Nona, the potty, and a lesson on Garlic

Found this on the driveway (and i swear I had nothing to do with it). Just Jack being amazing...

Awkward 'selfie' of my new haircut and 18 week belly

What's new… I'm sitting here 18 weeks pregnant and not feeling much better than I did at 14 weeks.  It still feels like I am walking around with extra weight on my shoulders.  Or maybe like I'm walking thru sand.  Just a feeling of fog and fatigue that won't stinking go away!!



But enough about me.  What else has been happening around here???

Well NonaJane woke up like this at Grandma's house, and it started my day out with the most sincere belly laugh that I genuinely felt better for at least the next 48 hours.

images to prove that I'm not the only lazy one :)

but I do reinforce eating popcorn on the couch while watching "The Biggest Loser" on TV

Then NonaJane decided that she would like to now poop in the potty, and has done so with no thanks to me for the past week.  She simply informs me that she would like to go poop in the potty.  I labor myself with removing her clothing and assisting her up onto the potty. Then she takes it from there.  I'm hoping that she will take this 'self-driven' approach to peeing in the potty too. She already does quite often, but I'm just waiting for her to wake up one day and inform me that she does not want to wear her diaper anymore.  You may be laughing at me, but actually that's pretty much how Jack did it. And the way my laziness is going, that's probably how it will happen!  A stress free approach (and yes, I do realize how absolutely lucky and blessed I will be if both of my children potty train themselves in this manner).  I think the problem is that BOTH my children are very smart and have quite a bit of control over matters like this.  My point being, when  I ask them to NOT pee in their underwear, it is not really that motivating.  But when they tell ME that they would like to use the potty… well what do you know they CAN do it!!  I swear I fought with Jack for 3 months to get him to use the potty. Then, one day he woke up looked at me and said "I feel like a Big Boy now" and NEVER had another accident.  Seriously.  I was so over-the-moon excited about his 'light-switch' flip in abilities that I didn't really let it sink in until later that my child had totally just RULED that situation.  My power was futile :)

My kids reassuring me that another sibling is going to be GOOD :)

I didn't take any pictures of the food… 

so instead I filled in with pictures of my kids :)

THEN… (because I'm pregnant and I do weird things when I'm pregnant) I got this random urge to learn how to cook.  I, who have shown little to NO interest in cooking, have challenged myself to preparing at LEAST one new meal per week. (Like something REAL, with a recipe and all that jazz).  I started out with a shepherd's pie.  It called for 3 cloves of garlic to be boiled with the potatoes.  I purchased 3 BULBS of garlic under the impression that a BULB was a CLOVE.  Thankfully, I called my friend to ask her if I was supposed to peal the thing before I boiled it. Her angelic cooking skills saved me as she clearly informed me over the phone that YES I need to peel the bulb AND the individual cloves from inside.  She saved my potatoes from a likely death by garlic poisoning.  Anyhoo, the meal turned out great!  My second meal was a chicken penne pasta.  It was loaded with fresh spinach, some kind of cheese called neufchâtel (what the heck is the difference between that and cream cheese???)  and basil.  Things I have never used before when cooking.  Would you believe that the meal was AMAZING??? The 4 of us sat down, and my children (as in JACK AND NONA) ate their whole plate!! With spinach and tomatoes and all! I sat there in disbelief, like surely these are not my children.  My Jack, who doesn't like anything, is eating spinach? The high that I received that night, feeling like a successful mother who actually FED her kids a decent meal… well it was enough motivation to keep this cooking thing going.  In fact, right now I just finished some garlic rice (since I have enough garlic in the house to last awhile now…) and baked chicken is finishing in the oven :)  Perhaps I may turn out to be a better wife and mom than I thought!