8/30/07: A super busy day but we're all surviving and the kids are super cute. Geoff is vocalizing a lot and the signs help us know what he is saying and allow us to have meaningful conversations. We're blessing Margot on Sunday at church. I love to cook quiche. Phillip is very excited for this years marching band. Go Gators. That's us.
8/22/07: Well, it just doesn't get more cute. Eliza made this blessing dress for Margot. Grandma bought the cute fabric and made the wonderful quilt.
8/20/07: Today we had a good time at Grandmas house. We played with sidewalk chalk and showed Grandma how to play "Frogger." Geoff's playing with his PB candy like it's playdough. He is eathing it though. Phillip came across a recipie for edible playdough, and it was pretty much the same as PB candy. Good stuff. The kids got their vacines. Geoff hadn't had any since his 2 month, and Margot was just getting her 2 month shots. School started today, traffic is worse, but not much else is different so far. We're excited for Geoff to start his TC program at LF in January.
8/18/07: Geoffrey is so rediculously cute. He loves Margot so much, sometimes too much. Today I was cleaning up and found a candy land figurine. I gave it to Geoff and he went to put it away in the box. Unfortunately, the box is under the Scrabble box and Phillip thought he was just trying to get into the games. Geoff has such a good memory and usually puts things away. Grandma Porter set up a table and pencil box for Geoff. We did some cut and paste collages, then Geoff cleaned it all up and put the pencil box on the shelf. He's a great kid.
8/12/07: We're going to attend a symposium for children with hearing loss in September. This will be our first event of this sort. We're doing all we should with Geoff, and he's doing great but we will learn more things to do.
8/11/07: We survived the week! The band is looking and sounding great! Margot is around 12lbs now and Geoff is suuper cute.
8/7/07: Geoff is starting to be agitated when the baby is cryinng. He use to just laugh and sign/say happy. Twice he's run up to her and flashed his hands in her face, swatting her a little. He gets put in his room after that until he knocks on the door. It's usually about 1-2 minutes, then we talk about how he needs to be gentle. I'll have him kiss the baby and then we go on with life. The stressful moments like that are crazy, but mostly it's really fine. Geoff is a rascal sometimes but he isn't sulky, he snaps out of things quick.
08/03/07: The kids are sick! It's ironic that in all our treatments with Geoff, we really never had to deal with normal childhood sickness, runny nose, runny other.... Geoff's doing great though, he's so cute. Margot is fussier than in the past, but she's got her really cute times also.
07/29/07: Life with 2 can be challenging but it's pretty fun. Geoff is so protective of Margot. He loves to lie next to her in the play gym. When anyone else is holding her he tells them to give the baby back to mom. He loves to look at her when she's sleeping, and unfortunately, pound on the bed. :)
07/06/07: Look at this funny little tyedye dancing baby. For once her face isn't all contracted in the picture. She's really sweet and we like her a lot. We celebrated our anniversary with Grandma and Grandpa, and started a tradition of taking a family photo to commemorate. The rule is best of 3, and here you have it. Geoff figured out the sit subdued routine by the last one, the other 2 are funny. Geoff has been fussy about his ears for the last month, since just before the bead incident. On Monday the audiologist said he had something green growing in his ear and no they couldn't make new ear molds. So Dr. B gave us ear drops and things have gotten better. An outter ear infection, for those who want to know. He's super cute with the baby and is generally good about being gentle. One of the first times he touched her he grabbed her hand and tried to make her sign "mom" with her little balled up fist. He has also mastered the "R" which is so cute with his little fingers barely overlapping.
6/25/07: We're almost to 2 weeks and doing well. Margot is filling out nicely, she was like a stick figure at birth. Geoff is doing pretty good, he's getting lots of daddy time. Margot sleeps a lot and that is great!
Geoffrey pretending to be asleep, Margot wondering what that funny looking thing in front of mommy's face is.
Just three days old and she already is making plans to take over the world
Margot Tuesday Porter was born at 8:59pm on Tuesday, June 12th. She and Eliza are both fine. She weighs 7 pounds and 7 ounces and is 20 inches long. Geoffrey isn't sure what this all means yet.
6/10/07: We're still on the waiting side of things. Geoff is keeping us busy and in a state of coping. We got through a bead up the nose episode with realtively little stress today. The Peds-after hours clinic got us in so beautifully, I can't express how great a blessing it was. Hopefully Geoff will learn not to stick things up his nose soon.
06/04/07: Well, the baby is due today, but so far no show. We're enjoying a visit from my mother and Geoff is finally getting to go out an play in the pool. We celebrated Memorial Day with Grandma and Grandpa Porter. Phillip and Geoff watched the squirels reenact the squirel scene from "Sword in the Stone" one of Geoff's favorite movies.
05/16/07: Where is the month of May going to? Geoffrey continues to be adorable and super huggable. He's developing some separations anxiety because we've been separated more than usual, having doctor's appointments and such. Today we're getting an EKG to celebrate Geoff being off treatment for 1 whole year. There was an article about Geoff recently that said "Geoff's mom knew his life was a gift when he was born on Christmas." Truely it has been and continues to be a great gift. I'm grateful for the extra dollup of love from gratitude we learned to feel, on top of his amazingly lovable personality. Geoff's speech and sign continue to grow, though more speech growth lately. He vocalizes for most signs and has picked up nuances such as "marking" and some hidden consonants. Marking is when you make a 2 syllable sound for a 2 syllable word, etc... Basketball sounds more like "Bayobahh" but since we know what he means and he shoots a little jump shot as he says it, it's pretty good. He puts the G on go, which is great since G is totally invisible on the lips. He also says "ta-dn" for potty, and "ca-dn" for candy, so basically, all his needs are met. Thank goodness for the signs, because we are aiming for more than just basic needs communication. Best wishes to y'all.
5/07/07: Geoff has some funny little mannerisms lately, I'm not sure where he picked them up. He wants blue pants every day. He also likes to put his little hands on his little hips and lecture us. Tonight he signed his first prayer. He's been signing along parts of the prayer for the last month or so. At dinner tonight we were asking who would say the prayer and he pointed to himself. We went along with it and Eliza signed the prayer and Geoff copied just like a regular little kid being coached through a prayer. It was so amazingly cute.
4/17/07: We went to Seaworld this past weekend and Geoff did really well. He even took his turn riding the whale. We had a great time and Geoff, at least, did not get a sunburn.
I made Geoff this little sling so he can hold his bears when the new baby comes. Hopefully it will keep him from being as jealous. And, it's so darn cute!
4/10/07: We're really enjoying life. Geoff is very adorable and loves to cuddle. He goes out of his way to reach over and give you a little double tap. He's just so delightful. His current favorite things are shooting baskets, peanut butter candy, and a video of Mr. Rogers. We feel really good about his progress with sign and speech. He's so cooperative it's hard to imagine a nicer kid.
4/2/07: Spring Break! Phillip's out watching the Gators play for the national championship with some friends. Geoff and I are watching "Winged Migration" which makes him laugh at all the birds antics. Geoff is mastering the punt and keeps getting into trouble for kicking the ball in the house. We have a new friend KEO who taught at the Horace Mann school for the Deaf for 12 years. She's awesome and is just the ASL, educational mentor we were wishing for. Sometimes, all the time really, it's awesome how the Lord blesses us.
3/25/07: We're having so much fun lately going to parks and playing outside. Eliza's sister just came for a visit and we got to do some fun things around town. Geoff is sleeping really well at night, making the transition for the new baby easier. We're not quite to countdown phase, but we're close. Geoff is getting close to his 1 year off treatment mark, and we're done with the IVIG infusions he'd been getting throughout flu season. Geoff is so big that he uses the stand up scale and height measure now at the clinic. His signs are out of control awesome and some of his words include "Mom, Dad, all done, ah-dea (right there)and candy:)" He loves motorcycles, firetrucks, basketball and "the Emporer's New Groove" which we haven't even watched in like 3 days, woah. We only watch the last 1/3, so somehow we aren't sick of it, even though some days we do watch that last part 3 times! The good weather is great for us, way less video time and more outdoor fun.
2/20/07: Congratulations to Geoff. He's expecting a little sister this June! In the mean time he'll be working on his hope tatoo work and cuddling his happy ball.
2/07/07: We had some great play dates today. Geoff's little friend who speaks English, Spanish, Finish and some sign came over and they had a blast. We went to the park later to meet up with some friends and just missed the after school crush of kids. There was a man there who started signing to Geoff, geoff immediately started playing catch with him. He said he's leaned to sign from the Signing time videos, but all his kids can hear. It was so neat to have Geoff communicate directly with someone, rather than through Phillip or me. Later Geoff was playing in a netted batting box and lost his "ears" one at a time. Each time he carefully brought it back to me. Geoff has blessed our lives in so many ways, his willingness to look after his hearing aids is truely a blessing.