One Pesky Parrot: 2014

This weekend, we decided to go to the popular Chinese Lantern Festival...while Porter is still too young to stay up late to enjoy the lights, it was very enjoyable. Along with the lights, there was music and food. Next year, we hope to see this at night. :)

Dragon in the Water

Creepy Faces

Dragon Boat

Porter waving

Also, this weekend, Porter heard thunder for the first time; He had a look that made Jason and I laugh SOOOO hard. He didn't cry but he was definitely sure that this new noise wasn't a truck going by.
Slowly, Porter is learning the alphabet. He now knows A, B, C, and Y. Don't ask "why" he knows Y, but he does!
Fall is slowly approaching. We hope to get some good pictures of the fall colors.

So, the holidays came and went, a couple birthdays passed, too…and I was negligent on updating my blog. My apologies. Things are super crazy now with Porter growing up so fast and turning into such a little man!

For the holidays, we traveled back to the US. We hit Texas and South Dakota all in one trip. Counting individual flights, it took us 10 flights to get there and back within 2 ½ weeks! So in Porter’s 18 months of life on Earth, he has totaled up 17 flights so far – almost averaging one flight per month. AND, I’d like to proudly say that he was an absolute CHAMP on the flights. Everyone looked at us with fear as we walked down the plane isle (you could hear them praying for us to not be the ones to sit by them) but at the end of the flights, everyone smiled and was pleased with his great demeanor.

The first flight into Auckland, we hit some really big turbulence. I looked around and everyone was clutching their seats as I was clutching Porter. To everyone’s surprise, there was a loud shriek of “YEAY”! Porter thought we were on a fun ride and his pure joy eased the tension of the flight.

We are back in Christchurch now, missing family and friends, but happy to get back on a schedule. One of the best things that we took home with us is Porter’s new love for wrestling. We were able to attend his cousin’s (Carter) wrestling match while we were home and Porter thought this was super cool. Then, Carter showed him some wrestling moves while we were at Grandma Reker’s house. Porter has been practicing these moves and thinking he’s pretty darn cool, like his cousin!

Yesterday, Porter started his transitioning into the next older room at daycare. He spent the morning there playing in the new play area and even had lunch with the older kids. The teachers said he did wonderful!

Sorry if we didn’t get a chance to visit everyone on our excursion to the States. We are going to start planning trips to the islands in the Pacific, so if you fancy a vacation in that area, hit us up! Maybe we can all meet up in a tropical paradise one day.

Porter’s new words –

Ice cream, socks, owie, shoe (Thanks Grandma Morovitz for teaching this one), horse, heart, circle, and rain.

Porter’s new sign language –

Socks, horse, and rain

Favorite memories from the trip –

Porter asking for a cookie from Grandma Morovitz

Meeting up with the whole family at the Ramkota and going down the water slide a million times

Date night with my husband (Thanks Grandma Reker)

Spending time with my sister

And many more things that I am so grateful for!

Oh, and if anyone has any photos from our visit, please email them to me so I can show them off!

And, as always, you can click on my Instagram Link on my blog to see more photos.