porter can

porter can say:
dog
dad
mom
cat
moon
moo
yeah
bubble (kinda)
banana (nana)

porter can:
make a fish face
beat his chest like king kong when we ask him what a gorilla does
give you a high five
clap when you ask him what a seal does
make an elephant noise
make a car noise (vroooom)
point to an airplane
get something and put it somewhere if we ask him
throw a ball
kick a ball
wave goodbye
wave hello (different waves)
give you a kiss
a hug
snuggle (laying down)
give loves (pretty much snuggling standing up)
blow in your face and laugh about it
smile (shows teeth, but does not actually smile)
blink
dance
snap (not really, it looks like he's doing it to the rhythm of the song)
walk backwards
pretend to count how many fingers he has
show you his feet
belly button
hair
nose (picks nose)
mouth
tongue
teeth
eyes
ears (sometimes)

...i'm sure there are more.

BIG Announcement.

You're going to be disappointed...

Porter has officially grown out of being allergic to milk!

I made him homemade macaroni & cheese with butternut squash today! It was great!...until he wouldn't eat it. BLAST.

My whole world has to be rethunk because I've spent the last 16 months NOT letting him have milk...

Bubbles with Grandma

We did bubbles with Grandma Bodily on Saturday--the pictures are just kinda fun. Most of the time, though, he just looks like he hates us.

 

Dedicated to my Grandma

My Grandma Elaine's birthday is today, and I couldn't think of a better way to tell her Happy Birthday than to shout it from the rooftops (or through the internet cable...) that I think she's a wonderful, a very classy lady, and I love her.

Facts about Grandma:

• Had the 1st computer when it came out--is super good with electronics and always has been.
• Always up for exciting new adventures!
• Works at the Provo Temple.
• Spends lots of time taking care of her family.
• Does enormous amounts of genealogy!
• I chose her first name as my middle name because I love her so much.
• She loves her family and they love her back.

This is when she got married--gorgeous, right?

She always made it a priority to come to our big deal events (like Priesthood ordinations) even though they lived far away.

Her family.

Feeding Porter in the outfit she bought him!

First time meeting Porter, and loving him!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Elaine!

Nutritional Visitor!

Our friend Sarah just graduated in Nutrition at SUU, and came down to present for a research conference and we had a blast! We went to Sprinkles (I had the dark chocolate one, Sarah had the coconut one, and Porter had the vegan [meaning no animal products, which includes milk]), the beach (Corona del Mar) with SUPER cool fire pits ON THE BEACH, walked around Downtown Disney (which I had never been to before), and found out that all Starbucks in the Anaheim area close at 10:30...stupid. I don't have any pictures, but she did on their great blog here.

Go check it out!

Raising Tips for Porter

I get weekly emails from Babycenter.com that tell me different things about how Porter's developing, tips on ways to play with him, etc.  This week's email was perfect for what I've been frustrated with him lately.  Here are some ideas:

• Most consistent idea:  Give him a choice.  Whether it's between grapes or a banana, give him a choice so that it's him who chooses he wants to eat a banana.  So if you want him to take a bath, give him a choice between the toy he wants to play with.  If you want him to put on clothes, let him chose between a green shirt or a red shirt.
• Give him the appearance of a choice:  Do you want to get out of the car now, or play for two minutes and then get out of the car?  No matter what he'll be getting out of the car but it's making him feel like he has control about his life.
• As long as he has a balanced diet over a week or a month's time, he's going to be fine.  Work on getting him 5 fruits and vegetables each day, but if it doesn't happen--that's just fine.
• Some days he'll eat lots and some days he won't eat anything.  That's just fine.
• When he wants to say "no" to everything, find ways to distract him from saying no.  Here's an example: My 2 1/2-year-old won't always cooperate — no surprise! For instance, I'll ask him to sit down to eat and he'll say "No!" and laugh, and start dancing around instead. That used to make me mad (okay, it still does), but I try to laugh back and say something like, "What's going on there, Legs? You tell Bottom to sit right in that chair!" That makes him laugh and breaks his defiant mood. — Jan, Minnesota
• Take advantage of the "me do it" attitude.  He wants to do everything himself because he wants to be independent, so make a big deal about him doing it himself.

I dunno...a lot of people have different ways of raising children, but these seem to be consistent with the way I'm raising Porter.  Hope it's helpful for you!

girlfriends

i'm too tired to type out the wonderful activities that happened with ladie and miss britt came to visit me (just a few days apart!) during the fantastic month of march, but here are some pictures to illustrate how delightful it was. also, i started off editing the pictures from ladie's visit, and was too tired to make the ones from britt even more spectacular than they are, so i'm sorry about that too...

job update

we thought we had something in valencia...no go.

we're going to the temple tuesday...hopefully we'll have an update on what the plan is after that.

Body Type?

We had some friends over Sunday night and our friend Tanya (aka Jasmine) was one of them and she looked so cute!  The next day I wanted to see if I could look as cute, so I tried a similar outfit, and every time I saw myself in a reflection I was like "Oh my gosh--what is going on here..."  Which led me to the question, what the heck was I doing that is different from her?  Well, I would have to say that our bodies are completely different, so I wondered what clothes make me look good?  So I went online to find out my body type by going here and typing in my measurements.  I am a "spoon" body type (sounds horrible, doesn't it?)...it means I'm small on top and big on bottom, which I had NEVER thought, but then I went on another site talking about body types and they said "The typical spoon measurements are...." and they were MY MEASUREMENTS!  Whhaaaat?  Along with the website were good and bad ways to work out for your body type, and so I've started to do try the "good ways" today.  We'll see what happens, but the question is,

do you know your body type?

Ruffles, Tandem, and a Great Weekend!

Birthdays

Having Jordan and my birthday pretty close together is really fun, but it also makes it easy to keep it fair.  We have decided that for our birthdays--it's up to the birthday person to decide how the birthday budget is going to be used and how the day is going to be spent!

Since my birthday was first, we'll start with mine!  I just kept telling Jordan that I was going to worry about my birthday and that he wouldn't have to worry about it, but he didn't believe me until he woke up that morning and saw that I already had our lunches packed, the diaper bag ready, was showered and make-upped, and was ready to go!  I'm trying to live it up that we're in Los Angeles so we went to the California Science Center!  It's a museum with lots of hands on stuff that gets you to interested and excited about the science in the world around us!  To get an idea of the kind of place it is, here's what's even just outside the museum.  It's a lever where you can lift a truck!  If you look closely you can see the truck is off the ground, just by Jordan pulling on it!  It was a blast.  There was a space/air museum in another building that was also part of it, and that was so neat!  After that, we went to Santa Monica Pier, rented bikes and rode around for an hour or so.  We then walked on the beach, got a little wet, put on warm clothes and walked along the Pier.  We were going to go to dinner, but I didn't really want to, so we went to Costco and got ravioli and pot stickers (pretty much the same thing, but from different countries).  We came home and they were fantastic!  Jordan's mom made me cupcakes and we blew out a candle!  All in all, it was a wonderful birthday!

 

And now for Jordan's birthday!  There's a donut place a few miles away that Jordan really likes, so I went before he got up and got him some.  There's a trail above Jordan's house that he wanted to hike so that's what we did!  It was a blast.  Jordan hadn't been up this one trail since he was like, 11, when he and some buddies got a door, dragged it up the mountain, and started to build a tree house.  The next day they all got poison oak so they never went back, but we found the tree house and the door was still there!  We put Porter in his carrier and he was happy for part of it, but really wanted to walk around so when we got to the top we let him get out.  The hike took up a good chunk of the day, so by the time we got home it was time for dinner!  Jordan's favorite food of all time is crab, and he went on his mission to Louisiana (the GLBRM), so The Boiling Crab was the answer!  You order the seafood you want (there's shrimp, crab, crawfish, salmon...and I'm sure there are others), order the spices, they cook it in a bag, and bring it out in a bag!  There's wax paper on the table which replaces plates, and while it's very messy it's soooooooo good!  Jordan got 1 1/2 pounds of crab, and I got 2 lbs of crawfish, both of which we split.  It was so yummy and I wish we could go everyday.  One of Jordan's favorite ice creams is chocolate malt crunch from Rite Aid (um....what?) so I made an ice cream cake with chocolate ice cream, broken up whoppers, oreos, and whipped cream.  I think he had a good birthday too, and Porter and I had a blast too!

Job Update

We don't have a job yet.  That's pretty much the gist of it.  We've been working on it and thought we had one in the bag, and we didn't.  So, we're looking at our options, praying about it, and we'll see.

We were in an earthquake!

There was an earthquake this morning that I was finally in! There was one in New York a few years ago that my Dad was in, but we were on vacation--bummer. This morning everything changed! It happened at 4 this morning, and while I was partly asleep I felt it and was aware that it was an earthquake--AWESOME. If you Google "california earthquake," something similar to this will come up:

There was also an article in the Wall Street Journal online :

Earthquake Shakes Southern California

LOS ANGELES—An earthquake east of downtown Los Angeles rippled across Southern California before dawn Tuesday, jolting millions of people awake and putting first-responders on alert but causing no damage, injuries or power outages.

The magnitude-4.4 quake, centered about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, struck shortly after 4 a.m., according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

"It was a shake, but not bad. Our inmates slept through it and we had a few calls, but not as many as you would think," Pico Rivera sheriff's station Sgt. Jacqueline Sanchez said. Deputies were immediately dispatched to check on bridges and dams, she said.

Los Angeles County Fire Department supervising dispatcher Andre Gougis said there were no reports of damage or injury and the department was at normal operations.

Mr. Gougis said the quake was felt as his east Los Angeles headquarters.

"There was an initial jolt, then mild shaking after that," he said.

To continue the story click here.

All in all, it was pretty rad and we can say we were in earthquakes!

Brett Glen Campbell

Jordan's greatest friend in the history of mankind, Brett, has requested a post about himself. So, here it is.

So tired...but here's Disneyland!

I am so tired I can't stand it, but our friend Brett's over, and they're watching the Jazz/Suns game before we watch The Office where Jim and Pam have their baby, so here we are until that happens.

I'm not putting in a super lot of details about our Disneyland trip a month ago (we went again Thursday, both times for free [I know...right?]). Mostly I'll just talking about the pictures that I'm putting up.

I took Porter on his first ride while Jordan and his Aunt Theresa (who was the one who got us in for free) went on Soarin' California (on paper, not that cool of a ride but when I went to it myself I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time...if you have the chance you've GOT to go on it). The ride we went on was the Monsters Inc ride (so fun!) and it was a blast! Porter just kinda looked around--no crying but no smiling either. When we got out we saw Porter's first "characters" and they were from the Incredibles! We saw the mom and the ice guy--again, no crying from Porter, but no smiling either.

We saw Mary Poppins! It was so rad--I was like a 5 year old. We then followed my next section of happiness--the Peter Pan ride! I love that ride--it's my favorite book, story, everything--I just love Peter Pan, and the ride is great too. We then took Porter to It's A Small World (which he loved...danced to the music), and then Jordan's aunt took Porter and watched him the rest of the day so we could have a day at Disney to ourselves--it was wonderful! Something else that was GREAT was that our friends the Deans just HAPPENED to be in California that week and just HAPPENED to be going to Disney the same day we did! So we went on a couple rides with them, including the Tower of Terror (so fun) and the ride where you get wet (not Splash Mountain...the other one). It was great! We also went on Splash Mountain (I looove that ride), and we should have gone a little earlier because the sun had JUST gone down, so we got a little cold, but it was ok. That day we went on EVERY single ride we wanted to. We didn't have to wait in one line for a long time. The only one we were going to wait in line for, a guy came and gave us a FastPass for it! It was super rad. We had never been to California Adventure, and the tickets we had were park hoppers, so we explored California Adventure to its' full advantage. Anyway, we went on every ride we wanted: Big Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and so many more!



Last week, we were given two free tickets to Disney again, so we went and since we got to go on all the rides we wanted the time before, we decided to spend this trip exploring the Disney we had never experienced (Jordan had never been on the Jungle Cruise and most of the kiddie rides). So, we kept Porter the whole day (maybe NOT our best idea...), went on lots of kiddie rides (which was a BLAST), spent a lot of time in ToonTown and Bugs Land (toddler areas), and went to things like The Enchanted Tiki Room. It was really fun! We took Porter on a couple rides like Pirates which he didn't really understand but didn't cry about! He only had a half an hour that he was having a hard time with, but other than that he was a PERFECT child the whole day! The last couple hours he was pretty lethargic, so I think he was overwhelmed and exhausted so the next time we go we'll probably only keep him a half day, but I'm glad we had the experience of taking him in the first place. We went to a pretty cool Aladdin show, met Mickey, and so much more!

There's also a ride called Soarin' California which is a ride that "flies" over the different parts of California, including "smell-o-vision" where you smell the orange groves. Now let me tell you that everyone that went on it said it was so cool, but I could not see how great it was going to be, so I didn't make it much of a priority. Jordan FORCED me to go at the end of the day, and let me tell you that it is one of the absolute, COOLEST rides of all time--it may not sound cool, but it is AWESOME. Good job to all the engineers who were in charge of putting that ride together.