Hunger, destruction and laughter

Any chance he gets, our Sammy fills his deliciously chubby belly with food. :)



Overall we had a good weekend. Elijah and I experienced some very low lows on Saturday. His behavior was off the charts for a chunk of our day. It made me question my parenting skills and at the end of the day I was feeling pretty beat up and sad. Sunday was much better, thankfully. He is so incredibly strong-willed and he pushes his little limits as much and as often as he can.

I did make note of some more funny things that came from Elijah's mouth. During one of our weekend meals, he dropped a spoonful of yogurt onto his ankle by accident. He said, "Oh no! Mom! I spilled yogurt on my temple!"

Since he drinks soooo much whole milk, we have started serving him almond milk on occasion as an alternative (he's not a huge fan). Every time I put a glass of milk in front of him, he asks what kind it is. The almond milk we got over the weekend is vanilla-flavored. He has a difficult time saying the word "vanilla," so he says, "Mom, is this whole milk or gamilla almond milk?" It's so stinkin' cute and I refuse to correct him.

He has started doing this thing that drives me crazy. I will say a sentence to him or to Sam or to myself. An example..we will be in the car, and I'll say, "We're almost home, Sam!" Elijah will copy me and say, "'We're almost home, Sam!'" and then he'll say, "Who said that?" "Uhhm, I did, Elijah." "Oh. Mama said it?" "Yes." So the other day on the way home from the dropzone, Elijah asked me how long it takes to get home. I said, "About an hour!" He repeated me, using this gravelly, old-man-ish voice: "'About an hour!' Who said that, Mom?" I just about died laughing. Great, so I sound like an old man who has smoked his whole life?

And Sam continues to demolish our home. Our living room becomes a war-zone in about 10 seconds. He works on the destruction between eating breaks. He constantly wants a pile of raisins on the chair that he can graze and for the Fruit Loops box to be on the floor and to remain open so he can scoop his hand into it.

Our boys are keeping us busy! They are so much fun, even while they are making my grey hairs sprout like crazy. I wouldn't change a thing!

Hungry monster

There's something you must know about Sammy. He is the world's hungriest human. PLEASE CONSTANTLY PUT FOOD INTO MY MOUTH. THANK YOU.

The other night I was trying to make dinner and Sam had already eaten (a lot of) dinner and was hanging out in his exersaucer. He started screaming for more food (again), so I poured a few puffs onto his tray, closed the container and set it on the other side of his saucer. From the kitchen, I heard his MMmmmmmm-ing for a while, and then the hungry screaming started so I assumed he had run out of puffs. Then the MMmmmmm-ing resumed, so I went to investigate and this is what I found.



He found the container, opened it and poured its entire contents onto his tray. That's our Sammy. Stuffing handfuls of food into his mouth.



Is anyone not tired this week? Daylight savings always kills me. Mornings have been rough, but I know soon that will get better. I am waiting to hear from scheduling so we can get Elijah's surgery on the calendar. Next week we meet with ENT to talk about our worries concerning Elijah's constant post-intubation croup. Last time we met with ENT, he was not gentle when talking to us about some potential scary things so you can guess how I'm feeling about the appointment.

Thanks for checking in! Have a good week.

I love our home

This boy is a natural eater. I cannot believe how much food he is able to squish into his belly every day.



We had another fun weekend. Having Dan home on the weekends is wonderful!

Here is something we see around our house a lot. Elijah likes to play Grocery Store, which means that there are often grocery bags filled with various items strewn about our home.



This morning I found my shoes in a grocery bag, along with a package of barley, instant mashed potatoes and a few of Sammy's toys.



Saturday night Dan and I were in the kitchen making dinner when Elijah walked around the corner. "I have to go potty." WHHHAAAAAAT??? Squeals and scurrying ensued as we ushered him to the bathroom and sat him on his potty chair. Two minutes later, I heard, "I DID IT! I GO POTTY!" I went over to peek, and sure enough! AAHHHhhahhahahhhhhh, the amount of dancing and high-fiving that occurred was a little bit absurd. Then Elijah said, "Candy, please." Ohhhh, I see. The potty thing is starting to click and now he knows to use it for personal gain. Which is fine with me! At least something is motivating him!



We asked him a lot more yesterday if he wanted to sit on the potty chair and every time he said, YES! And every time he went potty! And every time he got candy! Now that we know it is clicking, we can get much more serious about this potty training business. YAY!!

Sammy is working on sitting up on his own. He is gaining strength quickly. His napping is still all over the place, and he still has a lot of fussy-needy time during the day. He is CHUBBY. His legs are so fat that we can't get socks to stay on his feet.



I am beyond excited about the short work week and the upcoming long holiday weekend with my men!

A daddy-filled weekend

Samson is in the Christmas spirit!



Our weekend, ahhhh, our weekend. I knew it would be nice to have Dan at home for an entire weekend, but I had no idea how nice. We had our first snowstorm on Saturday, so we spent the entire day at home. Yesterday we ventured out a bit, and it was WEIRD not having to do everything myself. Getting the stroller out of and back into the trunk, pushing the stroller, wiping drool and bottoms, etc.

Sammy has another little cold, mostly just a cough. Other than that, he is doing great. His naps are still sporadic, but he is such a sweet little happy guy. He is LOVING solid foods. I seem to remember it taking Elijah a good month before he was convinced solids were any good. Not our Sammy! This boy is busting out of 9-month clothes!

Elijah has been saying some of the funniest things lately. I started writing them down last night. Here are the ones I have so far:

"Wet's take a baff. I am dirty boy."

"I am a big monkey."

"I am a big E-ijah. Sammy a cute wittle baby."

"Wook, Mom, it's the moon! Is the moon stuck in the sky?"

"Daddy, eat the wall!"

And I will end with more Santa Sammy pics..

He eats!

I know I'm totally biased, but isn't this boy handsome?



Guess what? Samson now eats big boy food! I started feeding him oatmeal yesterday and he loved it! He is a natural eater, as I kind of guessed he would be given the fact that I am his mama. And he appears to have found his thumb, which we are feeling might become a habit. Elijah was never a thumb sucker or a pacifier man, or anything, so this is new to us!

Any time I take photos of Samson, Elijah says, "Picture of E-ijah?!" So here is my silly Elijah photo of the night!

Tidbits about our Sammy

I love this photo of Sam. It's one of my new favorites.



When Sam is about to cry, he sticks his bottom lip waaaaaay out. This is how I know I have about five seconds to make him happy. I appreciate the warning, especially when it is so darn cute.

His smile (that he wasn't too willing to show off for me this weekend) makes me melt! It lights up his entire face. It is one beautiful little smile.

We just started sitting him in the Bumbo chair and he does really well! After a few minutes of trying to hold his head up he lets it fall backward and rests it on the back of the chair as he looks straight up at the ceiling. That is my cue to remove baby from Bumbo chair.



He is so physically strong! He is constantly doing things that surprise us and that make us say, "Is that normal?"

He has been kicking his leg a lot. Yes, just one (well, mostly). We lay him on his playmat and he will kick that left leg like his life depends on it. There is a rattle that dangles from the top of this same playmat that he spends a lot of time staring at. He has started batting at it with his fists, with great determination.

His sweet baby smell is wonderfully delicious. When I'm feeding him in the middle of the night, I rest my nose on his head and breathe in the scent that I wish would never go away. Yummy!



As I have said many times before, Sammy is one hungry little guy and he has been right from the start. When he is hungry, his little mouth searches for food like crazy. ANYTHING that is near his mouth gets slurped/sucked/attacked/mauled. Most of the time his fists are the victims. We even have to be careful about having blankets or clothes anywhere near his mouth because if a piece of fabric touches his face he will mistake it for food and try to devour it. I will never forget seeing him slurp slurp slurping away at his poor fists for the first time, when we were still in the hospital. We have seen it a hundred times since and it continues to produce much laughter in our house.

Sam is finally getting some love from his big brother! It is very sweet to watch Elijah shower him with attention. He is extremely gentle and gives him nice little tummy rubs and leg pats and head kisses. Just this past weekend he started saying, "I wuv Sam!" without any prompting. He even said it a few times when Sam wasn't in the room with us. I guess Elijah just decided that he was going to love this little person who has been living with us for the past eleven weeks.

Wednesday

We were so happy that the weather was crappy today! Dan was able to come home from work early and spend most of the day with us. He and Elijah spent the evening putting Elijah's new big boy bed together and we were even able to have dinner together! We made Elijah try some of his burger and green beans and potatoes and he was not happy about any of that. We have decided that our picky eater needs to stop being so picky.

I just peeked in on Elijah and he looks like such a big boy sleeping in his new bed. What happened to our baby?! Hopefully the night goes well in his new surroundings.

Weather permitting, Dan will be away for the next four days. It is tough having him away so much, but we will manage. One of the hidden perks of our situation is that I am forming really close bonds with both of our boys.

Speaking of our boys, Samson will not go to sleep tonight! I'm off to soothe him some more...

Four days old!

Things honestly could not be going more smoothly for us. Last night Samson was an AWESOME sleeper. Dan and I put him in our bed with us and we had to wake him up both times to eat in the middle of the night. We woke up feeling quite rested this morning!



Elijah has been very sweet to Sam, always wanting to hold "it." :) He hasn't shown any signs of jealousy yet, but from what I hear, that will come.



I feel like Samson is the perfect little addition to our family. I worried so much about how we would all adjust and so far it is going better than I ever could have dreamed. I'm so in love with him already.



So far, here is what we know about Samson. He does not like having his diaper changed (AT ALL). He loves to sleep. He has the softest skin on the planet (I've been nibbling on his neck as much as he will let me). He LOVES TO EAT. With Elijah, we were always super concerned about him not eating enough. With Sam, we are concerned about not having enough food available for him.



I have to mention what an amazing husband I have. I have not changed ONE diaper of Sam's yet. Dan is so good about making sure I am comfortable (c-section pain still owie) and that I can focus on my main baby duty (feeding Sam). I feel so lucky with the three boys God has given to me. I could not be a luckier wife/mama.

(This is Sam's trademark one-eyed peek. He likes to open his right eye and check out what is going on around him.)



Elijah is napping, so I am going to grab my littlest cutie and head upstairs for a nap, too. Thanks for checking in and for all of the prayers and well wishes. We love our friends and family!!

The spunkman

Can you tell Elijah has been picking out his own outfits lately? :) He likes to layer and he is extremely selective about what shirt(s) he puts on in the morning.



He has also been asking to snuggle with a blanket and pillow on the floor a lot.



And check out his new big boy bike! He can't quite reach the pedals yet, but he does a great job of scooting around on his "bwue bike." Look at my big boy!



Something I hear about nine million times every day is, "WOOK, MOM!" He could be showing me any number of things, but most of the time he is showing me his armpit. When I go in for the tickle, he either giggles uncontrollably or he puts his arm down and says, "HHhhhug! Hug!"



He has started climbing into the love sac and surrounding himself with pillows and blankets. This is the first time he has shown interest in the love sac, and it almost looks like we could lose him in there.



Our patience is still being tested here in the Porta house. Elijah's new thing is banning meal times. Getting him to the table has never been a struggle before, but suddenly it is. We have completely cut out juice and snacks between meals and that sometimes helps to make him hungry enough to come to the table willingly when it's time to eat. Sometimes not, though.



We made a trip to the park this weekend and I realized what an incredibly friendly little boy Elijah is. He says, "HI!!" to everybody at least once. It's funny how some people are receptive to his hellos and some people just aren't (how could you not be?). He loves people so much. He takes after my dad in that way. My dad is the world's friendliest person and Elijah appears to be following in his footsteps.

Well, here we go with another week! I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I'm curious to see if I will get to see my doctor and if she will remember who I am. Next week I will receive my last progesterone injection, so shortly after that we will get to see how well the shots have been working. My personal guess for when I will go into labor is May 25th. Just a weird hunch I have. Have a good week!!

Elijah funnies

One of the reasons I keep up on this blog is so I can write down things Elijah is doing so I can always remember them. Here are a few things that have been making us laugh lately..

I have mentioned that Elijah has been really interested in walking lately. One of his favorite things to do when Dan and I are both home is to walk back and forth between the two of us. He is getting SO GOOD at taking steps on his own! I tried to get it on video, but he shuts down when the pressure of the video camera is on him. Anyway, I think it is so cute how he says, "Walk 'a Daddy!" when I have a hold of him and "Walk 'a Mama!" when Dan has him. Then he says, "Ready, set, GO!" and takes off. His little bobble is so stinkin' cute. I could just eat that kid up.

There is a new show on Disney called Jungle Junction and Elijah is IN LOVE WITH THIS SHOW. Seriously. In love! He asks to watch it all the time: "'Atch dunshin' pease, Mama?" How can I say no to that? Lately as I am putting him to bed we chat about all of the characters on the show. He loves talking about the Hippo Bus and ElleVan the elephant and Bobby the Bird.

Speaking of Bobby the Bird! Last week at PT, his therapists got out a bunch of beanie bag animals for Elijah to play with. One of them was a bird that looked exactly like Bobby from Jungle Junction. In his most excited voice, he exclaimed, "BOBBY!! Oh Bobby!" and started hugging and kissing him. Bobby then had to accompany him throughout the entire session. It was super cute. This week at PT as he did his standard walk in his walker down to the play room when we first got there, he started screaming out for Bobby: "Boooobbbbbbbbbyyyyyyyy!!??" So again, Bobby stayed with him through the rest of the session. When the session was over, he looked at Bobby and said in a very sad voice, "Bye Bobby."

Elijah has been such a polite little man lately. He says, "'Ank 'oo, Mama," and "'Ank 'oo, Daddy," all the time and it makes my heart melt.

When we ask Elijah something that his answer is "no" to, he says "Ohhh" as he gives us a squinty, furrow-browed look and shakes his head.

He has been very interested in his stuffed animals lately. I think his most recent additions, Mama and Baby Elephant and Mama and Baby Giraffe (from the SD Zoo) have sparked this, perhaps? He snuggles and loves on his animals all the time (and plays music for them), when he has never given them the time of day before.

Elijah has been exploring different emotions recently. He likes to say, "HAPPY!" as he gives us a huge happy face. Then it's, "sad," as he gives us a very pathetic and sad-looking face. Then, "MAD!" as he pounds a fist on the table.

I mentioned this on Facebook already, but Elijah has been really into counting. Every night when we go upstairs to read books before bed we count as he is climbing up the stairs. He can count pretty well (with only one or two mistakes) all the way to 30. Except the end of it goes, "twenty-eight, twenty-nine, TWENTY-TEN!!!" Dan and I (whoever is following him up the stairs) tickle him after every fifth number, so FIVE!, TEN!, FIFTEEN!, TWENTY!, TWENTY-FIVE!, and TWENTY-TEN! are very exciting numbers. Sometimes in the middle of dinner or at another random time throughout the day, he will shout out, "TEN!!" and start squealing like he is being tickled, of course so one of us (preferably Dan) will start tickling him.


p.s. H1N1 vaccinations are IN IN IN! They are saving Elijah a dose for next Tuesday since his cardiologist wants him to wait till after his heart cath to get it.

Kind of a side note here. Elijah has not been eating very well lately, which is very unusual for him. It has me a little bit worried, but we are hoping it is just a 2-year-old phase that will pass. If you feel inclined, please pray about this!

How is Elijah doing these days?

Communication

We are so thrilled with the improvements in speech Elijah has made over the past few months. Four months ago he said maybe five words. Three months ago he said about 40 words. Now? He says a couple hundred different words. They are "his" version, of course, and Dan and I usually have to translate to others, but this is huge and very exciting. He even said his first two-word phrase the other day! He said, "Bye bye, Dada!"

His speech therapist just re-evaluated him and the results showed that he is basically caught up! I get little tears in my eyes writing those words because his language explosion has come as a huge and very pleasant surprise to us. He does still qualify for speech therapy, though, because he could use some help with saying the beginnings of words and making the words he says a little clearer in general. He is still using some nasal sounds to say some of his words and that goes hand-in-hand with not moving enough air through his mouth. He has improved a lot with this, so we continue to work with him by encouraging him to use whistles and kazoos and to blow air through straws, etc.

His sign language has taken off, too! A few months ago he had maybe two or three regular signs that he used. Now he will sign (or at least try) any word we show him. Amazing!

Gross motor

Elijah is still working hard to walk independently. He uses his walker more willingly now and he cruises along furniture much more comfortably than he did even a few weeks ago. We still don't know the reason for his very low muscle tone and whether or not his tethered spinal cord surgery has been the reason for his recent improvements or if it will help him with his walking. We would like to think that the surgery has helped, but it's hard to say for sure.

The fact that he is steadily getting stronger is a promising sign. He is now climbing stairs like a monkey, and even going back down them on his own. He wasn't even close to climbing stairs a month ago, so this is another huge feat. He crawls around the house like crazy and he even has a funny half crawl/half walk thing he does sometimes. One thing that we noticed an immediate improvement on after his surgery in June was his willingness/ability to reach out of his immediate comfort zone to get things. This is something he refused to do before, but he was doing it freely within a week of his surgery. Releasing that tether must have made certain movements a lot more comfortable for him.

Social

Elijah's social skills are something I have spent a whole lot of time worrying about. Because of all of his hospital time and sick time he spent a lot of the first two years of his life with just us. Until recently, he has not done very well while in large groups of people, or even medium groups of people or small-to-medium groups of people. It's just something he wasn't used to, so it overwhelmed him.

About a year ago we found a daycare for him that we loved (and still love). It's a small home with a handful of kids for him to interact with. He has gone through some periods where he has been pretty uncomfortable at this daycare, even as recently as one month ago. Some days he wouldn't eat any food, or he wouldn't move from one spot, even though he was physically able to, or he would just seem out of sorts and overwhelmed.

We have learned that he is definitely a kid who needs a little nudging to be a part of social situations because without a nudge, he would be content spending the rest of his life with just Dan and me. Sometimes I feel bad for pushing him into situations that he isn't necessarily comfortable with, but ultimately we know this is the best thing for him. As we suspected it would, his daycare setting has given him confidence that Dan and I never could have given him on our own.

In the past few weeks a switch seems to have been flipped (his daycare provider's exact words) and he is a totally new man! He cruises everywhere, he has been eating and sleeping well and he is playing well and interacting with the other kids.

With that said, Elijah still does have a hard time in some social settings. In really large settings, like the Splash Park we went to last weekend, he still tends to get pretty overwhelmed. When he gets to the point of feeling like he isn't comfortable, he tends to stay in one spot (preferably close to me or Dan) and just observe his surroundings.

We are in the midst of his biggest developmental spurt yet--socially, physically and verbally. I cannot describe in words how wonderful this makes me feel. It is amazing!!!

Cardiac

We will be taking Elijah in for a heart check within the next month or so. The plan back in April (which could very well be different next month) was to do a heart cath this fall and open heart surgery (valve replacement) next spring.

Other

Elijah's weight is good. He lingered right around 27 pounds for almost a year, but recently he broke the 28-lb mark, so this is great. His height hasn't moved much within the past year either but we aren't too worried about that right now, especially with the recent genetic testing all coming back normal.

He is slowly getting past some of his texture issues. He is still pretty selective about putting anything with a unique color or texture in his mouth, but luckily there are a lot of foods he willingly eats. Overall, he is a very good eater. I always call him my little dairy man because he is totally head over heels for all dairy foods.

Potty training is on the horizon, but we haven't begun yet. I don't think he is 100% ready at the moment. We will give it a try this fall.

He still loves trucks, trains and his new recent love is airplanes. I don't know how this kid can hear planes as well as he does. It's pretty amazing. We'll be sitting inside with the doors shut and the air conditioner running while watching Thomas the Train and he will smile and do the sign for airplane and say "AAAyyyyyy!" I'll listen closely and sure enough, I'll hear the ever faintest hum of an airplane in the sky about a hundred miles away.

Elijah is still in PT (2x/week), speech (1-2x/week) and OT (1x/week) and we will be continuing this through the fall/winter, and hopefully beyond that as well. His name has been put into the drawing for receiving hippotherapy this fall, so we are hoping he is chosen!

We thank God every night for the health He has bestowed on Elijah this summer. It has been such a welcome, nice reprieve from the illness-ridden fall/winter/spring of 2008-2009. In a few weeks we will check to see if the Pneumovax booster helped to create the antibodies he was lacking during his immunity check in June. Please pray for this!

There is much more I could say about our precious boy, but I'll stop here. He is doing amazingly well in every arena and we are so thrilled about the huge spurt he is going through right now. We just love this little boy to pieces!!

Mystery bumps

We found a bunch of red bumps all over Elijah's body earlier today, so Dan brought him into the doctor to find out that he is having an allergic reaction to something. We have no idea what it could be. Maybe a lingering medication from his hospital stay? Who knows. We gave him a dose of Benadryl to hopefully help with it tonight.



Even though it was a little bit warm, we played outside for a while tonight. We made an attempt at eating some ice cream in honor of our angel friend Kate, but Elijah was not interested. I guess he is back to refusing entry to anything that doesn't look worthy of going inside his mouth.



Elijah has a new love. Thomas the Train. He makes googly eyes at the Thomas DVD case all day long. He's in love!



That's about all we know today. Thanks for checking in!

As good as our little boy is feeling, I'm beginning to wonder if I imagined surgery?

No new pics again today, so you get one that was taken exactly two years ago..



Our spunky little boy is doing awesome! I never thought he would be doing this well six days after surgery. We had canceled all of his therapies this week in anticipation of him being sore and sluggish or even still in the hospital, but now I wish we wouldn't have. Oh well.

We have noticed that Elijah's appetite has increased a lot since surgery. It has to be a coincidence because I cannot think of any reason why surgery would have made him so hungry. He has always been a good eater overall, with chunks of time here and there where he wouldn't eat very well. And he has always been very selective about what he puts in his mouth. If he doesn't like the way something looks, he absolutely will not allow entry. Yesterday he let me put a fruit snack in his mouth and he ate it! He would not have done that before. Today he was sitting on the floor with a box of crackers in his lap, munching on cracker after cracker. He would not have done that before. Whatever the reason for the increased appetite, yay!

Dr. J, Elijah's neurologist, called today to let us know that the results from his bloodwork that checked for muscle disorders came back perfect! Check off another worry.

Next on our list is to get Elijah scheduled for a hearing test and to get evaluated by an ENT for his nasal speech. Crossing things off the list feels wonderful!

Piggy man

The good thing about giving Elijah steroids is that eating is suddenly not an issue. At all. Last night I put a tortilla with cream cheese "appetizer" in front of him while I was getting his dinner ready and when I looked over a minute later the whole thing was GONE. I'm thinking this is my opportunity to put spinach and brussel sprouts on his plate.

He is a cough monster right now, but this round isn't nearly as bad as it has been in the past. Unless something strange happens today, Dan and I are ON for date night tonight. I'm super excited! We have been really diligent about eating well and exercising for the past two weeks, so eating out sounds extra fun and yummy to me. THANK YOU SO MUCH, DEBRA, for offering to watch our munchkin! We appreciate this mucho.

I STILL haven't taken any new Elijah pics, so here are a few more from his younger days. Because he is so old now.


Before surgery #1...waiting for the anesthesiologist to come take my baby. :(


The cutest dragon I've ever seen. That smile melts my heart.


Eight months old. He was not fond of the pumpkin.


Ten months old. Reading a book at Grammie and Gramps' house in NC.


Story time with Grandpa before bed


Fishy face


One of my favorites


Couldn't you just kiss that face all over?

Teeth and crusts

For a few months now, I've been waiting for Elijah's last four back molars to come in. I keep looking in his mouth wondering where they could be. I think I have been searching for them since the end of last summer, so it has been a while. The other day I did a quick tooth count, and...hmmmm, 20 teeth?! He already has all of his teeth?? I counted again and again, and sure enough! They are all there, and they have been there since at least August. E's pediatrician has always told us not to be surprised if he got his teeth later than usual considering all the other stuff his body has had to work through. Obviously this is not the case! And aside from maybe the first two teeth he ever sprouted, he has never shown a single sign of being bothered by teething. Those molars must have been a piece of cake for him. Tough kid!

Last night Elijah ate another wide array of foods....more chicken pot pie, pizza, veggies, bananas.. and he ate two entire HUGE pizza crusts.

Still no new pics, so here are some more oldies...


One of my favorite pics, taken at three months old. I just love that chubby neck.


Four months old


Five months old


Mmmmmmmm....I love smooching that soft, chubby neck..


Six months old, catching up on news..


Seven months old, another one of my favorites..


Remember Helmy? I feel Elijah's lopsided head every day and wonder if he'll be upset with us someday for not sticking it out with the evil helmet.


One year old. This is still his trademark sad face.