One of the best things about Porter at this age is his ultra-active imagination.  It is incredible to hear him come up with story lines, characters, voices – all weaving together this very real scenario in his head.  This happens everyday, several times a day.  It is just him entertaining himself.

One of my favorite so far happened as I was making dinner the other night.  Aaron and Porter just came home and I was already in the kitchen cooking.  Porter went to his room and closed the door.  Aaron was reading mail at the dining room table.  The following scene took place:

Porter: (making a noise like a European police siren) weee-ooo, weee-ooo, wee-ooo  Oh no!  Dat’s the phone in the kitchen Santa brought for me!

(The sound of running footsteps.  Porter flings open his bedroom door.)

Porter:  Phone is ringing!  I get it!

(Porter runs from his bedroom, down the hall, passed the kitchen and to his play kitchen in the corner of the dining room.  He has one shoe and sock on and one foot is totally bare.)

Porter (answering his fake phone):  Helwo?  Hi Papa.  I can’t talk now.  I taking off my shoes.  Okay.  Bye!  (hangs up phone.)

(Porter runs back into his bedroom.  He closes the door.)

And scene.

And stuff like this happens All. Day. Long.

It is amazing.  I love being a parent.

The title of this post was actually created by my friend Karyn who said that she really enjoyed the What Porter is Saying portions of the monthly update posts.  She referred to his sayings as “Porterisms” and now here is an entire post devoted to just that.

As you know, I’ve been a bit behind in the blogging as of late so Porter has said A LOT of funny things in the last three months or so.  Here are the phrases I remember:

• The other night I was getting ready to go to work.  Aaron was in the kitchen.  Porter was in his room playing with his trains.  I heard Aaron start asking Porter about his day.  They were chatting back and forth when Porter interrupted Aaron: “It’s not funny, Dad!  NOT FUNNY AT ALL.”  But Aaron wasn’t laughing and made no reference to anything humorous, so we have no idea where that comment came from.  Porter keeps saying it–especially when he is getting scolded.  Last night, I sternly told him that it was inappropriate to squeal at the dinner table to which he responded very seriously, “It’s not funny at all.”
• Porter now likes to announce his bodily functions.  He will run into a room and say, “I pooped!” or “I pooping!” or “I peeing!”  It does not matter who is around or where we are, by the way.
• “Smiley Face Cookie House!”  That’s Eat N’ Park.
• “Star Store!”  That’s Macy’s.
• “Cay-ron”  That’s a crayon.
• “The M car.”  That’s our minivan.  It’s a Dodge and he think that the ram emblem makes an ‘M’ shape.
• He has entered the dreaded “Are we there yet?” phase.
• “Tea time.”  Though he definitely heard the term from some episode of Thomas and Friends, he actually isn’t referring to a late afternoon cuppa.  ”Tea time” is what is calls dusk or dawn.
• “Tea whistle!”–that’s what he says when he hears the tea kettle sound.
• “Take a break.”  Porter tends to get all wound up and over-excited at daycare, so his teachers frequently tell him to sit down and “take a break.”  Now he will tell himself to take a break while at home, particularly when he is on the verge of a Time Out.
• “I don’t want to know!”  Aaron and I were talking in the kitchen while I was making dinner some night last week.  We laughed and something and then we heard Porter chime in from the living room, “I don’t want to know!”
• “On time in two weeks!”  Honestly?  We don’t know what this means.  And he says it ALL the time.  He’s been saying it for at least six months!  Aaron and I have tried to figure it out…we know that being “on time” is something very important on Thomas and Friends.  The only thing we can come up with for the “two weeks” part is from the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, in which the caterpillar stays in his cocoon for two weeks.  Why does he put the two things together?  Beats the heck out of us.  And we can’t even use context clues to help us figure it out because this phrase is usually surrounded by a rapid-fire string of toddler gibberish.  ”On time in two weeks!” is usually the only thing we can make out of the whole thing.  We hope to figure it out someday…

If you have enjoyed this post then you may want to check out HowToBeADad’s My Kid Just Said page on Facebook where parents can post the amazing, confusing, hilarious things that their children have said.  It is amazing.  Aaron and I have both laughed ourselves to tears while reading some of them–especially the “house carrots” one.  Enjoy!

Saturday, October 8 Aaron and I will be celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary.  A lot has happened in those five years, heck, a lot has happened during the eight years we have been together–but these last five have been pretty epic.  Getting married, buying a house, having a child, moving a few thousand miles, starting new jobs.  Never a dull moment!

I try to keep this blog focused on Porter and my journey through pregnancy and parenthood, but I have decided to take a little break from that to share with you a few things about Aaron and me.  Without further ado…

FIVE FUN THINGS ABOUT OUR ENGAGEMENT AND WEDDING:

- Aaron asked me to marry him at sunrise on top of Cadillac Mountain, in Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine–August 13, 2005.  I was completely shocked and wasn’t expecting it.  In fact when I finally realized what was happening as I saw Aaron reach into his pocket to get the ring, everything went in slow motion.  And silent.  I can’t for the life of me remember 99% of what he said as he asked me to marry him.  Way to go, Lori.

- We were on vacation when Aaron asked me to marry him, a camping roadtrip through New England and New York (my home state.)  We didn’t tell anyone about our engagement for five days.  We kept it to ourselves until we made a pit stop in NY to see my parents.  We actually told my brother first.  (He designed this website’s header and logo.)

- We had our ceremony outside and I had a bee stuck in my veil for the duration.  Our best man Kris was able to free the bee shortly after the ceremony before we began receiving our guests.

- I high-fived Aaron at the altar after we kissed.

- We entered our reception to the following song, not because we were bragging about our sexual prowess but because it was the most badass, funky song I could think of.

And this is us hamming it up to that same song.

Happy Anniversary, Aaron!  I love you and I love living my life with you!

Since our backyard camping experiment was such a success, we decided to brave camping in the Great Outdoors last weekend!  We found a state park about an hour drive away, invited some friends who also have a toddler and set out for a camping adventure.  Overall, it was a great time.

We got to the campsite early and set up our tent before our friends arrived.  This allowed Porter some time to get use to being out in the woods.  It also was mid-afternoon on a Friday so the other campsites in our area of the park weren’t filled.  This allowed Porter some freedom to explore a little more.

He just loved walking around in the woods, kicking through leaves and pointing at all of the cool stuff he was discovering.  We saw deer–not in our backyard or at the zoo, but in the woods!–so that was fun.  And loved snack time in the park too.

After our friends arrived with their toddler (just six months younger than Porter) we quickly learned how important it was to have an adult available to wrangle the children!  For the remainder of the evening one, or sometimes two, of us had to chase down the kids.  No doors or gates around to keep them in one area, but we had a lot of fun just hanging out, eating hot dogs and making S’mores.

And then bedtime came.

Obviously, the kids did not want to go to bed.  They took turns screaming from their respective tents, each with parents by their side trying to console them.  Porter’s friend Maria fell asleep much more quickly than our guy who was just so excited to be sleeping outside in a tent again…well, after he stopped crying.

I stayed in the tent with Porter trying to get him to relax and go to sleep.  What followed were some moments I hope to remember forever.  He asked me questions about the sounds he heard–the fire crackling, voices from neighboring campsites, the steps of raccoon outside of the tent (REALLY.)  We talked about the moon.  I recited bedtime books to him.  He looked out the screen window and pointed at the fireflies.  He eventually cuddled up close to me and said, “Goodnight, sweetheart.”  I said, “Goodnight, Porter.”  He said, “Goodnight, buddy.  Sleep tight.”

And my heart melted.

He did fall asleep–on me.  I tried to gently remove him from me, but he somehow managed to fling his body completely across me.  I got very little sleep that night because Porter was just flinging himself all over the tent in his sleep–always ending up on me and taking all of the blankets!

The next day, we made pancakes and went to the lake to swim.  Porter absolutely loved it!  It was his first time in a lake.  He called it the ocean!  After that, we all went out to lunch during which Porter sat in a booster seat not a high chair and he finally figured out how to use a straw!  We think that letting him try to drink from our Camelback water bottles helped him to learn what to do.  On top of those two major achievements, Porter also managed to take Big Boy bites from his chicken fingers!  Epic mealtime milestones all around!

It really was such a good time.  Aaron and I haven’t been camping since the summer I got pregnant back in 2008.  It felt good to not only be back in the woods again, but we also got to share our experience with our son for the first time and with our friends.  I can’t wait to do it again!

Our weekend was eventful.  It included a collision with a deer and a trip to urgent care.  Believe it or not, those two incidents are not related.  The best thing that happened this weekend BY FAR was our participation in the March of Dimes March for Babies here in Pittsburgh.

Our team was smaller than last year, but we managed to raise a total of $820–that’s $320 past our team goal!  This year our friends Amanda and Brian walked with us with their little girl, Maria.  Porter likes to call her “Mar-EEEE-AH.”

Though the cause was the same, the Pittsburgh walk was very different than the Tallahassee walk we did last year.  It was a longer distance (about 3.5 miles) and covered lots of different terrain: through city streets, over and under bridges, strolling riverside and rounding bases at a ballpark.  It was a great way for us to explore this city that is still very new to us.

It was a little rainy towards the end but over all it was really great.

Our 35 weeker, now age 2!

Thank you to all of our friends, families and blog readers for donating to this worthy cause!  As always, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Aaron wrapped up his semester on Monday, which means he is officially on summer break.  Since I am going to be incredibly busy starting later this week straight through until almost the end of June, we decided to make the most of all of the free time we have between now and then.  We were blessed with amazing weather this week which was a bonus.

On Monday evening one of Aaron’s colleagues threw an end of semester cook-out at her home.  We had never been to her house before and as soon as we arrived our jaws dropped–she lives in our dream home!  Old Victorian house (over 100 years old,) large open porch, amazing wood panels on the main staircase, several fireplaces, stained glass windows, butler’s pantry…and because she is a set designer with impeccable taste, the decor was absolutely perfect.  Just the right amount of modern items, vintage items and all sorts of art from around the world.  And the yard?  Oh my goodness–flower beds lush with color, herb gardens, hammocks, swings, fire pit.  Everything about the place was amazing.  We asked our hostess if we could live on the third floor.  She didn’t take us seriously (we were totally serious.)  Even Porter loved it.  She let him play on their piano, organ, congas and other percussion instruments.  He was so fascinated with all the art and since the house is huge, he just kept running through the house and out the back screen door (just a screen with a slit) into the yard.  This of course gave me major anxiety (a pretty house, but not necessarily toddler-friendly.)  Porter has asked us every day if we can go back!

On Tuesday I had a meeting for a show I will start working on next week.  It is going to be a little challenging going from no job to painting two sets as fast as humanly possible in four weeks, but I am up for it!

On Wednesday Aaron took me to another university event.  This time at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Yes, we got to party at the stadium–fancy food, raffles and tours of the Great Hall, field and locker room.  Now Aaron and I aren’t sports fans by any stretch of the imagination, but we both thought that this was a pretty cool opportunity!  And I got to play Vanna White with some Super Bowl trophies.

On Thursday we went to the Pittsburgh International Children’s Festival in Oakland.  It was really fun and very affordable.  Tons of free stuff to do, various kids’ groups performing and other theatrical performances with paid admission.  I swear, Porter would have just been content walking around and looking at other kids all day!  We visited Amococo, an inflatable labyrinth sculpture constructed by Architects of Air.  I had seen the crew setting this up when I went to my meeting on Tuesday and was really intrigued.  I had no idea what the inside would be like, but let me tell you–it was incredible.  Like being in another world!  If you have an opportunity to visit any of the AoA’s Luminaria do not hesitate to go.

Here are a few photos I took while we were inside Amococo.  Sorry about the quality.  My phone couldn’t really capture how amazing this really was.

Friday and Saturday have been rather relaxed, which has been nice.  Porter has been running a slight fever on and off (teething?) so we have been lying low.

I am so happy we have spent so much time together this week.  I will be very sad about not seeing them as much in the coming weeks.  It is going to be rough, but I have July to look forward to!

I hope all of the moms out there had a fantastic Mother’s Day!

I actually was lucky enough to get one of my Mother’s Day gifts on Monday after Porter came home from daycare.  He made me flowers!

Aaron brought Porter into the house that afternoon and said, “Go give those to Mommy!”  But instead of giving them to me, he ran passed me and tried to put them in the garbage.  But I don’t care–I love them!

Yesterday as a pre-Mother’s Day treat, we went out to dinner at a place I had heard good things about called Burgatory.  They have amazing burgers (you can even create your own using a checklist with SO many delicious choices) and decadent shakes.  I designed my own burger (holy moley–delicious!) and for dessert I had the most intense milkshake I have ever had in my life.  Let me tell you about it.  Are you sitting down?  Okay…they take a chocolate cupcake made with East End Brewing Company Stout iced with what I believe was Irish Creme buttercream frosting from Dozen Bake Shop and then they blend it INTO A MILKSHAKE. I think they may even add more booze, but I didn’t care–it was ridiculously tasty!  Not something I could have often, but definitely a milkshake to remember!  Between the burger and the shake, I practically needed to be rolled out of there…so full of delicious goodness!  And I supported three Pittsburgh businesses all by consuming one beverage!

That evening with belly full, I got to relax and talk on the phone for 2.5 hours with one of my good friends that I haven’t talked to in months.  It was so fun to catch up.

This morning, I came downstairs to find that Aaron and Porter had gotten me one of my favorite plants–a hyacinth.

I was greeted with cards, hugs and kisses–always nice.  Aaron asked how I wanted to spend the day and since it was nice outside, I decided we should go to the park.  More than anything I just wanted to spend time outside with my boys.  The playground was empty, the weather was just right.  Porter had a blast.  I even went down the slide and rode the swings!  I even got to sneak away and take a little walk by the creek by myself.

After lunch, I took a nap–because I could!

Then we did a little shopping and ended the day at home, grilling out in the backyard and eating dinner on our back porch.  A perfect end to a perfect weekend.

My third Mother’s Day, my first in Pittsburgh, was definitely one I will remember!

You guys, I have to say that Porter’s party was the most fun we have had in a long, long time.

It really marks our first big get-together at our house here in Pittsburgh, it was my mom and brother’s first visit here and it was the first official party we have ever thrown for Porter!

Going into the weekend, I was feeling very behind.  Porter and I were sick the week prior so I had very little energy to prep for the party.  I chose napping myself at naptime instead of crafting Blue’s Clues stuff, which meant that I was scrambling at the last minute.  But at least I was well enough to scramble!

Once Porter went down for a nap on Saturday, we quickly got the house ready for the party.  When he woke up, we put on his very own “Steve” shirt (thanks, eBay!) and let him wander into the living room to see what was in store.

He noticed that Pail and Shovel were there with their pal, Slippery Soap.

Tickety Tock was there too!  And soon Porter started to get what was happening.  I told him that maybe he should check inside Sidetable Drawer…

Inside was Porter’s very own Handy Dandy Notebook!  Porter got VERY excited about this.  We told him to go to his Thinking Chair and he immediately went and sat in his red chair and started scribbling “clues” in his notebook.

Porter had other Blue’s Clues friends around too, like:

Snail!

And…

Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, Paprika and Cinnamon!

We also put paw print “clues” around the house for Porter to find.  They didn’t lead to anything or need figuring out–just little paw prints for Porter to collect…

Porter was very excited about the clues, “Two clues, two clues!”

Naturally, Porter’s big gift from Mommy and Daddy was his very own Blue (thanks again, eBay!)

We had a great time mingling with friends and family at the party.  My family members drove about 500 miles from central New York state on Friday to be with us on Saturday.  Our friend Steven drove up from West Virginia for the party and some other friends came from all over town to spend this special time with Porter.  It was a small party, but it was relaxed and fun.

Soon, it was time for cake!  Porter wanted nothing to do with his booster seat and didn’t want the cupcake, but he really liked people singing to him and he blew out his own candle!

All in all, a really, really wonderful afternoon!

I’m going to do another post to tell you all about how I made all of these Blue’s Clues characters and the notebook.  I am still really sad that I ran out of time to make Mailbox and some letters (stupid cold) but Porter didn’t seem to mind.  He seemed to enjoy his special day just fine!

It is hard to believe that this tiny baby:

…has grown into this little man.

I love you, buddy!  It is hard to remember what life was like before you were here!

My in-laws are amazing people.  Not only did they create my husband, who I happen to find pretty swell, but they are also incredibly kind, generous and fun.  If you have been following the blog for a while, you may remember Thanksgiving 2008 during which they hid various baby toys, clothes, items all over our house for us to find days, weeks, months later!  See?  Fun stuff!

So the fun has started AGAIN–but this time through the mail!

During the last week of February, Porter received a card tightly sealed with a big “Do Not Open Until Feb. 25th!”  It arrived a few days prior, so we only had a couple of days to wait.  I’m not going to lie, it drove me nuts not knowing what was in there!

Quite honestly I was expecting to open the card for Porter and find a card that said, “Porter, Tell your mom to pick us up from the airport at 2pm!  Love, Mamaw and Papaw.”

BUT Porter got this instead:

February 25th was National Cuddle Day (mark your calendars for next year!) and Mamaw and Papaw gave Porter a gift card to Target saying that he needed to spend it on something cuddly to wear, or to hold or to even eat while cuddling.  It was the cutest and after many, many laps around Target we settled on this:

Porter became so instantly attached to this Thomas cuddle pillow that later that day he had a HUGE meltdown when we told him he couldn’t take it with us to his haircut.

A few days later, Aaron received a card in the mail with the instructions not to open it until March 1st.  We discovered that March 1st is…

I don’t know if I have mentioned this here on the blog, but my husband loves bacon.  A lot.  So his parents sent him a gift card to the local grocery store telling him to celebrate the holiday by purchasing some pork products!  Coincidentally, I was already planning to have Slovakian pork kielbasa our dinner that night.

So at that point it became obvious to me that I was next.  Which holiday would come my way?  I hoped it wasn’t the Ides of March!  I turned to the interwebz for help.

To my surprise, March is FULL of wacky holidays.  Knowing my mother-in-law’s hope of us giving Porter a sister sometime soon, I thought that maybe March 18th, Goddess of Fertility Day, was going to be the holiday that my in-laws would choose to celebrate!

Yesterday I received my card in the mail with instructions not to open it until today.  This morning, before I took Porter to daycare, I opened the envelope:

March 3rd is I Just Want You To Be Happy Day.

Sparing no details, they even included the gum wrappers and lint!

Normally, I would take that money and NOT spend it.  And that was a very tempting option considering our resources as of late.  But Aaron is gone so I am parenting solo right now, today was the only time I have really had to myself all week so I took that money and ran!

Very simple things make me happy.  Here is how I spent my present and my morning:

After I dropped Porter off at daycare, I headed out to have a cup of coffee and a danish which I quietly enjoyed while pondering my next stop: Target!  I treated myself to a box of hair color and some eye cream–two things I had cut out of my budget when I ran out of work (and I used a coupon because I did feel a little guilty spending money on myself.  Actually I cut going out for coffee and baked goods out of my budget too, now that I think about it…)  I have been feeling a little tired and haggard lately and I think it is showing.  Coloring the grey out and disguising those under eye circles would do wonders for my mood and outlook for sure!

I continued to wander around the store and I noticed that at 9am I was the only woman of my age in there without a child in tow.  It honestly felt a little weird to not have Porter by my side.  I couldn’t help but think about him and then it hit me:  I knew what to spend the remainder of my money on…

A picture frame.

This turtle is my favorite piece of art that Porter has created at daycare.  It was one of his first projects he made when he started there only a few weeks after the move to Pittsburgh.  Not only do I love turtles, but I really, really enjoy the placement of the green squares.  It has been on our fridge for months and I have told Aaron probably more than once that I wanted to frame it.  Behind it the turtle is another one of Porter’s daycare drawings.  This one is just scribbles but I really think it works well as a place for the turtle to live!

I will treasure this–this frame AND this gift–for a very, very long time.

Thank you Jackie and Randy for being so good to us and to me!  Love you both!