Relocation

Just as it was two years ago, we went on a "relocation" with my family for a week long vacation, this time to Wisconsin Dells. Parts of it felt like vacation, but for the most part it really was a relocation of our day to day activities. Adam looked at me at one point and said that some day we would look back on this and laugh - and I know he's right!

Saturday: the day before relocation. We took the boys to their first parade with Josh and Claire. It was hot, but a good time. Nolan's favorite part was the music floats - especially the senior citizen's steel drum band float! Kale did amazingly well, especially considering he didn't nap. I spent some time running errands in the afternoon, and we packed up most of our stuff that night.


Sunday: started our journey a little after 10 in the morning. Both boys were really good all the way to our first stop in Eau Claire. We spent almost an hour and half at the mall, eating and walking around. Nolan had his first mall ride in the play area. He was content just sitting on the bus and monster truck, without me having to put a quarter in them. The last half of the trip was a little tougher. At one point, around mile marker 130, both boys were screaming - Kale because he wouldn't relax to take a nap, and Nolan because he wanted to listen to "Elvis Pesey (Presely)". Kale fell asleep about 20 minutes outside of the Dells, which was the cat nap he needed to get to bedtime. The house we stayed at was amazing - 6 bedroom, 3 bathroom 3800 square foot rambler. There were 2 living rooms upstairs and a huge family room downstairs with a pool table, card playing table and a foosball table. In other words, lots of room for 16 of us to spread out!

Christianne came with me to Walmart to help with my grocery shopping, while Adam stayed back with the boys. Talk about an experience. I have never seen so many people dressed in the most inappropriate clothes - everything from pajamas to swimsuits! We were just about back to the house a few hours later when Christianne said "is that our bean bag toss game in the ditch?" Sure enough, dad had placed it on our truck extension when we got to the house and I hadn't realized it was back there. There were two bean bags on the extension when we got to Walmart, which seemed odd, but I didn't think too much it to it. We turned around, picked up the boards and the bags and headed home. As we stepped out of the car a big dog came running up to us. It was dark by then, so it scared me a little. What scared me even more was that it smelled like a skunk had just sprayed me! I told the dog to go home, and was literally feeling sick to my stomach from the smell. A guy came running up a few minutes later, looking for a dog. I told him I sent it home, and he said it had gotten sprayed by a skunk. Duh! By then Christianne and I smelled completely like skunk. The humid air outside didn't help the matter. It was so bad that the next day when we got in the truck and turned on the air it still smelled like skunk!

Monday: Nolan ended up in bed with us around 1:30 - luckily Kale slept through his crying. Kale took a long walk with Grandpa after breakfast. We layed low most of the day, hanging out at home and at the pool. Nolan wasn't a huge fan of the water, but Kale loved it. He kept sticking his face in the water chutes that came up from the ground. It was really, really, really hot, so we couldn't be outside for long periods of time. During afternoon nap a few of us gathered round while Eric played a great rendition of Patience by Guns n Roses on his guitar.


Tuesday: Nolan got in to bed with us again at some point, but neither of us knows how. Luckily he didn't wake up Kale. Tuesday was designated as man day. The boys golfed in the morning, went to the best pizza place ever - Moose Jaw Pizza and Pub - and then spent the afternoon downing 44 cans of beer, tubing down a river. The declared it "the best day ever!" multiple times. Good thing my dad went along to drive them home! I took a long walk with the boys and my dad in the morning, but other than that stayed close to home. It was super hot again, and I didn't have the energy to take them both to the pool. They were both really good all day, which was helpful!

The biggest news of the day was that Kale started walking! He was taking steps before - 3-4 at a time. He had worked hard on Monday to figure out his balance, and he did. Gina gave him a bit of advice, too - stabalize your hips! He's walking a lot now and trying so hard to keep up with the other kids, especially Nolan.


Wednesday: Nolan slept all night in his bed! Even though the boys get up super early, it is so fun to listen to them laugh and play in the morning. Nolan brings toys to Kale in his pack n play, gives him high fives - and they hysterically laugh at each other. Nolan's favorite thing to do is to fall backward on to his air mattress, all the while saying "watch me, brudda!" Grandpa took both the boys for a long walk again in the morning. Kale tossed his nook out of the stoller at some point, so my dad spent another 45 minutes looking for it - and found it, tossed 20 feet in to a yard they had walked by! After the walk it was time to head to the downtown Dells area to get an old time photo of the cousins. It was hilarious. All 6 of them sat in an old bathtub - the older 3 girls in dresses and the younger 3 in their diapers. They all got to hold on to guns, too. Probably not appropriate, but super funny. Adam and I decided to get one with just our family, too. Our backdrop was a saloon, so Adam and the boys were cowboys and I was in a dress. Nolan was probably the funniest, wearing the little cowboy outfit, hat and bandana, and holding a rifle - all while sitting on a saddle.

We took the boys to the pool again in the afternoon, but they only lasted about a 1/2 hour. I was just happy to have spent some time working on my tan during their nap!

Thursday: Kids slept through the night - happy parent's! My dad took both boys for another walk in the morning. Thursday was designated as girls day. We spent the morning walking around downtown. After lunch at home we convinced our dad to come with us to go tubing on the same river the boys went on. It was overcast - which was kind of a bummer - but we still had a nice and relaxing time floating, drinking a few beers, and watching the duck boats and jet boats drive by. That evening most of us went to the Tommy Bartlett water ski show. I saw it 23 years ago, so my memories of it were vague. It was awesome - and really, really cheesy! Nolan had a tough day on Thurday, and we couldn't figure out why. He was having a really hard time falling asleep, so my mom had to lay with him after we left for the show.


Friday: Kids slept through the night, again. Nolan woke up, seeming to feel a bit better. I was starting to get concerned he was getting an ear infection - he kept digging in his left ear, to the point it was bleeding. Dad took the boys for a walk after breakfast, again:) It was so nice to have a little time every morning to enjoy my coffee and have time to get ready! After the big family photo in the morning we headed off to a little kids rail station to ride a train. Nolan was so excited. He kept saying "I like trains" and "where's Thomas"? All the kids had an awesome time. The train was a 1/4 size of a real train, so it was perfect for the kids. At the end of it we were all covered with soot from the coal that went in the steam engine! I was able to lay out again that afternoon. It was hot, but not as humid so it was doable. Adam was able to get in another round of golf after helping get the kids to bed, too.


Nolan really struggled in the afternoon, all the way until bed time, which was around 6 because he was crabby. He was running a slight temp so we gave him some of his "pink stuff" - generic Tylenol. He still ended up getting up twice before I finally just put him in bed with me when I went to bed around 10. I felt so bad for him - he kept saying "I hurt", but couldn't tell me what hurt. We put Kale in the 6th bedroom to sleep, so Adam slept upstairs with him.

Saturday: Kids slept through the night and Nolan seemed to be on the mend. Dad took the kids for a walk, and when they got back we headed out with the Jones' family to Circus World in Baraboo. It was a super cool experience, almost like stepping back in time. We got there in time to stand in line for the morning Big Top show. The bad part was that we had to stand in line for 15 minutes, and then sit for a 1/2 hour before the show started. While Christianne waited in line we took the boys to look at the elephant, ponies and 150 lb python! Nolan was starting to go downhill fast, and was sobbing that he couldn't "ride the horsie". Nolan didn't even make it to the start of the big top show - I took him and went and stood in entry to the tent. We knew something was up - he kept wanting to cuddle, but was super cranky. After spending about 1/2 the show with him, I went and traded for Kale - he was getting super antsy, so I took him outside to walk around. After the show was over we grabbed a bite to eat - and realized we had forgotten to bring Kale's bottle and food with us. We were thinking of heading to Madison to take Nolan to a Minute Clinic, but thought that if we got home we could just give him more of the "pink stuff". At one point during lunch Nolan was literally drinking ketchup out of a little container - our family was falling apart! Both boys napped on the 20 minute ride back to the house. Nolan was able to sleep for 3 more hours that afternoon. Not Kale - he didn't sleep another wink until his bedtime at 5:45.


Mom and dad were kind enough to stay at the house with the little kids, so around 9 all of the older kids took off to enjoy a fun night of karaoke at the resort bar. Out plans changed when we found out there was a wedding reception there, so we drove a few miles out of town, to Bronco Billy's Saloon - a nice local bar. Great people watching, great beer, and great karaoke.


Sunday: Kids slept through the night. Dad took the boys for a walk so Adam and I could pack. Nolan again seemed to be doing better. Adam was not. He was dragging a little bit from our fun night at Bronco Billy's! All 16 of us made it out of the house before the 10 am check out time. The first half of our trip to Eau Claire was loud - both kids had melt downs at different points. We stopped at Target to buy formula, and to see if it had a Minute Clinic so we could get Nolan's ears checked. They did not, so after spending an hour eating and letting the boys walk around we got back on the road. The boys slept almost the whole way back, waking up in Minnetonka. Nolan was still acting a little off when we got home, so Adam took him to Urgent Care. No ear infection, but he does have strep throat. I had already taken the day off work so I could clean, do laundry and grocery shop. Hopefully I'll still get some of that stuff done with Nolan at home with me. I was really hoping I could have one day of my vacation for me - but I guess I'll share it!

Other highlights of the trip:
Grandma Paula's craft time every afternoon

Grandma Paula's card game, where the kids won money!
Fantastic meals every night
A little burn that has turned in to a great tan

Long Time Gone

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since I've been out to the blog. We've been busy!

-Celebrated Adam's 34th birthday. Nolan LOVED the runny frosting recipe I made for the cake, courtesy of Grandma Ellen. He literally licked his plate clean!

-Adam and I ran in the Go Commando 5K adventure race at Green Acres in Lake Elmo. It was challenging and fun (at times:)). Our friends want to make it an annual event, but I'm not sold on doing it again (yet!)

-Spent some poolside time at Pool Party 1.0, prepping for the 4th of July weekend. Nolan had a lot of fun playing with Murphy, the dog, who is just Nolan's size. Nolan would say "Ready. Puppy.", throw the ball, and wait for Murphy to bring it back - at which point he would say "dwop, Muphy".


-Adam and I have had 2 date nights, which is unheard of these days! We went for an impromptu motorcycle ride last Tuesday. Thank goodness for our babysitter who doesn't mind our last minute phone calls for help! We also went to a concert at the MN Zoo last Thursday night with some friends. It was a very interesting evening - hotter than hot (100 degrees driving home from work that day) and not a breeze to be found. Good thing the beer was cold and the music was good!

-Nolan learned how to wash a car and saw a huge turtle make its way across our driveway and over to the neighbor's house.



-Discovered the front yard is the best place to let the kids eat watermelon!


-Celebrated the 4th of July weekend by camping poolside at Pool Party 2.0. Adam went to the Eddie Veddar concert on Saturday, so it was just me and the boys camping on Saturday night.



-Discovered that Nolan's reaction to bug bites isn't getting any better. A mosquito bit him below his left eye, and it looks like he literally got punched in the eye. The swelling is finally down, but it's pretty black and blue. Hopefully he'll outgrow this!


-We've watched Kale make huge strides in walking over the last few weeks. He is getting to be quite brave, only holding on to things with one hand. Tonight he took his first 2 steps at home, unassisted. I don't think he realized what he was doing, because once he did he fell it to me.

-Kale has discovered the joys of "so big", "patty cake" and in general just clapping his hands. We are also relieved he is talking, starting with dada on Adam's birthday, and this week mama!

-Kale is also teething really, really bad. He's not a cranky kid, but the last few days have been a bit trying. He was in his crib before 6 tonight! We can see 2 other teeth breaking through the gums, which will bring him to a total of 7 teeth.

-Nolan and Kale are playing together more and more, which is great for us. Their new favorite thing to do is for Nolan to sit on the Mickey Mouse airplane and for Kale to push him around the house. Nolan says "push, Tale" and then uses his feet to help move the airplane. Kale holds on behind it and walks - making it look like he's actually pushing the airplane. Then they laugh and giggle at eachother!

This weekend Adam is gone on a baseball trip to Chicago, so I'm heading up to my parent's new house with the boys. It will be great to spend time with them, have my dad take the boys on walks in the double stroller, and get to see my grandma. I'm most looking forward to sitting in the screen porch after the kids are in bed with a cold beverage!

Proud parent moments

1. Getting a call from my oldest son at work today to tell me he went #2 on the potty. Jane told me that when he was done he stood up and said "I'm a big boy"!
2. Finding out Kale took 2 independent steps again at Jane's house today
3. Listening to Nolan repeat the bedtime prayer with us for the first time

What a great day!

Father's Day Fishing

Before I get to our big fishing adventure - Kale's helmet is officially off! What a relief. The orthotist was hoping to get a little more shape in the back of his head, but he didn't feel like another 6 weeks would make that big of a difference. It feels so good to be able to hold Kale and not have the bulky helmet in the way! Plus, his head smells so much better without it! He's bonked his head a few times with all his activity, but he'll learn.

Adam played in the woodbat softball tourney, so the boys and I had a fun filled Saturday. It started out with a trip to urgent care - nothing serious, but Nolan had another bad reaction to a bug bite. We're so cautious now, especially with what happened to his hand when we didn't get it treated for 3 weeks. After the purchase of the generic benedryl topical ointment it was off to Monticello's Walk and Roll event. We didn't do a lot of walking or rolling, but Nolan and I did come away with 2 new bike helmets - for the small price of $3 each! Nolan was most excited to see the "peace" (police) car and "fire" (fire truck). After that it was on to St. Cloud to visit my mom and dad in their new house. The boys had fun checking everything out, ate well, took naps, Nolan got his haircut, and we got to see some of the new furniture that was delivered. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to make the trip to see them in an hour and 10 minutes vs. two and half hours!

Today was Father's Day. The boys were nice to us this morning and let us sleep in a little bit (til 7). We got over to Greg and Ellen's around 9, enjoyed a nice breakfast, and then headed out for Nolan's first fishing adventure. We weren't really sure how he would do, so I drove the 2 of us to the lake - in case we needed to leave early. Nolan far exceeded our expectations and lasted the whole trip - from 10:30 - 3! It helped to have lots and lots of snacks with us. He was a little hesitant when we first got on the boat - he planted himself in a chair and didn't let go. He also announced in the first 5 minutes that "I done"! Once we got to our fishing spot he started to warm up. Erica caught the first few fish of the day, but then Adam went to work with Nolan's Cars fishing rod. I don't know if he'll go back to using a regular rod with the luck he had! Nolan got to help reel in quite a few fish. The very first one was fun to watch. Nolan reeled it in by himself (Adam helped hold the rod), and when he got the fish in the boat said "I did it!". He was quite helpful - getting worms for Erica, Grandpa and Adam, touching the fish, looking down the fish's mouth, and "driving" the boat. He also got a kick out of looking at the 16 sunnies and crappies that were swimming around in the live well. It was a fantastic day, thanks to Grandpa Greg's boat, Grandpa Greg, Erica and Adam! Nolan fell asleep on the way back to Ellen and Greg's house and proceeded to nap for an hour. He was one tired 2 year old!

I just realized I didn't mention Kale. Grandma Ellen had the excitement of chasing after him the entire time we were fishing. It was good practice for next weekend. The boys are staying with Grandma and Grandpa while Adam and I run the Go Commando 5K/obstacle course.

We're "heading" in the right direction!

Tomorrow is the big day - the final head scan and check up for Kale! Adam and I made the decision last night that regardless of how his scan comes back we aren't going to continue him in the helmet. Kale has met all the requirements he needed to meet - we're just hoping for a little extra rounding. His poor head is so sweaty every night when we get home from Jane's! It felt good knowing it was the last night we needed to wash the helmet and his head on a nightly basis. Kale had another appointment earlier this week - his 9 month check-up. He is tracking the same as he has since he was born - 95% for height (30 inches), 75% for weight (21 lbs 15 oz) and 25-50% for head (17 1/2 inches). He is an inch and a half longer than Nolan was at this age, and almost 2 lbs heavier! It explains why he isn't fitting in to some of his 6-12 month pants! The rest of his appointment went well. The only concern we had is the fact he isn't making a lot of sounds yet. The dr. told us she isn't real concerned, as he scored high in all the other categories of the assessment. She said we'll just keep an eye on it and make sure he's saying 6-12 words by 18 months old.

Last weekend was wonderful. We got to stay home all weekend, and we had lots of vistors - friends over for lunch on Saturday, a bonfire Saturday night and Paulette and Ryan for lunch on Sunday. Sunday afternoon we had Kale's 9 month pics taken at Target. He put on a great show and we got a couple of really good pics. He didn't sit still very long, but the photographer was quick.

This weekend is the annual woodbat softball tournament. I'm also taking the kids to a bike rodeo on Saturday morning - to get Nolan his first bike helmet. After that we're making our way up the interstate to St. Cloud, to visit my parent's in their new house! Sunday is Father's Day, and the plan is for Nolan to get out fishing with Adam and Grandpa Greg. It will be Nolan's first time in a boat and fishing, so we'll have to take lots of pictures. I hope he doesn't pull out his classic sayings until he's been on the boat for a little bit. "I don't want to" and "I done" won't bode well for the others on the boat, in the middle of a lake!

The Daily Report

Adam got a call from Jane today after lunch. She is so good about calling us to tell us about the kids - good and not so good (like the biting incident from earlier this week)! Today the report was:

1. Kale took 2 steps by himself today
2. Nolan ate green beans for lunch, which is unheard of. The ranch dressing he had to dip them in seemed to help. We tried it at dinner with broccoli, but all he did was lick the dressing off the broccoli!
3. Nolan ran from the outside sandbox to the indoor bathroom because he had to go potty, and by the time Jane got to him he already had his shorts pulled down - he just couldn't get his diaper off! He is very excited to use the potty and his really enjoying his M&M's!

Nolan has all sorts of new things he likes to say these days. On the way home from daycare "is daddy home yet?". Whenever he hears an airpane (airplane), poice car (police car) truck or mogorcycle (motorcycle) "i hear a airpane/poice car/truck coming". He loves to talk about the "owies on my knees", and whenever he falls/trips "I faw (fall) down" and "I tripped". His new favorite color is pink, and his new favorite book is called "I Stink", which is about a garbage truck. Oh, and we're happy to report that we have not received any more reports about him biting his friends at daycare!

Jane did tell me yesterday that she has been noticing that Nolan is getting frustrated with Kale more frequently that he used to. Kale is so excited and so interested in what Nolan is doing these days and he's not old enough to understand that Nolan needs his own space. Nolan especially gets agitated when Kale knocks over any towers he's built, or blocks that he's put together. Jane is finding that she has to separate the 2 of them every once in a while so Nolan can play with toys by himself a bit more, rather than constantly saying "no, Tale (Kale)!". Yes, Dale has turned in to something that sounds more like Tale - and we know he's referring to Kale.


Kale is super excited that he learned to clap. We caught him sitting by himself multiple times this evening, clapping away at nothing in particular. He thought it was really great when Nolan was yelling "hi" to our neighbor across the street, while standing in our house! We also discovered tonight that Kale has discovered his tip toes. It's getting harder and harder for us to put stuff out of his reach. He is obsessed with Nolan's crayons, and we can't seem to keep them far enough out of his reach these days! He has his 9 months check up on Monday, and hopefully his final head scan/helmet check next Friday. These last 9 months have sure flown by!

We've Got a Biter

Yup. Adam got a call today from Jane to let him know that Nolan bit Aubrey on the wrist. They were playing really well together, laughing and a having a good time, when all of a sudden Aubrey started crying and Jane saw the bite mark on her wrist. I am still completely mortified about it. Last week Aubrey's mom saw bite marks on her wrist so she called Jane to find out if it happened at daycare. Jane's response was "I don't have any biter's". Ugh. I know he's 2 and that this kind of stuff happens, but I didn't think our little Nolan would turn on us like this! Aubrey's mom was at daycare when I picked up the kids so we had a chance to talk about it. She was very understanding, but I still fill completey awful. We had a talk with Nolan tonight after Kale went to bed, so hopefully that will help. It worked when he was being mean to the cats and when he was climbing all over things, so we can hope! We're going to let him borrow his aunt Christianne's nick name - Choppers. I'm sure she'd be happy to pass that name off to someone else.

On a brigher note, Nolan is doing really well with potty training. Jane tried him in undies last week and it lasted for 2 days. Side note: little boy underwear is hilarious! He never wet through anything, but he was damp enough times for Jane to realize she's going to wait a few weeks to try again. He's dry all day in his diapers, so she thinks it's a security thing. The other part of it is that Nolan is on antibiotics again, this time for some type of infection on his hand that we think started from a bug bite about 3 weeks ago. Adam took him to the clinic on Friday and they weren't sure what it was, so they drew blood and tested his hemoglobin and ran the lyme disease test. His hemoglobin levels were good, so now we're just waiting for the other test results to come back. I can't imagine he has lyme disease, but they want to rule it out. The infection seems to be getting better, but the antibiotics wreck havoc on his system, so it's a good thing he's in diapers right now!

We decided to do something out of the ordinary this weekend, so we went camping! We left Saturday morning and met up with some friends at a campground about 20 minutes from our house. We didn't get a lot of sleep and we put a lot of miles on our double stroller, walking them around; but we had a great time. It was a good test run for our full weekend camping trip we have planned with more of our friends in August! There were a lot of highlights for us, but my favorite is that Kale learned how to clap and wave bye bye! He was proud to show off his new wave at 6 AM Sunday morning, when he popped up from his pack n play to wave to the rest of us, laying on the air mattress.

The boys LOVE their new swing set! Lola was kind enough to borrow us the swing she never uses, so now both of them can swing safely at the same time. Free swing sets are the best!