41 weeks

This hasn't been the best of weeks. I take that back, last weekend and the beginning of the week were great, but Tuesday night, Nathan got sick and has been pathetic ever since. Poor baby boy!

I'll start this post with some fun pictures and the good parts!
First things first, we are in love with our neighborhood. Every afternoon, there are kids at my door asking to play with Nathan or Bailey. Every afternoon this week, I've spent at least half an hour next door sitting on the porch talking with Sydney, an amazing 15 year old girl. Chad and I are really thrilled about the relationships we're developing with Troy and Kim as well (Sydney's dad and step mom). They are so fun to hang out with and we have a lot in common! They are really easy to be around and we end up spending a little time together every day. Nathan enjoys hanging out with them too! They have a toy area just for him at their house and he plays with the toys almost every day. It's just so wonderful to feel the support around us and so close to home. They have all offered to sit with Nathan so that I can walk Bailey while Chad's still at work and that is a huge help! Not to mention Kim and Sydney are begging to babysit! This neighborhood is amazing and there are literally kids everywhere. Last night, there were three kids helping Chad make a huge raise bed for our shrubs. They were all out there with shovels and were so much help! I can't say enough about how we love it here and feel so much at home already... now if I could just get the boxes unpacked...

Nathan has been moving around so much! He continues to zoom around in his walker and that is so funny. He loves to chase Bailey in it and she's terrified of him running into her so she scurries away when he gets close! He's pulling up on everything and is really gaining quite a bit of balance when standing. He often only holds on with one hand and can bend down to a squat and stand back up without falling (while still holding on with one hand). He's crawling everywhere, sometimes with one foot flat and sometimes in the typical way, it really depends on the surface. He's also discovering new pieces of furniture and is trying to figure out how they work... here's a good example...

Playing piano and singing with daddy

Here are some videos of what he's been up to.

Playing peek a boo (he learned this week how to cover his eyes with his hands and thinks he's so funny)



Crawling and pulling up to stand

crawling in the bus

making the indian sound

Nathan signed dog this morning and I got it on video! So great. Unfortunately it's in the middle of a very long video and i'm not sure how to single out just that part. He's also learning to sign ball but it looks a lot like more when he signs it so it's hard to distinguish. At the doc on Thursday he was 22 pounds 8 ounces, so he's lost a little weight, but he has a little to spare so we're in good shape! He's learned to "give me 5" this week too! It's cute because he does it so gently. This morning, he knocked his noggin pretty good and has his first little "goose egg" on his head right above his eye brow. It's very tiny but still, it's a first. He's bumped his head before but not hard enough to make a knot. Here's a picture of it. (His face looks really fat because of the angle and the way he was holding his head... too funny!)

Playing in boxes


Playing in the bus

Trying to pull up on the bus window which results in the bus collapsing on top of him... which he loves.

Playing with a favorite toy

Standing at the gate at the stairs... a big no no, but I snapped a picture of his cute little thighs before I told him no (I know, bad parenting... oh well, it's bound to happen sometimes).

Smiling faces



Crawling around


You can tell in this pic that he's still not feeling well

So what exactly is wrong with the little man? Well, Tuesday night he woke up a few times screaming, but we thought it was his teeth. Wednesday morning he slept in until 815 and when I began to change his clothes, I noticed he had hives everywhere. He had probably 20 bright red patches and inside the patches were tiny little raised white bumps. I immediately called the on call nurse and they told me to watch him and give him benadryl. Here's what hives look like...

Although the benadryl made the original ones go away, he got more and they changed locations. When I laid him down for a nap, he woke up 20 minutes into it screaming, had a low grade fever and didn't want to eat or drink... so we called the doc and went to see them. They said that the rash was caused by a virus and it would go away in 5-7 days. Then, the doc checked his throat and it was bright red... so a strep test was done. Thankfully it came back negative. We went hoe with zyrtec for babies and were told to try to keep him comfortable and call if anything changed. Well, it was one heck of a night and Nathan was up every 45 minutes or so screaming bloody murder, he wouldn't swallow his spit and trying to get him to take tylenol proved to be challenging because it burned his throat going down. The next morning, he woke up at 545 sobbing and screaming and didn't stop for more than a few minutes until 845. Chad and I took turns holding him and trying to comfort him, but nothing really helped. He slept for 15 minutes and then was up screaming again. That was how the day went on Thursday... screaming and sobbing and no eating and very little drinking. POOR thing! He spent almost 4 hours laying on my chest watching the weather channel and praise baby, moaning and crying, and snoozing a little bit. We went back to the doctor and she found ulcers covering his throat and tonsils. No wonder he's miserable! Those things hurt! We managed to get motrin in him (which is an anti inflammatory and does much better than tylenol for this kind of thing) and the doc told us to try Popsicles and jello... both of which he loved! Poor little guy! The ulcers were caused by the virus and by Monday, he should be feeling much better! We've babied him a lot the past couple days and he's been getting his paci whenever he wants it and he's seemed to enjoy that, although today he started taking it out of his mouth and throwing it down... :) So, we're headed into a rainy weekend with a little guy who feels awful, but at least we're in it together!