Chase

This year has been a huge year for babies in our family, and the last one planned for the year joined our clan on November 26th at 7:14 in the evening. Daniel Chase Torgerson was born, 7lbs. 14oz and 18 inches long. Kyle and I had the privilege of seeing little Chase that night and taking a few photos (as I always tend to do!) This is Chase, almost 3 hours old and cute as can be. I can't believe how wide awake he was.

The awake thing didn't last long.Proud Daddy Daniel and Chase

Thanksgiving!

And not one picture that turned out! I completely forgot to pull out my camera at Thanksgiving, but rest assured we had a good one! So much good food, family, and of course the games. We played Bingo/Yankee Swap at Thanksgiving this year and it was great fun! Thank you everybody for the tasty eats!

The day after Thanksgiving we headed to Huntington to pick out a Christmas tree. Since we will be moving, we decided that it would probably be best if we picked out a small tree. But, as we walked through the endless gorgeous tall trees, I decided we wanted a Christmas tree not a Christmas shrub. So we ended up loading a 6 footer on top of our car! Although I will not decorate it until we move, I figure I can still enjoy the smell of pine in our home before we move!

Also, for those who don't know, Kyle loves to have his hair pulled (I have no idea why). And since Porter has started grabbing everything in sight, Kyle saw this as an opportunity to put him to work. Kyle lays down and lets Porter grab and pull as hard as he wants! (Isn't there something about child labor laws?)

4 Months!

I can't believe how big this boy is! We went to the doctor today and Porter's weighing in at a whopping 14lbs 2oz. He's 25 1/4 inches long and the sweetest kid in the world (I figure that I have a fairly objective opinion on that). He has started eating rice cereal which he scarfs down like it's going out of style. He's getting so strong. He loves to jump. He rolls across rooms. The moment he's placed on the floor he's rolling onto his tummy. It's really hard to imagine that he only arrived 4 months ago! (And by the way, Dave, he's eating ONLY rice cereal!)

Last night, Porter woke up at about 4 am. This hasn't happened for over a month or so, it's not a very common occurence. So, I head into his room to put a pacifier back in his mouth thinking he would be out by the time I got back into my bed. Two minutes later I hear a piercing scream followed by a loud "BAM BAM BAM" I sat straight up in bed and heard it again. I ran into Porter's room to find him laying sideways in his bed kicking his legs against the one side of his crib, while his head hit the other side. This kid just can't stop jumping, even if its 4am!
Sorry there's no picture to go with this story, but at 4 in the morning it's one of the last things you think of, and the lighting is terrible!

Grateful

This past week was...well...less than great. It was a pure rollercoaster of a week .... and not one of those rollercoasters that I like either.
I didn't even yell "Woohoo".
Now that week is over and done and the rollercoaster has ended (I hope), I am looking forward to the Holiday season that is upon us! I love Thanksgiving, and I have an endless number of things to be grateful for (more than just that last week ended).
One of the things I am most grateful for is this little boy. He is so cute, so fun and so big. I put a pair of 9 month jammies on him last night and they fit!
He keeps me happy during rollercoaster weeks.

I'm grateful for him.

Invisible what?

On one of our family vacations to California, we listened to Phil Collins all the way there and back, and as a result I thought that I had learned the words to many of his songs. On my journey to visit Angie and Miss Sophie two days ago, I heard one of his songs on the radio that I have not heard in ages. As this song started I was so excited and I started belting it out without even thinking about the words. I realized after the first chorus that I used to sing it very, very wrong. The song is "An Invisible Touch" and the chorus starts out by saying, "She seems to have an invisible touch yeah..." And as I sang out, the words that I proclaimed were, "She seems to have an invisible tuff shed!"
Let me tell you, if you sing it with my lyrics, the song takes on a whole new meaning.

November 8, 2006

I was getting ready to head out for pizza with Kyle, and he was finishing up his time-cards for work. As I walked into the bathroom I saw it. I had taken it about 20 minutes before and I had completely forgotten it was there. But this time something was different. There were two pink lines, not one.

Nine months later we had this...

Kari said it would happen...

Kari said it would happen. She warned me not to help it along because it would happen soon enough, and she was right.

For the past 4 days Porter has been rolling onto his side and struggling to roll onto his stomach. I don’t know why, but yesterday he was determined to make it happen. Any time I laid him down on the floor he was immediately turning onto his side and trying to roll-over. I have never seen such dedication in such a small human being. For some reason I always thought that when babies roll-over for their first time that it was some kind of accident.

Porter’s was no accident.

Yesterday morning, Angie and I were hanging out when Porter got so close to rolling over from his back to his stomach… if only that darn second arm weren’t in the way he would have had it. So, after his very long struggle, I laid him on his stomach to see if he would roll from his tummy to his back. Within seconds he made his move, and found himself face-up. He acted as though this were a piece of cake, looking at me as if to say, “Of course I can do it that way silly woman.” I became ecstatic and immediately put him back on his belly. He did not remain there long, however, as he rolled for the second time (I have proof on video for those who do not believe!)
Then, later in the evening with both Kyle and I at home he did the unthinkable. Porter rolled over the other way. He was so dedicated to roll onto his tummy. He worked at it for so long before he succeeded. When he made it the first time, I left him there to bask in his success (for a few minutes anyway). But when I rolled him back over to give him the chance to do it again he got mad. I had just undone everything he had worked for. He didn’t do it again last night, but this morning I have enjoyed watching turn number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. He is now getting the idea of rolling back and forth. I can’t believe how quickly he is growing up. What a smart kid.
So last night it happened… just as Kari said it would…he became mobile.
Before, during and after.

No, it's not a green teddy bear...

It's Porter the Frog! He is the cutest darn frog I have ever seen. Porter didn't seem to like his costume very much because it covered his hands (so he couldn't suck on them), but I think he still looked adorable! I have never liked Halloween, but I finally found the fun part of it! Dressing up Porter was fun! (for me, not for him).

Porter hated his costume.
He did seem fascinated by the flippers though. Isn't he adorable? These are my nieces and nephews on Halloween (all except Aiden). This is Riley as a ninja. Wesley was Scooby-doo.Sophie the sweet pony. And Captain Jack the Pirate!
This is the new addition to the Gordon family...his name is Toby. We were very grateful to stay with Jill, Kenny and Aiden this past weekend while we looked for housing and interviewed for a job. I'm pretty sure I got the job, and we may have found a home, so it was a successful trip!