Hello! Have you read part 1 of this post yet? If not, you can find it here. In part 1 I talk all about my husband, John. Today I want to share with you a little bit about my two little boys.

Porter is 4 years old. He has a great little personality that I am genuinely enjoying discovering as it unfolds itself. He will talk your ear off if you let him, and he says the funniest things and takes the conversations in the most unexpected (or sometimes, knowing his interests, fairly predictable) directions. He is fascinated by pipes and fans and vacuums, and uses them as a point of reference to understand his world. For example, the other day we were talking about what he did at preschool, and he was telling us about the stars that are inside of apples. Porter says, “The apples have stars in them when you cut them like this,” he demonstrates cutting, with sound effects, then continues “and stars are like fans because they have blades! And vacuums and pipes are my favorite!” He said this with pride and a huge grin on his face!

Porter also has this unadulterated joy of discovery that is so sweet and innocent. Anytime he discovers something that he loves, or that he was looking for, or that is in any way interesting, his whole face lights up and just radiates, and he lets out this little half giggle-half sigh. I love this reaction because its so pure and innocent, I hope he never looses this joy in discovering things as he grows older.

Right now Porter’s favorite things to play with include his Legos (actually just Duplos, I’m not brave enough yet to face the hundreds of little pieces of big-boy Legos), his Ikea train set, or his tools.  He’s also fascinated with guns, so everything becomes a gun- the Legos, a hammer, so that he can shoot the bad guys. And the shooting noises, oh my gosh, how is it that all boys seem to be innately good at all kinds of explosion/shooting/train/racecar/airplane noises?! Anyways, we’ve never bought him an actual toy gun before now, but a few weeks ago John and I decided that if he was pretending everything was a gun anyway we might as well invest in some Nerf guns. Now we have a set so that each member of our family can have one, and we shoot targets that I’ve printed and taped to the wall, or try to shoot block towers down. Both boys LOVE it, and its quickly becoming a favorite activity.

We got Porter a bike for his 4th birthday. We bought this one off kijiji, and it is admittedly a little on the big side for him. John has been working with him all summer to build his confidence and strength while going for little rides. Porter just loves it, he is thrilled about any opportunity to go for a bike ride. I can’t wait until next summer, when he’s grown into it a little more.

We have some current struggles with Porter right now, which I don’t mind sharing. He is still not night-trained. I don’t actually feel like this is a huge deal, but its something I still worry about sometimes. We revisit the effort every few weeks or so, until I get sick of washing the wet sheets and PJs. Porter is also a sensitive little soul. I hesitate to call him sensitive, because I feel like that word has negative connotations when talking about little boys. I’d love for him to grow up knowing that his sensitivity and the emotional awareness I’m trying to teach him are a really good thing. He sometimes has emotional outbreaks that I still feel like I’m learning to handle in the best way. He has certainly gotten much better in the last year or so, but tantrums do still happen. Another (less serious) struggle we have is that Porter is so skinny and has the teeniest little bum ever. This means that no matter what pants he wears, even those ones that have the elastics you can cinch up on the inside, they are constantly falling down! He is constantly showing a little plumber bum!  I think its hilarious. And I so envy parents with children who have nice little round bums that easily hold up their pants.