Nora-11 Months

Little Miss Nora standing with her normal wide stance.

Last week, we had a garage sale at our house with some friends.

The babies did such a good job outside playing during the sale. Nora is in the middle of Emma Holmen and Owen Crammond.

Updates on us:

Justin-He is studying full time now to pass a government required exam to be able to sell stocks and bonds in the U.S. He will take that in late August. The information is interesting to him, but hard to absorb so much. He typically studies 9-11 hours per day every weekday and feels like he's back in college! He is excited to get past this part of the training.

Julie-I was busy with the rummage sale last week. Pricing, setting up, and selling but it was so fun and we made over $100-yay! I am using the money to buy pictures and photo albums. I have also been spending a lot of time in the basement packing and sorting through what we should keep. I feel like I'm making progress and yet there's still a lot to do. We will be moving most of our things down one month from today.

Nora-She is standing on her own now and taking a few steps randomly. Yesterday, she took 3 steps then fell, today it was 2. She is still really wobbly and prefers to crawl. She also got another tooth on the bottom and wasn't even fussy. My friend Molly pointed it out to me and I didn't believe her at first-but when I checked her mouth it was there, already through the surface.

Enjoying the outdoors together

Last Friday was Justin's last day with Ecolab. His boss came to get his Ecolab truck at around 3 p.m. and then just like that his first real job was over. No more calls or stops at restaurants. Justin was having a hard time comprehending this. He started his new job at Edward Jones today.

We wanted to take maximum advantage of this weekend as Justin was employed by no one and totally free from the stress of a career. One thing we've missed since I have been very pregnant and had a young baby to care for is enjoying time hiking, kayaking, and camping. We decided to re-enter our former outdoor hobbies by going camping with our friends the Crammonds, Toltzmans and Klessigs at a nearby campground. It wasn't backpacking in Colorado, but hey it's something we can do as a family until our kid(s) are older.

Here Nora and I are getting the tent ready to sleep in. We were tentmates with Eric and Beth Crammond and their 6 month old son, Owen. They bought a huge Taj Mahal tent that could easily fit us all and Pack n' Plays for both babies. Nora loved exploring her new home for the night.

Here's Owen and Nora in the tent. Nora as usual is sucking her thumb!

Family picture around the campfire.

On Sunday evening, we took advantage of the beautiful sunny weather and hiked at Hoffman Hills, a nearby hiking trail. We tried out the Kelty Baby Backpack Justin got me for a birthday present this year. I guess part of my present is that he gets to carry Nora too! She liked riding behind her daddy as long as she had a cool stick to hold. Though we were joking that she was using it to beat Justin into going faster-like her horse.

The beautiful view from the tower at the top of the hill. It was so pretty to look out in every direction and see miles of green and blue. The Wise family sure loves what beautiful land God made right here in Wisconsin! This hike was on our list of things to do before we move away from Eau Claire-check!

Nora is 10 Months

Here are some pictures I took of Nora outside in our front yard recently.

This is a cute one I got while I was watching our friend's son Hurshle the other day. Nora had just gotten up from a nap and Hurshle came in to see her. With her in her crib and him down below it reminded me of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.

To our great relief, 3 of Nora's 4 top teeth have cut through the gums. As her teeth are coming down more she is making some funny faces we have never seen her make before. The teeth are just through the surface now, but I still can't quite imagine what she'll look like with 4 teeth up there.

In other news, we will hopefully be signing a lease on Friday afternoon for a townhouse in Onalaska (a town just north of La Crosse). Then we'll be keeping our eyes peeled in the next year or so for a house to buy-exciting!!!

Nora stood up for the first time without holding on to anything last Friday. Since then she has attempted it several times and I didn't see it, but some friends said they saw her take 1 step on her own too! Woohoo!

Woohoo!

Justin got offered the job with Edward Jones this morning!!! He starts June 29th and that's all we know for right now. We'll be updating in the next few weeks with more details. Yippee!

Waiting...

Nora eating a teething biscuit.

We are waiting for a few things this week. First, Nora is getting all 4 of her top teeth. They are just below the surface, in fact one could not be much closer to the surface, so they must be breaking through soon. These teeth are taking much longer to come in. When Nora got her 2 bottom teeth in, once we saw them below the gum's surface it was only a day or two before they cut through. I have seen 2 under the surface for 1 1/2 weeks now and the others since this weekend. We are going on day 3 of a very fussy Nora, so we will all be glad when this wait is over. And then Nora will be able to really bite things, which is good and bad.

We are also waiting to hear back from Edward Jones this week. Justin had his interview Tuesday afternoon. They told him it would be 7-10 days before he heard back from them. Reading online forums, most candidates hear back in 1-3 days after the interview. We are on day 2. We are patiently (and sometimes impatiently) waiting for an answer.

Finally, we're waiting for our pastor's wife Miki to go into labor. She is having a baby any day now and we are watching their 7 kids while she and our pastor Doug are in the hospital. Miki says she's really dropped and had some big contractions, so we'll see. You may remember that we posted last summer about babysitting them for 4 days. It was a crazy time but very fun. And this year, there will be 8 kids with Nora! I think I have a little more energy now though that I'm not pregnant. The kids kept wanting me to run and play soccer and do a water fight, but I was like "Hello, I'm 7 months pregnant!". So do you think we can we handle it??? I think so, the older kids are such a big help and they all have their assigned chores. We will definitely be posting pictures of that wild time! We already have some plans. And again, NO we do not want to have 7 (or 8) kids.

Long desired goal fulfilled

Hahaha, this picture was making me laugh last night. I know it's not wonderful quality, but I was taking great pains to get Emma and Nora to both look at the camera last night as we watched them. When I finally got them both looking, Emma started falling over and looked terrified on the way down for the 1 foot drop from her sitting position.

Anyway, last night after we put the girls to bed, Justin was going to run to Dairy Queen to get us a Blizzard. As we were getting our cash out, Justin heard the bell of the Ice Cream Man that bikes around our neighborhood. If you don't know, this is going on our 3rd summer of trying to catch this guy! In past years we have tried to note the nights and times he drives by and we've even sat out on our driveway in lawn chairs with flip flops on waiting with money in hand. This was all to no avail, he has always eluded us. We've even contemplated if he was a ghost. We always heard his bell , but when we ran to find him, he'd be nowhere in sight. Justin and I decided we would give it our all to catch this man before we moved from Eau Claire and last night that goal was fulfilled. When Justin heard the bell, he grabbed the money from my hand and ran out the door. Totally forgetting about the girls, I ran after him yelling, "What are you doing?". All he could say was, "The ice cream man...the girls!" I handed him the rest of my change, told him to get me whatever, and waited in the house. He brought us back two ice cream bars and a little bit of nostalgia from my childhood. We had a similar ice cream man in our neighborhood growing up, only he drove a truck that played music. We always made a point of playing outside in the front yard on the day and time the ice cream man would come. What a summer treat! And now we're on his route...though I think half the fun was chasing him down. He was excited to know we had been seeking him for so long and even gave us a $1 off coupon for next time.

I also want to take a moment to brag on my Mother's Day gift from Justin, a Rowenta iron. I have been told about Rowenta irons from Martha Stewart and Megan Holmen-the only 2 people I know who actually get enjoyment from ironing. Megan is the Ironing Queen and that must make me the Ironing Peasant. I am now realizing that some of my hatrid for the task was not being successful at it. You know, you get out the ironing board then iron the shirt and it looks just as wrinkly afterward. What's the point? Anyway, from Martha and Megan I have learned a few tips and thought I might share them with those who share my sentiments.

1) You need a thick ironing pad. I guess the 1 layer of fabric one I got from Walmart in college wasn't thick enough. A few months ago, my mom graciously bought me a $20 thick ironing pad. It was sad to me to think of a good $20 going to something like an ironing pad, but when I used it, it did help some.

2) You need a heavy iron. My Sunbeam brand cheapy also wasn't cutting it. I now also recommend Rowenta brand-and eek the good ones are near $100. That motivates me somewhat to iron more to get our money's worth out of it.

3) Having the iron on the right setting really does make a difference. I ironed even with my Rowenta with no sucess. Then I actually to a second to look at the fabric of the shirt and match it with the setting on my iron and to my suprise I got all the wrinkles out of Justin's dress shirt.

I can say, I did find a slight bit of enjoyment out of the task, until I looked at the clock and saw that it had taken me 20 mins. to accomplish this. So I accept that I never will be an Ironing Queen, but I do appreciate being able to decently iron a shirt if need be...

Short and (not) Stout

Nora had her 9 month appointment today. She is growing fine in her growth charts in height, though still short, and head circumference. The doctor and I were a little concerned about her weight though. She has only gained 1 pound in the past 3 months, in which she has been eating solids 3 times a day in addition to nursing that whole time! She is an active little girl-always moving so I'm sure she burns a lot of it off, but 1 pound! Anyway, he wants to have her weight checked again in 6 weeks.

For now, the doctor's orders were to let her eat as much high caloric foods as often as she wants. Wouldn't you love for your doctor to tell you that? I would. I made a ham yesterday and we gave Nora some at dinner which she loved and ate every last piece. It's funny how even babies can sort out the foods they like on a high chair tray-the ham pieces among broccoli and squash. I guess we know who will be eating the rest of the leftovers...and in true Wisconsin fashion lots of cheese too.