Pee Pee in the Pot-TY! and Baby News

Taylor just turned 20 months a couple of days ago. I always think it's funny to refer to her age in months. After all, you don't do that as an adult. I'd be like, a 1,000 months old, or something. But I'm so happy that she is on her way to being potty trained. For 3 days straight this week she has peed in the potty! We sat in the bathroom on Wednesday and read books, until she stood up and started splashing her hands around in her pee. Gross, I know. Once I washed her hands and got over how disgusting that was, we did the potty dance and sang the "Pee Pee in the Pot-TY" song, over and over again. She's done it about 8 times total, and I'm trying to be consistent with it. It would be FANTASTIC to have her out of diapers by the time she's 2. Hopefully her enthusiasm for the potty will continue. I owe it all to the "Elmo's Potty Time" DVD. She loves it.

My mother and father in-law celebrated their 34th anniversary today! We all went out to dinner yesterday to celebrate. 34 years together is a great accomplishment! Other than that, we hit up a birthday party yesterday and church today. I know Sunday is known as the day of rest, but in our house it's referred to as the day of stress. Wes teaches the 15 year olds, I'm chorister in Primary, and Taylor has secured her place as "The Crying Child" in nursery. So we all have big time responsibility. On Sunday morning in the Pollard home you'll find Wes hurrying to finish up his lesson, me, cutting and pasting something onto poster board for Singing Time, and Taylor following us both around until it's time to do her hair, at which time she books it until I have to wrestle her to the ground in a half nelson to put her hair in pig tails. Church is by far the longest 3 hours of the week, but we always come home feeling glad that we went to all the trouble.

In other Pollard related news,.....we're expecting. January 12th is the scheduled c-section. I'm already 11 weeks along, and apparently my uterus already knows what's up the second time around,because I already look like I'm pregnant. There was just no hiding it any longer, so we told our family the news this weekend. Taylor is currently in denial. When I tell her there's a baby in Mommy's belly she just says, "No baby." Ya. This outta be fun. But we're very excited, and feel very blessed to have had it happen so quickly. Apparently we could just hang our coats next to each other and get pregnant. I feel much more prepared this time around. We know what to expect out of a baby now. If it cries, you really don't have to spring to your feet and pick it up right away. It won't explode. It'll either keep crying, or fall asleep. And this time when someone offers to help us with Tay or the baby, we won't feel guilty kicking one or both of them out of the house for a couple of hours. We'll do it with a smile on our face and a song in our hearts.

So far, I feel great. No morning sickness, a little bit of fatigue, and I've still been going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week. So far so good. Hopefully (knock on wood) it'll be as smooth of a pregnancy as it was with Tay.

"The Happening"

Rarely do I ever take the time to post something about a movie that I don't like, but I feel it important to warn the world about the worst movie I've seen in a long time. Wes and I have had awful luck lately when it comes to movies. I can't remember the last movie that wowed me. And this last weekend we saw a movie that left us shaking our heads for days. M Night Shyamalan's, "The Happening." You can thank me later for saving you $9.50 for a movie ticket, and $15 for popcorn and a soda.
Mark Whalberg, or Marky Mark as I still call him, is a pretty good actor in my opinion. He's done some decent movies. However, this was not one of them. He plays a nerdy, high school science teacher which is pretty unbelievable in itself. My high school science teacher was no where near that hot, and salivated as he lectured. The whole premise for this movie is that all of a sudden, people in the New York area start killing themselves in a zombie-like state. So Marky Mark and the rest of the funky bunch do their best to head away from where this is all happening. Shymalan threw in some idiotic love story too between Whalberg's character, and some other actress from the movie "Elf." Long story short (for you anyway, I had to sit through the whole darn thing), the plants and trees of the world are emitting some sort of toxin that prevents us from self preservation. I literally had to sit through the first hour of people killing themselves with my hands over my eyes. They showed every possible way to kill yourself, and it was disgusting and disturbing. I felt like screaming, "I GET IT, ALREADY!"But no. Mr. Shymalan had to show you over and over again. The movie ends with the toxin disappearing in America and reappearing in Europe. Wes was pretty pissed that he bought a movie ticket and ended up watching 2 hours of M. Night's dogma and political views on the environment. When the credits rolled, the audience moaned and cursed. I don't think there was one happy movie goer in the theater. Sigh.
O well. We went home and watched "27 Dresses" that evening. We needed something light and mind-numbing to take off the edge. Cute enough chick-flick, if you ask me. I don't think we'll be going to the theater again until "The Hobbit" is released.

Dorito, anyone?

Taylor and I visited the Skirball museum today, and took in the Noah's Ark exhibit. Before we went in, we parked our butts next to the rest of the moms for our lunch. It seems the Skirball attracts the "Encino Mom," as I like to call them. We're talking top of the line strollers, BMW minivans, and a plethora (that's right, a plethora) of uber-rich mamasitas. It was fascinating to watch. I pulled out my peanut butter sandwich and water, and passed Tay Tay her apple juice, mini hot dogs, and gave her one or two of my Doritos (baked Doritos). I don't know if it was my imagination, or if truly every mom there had a bag of groceries from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's to feed to their kids. They had cut up veggies, organic egg salad, organic apples, dehydrated fruit, etc. I was definitely having a "bad mommy" moment, as I watched Taylor sip on her sugar saturated drink and beg for more Doritos. I got a glance from the super mom next to me while she fed her little one cut up carrots and celery. I'm sorry. I've TRIED to feed Taylor carrots. I've begged her to eat green beans. And occasionally, I can hide them in something that she WILL eat. Kind of like when you hide a pill for your dogs in a piece of cheese. And, oh! Score one for me. The kid loves tuna sandwiches, cheese, and corn on the cob. So I guess I'm not that bad. I've even tried shopping at Whole Foods, but when you walk out of there with 1 bag of groceries for $30, I get a little peeved. But we went food shopping yesterday, and I made myself spend more time in the produce section. I'm making dinner tonight too, and it won't be out of a box.

The Noah's Ark exhibit was pretty cool, and Tay had a great time. I highly recommend it if you have kids ages 18mths and up.

Book Worms

I found Tay "reading" alone when she was 15 mths.

Taylor and I are book worms. Wes treated us to Barnes & Noble this week to pick out some new reads, and Taylor shouted "BOOKS!" when she walked into the children's section. She is a total nerd like her mother. I try to read about 2 books every month, and Taylor reads about 10 books a day. Books are more interesting to her than toys, and I'm SO happy about that. She has some of them memorized, and just loves to sit on a lap and hear a story. I can't wait for the day when we can dive into the "Harry Potter" series.

Recently I've read the following books, (FYI, they're not rated G. Just a warning.)

"The Other Boleyn Girl"- SO good. I love history, and especially anything involving royalty, etc. It was fantastic. If you know anyting about Henry the 8th, you already know how it ends, but it's still a great book. I haven't seen the movie, but I heard it was a stinker.

"Jemima J"- This one was circulated around at work, and it was alright. A bit dirtier than one would guess from the summary on the back. I found myself blushing a bit. Not my favorite. It's an ugly duckling story, that just isn't that realistic.

"Eat, Pray, Love"- My aunt turned me on to this one, and it was fantastic. I just loved it, and couldn't put it down. This woman travels the world, basically, trying to figure out her life. It's funny and thoughtful. Two thumbs way up.

"Goodnight Nobody"- This is a mystery/chick book. It was alright, if you ask me. It was relateable in some aspects, as the narrator is a mom who often finds herself overwhelmed. I judge books a lot by their ending, and this one left me saying, "That's it?"

A Day ALONE!!!

Pigs around the world must have sprouted wings, because I had an entire day TO MYSELF!!! I can't even remember the last time that happened, if it ever has. Wes took Tay to Underwood Farm with his mom, and I was completely on my own. I spent the morning in the mall, buying a cute little red skirt with matching necklace, and eating yummy fuccacia bread from Stone Oven. Then, I spent 3 glorious hours at the day spa getting a facial, a manicure, and a pedi-spa, all courtesy of Wes for Mother's Day. I read my book, and sipped on lemon water. And did I feel guilty? No way Jose! I enjoyed every second of freedom. I am a much happier mom and wife when I get a little "Me Time." I think I might make a habit of this every couple of weeks. I was much more patient and loving when I got home than I've been this week. I hardly batted an eye when Taylor greeted me outside by eating a hand full of dirt. Having pretty nails, a new skirt, and clean skin does wonders for a girl.