Randomness

Here are some random shots from our life.  Penny is a nosy neighbor...she loves to watch out the front windows and announces when the neighbors are coming/going.  Last week, we had some dirt delivered to patch the holes in the yard. She sat by the window while the guys were spreading the dirt and gave reports every few minutes- the truck is leaving, the men are raking, they have a backhoe...she loved it!

 Bubby loves his tubby...he just loves to sit in the water and relax :) Can't wait to start him in water therapy!

 Sister is having a much better go of things at bed time these days. She now sleeps with yellow monkey and lambie and her blankie. We're still working on getting her to stay in bed in the morning, but at least bed time is a much happier time! She was so cute, I risked the flash :)

The Amazing Lisa

Lisa came to visit Porter & I last week. Have I told you how amazing this girl is? Seriously! Between working full time and being an awesome wife and mommy to two beautiful girls, she found time to come see us, brought us Panera and dinner.

Lisa was there for me when I first found out that Porter was high-risk for DS. Although I felt like I didn't want to burden our family and friends during that time of uncertainty, I needed Lisa to know. I needed her to tell me that it was going to be OK, and she did. Lisa's got an amazing sister-in-law, Ashlee, who has DS. And Ashlee is an amazing aunt to Ella and Lily- she loves those girls something fierce. And when it all comes down to it, love is the most beautiful thing you can give someone. We've got lots of love in our house these days :)
Thanks Lisa for loving us! Right back at you :)

Thank you for being the most amazing friend...I'm so lucky to have you in my life!

Thank you Nana & Papa!

Last weekend, Nana & Papa came to play with Penny & Porter again. They stayed over this time and let mommy & daddy go out on a date. 

Penny went to her first Mary Kay party at Aunt Missy's house...too bad mommy forgot her camera and her phone at home, so I don't have any pictures...mommy fail! Penny had a blast playing with Aunt Missy's friends.

 Thank you so much Nana & Papa! We are so thankful for all your help!

7 weeks

Here are the 7 week photos...

 We had some really nice weather and Bubby loved playing outside on the blanket while big sister showed off on the swing set. He likes being outside, but isn't much a fan of windy days.

A visit from Lila & Maeve

My friend Lila was home from California, visiting her parents & in-laws. She and her amazing daughter Maeve snuck in a little visit to our house on their trip :)

 It was so great to see her and watch our girls play together.

 The girls got along great- they have very similar personalities :)

 Maeve introduced Penny to stickers and Penny introduced Maeve to play doh. They had a blast.

 Maeve loves babies and was so excited to hold baby Porter!

 Thanks so much for the visit! I hope we can see each other again soon!

Someone loves his sister :)

A certain little man in our house has become very aware of his big sister.

He hears her voice and he immediately starts looking for her. He wants to see what she's doing!

He loves when she takes the time to play with him- you should see the smiles!

And, he tries to touch her when she's holding him (she doesn't really like it...she makes the face below and says "he's touching me").

It's so much fun to see them bonding! I love watching big sister grow into her role. They make my heart happy :)

What's up?

I've fallen behind on blogging...I've been having too much fun with a little guy who gives me the happiest smiles :)

The weeks are flying by- he'll be 8 weeks old tomorrow. He's already grown so much since his 6 week photo!

And this little lady- she's amazing! 26 months and full of fun!

She really does think that her little brother is awesome. She loves to kiss his head and toes and helps me when I change his diapers. She asks to hold him and when he makes a peep, she says "It's OK baby Porter" or "It's OK Porter Charles"...I love the way she says Charles :)

Nana and Papa have been visiting on Sunday's to help. Papa is still recovering from his hernia surgery, so he's been enjoying lots of snuggles from his little buddy.

And Nana's been loving every second with her little ones!

We've been doing lots of tummy time and little man is getting stronger by the minute. I'm so proud of him- he works hard and rarely cries. He's doing great!

Hope you are all doing great too!

Show me your smile!

I'm seeing more and more of this these days and I love it! Such a happy boy!

Happy Easter!

We spent Easter at Nana & Papa's house. Porter took his first long car ride and slept the entire time both ways :) Yay Porter!
The bunny came to Nana & Papa's.

 Penny had fun opening her basket. She helped by opening Porter's too. Grammy made Penny and Porter new sweatshirts- I'll have to get better pictures of them in another post.

 Penny took her basket to church on Sunday morning to have it blessed. All throughout the Mass, she kept asking when she could have her basket back :)

 Since we were all dressed up, we got a family picture :)

 Porter met Great gram, Aunt Sue and cousin Dahlia. I thought getting a picture of two kids was hard- three is much harder, especially right before nap time.

 Our little bunny was so sleepy on Easter!

 He worked hard spreading the message of peace and love!

 Thanks Nana & Papa for a great Easter! Thanks for all your help throughout the weekend!

 And thanks to those crazy aunties who kept Penny occupied and Porter comfy. And Dave too! Penny had a blast playing with Dave.

Happy Easter! We were lucky to celebrate our many blessings with family (and Grammy & Pa through skype). We hope that you all find peace and happiness in God's love this Easter season.

10 Pounds!

It's official! We've got ourselves a ten pounder! And jaundice has officially cleared! Good news all around.

Sometimes it's hard to remember she's only 2

Big sister is equal parts easy and challenging right now. She wants to be independent and can do so much for herself. But she also sometimes acts out when I'm nursing or caring for Porter. She picks the times when diversion is most difficult (she is so smart). And I'm working on being gentle with my reprimands...its too easy to snap or scold when I should be showing her how I want her to act and redirecting her. She talks and acts like a little adult at times, so I need to remind myself that she really is just two!

Happiness is...

Finally deciding that it's cool to hold baby brother :)

Pennyism's

We are at such a fun stage right now. Penny cracks us up on a daily basis. Here are some recent Pennyism's:

• The Itsy Bitsy Spider came on Penny's music player and she started singing and doing the hand motions. Half way through the song, she stops and looks at her brother and says "come on, you do it Porter, OK?".
• The other morning, Penny opens the door to our bed room carrying her pillow, blanket and the gate from her bed room doorway and shouts "hey mama, you want a gate?".
• Penny has become very interested in the potty. Her dolls love to use the potty and have their diapers changed. She's even started taking off her diaper. While I was nursing Porter the other day, sister disappeared for a quick minute and returned. A half hour later, I picked her up for some cuddles and her bottom was soaked. Yeah, she took her diaper off to sit on the potty for a quick minute and pulled her pants back up sans diaper. Then it was time for mommy to play the "where did Penny go potty" game.
• Papa asked Penny how baby brother was doing on the phone recently and she replied "I boss him around".
• Penny has pretend phone conversations with our parents and Elmo on her LeapFrog cell phone. The conversations usually go something like this "hi, how are you? Oh good. Have a good day. Bye."
• When I change Porter's diaper, Penny always tells me that he has poopies. It took me a few changes to realize that she thought his boy parts were poopies. Oops!
• My sister told me about the Starfall website (an educational website) and we downloaded their ABC app for the iPad. Penny is having a blast learning her letters and I'm amazed at how quickly she's picked it up!
• Our neighbors are building a deck.  Penny tells everyone that daddy is helping Jason build a castle.

Her personality is AMAZING! We love watching her grow and learn. Of course with all these fun things come a few tantrums. Time out doesn't seem to work for her, so we're still trying to find a consistent means of discipline other than distraction, which still does the trick, but is difficult to do while I'm nursing or pumping. Overall, she's doing great- learning more by the minute and loving life!

One Month

Porter is one month old! This month really flew by!

In one month, we kicked jaundice, got cleared by cardio, started gaining weight and slept a lot. We spent four nights in the hospitals (birth & jaundice) and visited the doctor's office four times for weight and jaundice checks. We changed hudreds of diapers and washed hundreds of bottles. We are still doing the nurse/bottle/pump feeding marathon because someone falls asleep on the job.  But, we are getting stronger every day and have been trying to do one full nursing session every day. He can do it, but it exhausts him! We are feeding every 3 - 3.5 hours during the day and letting him go for one stretch between feedings at night. So far his longest stretch has been five hours from start to start, which is amazing!

Porter seems to like walks outside, playing with the sensory blocks, reading touch & feel books and flash cards, listening to music and tubbie baths (until its time to wash hair).

Porter dislikes when mommy eats broccoli, tomatoes and onions. He also dislikes having his arms wrapped up. There's not much else that he seems to dislike. He is calm and patient as long as you feed him on demand and keep his diaper clean.

We are loving life with Porter!