19 months old / 15 weeks pregnant

Isabella:
*uses 2-4 work sentences to communicate
*whenever possible loves to run around with only a diaper
*is very excited about Christmas decorations
*doesn't forget what you said so if you mention something she wants to do or eat you better follow through or she will be mad at you.
*love to spin until she is dizzy and flip or fall down on our bed.
*is starting to sing actual songs.
*loves to drink warm mint tea



Andrea:
*slightly less nauseous but its not gone yet.
*paranoid about every little weird feeling I am getting.
*Nervous about every doctors appointment (next one is this Friday)
*feeling more reclusive and unsocial than ever
*is waiting for all this beginning icky feeling stuff to just stop already.
*is glad that drive thrus have long lines at lunch time or I'd be doing badly right now. Those lines are a big deterrent.
*isn't in as bad a mood as I sound like, but I have a headache while writing this post so my mood is altered.

BABY #2 on the way!!!

So by the time you are reading this we have been pregnant for awhile. We are trying to be "good" and wait to tell everyone the news until we are in the safe zone. But while we are waiting I thought I'd start blogging about the progress etc so I won't forget later.

August 28th - Took several cheap tests and one First Response test and got positives on all of them.

August 29th - Bella and I broke the news to Michael.

September 4th - I had my first prenatal appointment with the nurse to start the paperwork and all the information they needed. Tentative due date was set at May 8th, 2010. Appointment on Sept 25 scheduled for ultrasound to determine fetal size/age.

September 5th - Symptoms so far are mild and I am praying that I don't get sick as much as I was with Isabella.

September 7th - the nausea has started today, we'll see how bad it gets.

September 12th - So the last few days I have really felt nauseous. It feels like I could throw up at anytime but I haven't yet. It actually worse than throwing up because then the feeling goes away (or did with Isabella.) This time so far nothing really stops it. 6 weeks today!

September 15th -Ugh! I am so sick of being nauseous ALL DAY LONG!

September 19th - Michael is coming home from Africa tomorrow! Still sick and I feel really bad that I haven't been as active with Isabella lately. :o(

September 28th - had my first official OB appointment on Friday. The due date changed slightly to May 10th. So far so good.

October 6th - My pants don't fit well. Only one of my pants really buttons comfortably but I'm not really big enough for maternity pants yet. I am very tired and very nauseous all of the time.

October 26th - Now only maternity pants fit. I'm still nauseous. Had the flu and had to reschedule my appointment so I don't contaminate other preggos. Isabella has decided the baby's name is Nalgas (if you don't know Spanish that means bottom/bum.)

October 30th - 2nd appointment. About 13 weeks. Heart beat 160 bpm. Doctor says to wait a few more weeks to see if nausea sticks around. I don't want to take extra medication if its not really needed.

18 Months

Isabella turned 18 months on Monday. I wanted to wait until her doctor's appointment to put up a post. Also I came down with the flu this week so pictures didn't happen. I will try to get a few next week assuming she doesn't get the flu too. :o( Her height was 33 inches (85th %) her weight was 26 lbs 11 ounces (80th %).

Isabella is so funny and cute. She is still learning new words every day and surprising us with what she remembers. She has started to pretend and play by herself. She will have her dolls talk and sing and she even gets emotions going with them.

Her favorite food in any form is noodles (which she calls any pasta.) We have certainly been blessed with a good eater. She will almost always go for her veggies before the main dish (aside from pasta) and prefers fruit to crackers and other snacks.

Isabella loves to swing and will close her eyes and enjoy "flying." She would swing at the park the whole time if we let her. She is also getting more daring, trying to climb on things. I wish she was more afraid or cautious but I guess she will learn that soon. She loves falling on the bed and bouncing. Her jumping skills are really funny to watch. She will get all the way down and launch herself up. She only gets one leg up really high and lifts her hands in the air but she thinks she is jumping. I laugh every time.

17 months and other stuff.

Isabella seems to have hit a new stage and is saying so many new words. She usually says one at a time but has made a "sentence" like "please read" when she brings me a book.

One of her favorite things to do everyday is pick up worms along the sidewalk. They are usually dead ones. They live ones tend to wiggle so she makes me get those.
Then she saves the worms by putting them in the grass. She will say "happy" then run to find another worm.


She knew Daddy was leaving we told her ahead of time. We explained he was going in a plane to Africa. The day after he left I was talking to her about it and I said where is Daddy? She answered ane (plane.) Then I asked where did he go? She answered AH-CA (Africa.) I can't believe how much she remembers and she actually communicates now.
Check out that tummy. That's a lot of noodles and bananas in there. :o)


Other New Words : Pretty, Potty, Lizzie, Toto (from Wizard of Oz), Dance, Dress, Winkie (blanket I don't know why she says it that way), wet, plant, star, oval, arm, knee, nose, eyes, teeth, rock, bug, and more that I can't think of right now.

Here she is watching a lizard climb up the wall.


Size: She is 32.25 inches, and 25.5 pounds still. Her shoe size is a small 5 (for some reason she fits in certain store's shoes if they run small.) She fits perfectly in a size 18 months. Dresses are fine in 24 months. Pants past 18 months need to be cuffed but its cute. :o) She is in size 4 diapers but I went to a size 5 at night for extra coverage so I don't have to deal with leaks.
And here is Isabella dancing up on top of the play structure. Silly girl.

16 months

New Developments:

*Says Pees for Please while signing it most of the time. This is a picture of her saying/signing Please.
*She can sort of go down steps if she has something to hold onto, but most stair rails are too high for her.

*She says Abby for her cousin Gabby and points to her hair when she says it. We think its because she either really likes Gabby's long hair or because she knows Gabby has a lot of hair so it could be an identifying feature in her mind.

*She climbs on couches, chairs and anything she can get a grip on. She usually uses her head as a counter weight then brings her legs up to follow. Its pretty funny to watch.

She has gotten very brave on the slide and will fling herself down now without hesitation which freaks me out because a month ago she didn't even want to go down.

*She enjoys finding rocks then throwing them or hiding them in bushes.

*Is getting better at stacking blocks on her own and then knocking them down of course.

*Has "kicked" balls around the house. More like walked behind them and chased them down but she doesn't stop to pick it up she will keep bumping it with her toes.

She is "shocked" that her little toy "fell." She had been throwing it down all afternoon and picking it back up again to make sure it was okay.

*Recognizes Blue things like our car, the sky, and cookie monster and says "boo" for blue.

*Can actually put some of the pieces in her puzzles back in, instead of just taking the pieces out and biting or throwing them. :o)

*Will sort of tell you part of a story in a book if she already knows it by doing or saying something on that page. Like if a character fell down or is sleeping she will say that. Or she will point to the picture and say "bah" which means something is gone or disappeared.

This is her saying "bah" when I asked where her toy went.

We had a doctor visit today to check on the rash on her cheek (seems to be eczema,) She was 25 lbs 10 oz. only 1 ounce more than last month. Thank goodness that has finally slowed down. She has been quite the "cling-on" lately and I really feel it after about 10 minutes. Luckily when we are in a place she is comfortable she will walk around (though not always in the direction I want her to) so that helps my arms and back a lot.

Upside down Bella. Notice that she carefully placed Leo (from Little Einsteins) down and told him to sit before she did it.

She is really becoming a little parrot repeating things we say. For example, today while playing she repeated prince, yummy, red, yellow, and green (sort of). She has trouble with more than one syllable and with certain consonant sounds still. G is a tough one for her so she usually leaves it out of words.

Well that's enough for now. I might update on her monthly progress until 18 months then just update when needed after that with special events that or firsts for her or for us. I'm not sure though so don't hold me to it if I keep going past that. :o)

Waving at her shadow. BYE!

Aquarium and the Beach

THE AQUARIUM OF THE PACIFIC

We experimented this week with sleeping in the car. Isabella tends to get to sleep quickly but only sleep for about an hour while we are driving. It could also be that has corresponded with the time on the freeway and once we get off she wakes up. Generally, she needs closer to 2 hours to be "okay" so that's a little bit of a struggle.

So when we got to the aquarium she was still slightly drowsy and it took her a few minutes to catch on to what was going on. Over all she really enjoyed the aquarium and said "Odur" (which means other) over and over again to see more fish in the next tank. By the end I think she had her fill of fish. :o)

Her first look at one of the exhibits.

Watching the jellyfish.

Showing her feet to the fish. She did this over and over and we couldn't figure out why. It may be related to Ariel wanting feet (she knows that part of the song) or she might have been saying I have feet you don't. We aren't really sure.

After leaving the aquarium we walked around the port and she got to see and hear boats. She also enjoyed trying to catch a pigeon without much success.

Here she is making Daddy smell flowers with her.

HUNTINGTON BEACH

Another day of napping in the car and we headed over to meet Grandma and Grandpa Denny, Uncle Nick and his friend Angel over near station 13. The beach was fairly empty probably because schools are starting up and we went on a Thursday. The weather was nice all day and we had enough food and supplies to take care of at least 4 more people. :o)

Isabella didn't really want to put her feet in the water but she seemed okay with the sand. She got braver near the end of the day and probably would be more interested in the water if we went back a few more times. Daddy, Nick and Angel collected some cool sand crabs for her. At first she was really interested and held them in her hands but at some point she got a little scared of touching them for whatever reason. She still liked looking at them in her sand pails. She also seemed to like just dunking her hand int he water and watching it drip into another bucket. Weirdo. WE also brought along a Pooh Bear kite and let it fly attached to the EZ Up and she would ask about it on and off and find it up in the sky. :o) She really wanted him to come down and play with her but we told her Pooh wanted to fly today.

This is her first ocean experience with Grandma, I'm sure there will be many more.


Daddy is taking her into the water but she is much more interested in the shell we found for her. She did seem to like when I told her Ariel lived in the ocean though.

Again she could care less about the ocean and really just want to find things in the sand.

Here she is walking with Grandma and Daddy leaving her footprints behind. We had trouble getting her to pay any attention to us or the cameras.
Daddy is building a fortress around her near the water so she won't get splashed. She is picking up sand and throwing it in the air. An activity she continued throughout the day. Surprisingly she didn't get it in her eyes but got sand everywhere else.

Here she is surrounded by her sand wall. It worked well but just about when Daddy finished it she lost interest in this plot of sand and went to find another spot.

We were getting ready to leave and again she kept playing with the sand. This is when she got more adventurous and would start walking away from us, not worried about if we followed her. Most of the day she sat in the same 10 foot area with our EZ Up in the shade. I guess she realized that she didn't have to stay there after we took it down.

BIG BEAR

We went on a long weekend trip to Big Bear with Nana and Papa, Uncle Michael, Uncle Jon, Aunt Elizabeth, and Gabby. Here are some of the highlights.

FRIDAY: We stopped at a park in Big Bear because we got there early and had to wait for my parents to come with the keys to the cabin. So Bella and Gabby had a chance to play and get out of the car for awhile.


While taking a picture Bella's foot got caught in the strap and almost yanked in out of her Daddy's hands. Thank goodness he caught it.


Bella's stuffy nose stopped her from sleeping on the ride up so she was pretty tired and wanted to rest.


This is our cabin and it was awesome.


Bella and Gabby playing on Saturday morning together. :o)


We went to the Moonridge Zoo. The animals were cool. Bella especially liked the bears and owls. She was in a crabby mood though and quite impatient with the other animals.


Okay she isn't afraid of the bear. She is crying because we took her out of the stroller and she REALLY didn't' want to get out of it. This is a continuation of the crabbiness from earlier but it made for a funny picture.


Papa trying to make the girls laugh at the Discovery Center.


Yeah a picture of all of us together!, I like when we have someone there to take these pictures for us. :o)


Nana, Papa, and the two princesses.


Bella did not want to put her toes into the lake so she reverted to her baby legs when they used to curl up. :o)


She LOVED getting rocks and throwing them in the lake over and over and over again. She was really upset when we picked her up to leave. I think she would have kept going for hours if we let her.


SUNDAY: Visiting the Lodge Pole Pine on a short hike. She kept finding new and interesting things on the trail.


Our last day (Monday). Had to get a shot of us in front of the cabin.


Proof that my mom went on the ski lift. Good job mom! (she isn't fond of heights)


And here is the rest of us on the "Up Up Up" as Isabella called it. She also called it "Weee"


Look at that hair fly! All one inch of it.


The view from the top of the lift.

Overall the trip went well. Bella napped well and she slept pretty good. We didn't but its never easy to sleep in a new place in the same room as a baby. She was tired and cranky because of her head cold but she really didn't do too bad most of the time. I think her favorite part was having Nana and Papa there everyday. I am just glad we got our first trip out of the way and it went well. Hopefully that will make me less stressed about future outings. (maybe)