One Man's Junk...

I would never think to crumple cupcake liners and fill the underside of over-sized Legos, but then again, I'm not almost three and sadly, my imagination is in no way as developed or inventive as Everett's.

(Look closely and you'll notice Everett's "friends" are making their ever-present appearance yet again)

Nice, Everett. Really, really nice. And no, I have no idea how many cupcake liners I threw away. A small price to pay for the smile and giddiness this little project encouraged.

Flying High

What's cooler than your average run-of-the-mill playground?

One that's right next to an AIRPORT, of course!

There's a local airport not too far from here, which is quite different and much smaller than that big ole International Airport down the road. This one is just for little Cessnas and the like. And some genius (I'm serious here, whoever thought this up was really firing on all cylinders that morning) decided to build a playground in the middle of the airport. I took the kidlets there last week and they loved it. Especially Everett.

They had fun swinging,

looking for helicopters (which Everett has put on his wish list about 50 times already. "Mommy, I wanna go up in a hel-o-copter." "Really, Buddy? Ask Dad about that.")

Maneuvering their own airplane,

(Trust me, this took some coordination...)

And overall just enjoying the planes and noise. It was great. Definitely on our list of super cool playgrounds that we simply must visit again.

As an added perk, all that noise and hubbub led to some serious sleeping on the way home. Yahoo! I love it when Juliana falls asleep in the car seat. She transitions to her crib beautifully which makes it easy peasy lemon squeezy for me.

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I've always been kind of a nerd when it comes to music. It's just not my thing. I've never been up-to-date on current artists and songs. I confuse artists all the time and I'm forever mixing up lyrics and then singing them very loudly and very incorrectly at the top of my lungs. I haven't been to a ton of concerts (like maybe 5 total). Overall, I'm just kind of a dork - musically speaking. Whenever I turn on the radio these days I'm completely mystified as to who's singing and what the name of the song is. So, I've enlisted Paula's help to get me up to speed. I'm tired of being one of "those" moms who listens to easy listening and is always complaining about music these days and what are those kids listening to and I can't believe they call this music and gosh, songs where so much better when I was in high school. I've decided to take hold of my musical reigns and actually try to improve. Here's a partial list Paula made for me of songs that I should try:

Rihanna-Don't Stop the Music, Umbrella

Jason Mraz- I'm Yours, You and I Both

Cobie Caillet- The Little Things

Jesse McCartney-Leavin'

Fergie- Big Girls Don't Cry, Here I Come, Glamorous

Sara Bareilles-Love Song, Bottle It Up

Natasha Bedingfield-Love Like This

Augustana-Boston

Leona Lewis-Better In Time, Bleeding Love

Josh Kelley-Amazing, Solid Ground

Ingrid Michaelson

Michelle Branch- Breathe

Jack Johnson

Ben Harper

Madonna-Hung Up

Finger 11- I Will Keep Your Memory Vague, Paralyzer, One Thing

Paolo Nutini-New Shoes

O.A.R- Love and Memories

Nelly and Christina A-Tilt Ya Head Back

I'm slightly embarrassed by how many of those artists I've never heard of. Pathetic, I know. But, I would like your help. Why else do I keep up this blog except to throw out questions into blogland and beg for answers. So please, tell me - what's in these days? Any songs I simply must download? This is my cry for help. Please help me! *************************************************************

Will and I saw Wicked last Friday night. It was awesome! I was a little concerned that it wouldn't live up to the hype, but it did not disappoint. The music is catchy and fun and the dialogue is funny and entertaining. I also really enjoyed the departure from the novel. Talk about a huge improvement! I've been listening to the soundtrack all week and I just love it. It's times like these that I wish my life were a musical. I get this way every now and then. Like whenever I watch Newsies, listen to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat or Les Miserables soundtrack and now, when I listen to the Wicked soundtrack. How neat would my life be if I could spontaneously burst into song and dance. Sigh, if only! Who's with me on this? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Salad Tongs are Excellent Toys

Everett is at that age where his imagination is blossoming before our eyes. We can never tell what he'll come up with next. Some days he's "making" us pancakes (ie blue paper plate holders) and other days he's pretending to be a dinosaur (raaaaah!). He picked up this little gem a couple of weeks ago. I kept thinking he'd drop it, but no. He's taken to carrying around a pair of white, plastic salad tongs and a green and orange Silly Putty container, as seen here:

And what, you may ask, is he pretending they are? Why, Rocket and Big Jet, from Little Einsteins of course! As if I really had to spell that out for you. I mean, it's just soooo obvious, right?

In case you're wondering, the Silly Putty is Rocket and the salad tongs are Big Jet. And when I say he taken to carrying them around I mean EVERYWHERE. To the grocery store, to Target, in the car, in the stroller, to bed, in the bath. EVERYWHERE! It's actually kind of cute and really funny, until I look at him and realize, "My kid is carrying around salad tongs. That's really weird." And then I wonder if we should buy him some more stimulating and/or educational toys...?

He has us so well-trained that I even find myself constantly referring to the salad tongs and Silly Putty as Big Jet and Rocket. Oh! And in the world of Little Einsteins Big Jet is a big meanie who's constantly picking on Rocket and the other Little Einsteins. In fact, when I googled Big Jet I discovered via Wickipedia that Big Jet is the Little Einsteins' nemesis. Who knew four little musical smarty-pants and one Rocket could garner a nemesis, but it seems they have. Anyway, Everett is always having Big Jet pick on Rocket as in, "Big Jet's not happy with Rocket, Mommy" as he crashes salad tongs to Silly Putty. And so, in addition to referring between two LIVE children, "No Everett, don't jump on Juliana!", I've also been relegated to defusing fights between plastic salad tongs and Silly Putty. Welcome to motherhood!

In other Everett news, potty training is going really really well. He loves to go "all by myself". In fact, I was busy getting lunch ready yesterday and all of a sudden he came into the kitchen and announced, "I went poo poo all by myself". I went to check and yep, the boy had gone into the bathroom, did the whole routine and then pull his pants back up "all by himself".

Seriously, that little bum in big boy underwear is just too cute! (Note that Big Jet and Rocket are making their appearance in this photo as well. Never far behind, those two)

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Lydia and Paula came over yesterday, so we did a little impromtu photo shoot. These are mostly for Paw Paw's benefit since he's been wanting a picture of all three of the munchkins for his computer.

This was the first one and it cracks me up since not a one of them is smiling.

After that they kind of got the hang of smiling, or in Juliana's case, opening her mouth as wide as possible and simply sticking out her tongue.

All three of the kids have been a bit sickly this week, which explains why Lydia just really looks bored. Cute, but definitely bored. So then I moved on to taking some of E and J.
I love that due to Everett's mesquito bites on his forehead and Juliana's skinned upper lip (she fell on the deck. It looked painful.) accompanied with their glassy eyes, they're just oozing good health and vitality.

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In case any of you are wondering what bleach will do to dark brown pants, wonder no more! I can categorically tell you with 100% certainty that bleach on dark brown pants will come out a bright orangey/pink color. Please take my word for it and don't try this yourself at home. Especially on two-week old pants. Just don't do it.

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I read "Confessions of a Shopaholic" a few years ago and even though I didn't especially LOVE the book, I am over-the-moon excited that it's being made into a movie. Of course, it's not slated to come out in theaters until February 2009, but it's still exciting. Isla Fisher plays the lead and Hugh Dancy, one of my British boyfriends, plays her love interest. I scoured the Internet for pictures from the shoot and here are the best I could come up with:

Who here thinks I'll actually be able to convince Will to see this with me? Yeah, me neither!

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!

Looks of Distress

These pictures perfectly capture how my kids look once we're finishing up at the grocery store:

Everett wants out and Juliana just looks bored. Pretty typical outing for these two.

Funny how they look exactly how I feel. Grocery shopping with two kids is a marathon filled with phrases like, "No, no, no don't run!" "Everett, watch where you're going, please!" "We're almost finished!" "No, we're not getting that today!" "No, put that back, please!" "C'mon please. Keep up with me." "No, no, back in the buggy!" Interspersed with some crying or all around fussing. Oh how I look forward to grocery days!

Can Hardly Wait for October 24th

I don't know that I've ever admitted this on the blog before, but I'm a sucker for Disney Channel movies. I just can't get enough of them! Yes, they're cheesy/corny/silly, but they are so much fun to watch. I think I've always had a secret desire to actually BE in one of those movies. If only...

Anyway, it should come as no surprise that I liked the High School Musical movies. The songs are great and the dancing and acting just make me laugh. So I was totally stoked to find this little gem when I was perusing through YouTube earlier today. Mark your calendars now for High School Musical 3: Senior Year hits theaters on October 24th! That's right folks, none of this premiering on the Disney Channel stuff anymore. This is big time. Anyway I could convince some of you to join me at the theater??

It's Great to Turn 28 on August 8th, 2008!

I read this morning that the Chinese consider 8 to be a very lucky number. Today is Will's 28th birthday, so if you did the math, you'd know that he was born on 08-08-80. When he turned 8 years old, his mom got the local paper to do a story on him. The headline read something like, "Local boy turns 8 on 8/8/88". As I am not nearly as thorough in my birthday giving to get Will in the paper, he'll have to settle for being mentioned on the family blog. That's almost the same thing, right?

There is so much I could say about Will, but as I tend to get overly sappy and sentimental when it comes to Will (especially when I'm talking about him on the blog), I'll try to keep this light-hearted and fun. And in keeping with the whole "eight is lucky" idea, here are...

Eight Reasons Why Will is Lucky:

1) He has a son who thinks he is the coolest, strongest dad around and a daughter whose face lights up all excited-like whenever he walks into a room.

2) He does GREAT impressions. Much to the constant delight of his wife. I'm forever asking Will to repeat funny things in funny ways and I've been known to still laugh and giggle at things Will has said a good week or two after he's said them.

3) He's 6'3". He's always able to see over folks, doesn't have to stand on his tip-toes to reach things and is the first to know where it rains.

4) He has a wife who doesn't mind if he owns guns, goes shooting/hunting, watches Ultimate Fighting or has "dude time".

5) He makes friends easily and well. People love Will.

6) He drives aggressively and never seems to get into or cause an accident.

7) He's been everywhere, driven every kind of car, gone to every concert and eat at every cool restaurant. I'm serious. Whenever I mention something I'd like to do, go or eat, he'll usually say, "You've never done/gone/eaten there? I have..." And of course, all of his stories are LONG before he ever met me. Coincidentally.

8) He always knows the correct words to songs, so he spares himself the embarrassment of belting out the wrong words at the top of his lungs only to discover that he has them completely wrong. Trust me, it's embarrassing.

So, in the words of Will's Primary kids:

You've had a birthday, shout Hooray!

We want to sing to you today.

One year older and wiser too.

Happy Birthday! To you!

Playing Catch Up

I realized earlier today that I have things I've been meaning to share, so this will be a fairly random post. You've been warned. Continue reading at your own attention span's risk.

We've been having some really good times lately - in every way - familially, couple-ly, financially, Will's job-ily, emotionally, etc. Things finally feel like they're starting to turn in our favor and it's exciting. Will's starting to do well at work and I'm so proud of him. And the kids! Oh, the kids. They are doing really well. Juliana is full of personality and I really love to see her and Everett play together. We have a morning routine that we all seem to enjoy. It goes a little like this:

1) Juliana begins to cry, signalling she is finished with her morning nap and would we please come and get her already.

2) Everett gasps excitedly, "Jew-i-ya's awake! Jew-i-ya's awake!" At which point we both stomp very noisily up the stairs all the while Everett's yelling, "We're coming Jew-i-ya, we're coming!"

3) Everett busts open the door and we see Juliana standing in her crib, smiling at us, usually with some form of very fine bedhead.

4) Next comes any combination of changing J's poopy diaper (she's like clockwork), getting her dressed, and/or getting Everett dressed.

5) Everett promptly goes into the closet (where their toy box is stored), drags it to the center of the floor and proceeds to completely dump it out.

6) Inevitably, the first toy Juliana reaches for is, of course, the one toy Everett wants to play with, so he takes it from her and she begins to fuss.

7) With my amazing Mom skills, diaster is averted as I somehow convince Everett that he really wants to play with a different toy, Juliana is pacified and playtime resumes.

8) I put the gate up at the top of the stairs and enjoy a relatively fuss-free shower. I can then get dressed all the while the kids are STILL PLAYING WITH THEIR TOYS AND EACH OTHER! Does this sound like close to heaven to anyone else?

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I finally got Juliana to the doctor for her nine month checkup. Our gal is tipping the scales at 21.5 pounds (around the 75th percentile) and measuring 30 inches long (around the 95th percentile). I so, so, so hope she gets a lot of her dad's height. I always wanted to be 5'7", just like my 7th grade Social Studies teacher, Mrs. Brantley. She seemed so tall and beautiful that I knew if I could only be 5'7" just like her, oh how my life would be complete. Little did I know that 7th grade would be the last time I grew vertically. And here I am, eternally stuck at 5'5". If my daughter could grow to be at least 5'7" I think I could die a happy woman.

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We finally got a booster seat for Juliana and it is so cute to have both the kids sitting at the table. Juliana has shunned baby food like a bad habit, so she is now the queen of bananas, egg whites, cheese, applesauce, strawberries, olives, bread, mini-Nilla wafers, goldfish, pb and j's, cucumbers, pancakes and bagels. I'd forgotten just how messy little ones first learning to self-feed can be. Yes, there's always quite a mess after she finishes eating. And unfortunately, it's not all just on the floor.

And though they don't look like it, they do actually enjoy being at the table together.
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One of the things I love about Will is how hands-on he is as a dad. He tries things with both the kids that I either don't think about or think will be too much of a pain. Like baking with Everett. A couple of weeks ago Will decided that he and Everett would bake some chocolate chip cookies together. Once Everett figured out what was going on he was THRILLED to help Dad. Will let Everett measure and stir and it's seriously all Everett can talk about. "I make cookies with Dad." Repeated about 50 times a day. Every day. I'm not kidding.

But it was really cute and so fun to see Everett get so excited about something. Baking cookies with Dad is now their own thing, which I am more than happy to relinquish to Will.

This is the smile of a little boy so excited he couldn't/wouldn't go to sleep until 10 o'clock that night. Joy!

Everett must have enjoyed the cooking baking experience so much so that later that week as we were driving in the car and stopped at a red light, he spotted a "really BIG cookie". Keeping dreaming son!

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I got a new swimsuit! After being inspired by how cute my friend, Kim, looked in her Modbe suit, I got online and got one for myself. I got this top, but I paired it with a red bottom. It came in the mail today and I'll admit, I was a little nervous about how it would fit. But nervous I needn't be! Because it is cute and sassy - just like any gal likes to feel in her swimsuit. So thank you Kim for getting a Modbe suit and posting a picture on your blog. And thank you Modbe for designing and selling cute swimsuits. I couldn't have looked halfway decent in a swimsuit without you!
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And finally, I just have to say that Will is pretty awesome. Unknown to most, Will is a fan of the theater. He acted some in high school (in addition to playing football, wrestling and playing the cello in orchestra. I know, my own modern-day Renaissance man, right?) and actually won Best Actor in State his senior year. Anyway, we went to a couple of musicals when we were dating and engaged, but since we've been married we just haven't been able to enjoy the arts as much as we would've liked.

When Wicked came here a couple of years ago we weren't able to go. I decided to read the book, that maybe that would satisfy my desire, but let me tell you, it didn't. I just didn't get that book. It was weird. And long. And a little boring. But I've heard the musical is a million times better. So ever since we missed it the first time, I've been dying to see it. Also, Will's birthday is next Friday and we were talking about what he might like to do to celebrate.

So imagine my surprise when he came home today and told me that not only would we be going to Wicked in October (YES!), but we were going to celebrate his birthday by going to Les Miserables in September (double YES!). Seriously - YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Will, it's true, you are pretty awesome.