Summer is here!

I hope you all had a great Memorial Day weekend/kickoff to summer. Here's a peek into our life recently. Memorial Day weekend we went to visit Justin's parents. Jeff built Nora a sandbox which she loved and we also went out on the boat. Here is Nora pouting and mad to be wearing her life jacket, which we mean parents MADE her wear!
But all was fine when Grandpa let her steer and push the buttons! Here she is waving!

And a smile from our little cutie who looks more like a big girl each day. In other news, we have our ultrasound on Wednesday. I will post later this week with baby bump, ultrasound pics, and the gender (maybe even the name if we can come to a decision).

Lastly, here is a picture of my garden-my has it grown. I have several green tomatoes on the vines and we have enjoyed multiple salads from the lettuce in front-yum.

April Update

I apologize again for the length of time between updates. Lately, I have been obsessed with the above, my Square Foot Garden. This is a little 4'x4' garden Justin built me for my birthday. It has a special mix of soil and is supposed to be high yield with less weeding and watering. We shall see! It is perfect for us since our "yard" is a parking lot. Until we get into a house, this will have to do for a garden. Sorry for the junk all around it. We still have some side containers to get ready for other veggies and herbs. So far the only lettuce is planted. I will update with pics.

Nora is doing great. She is loving to color lately. And yes, there are 2 bows on top of her head. Everytime we pass a bow on a shelf or counter, she wants it in her hair immediately. I have to regulate in public to save her from embarrassment, but here she's just coloring.

Her new favorite thing is to "help" me wash dishes. This IS actually really helpful to me, because I was having trouble washing dishes and keeping her from tearing up the house. Now, I wash and hand her her little dishes to rinse off and she is entertained forever rinsing, so then I race through my other dishes. She needs to be in just a diaper for this since she is still learning to dump water into the sink only. Can you see my little baby bump? I am 3 months pregnant now and loving being in my second trimester and over the morning sickness!


In March, we started something called Blanket Time. We heard about it from other parents. Simple concept. Basically, Nora plays on a blanket each day for a given amount of time. She can play and talk, but can't get off the blanket until the timer beeps. We started at 3 minutes which was a challenge until she learned what not getting off the blanket meant. Now we are up to 25 minutes. Which is where I think we will stay for awhile. I usually am in the same room folding laundry or writing out bills. It's nice to not be interrupted while Nora is entertained.

And it's fun to watch her make up new games like, "Put the truck inside your pajamas"

Chatty Kathy

Here's my little helper. She wants to be a part of everything that involves stirring.

Lately, I'm been letting her put ingredients into recipes and stir them. I usually help guide her hand though, otherwise they'll be a huge mess.

Now, the banana bread is ready to bake. Yum!

Nora, has been adding words to her vocabulary like crazy. Justin and I are going to Door County this weekend for a weekend away, while Justin's parents watch Nora. I have been writing up a little dictionary of Nora's "words" for them so they can understand what she is saying. I think maybe I will document what all my kids can say at 18 months. It's so sweet to have it recorded. Surprisingly, the list is almost up to 100 words! Since I've been keeping track about 3 weeks ago, she's probably added 30 words-so like 10 new words a week! Here's the list if you're interested.

Nora’s Translations

A-bo-Apple

At-Hat

Ba-ba-Grandpa/ma

Back

Ba-dee-Potty or water

Bad-er-Water

Bas-Bath

Bay-Play

Beak-Drink

Beak-y-Blankie

Bean-Plane

Bear

Bed-Bread

Bee-bee-Baby

Bee-g-Big

Bees-Please

Beet or Bead-Read

Bir-dee-Bird

Bish-Push (No pushing!) or Fish

Bit-Spit

Boop-Poop

Bats-Pants

Bone-Phone

Bub-Bib

Buk-Truck

Bye-bye

Da-Done, hands up

Daddy

Das-Dance

Da-see-Chelsea

Dees-Cheese

Dews-Shoes

Dir-Stir

Doc

Doe-s-Toast

Don-Jon

Door

Dop-Stop

Dosh-Josh

Down

Eat

E-C-O-Cheerios, makes an o with hand

Egg

Eyes

Gak-ger-Cracker

Gake-Jake

Gar-Car

Ga-sees-Glasses

Gee-C-Jesus

Gee-ku-Thank You

Go

Gock-Duck

Gooky/Geeky-Cookie

Gow-Cow

Guk-Stuck

Ippy-Sippy

Ish-ish-Finished

Key-cat-Kitty Cat

Mama-Emma/Mama

Meat-Mittens

Meow -Cat

Mik-Milk or music

Mean-o mean-o: Ring Around the Rosy

Mommy

Moo-Cow

More

Muk-Up, wants to be picked up

Na-na-Nanna or Banana

Neenah-Hurshle or Nora

Nee-yan-Niyanth

Ni-ni-Nigh-night

Nonny-Johnny

No

Noo-ny-Noodle

Nose-nose or Kleenex

Nuk/Nukkies-Nuk

O-ch-Orange

Ocky-Sock

Off

Ome-Home

On

Ope-Open

Ot-Hot

O-wa-Owen

Picky-Picky Mrs. Pickle Book

Pock-y-Packers

Ross-Rice

Uck-Yuck

Uh-oh

Up

Ursh-Hurshle

Urt-Shirt

Way-o-Whale

Woah

Ya-ya-Ella

Yes

Yight-Light

Yucky-Lucky (book)

Maybe boys don't have cooties!

Well I lost our camera for a few weeks there so I haven't had a chance to update with new pictures. Thankfully, I found it. If you're wondering what we've been up to, I will tell you. We've been playing with lots of boys. I think Nora is destined to have lots of friends that are boys. I even joined a Mom's Club here in Onalsaka and there is not one single girl in the club-can you believe that!?!? Good thing all the boys are so nice and fun!

Nora playing with her friend, Owen, at the Faithwalkers Conference we attended through our church after Christmas. A fellow thumb sucker! Yay, I thought I had the only one! They had a blast playing behind curtains and trying to run away from me and Owen's mom, Beth.

This is Nora's new friend, Niyanth. We met him and his mom, Lavanya, at Mom's club. Nora loves to play with Niyanth. She says "Nee-yan, pay". She is also obsessed with his bottles and always tries to drink them. See above. Go figure, she never took bottles well for us.

Nora probably sees her friend Hurshle the most right now. He is the only other child down here from our church in Eau Claire. We are now neighbors with him too. They moved into the town house 2 doors down from ours. Here they are in the kitchen, somehow both sitting in a tupperware container and a moment before, laughing hysterically. Nora always wants to know where Hurshle is and what he's doing. She always asks me, "Ursh, go?". (Where did Hurshle go?) Also, when she goes to sleep, she tells me, "Ursh, nigh-nigh." I tell her that, yes Hurshle is going to sleep too. If I ask her who any object around belongs to-the answer is always-"Ursh".

Owen and his parents are next from our church team to move down here. They are moving in a few weeks. Then, Megan and Ben Holmen and their daughter Emma will be moving here in March. Both families will be in the same neighborhood as us. It will be so fun to have more kids in town, and especially another girl. Yay, Emma-we miss you! Boys are great, but sometimes you need someone to play dolls with-the right way! We'll need to have a tea party to celebrate!

Funny Hunny

Well, winter is surely upon us here in Wisconsin. We have been experiencing sub-zero temperatures and big snowfalls. Here's Nora on her "new" used sled we inherited from friend's. Nice ride. When it's too cold outside, I've been pulling her around the house, along with her moose from her Montana grandparents and her dolly.

Here's my girly girl. I wonder if it's just a phase or if it will be part of who she is. She can not stand to be near clothes without draping them around her or putting them on. She digs through our dirty or clean laundry bins and will walk around with my pajamas around her like a scarf. In this picture, I was going through my winter hat and mitten bin and she put this hat on all by herself. I thought she looked like a Russian or Buckingham Palace guard, so I had to snap a quick pic. When I dry my hair, she runs up to me so that I can dry her hair too.

Here's a picture from last Wednesday's blizzard. I guess La Crosse is considered part of the "Blizzard Belt". Snowstorms sweep across Iowa and hit us before they taper off. We got almost 18 inches in this one storm! Yay, I love snow.

Here's Nora and her friend, Hurshle playing with her new Little People Nativity Set from my family in Oregon (Thanks, what a great gift!). You can see they both have Little People in their mouths. I think it's funny because Nora and Hurshle were combining from our other Little People sets, so there were pandas, giraffe's and also a farmer present at this nativity.

Nora has been doing a lot of new things lately. For one, she is WAY more vocal. In fact, she hardly signs anymore-just babbles. Too bad we can only understand about 20% of what she says. She is also trying to figure out who or what drinks. She will put food up to her sippy cup at meals and make eating sounds. She also tried to give Clifford a drink from her sippy in a book we were reading. It was so funny. I think this stemmed from an animal book we have where Zebras are drinking water from a pond. She was very interested in that page. I think it just clicked with her that things besides her eat and drink and now she needs to figure all that out.

She is also very interested in what things around the house are yucky. I think she's developing a mental list. So far-the toilet, toilet brush, mommy's coffee, tub drain, diapers, and bones. She will point to them around the house or in books and make a yuck sound, then laugh, smile, or look to me to make sure it really is yucky (otherwise she'd love to touch all those).

Finally, she's answering "yeah" and nodding to us sometimes. This is so fun! We ask her a question and then she thinks about it and says, "Yeah". So helpful-even though sometimes I don't think she really understands what she's answering yes to.

A Lovely Little Visit

Last weekend, my parents were able to visit from Montana. They had a blast playing with Nora and catching up. The joined us at Justin's parents for Thanksgiving.
The day after Thanksgiving, we threw a wine, chocolate, and cheese tasting birthday party for Jeff. It was so fun to taste each wine and cheese paired together. There was a lot of laughing as we tried to describe each wine's aromas and tastes.
Mom playing with Nora after breakfast.

When my step-dad Glen got lost on Justin's parents land during a walk, we had to send out the rescue team. Since it was deer hunting season, everyone needed to wear blaze orange. I never thought I'd see the day where my mom was in blaze orange-here's a funny pic Justin snapped at the occasion.

A Visit to Grandpa and Grandma Wise's House

Last week, Justin had another week of training in Arizona. Nora and I took the opportunity to visit Justin's parents. As a huge animal lover, Nora loved the visit. Justin's parents have a new puppy, Doc. Nora was hestitant to like him at first, since he would try to nip at her and take her toys-you know normal curious puppy behavior. Soon she warmed up to him. She loved helping Grandpa spoon water into Doc's mouth, below.

In think Nora still holds their cat, Maddy, as her favorite pet in the house though. Maddy is the best cat in the world-spoken by an almost cat hater. Really, she takes all of Nora's abuse and chasing. Also, she is the most snuggly cat ever. If you just sit on a couch with a book and a blanket, she senses coziness and wants to be a part of it, on your lap. It's just wonderful.

There was also a mouse in the house! Here's Nora in her Halloween costume. No trick or treating this year, but she had fun in her costume and looking at Grandpa and Grandma's pumpkin.

The highlight of Nora's week, and every visit to Justin's parents, are her rides on Grandpa's "tractor" which is really the riding lawn mower. She "asks" to go on it all the time when she sees Grandpa and she loves to "guide" the steering wheel and push the buttons.

One day, we went outside to get some raking done. Nora even had her own rake, but the helping didn't last long. Soon she was playing in the leaf piles and exploring the huge yard. It was so nice to let Nora get over 50 ft. from me and not worry about someone snatching her or her going into the street. I truly hope it is in God's plan for us to live in the country someday.