Potty-Training: New Heights of Nastiness

With Everett's 3rd birthday rapidly approaching - T minus six weeks- and with him finally (finally!) showing signs that he actually wants to be trained to use the potty, we've started down the ever so fun road of potty-training. We've been on board for just over a week now and I've got to say (fingers crossed and knock on wood) that it's going really well. He loves to pee-pee on the potty and yesterday after church he finally (finally!) decided to try for a #2 as well. I can tell my life needs some excitement when Everett's urinary and bowel movement successes are the highlight of my day. But excited we are and I can't believe he's becoming potty-trained. Yea!! He loves his Thomas, Batman and Superman underwear, most of the time preferring to run around in only that.

As for the title of this post, I thought there were few things yuckier than changing poopy diapers, but Everett proved me wrong this past week when he had a few of those kind of accidents in his underwear. Yuck!

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Aside from all things potty-related, we do have other things going on. The weather here is gorgeous and we've been visiting our local parks more. As I'm getting older, for whatever reason, I'm really beginning to enjoy this time of year. The leaves changing, the cooler temps, the apples and pumpkins. We're planning on going to the North Georgia Apple Festival and orchards in a couple of weeks. And for the first time in my life, I think I'm even slightly excited for Halloween (that's for you, Heidi). Yea for fall!

Last week Will and I went to see Les Miserables and it was wonderful! It was my third time seeing it and I'm not quite sure why, but it affected me more this time than ever before. I cried several times and I even gasped out loud at one point because the scene was simply so powerful. I've discovered than since having children I tend to get a bit more weepy about certain topics; ie moms, parents, kids, families. Anything even remotely related to those things and I start to get all teary-eyed. But yes, it was fabulous and we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. And now we're eagerly anticipating Wicked in another week and a half.

In other news, I got a hair cut. Our camera is being funny, but I'll post some pictures next time. Ok, I think I've bored enough of you by now. Hasta la pasta!

Trouble Sleeping? Here's a Solution!

Lately I've been realizing more and more that yes, sir-ee, I'm most definitely a mom. Up until now I've always felt like an early 20-something (Because 28 is still obviously early 20's, right???) that was kind of just "playing" mom. I know, it doesn't make a lot of sense written out like this, but trust me, I just didn't feel like I could be lumped in to the whole mom group. I felt way too young (uh, nope) and way too hip (wrong again) to be a mom.

Crossing the threshold into motherhood didn't come when I got pregnant and delivered my kids or when I started wiping someone else's bodily functions and it didn't totally disgust me. It didn't even come when words like "boo-boo", "yucky" or "poo-poo" entered my everyday vocabulary. No, the moment I realized, "Holy cow, I'm a mom!" was last night as I was trying to go to sleep. Will's out of town on a business trip and I was in bed alone. I tossed and turned a bit and then couldn't fall asleep because I had blasted kids tv songs STUCK in my head! Specifically:


Little Einsteins
"We're going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship
Zooming through the sky, Little Einsteins.
Climb aboard, get ready to explore.
There's so much to find, Little Einsteins.
We're going on a mission, start the countdown:
5...4...3-2-1
Everyone to rocket, rev it up now
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"

Arthur

"And I said hey, what a wonderful kind of day!
If we can learn to work and play
And get along with each other.
You've got to listen to your heart
Listen to the beat
Listen to the rhythm, rhythm of the street
Here's a simple message
And it comes from the heart:
Believe in yourself, that's the place to start"

And one of Everett's favorites, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

[Mickey:] It's me!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

It's the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Come inside, it's fun inside.

Yeah, nothing like lyrics from kids programming running through your head to really knock you out! I was so annoyed that it seriously took me another 20 minutes or so of trying NOT to think about those songs before I finally conked out. Welcome to motherhood, Natalie!

A Motherhood Moment

I have a habit of whenever Everett asks me for something like a drink, a snack, a tv show, to go somewhere, etc. to tell him, "Sure, but first I need a kiss and a hug." He's usually quick to acquiesce.
Tonight, after Juliana had gone to bed, he and I were watching "The Incredibles", one of his new favorite movies. He asked for something to drink and when I told him that his options were water or milk he responded resoundingly with, "Milk!" I then asked for a kiss first and once he gave me a little smooch I got up to get his milk. I had only taken a step or two when he exclaimed, "Wait, Mommy, come back!" I turned around and he then said, "I want to give you a hug too." Talk about my heart melting. That Everett, he sure is a cute kid.

You've Come A Long Way, Baby

Finally, Juliana's birthday post! Only five days late. I'm actually kind of proud of myself for being less than a week overdue with this. Small victories, right?

We Giddenses feel pretty lucky to have this little lady in our family. She came into the world two weeks early, so she's gone from looking like this:

to looking like this:

Most of us agree, she didn't look a thing like she does now when she was born. More so than Everett's did, her looks have really changed over the course of the last year. She has eight teeth and golden-colored hair. That's the best way to describe her hair color. It's not exactly blonde, it not exactly brown, it's just kind of...golden. Her eyes are currently a hazel-ish color, but they could be turning brown. It's really hard to tell. She crawls everywhere and cruises like a champ, but she's yet to take those first few steps into the walking world. Everett walked a week after his 1st birthday, so I'm waiting to see if Juliana follows suit. She's totally off the bottle - just decided she didn't like it anymore, so that's a relief for me. I tell you what, I can wean them off bottles like nobody's business but when it comes to pacifiers, I'm a total dunce.


In general, Juliana seems much more dramatic than Everett was at her age. I haven't decided if it's due to gender or personality. Case in point: We had her birthday "celebration" yesterday (it was just a cupcake). When Everett turned one he sat there calmly as we sang Happy Birthday and then promptly dug in with both hands. Here's Juliana as we were singing:

It's difficult to tell if all the thrashing about was due to the quality of singing or just being scared and dramatic. Nevertheless, she eventually settled down enough to eat her cupcake. I mean, eat the chocolate frosting. She didn't really touch the cake part of the cupcake. Which could have been a good thing since it was a beast getting all that chocolate frosting off her face and out of her nose and hair.

Probably my favorite picture of the day:

The end product of letting Juliana take control of her own cupcake eating?

For comparison's sake, here's Everett after he finished eating his cupcake on his first birthday:

Yep, Juliana's just more dramatic. In every way.

In other blogworthy ramblings, did any of you catch the premiere of "Privileged" on the CW? I stumbled upon it just as it was starting last Tuesday night and I think I'm hooked. It's fun and quirky and fashionably forward for sure. The lead is played by a girl that was on "Reba", if any of you ever saw that show (anyone? anyone?) and one of the girls played Effie in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2". "Privileged" kinda/sorta has the same vibe as "Gilmore Girls", where you have to be paying attention to catch all the fun things they say. As I currently watch only two shows faithfully ("The Office" and "Ugly Betty"), I think my tv-watching schedule can handle this fun little ditty every Tuesday night. If you didn't catch it last week, definitely try to scope it out tomorrow night. It comes on after the new 90210, which I've heard is abysmal and in no way reflects on the quality of this particular show. Check it out and let me know what you think.

One Whole Year!

Even though we're not at our house this week and I have no easy way of posting pictures on the blog, I had to at least mention on here that today is Juliana's 1st birthday! Yep, a year ago today we brought this incredibly fun and very loving little gal into the world. Our family is better for her being in it. She is wonderful and smiley and even though she may not be the best about going to people other than immediate family, she is awesome. We love her bunches and are thrilled at how much she has grown and learned over the past year. We sure love her!

Happy Birthday Juliana!