Out with turkey, in with lights

As Elijah has been saying today, Thanksgiving-time is done and Christmas-time is here. We enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with family yesterday, and now we are already thinking about the next holiday!



We got up this morning and picked out a Christmas tree for our living room. It's big and beautiful and partially decorated (so no pics yet!). Elijah loves it. Sammy is indifferent.



This was the first time both boys met Santa! Elijah acted shy at first, and then he was totally indifferent. I don't think Sam even noticed. He just wanted to be in mama's arms.



I love this photo. It's like Sammy is saying to Elijah, "Can you believe Mom is making us sit with this guy?" I'm sure there will be much more of that in our lifetime.



The boys had fun with their cousins this morning. We even got to see Santa's reindeer! I didn't get pics of them because Sam was being clingy.



And here is a family portrait with Santa!



Sammy had a pretty fussy day and had a low-grade fever AGAIN. Dan brought him into the doctor. Again. And, nothing appears to be the matter. Teeth? Perhaps. We hope.

I want to write just a few things and then I want to get my butt on the couch for relax-time..

Elijah and I had a sweet moment today. I laid down for a nap when Sam did, around 12:30. Dan put Elijah down shortly after, and in bed with me (he has been napping in our bed a lot lately so he and Sammy don't wake each other). When he got into bed, I heard a "loud whisper" say, "MOMMY?! MOM?" I peeked over at him and he smiled and grabbed my hand. We laid next to each other, holding hands, for 20 minutes or so. Elijah fell asleep and I stayed awake and watched his sweetness and thanked God for him and Sam. At one point he startled himself awake and his hand fell from mine. He realized what had happened and grabbed my hand again and fell back asleep. I love those moments! They make up for the ones that occupy most of our days involving poop, sass and sibling-hitting.

I will end with a very funny funny! A few nights ago all four of us were in the loft after bath-time. Sammy was reading a book and Dan and I were cleaning up a bit. Elijah came up to me with his hands on his hips and said, "Mom! Wook at THIS shaky body!" and shifted his little hips from side to side to side to side. Dan and I laughed for a long long time.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Croup: Season 4, Round 4 (Elijah)

I can't believe I forgot to post about this! This is how commonplace croup is in our home.

Elijah woke up with croup at 11:00 on Saturday night. I have been dealing with some exhaustion/insomnia (a lovely combination, let me tell you..), so my wonderful husband got up with him and gave him a neb. Well, I did have to see Elijah with my own eyes to make sure he was ok (he was; so thankful he remains so calm now), but then I went back to sleep. We tried to get rid of it with a regular neb (no epi) and cold outside air, but he was up again in another hour with another episode. Dan got up again and gave him an epi neb and that did the trick, as it always does!

And he has been just fine ever since. No cough or anything!

The first snow

We were planning to get out much more than we did this weekend, but the snow/ice kept us inside for a lot of the time. We built forts and watched movies and did lots of playing and very little cleaning and laundry.



When Elijah looked out the window on Sunday morning, he said, "Mom! Wook! The snow got glued to the ground over night!"



This is Elijah's new look. Comfy pants with a t-shirt and one of Dan's old button-up shirts from when he was younger. And he likes having most of the buttons unbuttoned. :)



After spending a few days with my cuties, I have a few funnies to share!



Sammy is currently quite intrigued by belly buttons. He pulls his shirt up and peeks around his big round belly until he finds it, and then says, "Buh-buh!" Then he goes to the rest of us, one by one, and lifts up our shirts until he finds our belly buttons. Yesterday I caught him checking the wrong side of my body for my belly button, as he tried to pull my pants off!



Every night before bed, after books and prayers, Elijah and I sing songs. We have always gone in spurts where we sing the same sequence of songs every night for a period of time. Lately we have been singing Jesus Loves the Little Children THREE times in a row. The first time we sing it the "correct" way, the second time, we say, "red, yellow, blue and white," which is following by much giggling, and the third time we say, "red, yellow, purple and white," which is followed by even more giggling.



Elijah's conversations with himself are so funny. He can carry on with these self-chats for 20 minutes or more. Back and forth, talking about everything and anything. Our boy loves to talk! The other day in the car he was doing this, talk-talk-talking to himself, when he stopped and said, "I doing talk-podge!" Dan and I busted up laughing. What a perfect word for it! Talk-podge! I love it.



Elijah has also started doing a new laugh that cracks me up. The best way to describe it is a fake chortle. I have a hard time controlling my laughter every time I hear it.



That's all I can think of for now. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

Mid-November tidbits

Sammy's fever returned a few days ago, but on a much smaller scale (below 100 degrees). We had two different doctors check him out and they were not concerned. His ears looked fine and his lungs sounded clear.

Our lives have been fairly boring recently. So I'll fill up some space with some cute boy stuff, and sadly, still no photos. It's either feast or famine with me!

Elijah has been very interested in the time and date recently. He will stare at the digital clock in our bedroom and wait for the minutes to pass so he can read a new time. "Mom, it's 6:32? Soon it will be 6:33?.......Mom, it's 6:33! Next is 6:34!" And every day, he tells me the date at least five to ten times. "Mom, today is November sixteen! After November 16 is November 17! After November 17 is November 18!" and on and on... Also, he has been in tune with the weather and the sun and the moon and what they are all doing. "The moon is up and the sun is down? It's a cloudy day and windy, too? It's cold?"

This is super strange and we cannot figure it out, but there is a ball at daycare that Sam is TERRIFIED of. This is the kid who adores balls! The kid who talks about balls aaaaaall the time! But when he sees this one particular ball, he latches onto whoever is near and a complete look of terror comes across his face. ???

Elijah continues to tell Sammy not to say the things he likes to say so much: Brrrrrmm brrrrrmmm (when he sees a car or airplane), Mmmmmm (when he's eating), Issssss (means "shoes" or "hat" or "blankie"). Elijah often says, "No saying 'Brrrmm brrrmm' SAM!" The funny thing is that now Sam knows that it irritates him, so he will get right in Elijah's face and say it even louder: BRRRRRRMMMM BRRRMMMMMM! :) As you can guess, Elijah doesn't think this is very funny.

The boys are still doing their chase game around the house. They both love it. They run from the back bathroom, through the kitchen and into the living room and back if we're downstairs, and from the loft and down the hall to their bedroom and back if we're upstairs. And all the while, they are squealing and giggling.

Sammy still has a lot of stranger anxiety. Or, anyone-except-Daddy anxiety. He's so good at giving people the stare-down if they are getting too close. And only very recently has he started coming willingly to me when Dan is around. He's a tough one to crack! Lately, his thing to do is to turn around and scooch his butt into my lap so he's basically sitting on me. That's code for DON'T LEAVE ME, MAMA.

Elijah got to tour a fire station last weekend, thanks to our firefighter friend Joel. He even got to sit in the driver's seat and pretend he was driving! We got to watch Joel slide down the fire pole and we learned all about the trucks and equipment. It was fun!

That's all I've got for now!

Samma Jamma

Now I'm out of pictures to post! Ahhh! A week ago I had too many and now I have none.

I wanted to post a quick Sammy update. He is doing MUCH better. His temp is gone, he is sleeping well and he appears to be feeling great based on his level of sass and spunk. :) He has even gotten a little bit better about taking his medicine. For the past couple nights when Dan and I put it in his mouth, instead of spitting it out he gargles it, swallows it and then smiles. Much better! Thanks, Sam!

Here are a few of Sammy's latest words:
magnet = GAAA!
open = DA! (he says this when he wants help opening a door or a book or a dvd case or a box or anything at all)
Elijah = uh-YA-YA (it is sooo cute to hear him saying Elijah's name...he stands up in bed when I get him in the morning and this is the first thing he says)
good-night = nigh-nigh
bib = bi (repeats this until we put a bib on him at meal times)

A couple more cute Sam things..
We have to be careful about putting on shoes/coats/hats unless we intend to go outside and bring Sam with us. If I put a pair of shoes on, Sammy runs to the stairs and grabs his hat and shoes and hands them to me. Then he points to his coat.

He finds it hilarious when we brush his teeth. The bristles tickle the roof of his mouth, so he giggles like mad.

We are LOVING having Dan home more often now that skydiving season is all wrapped up. This coming weekend will be our first full weekend with him in far too long. Can't wait! More later..

Boys' pizza night

I went to a movie with a friend last week (Have you seen Drive?! Ohmygoodness, what an intensely awesome movie!), so the boys had their own fun at home. It was Pizza-Movie night!

Cardiology and a Sammy update

Elijah had a cardiology check-up with Dr. G today. It went great! The ventricles in his heart are smaller, which means his heart isn't working as hard as it was before surgery. YAY! This is exactly what we wanted to hear. I told him that his endurance is much better than it was even six months ago (he never would have been able to walk around the mall back then like he did last week), and he said that was a great sign.

Most of the visit involved knock-knock jokes. Elijah told Dr. G some of his recent favorites (courtesy Yo Gabba Gabba):

E: Knock knock!
Dr. G: Who's there?
E: Lion!
Dr. G: Lion who?
E: Lyin' on your doorstep, can you let me in?!

E: Knock knock!
Dr. G: Who's there?
E: Sherlock
Dr. G: Sherlock who?
E: 'Sure lock your door! Somebody could break in!

E: Knock knock!
Dr. G: Who's there?
E: Interrupting Cow!
Dr. G: Interrupting c....
E: MOOOOO!

Then Dr. G attempted a knock-knock joke and got it mixed up, so Elijah and I giggled at him. He promised to practice and have a few better ones for us next time!

We will head back in six months for an echo, and likely another heart cath will follow. When we were leaving the office, Elijah kept saying, "Mom! We don't got (forgot) the gel!" He was trying to tell me that we forgot to get an echo. Next time, sweetie!

It's pretty amazing to watch Elijah strut around the halls at the heart clinic. I found myself thinking back to "old times" today. First of all, the really uncertain times back when he was just days/weeks/months old, when we had no clue what to expect. Then, fairly recent times, when he was afraid of the blood pressure machine, as well as anyone who even looked in his general direction. Now he's this big, brave boy who confidently walks around the hall saying "hi" to everyone and sitting patiently while his blood pressure and oxygen sats are measured. I'm so proud of how far our little man has come.

And Sammy is still improving, slowly but surely. We make him sooo mad every time it's time to take medicine, but we have to make sure he takes all of it. Pinning down his arms for medicine-time and watching his confused eyes plead with me is not fun. :(

Hoping for a healthy week for us, and for all of you, too!

Halloween 2011 and a Sammy update

Halloween was a ton of fun this year! It gets more fun with Elijah every year, and soon Sammy will be enjoying it, too.



We took Superman and our little bumble bee to a nearby mall, where the stores hand out candy. It is a WARM way to enjoy trick-or-treating and Halloween in general.



Dan's mom and sister were able to join us for trick-or-treating, and that made it so much more fun. We were all happy to have them there with us! Thanks, guys, for joining us!



Elijah walked the entire perimeter of the mall (both upstairs and down) by himself! That was by far more than he was able to do last year.



When we got home, Sammy went straight to bed (sorry, Sam), and Elijah gobbled down loads of sugar. Thankfully being so tired from the walking overruled the sugar high, and he didn't have any trouble sleeping.



Before he went to bed, though, he was able to help us hand out candy to trick-or-treaters stopping by our house. I could tell he thought it was cool being on the other side of the door. I was glad he got to experience the giving-sharing part of a fun holiday!



Today Sammy is still running a temp off and on. Gradually the temps are coming down over time, but we are still dealing with 101-102-degree temps at times. We are hoping that today is the turn-around day! We have managed to get most of Sam's medicine in his belly...by force. Medicine-time is pretty traumatic. I wish he wouldn't fight it so much!

Sam taught Elijah and I a few new dances today. He does the chicken dance, which goes: chin to chest, chin up in air, repeat (walk while doing this). He also has a new arm dance, and his standard ear to shoulder dance. Elijah finds Sam's dancing hilarious, as do the rest of us. About every ten minutes I hear Elijah say, "Sammy, pwease do your chicken dance! Sam, pwease dance for us!"

We are off to take much-needed naps! Have a good day!

Oh my little monkey

We just got back from the doctor. Sammy has pneumonia in his left lung. We will be treating it at home with strong antibiotics. The doctor said to expect another two days of high temperatures. Now if only I had a magic way to get the medicine in his belly! He already spit out half of his first dose! Back to the sicky..

Movie-popcorn night pics and a sick Sammy

This is one of the cutest things I've seen in a while. Brothers sharing a bowl of popcorn!



These pictures were taken a few days ago when Sammy was feeling much better! Today he is a sick little guy. I thought we had gotten his fever under control last night before bed, but he was up talking in his bed at 8:45p which is highly unusual for him. I checked on him and he was totally burning up. I took his temp and it was at 105.2!! Oh my goodness that was scary. After talking to an ER nurse a few different times, I decided to treat him at home with Motrin and Tylenol. Dan's mom came over since I thought I might need to take him to the hospital, and we were up until 11:00p doing everything we could to cool Sam down. We got his temp down to 100.5 before putting him back to bed. I checked on him every hour (or more) throughout the night and he stayed pretty cool. At 5:00a I took his temp and he was back up to 104. So here we sit, after another round of meds, and only able to get that temp down to 101.5. We will be heading to the doctor in a bit here. More later...

Pumpkin carving and more misc (almost caught up!)

Here are some photos from our pumpkin-carving night. As you can see, the boys are still not too interested.



It was still fun, of course. Elijah has always loved the finished product, when the pumpkins are finished and lit with candles. Oh, and apparently he likes having a pumpkin head, too.



And again I will write about things that have nothing to do with the photos surrounding them!

Elijah got his cavity filled this week. Thanks to the laser (and nitrous), it was painless. It was a little traumatic for him to have someone prying his mouth open, and he didn't like the sounds of the tools. It's finished, and we will continue to brush and floss those little teeth religiously. Especially during this post-Halloween week!



I got to accompany Elijah and his preschool class on a field trip this week. This is the third field trip I have been on with him, and it is such a special little thing for us. Well, for me, anyway! We went to Lowry Nature Center (our second field trip to this location) and saw a puppet show and some animals and we talked about what animals do in the winter-time. We walked through the woods and looked for acorns and smelled leaves and Elijah got to hold a snake! He wasn't even a teeny bit afraid and started crying when his turn was up. Last year he fearlessly held a cockroach at this same place and grossed everyone, including myself, out. I'm glad he is fearless when it comes to creepy-crawlies! He can be my bug patrol! One of the things I love about these field trips are our bus rides. Elijah adores riding the "big yellow bus," and it's so much fun to see his happy little face. He thinks it's the coolest thing in the world. And thankfully he's not shy about loving Mommy, because we snuggle like crazy on our bus rides. For the third time (100% track record), he fell asleep in my arms on our way back to school after the field trip was finished. The only thing better would be to have Sammy there, too! And Dan, of course. :)



I realize this is turning into an Elijah-only post, but with as much as that boy talks it's hard not to have constant funny things to report! Something he has been doing a lot lately is asking us, in public, what everybody's name is, and RIGHT IN FRONT of said people.
"Mom, 'member that guy's name?"
"No, sweetie, I don't."
"Is he mean?"
"No, I'm sure he's not."
"He's nice?"
"Yes."



The other day we were somewhere in public, I can't remember where, and we passed a bigger-framed fella. Elijah said, "Wook at THAT guy!" Thankfully, "that guy" thought it was funny and started laughing. Oh the things kids say!



Dan is hunting this weekend and the little boys and I are hanging out at home. Sammy has some sort of virus that he is hopefully about done with. It has involved a high fever, a bit of congestion and a lack of appetite. Poor guy. It doesn't help that he REFUSES to take medicine. We have tried mixing tylenol with chocolate syrup, applesauce, yogurt and chocolate milk, and every time he tastes the medicine and refuses another bite/drink. We even tried pinning him down and using a syringe to get it into the back of his mouth, but he would use his tongue to push it right back out. Thank goodness our kid who HAS needed a lot of medicine in his life is the one who opens his mouth like a hungry little birdy and then says, "Yum! That was good!"



Enjoy your weekend and the rest of the pics!

Cutest little face EVER

Oh my goodness, I could just nibble on his cuteness for days on end!

Looooving Ken

Introducing the newest member of our family, Ken Porta. The guy who sleeps in a casket on our kitchen table and who wears a very....nice...blue sweater.

Corn maze 2011

Well here we go, photos from...two weekends ago? There is a very cool corn maze about two miles from our house that we had never been to before. Dan was at work that Saturday morning, so I figured I'd load up the boys and go check it out! It was awesome! Elijah cried huge alligator tears when it was time to go.



The actual maze part was intricately created. And a little bit creepy. I had visions of The Shining flashing through my head as Elijah led the three of us through. There was also a kid maze made out of hay bales so parents could easily spot familiar heads. It was HUGE. Elijah ran through there for 20 minutes while I did my best to keep my eyes on his quickly-moving, colored hat. Every once in a while I would lose sight of him and start to panic. I didn't get pictures of this because both my eyes (Elijah) and arms (Sammy) were busy! There were also animals and other fun kid things at the corn maze. We will definitely go back again next year!



I have some more boy cuteness to share. There has been so much cuteness gushing from our boys lately. The other night before bed I noticed that the top of Elijah's hair was wet. I asked him if he had gotten up onto his stool and gotten into the sink. He looked at me and said, "NO, Mom! It's from the toilet!" Great, Elijah.



Some cute Elijah sayings:
Instead of "I forgot something!" he says, "I don't got somefing!" forgot=don't got
When I ask him to do something and he needs a second, he says sweetly, "A minute!"



Sammy is currently learning some lessons about not getting everything he wants. He has an absolute fit when we tell him no about something. He is super sensitive so after we say NO, he will either hide and suck his thumb or he will sit in a corner by himself and SCREAM. He never lets us comfort him afterward. And he still gets mad at me when we don't spend a lot of time together (after a week of working). After a weekend together, he is back to normal. He is a sensitive little guy.



Elijah is more interested in Sammy than he ever has been. The other morning Elijah was awake first (surprise!) and Sam was still sleeping. Elijah said, "Where's Sammy?" I told him he was still asleep and his lower lip came out and he started crying. "I want Sammy to wake up!" Wow! I never thought I would hear that come from his mouth. He also likes to play chase with Sam around the house. They both giggle like crazy. Sam likes to do his right ear to right shoulder dance a lot lately and it makes Elijah laugh soooo hard. "Wook at Sammy dance! Do your dance again, Sammy!"



Sam still loves to play peek-a-boo. It makes him laugh like crazy. Usually he uses a blanket to play, but every once in a while he will cover his eyes with his hands. Except, he covers his ears instead. :)



Sam's word for Elijah (uh-YA-YA) is the cutest! Even Elijah loves it when Sammy says his name. Lately Sam has been learning body parts, too. He will often walk up to Elijah (or any of us) and innocently poke his finger into one of his eyeballs and then up his nostril and then into his ear. Then he will point to his own parts.



And just like that, it is my bedtime! More cuteness later. Enjoy the rest of the pics..