Be forewarned this is a long and wordy post. May be boring to some but I just wanted to put all my thoughts down in hopes of Porter reading them someday!
Here we are almost a year later and Porter will be one in a week and a half. What a year and we are so looking forward to many many more to come. I was just thinking about Porter today and feeling nostalgic and thought I would put a few thoughts I have been having down. Please don't think I am bragging or that I am saying our parenting style is the bomb. I am just reflecting on a few things we had hoped and dreamt for our child and how they have worked out.
As I sit here and reflect on the last year I am marveled by all we have overcome, accomplished and experienced. Porter is amazing and has changed soooo much. We welcomed into our lives Friday, April 3rd at 6:50am and boy were we glad he was here. Getting to experience Jana's labor and delivery with her and JJ and watch Finn enter the world brought back a lot of memories for me and made me love and cherish Porter all the more. After 2 long days of watching and being there for Jana laboring and waiting for Finn, I came home and crawled into bed at 5am Friday morning and woke up to Porter at 7:30am and was so thankful for my little bundle of joy!
His smile and laughter, his screams and cries, his teeters and totters, his bald spot when he was a baby to his crazy wild long hair now! I love it all.
As AJ and I processed how we would raise our child and all our hopes and dreams for our unborn son, we had 4 things we really held to that we wanted and desired for our son.
The first and foremost, that he would know and love God and desire to follow after him more than anything in life. We believe the best way for others to know of our Saviour's love is through example and unconditional love and grace. We try to model this to Porter each and every day. Some days hold more challenges than others but in the end, they will know that we are Christians by our love!
The second, third and fourth are much more non-spiritual and more just goals we had in mind from my counselor husband who knows and loves how the mind and brain work and wants to give Porter every opportunity to have the highest IQ possible. I think Porter may have lost a few points already with each time he fell and hit his head on our wood floors, but so far he still shows many signs of genius.
So the second goal was that we were going to give our child the best nutrition known for babies and that is breast milk with hopes of nursing for a year. I breast fed Porter solely for 6 months and then we started him on the Super Baby Food diet which the first baby food they recommend is avocado. He wasn't too fond of it at first, but man, he loves the stuff now! We bought all organic food and I blended it up in my food processor and froze it in little ice cube trays and then we would pop them out each day so he got pretty close to fresh each meal. I did get a beautiful Stainless Steel Cuisinart for Christmas and it is AMAZING! Some other time I will do a post about this as the system we have works pretty well.
Our goal was to breast feed for a year and then evaluate. Well, during that year, Jana got pregnant and began to do all sorts of research on breast feeding and informed me the recommended age to stop was two years. Well, we had said a year and so I didn't know what I was going to do. Here I am at a year and I have decided to keep going. Weird, I know many of you might say, but truly, if I still have a very valuable and nutritious supplement for my son, why would I not want to give it to him? So I am continuing on. We will see what happens this next year. It just feels good to have made it this far.
The third goal was no intentional TV for the first two years of his life. No Veggie Tales, no cartoons, no Disney or Baby Einstein. And we have made it a year! That doesn't mean Porter has never seen a TV; he has as we have a 52" hanging in our living room. This just means, he never sits in front of the TV with the intention of watching a movie or a show. Here it comes again, research shows the brains is forming so much in the first two years that no TV has huge benefits. I also realize how intentional we are with hanging out with Porter now that he is crawling and playing more and more with his toys. We get on the floor and play with him much more and read lots and lots of books. He does love listening to music and dancing, which we do with the iPod. It does hold its challenges but the benefits are so cool, I would highly recommend it.
And finally, our fourth goal was no fast food for the kid till he is 5. Well, again, one year in and so far so good. AJ and I are still eating it which we need to give up but Porter doesn't fully care and so we just haven't made that change yet. We are close and when the time comes, we will not eat there with Porter around. We realize in our day in age and society he will have plenty of opportunities to eat at these types of places and if his tastes are formed in the first 5 years, why include fast food tastes? So we are leaving it off the list of places we are taking Porter and have asked the grandparents to refrain from taking him to McDonald's to eat and so far so good.
Again, we are the idealist parents but looking back at this first year we compromised on things I didn't think we would. Allowed things to happen I had hoped or though wouldn't but that is rolling with the punches. We are human, we are parents, we will and have made mistakes. But more than anything, I want Porter to grow up knowing his Mom and Dad loved him and wanted the best for him!
So this next year I am sure will hold new and different challenges. Just when we seem to get the sleep pattern figured out, it changes a little. Just when we figure out what one grunt, scream or cry means, he starts a new sound. Just when we find the book he loves, he is in love with another book. But that is my baby boy and well, he will be my baby for a while!
Tonight, before I put Porter to bed, I put on his 1 year pictures/Birthday/Easter outfit and let me just say, my kid is definately the cutest kid out there! He is so adorable. I didn't take any pictures as I don't want to ruin ones you may see in the future but let's just say, the best $50 I have spent in a while. After he wears it for all those events, he may just continue to wear it everyday to get our monies worth!
And on a final note. When Porter was a little older than 8 months old and we finally moved into our house, his sleep patterns went out the window. He was waking up multiple times through out the night, he was having a hard time going to sleep and he wasn't taking very good naps. AJ suggested we set a routine for him. AJ is such a genius. We start by getting him in his jammes around 6:30 and then read a book or two and then a little snack from mom and then kisses from Daddy. I take Porter into his room and sing him "Hush Little Baby" (for some reason during pregnancy I sang that song a lot) and say a little prayer and tell him how much I love him and he is out like a light at 7pm. Can I get a Hallelujah!?!? God is good and mom and dad get to have a relaxing evening to do laundry, dishes, watch TV and catch up on FaceBook! He is such a good kid!
Well, Happy Birthday, Porter, Happy First Birthday.
4 comments:
Happy Birthday Porter! Congratulations mom. Again, your awesomeness astounds me.
That's awesome! Side note on the baby food: I learned (the second time around) that muffin tins are even better for baby food, because they contain about 1/2 cup of food. I have a silicone one, but I used metal before I got it, and it worked just fine. Freeze for a little while, then pop 'em out into ziploc bags just like the ice cube ones.
way to go on the nursing Maryanne! I nursed Elsa until she was 2 yrs, one month and she weaned herself at that time...sooo happy that I nursed her that long :) Way to go mama!
Oh Maryanne I just loved reading this (and looking at all the fun pictures). I just marvel at what a wonderful Mom you are and how wise and intentional you are. You are an inspiration and I love you. I love our time together and our good talks about kids and parenting. Porter is so lucky to have you.
Post a Comment