The End of an Era!

Today marks the end of an era! The boys walked out of their amazing school for the last time. Elijah has attended this school for five years and Sammy for two. The teachers and staff at this school have POURED love, energy, time, encouragement and teaching into our boys. The Porta boys are well-known at school and leaving all of those wonderful people has made for an emotional day. Sammy and I are having the hardest time of all, no surprise there. Tonight at bedtime Sammy cried sweet little tears. He's going to miss his classmates, especially since they have all been together for two consecutive years. It's a good lesson to learn, but it kills me to see him so sad. Elijah on the other hand is much more excited about new adventures and seems much less sad.

Mother's Day was amazing this year! My boys spoiled me rotten. Dan's and my 11th anniversary was the day before, so we got out for dinner to celebrate. It's been a month filled with tons of good, fun things, including field trips and track and field days and time in our backyard.

Earlier this week Elijah had a check-up with ENT. The hearing in his left ear is declining in higher decibels. My heart sank when I saw the change from the last test six months ago, but Dr. L assured me that there's nothing to worry about yet. He peeked in his ear and saw that the prosthesis is rubbing up against the eardrum a bit, probably causing the decline in hearing. We'll have him checked again in six months and go from there! My mind has wandered to sad places this week, but I keep reminding myself that Elijah's amazing story isn't going to change the more I worry. His story is his story and it will play out JUST as the script is written.

About a week ago we ended a week-long streak of verrrrrry challenging behavior with E. I saw things that I hadn't seen in years. He has been affected by seasonal allergies off and on again this spring and at its worst, it has severely affected sleep. And we all know what happens when his sleep is affected. Thankfully things seem to be getting better and behavior has normalized. Aside from his CONSTANT fighting with his brother, that is.

We have a TON of exciting summer plans to look forward to! Dan is guiding a DC tour this weekend and on Monday the boys and I will fly out to meet him. We will explore DC as a family for a few days and then we (minus Dan) will head to North Carolina to visit my dad and stepmom for a few days. So many more fun things are in store and we can't wait for the summer to unfold and for the end-of-era sadness to fade.

Thanks for checking in! Have a great holiday weekend!

Catching up...and a cardiology update!

Well hello (as Elijah would say)! It's been a loooong time since my last post, yikes. Life has been a bit of a blur, but in a nutshell: we celebrated Easter (quietly this year), E had a cardiology check-up, we have enjoyed our new backyard like crazy, I visited a friend in Reno for a few days, Elijah has suffered from seasonal allergies (boo), Dan has been crazy busy at work, I turned a cookbook manuscript in to a publisher and we got our RV out of storage for the summer! Whew!

Dan is guiding a tour in Washington DC for the next few days, so the boys and I are hanging out and enjoying this delicious weather. We let both boys take the day off from school yesterday and we drove south of the Cities to retrieve our RV that has been sitting in storage since early November. The boys have wanted to do EVERYTHING in the RV, which is currently sitting in our driveway. They want to eat meals in it, play in it and watch movies in it. The second it rolled into the driveway, my entire mood changed. That RV signifies peace for me, for all of us. I love having it close and I love the idea of traveling with my cuties again this summer! 

Elijah's cardiology check-up last month went great! The stenosis in his valve is in the mild-moderate range, but heart function was great and there are no immediate concerns. In six months he will get a cardiac MRI (his first) and we'll go from there. The MRI will be able to tell us much more accurately what is going on inside his heart. Yay for another good report!

Here's hoping that May not be as crazy as April! Thanks for peeking in...have a great rest of your weekend.