Short and Sweet

Keeping my house clean is something I strive to do, because I don't want to be embarrassed if we have unannounced visitors, but there are times when I'd rather Facebook, read blogs, or get on message boards, and playing with Natalie always comes before cleaning house. I stumbled upon this site, and these monthly calendars and daily task lists really help keep cleaning manageable.

I'm keeping this short and sweet tonight. For you viewing pleasure, here are some recent pictures of Natalie.

Heading to MiMi and PawPaw's for the weekend. (This is one of my favorites of her!)

Discovery Playhouse

At the conservation center for "Natalie Day" with mommy and daddy

Baby Fever

It seems like so many women around me are pregnant or just had babies, and it's giving me baby fever- BAD. Having another little one is something Nathan and I have discussed on many occasions, and it's something we both want, and most of the time we would like for it to be sooner rather than later. However, any time Natalie has seen me hold a baby or another toddler, the tantrums begin until the little one is out of my arms. Although she would probably adjust quickly and like to help out and love on a baby, we just don't think she's ready to be a big sister. Having a second child just isn't realistic for us right now, especially if Nathan does get accepted to PA school (*fingers crossed and prayers said*) and has to move to Tennessee. I will be the only one working, and there's no way we could put two kids in daycare (in addition to all the other bills) on a nurse's salary. Plus, I don't want to be like a single mom with a toddler and an infant, even though we have some amazing neighbors that would jump on the opportunity to watch a new baby! Sometimes I feel like I can barely handle Natalie and do all the other things that have to be done, particularly on the nights that Nathan works late on call, so I sing praises to all the single parents out there. I can't imagine parenting alone all the time. I know that waiting until the "right" time, if there really is such a thing, will only make us more excited to have another baby, so I suppose that is the plan. Like most situations, I do find a downfall to this- Natalie will likely be almost 6 years old before she gets a sibling. That's about the same age difference between my sister and me. She and I get along fine now, but I never felt like we were close growing up. In addition to being siblings, I want my kids to be friends; therefore, I feel like they should be relatively close in age. Nathan has told me in the past that he doesn't want our kids to be more than 3 years apart. I guess God has a different plan. It's all in His timing. I guess for now, though, I will live vicariously through my pregnant co-workers and hopefully get to love on their babies from time to time.

Potty Training

Natalie turned 2 in December, so we are now potty training. I've got to say, being consistent with it is not as easy as I imagined it would be. We started introducing Natalie to the concept of the potty around 18 or 19 months, and she never gave us any fits about sitting on it (we only had her sitting on the potty while her bath water ran). Now there are times when we have to bribe her with "potty candy" just to sit there (Pez works great! She has Belle, Cinderella, and Mickey Mouse pez dispensers) and prizes when she does her business on the potty (usually a brownie, cookie, or piece of chocolate). Sometimes I think this would be easier if I were a stay at home mom, but that's not feesible right now, nor do I really want to stay home full-time, so I just do what I can in the evenings and on the weekends. I try to put big-girl panties on Natalie in the evening and on the weekends, and I try to have her sit on the potty at least every hour, but sometimes more often, depending on her fluid intake. From experience, I can tell she definitely doesn't like the feeling of being wet, so we will see how long it takes her to catch on to sitting on the potty when she feels the need to pee. The biggest problem I see is that Nathan and I don't quite seem to be on the same page. He isn't a fan of cleaning up pee messes, so he prefers putting a diaper or pull-up on Natalie. I know that she will get it and be potty trained when she's really ready; that's why I don't force her to sit on the potty when she throws a fit. Secretly, I hope she "gets it" sooner rather than later! In the mean time, I leave you with a picture of Natalie and Woody pottying together.

Things I Don't Want to Forget

When Natalie does or says something cute, I always think, 'This is something I could never forget.' Guess what? Most of the time, I forget. So I was inspired to post about things I don't want to forget by the momma of an adorable two-year old little girl(check out her blog here).

*The way Natalie tries to imitate the dances fom Angelina Ballerina: The Nutcracker Sweet. She loves to dance, and will instruct anyone around her to dance when there's music of any kind playing, even if it's the alphabet song on her Leap Frog Fridge Phonics toy.

*Natalie will throw herself on the floor, look up to see if anyone was looking, and yell, "I'm okay!" Then do it again.

*The way Nathan will hold up Natalie's Woody doll and say, "There's a snake in my boot!" in his best Woody voice.

*The way Natalie will put any object that resembles a camera up to her eye and say, "Cheese!", and any object that looks like a phone (or sometimes doesn't) and say, "Hello?" then start carrying on a conversation with whomever she pretends is on the other end.

*The way Natalie calls Sleeping Beauty "Sleeping Cutie".

What kinds of things do you want to remember from this time in your life?

Snow Day

We got quite a bit of snow today, enough to close about 150 schools in the area and cause numerous accidents. I'm not a big fan of the snow, and am a little disappointed, because I think this stuff is going to stick around for a few days. Driving conditions weren't horrible today, and even though we shouldn't have any more snow for several days, I'm more worried about the road conditions tomorrow, after people stop driving on the slush and it refreezes with the rapidly dropping temperatures tonight. I'm thinking I definitely should have chosen a profession that gets snow days! I didn't get any pictures of the snow today, but I'm sure there won't be much change by tomorrow, so I'll snap one then.

**ETA:

Can you believe Natalie didn't want to play in this?

The Start of a New Year, the Start of a New Blog

With the new year, I decided to start a blog. I have started a journal several times, but have not been good about keeping up with it. Since I prefer a keyboard to pen and paper, maybe I will keep up with this blog better. Really, this isn't to tell the world about my life, it's for me to look back on to remember the little things. I'm a working mom with a rambunctious two-year old and a husband who doesn't know his work schedule from day to day, sometimes hour to hour. Things get crazy around here. Anyway, I'm looking forward to sharing the goings-on in my life with anyone who wants to read. I will also link to some of my favorite blogs, so if you're a mommy or you're interested in DIY projects, be on the look-out for links to some pretty great blogs!

Looking back on 2010, it was, by no means, a bad year...just sort of uneventful. I guess it was kind of hard to top 2007 (our wedding), 2008 (Nathan's college graduation and Natalie's birth), and 2009 (lots of Natalie's firsts, my college graduation, both Nathan and I started new jobs, and we bought our first home). I'm excited to see what 2011 brings. Nathan is hoping to start PA school at Bethel University in McKenzie, TN, next January, and the application process opens April 1. He has worked so hard for this, so I hope he gets in. He loves operating on people, and he's so great at it. It would be a shame if he's not able to advance his career simply because his grades as an underclassman weren't so hot. Since there's a possibility that 2011 could be the last year for over 2 years that we live in our house as a family of 3, I hope we take advantage of doing more things together than we did last year. We are planning to take Natalie to the conservation center Saturday. She loves animals, so we thought that might be a great (free) place to spend a cold weekend.