A big day (and week) for Nora

Yesterday was a big day for Nora.

Nora started her day by eating real bananas and pears for the first time! She did this at Kindercare, but since I was picking her up for her Dr's appt, I got to help her out! She loved them....they were pretty slippery, so she had a tough time picking them up and getting them in her mouth, but she tried!

At the Dr we found out she has a double ear infection! Poor girl! This is her third, so we're entering some unknown territory. Bishop's had 2 his whole life and Nora's had three in 4 months. I had a really nice conversation with her Dr about it and I feel really good about his plan of attack/approach should these continue. We also found out--she's grown! She now weighs 18lb 3oz (64%)!
*Her Dr said the ear infection appeared to have been there for 1-2 weeks. That makes me feel so bad, as we took her swimming and underwater (for the first time) last weekend and then hiking in the cold weather. It explains why she woke up screaming in the middle of the night while we were up North. It's been so hard to tell if she has an infection or not because overall she's happy, but I'm thankful for that! :)

So Nora's afternoon was spent with mom....and thankfully so, as she officially crawled for the first time! It was so fun to watch her crawl and she was so proud! She's 7 1/2 months old. It was so exciting and we were both pretty proud! :)

She also pulled herself up for the first time this week at daycare. She bumped her head and got a nice little bruise/egg on her forehead, but her teachers said it didn't bother her that much at all!

Whew....she's a busy little girl and our lives are only going to get busier with two mobile!

Way to go Nora, we're so proud of you!!!

I Not Know

One of my favorite sayings from Bishop recently is "I not know". If you ask him where something is and he doesn't know he'll respond with "I not know". It's pretty cute!

North Shore 2012

We took our annual North Shore trip with my family this past weekend. We drove up Thursday and stayed until Sunday. It was chaotic and stressful at times with 3 kids under 3, but it was a lot of fun and the scenery couldn't have been any better!

Thursday night we unpacked, had dinner and played inside.

Friday we set out on a hike at Oberg Mountain. It was a nice hike for all of us to do together! It was pretty cool, so we bundled up the kids and got moving!

Friday afternoon was tough for naps. Bishop didn't want to nap and threw an absolute fit-so I took him in the car and drove around until he fell asleep and then let him sleep in the car. Madelyn and Nora napped at the cabin and played until we got back. 

Nora LOVES to stand!

She loved Madelyn's pig! She would laugh and laugh!

Bishop building really high towers! ;)

Madelyn and Bishop playing in the kitchen....laughing at whatever they were doing!

After their naps we went swimming. This was Nora's first time underwater! I think it was a bit of a shock to her, but she didn't cry! All three kids have gone underwater for their first time on this trip, so it's a neat little tradition....maybe it'll be Baby Bormann's first time next fall!

Swimming with Mommy!

The Bormann's

The Swimmers

Taking her bottle after swimming

Sisters!!!

Friday night we celebrated Luke's birthday with everyone! My mom made his favorite dessert (Chocolate Eclair) and we sang and he blew out his candles.....note the 3 candles! ;)

These two have so much fun together

Saturday morning we set out for another hike. It was colder than Friday and between the cold and Madelyn getting some teeth, she wasn't the happiest to be out hiking. The Bormann's and my parents turned back and we kept going. In true Froehle fashion--we set out for the chalet without knowing exactly how far away it was......it wasn't "easy", but we made it! Our reward was hot chocolate at the Chalet (on top of the Mountain) and a ride down in the gondola! As we approached the Chalet we realized the gondola wasn't running...it had just broken down, which meant more hiking! :) They offered to drive us down in a pickup truck, but it was only another 30-45 minutes, so we hiked. In all we probably hiked 5 1/2 miles or so. The kids did great, they are such troopers!

Bishop's favorite!

Saturday afternoon we went swimming again. This time we walked over to Caribou Highlands to use their pool, as there's a slide there. Bishop wore his lifejacket and enjoyed the slide and swimming back and forth between Luke and I.

Reading with Papa and Nana

 Saturday night we had pizza and after the kids went to bed we played some cards!

Madelyn had been waking up pretty early (before 6), so the Bormann's and my parents left bright and early Sunday morning. They were gone when we got up and Bishop walked out and said "where did all the people go?" We had breakfast, took our time, packed up and headed home.

On our way home we stopped at Splitrock Lighthouse! It was the perfect place to stop and walk around. It was a beautiful day!

Father and Son! 

Climbing to the top of the lighthouse--Bishop wanted to go all the way up!

This is Bishop's say "CHEESE" face!

At the top!

I love the North Shore and it was a wonderful weekend to get away! The colors were beautiful and the weather was just fine...it was cool, but we were still able to get out and enjoy the outdoors!

Sept 14-17

The weekend of Sept 14-16th was very busy and very fun! Unfortunately I started out the weekend with strep throat! I had a sore throat all week and finally went into urgent care on Thursday to find out...I had strep! I was feeling much better by Friday, but was still tired and Saturday I was almost to 100%!!

With that being said, Friday we stayed home and had a nice, relaxing night in! Saturday we had a busy day! We had our first babysitter (other than the grandparents) on Saturday during the day. Courtney, Bishop's favorite teacher, came to watch the kids Saturday while Luke and I went to the Twins game. Our friends, Jon and Jennie own Cambria and have access to the Cambria suite, so they invited us to watch the game in their suite--it was a ton of fun!

She's getting close to crawling!

After the game we had Johnny's 3rd birthday party! 

The theme was Toy Story--here's Johnny!

The kids eating pizza

Danny and Bishop

Daddy and his cowgirl!

After the birthday party we had our annual block party! I absolutely love our block and our neighbors! It's so fun to catch up with the neighbors I know and also meet new neighbors! The neighbors rent a big bouncy house for all the kids (and there are a ton of kids on the block)! So that was a ton of fun for Bishop! It was right outside our front door, so that was nice!!

The view from our front step

The view from our front step

On Sunday afternoon we walked (and Bishop biked) down to Lake Harriet. We had pretty good timing as the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra was about to begin playing. We sat and listened to the music for a bit and then went to play at the park.

Nora picking grass

The view from the park--there were a ton of people there!

There was a really neat waterway in the sand at the park! I would have loved it as a kid...and Bishop was in heaven! He would shovel dirt into a pail and help dump water into the "rivers"....it's pretty nice when we find something he enjoys doing by himself and we can give him some freedom!

It was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend!

On Monday night Luke was out of town for work so I took the kids over to Auntie Shelly and Uncle Ryan's house to play with Madelyn! It was quite chaotic, but it's so fun to see them interact, especially because Madelyn just laughs and laughs and laughs at Bishop (and he loves the attention)! :)

We brought some "baby" things over for Baby Boy Bormann that Nora has outgrown....Bishop decided to take a little bath in the tub!

COUSINS!!!

While we were there, Bishop pooped on the potty!! His reward has a HUGE carrot cake cupcake (Thanks Shelly and Ryan)! Bishop pooped on the toilet 3 nights in a row (he hasn't pooped his pants at school in a LONG time...but waits until he gets home), so we were making some great progress, but then we went out of town for a long weekend and that may have set us back a little again, oh well, we'll get there! We've learned special treats work (cupcakes and special cookies for sure)! :)