Jungle Jim's

We met up with friends at an indoor amusement park/arcade.  It was small, but perfect for a 2 1/2 year old.  I loved watching Porter run from thing to thing.  Then he'd get on a ride and look completely stoic.  Bumper cars he cracked a smile and laughed and then a few other times.  So, for Mr Expressive it was definitely out of the norm.  You might have thought he was not having fun, but he loved it.  The only thing he may not have loved was the roller coaster.  I was kind of shocked how fast it went.

Jonas even got in on some of the action. He rode the carousel on his own horse with his chubby cheeks bouncing away.  It was the fastest, ricketiest carousel I've ever seen.

His first time in the bumper cars this sweet girl said she'd go with him.  I snapped this cute photo with her arm around him.

 Our friend's the Mitchell's were there.

Nap time

Little Jonas is struggling lately to nap.  His rolling to sitting to standing is all getting in the way.  I hope he settles back down... I need a nap:).

My life

I am sure there will be lots of laughing and crying between these two over the years.

He found a new way to may ever the Plasma car.

Haircuts.

Tickles.

One night this boy snuck up to our room after we put him to bed and we found him lying in our bed fast asleep.  I'm pretty sure he is lonely all the way down in the basement.  We are hoping soon we can move him upstairs with Jonas.

Not a happy camper.  

Porter is all about doing tricks.  We do them almost daily if not more.  Here is coming down from balancing on one leg.

Thank goodness this boy is cute.  He has been a pill at night lately and sometimes for naps.  He now rolls onto his stomach then pushes up until he's sitting.  Then he screams/cries in his bed.  It's great he's working on his new skills, I just wish it wasn't while he should be sleeping. 

Those eyes

Today someone commented that Jonas' eyes were "trusting and curious".  They are.

Preschool

I bought a preschool book for Porter so we can work on learning.  He loves it and wants to work on stuff.  It is so fun to work with him and watch him learn.  I am so proud of my little smartie pants.

Sweet Family Time

David was gone a lot this week because he was on service.  We miss him when he's gone.  My favorite moments are when our whole family is together.  His last day away we played with friends, but we were happy when Friday came.

This kiddo loves to stand.  He is so proud of himself when he is standing and when he eats whatever we are eating rather than that yucky baby food.

We took a friend to the zoo.

We have never seen them inspecting the lions, but it was pretty cool.

They were pretty excited to be in the carousel.  

Porter turned me into a monster.

He is busy and he now sits and plays by himself.  So, my hands can be free for a bit:).

Grandma Jones (our neighbor) invited Porter to come pick cherry tomatoes.  It was a fun family outing.

Then while we were sitting on our porch, Porter made friends with a preying mantis.

We went to the 9th and 9th Festival today and it was awesome.  Porter got to sit in a fire truck, learn about fireman tools, get on an ambulance, play with little sailboats, shoot a bow and arrow and ride a bike through an obstacle course.  And, his favorite, look at new truck books.

Boys will be boys

Porter is a boy through and through.  He loves climbing all things at the park and is often found following an older girl around that has caught his fancy.

Jonas is on the move.  It's not the typical crawling method, but he's now able to scoot on his bottom with one leg out and pulling with his hands.  It works for him.  Maybe he'll never crawl the conventional way and he'll just start walking.  He has started to pull himself up on stuff.  I was taking a shower and he pulled himself up next to the tub.

Taking off down the street with his new plasma car.  I'm just waiting for his first wreck.

Caught Jonas red handed.  Porter handed off his Apple to Jonas while we were driving.  Jonas loved it and was not happy when I took it away.  

And I'm not quite sure why Porter was crying this time:).  

One on one time with this sweetie.  He must be teething.  He liked the corner of the table.

And he liked pounding the table.  Now I have the sweetest hand prints all over the glass.

They are ready to roll.  Just imagine these two when they can drive.  Yikes!  

Porter just got new toys from Gayle tonight and he had to tuck them in for bed.  And he prayed for them and about them.  

Sweet prayers

Lately Porter has wanted to say a second prayer right before bed to ask Heavenly Father to help him not be scared of monsters and scary guys and to protect him.  Tonight his prayer included this, "Bless momma and dada to get the rest they need... Bless me to remember Heavenly Father and Jesus are always watching me."

I think he really does listen to our prayers!  And I of course am very grateful that he wants us to get the rest we need. 

He asked...

Tonight for FHE David started out with a question.  He asked Porter, "Pick a body part of Dad's and I will tell you something good that I can do with it."  And Porter says, "Your penis."

Yep.  That was the body part he wanted to know about.  And Porter so sincerely said it over and over again.  David and I were crying we were laughing so hard, but trying not to reveal the source of our laughter.  After about 5 minutes of laugh/crying, David says, "Sorry, I just thought of something funny." (As if Porter's body part request had no relationship to our laughter.)  Then David says, "I can go pee pee in the potty."  Great answer :).

And, then we moved on to the rest of us.  For me fortunately Porter picked my knees so we were able to get the lesson back on track.

Meeting a new friend

I love when babies start to see themselves and play with their mirror image. It's like meeting a new best friend.

Swim Lessons

I have been thinking about putting Porter in swim lessons and tonight was his trial lesson, a mommy and me class.  It was quite entertaining.  Porter will be Porter.

There were a lot of distractions, so he had a hard time focusing on the task at hand.  He wanted to play with all the toys, throw the ball and the floating toys. He went all the way under water once because he let go of the floating bar during a moment if distraction.  He did blow bubbles, jump in the pool and kick and "swim" to get toys.  He told me at the end he was done and wanted to go home.  In the car he said he did not want to go back.  Luckily he's not very opinionated:).  (Insert sarcasm). I'm hoping he'll give it another chance.  I think it's so important for him to learn to swim.

Goals

At the beginning of August I ran a half marathon with friends.  My goal time was 1:45.  I hadn't trained for it, but I was willing to try.  I fell short, but was still really happy with the outcome.  My friend Adrianne asked if I was up for doing another one a month later.  I made sure David was on board and signed up.  I figured, I had already put a lot of the hours/mileage in and might be pregnant in the not far distance, so now was the perfect time.  Adrianne and I both did a few speed workouts, but since we only had a few weeks, we didn't get tons of time to work on speed.  We set our goal at a 1:45.

The day before the race it seemed like things started falling apart. We planned a house swap with friends that lived closer to the race location, but they decided to stay home yesterday because the husband thought he was getting sick.  The house was full and it was hard to get the boys to sleep.  David slept with the boys in the unfinished basement.  I slept on a futon in the front room and Adrianne slept in the guest room.

Sleep wasn't great and we were up at 3:40am to get ready and head to the pick up spot.  

We got to the pick up at 4:30am, loaded the bus and started off.  Unfortunately the buses did not know where they were going.  Luckily a guy in our bus did and the bus driver turned on his GPS.  We got to the top about 5:30am.  It was cold, windy and dark.  We had 1 1/2+ hrs to wait.  Then we started lining up.  We had to wait for three buses to go down, the volunteers to set up the start line and the chip timing mat and wires.  We didn't start the race until about 20 minutes after our original start time of 7 am. Nothing like making the runners antsy and more nervous.

Then we were off.  The course was a pretty downhill route down Payson Canyon.  Adrianne and I stuck together for he first 9+ miles and ran around a 7:30 pace!  That was super exciting.  Adrianne kept it up and I eased up.  I was worn out, but still managed to run a 1:41:55 and my average pace was 7:46. I was super stoked and proud of myself and Adrianne.  

8 months

I'm not sure how they get so big so fast.  Jonas is 8 months old!

A few tidbits about this sweet boy:

-scoots around on his bottom, but doesn't crawl

- picks up foods with his fingers and put them in his mouth

- has his two bottom teeth

- eats what we are eating and he thinks that's pretty cool

-loves to eat and will eat most foods he gets.  (I may have shared some ice cream and a donut with him already)

-This past week we really started making him sleep though the night. He just cried hard for about 30 min the first night and then would just briefly cry after that.  He did so good.  He still wakes up generally around 5 am for a feed, but will go back to sleep until about 6:30am.  

-He goes to bed at 7pm.  

-Takes two naps. Am nap is about 1 hour to 1 1/2.   Afternoon nap is about 2 hours.

- shakes his head back and forth when there's music playing, he's going to bed or Porter is making him laugh

-no teeth, still a huge gummy smile

- still a momma's boy 

- gets mad if you take something from him he wants

- let's Porter know he doesn't like what he's doing by screaming/squeaking at him

- says momma and dada but probably still doesn't connect it

- a mover and a shaker