2007 December archive at Filtering Life

Archive for December, 2007

I see London, I see France

Published by Kelly December 23rd, 2007 in Chloe Grace. 20 Comments

I see Chloe’s underpants!

I can’t tell you how much I stress modesty, but when you fall down a lot, what can you do?
A brief photog of Chloe because she is so ridiculously fun!

Tell the blogworld, Merry Christmas Chloe! Show them your two teefs. Almost 14 months old and this is all we got folks! She eats all solid food so you can only imagine what her diapers look like when you have no teeth to bite and grind with. Let’s just say it stays true to its form ALL the way through her system. Some spicy diapers!

How do we know she is my daughter. It isn’t the fact we look exactly the same at this age….it is undeniably the way our long, lean legs look in a skirt.

Now I have not completely lost all sense of reality with this outfit. I realize we break all sorts of fashion rules.

A. Red and Pink NEVER go together. Not even on Valentines Day. Words to live by all you teachers out there. We had to wear warm shoes and pink boots are all we own.

B. I am whole heartedly against wearing the “Canadian Tuxedo”….for those of you living under a rock or my Canadian friends sticking your middle fingers up at me and pointing it in the direction of Virginia. I didn’t name it, I don’t endorse it, but dang if I didn’t dress my daughter in the jean on top, jean on bottom faux pas!

I needed a warm jacket and this is so cozy with the lambskin lining. This was my stellar GAP find from last year. Chloe was only 2 months old and we were wandering around Baby Gap while some trigger happy salesclerk was marking down tons of clothes. She held up this adorable jean jacket and said, “Can you believe this is only $3.97?” She barely got the price out of her mouth when I snatched it out of her hands with dreams of how Chloe would look in it the following year. Patience is key with sales. You sometimes have to wait a year to benefit from them…but boy are they worth it! This badboy was originally $49.99 and when we went to pay for it, the manager was NOT happy with us because apparently, the trigger happy salesclerk mis-marked it and it was suppose to be $29.99 (WHAT????) and…well…I wasn’t budging on giving it back…so we walked away with our $4.00 jacket and a big smug smile. Take that overpriced GAP!

So we bid you a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from the Portnoy household.

Yesterday Ryan and I kicked booty on packing and painted Chloe’s room back neutral all the while watching 4 hours of LOST from Netflix. I highly recommend painting while watching long episodes of a very interesting TV show. It flew by!

Stay safe, have some spiked eggnog for me. Cheers!

Have you seen my brain?

Published by Kelly December 19th, 2007 in Family, Life in General, Photoganza and Uncategorized. 23 Comments

Oh my goodness. If you heard a gigantic sucking sound the other night, that was my butt hole tightening. As I looked around every room of my house I went into a cardiac arrest at the disarray. You already know I have a hard time with clutter and dirt….but in our tiny little house there are boxes all over the place, my house is filthy, we have 2 weddings to finish editing and I can’t stand ignoring Chloe to try and “get things done”. I know we are in the home stretch….we move next Friday!!!!! Still, I feel like I break into tears every few hours and I am just over it!

So I can say with certainty I am definitely flying under the blogging radar for most of the rest of this month. I need to preserve my energy and editing time for the tasks at hand. This month we have had so many visitors, a lot of family drama, and Sunday night we went to the ER because my dad had a mini stroke! Can we just sing Mary J. Blige…”NO MORE DRAMA” together. My dad is okay now, but that was an extremely sobering 24 hours in our family. I am just so happy we were all together and they were visiting this weekend so we could support each other. So besides all that, life is peachy….can you smell the sarcasm…cuz I am laying it on thick. I look forward to January where I can just decorate and sew and get fat and pregnant and let the dust settle from November and Decembers life storms. Send donations and presents my way to cheer me up.

We are declaring January our “Guest Free Month”. As much as we love you…..come after January to visit us. WE need to feel “normal” for awhile! No wonder I am not gaining any baby weight, who has time to eat?

So I will leave you with some pictures taken over at my brothers house on Sunday. My mom desperately wanted a picture of the grandkids…FAT CHANCE! You try getting a one year old and two year old to sit still. My sister in law and I finally had to sit in on the shot to hold the kids. Not one was a winner…notaone! Oh well.

Ummmm….love her! Those eyes, those cheeks, those pouty lips. Just want to reach into the photo and swipe her bangs to the side.

Cousin Isabel drinking in the light from the doorway.

Little Noah making a fabulous pout!

Gold star for you Chloe. Sharing is caring!

Isabel patiently showing the ignorant puzzle maker, Chloe, where the cow goes. Come on Chloe, get with the program.

My realty BEEOTCH! Gotta love when your brother is your Realtor. I get to tell him what to do and he has to do it. Granted I am paying for his Christmas with the commission check. But I like to lord it over him for now that he is my “B” for the time being.

The only one who got blue eyes. Stinker.

I am pretty sure this is illegal in all 50 states, kissing cousins that is!

My dad and Chloe sporting top knots. This is a few hours before his little “episode”. I told Ryan today, “If my dad had died, this would be the last picture ever taken of him.” Although completely morbid statement, I had to laugh too. It actually is very sweet, he loves his grandkids and would do anything for them. Even play beauty salon.

Ah yes…cooperation is key. Look at this gem.

Merry Christmas blogland! I will miss you the next few weeks. Pray for a smooth move, my sanity and that I un-anal myself daily. I don’t need further constipation.

Don’t call me Porty

Published by Kelly December 13th, 2007 in Porty. 57 Comments

Call me Bennett Wade Portnoy! (or Ben for short).

Introducing our baby boy! And check out that package!

Yes, the neck and neck poll on gender now has a victor. BOY! I have to say, Ryan and I sat there completely shocked. I could not absorb it. I was so sure it was a girl and you all know I was leaning that way and Ryan really wanted a girl and was 100% sure we were having a girl…but nope….that my friends is a penis if I ever saw one!

The ultrasound was kinda frustrating because Bennett did not want to cooperate at all, a little shy about his face and bits and pieces…so we never really got to see his face. SAD. We go back in four weeks for face shots and more spine shots, they couldn’t see his whole spine. So I will be happy to see my little boy again and, of course, four weeks is huge in baby world, so he will have more chub and be bigger and easier to see. I am dying to see if he has the same Charlie Brown profile Chloe did with the pug nose.

I did have a short mini cry in the waiting room to release my shock. I’m human people! I am THRILLED for my extremely healthy little boy, what more could I ask for. All his organs are tip top, praise Jesus. I think a feeling of inadequacy swept over me as I just feel like I “get” girls, I am head over heels in love with Chloe and I just pictured myself with a house full of estrogen.

Now I know every mom out there with a little boy wants to tell me how great boys are…and they are….I just don’t shift gears that fast in my heart and head. I think I have gone from 5th to 4th gear…but I haven’t down shifted to 1st yet. Give me a day and I will be decorating his room in my head and finding cool toys and games for boys. Ryan can shift gears in a second and is so excited to have his third baseman. No pressure, right? YOU WILL BE AN ATHELETE AND YOU WILL LOVE BOSTON BENNETT!

We went out to Old Navy so I could revive my soul with a cute boy outfit. Shopping for boys? This is new!
This is Bennett’s first outfit, blanket and hat. Oh man..too cute!

So what’s with the name. Ryan and I bitterly fought about names for months. It came down to Anderson Wade (Anders) or Bennett Wade. I was pulling for Bennett. There is such a cool history. My great grandfather Bennett immigrated from Wales at the turn of the century. The trunk he brought over sits in my bedroom and on the side of the trunk he punched in the words, “Jesus Saves”. I love that there is a Christian heritage from way back. Bennett also means “Blessed” which is awesome. Wade is my dad and brother’s middle name and seeing as my bro decided not to use it, I wanted to carry that on. So there you have it. Cool heritage, cool meaning, family name. Bennett Wade. Very boy, very strong…I love it!

So here is what my belly looks like at one day shy of 20 weeks. I can’t believe I am half-way there!!!!!! So surreal!

Shirt on

Shirt up

9 lbs gained at the half-way point…yeah me!

One more picture for the road because I have calls and emails to make. If you don’t get Parent magazine, then you wouldn’t have seen the cover for September. I stopped dead when I looked at it because this little boy reminded me so much of Chloe. I said to Ryan, “If we had a boy, do you think he would look like this?” Ryan thought so. What do you think?

I mean this is her this week.

The eyes, the shape of the nose and mouth…I think it is pretty close. Wouldn’t that be wild? I love when siblings resemble each other…but who knows what we got cookin inside!

Alright kiddos, thanks for participating in the poll!

Cousin time

Published by Kelly December 11th, 2007 in Life in General and Photoganza. 24 Comments

Wow, we have literally had guests for almost 19 days straight. We sent off Ryan’s sister Meridyth and her adorable son, Caleb, this afternoon. I am telling you what….we make BIG kids in this family! If you are going to do it, do it big I guess! Chloe and Caleb are a serious set of bruisers together. Cheeks and thighs for miles. Love it!

I don’t have time to write much and please keep voting below on Porty’s gender, it is fascinating to me what you guys think. Looking pretty even right now.

Here are some adorable shots from our time this last week while Chloe got to hang out with her cousin from Cali!

WE did try to make it our mission to take tons of photos of the two kids together, however…they clearly did not get the memo as hardly a decent shot was taken of the two of them. Ryan’s parents got Chloe and Caleb some Patriots jerseys as a gift. You can’t marry a Portnoy and not be married to all Boston sports teams. Start ‘em young!

This one cracks me up. “Shut the heck up Caleb!”

No that isn’t Chloe with a sex change. She is actually trying out for the role of Fievel in American Tale. Sing it Chloe, “There are no cats in America!” Doesn’t she look like a little mouse, this hat will be ten times cuter when her hair is longer and I can do little neck piggies.

Aunt Meridyth bought Chloe her first baby doll and toy stroller. I love it. She doesn’t quite know what to do with the doll yet so she usually pitches it out of the stroller. She loves to push the empty stroller all over or sit in it or the best is when you chase her with it.

Time for her to push a real live baby.

The weather went from ice and snow last Friday to 60 degree weather. Only in Virginia. We enjoyed Chloe’s new playground in the backyard.

Keep your eyes off my badonkadonkdonk! Look at me, 19 weeks preggers. Check out those birthin’ hips…hee haw!

Can we just have a Chloe moment. Oh man, I say this all the time, but I love her so much. She is absolutely cracking me up! One is so fun!!! She walks everywhere and has the funniest things she says and does. I love it, love it, love it.

She lost her balance and fell sunny side up and shot this look at the camera and it just makes me laugh.

It’s very, “What you talkin bout Willis?” The flared nostrils are a nice touch.

Could you not just snack on his face. I love the chub!

Meri and I also introduced a new Portnoy family tradition. Cookie decorating. This was fun for the first 1000 cookies, but the last 2000 were not as creative. It seemed like the fishes and loaves, the cookies were either having sex or we performed a miracle of duplication.

Behold the creativity

Okay, one more for the road of the two cuties. There are lots and lots more, but some of them are going to be gifts so I need to keep them under wraps.

Cast your ballot!

Published by Kelly December 9th, 2007 in Porty and Uncategorized. 22 Comments

How bout a big round of applause for Amanda! Oh my word, I never knew the moral dilemma behind antipasto! I have to confess, I am not really sure I know what antipasto is and looked it up on dictionary dot com. I like most of the ingredients so I would probably pile it on my plate and pick out the veggies I am not fond of. Thanks for lending Amanda some comment love. She was very afraid she would be the kiss of death on my website and I assured her that I had wonderful, kind readers who would welcome her with open arms. Seriously, you must make her a daily read. She will make you laugh hard.

Moving on. It is sex week!!! Oh yeah! Not sex like you think you dirty pigs. It is Porty Sex Confirmation Week and now it is time to wager your bets or at least cast your ballots. I know the majority of you keep saying boy and for the life of me I don’t know why some people get premonitions one way and not the other. This pregnancy is similar to Chloe only I got more of the “sick” first trimester. The Chinese Gender Chart says “girl” and they swore Chloe was a boy. So go figure on that one. All the wives tales predict me having a girl. Heartbeat was 160bpm last month. But all that means nothing in the end….let’s be honest.

Sooooo…go with your gut and vote away.

What is “Porty’s” Gender?