Happy 1st Birthday Porter!!!

Birthday Boy & family:

The Birthday Boy & Mama:

Porter's Cake:

Get this thing off me!! Porter with Greta & Connor:

Still a little unhappy:

Mmmm frosting:

Porter's 1st birthday has finally arrived! We had a fun party at our house joined by 2 of my brothers and their families, my parents, our good friends the Holly family, and Jeff's mom, brother Dave and sister-in-law Yuri all came from Chicago. The weather was beautiful for a fall day in Minnesota, and the food was great. Jeff made his famous pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans and some great cole slaw.

Uncle Steve, Katie, Aunt Peggy & Grandma Virginia:

Crazy Uncles:

Uncle Dave & Porter:

Grandma Joanie & Porter:

Porter was a bit overwhelmed by all the attention and company at our house. He liked eating the cake I think, but seemed to be very neat about it. He doesn't really like getting too messy though. He really liked the little Blues Clues dog and got mad if we tried to take it away from him! He also like the noisemakers (not sure if that is what they are called or not).




He really liked all of his presents, but especially the Fisher Price puzzles from Aunt Jana, Uncle Marty, Jaclyn & Matthew in Seattle, and also the drum & musical instrument kit from Aunt Angie, Uncle Steve, Jonathan & Allison in Chicago. They were both big hits. He also got a gigantic stuffed bear from Aunt Peggy, Uncle Steve, Katie & Peter, and he loved that as well. He had lots of fun opening his presents and playing with all the stuff. So did Connor, who seems to be enjoying Porter's presents every bit as much as Porter is!

Fisher Price puzzles from Aunt Jana & Uncle Marty:

Connor showing Porter how to play with his toys:

Looking at books from Aunt Molly:

Playing drums with Henry:

Catching up!

Porter 11 months

Feeding himself:

Wow, life seems really busy lately with work and Connor being in school every day. I'm not sure where the time goes some weeks! I can definitely feel it when I look around my cluttery house. Jeff is starting cyclocross racing season now too, so our free weekends will be filled up with bike races. Some of them are actually pretty fun to go watch, and they are usually only around an hour long, so at least they don't take up the whole day.

To catch up with the last several weeks, Porter turned 11 mos old on Sept 4th, the day after Connor started kindergarten. Porter loves taking a bath, and you will see my attempts at putting his age up in foam letters are becoming more futile. He loves to stand up in the tub, which is one of the only ways I can really scrub him well too! He also likes to throw stuff out of the tub, usually half-full of water. He thrashes and splashes and just has a really good time. His favorite things to do are to bang things together to make noise (coasters, measuring cups, blocks, or whatever he can get his hands on, the louder the better), he loves to get the remote (which we often take the batteries out of so he can play with it) and the phone. He has started saying "Hi Da" when he picks up the phone, and knows to put it up to his ear. He is also learning how to feed himself with a spoon which has been a messy task. He's very proud of his accomplishments though. He has been doing great drinking from a cup now and only rarely gets a bottle anymore. Just in the past three days I have cut down to only nursing at bedtime, getting ready for the big wean when he turns one (only a week and a half away!!). So far I am not feeling any sad emotions over weaning, I think I am pretty much ready to be done. I am definitely glad to have reached my own goal of nursing for a year, and feel good that I have been able to do this for both kids. It's time to be done though. I haven't needed to pump at work for the past couple of days, so it's been great not having to drag my pump back and forth to work too! Porter is still not taking steps on his own, but is cruising around everything and pulling up on everything. He has started to stand for a few seconds on his own though, so I don't think it will be too much longer until he is walking on his own.

Porter's big party is going to be on his actual birthday, October 4th, which happens to fall on a Saturday this year. Jeff's brother Dave and his wife Yuri are coming up, and Jeff's mom is coming up from Chicago too! I am so glad she is coming to visit, especially since October 5th is her birthday, and we will be able to celebrate with her as well. Dave's birthday is the 1st, so we will celebrate his too. My sister Molly is on the 8th, our nephew Tyler in Texas is on the 6th, and our nephew Danny here is on the 15th! Lots of October birthdays in our families!

Fall is arriving in Minnesota too, which is really one of my favorite seasons. I love the changing leaves, love going to the apple orchard, getting ready for Halloween, celebrating Oktoberfest, and just love the tiniest feeling of crispness in the air. I'm not thrilled about winter approaching, but I do love autumn.

Connor is doing pretty well adjusting to kindergarten. His teacher sends a communication sheet home back and forth each day and puts a smiley face, straight face or a frown on each day. So far he has gotten one straight face each week, for a variety of reasons, talking too loudly, not keeping his hands to himself and running in the classroom. So far this week 2 smiley faces, so we are shooting for a whole week. He's starting to figure out what the kids names are, and I think he is making some friends. He already has been to one friend's birthday party too. He started soccer a few weekends ago, just on Sundays and it will only last 3 more weeks. I think it will be good to keep his weekends free for a while until hockey starts up again in November.

Mutual admiration society:

The boys brushing their teeth:


Porter & our babysitter & friend Greta:

That's enough catching up for now! I will probably post again after Porter's birthday!

Connor's First Day of Kindergarten!!

Mmm Reese's puffs & Rice krispies:

Kindergarten Day breakfast:

Hug with Mom:

Connor's Big Day:

Connor & Greta:

Connor started kindergarten yesterday, and all of us survived! I shed a few tears at the bus stop (Jeff thought I was wacko, but he's not a mother!). Luckily our friend and babysitter, Greta came over to ride the bus with Connor and it was a great comfort to me to know that he wouldn't be alone, and that she would introduce him to some of her friends so he will have a friendly face on future bus rides. The night before I asked him how he was feeling about starting school, and he said "scared". It just ripped at my mother's heart. Poor guy. He was worried, but he did just great. I think he had a pretty good day, though he said he didn't make any friends. Normally he is quite social and always will ask a kid what their name is, but I'm sure he just needs to get in his comfort zone first. I tried to encourage him to meet 3 kids today, so we'll see how that goes.

The only thing that he was upset about, and frankly I was too, is that they had rest time, and some kids had a towel to lay on, but we were never told to bring one, so he had to lie on the floor. He was rather upset about this, and then I felt terrible and started to get teary about it and so did he. So there we are sitting at the table after school boo-hooing about him not having a towel to lay on! Well, he has one in his backpack today, so life should be ok. Also, he was miffed that he only got one graham cracker for snack yesterday morning!

Today I brought him to Extended Day Care since he will be going 3 days a week on the days I am working. He will have breakfast there and then go into his class when school starts. Today he was off and playing before I had a chance to say goodbye. Our neighbors Carter & Olivia were there too, so that helped.

So, he's come to the beginning of his school career and he did great. Gosh, he will be in school for the next 12-16 years!! Glad he got off to a good start!

Waiting at the bus stop:

Waving goodbye:

Getting on the bus: (this is where mom was getting teary)

Getting off the bus at school:

Going in to school:

Hayward Cabin & other fun

Warning: Long post with lots of pictures!

We spent last week in Hayward, Wisconsin with Jeff's brother Steve and his family. We had a really fun time and stayed in a beautiful cabin the Totagatic Lodge, which we rented from a family who happen to live about a mile and a half from us. It was quite large and could easily fit my whole side of the family which now numbers 20. It faces westward, so we saw beautiful sunsets every evening. We also enjoyed daily campfires thanks to my nephew Jonathan, did some fishing, went boating and swam at an island called Sand Island (which you will see from the photos is aptly named). We went into Hayward a couple of days and ate lunch, shopped and went mini-golfing. It was a perfect 2 hour and 10 min drive for us, but a bit longer for Steve & Angie who came up to our house first from Chicago. It is definitely a place I would consider renting again, especially if there were more people to share the cost with.

The Totagatic Lodge

Angie & Steve enjoying the sunset

The great kitchen (and better yet, Jeff cooking!)

living room

Connor (note his favorite pose in all photos!)

Jonathan & Allie on the water trampoline

Beautiful sunsets

Jeff & Connor on Sand Island

Jonathan & Allison on Sand Island

Porter & Jeff snuggling by the campfire

Ghost stories about Jim O'Shea (inside joke)

Jeff & his handicap

Family photo

Connor sinking a putt

Jeff in Porter's glasses

Allie at the wheel

Other things we have been doing lately:

We went to the Minnesota State Fair last Friday after we returned from Hayward. I love going to the fair which I believe is the largest State Fair in the country. It's really the same thing year after year, but I just love the tradition of it. We didn't stay as long as I would have liked (darn those kids messing up my life!! :)) but it was still fun! We also checked out Woodbury Days on Sunday and had quite a fun time there too.

Too much walking

Mmmm ice cream

Connor loved the ride but said it hurt his crotch!

We are getting ready for Connor to start kindergarten next week! We had an Open House at school tonight and found out who his teacher is and who will be in his class. He was hoping that his friend Nick from hockey and his girlfriend Emma from preschool would be in his class, but they got in the other kindergarten teacher's class. Our neighbor and good friend Olivia is in his class though, and also a friend Noah who he met at a Lifetime Fitness camp the last couple of summers. It so happens that Noah's parents went to Creighton University with me and his dad graduated the same year! Crazy. There will be a kindergarten family picnic tomorrow, so we will get a chance to know some of the families and teachers a bit better. I'm sure that will make us all feel a bit more comfortable about Connor's first days at kindergarten, though the open house tonight helped to answer some of my questions and allay some fears.



Porter has started clapping and waving hi and bye bye and it is just so cute. I think he is cutting his 8th tooth too, so he's been a bit clingy and grumpy the past couple of days. He's very active and busy and is crawling everywhere very quickly. His new nickname is Mr. Speedy. He often is getting into Connor's Legos which need to be moved to higher ground!

Making out with Glow baby

Porter and his brother (who we found at the concentration camp)

Whew! Thanks for scrolling all the way through. I gotta go to bed now!