Chillaxin'

My sisters may accuse me of raising a little diva...but how can you resist accessorizing such a cute little girl?

4 months old

Isabelle turned 4 months on Sunday. Here are some tidbits about Isabelle at 4 months:

• She loves to stand up...supported of course, but she'll stand until her legs give out. Even then after a short break she'll want to stand again.
• She loves to bounce / jump. Of course she can't even begin to do this by herself, so it wears mommy and daddy out really quickly.
• She notices food and drinks now. She loves cups. She watches them like a hawk and when you give her one, she appears to know what to do with it.
• As of last weekend, she graduated from the bassinet to the crib. She does like it better than the bassinet, but still prefers mommy's and daddy's bed...much to their dislike and discomfort.
• She's picked up waking up every two to three hours at night to eat.
• She's ready to go to bed from anywhere from 8:30 to 10:00. Unless she has a nap at 7:30. While we try to avoid this, sometimes no matter what she still takes a nap.
• She laughs every couple of days.
• She's realized life isn't so bad...or I guess I should say her tummy doesn't hurt her so bad because while she does still get grumpy (especially if she wakes up before she's ready to), she doesn't scream like she used to.
• She loves polka dots.
• It is VERY obvious every time she want to go to sleep.
• She still can't hold the pacifier in her mouth...something that drives her mother bonkers!
• She LOVES the mirror and her reflection. She also loves pictures of herself.
• Her daddy is her favorite person.
• She can't roll over from her back to her tummy yet, but she has rolled over several times from her tummy to her back. Of course all these times have been on a mattress and never on the floor. Most of the time there has been a slight slant, but she can do it in her bed where there isn't a slant at all.
• When she wakes up in the morning, she doesn't get to be held for at least an hour. She can lay on the bed and watch the fan or swing in her swing...but the only time she gets held for that first hour is to be burped. Some days she'll be on her own for an hour and a half or even two hours until she's ready for nap time. Those days are great. We are really trying to push her out of only wanting mommy and daddy and having to be held all the time. Our bodies can't do it anymore.
• She loves to suck and chew on her fingers. I think that sometimes the pacifier just inspires her to stick her fingers in her mouth.
• She takes her pacifier out of her mouth all the time. Even when she doesn't mean to. It drives me crazy.
• She still loves the fans.
• She's getting better and better about playing with toys. She even tolerates the car seat now that she loves her frog toy. It's her favorite for sure, but we don't let her play with it at all except for when she's in the car seat. She also loves her duck toy and the sound of the crumpled paper in it.
• She is a very sound sleeper.
• She's almost out of most of her 3 month clothes and is already in some 6 month items. Especially onsies.
• She likes to suck on her tongue and sometimes even her bottom lip.
• She's starting to be ticklish.
• She likes when I blow raspberries on her neck.

Even though she's been with us for four months now, it seems like so long. During one conversation Curt and I were having we were talking about how it must have been three months ago that something happened, but then we realized it was only four weeks ago because she was 13 weeks old...not 4. Time is flying by! I really don't think anything could possibly pass time quicker than having a child...especially a nursing baby. I swear every time I sit down to feed her I feel like it's only been 30 minutes since her last meal. We love her so much though!

Farewell Elder Whitworth

Dear Elder Whitworth,

We are going to miss you while you are in England sharing the gospel. We can't wait to hear your stories. While you're away, we'll miss your jokes, stories and comments. We promise to tell Isabelle all about you so when you get home she can say, "Luke." We love you and wish you the best!

Curt, Natalie and Isabelle

Resemblance

Do you see a resemblance? Curt does... Apparently it's in the smile. :)

For Everyone Who Wondered...

This is what I was doing at three years old: playing with my dolls...

This is what Curt was doing: playing with guns. :)

To all of us girls who ever wondered what our future spouse was doing...now I know. For all of you girls who still wonder, "I wonder what my husband is doing right now..." BEWARE! :)

Blue Eyes

I really hope Isabelle keeps her blue eyes.... I just love them so much!

She Is Her Father's Daughter

Curt LOVES Dr. Pepper. Last night during dinner I had a little bit of Dr. Pepper in my hands and she was staring it down. It was really funny.

A Really Good Day

On Sunday we went to church at the singles' ward. It was super stange to be going back...especially with a baby. Curt's youngest brother, Luke, was speaking in church since he is leaving on Thursday to serve a mission in England, so we wanted to attend. Isabelle did really well. Since there wasn't another baby in the entire room every sound she made seemed to be amplified 10 times...especially since she talked during the entire opening prayer. Overall, she did really well. After church we spent the rest of the evening with Curt's family. Isabelle did amazing. She even let everyone hold her. Curt and I even left for an hour to run up to his work to print, sign and email a contract offering a bid on a house... Within the last week and a half, Isabelle has developed a love of being bounced. Not, just bounced in our arms to get her to be quiet, but bouncing her on our laps and into the air...practically jumping in our laps. She's also always been able to stand while we hold her, but lately she's been doing so more and more and gotten a lot stronger. We decided to try and put her in the johnny jump up and she actually seemed to like it. She didn't jump, but she did stand and swivel around from side to side. Curt and I actually went several hours without holding her...it was rather strange. Super nice...not necessarily because of the break, but because she got to interact with people other than her parents and spend time with her aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousin.

Who's Who?

So I guess everyone who is going to vote has voted... For eveyone who wants to know who the babies are, scroll down. While most everyone voted for me, I think she definitely looks like Curt. She does appear to have my eyes though. However, when she was first born and up until I saw this picture of Curt I thought she looks like Heather. My family insists Heather would have received more votes if I had found a better picture.

Now Who Does She Look Like?

Okay, when you add this picture into the mix, who does she look like?

Look Alike

This is Isabelle:
She's super cute....but who does she look like? Cast your vote in the comments section... (The point of this poll isn't to guess which one is me and who the other baby is...but actually to vote for who you think Isabelle looks the most like.) Stay tuned for the results and fun follow up information. Happy voting!

If You Can't See It, It Can't Hurt You

This Fourth of July, our little family spent the day at Curt's parent's house. We went through family pictures (stay tuned for some cute posts), the boys played badminton while Isabelle watched and played cheerleader, we played with our new camera (super exciting!), ate hamburgers and hot dogs, watched some nifty show on Yellowstone (my favoritest place...and it made me want to go all over again), and of course watched fireworks. Isabelle did a little better watching the fireworks this week...but still fell asleep about 5 or 10 minutes in. She had the attitude of, "If you can't see it, it can't hurt you." Since we watch the neighborhood fireworks in Curt's parent's front yard (they live in the county so they shoot off their own really big fireworks), we watched them for about an hour and 15 minutes. Isabelle woke up for the last 30 minutes or so when it wasn't such a sensory overload and watched some more. She would turn her head at the bangs and watch the resulting firework. After the fireworks we let Isabelle lick some watermelon. Apparently it was really funny because she laughed again. We have a video of her happy and licking the watermelon...taken right after she laughed. Sadly, she didn't do it on video. :( It was a very nice relaxing day.

She Laughed

On Friday night, Isabelle laughed for the first time. She was talking a lot to me and I was repeating the sounds to her and she just laughed. It was so exciting. Unfortunately Curt missed it and when I yelled for him to come, she laughed some more...but as soon as Curt made it to us, she was done and wouldn't laugh again...no matter how many times I smooshed her checks or made her smile. On Saturday though, while Curt was holding her and I was facing her, she laughed for us again. Of course we don't have either one of her laughs on video. I should have been more prepared. We knew it was coming because on Wednesday she laughed out loud while sleeping and on Thursday she silently laughed in her sleep. Hopefully next time.

Fireworks

Last Saturday, Curt, Isabelle and I went to see fireworks with my sisters. Isabelle fell asleep on the way out there, but woke up once we arrived. When the fireworks started, she didn't even flinch or get startled at all and she just watched them. She even handled me covering her ears the whole time really well. However, about 5 minutes into the show, she fell back asleep. She was dead to the world. Even the extremely loud ones didn't scare her or wake her up. She even slept on her back...which she doesn't handle well. I hope she stays awake for the ones tomorrow...