Girls' cabin trip

Every summer for the past several years, my college friend Kristina and I have been taking a trip up to her family's cabin for a few days or a week--just the girls.  It started out being us and our dogs, then we added Abby for a few years.  This year we added two--Norah and Rhua, born just four days apart.  We weren't sure about how we'd get up there with one vehicle, but we made it!  Thank goodness for the extra row option in our car and the fact that all floor space in the back two rows was available.  The babies were well taken care of by Abby in the middle, and the dogs slept in the back row.

We enjoyed two full days up there--went to the beach to swim/picnic twice, went for a walk with the babies in Kristina's Chariot stroller and Abby in our Bob stroller, danced in the rain--the only little bit of rain the whole trip, played with the dogs by the dock/lake, played some games, relaxed, and I even managed to read a book while up there!

On Saturday, Kristina did a triathlon nearby, so her husband, Matt, came up to help with Rhua.  We took the kiddos to cheer her on, then Abby, Norah, Sadie, and I took off after lunch.  The ride home was long, but we made it 3 1/2 hours before needing to stop to feed Norah, then survived the last hour home.  All in all, a successful, fun, but fast trip!  We proved that we really can keep up the tradition, even though things are a little busier up there...we'll see about next year, when we're keeping one-year-olds off the dock and out of the lake!

Swimming lessons

Abby just finished up swimming lessons (or swimming "lentists", as Abby liked to call them) last week.  After doing two summers of the "Mommy and Me" type class in Montgomery, where I was in the pool with her, we tried out the lessons in New Prague this year.  For the first week, they spent their time in the kiddie pool, practice some front/back floats with help from the swim teachers, blowing bubbles in the pool, and getting more comfortable in the water.  Last week, for the last three days of lessons, they strapped on the life jackets and practiced jumping in the pool and swimming to the ladder, then worked up to jumping off the diving board.  Abby was too nervous to jump by herself, so needed some assistance getting into the pool.  A couple of times, she did go underwater and did just fine when she popped back up.  She told me that she knew to close her eyes and mouth for that part.  We were hoping for a little bit more out of swimming lessons this year, but Abby had fun going to the pool with her friends.  At least she's gaining confidence and enjoyment in the water, and hopefully next year, she can learn even more independence in the pool!

Landscaping

After 2 years of living in our house, we finally did something about the landscaping!  It has been an eyesore the entire time--when it was a model home, they had mulch down, but the wind has blown most of it away since then.  The weeds have also been out of control, and it has looked terrible.  Thanks to D & J Landscaping (family of good friends of ours), we now have river rock and some edging along our front walkway that wasn't there before.  Also, the area right out front by our electrical box was especially obnoxious, but now looks so much better.  We love the final product, and it will be so much easier to take care of!  Here are some pictures (not the greatest, due to the afternoon shade, but you get the idea):

Chore chart

I've been wanting to make a chore chart for Abby since I've been home on maternity leave--we've had some issues with me asking Abby to do something, and her refusing or saying she doesn't want to.  I was hoping that this might get her excited to help out, or if not, just realize that helping out is a part of what you do as a family.  She helped me pick out the ribbon (pink Hello Kitty) and we bought some chalkboard paint and a cheap cookie sheet.  I "borrowed" the magnetic tape from my classroom and used some photo paper that I had to make the magnetic chores.  I came up with several ideas of things that Abby could do, then made the little cards, adding a picture for each so Abby would know what each one was.  So far, it's been semi-helpful.  I'm still getting a few "I don't want to"s, but she does like moving the magnets over to the "done" side and choosing a couple of chores for her "to do" side each morning.

4 months old

Norah turned 4 months old on the 3rd!  We managed to squeeze in some cute pics on our busy day.

We visited the doctor yesterday, where Norah weighed in at 11 pounds, 11 ounces (10th percentile) and was 24 inches long (50th percentile).  Dr. Mark talked to me a little bit about how much she spits up and how she hasn't had a lot of weight gain--he's not concerned, but did give us a prescription for something that might help if acid reflux is the cause.  He also gave us the okay to try her on rice cereal, since she holds her head up so well and it might help her get some extra calories.  We tested them out, but she wasn't a fan this first time:

At 4 months old, Norah is a busy girl!  She prefers to be on the move, walking around with someone, but not sitting in your lap (unless she's eating).  She loves laying on her back and playing with (eating) her toys and kicking around.  She's recently found her feet and discovered that she can chew on those, too:

We've gone through some issues with eating and sleeping this past month, and things have gotten a lot better for both.  She'll now take a bottle occasionally and will switch back to nursing without a fuss (we had both bottle and nursing strikes in June).  She's taking better naps during the day, which seems to be helping at night, too.  This week, we've had some really good nights, the best being last night where she slept for almost 12 hours!  The 4-month shots must have made her really tired, because that's not her normal night, although we are making progress!

4th of July

We had a fun 3rd/4th of July this year!  We seem to do more celebrating on the 3rd, with the timing of different activities.  Over the weekend, Abby helped me put together a patriotic fruit pizza.

On the 3rd, after swimming lessons and a nap for the girls, we packed up and headed to Albert Lea for some fun with Dave's parents.  It's become a tradition to go to the Albert Lea pool before the big parade at night, and this year, it felt great with the 100+ heat index!  The pool was busy, and Abby had fun in both the kiddie pool area and the part of the big pool that she could touch in.  Norah enjoyed kicking her legs in the shallow area with Grandma--she's definitely a water girl!  After supper, we went to the 4th of July parade--luckily Dave's mom had set up her chairs in some shade, so with the breeze, it wasn't too bad.  Abby and Norah both enjoyed getting flags to wave (or eat, in Norah's case).

After the parade, we stopped to pick up Sadie, and were on our way back home.  We stopped at our friends' house for a little bit, then they all came up to watch the fireworks at our place.  This year, they were shooting them off right by our house--it was great to have a front row view!  The heat and mosquitoes made it a little less enjoyable, but they were fun to watch!

With all of the excitement on the 3rd, the 4th was a little more low-key.  Dave worked, so the girls and I relaxed and went to a parade in a nearby little town with some other friends.  We cooled off in our kiddie pool, and put the girls to bed early.  We could see fireworks in the town a few miles away from our windows, so enjoyed the air conditioning and bug-free view!

Good Earth Village

Last week, Abby attended Vacation Bible School at the church I grew up going to in Rochester, and spent a few days staying with my mom.  Since Dave had last Thursday and Friday off, we decided to go down to pick Abby up and spend an afternoon at Good Earth Village, the camp where Dave and I met as camp counselors 11 years ago (also the beautiful place we were married at in 2005).  It has been a LONG time since we've been back at camp--so long, in fact, that the only staff members that are still the same are the cook and property manager.  It was definitely fun and nostalgic visiting, but also a little strange--you expect that time has stood still and nothing has changed, but when our good friends aren't there and things really HAVE changed, it's a weird feeling.  It was fun to run into a few summer staff members we knew--one, the sister of one of our camp friends who was a camper at one of the day camps I led, and two guys that were former campers of Dave's.  Camp was as beautiful as ever, and it was fun to show it to Abby.  It was a really hot day, though, so she quickly got tired of hiking.  She and Dave splashed around in the creek a bit before we headed back up to our car.  We need to save up our money for family camp next summer--we think Abby would have a blast!