Six

I just plain cannot believe it.

This little dude has now turned six.

  

Six, I tell you!

Last night, as soon as I got home from picking Adi up from dance and right before dinner, I made him throw on some decent clothes and dragged him to the wash that runs behind our neighborhood to try and get some decent shots of him.

So very graciously, he gave me a myriad of his adorable expressions.

His super-fake smile...

 "Excuse whilst I clean out my teeth" expression...

"I am deeply deliberating over the nation's current economics" face...

"I'm really getting tired of having my picture taken inside of this tree that has ants crawling all over it" look...

"I'm trying my very most hardest not to smile" grin...

And finally, an authentic Porter Grant Merrill smile.

Boy oh boy, how I love this little stinker.

  

I am not feeling very author-y today, so I am merely going to list a few things about my little PG that captures who he is right now.

• Blue.  Blue what, you may ask?  Blue everything.  That is his favorite color and everything must be it.  I was pretty stinking lucky to get him in a green shirt for these pictures.
•  He loves going on bike rides with Dad.  He and Dad can go as fast as they want, as far as they want, and they generally end up by the golf course that's just north of our house.  They sit, drink some water, and watch the golfers swing.
• He is going to be a miner when he grows up.  Just like Dad.  As he tells it: he'll probably start off driving the big equipment, like the loader or dump truck, but then he's gonna be a supervisor just like Dad. 
• Porter's current favorite outdoor activity?  Going shooting with Dad and his friends.  
• If you can't tell, Porter is a little obsessed with his Daddy.  Orrin is el numero uno in his book.  In fact, the only way I could get a real Porter smile in these pictures is by saying.  "Hey Orrin, look at me.  Oh wait, you're not Orrin... are you?"  I made his day.
• Sorry kiddo, you may want to be the carbon copy of your Dad, but you look exactly like your mom.  You even have the lion share of her personality.  I do apologize for that. You like the snuggles and the tickling, you have a tendency of talking A LOT, your great impatience, even your frustrated growls and stomping to your room in a huff... mine, mine mine! 
• You do have a few traits from your Dad: you can do pretty much anything if you're shown only once, you like to know how everything works (tiring for your parents, but also a point of pride), your ability to conquer your fear of everything and to try new things.  Pretty neat stuff, I must say.
• Porter pretty much refuses to take a bath every single night.  Once he gets in, however, he refuses to get out.  He's been known to take a pair of goggles and his plastic shark in there and not come out for an hour.
• He has super big muscles, see?
  

• Porter and I are currently making our way through the Mouse and the Motorcycle trilogy.  Every time I pick up the book to read it, he groans and asks, "Can't we read about volcanoes tonight?"  I have a minor tendency of being stubborn, so I begin reading.  He then ends up begging me to read "...just one more page, please Mom?"
• He loves making people laugh.  As long as your not laughing at him for mistakenly putting on his sister's uniform polo.  Then he will burst into tears and hide in his room.
• Porter will do three times more work trying to avoid cleaning his room than he would actually have to do if he would just do it already.
• He adores his big sisters... mostly The Pips, but that's because she has no problem playing army men and spies with him.  Adi believes herself to be too mature for those childish games.
•  Little Wyatt follows Porter's every move.  And Porter is starting to like it.  He really likes having someone that will play Miner with him out in our dust bowl of a backyard.
• His favorite breakfast is a pancake with sugar on top, his favorite lunch would be hot dogs, and his favorite dinner?  Salad bar.  Weird, right?

I could go on all day, but I'll never be able to capture this kid with mere words.  His smile melts my heart, just hearing his laugh makes me giggle along, he loves with all of his heart, and is always up for playing with anyone.He is the bestest little six year old boy I could ever have asked for.  You are amazing.  You are kind.  You are practically perfect.

Happy birthday, angel boy.