Porter-Potty

Oh dear.

My silly little boy decided to keep on growin'.

He turned five today.

Five is a big age.  Mostly because it's the age when my little buddy will be going into Kindergarten.  Even now, just thinking about not having my Super Helper follow me like a shadow all day brings tears to my eyes.  Who's going to run and get me a flat head screwdriver when I need it?  Who will climb onto my lap and start my car for me every time I leave the house?

I know, I know.  I won't be alone.  I'll have my roly-poly Wyatt.  And I am trying my very hardest to turn him into a Momma's Boy just like his big brother.  He gives excellent tight squeezes and his dancing could entertain me for hours.

But there will be a hole.

And yes, Dramatic Courtney has taken over.  PG will only be gone for three hours.  And that's nothing!  But it is the starting point of his independence.  Soon he will make bunches of friends and will constantly beg me to let him play with them (like his big sisters do).  Soon he'll be gone for seven hours of the day.  Soon he'll join clubs and teams and I'll see him for the ten minutes it takes to drive him to them.

*Sigh*  That's enough of that.  Today is the day I celebrate the beginning of this tenacious little boy's life here on this Earth.  Did the world exist before him?  I swear I don't remember.

Mr. Porter-Pot loves all things with motors.  Motorcycles, cars, trucks, and most especially Mighty Machines.  Meaning: anything that is huge, complicated, and does lots of important things like move earth and rescue people. 

Which is why we found an excavator sitting in a housing development with no one around and took his birthday pictures by it.  Yeah, I rock as a mom.

But, surprisingly, he isn't into TV shows like Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder.  Porter likes to know how things work.  He forces everyone around him to watch show like How It's Made and Mighty Machines.   And then he walks around quoting things from the shows.  Like, "Mom?  Did you know that there is only one place that builds fire trucks for the whole country?"  I don't think he understands everything he quotes, but he sure does impress his Mom.

He also loves to be read to.  We are a family of readers (or maybe I force everyone to be?), and every kid has their own collection of books in their own bookcase (well, the girls ruined theirs so their books are boxed up under their bed until we get them a new one).  Porter has almost the entire Dr. Seuss collection (his favorites are the Cat in the Hat books), the Llama Llama books, Bear series, Biscuit early readers... I could go on.  But his favorite ones are the non-fiction books (so very unlike his mother).  He loves the Tonka books about big trucks and equipment, National Geographic animal books, and some vocabulary books about natural science.

Psh.  What a nerd :)

We have a funny little story about our PG that we like to share:  One day Porter was talking about frogs with Orrin.  OP told him how frogs eat bugs and mice.  Porter said, "They eat other frogs too, Dad."

Orrin shook his head.  "No, they don't buddy."

Porter stuck his hand up in the air like a scientist that just made a great discovery.  "Yes they do!  I'll show you!"  And he ran into his room, found his frog book (that I have read to him 5.4 million times), and opened up to the exact page where it has a picture of a frog eating another frog.  "See!  I told you!"

BAM!  Orrin was schooled by a four year old.

Lest you begin to think of my son as a gigantic nerd, he also has a few other sides to him.  He loves all of the sports that he has gotten to play thanks to our neighborhood sports club.  He's currently running the soccer field and is loving it.

He also loves to ride his motorcycle (he's even gotten brave enough to ride on little dirt hills), fix things with his dad, torment his big sisters until they are in tears, play golf, jump on the tramp, rope his metal bull his uncle welded for him, push around his Hotwheels...

Now, what am I missing form this list?  There is one other thing this kid loves to do, but I can't seem to remember...

Oh, that's right.

Porter kinda likes to ride his bike.

And by "kinda likes" I mean that this kid LOVES his bike and would do nothing but go on bike rides all day if his parents were willing to follow him.

He can ride one handed and is working on no-hands (which has resulted in a few wipe outs), he can pop wheelies, ride over curbs, skid stop, and imitates some of Orrin's most famous moves on his dirt bike.

Yes, we already gave him his birthday present.  Yep, it's a bigger bike.  Last year his Uncle Heber (also the mastermind behind the welded bull) created him his own little bike tailored perfectly to his size.  But Porter-Pot has recently gone through a growth spurt and his much-loved bike is not big enough for his awesome moves.  So he started cruising on Piper's pretty princess bike.

Orrin took Porter to Walmart to try out the bikes to see which ones he liked and which ones fit him best.  Being the best Dad ever, OP let him choose which one he wanted.  Porter chose this bike because it is red.  His favorite color (incidentally, blue used to be his favorite color until he received his first little bike).  Red.  Now, that's like his Mama.

And of course, he had to have his birthday pictures taken on his baby.  Which made for a very interesting session.  "OK, buddy.  Ride your bike straight at me and smile."

He'd do just that, only braking at the last possible second before knocking me over.  He'd flash me that mischievous smile that he's famous for and ride off.

And I would miss the picture. 

Luckily this kid still lets his mom snuggle him at night and sing to him.  He also likes blowing kisses, tight hugs, and story time.  If given the choice to go with Mom or Dad, he will always choose Dad.

But I know that if I asked him, he would choose me over OP.  Because, deep down inside, he's just as taken with me as I am with him.

Happy Birthday, my little man.