced Yona), from Bali. Iona doesn’t speak much English, but when Porter would point at something (even if it was blank spaces) and shout, “Oh no dairs a monsthter! AHHHHH!” she didn’t understand the bit about the monsthter, but she’s a bright kid that hears the, “AAAHHHH,” and knows what to do. Much revelry ensued.
Here’s a shot of Porter and Jessie with their cousins Jack, Will, & Olivia (all super kids), and Jessie & Will examining something we adults refer to as ‘feet‘.
He got into Christmas music quite a bit. Favourites being Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (Heatmiser), Save Ferris (Christmas Wrapping), Barenaked Ladies (Green Christmas), and The Grinch. We sang them at bed time up until recently. He has a really cool interest in music and has developed a good sense of rhythm. Sometime ago we did an interview where he said the ABC’s but while doing it played piano (FIND FILE AND LINK!!!!!). By playing it I mean that he moved up on piano key for each letter while modifying his voice accordingly. I don’t think that’s really rhythm but it’s mind boggling.
Thanksgiving Day (it has been a while since I did this hasn’t it?) he woke up on his Star Wars pillow case (‘his’ by way of via Uncle Chip via Grandma Hotze – Chip, you can have it back in 2022), and asked, insisted really, on watching Star Wars. So we put in Episode IV (traditional running order of the films unchanged) and watched it. He was riveted. Asked a question everytime the scene changed. We let him watch it again a couple of days later and he had the characters nailed down and would get excited when they came on screen. Later that day Barnaby (Min), in town for the holiday, was at the house and we flipped to the last half hour or so of Empire Strikes Back. We were about to move to something different because it was close to bedtime but he caught wind of it and we gave in. For the next couple of weeks, instead of reading Dr. Seuss at bedtime he’d look at his pillowcase and ask question about the moral complexities presented at the end of Empire.
Since then, he’s getting a bit smarter every day, learning words and has an amazing sense of context.
The only thing I think he’s not up to par with is physical type things. Too many of my athletically crippled genes perhaps, but he’s still not able to jump more than an inch or two off the ground and won’t take a leap of any height without holding on. We’re not too worried though. I think his sense of balance is so good because he’s always trying to not fall.
We don’t make a habit of comparing Porter and Jessie, but a few things are for sure common between the two.
First is that they are both really laid back. For Jessie that commonly means that she doesn’t cry a lot. For Stinkerpotamus, he just goes with the flow. Something about that though. Porter may be too laid back. For example, when he does something worthy of a trip to the corner it doesn’t always phase him. So, we’ll up the ante a bit. Taking away his favourite toy of the moment should jar him a bit shouldn’t it? Not always, not even half the time. He’ll say, “Ok,” and bring the toy over to us! He’s not being a smart hiney (yet), he just wants to be helpful. We’ve found ourselves at clean up time setting a timer and telling him every toy still out at the beep get’s put in our room for 3 days. Seems drastic, but one or two days didn’t catch his attention. No shuffling action from the pile of toys the toy basket. One night I told him we wouldn’t pay for college if he didn’t put his Diego Rescue Center, the center piece of his play, away in the proper place. It didn’t work, and that was frustrating.
Second is curiosity. Both kids were/are very alert to what’s around and you can see the little Cosmo Cogs clicking away while everything is being absorbed. If Jessie is in a new place she likes to sit up (she just sits up a little bit) and look around, stare at people, and grab whatever is in her reach. She kicks her feet when she gets excited. In the past couple of weeks she has become a lot more curious about what’s in front of her and what gets her interested. It’s not unusual for her to ignore Trish or I to look at something banal to the rest of us, but are new and fabulous to her pretty blue eyes. She just likes to be part of the action and quietly watches whatever is in her line of sight. If she doesn’t like her line of sight, a tiny cry alerts us that she’s bored.
Last is socialness. When Porter was younger we joked that he was very kidnappable because he usually gave strangers a smile. These days he stretches out his hand and says, “Hi, my name is Porter. Nice to meet you.” The “what do you do when a stranger talks to you” talks have started. Jessie gives a similar tiny smile, like a pleasantry she wants to dispense with so she can get on with the business of checking you out.
Lately she’s starting to make cooing sounds and other fun noises. Not a lot of laughing but when she does it’s because of her big brother. All he has to do is jump up and down, make a series of loud noises, and she emits the sweetest belly laughs. It makes Trish and I so happy to see little moments of adoration like that. Porter performing for his sister, his sister taking it all in and responding with the simplest, most pure expression of happiness. Just when we didn’t think our own smiles could get any wider. It’s beautiful that they love each other so much. As they get older the surface of that will likely change over time but the foundation is solid. She’s starting to laugh for Trish and I a little more but usually the closest we get is to watch the biggest, most appreciative smile right on the verge of a tremendous belly laugh be delivered instead as a rudimentary raspberry that goes right back to a big dimple smile.
Oh yeah, she has a dimple.
Just since I started writing this a week or so ago, we were reminded about how time can kind of pass without any real big changes and then a bunch will crop up at once. Porter would go a month doing the same old cute stuff and then ga-zump! – next day he’s crawling. Our sweet honey love is far from that step, but it took her about 4 days to go from thinking “Hmmm, these small round toastie O’s are hard to pick up. Oh, thanks Mommy, That’s awfully tasty,” to singing “One little, two little, three little Cheerios,” in baby talk. They disappear so quickly that we’re certain she’s juggling a dozen of them at once, launching them into her mouth in one svelte arc. What’s more, is that we can see her one bottom tooth really working on that Cheerio while her cheeks and tongue work to keep it in her mouth. A funny expression accompanies. She’s eats other solid food of course (yams, peas, bananas) and is still breast feeding. Trish put a neat little excercise type ball in front of her to see if she would sit up and what do you know, it worked! Since then she’s been sitting up just fine and she loves the view.
I almost forgot this fun bit. If we’re all hanging out and playing, and she hears Porter getting tickled too much, she’ll start to cry. When the tickling stops and her big brother pops back up the cry becomes a smile. Looks like we don’t need to teach her whose back she has to get.
Moving on and wrapping up, Porter is doing great with the alphabet, knows his address and phone number, and can spell his first and last name. If he ever gets lost in a store we’ll be found easily. He also does a Row3 Your Boat spectacularly.
This is a bit scattered, but again, I wanted to deliver fun news before the update becomes about what band Porter is playing with (currently he wants to be Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s drummer) and Jessie’s far enough along to have an opinion about what she wants to be when she grows up. That tomorrow will be here before we know it anyway.
Stay tuned for another post this weekend, and one early next week.
My wonderful babies.