Sick ... yuck!

It's amazing that Nate has managed to live 10 months with only one illness - a minor cold. Since he's not in daycare, he isn't exposed to many germs, and he's always been very healthy. However, last week we got a big wake-up call when Nate was spewing out of both ends. That's right. It started with puking that evolved into diarrhea, and a whole lot of misery in between.

But even though he felt so bad, Nate kept his sense of humor, sticking out his tongue and saying, "Blahhhh!" with a little smirk on his face. We took him to the doctor, who told us it was just a virus and to feed him B.R.A.T. - bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. We were a little concerned about him getting dehydrated, but since he only threw up twice, our doctor told us he should be OK.

On Thursday morning, I went to change his diaper, which felt like it had a lot of pee in it. But then this crystallized gel-like stuff fell out of his diaper. It was like tiny bits of clear Jello, and there was a lot of it. I had no idea what it was, but I knew it couldn't be good. I really thought there was something seriously wrong, that it must be worse than a virus. But luckily, it is relatively normal - just a symptom of dehydration. So we loaded him up on Pedialyte and haven't seen the crystallized pee since then. He's much better now and we're glad to have our happy baby back again!

Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

OK, OK. So I've heard plenty of complaints about how the blog hasn't been updated in a month, blah, blah, blah. We didn't realize we had so many fans!

So, Nate has become an expert cruiser, going from standing to squatting to sitting and back up again with no problem -- usually one-handed. We've noticed that if he's tired, however, he tends to lose his balance and may end up bonking his head on the floor. We've seen him stand on his own for just a second, but it's entirely accidental, and now that he's so fast at crawling, he seems reluctant to try walking. But we know that a lot can change in a month, and we think he will be walking by his 1st birthday if he wants to. He's also been quite the babbler with a vocabulary all his own. He says "dad" a lot, and we've also heard "mama mama mama" endless times over too but we're not sure if he really knows that it means anything. One thing is for sure, though: he can understand us. He knows who Wylie, Yeats, and Truman are, and he definitely knows what his ba-ba is. About a month ago, he started waving hi and bye, and this week started giving us high-fives.

Hmmm ... what's in here? Anything dangerous?

Delicious! (Contrary to what it looks like, this is not dog food.)

We decided to take Nate in for an ultrasound of his head, since it's been so large (>97th percentile). It was just precautionary. Because babies' soft spots close generally between 12-18 months, we could do an ultrasound, but after the soft spot closes, we would have to do a CAT scan, which involves radiation. So we decided to just get the ultrasound so we could put our minds at ease and not have to discuss this every time we go into the pediatrician's office. But, surprise, surprise, Nate's soft spot already closed and the techs couldn't see anything. It was frustrating, but they did tell us that the tiny bit they could see looked perfectly fine and that we shouldn't be concerned about his head size at the 97th percentile when his body is in the 90-95th percentile. We'll just continue to monitor him and see how he measures at his next appointment in April.

It's hard to believe he'll be 10 months old this week -- and his 1st birthday is right around the corner. Coincidentally, Nate's birthday will be on Easter Sunday this year, and since both sets of grandparents will be down to celebrate, we've decided to also have him baptized that weekend and we've asked Mary and Adam to be his godparents. It will be an exciting weekend!