2!

Well, he made it!  Logically, it doesn't make sense.  He is by far my busiest kid, but he has great bouncing skills or something because he has also had the fewest bumps and bruises.  Pratt may not be the easiest kid in the world to understand (unless you're his mom who also happens to be in the pediatric dentistry field), but this kid is crazy smart, and crazy determined.  A rough combination to deal with on a daily basis!  Oh, and he is crazy adorable! 

At age 2, my Pratt-man is also super forgiving.  We had to split his birthday up into two days.  With no family around it is tough for this family of five to down an entire birthday cake alone.  Pratt's birthday cake doubled as dessert after dinner with the missionaries.  Missionaries are good eaters, and politely finish whatever size of piece you give them!  Plus, there was still plenty left for the next night, when we opened presents!

 I worked on his birthday, but since he didn't know gifts were coming, he didn't mind waiting until that night.  Plus, he loved his present!  I have to brag about what a good job we did on this one!  Think whatever you want, but we are proud to be cheap! One of the wards in our church building has a giant "stuff" swap.  Cloths, toys, even painting supplies (yes, we picked up some of them all).  We graciously brought home several toys that will serve as free gifts in the futures.  I bought a $5 package of 10 matchbox cars to go along with the toy ramp, and you would have thought the world was made of lolly pops because of his reaction.

It took a good hour to get Pratt (and the other two) in the tub that night.  They couldn't stop playing with the "new" toys!  Also, the next morning, bright and early, I found Pratt up in his room with the light on rolling cars down the ramp, while Porter was still in bed with the covers over his head.  I learned the hard way that Pratt doesn't sleep well, night or day, with the cars and ramp in the same room as him.

My little mini Chad is a boys boy.  His little curly head also makes it really hard to get upset when he displays it.  He is obviously the baby of the family, who I admit I have let get away with far too much.  Sometimes it is funny, except when it is isn't.  Honestly, I don't know how he is going to handle being a big brother.  Lucky for him, he has had the longest term as the baby to date.  But, Pratt reminds us daily why we love having these little people around!

chores

I am not one of those moms that lets my kids destroy the house then I just "take care of it."  If they get it out, they clean it up.  And they are expected to pitch in with regular chores as well.  I get that they are little, and that they can't be expected to do things perfectly.  I also think that if I just let them do a lousy job, they will figure out that I will just redo it for them.  It is a tough balance to find, but I think it is worth working on it.  

 

Since my house is constantly getting covered in little hand prints, one of the chores the kids have to do is clean the glass.  In this photo I accidentally sprayed the cleaner too high.  Knowing that if they didn't do a good job they would have to do it again, they came up with a pretty cute way of working together to get the job done!

sense of style

One of the best ways to get Porter to learn to do new things is to remind him that Aimee can already do the things I am trying to get him to do.  This works out great for a lot of things.  I'd say my favorite example of this is chores.  My least favorite is having Porter get himself dressed.  I want my babies to learn to be independent, but it is hard for me to let go of my "mom control."  Here are just a few photos of some of the "outfits"  Porter has reported to me in. 

 Now this example is a little unfair, I admit.  He had his face painted at a birthday party, and the clothing that followed was inspired.  However, I have told him to hurry and get dressed so that we can go out, and he has shown up in this same costume.

 Porter was banned from wearing this striped shirt because of a stain on the front.  Easy fix.  Just wear it backwards!  Oh, and those are Aimee's pants that ended up in his closet after Chad helped me with the laundry.  An obvious choice!

This kid cracks me right up!  As a quick little side note to his fashion sense, he also proves he is a real boy by some of his interests.  There are the classics like trains, cars, frogs and bugs.  There is also his new obsession.  He kid can't get enough of volcanoes.  On Valentines Day our ward had the young men watch any kids (nursery age and up) for parents who wanted to have a little date night.  We got lucky and got to take advantage of it.  The first counselor in the bishopric spent a good chunk of the night showing Porter YouTube videos of volcanic eruptions.  Brother Muretore is now one of Porters favorite people!  I love this one of a kind kid!