Nora's First Birthday Party

Nora's 1st Birthday Party: Saturday, October 28, 2017

      I had planned to take the kids trick or treating on Main Street October 27 and have Nora's party the next day. If I have learned anything, its that life doesn't always go how my "perfect" little planning nature intends things to.  I can prepare all the food in advance that I want AND decorate AND make costumes AND take a baby to the E.R. Thursday night. Wait what?

      Oh yeah, Nora got sick Thursday evening, just after pediatrics closed. She had a fever of 105.3 and very raspy breathing. I tried giving her infants tylenol to get it to go down but after an hour it hadn't changed much so I bundled her up and set off for the hospital(It's really close to where we live so not a huge trek). After many hours they ruled out pneumonia, gave her motrin to get her fever down, and took a swab which came back negative for flu but positive for a virus. Nora, like her siblings before her had croup. We were sent home sometime around midnight and told to see our regular doctor the next day. We were very sleepy after a long night and the next day Nora still had a fever. We managed to get a 10:20 appointment were she received another positive conclusion of croup based on family history and her breathing(stridor: her cough and raspy breathing). The nurse came in and gave her a steroid shot to help open up her airways. 

   While I was sad that my plans to go trick or treating were now ruined because it was freezing out, Nora was sick, we were exhausted, and Mom and Liv were no longer coming up because they didn't want to get sick. I realized that sometimes you can plan something then just have to take the hint that sometimes you just need a movie day! A day where nothing gets done, you live off of leftovers, you pull every blanket and pillow out of the closet, and watch movie after movie while snuggling with the kids(my favorite people). They were initially upset but hey its not the end of the world, Nora got some good naps and we had some quality snuggle time. Sometimes I am too busy making dinner and getting everything done that I need a nudge to just relax a little. It turned out to be pretty memorable.  Riley and I may have have had some ice cream in the middle of the day while the others were napping...maybe.

     I didn't want to reschedule so we just had her party with anyone who still wanted to come. She was sick and needed some good naps but was in good spirits. She had fun playing and eating all the frosting off of her cupcake. She was my first kid who didn't look at me like I was an alien for putting a big cupcake in front of them when they typically only receive something chopped up. She loved it! August did a great job helping her blow out her candle too. It was pretty cute. She loves having her own chair now. I can't wait for movie night to come around again.

 

Nora Is 1 Year Old

 NORA

     Our baby turned a year on Saturday October, 21. She is happy, fun, silly, loving, even tempered and a joy to get to watch grow! She is finally getting her first 2 teeth which is exciting. She loves to play with her siblings and thinks she is one of the big kids. She eats really well and likes to try new things.

     She had her 12 month well visit today. She was 20 lb 12 oz and 29 inches tall. She is growing well and stands really steady so I think she could walk anytime she feels like it.

     We are excited to have her party this coming Saturday!

Riley and Nora looking through their legs

Center Grove Orchard and Other Stuff

Center Grove Orchard: September 23, 2017

This year we had a family day and went to Center Grove Orchard. It was something we don't do a lot so the kids were so excited and are still talking about it! It was bigger than I imagined so we could only do a fraction of what they have available. The giant yellow slide was the favorite of the day.  It was really fun to ride down with the kids! I get to play too, right? It was 90 degrees on the weekend that we could do it so the kids were exhausted after a couple of hours, but it was a great day.

The Big Yellow Slide

 Nora enjoyed watching all the activity

 The Large Jumping Pillows and the Hay Bale Maze

It was so cute to see Riley holding Augusts hand and helping him. August kept falling down on the jumping pillows and getting mad but Riley had a lot of fun there.

 The Goat Run

They have a large pen and can walk around on a bridge. Pretty fun!

 The Three Little Pigs








Some Drawing Fun At Home
I had some little wooden things in my fall bin and the kids had fun coloring them. Then I glued magnets to the back and put them on the fridge. Riley spends most of her waking hours making things so she really enjoyed this. 

Eye Appointment: October 19

 Riley had another eye appointment to see if she is making progress and to make sure that the prescription that she received 2 months ago is still accurate. She is making great progress and I am happy to see how excited she was to find out that all of her hard work and patch time is helping. She has been patching the right eye for 2 hours every day and now her Dr. said her left eye is actually seeing a little better and we can stop patching and let it balance out until the next appoint in 4 months. She actually cheered to hear that news! The Dr. told her she may have to patch again in the future but for now she is doing great. 

Swim Lessons

Keenan and I decided that for safety reasons we wanted the kids to have some swim lessons. Riley just started this week and has been loving it. She struggled the first time her instructor asked her to put her head under, but now she trusts him and is taking it all in. She looks so proud at each little advancement.  The lessons are for about a month then we will have to decide when to do the next level up.