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.

Just a note: The blog was hacked this week.  Not cool.  My husband and our hosting service have got most things back to normal, but there are still a few kinks to work out.  Please be patient during this process and if you notice anything weird (other than that title in the wrong place in the header above) please let us know.  Thank you and down with internet scum!!!

Now where was I?

Oh yeah, Porter turned 34 months old on Wednesday which means we are just a mere three months away from his third birthday!

What Porter is Wearing:

• Slowly growing out of his 2T shirts.  He needs more 3T shirts STAT.
• Even though he is 34 months, his 24 month pants still fit well.  He wears one pair of pants that are 2T.
• He wears 2T pajamas right now, but he’ll be out of those in about two months.
• Still in size 5 diapers (more on our potty progress later.)
• Just about to bust out of his size 7 shoes.

What Porter is Eating:

• We have entered the “This is your dinner: take it or leave it” phase of parenthood.  We use to give him dinner and then if he refused it we may give him something else later.  I use to worry that he wasn’t eating enough or thought that he would wake up hungry.  I’m passed that now.  He needs to be eating what we are eating.  His pickiness is getting ridiculous.
• He is now refusing to eat chicken and beef.  He pretty much won’t eat any meat that isn’t deli meat, hot dogs or bacon–all of which is loaded with junk.
• Still refuses to eat pizza or macaroni and cheese.  When he was offered a piece of pepperoni pizza recently he said, “Pizza is yucky to me.”
• However, he will gladly eat lettuce of all kinds, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, celery and lots and lots of fruit…
• …except blueberries.  He ate them when he thought they were grapes, but we let it slip that they were something different and now he removes them from his plate.
• He will only eat potatoes in fry or tot form.  This has always been the case.
• Porter now enjoys sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
• He and I both loveChobani Greek yogurt.  
• We also have been sharing bowls of popcorn lately.  Porter finds the popped kernels really fun to look at (and then eat.)

What Porter is Saying:

• Porter seems to have reached the non-stop-talking part of toddlerhood.  This is fascinating to me since I am a fairly quiet person.  He is saying all sorts of funny stuff these days–mostly because his imagination is going full-tilt.
• Porter has started referring to me and Aaron as “you guys.”  Pittsburgh hasn’t taken a hold of him yet since he isn’t calling us “yinz.”
• He likes to call things “cute” or “pretty.”
• He asks us for privacy during diaper changes if both parents are present.  All thanks to this book.
• After he has gone to bed, but has yet to fall asleep he likes to open his bedroom door to tell us things, such as “Mommy, kangaroo is sleeping.”
• Sometimes he will come to the bathroom door while I am in there.  He’ll knock and say, “Mommy, you in there?”  I will respond with yes. “Can I come in?”  I will ask him if he needs to or wants to try to use the potty.  He replies, “No, I just want to watch you.”  Great…
• Everyone is his “best friend” lately.  Even his toys.  ”This is my best friend Toby, the steam tram.”
• Restaurants are now referred to specifically as “food restaurants.”  Not sure why the change…

What Porter Likes These Days:

• “Cooking” in his kitchen
• Books
• Puzzles
• Pretending
• Dancing
• Singing
• Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood

What Porter Doesn’t Like These Days:

• Using the potty at home.

What Porter is Doing:

• Porter is creating long and involved imagined scenarios.  It is fascinating to witness–both by eyes and by ears!  I think I am going to write a post just about his imaginings.
• He is “reading” (and by reading I mean reciting word for word) books to us and to his stuffed animals.
• There has been lots of spontaneous dancing lately.
• Singing the theme song toMister Roger’s Neighborhood.

This weekend:

- I got a bad haircut.  This is my second bad haircut in a row–from a completely different stylist at a completely different salon.  So bad that I actually had Aaron fix it with scissors in our kitchen last night.  My husband cutting my hair?  A definite first for us.

- We took Porter to a birthday party for one of his daycare classmates.  It was a bowling party.  Porter did a “victory dance” after every turn.  His victory dance included rolling on the floor, jumping up and down and saying “I DID IT!  I DID IT!”

- At aforementioned birthday party, Porter tried soda for the first time (no other beverages offered.)  He hated it.

- I made slow cooker oatmeal for the second weekend in a row.  One batch provides me with a week’s worth of breakfast making my mornings much easier.  Do you have a slow cooker steel cut oatmeal recipe that you like?  I’d love to try it!

- Aaron did all of the laundry this weekend.  He’s my hero.

- I found the new Chobani flavors at our closest grocery store.  I am abnormally excited about this.  Chobani greek yogurt is my new favorite thing.

- Winter decided to show up and stay awhile.

- I filled out valentines for Porter’s class.

- I bought the supplies to make tiny cupcakes for Porter’s daycare Valentine’s Day party and regular sized cupcakes for my current coworkers and Aaron’s students.  I will be baking SO MANY cupcakes tomorrow night!

- I enjoyed laughs with my husband.

- I received kisses from my son.

- I felt cozy and content.

Not a bad weekend.

It started last summer.

We were in the car driving through the city, heading home after dropping off a friend at the bus station.  Porter was babbling in the back seat.  Aaron and I were having a conversation up front.  We stopped at a red light.   That’s when I heard it.

“My money. My choice.”

I stopped mid-sentence.  ”What?  What did he say?” I asked.  Aaron shrugged.

I turned around to Porter.  ”What was that, buddy?”

He pointed to the Meineke sign on the corner.  ”Meineke.  My money.  My choice!”  Porter said, excitedly.

We were stunned!  How could he have learned that?!  Porter’s television habits consist of PBS…and then PBS shows on Netflix.

But some days later he started singing this one particular Queen song and that’s when we figured out what was up:  Porter was memorizing all of the commercials from The Wheel of Fortune/Jeopardy! hour of television that we watch after dinner!  That Queen song was featured in a local furniture store ad.  Even though this started this summer, his little brain has not stopped absorbing all sorts of consumer information.

On New Year’s Eve I was upstairs getting ready to head to our friends’ place.  Porter yelled a series of numbers up to me.  It sounded familiar.  Why?  Because it was a 1-800 phone number for an injury lawyer!  I had seen the commercial before–and apparently, so had Porter.

But it doesn’t stop at jingles or mottos or phone numbers; Porter can also identify logos.  He knows the logo for Home Depot, Giant Eagle, GetGo,  and Taco Bell (and he has never even been IN a Taco Bell) to name a few.  However, he does know the logos for more child-friendly things like Sesame Street and Thomas and Friends.  Those are more appropriate, but yet the whole thing is still unsettling.

I am amazed at Porter’s ability to identify these things.  I am also terrified.  We are exposed to so much advertising.  I know that I am numb to a lot of it (at least, I hope I am?)  But our kids are just sucking this stuff up.  Although we can limit some of the media our kids are exposed too, there is no way that we can really block it all out.  We just have to make sure our children aren’t consumed by consumerism.

I’ll just keep at that and if I happen to need an injury lawyer, I’ll ask Porter who he recommends.

A few weeks ago, Porter came down with a cold.  No big deal, just stuffy with a cough.  Typical winter cold.  It seemed to clear up just fine and by Saturday, January 21 he was back to his ol’ self.

January 2012

On Sunday, however, Porter wasn’t quite himself.  A little cranky.  Something just wasn’t right.  I saw him touch his left ear several times.  Was another ear infection coming on?  It had been a year since his last one.

On Monday morning, he seemed okay but I put my hand to his forehead and discovered that he felt a little warmer than normal.  A temporal thermometer revealed a slightly elevated temp of 99.4.  Since he seemed generally fine, we gave him some ibuprofen and sent him to daycare.  As soon as Aaron and Porter left the house I felt that I made the wrong choice letting him go.

Something wasn’t right.  Within an hour, I had texted Aaron asking if I should call the doctor.  Am I over-reacting?  Could it be an ear infection?  I asked for advice on the blog Facebook page and the result was the same: better to call the doctor and discover there is nothing to worry about, than to let it go and continue to worry.  I called our pediatrician and made an appointment for that afternoon.

I walked into that office with Porter completely prepared to hear that he had another ear infection, which would be his first in almost exactly one year.  But that wasn’t the case.  At the appointment, P had a temp of 101.9, swollen lymph nodes but no sign of an ear infection.  The doctor said it seemed like P was fighting some sort of upper respiratory virus.  He said that if things get worse to bring him back to the office, but for the time being, keep him comfortable.

I kept Porter home from daycare on Tuesday.  That fever just wasn’t budging.  He was getting the sniffles, but generally he was in a great mood.  If you didn’t know he had a fever, you would have never had known that he was sick.  He was just his silly, jovial self.

By Wednesday Porter still had the fever but now had developed a cough–a cough that I hadn’t really heard him have before.  I became concerned.  Day three of fever now with no improvement.  Back to the doctor we went.  Still no ear infection.  Lymph nodes were still swollen.  The doctor said that other than the cough, his lungs sounded really good.  Because Porter was still acting fine, the doctor said that if the fever was still there by Friday or if things somehow changed, to come back on Friday for blood work because maybe it was bacterial pneumonia.  That night after dinner, Aaron and I went to Porter’s room to get Porter for bathtime only to discover that he had put himself to bed–at 7pm!  He was fully clothed, under all of his blankets, snoring away.  Not that we needed more proof, but this was a SURE sign that Porter wasn’t feeling well.

That night he woke up at 11pm with a fever in the 102 range.  We gave him a drink, changed him into some comfortable jammies and he went right back to sleep.  He was up a few times that night, but would just cuddle with us and quickly fall back to sleep.  By the time he woke up in the morning, his fever was back to the 101 range.

Things on Thursday were a little different.  No longer was Porter playing all day–he really slowed down.  He was still in a great mood but spent a lot more time just hanging out on the couch watching Thomas.  He also fell asleep on me–something he rarely does anymore.

After his nap, Porter was a different kid.  He was miserable.  BUT no fever.  He didn’t really want to eat dinner.  Eventually, regular Porter showed up and I had hope that now that the fever was gone he would be fine!  However, he was up uncomfortable and coughing that night.   Thursday also marked Aaron’s departure for Houston where he was attending a conference for work.  Not only was I home with Porter all day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday–I was now the only caretaker available.

By Friday, Porter was still fever-free but now had full on cold symptoms–hacking cough, runny nose, sneezing.  So back to the doctor we went!

Porter asleep while waiting for the doctor.

Diagnosis: Still just an upper respiratory infection.  We were told to keep on keepin’ on but to come back if something more developed.  Porter was noticeably less active and more cranky on Friday.  He really had no interest in eating.  Again, he fell asleep on me that afternoon.  He woke up really upset.  It was as though he had finally had enough.  Like his body was saying  ”I’VE HAD IT WITH THIS SICKNESS!”  He was so upset that he launched himself into a coughing fit that was so violent that he made himself vomit.  It was terrible.  He managed to eat a little bit of food at dinner, but it was a very long night.  Porter was up every two hours.  He slept in his bed, in my bed…he would just wake up miserable, wanting to be cuddled to sleep.

By Saturday, Porter was definitely feeling better.  He still had a runny nose and a cough, but he was running around the house like a little tornado destroying everything in his path!  On Sunday, Porter was also doing well.  Aaron and I both had to work that day, so Porter was with the sitter for the day.  She reported that P had very little interest in eating and also something new to the game: diarrhea.  His tummy trouble continued into the evening, but luckily not into the night.

Today we determined that P was well enough to return to daycare.  He returned home this evening with yellow-green goop in the corner of each eye.  Over dinner (another meal that Porter didn’t really eat) we decided that YET ANOTHER trip to the doctor was in order.  Guess what?  Double eye infection related to his cold/upper respiratory infection.  Also?  Contagious!

I’m thankful that our doctors always take their time with us.  I’m thankful that we are insured and that right now we have the money for four sick visit co-pays.  I am thankful that I didn’t have work scheduled for most of last week so I could stay home and devote my attention to my son (and that when I was scheduled to work my current boss was completely understanding.  Working freelance means I have no sick/vacation days at any job I have.)  I am thankful that this will pass.  And I am SO grateful for all of  you who followed this sage along on Facebook–thanks for your words of encouragement and get well wishes.  I’m hoping this sickness saga wraps up soon.  I’d like my happy, active Porter back, please.

Porter knows that I paint things as part of my job.  For months now he has thought that I painted various pictures around our house–none of which I had actually painted.  And those pieces in our house that I actually did create, he didn’t believe that I had made them.  In fact it wasn’t until recently–the other night, in fact–that he finally realized that his mom had painted the fun paintings of animals in his room.

The following conversation transpired:

Porter:  (pointing to the paintings around his room) Mom, you paint those for me?

Me: Yeah, I did paint those for you.

Porter: Before I was boring?

Me: (Confused, I take a second to process what he just said.  Then I figure it out!)  Oh no, not before you were boring, buddy–before you were BORN!

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!

Can you believe that I haven’t done a monthly update since OCTOBER?!?  With my crazy work schedule, the holidays and then my grandfather’s passing I just let months slip by.  I have so much to tell you about!

P delivers a spirited rendition of "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" on Christmas Eve

What Porter is wearing:

• Size 2T shirts, but with a few 24 month shirts still in the mix.
• Mostly size 24 month pants with a few 2T pairs creeping in.
• Still in size 5 diapers.
• Would be in size 2T underwear if he let us put them on him

What Porter is eating:

• He is on a huge vegetable kick right now.  As always, raw vegetables ONLY.  I just can’t believe that a toddler can enjoy salad so much.
• Chicken use to be his favorite, but now it is hit or miss.
• His “on again/off again” relationship with wheat toast with peanut butter is back “on.”
• He still refuses typical toddler favorites such as pizza and macaroni and cheese.
• Spaghetti and meatballs use to be our “go to” food since we knew he loved it.  We were eating it once a week.  Now?  He could take it or leave it.  Depends on his mood.
• He likes olives now.  Green only, please.

What Porter is Saying:

• A lot.  So much, in fact, that a whole post is in the works solely devoted to what he says on a daily basis.

What Porter Likes These Days:

• Cuddling under “cozy blankets.”
• Books books books.
• Thomas Thomas Thomas.
• Timmy Time
• Puzzles!

What Porter Doesn’t Like These Days:

• Wearing his winter hat.  He’d rather wear his hood on his coat.
• Using the potty at home.

What Porter is Doing:

• Imagining.  In the last three months, his imagination has blossomed.  It is just amazing to watch him play and to play with him.  He likes to hide from “monsters” by sitting on his bed with the covers pulled over him.  He isn’t scared of the “monsters” or anything, he just thinks it is fun to hide from them!
• Having a “party”–which means he turns the overhead light on in his room and spins in a circle until he falls down laughing.
• Having a “kangaroo party.”  Same definition as above with the addition of him throwing his stuffed toy rabbit named Kangaroo up in the air.
• Cooking in his play kitchen that Santa brought him.  He only serves water and hot dogs at the moment.  And he keeps his eggs in the dishwasher.
• Playing trains!  Never gets old.
• “Reading” books.
• Hopping around on all fours pretending to be a frog.
• Running.  Always running…
• He can recognize his name and some words–like zoo and school.
• He likes to refer to himself by using his full name–first, middle, last.
• And…HE IS USING THE POTTY AT DAYCARE!!!  Not all day, but one time most days–sometimes more!

I don’t post videos much, mostly because I don’t record many videos.  However I did capture a few moments of Porter reacting to Aaron building Porter’s new bed.  When we told Porter he was getting a new Big Boy bed he shook his head and said he didn’t want a new bed.  You can see through these videos that he eventually changes his mind.

Some videos start in the wrong orientation, but it turns upright rather quickly.  Don’t be alarmed!

ROCK AND ROLL!

Over the summer we slowly started collecting new furniture for Porter’s room.  He is growing up so fast and it was apparent that the crib-converted-to-toddler-daybed just wasn’t going to cut it through the end of the year.  So we started shopping around for some new items as well as some “new to us” things to help makeover his room without breaking our already strained piggy bank.

First, we found a twin bed frame on craigslist for $40.  I painted it white.

I bought new Big Boy bedding 50% off at Target!   I got a few sets of sheets during the Labor Day sales at Kmart.

Another craigslist deal: we found an Ikea dresser for FREE–and it happened to match the Ikea nightstand I bought in ’05 when I was living in New Haven.  The dresser had a broken drawer glide, but Aaron fixed that.

Then we bought Porter a twin mattress for his new bed.  No box spring quite yet (it would make the bed a bit too tall for him right now.)

Finally, we bought a pretty sweet storage unit brand new from Ikea and storage bins from Target (itso bins fit PERFECTLY.)

Here are just a few photos of the new set up.  I actually took these photos before the room was completely finished, so no shots of the dresser yet–sorry.  (We’ve been super busy.)

We just recently got a fourth blue bin for the bottom shelf.

Porter LOVES his new room.  And since we are still working on potty training, we actually use the top of the storage unit as a changing table (with changing cushion.)  At the time I took this photo, the changing table was still in the room (since it was too heavy/awkward for me to remove from the room by myself.)

Next post: Porter helps to make his bed.