Sunshine & Snow

It seems we are having a typical Minnesota Spring here. Last Monday it was in the 70s and gorgeous outside. Connor and his friend Henry were outside riding their bikes and I was out letting Porter experience grass for the first time. He was raking it with his hands and trying to shove fistfuls of dry grass in his mouth. He seemed to enjoy it.

Fast forward to yesterday and we had a snowstorm all day and a very cold and windy day in the 30s with it feeling much colder due to the windchill. Sometimes I wonder why we live in Minnesota, but then again there are many reasons that we do. I guess you have to take the good with the bad sometimes when you live in the Upper Midwest. There are certainly many beautiful days, and I'm hoping they are on their way soon!

Yesterday:

Porter enjoying a nice spring day last Monday:

Mmm this grass is tasty:

Connor is so funny!:

Enough pictures Mom!:

Connor practicing his photography (not bad!). Nancy & Porter:

Porter playing with his xylophone:

Snuggly Sunday morning:

April update

Porter's 6 month check up

Porter had his 6 month check up last week. He now weighs in at 19 lbs 1.5oz and is 27 3/4in long. He is 83rd% for weight and 92nd % for length. He got some shots and cried of course, but got over it quickly. He's healthy and doing great. His doctor said his flat spot was mild and strictly positional due to the fact that he is still sleeping on his back.

Here is a better shot of his 2 teeth:

I have started to let him cry it out (CIO) at night for the past week or so. He's done really well. The first night he only cried for about 10 min one time and settled back down with his nuk. The second night he cried a little harder. I'm sure he was thinking "Hey, I remember this from last night and it didn't exactly go how I wanted it to". However he still only cried for 5-10 min but was up twice. The third night he slept through the night. The next 3 nights he woke up once per night but went right back to sleep when I went in and gave him his nuk, and last night he slept through the night again. I'm hoping that I'm on my way to full nights of sleep again! He's really so easy to put to bed at night. I just plop him in his crib, tuck his blanket around him, give him his little dog lovey and his nuk and he is out in 5 min or less. Much easier than Connor was, but I think that was probably our fault. Oh well, the parent learning curve! Gotta figure it out somehow!

Porter & Jeff:

Connor's doing swimming lessons again, and is really enjoying them. I got a few photos, but most of them were just the top of his head underwater!


Glad to have my parents back too! They came over for dinner the other night, and I have already utilized my mom's babysitting services last week when Connor had kindergarten round-up!!!! I can't believe he's already going to be starting kindergarten soon! He had a fun time and knows 4 of the kids in his class already. I'm excited for him to be starting on this next part of his life, and also for us to get to know some more of the families from our church/school.

Papa Dan & Connor playing Candyland:

Grandma Joanie & Porter:

Also, I am in the process of making over my blog. My co-worker Nicole and I were trying to figure it out and she helped me change my template. It's a work in progress since I am working all weekend I don't have much time to dedicate to it. It all started with Rachel, a BabyCenter friend who did a blog makeover and turned us all on to The Cutest Blog on the Block who offers free blog templates, or will custom-make a page for you for $20-30. I still haven't changed my header yet, but I hear Scrapblog.com is the place to go for that. Check out some of my other blog links to see some really cute designs!

Porter is 6 months old!

Porter is 6 months old! I can't believe half a year has passed already since he was born! Time flies. He now has 2 teeth and is just a drool machine. He can shove his whole fist in his mouth trying to chew on it. It now hurts to let him gnaw on your finger. It's like he has sharp little puppy teeth! He's sitting up really well now. He will have his 6 month check-up on Monday. The only thing I'm a little concerned about is the flat spot on the back of his head. He still sleeps only on his back. I'm also a little concerned about him not rolling so much. He could care less about it. He still hasn't rolled from back to front, and he really doesn't roll from front to back much either. I suppose I have been spending more time having him sit than doing tummy time though, so maybe I should put him on his tummy more. He barfs a lot on his tummy so sometimes that's why I don't put him on it as much.

My parents are finally back from Florida and are coming over for dinner tonight. I talked with them on the phone a lot, but I really missed having them around. I missed having them see the boys too, so I'm looking forward to having them see what they are up to. I really am so blessed to have them 10 minutes away from us. Not that I want to think about it, but you never know when they won't be here any longer. My Dad is 81 and my mom is 76, and they are both in great health, but I never want to take that for granted. I'm just so lucky they can be a part of my boys lives and that my boys can get to know their grandparents. I wish they could see Jeff's mom more. We need to get down to Chicago again soon. Jeff's sister and family are moving to Dallas in June I think, and we will really miss having them only 6 hours away. I'm sure we will plan a trip to Chicago before they move.

Finally the weather is getting nicer here in MN. We had a huge snowstorm on March 31st and now we have had some nice weather and most of the snow has melted. I think it might have reached the 60s yesterday and will probably today again too. Connor has been out on his bike a few times and has been enjoying getting outside more. Jeff is out on his bike as I type and I know he's looking forward to bike racing season. He's planning on buying a new time trial bike this year. Oh joy, one more bike in our garage!

Here is our deck on Monday:

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: