SO Big!

As I said in my last post, Porter and I started waterbabies on Monday night at the Y.  It was so fun!  I am surprised how layed back and relaxed he is in the water - he really likes it.  On his back, on his tummy - whatever - he is comfortable and so far trusts me completely ;) Chasing rubber ducks in the pool helped me see how far he has come with hand eye coordination!  Pretty impressive, though I may be just a little biased!

What is new with P this week?

• holding is bottle consistently....thank gosh - lazy bones ;)
• still sleeping through the night (crossed fingers)
• is now quite a little show-off!
• has eaten an animal cracker, a few biter biscuits and some puffed corn finger food (and loves them all!)
• learned SO BIG at the sitters yesterday

It seems that Ollie has determined that Porter is an official member of the pack!  I had him on his belly and Ollie layed down right up against him like he does us ;)  No - I did not pose them for this picture!

8 months TODAY!!!

We are now going on over a week of a happier little guy and sleep filled nights for all! We are not wanting to jinx ourselves because it is really great! We are really enjoying it and starting to think life might start to return to some healthier version of our new "normal" – both physically and mentally!

We had a busy week last week and a busy weekend with a Poker Party for Steve and me, on Friday and the Price Family Reunion on Saturday in the Quad Cities. It was a nice time and had the chance to see a lot of my Mom's family, and my Mom doing SO well after her hip surgery! It was pretty hot outside but we still spent a little time outside and even got in a little volleyball. It was a lot of fun, but a long day since we drove home that night.

Porter's been probably mostly capable, but really lazy about holding his own bottle for a while now. Toward the end of last week his Dad started working on this with him and as I said – he is capable….just lazy! We pretty much can get him to do it with a little prodding.

He was being pretty grumpy later in the day yesterday, which I thought was weird until I saw 2 HUGE choppers that were peaking out…his top teeth are coming in. They really do look huge, we are wondering if we are going to have a Bucky Beaver on our hands in a few more weeks ;)

Tonight, Porter and I are going to our 1^st Aquababies class at the YMCA. I am looking forward to it. The few times we have had him in a pool, he seemed like he was really going to like it – this should be a good test!

Ear Tubes....Magic?

The week went ok after the tubes surgery. Porter seemed to be doing pretty well, but still was trying to pull out of that nasty respiratory thing he has been fighting. But as the week got toward the end, we started seeing some signs that he wasn’t feeling perfect, until finally Friday afternoon I got the call from the sitter and he was running a pretty good temp.

We spend the afternoon/early evening at Urgent Care. This is always unpleasant, but made more unpleasant by the fact that I couldn’t get anyone to get his records from his Dr. (whom they share a company and a building with). They didn’t seem to think it important, but with his history and my lack of attention to detail – I was thinking they could benefit from a written history under the circumstances! Porter had some major infection (per his temp and white blood cell count), probably one of his ears since it looked quite enflamed…but they weren’t sure that was causing it and he has thrush. Bummer!

He had the magical series or 3 sets of 2 antibiotics shots over the weekend and has seemed good as new….we are crossing our fingers! He deserves some time being WELL, finally!

Unfortunately because of all these lovely trips needed to the Dr. over the weekend, we had to skip our trip to Cedar Rapids to celebrate Ben, Ryan and Leah’s birthdays :( With any luck we will get to see the family this coming weekend at the Price Family Reunion in the Quad Cities!


Notable Porter “news”


• He has really started waving bye-bye pretty consistently


• He has become fond of slapping his head with his and with either 1 or both hands at a time…not the most intelligent look ;)


• Porter loves to shake his head! He may or may not know what it means, but it sure tickles him


• Since he has been sick again over these past few weeks, we have been leaving him un-swaddled and it seems like he kind or just weaned himself


• I don’t want to jinx us, but since he has felt better over the weekend – he has been consistently sleeping through the night…we really hope this continues!!!!


• He loves to mimic everything…such a little sponge!


• He really LOVES his puppies! He loves to watch them and “pet” them. They are very good sports.

“Happy” first celebration of Freedom…and of Ma-Ma & getting P’s ears fixed =)

The rest of last week was more of the same…a miserable little guy:( Steve took him to the Dr. again and he got meds to clear up his chest, hopefully quickly so he could be in shape for his tube surgery that was scheduled for Tuesday. It started working right away and he was much improved that day even. What a relief!

Here is P getting a breathing treatment:(

My friend Beth had organized a little surprise for my birthday…well – it was basically just an expansion of some plans we already had into a few more people and a celebration of my 35^th Birthday. I ruined the surprise by inviting everyone they had added onto the invitation…but it was a great time and just as appreciated! It was a girl's night. We met at Beth's for drinks, went to see Sister Hazel in concert and then on to Fong's Pizza for Pizza and more cocktails! We had a great time and it was a much needed break from reality and a very fun way to start out my birthday weekend! While we were out and about, Steve took Porter to the Altoona aquatics park with his brother Tim and nephew Colin – so they had a boy's night too!

These two are from our pre-party and the concert...of the girls

This is at the concert - Beth and I with Ken Block from the band and the girls we see at the show each year:) 

On Saturday we went to our friends the Lucas' to see the West Des Moines 4^th of July Parade. Porter wasn't feeling too bad, but he still wasn't himself – and the heat didn't make it any better…..at least P's allowed to go naked ; ) It was still fun to see him at his first parade and seeing his first fireworks! 

Our actual 4^th of July was fairly uneventful. Steve and I were just trying to make a dent in the housework most of the day, but when all we seemed to hear was fireworks outside, we took P out on the deck to check out some very impressive neighborhood displays!

Here are P's first fireworks!

My actual birthday was on Monday, and since it was a floating holiday – we were all at home! Steve let me sleep in, made me breakfast, we grabbed a nap, did a little birthday shopping and took care of a grumpy little P – we had a feeling that at this point, while his current meds were focused on his lungs, his ears were causing him problems again (which the Dr. warned us of).
That leads us to the big day! The Tube Surgery – this morning at 6:30. Of course we were nervous for him, but we so want to see him feel better consistently that we really have anticipated this day! It was just as quick as they promised and with the exception of a little "hangover" and an extra nap from the anesthesia, Porter seems like his old happy self (with the exception of a little left over congestion)! Everything looks great! We are hopeful it will make a big difference in his overall comfort and health!