This is my favorite.

Happy Chanukah!

:)

F

Getting ready for the holidays.

Oh, to be a child again at the holidays...

I snatched a few shots of O this evening after our bath and before bed time in front of our wonderful Christmas tree. I love the way it lights everything up, so much so that it's always so sad to take it down at New Year's.

In planning for this holiday season, and coordinating schedules with siblings, I remember what it was like to celebrate the holidays as a child. Amie texted me today, amidst a discussion about what time we would be over Christmas morning. "Great! Come have nugget (Oliver) wake me up like you and Sarah used to do." I also distinctly remember being able to hear my brother (through the air vents) wrapping our presents with newspaper last minute on Christmas Day.

Sure, I celebrated holidays in Connecticut, New York, California, Louisiana, Colorado, and many places in between... but nonetheless, the excitement that surrounds the entire season is unmatchable. I can't wait to celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah this year with Oliver, and next year when he's bit more clued into it all - and we can do Elf on a shelf :)

I'll post sometime soon about a fantastic story we got from my Dad and Candy, about a little boy who celebrates both holidays as well!

Walking man...

I think my "yaaaaay!" may have scared him to fall :)

I'm a Theta, she's a Theta....

Today was like a mini sorority/college reunion in NY. Three friends (Melissa, Melissa, Stacy) and I hung out while semi-watching (?) some football. Melissa #1 lives in Boston (Hi Flem!) and it's been over a year since I've seen her, but we Skype pretty regularly so it never seems like it's been as long as it has. She just got engaged, bought a dress (gah!), set a date, and is in full wedding mode - with an awesome ring too, all three of them ;-) Melissa #2 lives in Pennsylvania and drove up with her adorable two kids (Chloe, 2 1/2, and Avery, 3 weeks younger than Oliver). Stacy and I get to see each other every two weeks or so now that we're so close, but she hadn't seen either of the Melissas in 3 and 4 years! It's always nice when friends get together, we had a blast. Oliver was also pretty infatuated with both Chloe and Avery. He was chatting away with them at lunch, and was so excited about the day in general that he (oops!) forgot to take his afternoon nap. He did snooze for about 10" while we were walking Stella which made for a fun dinner/bedtime. Anyway, here's a self-timer parking lot photo of all of us:

l to r: Avery, Melissa #2, Chloe, Melissa #1, Stacy, O, Moi.

Who's that baby in the mirror? :)

Just took this video, and it's a pretty good summation of what O is like these days :)
VERY mobile... very curious... and very adventurous.

I give the whole walking thing until the end of 2011.... we'll see!

Thankful.

These are some of the things I am thankful for this year:

I've come to the conclusion that my family (the mixed-up assortment of nationalities, religions and even other families, we all are) is more concerned with 'tradition' than 'religion' although some of them overlap.

My favorite tradition (as I put on a friend's Facebook post this week) is about Christmas ornaments. Each year, my thoughtful mother spends hours searching for, or even making, personalized ornaments of something momentous and eventful that has happened in our lives that year. They are almost all easily remembered, like the year Sarah learned to read all by herself, or the year Amie played at MSG during intermission. It's always fun to guess what we're going to have as our ornament each year, and most of the time we are right on with the guesses. Last year, ours was a pregnant couple, and this year, we got an adorable framed picture of O.

After pondering, I've come to the conclusion that this tradition began the year Sarah was born (1992), when we each received a small photo ornament with our picture inside. (Some photos could be used as bribery these days). As we "kids" grow up and have our own Christmas trees (side note: yes, I had a bat mitzvah... that's for another post's explanation), this is absolutely a tradition I plan on keeping with my own family. Since Ben and I have lived together (this will be our fifth (?!?!) Christmas together), we have gotten each other ornaments and I've given him a photo ornament with a picture of us in it. I think it will be cute to look back at these photos years from now, and to show them to Oliver. Just as much fun as we have looking at photos of ourselves from nineteen years ago. (gasp!)


Yep. That WHOLE tree has personalized ornaments on it. Not a single one that one of us doesn't have a story (or ten) about. Talk about a conversation piece. Fam, I love you guys!

Almost 9 months old...

Yep, tomorrow Oliver is 9 months old. 40 weeks. I can NOT believe it. I know I say this every month, and have been, but I just don't know how else to say it. Next Thursday marks his 41w1d 'birthday' - now, why would that be important? Because Oliver was born after spending 41 weeks and 1 day with me. So this will mark the time at which he's spent equal amounts of time in both 'locations' (?)



I've been taking a bunch of videos lately, just haven't gotten around to putting them on here. Oliver is quite active these days, pulling up onto anything he can get his hands on (couch, play yard, chair, bookshelf, mirror, dog, wall....) and it's amusing to watch. He can cruise pretty well (as seen above on the couch) and around things like the bed, saucer, and play yard. I'm just waiting for the day he tries to take a step between the bed and couch. I give it another 3-4 weeks or so. He has been fascinated with Ben's tennis rackets, and even more so the stringing machine that has (temporarily!) taken up residence in our bedroom.
He has also become increasingly more infatuated with Stella. She, on the other hand, is possibly beginning to not feel the same way. He pulls up onto her, tugs at every piece of hair he can grab, but does laugh and smile at her when she walks into a room. She especially loves when he doesn't eat all of his puffs.



Hope everyone (whoever actually reads this!) has a lovely Thanksgiving with their families :) I'll put up some pictures and maybe a video or five of our delish celebration and cute Thanksgiving jammies.

Porters do Colorado....

Ben, Oliver and I went to Colorado right before Halloween (sorry, it's been 2 weeks!) to see some family. It was a GREAT trip, but a long plane ride. (4 1/2 hours there turned into more than 6 because of bad weather in NYC and a 26-plane long waiting line for takeoff!)

We got to see MY cousins (Jessica and Danielle - who is due in February), and my aunt and uncle. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen them since our wedding in 2008? Is that possible? Anyway, Oliver loved them, even though he slept through the baseball game.


Oliver also got to hang out with HIS cousins.
(from left to right: Oliver - 8 months, Braelyn - 5 months, Broady - 18 months, A.J. - 6, Dillon - 2 months)
It was A.J.'s 6th birthday (10/31) and it was so good to see my step-sisters, Mikaela (mom to Broady, AJ and Dillon), Merin (mom to Braelyn) and McKenna (dog mom to Charlie, Stella's long lost best friend).


Plus, Oliver got to hang out with Grandpa!

My ever-so-Americanized husband scheduled it so we could see the Broncos/Lions game. (It was pretty abysmal, although we had fun!)


Once again, my little O is a super traveler, which is a VERY good thing considering he has family all over the world! After the trip to Colorado, Ben is reconsidering taking O (at age 14 months) to England in the spring.... we will see!

Our return to North Carolina....

Last week, Oliver and I traveled to North Carolina for a few days (Sunday-Wednesday), and I'm pretty proud of the entire trip. We have become EXPERT packers and travelers, and my little man is a SUPERSTAR on the airplane. We checked one suitcase and the car seat, and brought the diaper bag (and lunch box) along with an umbrella stroller and BabyErgo. Anyway, here are some highlights of our trip:

Oliver met his future girlfriend, Madeline Elizabeth.
(She was 2 1/2 weeks old, it's okay, he's into younger women)

We got to see Brian (Madeline's Daddy) snuggling before he left on business for a few days. (That's the main reason why we went down.)

Oliver got to see "Uncle" Chris!
Chris is still living in Fayetteville, but we're hoping he moves up north sometime soon. Oliver LOVES him, and we certainly miss him a lot! (That's Chris' bottle, by the way, I did NOT give my child Coke Zero....)

We went for walks, and hung out at the park. The weather was BEAUTIFUL and 70 degrees. We DO miss the North Carolina weather, that's for sure!


It was a great trip, and made us very thankful to have such wonderful friends, even if they are far away. If I weren't at home with O, this trip would not have been possible!

Kristin and I decided that if we do seriously want Oliver and Madeline to date, we have to tell them that they aren't allowed to ;-) Brian already agreed to pay for the wedding!

Bath Time!

THIS is a far cry from our first, tear-filled bath in the tub.... Oliver regularly turns into a prune (fingers and toes only), and I can forsee many fights in the future about it being time to get out of the bathtub. Perhaps there's a swimmer in the making?

T-r-o-u-b-l-e.

In the last few days O has become infatuated with pulling up onto couches, chairs, Stella, saucers, and people... and his playpen and crib. He has also become too confident with being able to stand. Although it's not in this clip, he managed to stand on his own for 10 seconds!

Crawling....

I took three videos (one with his belly off the ground) today of O crawling. He crawls towards 'items of interest' like my cell phone, Stella laying down, and as shown here.... Gatorade bottles. Do we see a sponsorship in his future, perhaps? :)

O and S

Oliver and Stella have become best friends, and they put up with a lot of each other. Stella licks him (mostly his feet and hands now) and he pulls, tugs, yanks, etc. (mostly her fur). Here is a prime example:

New England

I forgot how much I missed fall in New England.... the weather today is perfect. 65 degrees, slight breeze, and sunny. (I suppose it makes up for yesterday's torrential downpour!)

I'm looking forward to beautiful weather the next few weeks, and spending LOTS of time outdoors before we have to put on the coats and snow boots!

Snuck this one in today:


THIS is also one of my favorite things about being back in New England:


Despite the poor weather, we drove up to see Sarah's field hockey game in Amherst. Her team won 3-1 (yay!) and she scored the 2nd goal of the game. Oliver is such a trooper about traveling, but he does get a little scared when people cheer - we're working on it!

Trying to cr... walk?

This video pretty accurately depicts Oliver's struggles with crawling. He is very frustrated to say the least. He knows exactly what he wants to do, but can't figure it out. He's trying to stand up (as you can see with his feet) as opposed to crawling. It's pretty cute, but he doesn't think so! It's a pretty good yoga position to say the least :)

Our latest 'trick'

I tried ALL day to get this video, and finally did. I had to delicately balance the camera on my knee and do 'my part' - otherwise O was too busy focusing on the camera. He's getting better at ignoring it, I just need to be hands-free for this one! Enjoy!



Thanks to Grandma and Gigi for also practicing this with O the past week!

(I also like how he's got a soccer ball in his lap, and Stella is exhausted in the background from our evening walk.)

7 months!

Today Oliver is 7 months old and I can hardly believe it!

Once again, it's rainy here in the northeast... and Ben is in Florida at a conference (Lucky duck!)

Today has been a great napping day. Both naps (yes, only two!) were without crying one bit. We managed to get out to Stroller Strides (in the mall, yippee! = Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte for me!), and get back without a cat nap. That meant he slept from 10:30 - 12:15, and has just gone down again at 4:00 for his reinstated 'Oprah nap.'

We also got to Skype with Grandpa (in Colorado) and Auntie Sar (at college!)

I love those beautiful blue eyes!

A little mischievous, yes?
(I WISH I knew what he was thinking most of the time, especially in times like this!)

Gigi's friends, Alex and Gloria, gave Oliver these awesome nesting/stacking alphabet blocks. Although they say 2+, we've been playing with them (under supervision, of course!), and he really likes to knock them down. Sometimes he even tries to clap when he does it!



(The music in the background is his Baby Einstein CD playing, I didn't add it!)

This is truly the best sound in the world....

Updates.... (again)

Updates. (I feel like I'm always updating and never actually blogging as things happen - oops!)

Before we begin, here is a mathematical equation to represent our current food standings.
banana > pears > avocado > sweet potato > carrots > squash > peas
(Peas are the bottom rung by a LONG SHOT)

Up next: apples, peaches, asparagus
(it smells and looks awful, so I won't blame the kid if he doesn't like them!)

Our 6 month check-up conversation went like such...
Doctor: "Can he sit up?"
Me: "Sure, for about 25-30 minutes at a time."
Doctor: "Great, how long can he sit without leaning on his hands?"
Me: "About 25-30 minutes at a time."
Doctor: "Oh really? Wow. Let me see something." (Doctor holds O under the armpits, and leans him forwards like he's falling. Oliver puts his hands out as if to catch his fall.)
Doctor: "Mrs. Porter, I'm afraid you're in trouble. He has what we call 'parachute reflexes' already. I wouldn't be surprised if he is walking by 10 1/2 months."

Awesome. Let the baby proofing begin! (Note: crawling or attempting to crawl is far from his favorite thing to do.... he gets so frustrated because he knows what he wants to do, but can't. Maybe he'll be like Auntie Sar, crawl for a day and then walk!)

Oliver and I did our first 10K last Saturday (9/10) in Danbury and I was really worried about the timing, him needing to eat, nap, etc. but it went really well! I was the first stroller to cross the finish line, we did it in 57:15 which boils down to a 9:12/mile pace. Not bad for our first race! (The course was a double loop, and about 1.5 of each 3.1 miles was a very steady incline, good thing we've been practicing hills!)

We bought this snuggly hat at Target yesterday (side note: they have REALLY cute North Face-type jackets and other adorable winter clothes for kids). I clearly panicked because of the suddenly cold weather (45 degrees walking the dog yesterday morning!) and bought him sweaters, fake ugg boots (they're cuter, with little doggies on them). This hat was nice and warm, so he fell asleep in the stroller this morning :) So angelic!

This might be one of my favorite pictures of O to date. First of all, he's smiling. His smile makes everything okay. Second, this was my sweatshirt as a kid. (There are pants that go with it). It's a size 2T. Yep, that's right. It barely fits over melon head! Plus, you can see his two little teethies!!!! (I've been trying to capture them for more than a month now!) I also love that this was right after our Stroller Strides class ended (at Kensico Dam, behind him in the picture), and he loves playing on the mat when we're done. There are also about 3 other babies his age (a boy 1 day older, a girl 1 day younger and another adorable girl 3 weeks younger - I think he's got a crush on her!). It's really cute to see them interact, grab each other's shoes, and make noises at each other.

P.S. A HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE congrats to my cousin, Danielle, and her husband, Dan. They're expecting in February and we couldn't be happier for them. If you're interested in following their story, check out their blog (selbysonline.blogspot.com). Love you guys! xoxo

'Dating' after Marriage

I think I should begin this blog entry by saying that the title, albeit slightly misleading, is the only title I could think of as appropriate for this 'revelation'. Ben and I are perfectly happy, and this does not allude to any problems, just trust me and please read on.

I've found that there are two types of so-called 'dating' after one gets married. The first is dating for couple friends, and the second I've recently encountered is dating for mom/baby friends.

Ben and I experienced the first (couple dating) together, mainly when we were living in North Carolina. We had single friends, who would invite their significant others out with us, and that was totally normal and not discussion-worthy to us. Then, we were asked out on a date. We took Stella to PetSmart dog training classes (pre-pregnancy), with the SOLE intention of training her (the results are often debatable), but found ourselves surrounded by couples with dogs. Small chat was made during class, and sometimes even on our way in or out of the store. It mainly had to do with the dogs, their behavior, and how well we (as owners) were doing our homework with practicing the training. On the last night of class, after puppy graduation (and Frosty Paws), a lovely young couple chatted with us. Background: they're both Romanian and Ben and I are pretty sure he's the real-life Jason Bourne in the military, speaks about 14 languages, and gets sketchy phone calls that he 'has to take care of'. They approached us after class, made some small talk, and then said "we should grab dinner sometime, can we exchange phone numbers?" We did, we hung out with them a few times, invited them to our Super Bowl party, and then our 'couple friendship' faded into the distance.... like a relationship that had just taken it's course.

The second type of 'dating' I have experienced since moving back up North, over the past two months or so. It happens while I'm walking the dog and Oliver sometimes, but mainly during my trips to Stroller Strides. If you get a group of moms together, mostly stay-at-home moms, they're bound to chat, and 'find' each other. I met a few very nice moms while we were in Ridgefield, who sent and/or accepted Facebook friendship requests (does that make our 'friendship' official?). I met a very nice mom last week, who has a son one day older than Oliver, and it was obvious from early on that we had a lot in common - other than our same-aged babies and desire to 'get out and do something' every day. We were walking back to our cars after class when I said "well if you're here on Friday, we will see you then." I was caught a bit off guard when she responded "yeah, and if you guys don't have anything to do after, maybe we can grab a coffee or something..." A date? I was asked out on a Mommy date! I was very happy to have 'made a friend', and to have a good excuse to go sit and have a cup of coffee, but I really wanted someone (like Ben) to laugh with about the whole situation. We had coffee today, and Oliver's playdate slept the whole time. It was nice to have some adult conversation, and discuss the issues that are oh so pressing in our lives these days (Did he like Peas? How often does he wake up? What is his bedtime routine?), as well as the 'getting to know you' questions we most likely asked our husbands when getting to know them. Now, that we've exchanged numbers - she said she would text me so I have her number, although I'm still waiting. Wait, what? This is like dating all over again. I'm wondering how she thinks our date went. Will she ask me to go to lunch next, or will she spend next class trying to find a new Mommy friend? Hahahaha. I can't help but laugh at the whole thing.

The bottom line is that I thought I was done with dating when I got married. It's just different type of 'dating' now. That is all. Best wishes to all who 'Mommy date.'