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!