Nolan is 2!

The old saying is true - time flies when you're having fun! Okay, so not all of it has been fun, but 99% of it has been, so I think that counts. Nolan, who entered the world weighing 6 lbs 2 oz, now weighs around 29 lbs and is 2 years old! He is happy to tell anyone who asks him how old he is that his is "two", and he says it very clearly. He is starting to test his boundaries, which is usually pretty funny. A few weeks ago at daycare we had 2 bad reports 2 days in a row. The first day it was because he kept pulling on the cats tail. Jane grounded him from the cat until he could be nice to it again. Adam and I talked to him about being nice to the kitties at home that same night, and the next day when Adam dropped off the boys Nolan immediately went over to the cat, gave it a hug and said "sowy" (sorry). The next day it was because he kept knocking over blocks that his other friends were playing with. Jane put him in a time out and he wasn't allowed to play with the blocks. We did the same thing and talked to him about his behavior, and since then Jane hasn't had to get him after him for that issue. It's nice to know he actually listens to us - some of the time!

Nolan had his birthday party yesterday. All of Adam's family was able to make it, and my mom and dad, grandma and Paulette represented my side of the family. Nolan had such a great day. The first thing he did Saturday morning after he walked in to the dining room was to announce "I like cake" - and that seemed to be the theme of his day. Last year he wasn't too impressed, but this year was a different story! He was quite the little host, greeting all of his guests at the door! He had a great time opening all his awesome presents, and has played with each one of the them today! He loves them all, but he has especially enjoyed his "zoo zoo" pet. I do have to say that his highlight of the day was playing with his "bawoons" (balloons). Within the first 5 minutes of playing with them the red balloon popped - and it had glitter in it so it was everywhere! Claire took a balloon home, and before Josh and Anna had even left our house Nolan popped the "yewwo" (yellow) balloon, leaving him with his Thomas the Train balloon. He still has it, and has found great joy in running circles in our house, dragging the balloon behind him! Nolan and Kale both had so much fun at the party that at 6:30 we closed the door to Nolan's room, and both of them were out for the night.

Kale is 6 months old!

Hard to believe, but our little baby isn't so little anymore - 6 months old already! He is getting busier and busier every day. Last Sunday, on his 6 month birthday, we introduced him to his first real food other than cereal - sweet potatoes. Since then he's had apples and squash. It's hard to tell if he likes something or not. His first initial reaction is always funny - he purses his lips and makes a disgusted face. After a few more bites he's a bit more accepting of it. We also introduced puffs to him. He can pick them up in his hand, but can't quite figure out how to open his fist to get them in his mouth. We end up helping him with it. He is sitting really well, and only gets tipsy when he tries to move his head too much to see what's going on around him. We discovered this weekend that he likes the Laugh and Learn Farm that Nolan got as a gift for his first Christmas. Kale likes to hold your hands and "walk" - and he really does put one foot in front of the other (although not consistently). His other big achievement over the last two weeks is that he's making scooting/crawling motions on his belly. He appears to be very motivated to keep up with his big brother! He is still sleeping a solid 12-13 hours every night, and has fallen in to a pretty routine nap schedule - 8:30 am and between 12 and 12:30 pm. He gives us between 1 - 2 1/2 hours with each nap, which is wonderful.

We took him to get his 6 month professional pictures today at Target. He wasn't as smiley as he usually is, but we were still able to get a few cute pictures. We won't get them back for a few more weeks, but I'll be sure to post a few when we get them.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Nolan had a big day at daycare on Friday. After his afternoon nap Jane noticed he still had a dry diaper, so she took him to try and go potty. She sat him down and realized she didn't have the protective "cup", so she told him to stay there and she'd be right back. When she walked back in Nolan's eyes were as wide as saucers - he was spraying all over! He was so shocked he was speechless. Jane praised him for going, and after cleaning up the mess (including Nolan's foot) he got an M&M as a "spesha teet (special treat). A little while later he brought his 4 year old buddy Connor in to the bathroom and tried to explain to him using words and gestures what happened when he went potty. Jane said it was hilarious. I tried the same thing again yesterday after his nap, and it worked. I guess this means we really need to start being consistent with the training. I've tried to sit him down every hour or so today to see if he'll go - no luck yet. I guess I'll just try after nap.

Kale is busy refining his ability to sit. Even over the last week he has improved - but not enough to let him go without pillows behind him! He's starting to wake up super early - just like Nolan started doing at this age. It's been around 4:45 over the last 5 days or so. I can handle it during the week, since I get up at 5 anyway. The weekends are killer, though! It was a phase for Nolan, and we're hoping for the same for Kale.

We spent the day in Mankato yesterday with Christianne, Lola, Lalayna and Paulette. We hadn't seen the Jones' family since Christmas, so it was time. Nolan had a blast playing with his cousins. Both boys were really good, and all the kids were nice enough to nap at the same time for a little while, which gave us girls a chance to relax for about an hour. Lola and Nolan were pretty funny after nap. They both had a snack of teddy grahams and milk, and sat on the floor together, visiting and eating. It was kind of like the movie Look Who's Talking. One of them would say or do something, and the other would respond - but we would have no idea what they were talking about.

Nolan is picking up on some of the slang words that are used frequently at home and at daycare.

M: Nolan, why did you do that?
N: cuz'

M: Nolan, can you please put away your blanket?
N: k

I guess that's our cue to start using the proper form of the word!

My dad worked with Nolan a few weeks ago on the finer points of aiming a baseball at a stack of blocks. Nolan has been practicing and is getting better!

Eat, Kale, Eat!

The time has come. I waited as long as I could, but we decided that at 5 1/2 months, it was time to start feeding Kale. I'm happy that we've started the journey to him being able to eat what we eat, but at the same time struggling with the extra work it entails! I forgot how much patience it takes to teach a child to eat. He is so messy. It doesn't help that he has a terrible cough right now, and that it seems like every time I give him a spoonful he coughs it out all over me, the table, his bumbo - whatever is in the way. It was pretty funny last night. Nolan pulled up a chair, sat next to me and helped me make noises to keep Kale's attention - open your mouth "ahhhhh", clicking the tongue, saying good job. Kale loves Nolan's attention, so that helped quite a bit. We're trying to figure out the best time of day to feed him right now. He's not real hungry at dinner time, and we don't have time in the morning. We may leave it up to Jane to figure out what works best with his schedule during the day. Besides eating he is getting to be quite active. He's been rolling all over for the last month, and has started to try and get his legs under him when he's on his belly - a sign that crawling will come in the next few months. He's also developed quite good core strength and is able to sit on his own for short periods of time. Adam took him to the dr. again today for his cough. At the appointment they did the weigh in - 18 lbs 6 oz (with cloths on, no helmet). Seriously, he is a giant baby. At this rate we'll need to buy him new car seats in the next few months!

Nolan is getting funnier every day. He is still talking up a storm. My new favorite thing he says without being prompted is "love you!" We are starting to work with him a little more on potty training. We made good progress tonight - he actually went in to the bathroom to do his business without being told! Last night Nolan and I attended construction night at ECFE. He loved being able to play with all the "power" tools, hammers, etc. But if you ask him what his favorite part was, he'll tell you "nack" (snack). What a shock!


We spent a very relaxing weekend with my mom in Browerville. As sad as this sounds, it was nice to get spoiled and not have to plan/cook meals! Nolan and Kale did really well. Nolan woke up the first night and I ended up sleeping with him, but he was able to sleep the entire night on Saturday. Both boys slept or stayed very quiet on both car rides. We're very lucky with their dispositions, even if they are both challenging at times!

The longest time

This is the longest I've gone without updating the blog since we started it. It's been a crazy few weeks! I'm happy to report that while the boys aren't fully healed from the "sickness", we are all way better off now than we were 3 weeks ago. Nolan's cough has finally started getting better this weekend, which is awesome because it's not waking him up at night anymore! He relapsed a little this week, spiking a 102 degree fever Monday afternoon at daycare. Thank god for retired parents! My dad came to the rescue and spent Tuesday and Wednesday home with Nolan so he could heal up. Kale developed a worse cough over the past week, too, so I took him to the dr. on Friday. Our NP seems to think he may have a mild case of croup, but based on his improvement over the last few days he should continue to keep getting better. As for me and Adam - we're healthy.

Kale weighed in at 17 lbs, 11 oz at the dr. on Friday - with his clothes and helmet on. Not sure how accurate it is, but regardless he's a big boy! We had another set back with his helmet last weekend. He developed a rash on his forehead, so he couldn't wear the helmet until we got him in to see the orthotist. Finally on Wednesday he was able to wear it again. Hopefully he'll continue to not have any issues so his head can start reshaping faster! He's a busy little boy these days. He rolls everywhere - we found him under the kitchen table the other day! He's really working hard to develop his core muscles so he can start to sit on his own.
Even over the course of this weekend we can see improvement. He loves babbling at Nolan, and watches him like a hawk. He is so super drooly - you would think some teeth would start coming in sometime soon! He's developed a pretty good nap routine on the weekends - a 3 hour nap, either in the morning or afternoon, and a shorter nap at the opposite time. We stopped doing the dream feed last weekend, and so far so good. He is waking up about once a night, and we know it's because he hits his helmet on the side of his crib and it wakes him up. Sometimes he can get himself back to sleep . . . which is what we hope for, of course!


Nolan is on the mend, and we saw a pretty big improvement this weekend in his mood. The biggest thing for him is sleep, so we were thrilled to get 3 hour naps this weekend, and a full nights sleep last night. It's so fun to watch him right now. He seems to be picking up new words every day - shoes, cheese, in my woom (in my room), tooth bwush (tooth brush), boccli (broccoli), deer, sqwal (squirrel), tacta (tractor), fowk (fork), spoo (spoon), moosic (music) - and lots and lots of other ones. He especially likes asking "where's gampa"? Oh, the other morning I walked out of the kitchen and he asked Adam "where's Tisha"? Too funny! He can count to 3, and when you ask him how old he's going to be he can respond with two. Grandpa and Grandma Bleck gave him a bat and ball for Valentine's Day, and with a little practice this week with Grandpa Tom and Adam he was able to not only the hold the bat the right way and swing it, but he can hit a baseball, too! It's incredible to think about how far he's come in a year!

Adam and the boys survived without me just fine the week I was in North Carolina. I missed them all, but did enjoy eating leisurely meals! The weekend I got back we were able to spend some time together on Sunday at Sky Rock Farms in Hamel. Our friend's dad hosted an event for anyone who wanted to come. It was a neat little place - lots of antique carnival stuff, like organs, clowns, carousels, etc. We thought it might freak out Nolan a little bit, but he didn't have any problem. He liked the carousel ride, and had no fear to meet horses and ponies for the first time. He even wanted to ride a pony around the training area of the barn - didn't show any fear at all! I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but it was fun to hear him talk about the "horsies"!

Last night Adam and I were able to get out for an evening to hang out with our friends at the Shout House and Whiskey Junction. Paulette and Ryan came to our house to watch the kids, which is so nice. Nolan loves seeing them! I think the last time we were able to get out with our friends without the kids was at a wedding in September, 2 weeks after Kale was born. I must say it was well deserved!

Taken hostage

It all started on Sunday. Nolan had a rough day - coughing a lot, running nose, digging in his ears, etc. He didn't nap, which is not good for him - he needs his sleep! He woke up at 4 a.m. Monday morning with a 100.2 fever, so I gave him some Tylenol. When he got up for daycare at 6 he was still crabby and digging in his ears, and his breathing seemed labored. Adam thought we should make an appointment for him, because if we don't catch the ear infection early enough Nolan really struggles. Instead of waiting to make an appointment we decided I would take Nolan to the clinic in hopes of getting a scheduled appointment, and if not I would take him to urgent care. The other twist in this story is that either myself or Adam needed to spend some time with Jane at daycare, teaching her how to use Kale's helmet. I got to the clinic with Nolan around 7:45, and there weren't any appointments so we waited for urgent care. Nolan was getting really tired at this point, which didn't alarm me because he hadn't been sleeping well. When the nurse came in to the room she took one look at Nolan and was a little alarmed by how fast he was breathing. He didn't have a temp right away, but his respirations were about 70 a minute and his oxygen level was between 90 and 92%. Nolan was getting listless while we were at the clinic, which again wasn't a huge concern for me because he hadn't slept - but he usually had a little more get up and go. They put him on oxygen, which helped his O2 levels level out around 95%. The dr. who came in to see us was really concerned with Nolan's breathing, so much so that he sent us to the Children's Hospital ER via ambulance. It was a pretty scary experience. Nolan did really well, given the circumstances. The hardest part was calling Adam to let him know we were on our way to the ER in an ambulance. He didn't take it real well, for obvious reasons. Nolan only got scared when we had to strap him in the the safety harness to the stretcher. Normally the medics don't have to do that, but the roads were terrible so they wanted to play it safe. Nolan was hooked up to oxygen on the way down, and ended up falling asleep, which was good. When we got to Children's the were able to wheel us directly in to the ER. Adam was already there in the waiting room, so one of the nurses went to get him. I knew Nolan would be excited to see his dad, but I wasn't quite prepared for the reaction. Nolan shouted out "Daddy" when Adam walked in, and both Adam and I shed a few tears. It had already been an emotional day.

While we were at Children's, Nolan had a few things done to him. He didn't love the chest xrays, but did okay. He really hated the test for influenza/RSV. They had to stick this long tube up his nose and down his throat and pull some gunk out of it. Adam held one of his arms, a PCA held the other one and I held his legs. It was so sad - he screamed and cried. I would too - they didn't give him anything for the pain. His temp stayed at 104 until about 12:30, when it started to come down. We could tell he perked up a little after that. The chest xrays came back with the good news of no pneumonia, but he had a little fluid in his lungs and his lungs and bronchial tubes were inflammed. He ended up testing positive for influenza, too. We left the hospital around 3:15 with prescriptions for a steroid for the inflammation in his lungs, augmentin for his double ear infection, Tamiflu for the influenza and albuerol and a nebulizer machine for his wheezing/fluid in his lungs. He really hates taking the medicine, so Adam and I need to work together to get it in him. Adam stayed home with him on Tuesday, while Kale continued to go to daycare.

Low and behold, Adam started to develop cough/cold symptoms Tuesday afternoon. I followed soon after that, and by Tuesday evening both of us were down and out. I knew it was going to be bad when Adam had to crawl to the bathroom early that morning. Wednesday Adam and I both had to stay home from work because we were sick, in addition to Nolan staying home with us. Kale came home from daycare Wednesday with rosy cheeks - and sure enough an hour later he had a fever of 101.6. Seriously, we didn't think the week could get much worse. Poor Kale was coughing up a storm, had a super runny nose and a fever. He had a tough time sleeping last night. I called the nurse line to ask about when we needed to be concerned about him, and she recommended we get him seen the next day. So here we are on Thursday, and I'm staying home with Kale because he can't go to daycare due to the fever. I took both kids to the clinic with me, because Nolan needed his follow-up visit, too. Nolan was a good little patient - sat all by himself for the exam from the nurse and our NP. He still has some crackling in his lungs, so now he's getting a neb treatment twice/day, too. He weighs almost 29 lbs now, and Kale is up to 16 lbs, 11 oz. Kale looked so terrible when we were there, for good reason. He had a fever of 104, and was still coughing and had a runny nose. His oxygen levels were really good, and his lungs sounded clear. Just to make sure the NP order a chest xray for him. Nolan couldn't go with me, so he stayed with our wonderful LPN Barb. He didn't even cry - just got to sit on her lap at her work station and color, read a book, eat his snack and look at her computer. Kale's chest xray ended up coming back negative, which was good, but his influenza test came back positive - shock of all shocks. So now Kale is on Tamiflu, and so are me and Adam. We are really hoping that we'll all start to turn a corner soon. It is really difficult being sick at the same time as the whole family. We're literally just trying to stay on top of washing bottles and eating, and that's about it. It could be worse - I'm gone most of next week in North Carolina, so Adam will be home alone with the kiddos all week. I'm going to try and make it to work tomorrow, if I'm feeling better. I was still running a temp this afternoon, and I'm still achy. Adam is staying home with Kale tomorrow, and Nolan is going back to daycare for the first time all week. Kale has his one week check-up for his helmet tomorrow morning, which isn't the best timing since he hasn't been able to wear it since he got his fever last night.

I'm trying to write as much as possible about this whole situation so we can one day look back at this and laugh. I'm not sure when we'll be able to to do that, but it will sure be fun when we can!