Birthday Boy… #5!!

Five years ago I could never have imagined the sweet little newborn baby boy I rocked back and forth, back and forth would turn into such a wonderful kid that you have become.  You amaze me every day with the things you know, the kindness you have for others and your witty personality.  I have truly been blessed to be called your Mom, that’s for sure!

You are such a compassionate, sensitive and caring little boy and I love that about you.  When we pick Hudson up from Miss Marleen’s you often ask him how his day was.  Those conversations between the two of you, about your days, makes my heart melt.  And then at dinnertime, you usually ask Daddy and I, “How was your day?”  You even ask Duncan this as well… the other day I heard you ask Duncan, as you came in the house, “Hi Duncan, how was your day?  Did you miss me?”  You’re too sweet.

Determined, inquisitive and independent are words that fit you well.  This fall you decided you wanted to learn to ride a 2-wheeler so you went through Daddy’s tools and found (the correct!) wrench and took your training wheels off by yourself.  Daddy helped you a few times and you were off riding on 2 wheels!  (although I do think your motivation came from the fact that we told you that you wouldn’t be able to ride a dirt bike unless you could ride a bike without training wheels).

You are so close to becoming a reader it’s not even funny.  I’m so proud of how quickly and easily you’ve caught onto letters and sounds and putting words together.  Many times a day you will pick random words out and start sounding them out… like “kitchen”.. “K-k-k- Kitchen starts with k!”  You can usually identify what words start with k, hard c and soft c.  Lately you’ve been pulling out sounds from the middle and endings of words.  A reading teacher’s dream 🙂   Last fall, when you became really interested in words, we created a Word Wall in your bedroom and have added lots of great words to your wall.  I hope that you always find reading and writing so intriguing!

One of your newest things you like to do is repeat things you do at school.  I’m not talking about repeating naughty names, or sassy things… no, you’ve surprised me on this one.  I thought for sure you’d be the kid bringing home all sorts of smack talk.  But no….. I pick you up from school and you want to play guessing games (just like Mrs. Slat does at carpet time).  This usually start with you asking something like this… “Mom, I’m an animal who eats meat.  I start with the letter L.  What kind of animal am I?”  I guess (usually something wrong, just for fun) and then you always add more… “No, I live in the ZOO, Mom!  I am an animal that eats meat, I start with the letter L… Lllllll… and I live in the zoo.  What kind of animal am I?”  We also play this game back and forth with items.  You love it!  You also tried to copy Mrs. Slat’s Special Box (or Magic Box?  what is it called again??). We were at JoAnn’s and you wanted to buy this little wooden box with a latch.  I assumed you wanted to keep little treasures in it… rocks, legos, pieces of paper…. but oh no… you have something else in mind.  We got home and no sooner had we gotten in the door you ran to me, with your box and said “Mom! You’re my special helper today!  Guess what’s in the magic box… it starts with the letter M and it has two wheels!”  At that moment I realized you were playing the game Mrs. Slat does every day at school.  Oh my sweet boy I love you!

Your little brother has been quite a pill lately and I am proud of you for handling him the way you do.  Sure, there are plenty of times you do your fair share of picking on him, but there are also just as many times that your response to him makes me so proud.   Like when he says “I HATE you, Puttter (becuase he calls you Putter, even though he can say POR-ter when we ask him to say it correctly).” you reply back, “Well I LOVE you, Hudson.” Did I mention you make me so proud?

Lately you’ve been really concerned with growing up.  You tell me you’ll miss me when you grow up, and that you don’t want me to get old.  Oh, buddy, I don’t want to get old either, and I sure will miss the little boy you once were when you are a grown man… but I can’t wait to see the amazing person you become.  One thing you can be sure of, I will always love you SO SO much, no matter how old you are.

Happy Birthday, Porter Evan!  We love you!

Some things about you at 5:

• You weight 39.5lbs and are 41.5 inches tall
• Your favorite place to be is outside… no matter the temperature or weather you like to be outdoors. 
• Your favorites:
• Animal: Deer
• Color: Green
• Movie: Home Alone 3
• Person?  Grandma  Why/  because I love her
• Song: The monkey one (5 little monkeys) and Party in the USA
• Food: Chicken Nuggets
• Drink: Chocolate milk
• Number: I don’t know… 29
• You know all the letters in the alphabet, their sounds, can identify the beginning and ending sounds of words and often sounds you hear in the middle of words.  
• You can count into the 60’s (although you sometimes need help remembering 30, 40, 50, 60… the numbers in-between are easy)
• You know our address and phone number (and even wrote down my cell phone number the other day and showed it to me… love that it is written completely backwards and the numbers are backwards as well LOL!)
• You like to dress yourself and pick out your outfits and often do this at night before bed.  You’re really good at matching things and putting together cute outfits (at least cute to ME)

This is the outfit Porter set out last night to wear today.