Walking. Walking? Walking!

For some time now, Porter has been walking. But not to the point that I would actually say that he was walking walking. Instead, it has been the kind of thing where he’ll pensively take a couple of steps, then decide that, at this rate, he could be lapped by a blue-haired granny a with walker, and he’ll drop to the floor and crawl at mach-5 to his intended destination – with strong odds that the destination is one of 5 places:

  1. The toilet
  2. The catfood dish.
  3. The power cord for the computer.
  4. The corner cabinet in the kitchen that cannot be secured with any type of child-proof device.
  5. The toilet.

And lord have mercy if he spots an open door to the outside world. There have been numerous occasions where we will have him perched on hip or arm, whilst tending to another activity, only to have him decide – with absolutely no warning – to lunge his entire body towards the open back door. I can say with all honesty, that I am not quite sure how he has made it this far without being fitted for a full-body cast.

Throughout this time of quasi-walking, he has been running himself through his own mini-training camp [cue Rocky theme song]: cruising laps around the coffee table, balancing on his feet and head, and attempting pull-ups on the oven door handle.

His hard work seems to have paid off, as not only is he walking with increasing coordination, but he is mastering distance and multitasking. In the most recent clip I caught of him, he saunters along while simultaneously eating a banana, and then toys with the idea of hiding it in the push-cart, before deciding to shove it in his mouth at the last minute. It’s pure Porter.

Everyone, may I officially present Porter walking.

You don’t call, you don’t write…

Yes, I can hear it. Your whispers, your groans, your sighs each time you click your mouse and see that the same stale post is sitting there staring you in the face. Believe me, it is not my intention to torture you with inactivity. I miss you too. But the day-to-day reality of my life has been evolving in a way that keeps me from the computer for longer and longer periods of time – sometimes I will go days without even turning it on. As such, my ability to avail myself as a slave to these pages has become an increasingly greater challenge. Believe me when I say that I want to be writing – I really do. It is just that, lately, I have less and less opportunity to do so.

That said, you are just going to have to bear with me here. I am going to continue to write as often as I can, try to post pictures in between, and try to be more diligent about jotting down notes in my little moleskin journal (you know, the one I asked for for Christmas so that I could BETTER ORGANIZE MY BLOGGING NOTES), so that when I do actually have an opportunity to sit down and write, I will remember all the things that I forgot. There is just as much weird, funny, touching and maddening activity in my life these days, I just can’t keep up with it all.

Thanks for being patient, for hanging in there, and for being such dedicated readers…even if you do only come to these pages to look at the photos.

…And speaking of photos, for those of you who haven’t stumbled over there already, you can also check in at flickr to keep an eye on my photo archive. I post many more pictures over there than actually show up on the blog. (If you sign up for an account, you can post comments directly to those photos as well.)

It was like being shipped off to Lazy Parents Camp

This past weekend, we decided to capitalize on my day off, and take an impromptu trip down to Celene and Thad’s. Getting to escape our daily routines for a while? I’M. SO. THERE!

It took us no time at all to 86 every one of our soul-crushing routines, and become the anti-parents.

Bedtime? Whatev.
Meals? Here’s some Pirate Booty.
Educational TV? Stella, this is the E! Channel.

It was warm. There was ample shopping. There was no pressure, no phone, no drop-off/pick-up logistics, and other than keeping our children alive, no real responsibility to do anything other than breathe. And to be perfectly honest, there were times when even that was just a little too taxing. Heck, the kids even got into the spirit of things and gave us a couple of night’s of decent sleep.

If this one was any indication, it is my suggestion that all future vacations be planned no earlier than 36 hours in advance.

Although I didn’t take a single photo all weekend, Ryan (as in “Shannon and”) snapped these when we stopped through on Thursday night, and spent the better part of the evening wowing them with our hobo family activities:

Stella using their bed as a trampoline:

stella

Porter hanging out in nothing but a diaper:

Porter

We are either your dream guests, or your worst nightmare, I’m not quite sure.

Name that tune

As XM subscribers, we have a standing question:

“So, do you know who this is?”

This question posed, because the display will always tell you the artist and song title. One thing I have learned is that I did not marry my husband because of his catalog of musical knowledge. About the only songs he can identify are The Carpenters, The Ramones, Earth Wind & Fire (and that is only since he somewhat recently came to this realization), a couple of hair bands and a handful of miscellaneous obscure 80’s groups. And I mean, really obscure.

I think the only time he out-challenged me was when he was able to identify a Fountains of Wayne song, when I had never even heard of them. I’m not sure, but I still think he may have cheated.

Today, after yet another defeat in the guess this song/artist challenge, I was presented with the following logic:

“Um, Natalie. I am not a lyricist, I am a composer.”