Growing like a weed!

That's our boy! Above you can see that Kale has been giving the boppy seat a try recently. Mack of course is always there to offer his moral support. I think Kale is mesmerized by the large nose that is sniffing his face in the picture, hense the terrified eyes :) So, I know it's been a couple of weeks since we have updated you on our lives...so if Kale looks chubbier, it's because HE IS! He is up to 10 lbs. 5.5 oz now!!! That means that he has gained about a pound in 2 weeks. What a porker. We switched the nipples on his bottle to a Level 3 and it made all the difference. He's also spitting up/throwing up a lot less so that always helps him tip the scales.

He is down to 1/16th of a liter of oxygen now, which is GREAT!! We thought he would come off of it this last round, but I think the Dr. wants to play it safe and give him one more week on this. We are supposed to call her and let her know how he is doing and then I'm hoping she'll tell us to do a test run with no oxygen......we can hardly wait!

He has an eye exam later this week.....hopefully the last one for a while (I know, I know, we say that every time). His eyes seem to be tracking things better so we're hoping that means his eyes are developing.

Kale has really started to get a personality recently. It's SO fun to watch. He is becoming more and more interactive. We think he has purposefully smiled at us a few times. He loves his Grandpa Doug's beard so we sometimes get smiles out of him that way. He is also proving how strong he is. He headbutts us a lot, lifts his head up, kicks his legs and flails his arms and yesterday, he literally stood up. I'm not kidding. He was sitting on my lap and just jumped up and next thing I know he was standing on my lap. Scared the crap out of me. Of course as soon as he made it up on his feet he started falling over so I grabbed him. He seems to be having a little bit of colic around 8pm. The last few nights has has just wailed for 3 hours straight. It's so sad/frustrating because it just seems like there is nothing we can do to help him. Funny how Mike (our roommate) seems to get 'tired' and goes to bed when it starts. Haha! Last week we were over at our friends, Ben and Kyli's house, and Kale had his first literal blow out. It was awesome. Luckily they have a beautiful baby girl who is 6 days older than Kale so they fully understand baby messes. Derc immediately handed him over and I got to change him. About 10 diaper wipes later, I was almost done cleaning him up and of course, right when we're about done, he starts peeing on himself. I'm not proud of this, but it was all over his outfit, his hair, face....and I'm pretty sure he got a drink too. Ben and Kyli got some humor out of this since Brynna doesn't give them unexpected showers like the boys can. Just lovely. Oh well, he was WAY more content afterwards :)

Other than those things, not a whole lot new going on with Kale. Derc has started his new job within Wells Fargo and he is loving it. I'm back to full time at work next week, just in time for 4th quarter! Kale is really excited for Halloween this weekend. He is going to be a bat. We will also be pumpkin carving and I've got to find one big enough for him to fit into. My sister called today and baited me with the excitement that they might come down this weekend. Then we could get some pictures of our bat and our nephew Jordan who will be rocking the superman look this year! Speaking of Jordan...I'm proud to announce that our nephew is a big boy now and no longer needs his pacifiers. Sarah and Justin cleverly used our son as leverage in negotiating the end of pacifier use. They have been trying to clear the hurdle of no paci's for a few months now, and turns out Jordan is on board once he decided to mail all of his paci's to his cousin Kale. He decided he no longer needed them and wanted Baby Kale to have them. Jordan and Sarah called us one night to let us know this, and it was the cutest voicemail ever. So, I called Sarah the next day to thank her for the paci's (that I thought were in the mail) and she laughed and said that Jordan did in fact seal them in an envelope for Baby Kale but she would be crazy to actually mail them in case they needed to cave in one day and give him one, so they are hidden in the closet :) Sneaky...

Over the past few weeks I've had quite a few tests run to see if the Drs. can figure out if there is anything going on with me with the whole antibody ordeal. Turns out I have a few antibodies, the SSA, SSB and AntiSmith. I haven't done much research on them yet. I've gone to the Rhuematologist and he doesn't seem to think that I have Lupus or arthritis at this time, but those antibodies are precursors for those diseases so he said they can still develop. I'm having a cat scan today because I have some lumps on my neck. The Drs. weren't sure if this is related to whatever else is going on, so they want to see if they can figure out what they are.....we're hoping they are nothing and are just some calcium deposits or something....I'll keep you posted!

On another note, Derc and I want to send our thoughts and prayers to Phoenix where my Aunt Sue passed away this morning. She has been fighting some health ailments for a while now and has been in hospice the past month or so. We are very hopeful that she is now at peace and is in no pain. We also are hopeful that she had a handsome angel named Tim waiting for her to welcome her to heaven. She was very brave during her fight and kept such a positive attitude. We love you Aunt Sue and hope that you can rest peacefully!

Until next time....thanks for checking in!