20 Month Update

So, here we are...Isabelle is 20 months old. I thought I'd do a little update since I can't sleep...

• She still loves her animals. She is so good at saying their names and telling you what they "say." Some of the newest names she says are: elephant, octopus, rabbit, froggy, seal, and fishy (it's been a shoe for months and she still will revert back to it...). Some of her newest sounds are for a: seal, alligator (it says, "Snap!"), kangaroo (it says, "Boing!) and frog. She's also gotten really passionate about growling and her froggy ribbits. 
• Sometimes she plays so well and gets so in-character that she actually can't pull herself out of it. Case and point: The other day she was passionately growling for her little toy bear that she was holding. It was super cute... After about two minutes of this, she actually became angry herself and started growling more and throwing things. 
• She fake cries for her dolls. Super cute!
• She loves her toys. Often times she goes to bed with one of her doll house dolls in her hand. It is also often that when she wakes up in the morning for her to call for Curt to come open her door and as soon as it's open for her to push past him and say, "Toys!" and go play. 
• She's doing better about the tantrums. She'll still gets angry and screams and hits...mostly herself or whatever is closest and she'll also start throwing things. Most of the time it doesn't blow up into a tantrum though.
• Often times she'll randomly say words that we have no clue that she even knows. Today in Sacrament meeting, while looking at a book, she pointed to a rainbow and said, "Rainbow," as clear as can be. 
• She talks and laughs in her sleep. Maybe we just notice this now cause I don't sleep much and we finally have a baby monitor...
• She no longer takes naps. Grr.... While this is hard from about 4:30-7:30, it's great that she goes to bed anywhere from 7:00-8:15 or so. I do love that. On night school nights for Curt, it isn't so great cause he doesn't get to see her, but we only have FOUR MORE nights of that, people!!! No night school next semester! :) (I didn't think I could handle it with two newborns...)
• She automatically love Santa. We have no clue why she's taken such a liking to him, but we introduced him to her via a book just over a week ago and told her that Santa say, "Ho, Ho," and she's been hooked. She was more excited about Santa in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade than Buzz or Dora. We had to rewind and watch Santa about 20 times. 
• Other than Heidi's doll house toys, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, books and YouTube videos of Grover and Elmo (especially the ones that involve songs) and going outside are her current favorites.
• She loves the game chase.
• She is starting to sing songs. She sings: "Once There Was a Snow Man," "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Clean Up, Clean Up."
• She went to nursery today and didn't cry at all until Curt picked her up. Apparently she'd forgotten about us until then...
• She does super cute random things all the time. Seriously, I love her little, or big, personality and that she cracks us up every day. I can't even tell you how many times I text Curt to tell him Isabelle's latest cute thing or turn to someone and whisper, "Look at Isabelle," because whatever she is doing is so random or cute. 

32 Weeks

A week ago today (at 31 weeks) I had maternity pictures done. Last night we were super surprised to learn that our picture gallery is already up and ready for viewing. For anyone who wants to see all the pictures...click here. The password is Whitworth. Tell me which ones you would order. I get a free 8X10, but there are definitely more than one that we love so we'll have to order more. :) Put your two cents in though cause I'm going to have a hard time narrowing it down. Seeing these pictures made me super excited to have the newborn pictures done by the same photographer. Can't wait for that...for way more than one reason. Speaking of those reasons...I guess I should do a pregnancy update. Here's what my pregnancy life is like lately...in addition to all the symptoms I've mentioned in the past (and it ain't pretty, people!):

• Every single time I put any weight on my right leg, I get a sharp pain in my right hip. Sometimes it is just my hip and the more I walk the more bearable it gets. That's the better side of it. On the more painful side, I'll get shooting pains up my back and down my leg. Sometimes it gets so bad I can't walk without assistance from Curt.
• On Sunday I was having such bad back spasms in my upper back that they radiated into my chest. I've had this happen on two other occasions...both of which I was not pregnant at the time. Seriously, the pain is worse than any of the contractions I felt with Isabelle. Especially when it's so bad that it makes the babies go crazy in you too. It's was so bad that I couldn't help by writhe around in pain because it is impossible to hold still. I couldn't breathe so I ended up hyperventilating and just trying not to do that was a challenge... I was actually throwing up from the pain. Ugh...to say it was agony is an understatement. I went to the chiropractor yesterday for my hip and my back and while it made the latter better, I think it made the first worse. 
• The babies like to push on me. I wish I knew what they were doing exactly, but it is very very painful. They push up on my belly, into my right rib and/or on my bladder and my belly gets really hard. You can see the baby trying to push out of me. That in and of itself hurts, but I can literally feel my blood pressure rise when they do it. Having your head feel like it is swelling is not fun either!
• I feel the babies move plenty...but it is different now. When they kick me in the belly, I don't generally feel it, even the huge kicks that make Curt say, "Whoa...they're beating you up!" I don't know if it is that I'm used to it or it is just overshadowed by the pain, but sometimes I'm surprised to learn they are kicking me. I do feel hiccups a lot and kicks to my butt and them turning and just moving in general though. 
• Heartburn. Ugh. It doesn't matter what I eat...it is almost a constant reminder that I am in fact pregnant. Not that I could forget.
• I'm having to take nausea medicine again. Not every day, but I've taken several pills in the last week. It is never fun to throw up, but when you are this huge...it's very painful!
• I am officially swelling. I've had days here and there were if I pushed it too much I might swell a little bit, but for the past couple of nights, I'm always swollen by bed time. I remembered that it hurt to swell, but oh...it hurts! I hate swelling. Plus it makes me look so horrible! 
• My belly hurts! I remember hating the stretched to the extreme feeling with Isabelle, but this is different too. I have that feeling, but I also have sharp pains from the stretching too. I had some stretch marks from Isabelle's pregnancy, but no matter what I do to prevent them this time around they are multiplying by the day it seems. I think a lot of the sharp pains are actually from the stretch marks themselves.
• I don't stand up straight anymore. This goes back to the belly being so stretched out. I can't walk normal and have to bend my knees to walk. I can't stand up straight unless I'm really trying and dedicated to do so cause it hurts too much. This, of course, probably adds to the back pain cause it puts more strain on my back cause I'm hunched over all the time. 
• With only one exception in almost three weeks now, I don't drive. I can't sit that long in the same position. I can't hold my hands up. I don't have the attention span to pay attention. Sometimes after backing up, I wonder if I even checked to see if anyone was there. Not good. So...unless I have to, I'm probably done driving this pregnancy. I may make an exception if it weren't far, but it makes me nervous...
• My cravings are almost all vegetable, ice or nut related. When it comes to the nuts or the ice...it isn't the taste I crave...it's the texture and the way they feel on my teeth.
• Lately I've had the attitude of if I have to do something, I have to do it as soon as possible. Every week is worse than the last and no matter how much I've tried to avoid the tears, they've started coming from the pain. As much as it terrifies me to have surgery or to have two newborns, I can't wait for this pregnancy to be over. By saying that, I don't mean I want them out of me now and in the NICU...I'm just saying, I want the time to come for them to come safely and be out of me. Realistically, that time isn't even that far away. I'm 32 weeks. I could have healthy babies in 3-4 weeks! When I don't think about the pain, that seems really soon. Yikes! :)

Isabelle's First Prayer

Being the amazing parent's that Curt and I are...ahem....anyways, we have been TRYING to get Isabelle excited about praying. We've been trying to get her to fold her arms or even just be quiet during prayer time. It hasn't really worked well at all and it isn't very often Isabelle will even acknowledge we are praying. There are times when she will fold her arms for a few seconds, but nothing consistent. This past week though during family prayer she sat with her arms folded and following the prayer she said, "Amen....more...." So, I told her how to say her own prayer. It went something (really short) like this:

Father,

Love you.

Jesus

Amen.

When she asked for more again, we expanded it a little more to be like this:

Heavenly Father,

Love you.

Sleep well tonight.

Name of Jesus

Amen.

Yep...melted my heart!

She Loves Bugs

Isabelle loves her bugs. It's probably been about two months now that she has discovered them and love them. Every single time we walk out the front door she asks to see the bugs. Here are the bugs she knows: butterfly, spider, ant, bee and cricket. Basically every bug she sees or think she sees fits into those categories. I took this video about two weeks ago...

Too Big to Fight It...

Okay...so Isabelle hasn't taken a nap in two days now. She sleeps in a twin bed in a room that has lots of her toys in it so it really isn't an option for me to just put her in bed and leave the room. Usually I can lay beside her, read her a book and then put on Primary music and she'll fall asleep, but lately we have to fight her to go to sleep. I truly believe it is because she LOVES her toys and books so much right now that she just can't let go to take a nap. Seriously, you should see the child play with her toys. Her current obsessions are of course books and the doll house toys, but also Mr. Potato Head. She's also on a huge stuffed animal kick again...specifically bears. I love that she's so passionate about her toys and playing...especially since she had gotten in the habit of watching movies with this pregnancy. She rarely will sit and watch movies or Dora or Blue anymore. We used to watch Lion King at least twice a day...now she's barely interested in it for 30 minutes. So, I'm happy about that, but oh, I need nap time and I am definitely not willing to give it up. Especially since she gets grouchy and wants to nap around 5 o'clock. I do like the early bed times though... Ugh. I need advice. I'm too big to fight her at all. Today when I tried to rock her she kneed me in the belly button...not on purpose but she started throwing a tantrum. I can't even tell you what pain that is anymore. It's painful to even lightly touch my belly! So, I promptly gave up. I just feel like I'm too big to even try and fight her...

BTW...I know I need a new blog topper... I'm just having a serious lack of motivation to do it.

Playing Doll House

Back in the day...when my 18 year old sister, Heidi was a wee little one, my mom bought tons of doll house toys for her. We still have these toys. When we lived with my parents the first time, Isabelle kind of "played" with the doll house stuff. (Remember this post?) After we moved though, I don't think she played with it even once. So, I pulled the box and house out again and oh my stars. Apparently Isabelle things these doll house toys are the most magnificent things she's ever seen or ever will see in her life. She loves them. The first thing she does in the morning is go to the game room and plays with her toys. There is even a potty and she loves it. Often times we will be downstairs and she starts asking for the potty...meaning her doll house toys. She also just asks for her toys and finds someone to come with her to play. She's really pretty good about playing on her own though too. Today she played long enough by herself that I was able to download pictures off my camera for probably 20 minutes AND do an entire scrapbook page. Which is easily over an hour of work. She totally loves each and every doll and even says, "Police Officer" and "Daughter." I love when she feeds the people though:

Another video: (Isn't it just too cute how she says, "Peek-a-boo?")

Last of Our Halloween

The only thing we did on Halloween day that had to do with Halloween was carve a pumpkin. By "we" I mean Curt, Heather and Andrew. By Curt, Heather and Andrew, I really mean Andrew. Curt drew the Eeyore on the pumpkin and Heather helped gut the pumpkin, but Andrew really is the only carver. We were quite excited about how it turned out though. Isabelle loves the Eeyore pumpkin and often asks to light it.

Pumpkin Patch #2

I guess I should blog about the Pumpkin Patches in the order we went to them, but these pictures are so much more cute. This past Saturday, Curt, Isabelle and I got up and went to the Pumpkin Patch for the second time. The first time we left with almost no good pictures at all because we went at 3:00 and the light was so harsh. Anyway, this time around Isabelle loved it so much more anyways. We're really glad we decided to go again and have a fun time as a family.