Family Outings

Now that the weather is nicer and Nora is a bit easier to pack up, we are trying to take one day out of every weekend for a family outing. Sometimes that means the necessary shopping we need to do, but I am hoping more and more that means fun stuff! This weekend we are taking advantage of an activity already planned for us.

As some of you know, we are participating in the March of Dimes March for Babies fundraising event this year. We feel we were so lucky to have the care and information that was available to us when Nora was born. The March of Dimes supports so much research that helped Nora (and me) in the hospital last year. Well, this weekend they are hosting a Family Fun Day at the Butterfly House in St. Louis. We are so excited to get out and meet other parents of preemies and enjoy the Butterfly House.

The March for Babies is an event that is so important to me. I hope someday to have the time to offer more to this wonderful organization. There are no words to describe how difficult Nora's first few months were because of her prematurity. If the research they do can prevent one family from going through that, it is worth it to me. Nora will have forever lasting effects due to her prematurity, but because of the constant research in preemie care done by the March of Dimes and other organizations, those effects are far less than they could have been.

If you want to sponser Nora's Team or Walk with us please please do! The website to donate or sign up is: http://www.marchforbabies.org/norabear

movin' and grovin'

Nora is movin' and grovin'! Now choosing to walk instead of crawl pretty much all the time, she is tough to keep up with. She dislikes pretty much everything that keeps her from exploring everything in sight. We have started to go to playgroup and will be adding even more to our schedule in the coming weeks.

Phil is keeping busy in the Captain's Career Course. PT and class everyday, plus he took on the responsibility of being team leader for his small group. I think it was a bit of an adjustment for him to go back to shaving everyday and putting on his uniform, but he is enjoying most of his classes and the people he is working with.

I am trying to get the wives in his team together for regular lunches and other outings over the next few months that we are here. Of course, the bulk of my days are filled with chasing, dancing, singing, reading, and playing with Nora.

Into EVERYTHING!

Nora is officially walking.

Actually I am not really sure what the rest of the world counts as official walking, but she can now make it across our living room (the long way) without assitance. She is pulling herself up and letting go and walking short distances from piece of furniture to piece of furniture. It is AMAZING! She has also figured out how to climb up the stairs, so we are on a hunt for a good baby gate. It is so much fun to watch our little girl discover and explore the world. Of course the drawback to all of this is that she is into everything! Maybe chasing her around all day will help me lose the last of the "baby weight".

Other than the occasional bump on the head (for Nora) we are all doing great! Phil is finishing up the first half of his Masters Degree this week and will be starting the second half in January. We had a wonderful (but very busy) trip to the Northwest for Thanksgiving and will be heading back that direction the first of January for a quick holiday trip before Phil starts back at school. I am keeping busy chasing Nora and starting some new projects around the house.

Busy busy Ambrose's!

All of the sudden it seems we have become a jet-setting travel family! We have 2 last minute trips over the next 2 weeks and then more travel planned in December and January. It is a busy time in the Ambrose household.

Phil is still plugging away happily at school, and Nora and I are plugging away happily at home. We are still battling suspected and confirmed food allergies with Nora. It seems every other thing we give her causes some kind of reaction, so we are taking things VERY slow.

Nora is movin and grovin even more. Desperate to walk, she climbs on EVERYTHING and cruises all of the house. We have even got a few independent steps out of her before she cautiously sits down on the floor. It won't be long before she is walking on her own-it feels like just yesterday we were watching her struggle to breath in an incubator. Time really does move quickly with a little baby!

If there are any tips out there for flying with a little one-I WOULD LOVE to hear them! Hope this finds everyone well :)

Wow-time flys

I am still not sure how many of you out there keep up with this, but I appologize for my absence! Nora keeps growing and changing and Phil and I keep struggling to keep up with her. She is a delight and a challenge everyday.

The news since my last post, well, there is a lot.

Nora's firsts-
First tooth- Aug 29
First meal-Sep 2
First time pulling up-Oct 3
First crawl-Oct 17
First step- Oct 18

Those are her big milestones. She is still inching along with solid food eating-it is a slow process since I am a little hyper-worried about allergies. It will probably be a while before her "first step" turns into walking, but she is getting bolder and more confident everyday. We were so lucky to have my parents, Grandma and Grandpa Reale, here for a visit this past weekend. AND they were lucky enough to witness her crawling AND her first step. What an amazing little girl we have.

I will try to keep up better with my blog over the coming months :)

One Month down...

Believe it or not we have been her 1 whole month! It has gone by in a flash. Nora fills almost every moment of my time and putting the house together fills all the others :)...I think it will probably take us about a year (right we are set to move again) to really get completely done unpacking and setting up. However, all the essentials are complete and we are all quite comfortable.

Phil is still set to start school at the end of August and until then has very little to do. Unfortunately, rather than enjoying the mellowness, he seems to be going stir crazy. Only one more month until he is a busy bee again.

Nora has finally mastered rolling over both directions (front to back and back to front) and now takes absolute delight in rolling off her play mat. It will be no time before she is off and running! We are on the waiting list to get in and see the Pediatrician here (there is a doc shortage) so I don't have an official weight. However, she has outgrown most of the clothes she was wearing when we left Ft. Lewis, so we are confident she is growing and gaining weight just fine.

While I know the idea of coming to Misery is about as exciting as stale bread-we would welcome anyone that wanted to visit :) just let me know!

It is crazy to think we have been in Missouri for 3 weeks now...it still feels like we just got here! Of course that is probably due to the boxes that are still scattered throughout our house :) As Phil and I have found out, unpacking with a baby in the house is a much different processes than just unpacking-I am not looking forward to the day when we experience unpacking with a toddler! It will be even more of an adventure when Nora starts moving.

We lucked out and found a nice tri-level duplex to rent off post. It has 2 bedrooms and space for Phil to have an office/den downstairs. I am loving the layout of the house and the location-we have woods in our backyard and get to watch the deer and the fireflies at night.
As soon as the house is more set up and less of an embarassing mess, I will post a picture tour of it on our website.

As for the news with Phil, he was bumped out of the Career Course for July and is actually going to work on his Masters in Geological Engineering this summer/fall instead. He has about of month of "work" before he will start school. Once his masters classes are complete in December he will get ready to do the Career Course in January. As it turns out this is a wonderful turn of events for us, since our greatest hope in coming here was for Phil to get the opportunity to complete his MA. Unfortunately, it means we will be in MO longer, but the educational opportunity makes it more than worth it.

As for me, I am trying to get back into the SAHM rhythm. Nora, unpacking, and taking care of Phil consume most of my time. We were lucky enough to have some other friends come to MO for the Career Course this summer, so I already have a network here!

Missouri is turning out to be not quite as miserable as we expected!