Secret project revealed!

One of my best friends on the planet (not that I have friends on other planets) and I have been working like lunatics on an exciting new project that we are finally ready to share with the world. It is a project that has been, and will continue to be, a great creative outlet for both of us. We have poured our hearts, and a lot of time, into getting it to this point, so we hope you will take the time to check it out. If you have seen us lately and wondered why our eyes are so terribly bloodshot, this is why!

Check out our new blog!

Already?

Would you think it was strange if I told you that our not even 4-month-old baby is teething? Because he is. He has been a little bit extra fussy/clingy/whiny lately and he has been trying to gnaw on everything in sight. I peeked into his mouth last week and sure enough, there are two little teeth ready to poke through on the bottom.

I find this crazy! Or is it more normal than I think?

Hi world

Hi, we are the Portas, and we are in a constant transitional phase. Sam doesn't nap well and on the days that he does, he doesn't eat well. On the days he eats well, he sleeps horribly. Elijah mostly behaves well and on the days that he doesn't, ugh, we want to pull our hair out. He is feeling better after his croup episode last weekend. He still has a little cough, but that is not at all uncommon during the "winter" months. Have I mentioned that he has a cardiology appointment next Tuesday? Can you hear my heart beating extra fast?

Dan is still working his little bottom off, when the weather allows. I am coming up on seven weeks of being back at work after maternity leave. That is our scoop in a nutshell. We don't have a whole lot else going on.

Tune in on Friday for the unveiling of my latest project! I can't wait to share it with everybody. Please check it out!

Croup: Season 3, Round 2

As I drove the little boys out to the dropzone with me for the night last night, I kept trying to figure out why I was feeling unsettled. I mean, I had a crab feed to look forward to and I would get to see friends I haven't seen in a long long time and I am always nothing but excited to spend time out there.

Then I realized what it was. Croup. I hate the way this stupid illness holds me captive. How I feel unsettled even being away from home overnight because I am afraid of what might happen if Elijah were to get an episode. I always bring Elijah's meds with us everywhere we go, and last night was no exception. But I still didn't feel right about something.

And my instinct was right because Elijah had a terrible four-part croup episode last night. He woke up at about 11:00 having trouble breathing. We gave him his epi neb and he seemed to be much better after that, so we put him back to bed. Repeat this process four times, except without the epi neb. The third time was so bad that Dan finally just took him to the hospital to get a shot of steroids. Unbelievably, it happened one time after that, so Elijah and I sat in the hangar and did another neb (different medication). He even threw up during one of his episodes, which he has never done before.

It was honestly hell. I hate this illness! Hate it hate it hate it. On the drive back home this morning, I had a near panic attack (this hasn't happened in a while) and I had to pull over to calm myself down. Yuck.

We were so sleep-deprived that Dan had to take the day off work. We all washed the vomit from our bodies and took giant naps. We are all (except Sammy) coughing and feeling a little bit droopy today.

At least I know have killer instincts!

Sweet Sammy's sleep situation

Our sweet Sammy has been having napping issues for about a week now. We can get him to nap decently (not great) at home, but at daycare he refuses daytime sleep. You might remember from his early weeks that not getting good daytime sleep makes for an unhappy Sam. We are working on it. I keep attempting to be positive by saying that he is just in a transitional phase and soon things will improve.



We have a few things in store for the weekend for once. Crazy, I know! Unfortunately, the weather doesn't look like it is going to cooperate, and part of our plans involve being outside. As we Minnesotans often do, we will play it by ear!



Today I completed my sixth week of being back at work full-time, after maternity leave. Wow, that time sure flew by! I am at peace with our situation, and just trying to make the best of those things in life that I wish were different. It doesn't do much good, and it isn't very fun, to constantly fight life.



Thanks for checking in! Have a great weekend.

Exciting stuff on the horizon

For the past few weeks I have gotten into the routine of putting Sammy to bed and then going outside with Elijah to play with him and also to take photos. I'm on the fast track to getting to know my camera VERY WELL. I can't tell you why (yet), but it has to do with the big project I have been working on with a dear friend of mine. If everything goes smoothly this week and next, we plan to share it with everyone on October 1st! And then my bloodshot eyes and droopy demeanor will make sense to everyone.



You will ask me, "How in the world have you found the time to do all of this?" and I will answer, "I have no idea, but please step aside because I need to go find a bed and SLEEP."



Sorry to be so vague. I actually get annoyed with bloggers who do a lot of teasing just to keep readers' interest. That's not what I am doing at all! I can just hardly contain myself!

Status quo

I wanted to get some new photos up of this sweet boy's face. Everything is going fine for us. It doesn't seem like much changes for us these days. Dan works a lot of the time, I am either at work or at home and don't get out into the world much and the boys are doing well. Elijah is thriving at preschool, like we knew he would be. Samson is doing well, although we still haven't nailed down a napping schedule for him and that makes some days a little bit hectic. Nothing terrible. Nothing like those first seven weeks.



Tonight when Elijah was eating dinner and I was feeding Sam, I realized that two minutes had passed where Elijah hadn't talked. This is highly unusual, so I said, "Elijah, are you eating your food over there or playing with it?" He said, "Uhhhh, pwaying! Wook, Mom! I make Happy Man!" I went over to find this..



I have to say I was a little astonished! I have never seen him create anything like this before. It must be something they have done at preschool. Impressive!

That's all I know right now. Thanks for checking in!

Color

For the longest time, Elijah's eyes were a greyish, nondescript color. Within the past year, they have turned into the most beautiful, colorful eyes I have ever seen.



By the way, it was a miracle (and kind of an accident) that this shot worked. I have tried to get a close-up of his eyes for a while now, but he is always too busy darting around the room for that holding-still nonsense.

Ever since preschool started, Elijah has been having me sit in the corner of the kitchen as he pretends to be my teacher. He stands up in front of "the class" and folds his hands across his belly (so funny!) as he leads me in songs. He even walks to the wall and pretends to turn a knob (that doesn't exist) that turns the pretend music on and off. It is one of the cutest things I have ever seen him do.

One of the songs he sings as he is "teaching" me is the Itsy Bitsy Spider. This is the first time I have ever heard him sing this song, and it is cute cute cute! "The ipsy bipsy pie-der..." :)

He has been making me laugh more than usual lately. He has started saying, "Hi purple Mommy!" (fill in the color with whatever color shirt I'm wearing). The funniest thing in the world to him right now is when I say, "EYELASH CRASH?!?" and give him a surprised expression. I know, it doesn't make sense, but maybe that's why he finds it so funny.

There are a few words that he still hugely mispronounces, but I refuse to correct him because I think they are so cute. He still calls "breakfast" "feckis" and for some reason I love that. The other day he saw me making dinner and said, "Mama have wife?" ("Wife" = "Knife") He stopped himself and said, "Not WIFE! It's KNIFE!" Darn, he's catching on.

That's about all I've got for now! Just wanted to share some funnies about my beautiful-eyed little boy.

Photos photos photos

I have been meaning to upload these photos for over a week now. I have been busy busy! And I have a huge backlog of fun photos I want to share. More to come soon.

Here's a quick weekend update first. I think Elijah has finally made the realization that not only is Samson a part of this family, but that Mommy LOVES Sam. Now that Sam is interacting with us a lot more, I notice the sideways glances Elijah gives us that show serious disapproval. Today he started acting out in a way that I have never seen. It made me sad for him, but frustrated, too. It was kind of a tough day, but we all are ok. I hope Elijah always knows that I LOVE HIM TO PIECES. Oh man, I love that kid. My love for Sam will never change my love for Elijah, and vice versa.

Anyway, it's back to work for me tomorrow. Dan has the next two days off, wooo! He has worked hard this weekend, so I am glad he has a break ahead.

These photos were taken after Sam was in bed one night a few weeks ago, so no smiley Sam faces in this post. He sure is a smiley little man, though!

Pee-gool Part II

Here is Elijah on his first day of preschool for the 2010-2011 school year!



m d89fr97eufrjtei (that was a message from Elijah!)



The shirt he wore was an old shirt of Dan's! Isn't that fun? I think he looks so stinkin' cute in this shirt.



Riding the bus went well on Friday. Elijah is just one of those kids who thrives in social settings, and he adapts so quickly. He's not like his mama when she was his age!



I'm not sure where the funny poses came from. :)



Elijah, Samson and I are having a nice weekend. We miss Daddy, of course, but we always make the most of our weekends no matter what.

More later! Thanks for checking in!

Pee-gool!

I love this photo of Dan and Sammy chillin' on the couch.



Yesterday was Elijah's first day of preschool for the year! My tummy was all in knots for a few days leading up to it, but his day went really well. I decided that I wanted to drop him off and pick him up myself on the first day, and I'm glad I did that. He seemed surprisingly comfortable in his new class, with his new teachers and new friends buzzing all around him. I hung out for a little bit in the beginning and after about five minutes he looked over at me and said, "Bye, Mom!"

There are a lot more kids in his class this year than there were last year. It was a little bit overwhelming for ME. It is also an integrated classroom, which means half are special ed and half are not. I think this will be great for him!

His teachers said he had a great day, but that he seemed really super stimulated the entire time. When I picked him up he was acting like his happy, normal self. Thirty seconds after getting in the car, he started sobbing uncontrollably. He was one tired little guy! :(

Tomorrow is his first day taking the bus from (and back to) daycare, so my tummy is a little bit in knots again. Please pray for peace for me and protection for Elijah!

In other news, I'm exhausted. I am working on a really exciting (personal) project with a friend, so that is taking up all of my non-working, non-sleeping, non-caring-for-children time. It is worth it, though! I am extremely excited about it!!

One last quick thing. Today Samson is the EXACT AGE Elijah was when he had his first open heart surgery!

Not much else has been going on this week. That's about all we have for now!

State Fair, Part II

Fifteen minutes into our State Fair Journey, Elijah started asking if we could leave. That's when Dan and I remembered that cookies are the key to a satisfied, Fair-going Elijah.



Four cookies later, he was nowhere near wanting to leave.



We went to see the cows and pigs right away when we got there, so Elijah MOOOOOOed at us for the rest of the day.



Green monkey!



See? Sam was there, too!



Geez, Mom, how much food are you going to eat?



I had to make up for all the Elijah pictures, so I snapped a bunch of our littlest cutie.



I have to give Dan credit for this one.



Through magic mommy persuasion, I was able to get Elijah onto the carousel ("caroself," as he calls it). I sat him on the horsey and he started to panic. I held onto him super tight and looked him in the eye and PROMISED him I wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. Once the ride started and he realized he was safe, he actually enjoyed himself!



Heading home, after many many calories consumed and another fun time at the Fair!

State Fair, Part I

Dan and I have brought Elijah to the State Fair every year of his existence, so we were happy to be able to go again as a family this year. I took so many pictures while we were there that I am going to have to post them in installments.

Elijah started out wearing a Pronto Pup crown.



You wouldn't know from the pictures in this post, but Samson IS with us. He slept through the first little bit of our journey.



Um, Elijah, I think that cow is staring you down.



Then Elijah switched to his Oink Booth crown. Here he was showing a pig the "pig tat" he had on his hand.



Gorgeous hubby.



I'm not sure that Elijah had ever had chocolate milk before. He sucked it down in about five seconds. (Can you see that mosquitoes love our boy?)



Dan got tired of me taking so many pictures.



I loved the action going on in the background of a Corn Dogs flag.



And of course we couldn't leave without loading up on Sweet Martha's Cookies.



I have MANY more photos to share. I have been going crazy taking pictures. I edited over 500 photos this weekend!

Today has been unbelievably wonderful. We rarely have a day when we are all home together, so I have been savoring every moment I get with all THREE of my boys. Thank you, Labor Day!

Elijah's croup from last week turned into a mild sickness. He has had a very slight cough and a runny nose, but thankfully nothing worse than that. It was enough to keep us from going anywhere this weekend, though. The only other thing to report about Elijah is that he has been eating food like a crazyman. Holy cow! I have never ever seen him eat like this! He must be going through a serious growth spurt.

We just cannot get Samson into a good napping routine. Every day seems to be different from the last. We continue to wait for it to fall into place.

Thank you for checking in! I am off to enjoy the rest of my long weekend with my boys (those who aren't already asleep).