The Zoo

I know I am horrible with pictures, I'll get better. Porter and I went with my mom and her friend and daughter Haven to the zoo on Friday. Although it was slightly chilly, it was wonderful weather for the animals and Porter couldn't be happier. We stopped at the playground first where he noticed some ducks. Ask Porter the lesson he learned and he will tell you that the duck will bite you. He continues to inform us of this fact a number of times throughout the day. They have even more cute babies there now, but Porter has his favorites. He was entranced with Zuri the baby elephant for twenty minutes. As we were moving on, we stopped to see the Rhino. He leaned over the fence and yelled, "Hey Rhino, it's me Porter!" followed by a funny motion with his arms yelling, "and my friends!" As if he and the Rhino knew each other and he was introducing us. Hilarious! He keeps coming up with the funniest phrases. I can't believe he is almost two! He can and will let you know that it is his "bir-day." He also already opened one of his presents while I was in the shower! Naughty! But the naughtiess doesn't stop there. He has once again gone on a hunger strike, he thinks he is justified in biting me when I tell him no, he loves to climb and has now started into full blown lay on the ground basket-case temper tantrums. Oh, how I feel horrible for being that same child when I was little for my mom. Although at times i find it quite humerous, I hope this is only a phase. But if tantrums have anything to do with genetics, Tom and I are in it for the long haul. I am also a bit concerned for the safety of this unborn child since Porter's new form of recreation is to try to push the baby doll in the stroller at Nanny's down the stairs. Am I in trouble here?

Penicillin

So let me back track a little. Tom didn't ever get his sinus surgery so he ended up with another sinus infection last week. He was put on antibiotics and we thought that would be the end of it, but of course in our family it wasn't. We like to frequent Dr. Payne weekly. On Saturday he thought his tongue felt swollen but didn't think much of it. Well early Monday morning he felt really itchy and when he checked he had what we thought were hives on his chest and upper thighs. He called my grandpa who changed his antibiotics and prescribed him an antihistimine (10 total pills cost us $70!) I talked to him while he was at work and he was really complaining. I thought he was just being a ninny and told him he needed to stay at work. Well, he came home and when I got home from work that afternoon I could see why. His face, his back, his stomach, his neck, his toes, well let's just say everywhere was covered in this rash. The only other time I remember seeing someone's face like this was when Whitney was allergic to her face lotion in Jr. High. (I know some of you know what I'm talking about) He slept for a while and when he woke up we took his temperature of 102. I told my mom this and she didn't think a temperature could be associated with hives so she called good old Dr. Payne again. He was still at work at this time so I rushed him down there. When Tom took off his shirt my grandpa said that wasn't hives and went next door to get the dermatologist to come look. I won't go into more detail, but we have established that Tommy is allergic to Penicillin! They gave us an epipen in case he wakes up and can't breath or swallow (nice and comforting!) and gave us some other meds to help the itching. Apparantly oftentimes your first allergic reaction isn't usually that bad, but now he needs to be careful because another dose of it could end him up in the emergency room. It pays to know people in the medical field that's for sure but hopefully we can avoid frequenting that place from now on!

THE TERRIBLE TWOS

Well we may be starting a little early, but we have hit the terrible twos big time! I don't know what to do with my little naughty boy. Every time I turn around, he is getting into something else. And the worst part is, it isn't like he is just being busy, he knows he is naughty!! Currently his favorite naughty things are scissors, plastic bags that he loves to try to put on his head, throwing everything in every drawer all over the floor, throwing all of the magnets off of Nanny's fridge off the floor, pulling dogs tails, and well biting his mommy when she tries to get him to stop! I love him and the times that he is sweet and innocent almost make me cry. I love watching him entertain himself and start to use his imagination at play, but honestly I am at my wits end to know what to do to change this behavior. I'm sure that daylights savings didn't help my frustration any since according to Porter's internal alarm, you should wake up at four every morning! Not to mention he is a masterful manipulator! We put him to bed tonight and he started bawling (usually he goes right to sleep, seriously)Tom went in to rock him to sleep and he kept asking for his Mommy, wanting his mommy to cuddle him and hold him. So the sucker that Tom is brought him into our room and handed him to me. Well, Porter didn't want to cuddle me, he just wanted to get out of his room and going to bed!

On a separate note, this whole H1N1 epidemic is killing me! I have never been one to be paranoid about stuff like this, but when things hit closer to home it makes it even scarier! My grandma died of the basic flu suddenly and unexpectedly and so the flu has always been a scary thing to me. However, I must admit, this was the first year that I even got vaccinated for the seasonal flu as I'm not usually the one to jump on board and believe those things actually protect you I finally got an appointment for myself since I am a high risk being pregnant. For the life of me, I had the hardest time finding vaccines for my little one! Apparently one year olds aren't high risk. Seriously? I had to take him to my grandpa's office because my pediatrician ran out of the seasonal flu vaccine but I couldn't find anywhere to get my little guy vaccinated for the H1N1 and with the terrible twos in full force I couldn't wait 3 hours in a line for it. Did you know that only like 3 pediatrician's offices in Utah even got the vaccine to give to their patients so far? I am having a hard time understanding how that is fair! Not to mention, loved the story about Wall Street getting the vaccines over the hospital in New York who had to turn a lot of high risk groups away! But honestly guys this isn't Obama's fault! It was President Bush's fault 4 years ago when the flu vaccine was gone, but Obama is still blameless when they knew this was going to happen! For a man who basically wants Socialism, its funny how money talks! Like I said before, I am not usually paranoid about vaccinations for the flu, but it is one of those things I guess that you could never forgive yourself for if you didn't get it for them and then they got seriously sick. ( I don't need a repeat of RSV!) Although I feel guilty about it, I did call in a favor from two wonderful kind hearted people that are helping me get an appointment at one of the Pediatricians offices that did get it! So after a wild goose chase, Porter and I will be vaccinated.

October

The craziness of October never seemed to end, but we've made it through and are looking forward to the Holidays! Porter hated most of the Halloween festivities and never used the original costume I had intended for him. (Tigger) His favorite part was probably the "Hunkin Catch" (translation: Pumpkin Patch)He was in heaven! Winnie the Pooh cartoons have taught him that pumpkins can be used as drums and this was a whole field of them! For the first three Halloween parties he attended, no real costume was evident as he would throw temper tantrums whenever he saw the tigger costumer or the name was even mentioned. At my family Halloween party, we managed to get him to wear a hat if papa did too, however, he morphed his costume into that of a hick missionary as he has become obsessed with Scriptures which is what he is carrying in the picture. This obsession with scriptures has continued. Ruth Ann bought me a new set of scriptures for my birthday. (Miko ate my old set, nice huh?) Porter got his own little Book of Mormon with his name engraved on it and cannot be separated from it. We left it at my mom's house and church was a disaster without them today.Finally, on Halloween, we managed to get him to dress up as a full blown Cowboy with daddy, cowboy boots and all. he even did a little trick or treating and actually liked it!Back tracking a little more, my Birthday was great. Tom spoiled me with a wonderful breakfast in bed, my mom took me and Porter to lunch and my parents watched Porter while I went out to dinner with my friends. (tommy had school) We celebrated a couple of other days that week and Tom and I got to go to a hotel over night while Justin and my parents watched Porter.