Easter 2008

Here are some Easter photos. I was at work Easter morning, so I have Jeff to thank for being such a great photojournalist and capturing the moments for me! Connor looked behind the chair first since that is where the Easter Bunny hid his basket last year. Note the snowy deck in the background! Gotta love Minnesota! Connor was thrilled to get some Star Wars guys and Sponge Bob candy as well as an Easter Bunny Pez dispenser. He also helped Porter find his basket.

Hmm, not back there:

Yeah, success!!

Cool, Star Wars guys!

All right, Sponge Bob candy!

Here's Porter's basket:

Easter Bunny Pez:

Porter in a bunny outfit:

In other big news in our household, here are some photos of Porter sitting up. He's doing much better with his balance and can sit up for several minutes before toppling over. Jeff said he figured out how to use his hand to prop himself this weekend. Still not rolling over from back to front, and only occasionally from front to back. Also, I see a tiny gray pearl of a tooth popping through today!! Can't really feel it yet, but I can see it trying to come in. Explains why I've had a little grumpalumpagus on my hands today!

Trying peaches:

Look at me sitting!!:

If you look real close you can see a tiny tooth coming in:

St Patrick's Day!

So today was the St Patrick's Day parade in St Paul. A group of my friends marched in honor of my friend Firg who died in November. Firg's real name was Barbara Fitzpatrick, and both of us are Irish and loved celebrating St Patrick's Day together, which all of us did for many years. We usually would go to the Landmark Center, watch the parade and go enjoy some Irish cultural stuff like Irish Dancing and singing etc. We usually had a beer or two as well, so that's what we all did today. It was a lot of fun. My friend Michele's husband Bob, who is actually from Scotland came along fully dressed in his garb and played the bagpipes while we were walking the parade route. Firg would have loved it! I really missed having her there with us today.

Porter & me at the Landmark:

Friends O' Firg:

Porter ready for St Pat's:

The "Irish Castle":

Bob playing the bagpipes:

Finally a few birthday photos of Jeff & Connor. We celebrated Jeff's birthday on Saturday March 8th, which is his birthday, but also Connor got in on extending his birthday which was March 4th. My brother Mike, sister-in-law Lisa and their boys Louie & Michael came over to help us celebrate, as well as my sister-in-law Peggy and niece Katie who left early to watch Katie's high school team, Hill-Murray win the State High School Hockey Tournament!! Yeah Hill-Murray!

Jeff & Connor celebrating their birthdays:

My nephews Louie & Michael with Porter & Connor:

Porter 5 mos and Connor is 5!!

Well, it's been a big week at our house. Connor turned 5 on Tuesday and had a really fun birthday party with 7 of his friends at Club Just Jump in Woodbury. He insisted he wasn't turning 5 until his party actually started. He had a blast and so did his friends. They wore themselves out jumping around, then had pizza, cake and opened presents. Later that night we went to one of Connor's favorite restaurants, Tavern on Grand so he could have his favorite meal, the Walleye Basket. I think I might have overdone it that day though because I ended up with a fever of 101.3 again that night. More on that later. We had to get a new camera though because we were getting error messages on our old one. We took tons of birthday photos, and I am literally on the verge of crying now because I think I somehow managed to delete them, including movies of singing Happy Birthday etc. I am really sick about it and don't think there is anyway to fix this. They are just plain lost forever. Although I really love having a digital camera, it's situations like this that make me hate them. Well, we are having my bros & families over tomorrow for Jeff's b-day & Connor's b-day, so I guess I will have to reshoot. I'm just so bummed that I didn't get photos of his friends including his cute little "girlfriend" Emma.

So, Porter turned 5 mos the same day Connor turned 5. His big news is that he finally rolled over from front to back the night before. He hasn't done it much since, but at least he's accomplished that feat. Otherwise he's doing great. I had to switch to some new antibiotics last Friday, and they are not compatible with breastfeeding, so for the last week I have had to pump my milk, dump it out and formula-feed Porter. It's a lot of work, but he seems to be doing fine with it. I am really hopeful that he will have no problem with the transition back to nursing in 5 more days when the antibiotics are out of my system. In some ways this has been a relief to me since I was really feeling like I wasn't making enough milk for his needs while I was trying to recover from the pneumonia. At least I know he is getting enough food now, and he seems to be sleeping better with the formula. Jeff has helped out with a couple of nighttime feedings too, so that's been nice for a change.

So, I am feeling like I am finally getting a little bit better. It has taken a long time. I still feel weak and tired, and I get short of breath after climbing up stairs etc. I don't have a really bad cough, just occasionally. As of last night I'm not running a fever either, so that makes me feel a little more normal. The antibiotics have wreaked havoc on my gastrointestinal tract though, and yesterday I could hardly eat anything because of the horrible cramps I would get. I got to stop one of the antibiotics, and started taking some acidophillus capsules, and that seems to be helping. I had a repeat chest x-ray today and the pneumonia is still there, but about 50% improved. I am due to return to work on Tues, and got work restrictions from the doctor to only work 8 hour shifts next week. I'm fairly certain I wouldn't be able to survive a 12 hour shift just yet, so hopefully the 8 hour shifts will be manageable. The boys are at daycare today, so I am planning on resting as much as I can.

I'm still so sick about Connor's b-day photos I could scream. Anyway, here are some of Porter at 5 mos: