The Brookston Family Blog
• • • • •

When Alice woke up from her nap, she was treated to her big brother being home, and the three of us bounced on the bed and generally made nuisances of ourselves until we were too tired to go on.

Alice enjoying some bouncing.

Porter getting up from a big bounce.

With all the complete nonsense about intelligent design we have to suffer through these days, I thought this was pretty funny.

Lately, Porter has been able to accomplish increasingly lenthgy and complex tasks involving several steps. This is, of course, great news — and not only because he can start doing chores — but because it implies that his comprehension is increasing. This morning, because he was up part of the night not feeling well, Porter stayed home from school. Although he seemed okay for the most part, we wanted to give him a chance to rest. At mid-morning, he decided that he wanted to have some toast. We went into the kitchen and he pretty much did everything to make his own toast. He went through every step he needed to. First, he hopped up on the counter, opened the bag of bread and pulled out two pieces. Then he dropped them in the toaster slots and pushed the button down to toast them. We talked while we waited for the toast to “cook,” as he puts it. When it was done he gingerly pulled out each piece saying “careful, hot.” Then he opened the kitchen cabinet and pulled out a plate and put the toast in it. Then he climbed down from the counter and grabbed his plate to return to the living room. I didn’t really even need to be there. It was great to watch him do it all himself.

Making toast.

Inexplicably at exactly five o’clock last night, Porter came to me and said. “I’m tired.” To which, I replied. “Do you want to go upstairs and take a bath and go to bed?” Surprisingly, his answer was “yes.” I was so surprised by that answer that I asked him again and sure enough he wanted to have an early bath. I told him and Alice to go upstairs while I made up Alice’s bottle. By the time I got upstairs Porter had not only stripped naked, he had also put all of his clothes in the hamper and also put his diaper in the diaper genie. So the early bath was a rousing success. Unfortunately, I think the reason for it was that Porter was feeling a little more under the weather than I realized and that was probably the reason for his being so tired. Both he and Alice went to sleep without to much fanfare but we could hear Porter coughing himself awake throughout the evening. At one point, around nine, when we checked in on him we found him crying because he was so uncomfortable. So we gave him some medicine and Sarah snuggled with him until he fell asleep again. Poor guy.

Alice and Porter in their early bath.