8 months ago . . .

Not so little Kale entered our world! He is a little crazy man these days. We can hardly hold on to him anymore - we are just one big climbing gym for him. If you do get to hold on to him he constantly kicks his legs and arms - he just wants to move! He crawls super fast now on all 4's - literally, in a blink of an eye is across the room and down the hall! He is getting better at pulling himself up on things, and we probably need to lower his crib to the lowest level sooner rather than later! We are struggling again with him spitting up quite a bit, mostly after his bottles. We're going to try and wait until his 9 month appointment to follow up with the dr.


Mr. Nolan is developing more and more in to a toddler. He has very strong opinions on everything these days. He is starting a very bad habit of waking up around 5:30 every day and letting himself out of his room. Most days we just put him back to bed - except for this week. I can hear his glow worm coming down the stairs and he shows up at the bathroom door downstairs as soon as I'm out of the shower. Tomorrow I'm going to actually take him back up to bed and we're going to try and keep him in his room until at least 6:15. He is so excited to get up every morning, eat his toast and an egg (his request), and then run around with his head cut off. By the time we get him home from daycare his is exhausted until we get him to bed.

Adam and his dad installed a free swingset in our front yard last night. Nolan saw it this morning and was so excited - "I see a wing and a side"! He didn't want to come in the house after daycare, so Adam put Kale in the swing and Nolan got to climb up and go down the slide. That wasn't enough for Nolan, though - he kept telling Adam "it's my turn". Adam would take Kale out of the swing, put him on a blanket and Nolan would get his turn. The nice thing about putting Kale on the blanket is that he doesn't like the feeling of the grass on his legs and hands, so he acutally stays in one place!

Last week was a very busy week. Adam and I had a fun experience at the Twins game on Tuesday, getting to see a pretty major storm roll through the cities and drop some significant hail at the field. We are so lucky Ellen could pick up the kids from daycare and watch them for us so we could have fun! I got to enjoy an evening of fun on Thursday - getting a pedicure, manicure and an evening out to eat with Jackie. Friday night was the rehearsal for Lindsey and Mike's wedding, so Jackie and Mikayla came over to watch the kids for us. Saturday morning I started my day with a hair appoinment at 9, and then enjoyed helping Lindsey and her wedding party with preparations for her big day. The weather wasn't the greatest, but they got some really great pictures at Edinburogh and the church. The reception was at the Carlson towers, and it was beautiful. Minus a minor fall on my part at the church and a huge blister on my little toe from my shoes, I had a fantastic time! Lindsey was gorgeous, the dance was great, and the little after party at Redstone was a blast. Paulette and Ryan spent the afternoon and evening watching the kids, and even stayed overnight so we didn't have a curfew! Sunday morning was a little tough, but a nice 3 1/2 mile walk with the kids cured me.


This week is a little slower, minus last night when I met up with some friends for dinner, and plans that I have tomorrow night. Nolan and Adam are heading up to the farm this weekend to help with final preparations for the barn dance. Kale and I are staying in town - he has his last swimming lesson, and then our babysitter is coming over so I can go to Melissa's baby shower with Jackie. The only other thing I need to do is take Kale to get fitted for his first pair of real shoes. He is trying to take steps while standing so he needs a lot more support. Hopefully the weather will be nice so I can get him out for a walk, too.

Double Trouble

Adam was gone most of the day on Saturday, and the boys and I had a good day together. They both took decent naps, which allowed me to nap outside - and turn a little red from the sun! We took a nice, long walk and when we got home it was time for me to get dinner ready. The kids were playing in the living room, making lots of noise. All of a sudden it got quiet. I went in to the living room and they were gone. I walked down the hallway and found them in the bathroom - Nolan trying to wash his hands and Kale trying to climb up the wall! I also discovered Kale trying to eat crayons Nolan had dropped from his art table. Kale wants so badly to do what Nolan is doing. I'm sure in a few short months that will be the case! Over the weekend Kale developed a new skill - when we hold his hands he is actually taking steps. He is so motivated!

Today was another exciting day for Nolan. He woke up from his nap and immediately told Jane he had to go potty. She rushed him in to the bathroom, and 5 minutes later he did what he needed to do! She was so excited that she called Adam to tell him right away. Jane even said that if he keeps on this path he may be ready for big boy underwear soon. I don't know if I'm ready for that yet!

6 more weeks

Adam said I shouldn't get my hopes up, but I did anyway and I am a bit disappointed that Kale needs 6 more weeks in his helmet. He made really good progress again, but the orthotist still wants to see more improvement in the diagonal growth of his head. Yes, it's a pain to wash the helmet and Kale's head every night. I think the worst part of it for me right now is how sweaty his little head is with the warmer weather. He is a trooper, though, so I know he'll do fine.


Nolan's new favorite saying is "I don't want to". It's great that he's starting to have his own opionion; however, I have to keep telling him that it's not really up to him and that he needs to follow directions. Sometimes he's okay with that response, and other times not so much! Nolan was excited to wear a new pair of pj's to bed tonight - he loves bugs right now. My family noticed that he was wearing a pair last weekend that was much too small on him - so I dug out all the 2T pj's I bought on clearance last year. Adam and I should have noticed they were too small, but for some reason we just don't pay that close of attention to those small details! We did finally pay attention to that fact that Nolan's socks were falling off his feet because they were too small, so now he is the proud of owner of his first Hanes brand socks. They look so grown up!

Adam is up north until tomorrow evening, so I spent some quality time with a bucket of cleaning water tonight. I always feel so much better when the house is picked up and clean. I know it's not going to stay that way, but I least I've had a few hours to enjoy it tonight. Tomorrow Kale has swimming lessons, and on Sunday (Mother's Day) we have lunch plans with Adam's family. Next week is a really busy week, so I'm hoping as a special gift from my boys I'll get some quiet time to relax!

Not a baby anymore

Yes, I'm talking about Kale. He hardly even seems like a baby anymore! He is officially crawling on his hands and knees, after about 6 weeks of army crawling. We have been letting him practice standing against the couch and figured it wouldn't be long until he started to figure that out on his own. Yesterday I noticed that he was pulling himself up on his knees and grabbing on to some of his bigger toys in an attempt to pull himself up to a standing position. I thought it would be another week or 2 before he figured it out. Jane called Adam this morning very excited to report that Kale had done it - he pulled himself up to a standing position all by himself! He is growing up so fast. When we look at him in his crib he takes up over half of it! We finally had to lower his crib, too. Between his sitting up, crawling around and now pulling himself up we were headed down a dangerous path! He also outgrew his infant car seat. He is getting Nolan's hand me down car seats, and Nolan is the proud new owner of a level 3 car seat. Adam and I spent about an hour last night rearranging the car seats and hooking them in the vehicles. What a pain! It was worth when Nolan talked about his "caw seat" on the home from Jane's house today! Friday is the big day for Kale - we have a rescan of his head to see if it's shaped enough to no longer require the helmet. I am so, so hopeful that we're down to our last few days of it!

Last weekend Adam and I hosted my family for a spring birthday/Easter celebration. We were so thankful the weather warmed up so we could have an Easter egg hunt for the kids. It was a bit muddy from all the rain, but the kids didn't mind at all. I was a little worried with how Nolan would react to sharing all of his toys. Other than a few outbursts of "that's mine" he did really well.

Last Thursday Nolan started to take a downhill slide again so Adam took him back to the clinic. Sure enough he still had fluid in his ears. He is now on his 3rd dose of antibiotics for this ear infection. We're a little concerned by the fact that the antibiotics won't clear it up. Adam asked the dr. about it and she didn't seem all that concerned. We are, primarily because he's had 3 ear infections since October - and has had to be on at least 2 antibiotics each time to clear it up, and is on his 3rd for this last infection. In between he also had influenza and pneumonia. We made the decision to schedule an appointment with an ENT toward the end of this month. We want to make sure that his hearing isn't being compromised, especially since he's talking so much now.


Last fall I was talking with some girlfriends about how some day I'd like to try and run a 5K. Before you know it Adam and I - along with 16 friends - were signed up to run in the Go Commando race sponsored by Team Ortho at the end of June. It's a 5K run that includes 11 obstacles. As I'm trying to train for this thing my thoughts always round back to "who can I blame for signing me up for this?" I'm up to between 2 and 2 1/2 miles of straight running, but the 2 1/2 mile mark is where I run in to trouble. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to add another almost mile to that! I don't really love to run, and I really hate to get dirty. I think I picked the wrong race for that combination!

About a month ago we celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday with my mom's side of the family. I wanted to capture the full group picture from that event, as it's pretty impressive how many people are in our family! I'm pretty sure we were only missing one person for this picture, too. I tried to count how many of us there are, and think I came up with 68 or 69 people!

Hoppy Easter!

We had a pretty successful Easter with the kids. Nolan woke up to find a trail of eggs to his basket. He was very excited to announce there was an egg every time he found one! He even got to enjoy some M&M's at 6:30 in the morning. Kale enjoyed a basket full of Gerber treats, so he was happy. He loves feeding himself, so the more we have in the house the better! We made it to church and Nolan and I enjoyed the whole service; Adam, on the other hand, had to take Kale out before the sermon because it was his nap time - and he didn't get a nap! After church we headed over to Anna and Josh's to enjoy a relaxing lunch and easter egg hunt. Neither Kale or Nolan napped real well, so it was an early bed time for both of them!

Kale is still in his helmet, but we hopefully only have 2 weeks left. His next appt and scan is on May 6th. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I'm tiring of the helmet. The extra step of having to clean it and Kale's head every night is getting old!

Nolan just finished his 2nd round of antibiotics for his double ear infection. He seems to be doing okay, so we're hoping it stays that way. He is certainly turning in to a typical 2 year old - running from mom and dad, saying no, crying/whining - and then doing something so totally sweet. The big excitement yesterday is that he moved from just going potty to the other potty task - we're so happy he's progressing that direction! The only downside is that he doesn't do much of it at home. We are really going to have to be patient with that process.

The Sweetest Sound

I was driving home from my parent's house tonight, and I couldn't help but overhear Nolan and Kale giggling away in the backseat. Nolan was using his "bankie" to play peek a boo with Kale. I've heard a lot of sounds in my lifetime, but I think the two of them giggling together is the best! This was especially true today. A high school classmate of mine passed away last week, and I attended the wake this evening. I appreciate everything I have, but I've thought about all of it a lot more since hearing the news last Thursday. 33 years is not nearly enough time to spend on earth! Even though I hadn't seen Mike for many years, I still have fond memories of hanging out from 3rd grade - graduation. May he rest in peace!

Kale is 100% healthy. He turned 7 months old last Wednesday! He has 2 teeth and is putting everything in his mouth, all the time. He loves to eat, too. His new favorite thing is to make noises with his lips, which is fine except when he is eating. Adam and I have to remember to change clothes after work, because we end up covered in little bits of food, courtesy of Kale. He likes everything we feed him, but he loves the vibration of his putting his lips together and blowing out even more! He is a squirrely little guy, always on the move. There are times when I don't even put him on the changing table, because it's too much work to keep him on it! He is crawling and rolling everywhere, and is giving Nolan a run for his money!

Nolan has developed a new habit of saying "um" before he answers a question. We're not sure where he picked that up, but both Adam and I need to be more aware of what we say in front of him these days - he loves to repeat it back to us! Two weeks ago today Nolan started potty training himself at daycare. He is generally dry throughout the day and is on the same potty schedule as the other kids. He is so far refusing to cooperate at home, but I've heard that's normal. It is going to take a lot of patience over the next year or so!

A few weeks ago we joined my mom's side of the family in celebrating my grandma's 80th birthday. It was so nice to see all of my relatives, and to spend a night at the hotel with almost everyone. Surprisingly the kids slept really well - although we were the first family up on Sunday morning! Nolan and Kale enjoyed swimming in the pool, and Nolan had a great time looking for money on the floor. He yelled "money" everytime we came across a loose coin, and he was very proud to put it in his piggy bank at home!

Turning the corner?

We're hopeful! Nolan finally made some progress this weekend, and is probably operating at about a 7 on a scale of 10. We've had another down and out few weeks. Kale was diagnosed with pneumonia first, and got better fairly quickly once we got him on meds. Nolan took a turn for the worse the day of his 2 year check up, and after a weekend filled with lots of fun (getting sick in bed, coughing until he cried, fever and lots and lots of whining) I had to take him to the dr. This was after I received the mother of the year award for trying to take my sick child to daycare. I honestly didn't think his fever was as high as it was based on our thermometer. Luckily Jane knocked some sense in to me and sent Nolan home with me. He slept most of the day (which was awesome because I had a lot of work to do), but his breathing kept getting more and more labored, so I finally took him to urgent care. He had a fever of 102.5, chills, an O2 level of 91% and about 65 breaths/minute. He was diagnosed with pneumonia after a chest xray. We got him on meds right away, but it's been a full week and he's just turning that corner. We think his body is just plain old worn out from being sick this winter. We're supposed to get some nice weather this week - 50+ degrees! Hopefully that will help speed up his progress. Nolan woke up early this morning crying and saying his tummy hurt. Adam was sick last week, too, so we weren't that surprised. It must have passed because he made it through the day at Jane's house just fine.

Kale is busy as ever. He can now "crawl", sometimes getting up on all 4's and pushing his upper body forward, or he just simply pushes forward with his toes and uses his arms to pull himself along. Between that and rolling we are at the point where we may have to bring up the baby gates to keep him in the living room! Last week at daycare he started pulling himself up in to a sitting position, which is crazy early compared to Nolan. Jane keeps telling us that Kale is the most active baby she's ever had - and that's in almost 30 years! He is eating really well, too - 3 full meals a day, and lunch and dinner have a veggie, fruit and cereal! He is starting to be able to pick up puffs with his fingers, but is still having a hard time getting them out of his fingers and in to his mouth. He's getting about a 1/3 of what we put in front of him in his mouth. He's starting to figure out the sippy cup, too. Last Friday I took him to participate in a research study at the U of M. On the way back to Jane's I stopped to get his 6 month shots. He did really good for the first 2, but the last 2 had him wailing up a storm. The good thing about that is that I was finally able to get a good look in his mouth and discovered 2 little teeth coming in on the bottom! Finally - an explanation for this constant drooling! Kale also had his first swimming lesson on Saturday. He missed the first week because he was sick. He LOVED being in the water. He splashed, sort of scooped the water, and kicked his legs while on his front and back. I also dunked him twice and he didn't even cry. The great thing about swimming lessons is that it tires him out - he took a really great nap Saturday afternoon!












Even though Nolan has had a bit of a tough time lately, he's still been pretty funny. Randomly he'll just start talking about all his friends at daycare. Doo (Drew), Debin (Devin), Dane (Dane), Jane (Jane), Aubey (Aubrey). The other names he has a harder time saying. It's funny to me that he always starts with the older kids - Drew, Devin and Dane. They are only at Jane's house after school, but Nolan really looks up to them. Yesterday I took out 2 chicken breasts to thaw overnight, and he announced, "Dicken. Bak, bak, bak, bak!". He's learning all of this at daycare! He was reading his bible the other night before bed and picked out a donkey and a buck. Yes, a buck. Adam loves the fact that Nolan likes to listen to him talk about hunting, and that he looks at his hunting magazines with him! Nolan's new favorite thing to do (after watching his "choo choos" on Thomas the Train) is to color. He will just go sit at his little table to start drawing. He is also counting a lot better. He starts with 2, can get up to 4, then skips around between five, nine, six and one. Tonight while I was making dinner he also picked a letter off the fridge and announced to me that it was an "a", and it was an "a"! It's quite amusing to me that this is what I now find interesting, but it really is! Yesterday we picked up a motorized 4 wheeler for Nolan to ride. It goes a whopping 1 mile per hour! We've only had it inside so far, but hopefully soon we'll get it outside. We need to find a helmet for him, too. I looked at Target, but they only carry 3 years+.
We took the boys on their first stroller ride in the double stroller. We weren't sure how Kale was going to react, but so far he's just like Nolan - loves it! Oh, and Nolan was being extra nice to Kale yesterday and played tug of war with him. Nolan would give Kale a corner of his blanket and Kale would pull on it. Nolan would pull back, Kale would hold on, Nolan would pull harder and it would slip out of Kale's hand. They both thought it was so funny! Hopefully this means they will play well together all the time!