The evening of William’s birthday he wanted to take Nora on a run accompanied by Gavin on his bike. As Greta and I were seeing them off from the driveway THREE of the many chimney swifts that live in our chimney swooped down low almost right in front of Nora in her stroller. We were at first surprised that birds had come so close, but then realized there were THREE of them and it made perfect sense! We can hear the birds chittering and chattering through the fireplace at night, which means they can probably hear us too. They must know that a really special, sweet, sweet baby lives here!

I worked on the yard a little bit while the boys n’ baby were gone and the trio of birds continued to circle around together.

Also while they were gone I received great news from Nora’s nutritionist:

I try to remind myself daily what a huge huge miracle it is that Nora eats on her own! My eyes well up with tears of gratitude when people are surprised at how chunky and healthy she looks! And now to hear that she’s actually above 10th percentile is just crazy awesome!! She has come such a long way from the tiny little “chicken wing” we brought home – and all on her own!

We’ve had some setbacks with solid foods recently, perhaps because of the gritty antibiotic she had been on during her fevers–that’s the only thing we can think of. She absolutely HATED that stuff! Developmentally it is awesome that she can correlate the sight of her spoon with feedings, but not good from a nutritional standpoint. She starts gagging as soon as she sees the spoon nearing her lips! She’s a very smart girl! In the mean time we are giving her oral stimulation by massaging around her cheeks and lips and letting her play with the spoon without food on it. We’re also hoping that by bringing her to the dinner table with us that she will become familiar with new smells and sights associated with eating.

Wednesday

Nora’s sweet little hand strokes my arm while she drinks her milkies. Makes me want to melt!

Nora is the first one everyone comes to see when they wake up. She loves being loved!!!

She got her morning walk and her morning baff…

… and then Gavin and I headed off to drum lessons. After that we paid a visit to William at work where we found some discarded sign parts in the scrap lot. We ventured off to go do something with them:

We could create our own episodes of Sesame Street over here! “This blog post was brought to you by the letter H!”

I bought William a pile of mulch for his birthday. (I know! REALLY EXCITING!! Right??) When Gavin and I arrived back home I saw that it had been delivered! I couldn’t exactly expect WILLIAM to do the dirty work of spreading it, otherwise that would have been a horrible gift! So Gavin and I rolled up our sleeves, got out the wheel barrow, a pitch fork and went to work! Gavin petered out mid-pile claiming that it was “half time”. His reassurances that he would be right back out never came to fruition and half time became “game over”! He did help a ton and I was able to finish off the rest by myself. William arrived home a few hours later to a beautiful yard and a bedraggled housewife! He would have “loved” to stay and help 😜 but he and Gavin had a Reds game to get to!

Thursday – 4th of July!

“HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, EVERYONE!!!” says our sweet little sparkler!

We had a nice relaxing morning! Nornor slept in till almost 8:00 after a very good night!

She got a big scoop of brudderly love when she woke up!

“Is… Is… Is dat my BRUDDER!!!???!!??!!!”

Papa stopped by to collect the big kids to partake in early celebratory festivities that involved swimming. I love this picture that Uncle Joe sent:

Looks like Gavin just fell out of the sky, no big deal!

Meanwhile back at home, I was standing at the sink washing bottles and I see these THREE peeking up from the window sill. Three birds on the inside sill and three on the outside! Their melody was pure and true, “Every little thing’s gonna be all right!” 😊

Later on in the afternoon William and I met up with everyone else. This year I was able to squeeze into my Mom’s authentic retro red white and blue bell bottoms that she wore back in the 60s! They’re slightly short on me, but there very well could have been a flood with all this rain we got. So they were perfect!

(Oh! I just happened to be walking through!)

We searched high and low for a picture of my Mom wearing the same pants back in the day, but we were unsuccessful. We weren’t sure if any exist, in which case we’ll need to hop in the Delorian with cameras in tow. We did find a few other fun pictures of my Mom (on left) from that era:

I used to ride to preschool in this car!

Turns out my Uncle G was ALSO a proud owner of this particular style and pattern! It was quickly mentioned that my Mom and her brother did NOT ever coordinate outfits!! Not even on the Fourth of July?!?

Me posing with the original owner!

Lots of good food with lots of good company!

And of course lots of good games! Slam DUNK!

Thumbs up for fashion!

Gavin is such a trend setter. Ferragamos? Hardly. Try FischePöndé.

Speed Pitch Champions

Despite the dour weather we had a wonderful time with the peoples we love!!

Saying goodnight to the big kids who spent the night at Nana & Papa’s house!

We hope you all had a safe and happy 4th! 🗽🇺🇸💥

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
(2 Corinthians 3:17 NIV)