Going to great lengths

Kale turned 4 months old last Thursday. It is incredible to me how fast time passes by the second time around! He started to get a cough/cold on Wednesday, so he's had a bit of a tough week. Yesterday he was miserable - watery eyes, coughing, sneezing - the whole bit. Today he's doing a little better, and is even napping, which is a huge improvement over yesterday when he didn't nap at all. He had his 4 month check-up on Friday. He weighed 15 lbs 7 oz (50 %) and is 26.75 inches long (96%) - head circumfrance of 16.5 inches (50%). The length is what really gets us. Kale is almost 2 inches taller than Nolan was at this age, and a pound heavier! We like to call him our little chunker. Overall he is doing well. We have his appointment for his head measurement on Monday, so we should know shortly after that if he'll need a helmet or not. Kale also had a PT and chiropractic appointment last week, and is doing so well that we don't have to go back for a month. I'm glad we're doing all we can for him, but all the driving in one day gets to be a lot. On Friday I drove him to Bloomington to see the chiropractor, then to Chan for his dr. appt., back to Mound to drop him off at daycare, and then back to work in St. Louis Park - 90 miles later! Kale is still doing really good sleeping through the night. We had a little bump in the road last Sunday night, which was awful. Kale was up 5 different times - which meant very little sleep for me and Adam. Then on Tuesday night we couldn't find any of his nooks, so when he woke up at 4 a.m. we weren't able to get him back to sleep. I get up around 5 anyway, so he just hung out with me as I got ready for the day. The rest of the week went much better and we had to wake up both him and Nolan for daycare. It's a great problem to have!

Nolan is finally getting rid of his cough/cold. Adam took him to dr. last Monday for a follow-up appointment for his ear infections (current weight: 28 lbs, 14 oz). His ears are finally better, which is a relief. What's tough is that we can't give him anything for his cough. Adam did ask about giving him honey to coat his throat, and our NP thought we were a little strange. She told us to mix a little honey with warm water for him to drink. We tried that and it didn't go real far - he took a sip, made quite a face, and handed the cup back to me. He did, however, like the syringe of honey we gave him. And amazingly it worked! A teaspoon of honey along with a dose of Tylenol did the trick and he's sleeping through the night again. Nolan is keeping busy reading lots of books lately. His favorites are If You Give a Pig a Party, a series of baby peek-a-boo books, and Snuggle Puppy. He loves his new spiderman slippers and wears them all the time. In fact, when I went in to get him this morning around 8 he was trying to put his slippers on his feet. Adam has worked really hard with him to learn his left vs right foot, so he at least knows which slipper goes on what foot. It's fun watching him figure out how to have conversations with us, for example:

M: Hey Nolan or Nolan, come here, please.
N: What?

M: What do you want for breakfast?
N: Boffy (coffee)

M: Who's that? (pointing at Kale)
N: My lidda butha (my little brother)

His other funny words are ot (hot), I tuck (I'm stuck) and elp (help). He pays really close attention to everything we do, which makes us laugh really hard when he tries to copy us. Adam taught Nolan how to cast his new fishing pole this morning. He picked up on it right away and already knows how to reel in the line. His favorite part about "fishing" is the fact that his pole lights up when you push the button! Nolan also figured out this week how to fold his hands when we say prayers. Prior to this he just put his fists together. The other funny thing he's doing lately is when he plays trucks. He loves to line up all his trucks and cars in one long line. If we try and move one of them out of the line he grabs it and puts it right back. I was telling a friend of mine about this, and he said his son still does that at 4 yrs old. It must be Nolan's type A personality coming out (a lot like his parent's)!

We were supposed to be up in Moose Lake this weekend, but the snow prevented us from going. I can't get over how much snow we've had this winter. It snowed 5 of the 7 days this week alone, which meant Adam had to shovel 4 times! I think we're going to deserve a really nice and warm spring/summer. Adam and I enjoyed the day home with the kids yesterday, but really, really enjoyed our evening out last night. Paulette was nice enough to come over to watch the kids for us so we could go out to eat. It's so nice to be able to really enjoy a meal and not feel rushed. Plus there was a great acoustic group playing, so it was quite relaxing. Adam is ice fishing with his dad again today, and has plans to go out again tomorrow after Kale's appointment. He doesn't have to work tomorrow - lucky.

I'm starting to get back in the swing of things at work. Last week I was offered a position as an HR Supervisor, which I happily accepted. It will be nice to be able to focus more on the compliance side of HR, as well as have a few direct reports and be a part of the HR leadership team.