I have to tell you one more thing

Nolan was in the bathroom before bed tonight, doing his business.  This is the conversation I had with him.

N: Mom!
M (opening the door): What?
N: I'm making a lot of noise.
M: Finish up and let me know when you're done. (close the door)
N: Mom, I have to tell you one more thing!
M (opening the door): What?
N: My fishin pole is in the water.
M: Yes it is, let me know when you're done. (close the door)
N: I have to tell you one more thing!
M (opening the door): What?
N: I need a new one.
M: Maybe you should use some of the money you've saved to buy a new one.
N: I need a bobber and a fishin pole.
M: Okay.  I'm not coming in here again until you're done.

N: I have to tell you one more thing.

M: What?
N: Don't fall over.

M: I won't.  Are you done?

N: Yep

Thunder, lightening and our first attempt at camping

I attempted to take Nolan to soccer, but at 9:07 there were only 5 other people at the field, and it started to sprinkle. By the time I got home with him it was raining pretty hard and thundering and lightening - which makes me feel better because it would have been cancelled anyway.  We quickly packed up the rest of our things and headed out with the camper in tow.  What a funny, grown up "I have a family" feeling!  We made a pit stop in St. Cloud to say hi to my parent's and eat lunch, and then hit the road to get up to the farm.  It stopped raining by the time we got there, so we set up the camper.  We had grand plans to sleep in it all weekend, but the weather just didn't cooperate.  Greg came out to get us at 12:30 am Sunday morning, as there was a report that hail was headed our way.  The thuder and lightening were intense, but other than Nolan popping his head up briefly both boys slept great.  We carried them in the house and got them to sleep right away.  Sunday actually turned in to a pretty nice day, minus the wind - but sure enough the forecast was for severe thunderstorms again, so we made the decision to sleep inside again.  We actually took the camper down Sunday evening so we wouldn't have to worry about drying it out when we got home.  The storms did roll through between 10 - midnight with lots of rain, thunder and lightening again, which made us feel better about our decision!  The good news is the boys were able to share and bed and other than it taking about 45 minutes to get Kale down it went well.  We are looking forward to our first real camping trip!

Highlights from Memorial weekend:
Nolan learning to pee on a tree!  I had the great idea of letting him give it a whirl in the great outdoors, and he liked it so much after the first time on Saturday that he asked Grandma Ellen if he could do it again on Sunday - and then managed to do it by himself!  We hope he'll learn that he can't do this everywhere - only in secluded places!  This carried over to his first time standing to do his thing at home this morning. 
Nolan jumping up to bat at the leaves every time he passed the big tree by the sandbox.  As long as the wind wasn't blowing too hard he managed to get them.


Nolan and Kale both discovering the joys of riding 4 wheelers.  I'm not going to lie - it was a little nerve wracking watching them with Adam, Erica and Grandpa Greg, but they did great and LOVED it!  Nolan even got to "drive" me and Adam around!  Kale was so exhausted by Monday afternoon that he fell asleep while riding with Grandpa Greg.  Proof that he goes until he can't go anymore!

Nolan and Kale once again enjoying "driving" a tractor at Kyle and Maria's.
 

Kale and Nolan both learning the joys of playing with bugs.  I just LOVE it when they pick them up to show them to me.  The other day Nolan picked up a dead dragon fly, ran over to me and said "mom, look at it's cheeks!" He meant the eyes, which didn't look like eyes anymore!


Nolan and Kale going fishing with Uncle Dave, Grandpa Greg and Adam. Kale did great as long as he had a snack in his mouth.Nolan did great, too, until Adam and Greg started wondering if his Lightning McQueen fishing pole would float - which resulted in Nolan just dropping it in the lake. It doesn't float.

Nolan and Kale eating S'mores for the first ime.  Kale didn't like it right away, but he sure did once he found the chocolate!

The kids playing with Bailey, the black lab. Nolan loved to throw her the tennis ball, and then tell her to "drop it" when she brought it back.  Kale tried, too, but it didn't work quite as well with him!

 

Kale saying "hi" every time he saw someone, followed by "what are you doooooing?"


Nolan and Kale "helping" with a few farm chores - carrying black dirt in a bucket and picking up sticks to put in the firepit.

The hour and a half bedtime

Kale isn't adjusting to his new sleeping arrangements as well as we hoped he would.  It took an hour and 15 minutes on Thursday night, and 45 minutes tonight.  The best we can figure is we need to let him cry for quite a while to get tired.  It makes it easier to get him to not play around in his bed.  We are thankful that the huge thunderstorms that rolled through last night didn't wake up Kale or Nolan.  Nolan is still going through the phase of being scared by thunder.

Nolan's last soccer practice is tomorrow.  Maybe it will be his day to shine!  We've only managed to get one picture of him so far - he is on the far left of the circle, the smallest one in the group.

We've got a jumper

Things went from bad to worse with Kale.  Adam went to Cub at 10:15 to pick up some Children's Benedryl for Kale, in hopes it would help with the itching.  Before we gave that to him we gave him an oatmeal bath.  It seemed to calm him down momentarily, but after the Benedryl kicked in it actually made it worse, if that's even possible.  He freaked out so bad that he jumped out of his crib twice - the scariest sound we've heard in a long time.  Adam tried laying with him until 3:30, then tagged out to get some sleep.  Kale didn't go to sleep until around 3:30, when I tried my new sleeping tactic with him - hug him on my side so he can't thrash around, and then he'll fall asleep.  We ended up sleeping on a sleeping bag on the floor of his room.  He was up bright and early at 4:20, so Adam had to go in the room with him and stayed in there until 6, when I got up for work.  Luckily Kale fell back asleep until 7.  Adam took the crib down today, so now Kale is officially out of the crib and sleeping on his mattress on the floor.  He went to bed really well tonight, but I think it's because he's completely exhausted from not sleeping the past two nights.  The most frustrating thing about this virus is there isn't anything you can really do for him, other than wait it out.  We feel bad because he's so miserable!  On the up side Nolan has slept through everything.  We hope he'll always be our good sleeper!

Hand, foot and mouth

We finally figured out what was wrong with Kale.  He has hardly eaten anything since last Friday, he has been cranky and last night he hardly slept - which means me and Adam didn't sleep.  This morning he had red spots appearing all over his body, and based on the fever he spiked Sunday night we thought it was chicken pox.  Adam took him in this morning, and low and behold he has hand, foot and mouth!  Nolan had this about 6 months ago, but it was only in his mouth.  Poor Kale has it really bad.  He hasn't been able to eat or drink because his mouth and throat are so broken out right now.  We feel  bad because there isn't anything we can do except give him Tylenol.  The good news is he finally ate tonight, and finished his milk.  We're hopeful for a full nights sleep, but if he wakes up we'll just give him a dose of medicine.  The good news is he isn't contagious, so he was able to go back to daycare after his dr.'s appointment.  Hopefully he'll have a quick recovery so we can all enjoy the weekend!

Noteable quotes

Mother's Day weekend highlights:
We celebrated Lola's 3rd birthday and Hattie's baptism.  The highlight for the boys besides the ice cream cake was swimming in the pool at grandma and grandpa's hotel.  Nolan was quite a bit more timid than Kale, but once he warmed up he did great.  Nolan learned to love the intertube and it gave us a nice little break.  Once Kale learned how to jump off the edge of the pool there was no stopping him.  He even went so far as to crouch down all the way to his toes, jump straight up and then out to us.  The bigger the splash the better for him!  On Sunday we took the boys in the bike trailer to the Minnetonka Drive In.  We had a great dinner - the kids loved it!  The way home was a bit challenging.  Kale wouldn't leave Nolan alone, which resulted in us pulling  over 3 times to settle them down.  I guess we need to give them a little slack - we had a busy weekend!

Nolan is still in soccer.  Adam took him last Saturday and the good news is he didn't cry - but he decided to not play without holding Adam's hand - and screaming occassionally.  The best part was when Adam and Nolan were subbed out by the coach.  When the coach asked Nolan if he was ready to go back in he said "not quite yet".  We have one more week left.  He has yet to make it through the whole hour, so we won't get our hopes up!  In Mankato a few weekends ago he discovered he really loves baseball, so we'll keep practicing that for a backup plan!

Nolan is learning all about where food comes from at daycare. Last week he learned where eggs come from.  The and another 3 year old at daycare were having a conversation about it.  When the two of them heard that eggs come from a chicken's butt Nolan said "oh no, not again!" - referencing his comment about where milk comes from a few weeks ago. I guess he's a typical boy!

Kale is once again picking up new words every day.  New this week is police car, gampa (grandpa), truck, teddy bear, flower, shoes, and most of the names of the cousins.  He seems to be going through some type of growth spurt again.  I had to pull out most of the 2T/24 month clothes for him to wear - although he has no belly so the pants and shorts don't stay up very well!  Kale has also become the official prayer leader in our house.  As soon as we sit down for dinner he tells us "let's pray".  Of course it's not quite that clear, but we know exactly what he's saying.

Adam spent most of the day yesterday cleaning the camper, getting it ready for our first big trip this weekend.  All of us are looking forward to it.  Nolan even "helped" with the cleaning.  Hopefully he'll want to sleep in it!

The dentist

Nolan made his first trip to the dentist with Adam today.  The hygenist did a good job of getting Nolan comfortable, until she did the "too slow" and Nolan got shy.  At least he didn't cry, and was cooperative with her.  Adam said Nolan picked right up on the water sucker thing, and really liked it.  He picked out a brand new toothbrush at the end, too - "a yellow sparkly one".  The only down side of this dentist visit was that the dentist suggested that by the time we have Nolan's 6 month check up he should be done sucking his thumb.  Adam asked the best way to do this and the dentist said by giving him rewards.  We've planted the seed but aren't pushing it quite yet.  We have other more pressing things to work on first!

Let the camping adventures begin!

Big news – the Bleck’s are officially campers, with the purchase of a new (used) pop up camper! We went to look at it last Thursday and it was exactly what we were looking for to begin our family camping adventures. The kids thought it was great, running back and forth and climbing on the two king bed pull outs. Our first adventure will be Memorial weekend, when we spend Saturday and Sunday night at the farm. That way we a backup place to stay in the event of bad weather – or non-sleeping kids!

I am happy to report that soccer was an improvement last weekend. Nolan happily participated for the first half hour of practice. I’m not sure what happened after that, but on a break from chasing Kale around I told him he was doing a great job. After that he got pouty, sassy and refused to play. It didn’t help the weather was awful – cold and rainy. We’re hoping this Saturday will bring another improvement, that he actually participates and plays in the game!

We went to the zoo on Sunday with the kids for a family day. Adam was explaining to Nolan and Kale that the tigers have stripes. Nolan replied, “Tigers have stripes, just like your underpants, Dad!” A few of the people around us got a chuckle out of that. We celebrated Grandpa Greg’s birthday later that evening. Nolan was so excited for the cake that he sat at the table while everyone else finished eating – for about 15 minutes! There was a trick candle on the cake, too, and he thought that was “pretty funny”.

Kale's 2 year molars are breaking through, which means bedtime has become a little more difficult with him. He’s great until we put him down, then he starts making a fuss. We’ve been letting him cry it out, and usually by the time Nolan is in bed he has calmed down. If not we go in there and lay our hand on his belly until he’s relaxed. This all started after I stayed in Mankato with them a few weekends ago and Kale and Nolan shared a bed. Maybe we should consider that now!

A few days ago I was explaining to Nolan that apples are a fruit, just like strawberries, blueberries and grapes.  He quickly added "and watermelon!", so I thought I was on the right track with him.  He then stated "and milk", and pointed to his glass of milk. I said no, where does milk come from?  He replied, without missing a beat, "from a cow's butt".  I couldn't help but start laughing, and told him he must have meant the udders, and he said "yeah, the udders".  Ha ha!

Kale is starting to speak in sentences - although I'm sure we're the only ones who can understand him!  His favorite thing to ask is "what are you doing?"  The best is when he asks Nolan and he responds to him with whatever it is he's doing!

Adam's been gone all week on a work trip, so it's just been me and the boys.  I have to say I'm impressed with how willing they've been to work with me.  On Monday night I had to get the lawn mowed.  I asked Nolan and Kale to play in the garage, and for Nolan to watch Kale.  I have to say I was a little suprised that they actually stayed in the garage for the most part, other than when they wanted to peek out and see what I was doing.  I trimmed the shrubs last night and they both helped me by picking up the leaves, putting them in their wheelbarrow and dumping them on the tarp.  Hopefully they will still want to help me when they're older!