Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Porter is Six!

Porter turned six about two weeks ago (I know, I am way behind on things). We had a joint birthday party for he and Dallin the week before and it was really fun. We went to Litza's Pizza and then Hollywood Connection. On Porter's actual birthday, we did something small as a family. Porter wanted to go to the movies, so I took them to see Tangled at the theater where you can eat your lunch in the movie. Porter got pizza for lunch and both loved the movie (so much that I had to take them to see it again the next week). We had cake and ice cream then and Porter got his presents (which were sort of disappointing to him since new shoes is not a toy. Oh well).








Porter is growing up so much lately. When he started school, I couldn't imagine how he would learn to do all of the things he was supposed to learn, but he is doing great. He is getting braver. My shy little boy seems to be a thing of the past. Now he has friends at school and daycare, greeting them without being prompted or compelled. He loves playing soccer and can't wait to start with indoor soccer soon. He is doing well in gymnastics and getting over a lot of his fears there. He even did well in swimming lessons (which surprised me since he is the kind of kid who wears goggles to run through the sprinklers so he won't get any water in his eyes). He likes to read books and really likes to build Legos (which makes Joe very happy, since they can spend hours building things together and Dallin still can't be trusted not to eat the Legos). He has lost two teeth so far and is hoping to lose more soon. He has weird little shark teeth, where the permanent ones come in before the baby ones fall out, so we usually know when one of the baby ones is going to get loose. He likes to tell jokes, some of which have no discernable punchline, and laugh hysterically at how funny he is. We love him for the smart, fun, interesting little boy that he is and are glad to have him.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Porter's near death experiences

Twice in the last week, Porter thought he was going to die. The first time happened in the snow storm on Tuesday night. They boys and I had gone sledding before the purported blizzard was supposed to come. While we were out, Porter's sled started to blow away. At first, I thought he was messing around, throwing it or kicking it or something but then I saw him crying while he was trying to catch it. I went running after it too, but the wind was blowing it away faster than we could run and Porter was so upset by then, he was just standing there screaming and crying. I finally dragged both boys up the hill to the car and we decided to drive to the other side of the park to see if we could find the sled somewhere. As we were driving, the snow started coming down faster and faster and the wind was still blowing pretty good. Finally, we spotted the sled. It had blown into a fence several blocks from where we had started. Porter got out of the car to grab the sled but the snow was blowing right in his face and he couldn't move. He just cried and screamed again. I went out to get him and the sled and got everyone and everything back into the car. When were safely back into the car, Porter kept saying that the blizzard tried to kill him and he thought he was going to die in the snow. He was grateful to Heavenly Father for keeping him safe and for fences that catch sleds. these are the pre-blizzard sledding pictures

Porter's other incident was more scary. It happened yesterday. Porter got a cold from Dallin and, as tends to happen with Porter, it turned to croup. He had woken up the night before, saying it hurt to breathe, so we took him to the pediatrician the next morning (it's a good thing the doctor had some holiday hours). While we were at the doctor's office, it got harder and harder for Porter to breathe. While we were waiting in the exam room, his eyes started to water and he couldn't talk anymore. He and I had to go out into the hall to find the doctor and bring him back. The doctor gave Porter some steroids and the breathing treatment (it is epinepherine that you breath in). We waited for about an hour at the doctor's office but Porter didn't improve enough so they had us take him to the emergency room at Primary Children's hospital. Porter was terrified. It was one of the greatest days of Dallin's life though. While Porter had to lay in the hospital bed for hours, getting more steroids and just being monitored generally, Dallin got to watch a movie, practice is kung fu kicks in the hallways and go the cafeteria 3 times for lunch and treats. While Dallin sat in Porter's room, snacking and watching Pirates of the Caribbean, poor Porter was only allowed liquids. Luckily, they brought him a slushy (hooray for children's hospital that have snow cone machines inside them). Once, Dallin was watching Porter's heart rate and oxygen monitor and was wondering when the numbers would go to zero. I jokingly told him that we didn't want that to happen because that would mean that Porter was dead. I thought Porter had fallen asleep and wasn't listening but then we saw his heart rate speed up a lot. When I said that, he heard and thought he really was going to die and got scared. We had to reassure him that nothing would happen and then his heart rate went back down. I caught him checking the monitor periodically after that though to make sure he wasn't dying. Eventually, they decided that he was well enough to go home and we have been hanging around the house, playing the Wii since last night.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

4 years old

This is my little superhero Dallin. Though he likes Superman a lot, he is also happy to pretend to be Wolverine, Iron Man, Batman, or any other superhero that captures his mood for the day. He turned 4 on November 20. He is such a big boy now and we are so happy to have him. For his birthday, he wanted to go the aquarium. He was naughty for a while and had to sit out in the hall for pushing and hitting but he eventually settled down and enjoyed everything.








After the aquarium, he wanted to eat at T.G.I.Fridays. Unfortunately, the spagetti was not what he thought it should be and he spent a lot of time hiding under the table crying. Upon threats of no birthday cake later and no birthday treat and song from the people at the restaurant, he eventually agreed to eat some of his lunch and then he left happy.


We just got him some cupcakes for his birthday.














Happy Birthday to one of my favorite little Naughties.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

gymnastics again

(Sorry it takes me so long to get around to posting things. Blame it on my spotty Internet service. That's right Quest, I'm talking about you.)

About a week and half ago, Porter and Dallin had their semi-annual gymnastics tournament. Dallin was uncharacteristically nervous and kept making his shy faces. He did a good job with his actual gymnastics though.



When it was Porter's turn, I unfortunately turned into one of those terrible stage moms from Toddlers and Tiaras or something (Joe had a similar breakdown). Porter started out strong on the bars
on the beam, he could pick to do the easy routine or the hard. He chose the easy. I was annoyed with him, since I know he can do the hard routine and do it well. I still feel bad though, I don't know why it mattered so much to me but Porter is lucky that beam was only the second of four things because I might not have been able to speak to him if he hadn't had floor (which also didn't go as well as it should have for him) and vault to give me time to calm down. Honestly, did I think it reflected poorly on me, that he wouldn't get his participation trophy (because it is not a competition in any sense, it is just an exhibition). Even knowing that he can do it doesn't excuse me. If he feels nervous or something about doing the hard routine one day, I should let it go. I always get annoyed watching other parents try to push their kids into things they are not ready to not willing to do and yet I stood in the corner steaming about his lack cartwheels on the beam. I even feel kind of bad admitting it now, since I could have just posted some pictures and written what a good job they both did.


Dallin and Joe had a good time snuggling afterward
here are two proud boys with their medals and certificates





















Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Red Butte Gardens and the Museum of Natural History

This summer, Porter and Dallin had the chance to play on soccer teams with two brothers named Luke and Logan. They are friends with them now and so we went to Red Butte gardens with them. Here are a couple of pictures from that outing. The little girl is Luke's twin sister Callie. It was really pretty and we had a really fun time running around, looking at plants and wildlife.




One place that Dallin loves to go to is the museum of natural history at the University of Utah. On Fridays now, they have this really great program about the recent discovery of a new dinosaur, the Utahceratops. We met a Utahceratops (though Dallin and Porter were quick to let me know that it was not real)
Pretended to be Utahceratopses (maybe the plural is Utahceratopi)
and petted him or her.



then we looked at other exhibits at the museum, like the rocks and minerals (since Porter loves Crystals, this rock was exciting to him)

we looked at disgusting bugs and water creatures like brine shrimp






and inspected animal skulls




since they are relocating the museum, a lot of the bones of the dinosaurs and early animals are gone but we still had a great time.