Life With The Pate's: 11 months and a virus that almost killed us!

This is almost 2 weeks late, but we spent last week trying to get Zeke over a very nasty bug that I'm pretty sure almost killed Kyle and I! We decided it was the worst week we've had in the 11 months of sweet Zeke's life. Doc said it could of been a strain of the flu, but b/c he had the flu shot the flu test would show negative, she said there are 15 different strains of the flu going around. Poor Zeke, his fever would jump from 99 to 102 back to 100 to normal to 102, just all over the place. The poor baby wanted to play, but he just couldn't. He slept A LOT and fussed A LOT, but after a very long 6 days he began bouncing back to his normal self. I'm pretty sure we slept almost as much as we did the first week we had him home, it was awful, but the worst part is he would just scream for an hour straight. We'd try everything we've done in the past 11 months to try and make him happy, but nothing helped. The poor guy was just achy and didn't feel good. I'm not sure how parents who have kids that won't sleep through the night do it, man I pray for them! We are so blessed with Zeke sleeping through the night since 6 weeks that being up just a few nights in a row almost seriously killed us. Don't get me wrong there have been a few nights that Zeke has woken up from his ear aches, but we just hop in the recliner and back asleep we go. Being up for several hours straight is no good for this momma! It was really nice when Zeke slept from 9pm-7am Fri night and 9am-9:45pm Sat night, I then knew he was feeling better.

Kyle and I are very thankful for our "village" that helped with Zeke, we decided to keep him out of daycare for the entire week so he got passed around. Waynette kept him Monday, Sharon had him Tuesday, Kyle kept him Wednesday, I had him Thursday and Waynette had him again on Friday. Our village is very small, but we are so thankful for it! After that week of what we call near misery we are ready for 2 things: 1) for Zeke to blow his nose and 2) for him to tell us where it hurts or what's wrong. Yes we know both of these are not in the near future, but we can hope.

Minus the nasty virus that he had he reached a huge milestone in that he is walking everywhere. I can't believe it, our baby is walking, where has the time gone? How is this possible? He was just a baby, but baby no more. Kyle and I were looking through pictures from the past year and it's like he grew out of the baby look/phase so quickly. We're about to celebrate his first Valentine's Day and his first birthday in just 16 short days. He can stand up whenever he wants and just take off like no big deal, he can also disappear and get into everything in a matter of seconds! He has also begun to crawl on and over everything. Kyle had figured out a way to "corral" him in the living room so we could keep him out of the kitchen and off the cold tile floor, but it only worked for 1.5 days and he figured out how to get to the other side, there is a short video I've posted…. I have a feeling the fun is just beginning!

We're excited for his first birthday party and can't wait to see what Zeke does next! There is lots of baby laughter and giggles around our house, now that the virus is gone, and lots of conversation that we just interpret on our own. :)

Getting ready for Zeke to turn 1!
Kyle + Mary + Zeke + Kato & Bear-Bear

Zeke Douglas Pate
11 months
22.8 pounds, 29.5 inches