22 Months

Olivia can count from 1 -10, but usually stops around 5. Sometimes a minute or so later I will hear her finish 6-10. She also likes to count according to what she is playing with. Ex: 1, 2, horsie. 1, 2, 3, chickens. She also has started singing the alphabet and knows up to E. The other morning I found her in the rocking chair in her room looking at an alphabet book singing to herself. One morning she woke up and said, "Mom let me out!" I am so impressed with her vocabulary. She also called my Grandma's bear Pooh Pooh - which everyone thought was hilarious. She had made the connection from her Winnie the Pooh Bear.

She has a little play kitchen that she has started putting food into. Obviously prego mom was laying on the couch one day not paying attention and I was letting Olivia eat plain noodles from a bowl. The next day she told me she wanted noodles and while I was getting her some, I saw her grab the old bowl from her kitchen cabinet and start eating. Yikes! We now {try} to check daily to make sure she isn't hiding anything.

We are making progress in the potty department. She tells us she needs to go during the day, but once we sit her down, she doesn't go. Usually about 10 minutes later she will poop in her diaper and tell us. So at least she is making a connection with her body. On the 8th of September I bought all of the stuff and sat in the living room with Olivia all day having her drink and pee. She did great with minimal accidents. But the next morning she started bawling when I asked her to sit on the potty. I think it was a little too much going at it all day. So we are trying throughout the day, but not nearly as intense as I thought we would be doing it. Princess Sophia panties and stickers along with peanut butter m&m's are part of her bribery.

This month we bought a toddler bed for Olivia. Her room is super small already, but somehow we made it work with both a crib and bed. She loves sitting in it and reading her books, or bringing all of her stuffed animals and babies into bed with her. The first week naps were basically play time but she has improved and now naps after a short play time. Some nights she sleeps in her bed and some nights she sleeps on the floor next to the door. As long as she is sleeping it doesn't matter to me. Since she can't reach the door knob, she will knock on the door when she wakes up each morning.

Lately she has been super whiney. When she wants something, she wants it right then. I have been trying to teach her about "nice voice" and such, but it's definitely a work in progress. "Please Mom, please show." {Please Mom, can I watch a show?}

She is definitely on a baby kick. She gets all of her babies and stuffed animals that she is loving at the moment and brings them to me. Then she grabs all of her blankies and we swaddle them up. They also get milk and juice throughout the day by bottle.

Her bottom right I tooth is mostly in and the left is on it's way. I am sure it's related - but is quite annoying that she has had a runny nose almost all month. I swear her nose is a fountain.

She is obsessed with all farm animals. We play with her little barn, animals, tractor, and people for at least an hour each day. A friend who babysits for us has a field of cows near her house. It makes dropping Olivia off so easy, because she gets distracted by the cows. There also is a pasture of horses right next to our new church building. Olivia now relates church to horses.

She calls my Mom, "Mama Sue, or Grandma Sue" and my Dad is now "Papa Hales." She is getting really good at remembering the names of people. I need to print off some of Ayrika's pictures from her mission so she can become familiar with her. Hopefully by the time we Skype at Christmas, she will recognize her.

I broke my finger this month and Olivia has let everyone know that she also has one too. She tries to take my little finger brace and wear it. Then she will use her sad voice to tell everyone that her finger is broken and she is sad.

We have a bunch of containers in the living room with Olivia's toys. She has been dumping all of the toys out and stacking them. THen she likes to stand on top of them and jump. She also calls this doing a bow.

Westin's Wedding

Today my cousin Westin got married. It was such a nice day until we went to drop Olivia off at the babysitter and that was when the thunder started. The wedding was being held at the Springville Museum of Art here in Springville and was supposed to take place in the gardens. By the time we got to the museum it was seriously pouring rain. Andrea and I ran as fast as we could with me being pregnant and her in heels. We helped set up some chairs inside as they had to move the ceremony inside. It was so fun to catch up with cousins and be with family celebrating Westin and Miranda.

The rain had stopped so we were able to eat our meal outside. I didn't get a picture but the tables were decorated so beautifully. My Aunt Shauna has the eye for that kind of thing and I seriously loved it all. After dinner we grabbed some family pictures before some of the family had to leave.

We went and picked up Olivia and on our way back to the reception she started unwrapping their gift. {I say this is all Bob's fault because he has been talking to her about her birthday and Christmas and presents. Needless to say, he is a little excited about the upcoming holidays.}

They had a cheesecake bar at the reception which was delicious. As I am trying to only have 1 dessert a week, I was glad I waited for that one. Since the reception was outside, Olivia was running all over the place. She loved the fountain the most, along with the statues and this little corner of the garden. My cousin Addi and my mom were kind enough to tag a long with her so I could sit down and talk for a while.

32 Weeks

I am so excited that I am 32 weeks, although 8 more weeks sounds like a long time to me. I am trying not to wish time away, and enjoy my time with Olivia. But as I get bigger and more uncomfortable, it's hard not to wish for our sweet baby to be here.

32 Weeks with my dirty mirror.

This month was kind of a hard one. Probably because I broke my finger, which is such a small break but you do so much with your hands. I also will call this month the month of the bowling ball. Up until now my belly never really got in the way. But now when I bend over to change diapers or pick things up I feel like there is a bowling ball attached to my belly. Lucky for me it's not, it's a cute little baby.

I was lucky enough to get a pedicure this month. A couple days after I broke my finger I went to the salon to have them blow dry my hair. There was no way I was going to try and attempt washing and blow drying my hair after that. And while I was there I decided to treat myself and it was so nice. I told Bob that might have to happen a couple more times before baby comes.

It's funny how no matter what stage of pregnancy you are at - you feel like you are so big. The main picture on my blog is of me at 17 weeks and I remember being at Mitch's wedding feeling so big. And now I look back and I don't even look pregnant. Right now I am feeling huge. But I know that I will continue to grow and look back thinking that was nothing.

I have been buying a few things. Bob might say a lot of things. Mostly a bunch of headbands and bows, and a couple new sleepers. I have also been looking up ideas for our newborn pictures, which will also include getting family pictures for our Christmas card. I need to find what we will be wearing because that has to be done before baby comes. I am thinking that the colors will be gold, navy, and maroon.

I start seeing the doctor every 2 weeks for the next 2 and then every week after that. We are getting so close!!!

For the first time in months I actually blow dried and then curled my hair with the curling iron. But my picture taking skills aren't up to par so I didn't get all of my head. I am super excited about this new robe I got.

Toddler Bed & BYU

Today Olivia's toddler bed came and Bob put it together for her. She was so excited to see it when she woke up from her last nap in her crib. {We were going to wait until we really needed the crib, like when baby is 3 or 4 months old. But she kept getting her thigh seriously stuck between the slats. I bought bumpers, but she just pushed them down with her feet and kept getting stuck. This resulted in no naps, and this was hard on me.} She was excited about the bed, but I am pretty sure she loved getting her first pillow even more.

Grandma Shannon sent a few goodies with Brad and Olivia got a new pair of leggings. Because it was the day of the first BYU football game we put on our BYU shirts. This shirt Grandma Shannon got for Livy last year, and luckily it still fits! I love and hate this picture at the same time. She looks so old to me right here.

We went to my parents house for dinner and the game. Andrea was kind enough to take a quick pictures of our GROWING family. I am about 32 weeks in this picture.

Since we got home later, Olivia was pretty tired and already in her PJ's. She transferred easily into her bed and slept there all night.

The Broken Finger

This morning I was trying to be a good Mom. We hadn't done been to Thanksgiving Point for a few weeks and I had made plans to meet a few friends there that morning. We were planning on the Farm, but it was raining so I quickly changed our meeting place and got ready. Olivia was excited to go and down the stairs we went. I had her on my left hip and I slammed the door with my right hand. Somehow when I pulled Olivia and my hip out of the way, my finger didn't make it and it got smashed in our house door.

I instantly was telling Olivia "Oh this isn't good, we need to go back inside." Once we got upstairs I grabbed an ice pack and started to cry. My finger was smashed and the nail was turning a bluish/purple. I quickly canceled our play date and sat on the couch. Olivia watched cartoons as I sat there thinking about what I should do. Was it bad enough to go to the Dr.?  They don't really do anything for broken fingers do they? I debated back and forth for at least a half hour. The pressure was out of control and I decided to just go to the instacare.

Wednesdays are busy for my family and everyone works so I grabbed the iPad and off we went. Olivia was awesome and just watched her show while I got checked out. They drilled on my finger to relieve the pressure and then I got x-rays. Totally broken - which I was actually happy about. I was questioning going to the doctor and felt like that made it justifiable. Because it was broken near the nail bed I had to be on another 10 day round of antibiotics. He also prescribed me some pain killers which he said would be fine. But after consulting with my pharmacist - we didn't feel good about me taking them so I just stuck to Tylenol.

I always thought it would be fun to visit Bob at work, but when you are filling prescriptions it usually means you are sick, in pain, or dying. So those visits aren't always the best. Haha! Olivia and I left with my meds and went to get a donut.

It was really hard for Olivia to understand that she couldn't touch my finger, especially with my new cool finger cast. A couple hours after we got home she grabbed it during a diaper change and I screamed bloody murder. I felt so bad because she then started crying.

The doctor said it should hurt for about 5 weeks and I will lose my nail. Oh joy! On the bright side, I am glad I did this before the baby came, because it has been hard enough with just one kid.

Sewing: {Nesting takes over}

A friend of mine was making leggings and matching headbands for her baby girl who will be born around the same time as ours. I have been wanting to get some for both girls but I seriously can't pay $20-$40 for a pair of leggings. After looking around I finally ordered some fabric online. I searched for a simple tutorial, opened up my box of 0-3 month clothes and got some leggings to trace. The tutorial I was following said it looks best when you use a double needle. So Olivia and I went to JoAnn's and got some coordinating thread and a double needle.

 I put Olivia down for her nap and got started on the baby's pair. They took a while, but I got the pair finished and I was happy with the product as it was the first. I started on Olivia's and somehow the fabric got stuck and I seriously couldn't get it out of my machine. I had to cut it out and start all over.

Seriously 15 seconds into sewing the freshly cut material I broke one of the needles on my double needle. {Not that I sew a ton, but in the last 3 years or so I have never broken a needle. Of course it happened today with my brand new needle.} Olivia woke up from her nap shortly after - which was way too early, but it allowed me to run back to the store and grab another double needle. 

When I got home I decided to scrap Olivia's pair. The pineapple material said it was a jersey knit, but they seriously don't stretch at all. For the baby, it will be fine to wear but not so much for Livy. I started on my second pair for the baby which when finished will be matching Christmas leggings. I went a lot slower this time because I didn't want to break another needle, and I had to match up the pattern. They are far from perfect, but I am impressed with how close I did get them. 

Here are my final products for the day. I should've put my hand next to them, because they are so small. It's hard for me to remember Olivia ever being this small. I left all of my sewing stuff and machine out on the kitchen table so I can finish up the other pairs soon. 

County Fair

Olivia and I went to the County Fair for the morning. It was fun to walk around and see all of the animals. Olivia loved the rabbits, chickens, pigs and the lambs. We went at around 10, and it was already so hot. I am glad we didn't wait until later in the day to go. This girl loves farm animals. She was lucky to fit into her cowgirl boots one more time, but I am pretty sure it was the last time they will fit. Dad had to work so it was another Mom and Livy date.