Still alive.

Yep, I’m still alive.  Nope, the plane didn’t crash (for those of you who were worried about me).  I’ll have a follow-up post with lots of pictures and verbiage about my wonderful, wonderful girls’ weekend in Fort Myers, Florida (I thought we were going to Tampa, shows how much I pay attention to details).  Anyway, it was truly fabulous.  I owned that plane by the end of my trip, and I’m now happy to say that I’m the Queen of flying and am looking forward to my next flighted trip.  In fact, I liked flying so much that I’m tempted to fly to my mom’s house the next time I go there – it’s only an hour away.

Here’s a quick snapshot of the group of us at sunset.  I wish I was back there with all of them!  Le sigh.

L to R: Steph, Kelly, Me, Kent, Ally, Marcia, Beth, Lisa
Front row L to R: Dusty, Allison

Leavin’ on a jet plane.

So, tomorrow I’m leaving on one of these things:



You see, I haven’t flown since 1997, and even then it was a massive feat to get be on board one of these fiery tubes of death.

I have a very good reason to board this time – I’m going to be spending a fun-filled weekend in Tampa, FL with 9 of my best friends!  I would be an absolute idiot to pass up this opportunity, so I’m going to man up and pray to Baby Jesus that we arrive safely. 

My close friend Beth is flying in to meet me in NOLA so she can hold my hand to Tampa.  Seriously, see why it’s worth it to see these girls again?

I have half the country praying for a safe flight, so if you pray, please lift me up in your prayers.  Basically pray this:

Dear God,

Natalie @ One Porkchop is scared of flying.  Please give her peace so she doesn’t:

1) Vomit on everyone
2) Pass out while walking down the plane aisle
3) Cling tightly to whomever is within a 2 foot radius
4) Scream, “LET ME OFF!  LET ME OFF!”
5) Foam at the mouth and twitch

Thank you,

Porkchop reader

God Bless.  And God speed.

Thank you for being a friend.

So, my precious child will soon turn two.  To celebrate this event, I’ve decided to have an intimate gathering of our closest friends and family – something much lower key than last year’s gymnastics party.  As with most kid birthday parties, a parent must choose a theme to set the tone of the event.  This year’s theme –

Happy Birthday, Anna

Love,
Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, Sophia
The Golden Girls

Since Anna is more obsessed with “The Girls” than I am, how appropriate that these special women celebrate my girl’s big day?

And thanks to the talent of my very dear friend, Allison, I have cute stuff to actually commemorate the occasion.

Here’s a sneak peak of some of the party stuff that we’ll get to use – I’m super excited. 


Aren’t they precious?

Thanks, Allison!

Oh, by the way, I know I’ve been a total slacker with my blog lately, but hopefully I’ll find some time to make more frequent updates.  I miss you guys!

So You Think You Can Dance?

Anna thinks she can dance.  I know this because she dances constantly.  The theme song to Mr. Rogers could come on, and she’d jump up and dance.  Although I can’t dance, I still dance with her.  I can get away with my mom moves for now since Anna can’t speak in full sentences, but once she starts making fun of me, I’m on the sidelines watching again.

We basically have music playing in our house all the time, so she has numerous opportunities to shake her groove thing. 

After dressing her up in her best Jersey Housewives garb, Anna put on a show for Joe and his family.  It was quite the spectacle as I saw some key moves in her choreography.

1.  The worm
2.  The robot
3.  The “spank your butt” move

Her grandfather was choreographing all of this behind the camera, so she welcomed the new moves. 

Here we go.

Future footballer.

Anna is already in training to be a future Saint. She’s perfecting her spiral as I type this.

Here she is completely enthralled with the first pre-season Saints game against the Patriots.

Yes, I know she watches TV up close.  I’m going to mommy hell, aren’t I?

I thought these fabulous socks would bring the Saints some good luck.  Nope.

She’s already drooling over football players.  Lucky me.

Dirty chicken.

Since the Saints returned last night for their pre-season opener, what better way to celebrate the beginning of football season than with a plate full of fried chicken.

That’s exactly what we did. 

We ate chicken.  We laughed.  We cried.  It was glorious.

Anna, being the most helpful little child on the planet, offered to take my plate of half eaten chicken into the kitchen.  I politely asked her to throw the chicken into the trash can.  She loves throwing things away.  Thank GOD she takes after me in this respect.

So, I wait patiently for her to return.  30 seconds goes by, no Anna.

I trek into the kitchen and find Anna sitting on the floor.  Her back was turned to me at the time, so I had to walk around to see what she was doing.

What was she doing?

Eating the half-eaten piece of chicken with a spoon.

She has figured out how to open the utensil drawer and grab out whatever utensil she wants to use.  For this feat, she chose a spoon. 

Sometimes you just have to go with it, people.  She’s creative. 

Pee.

Yep, my child had her first pee on the potty.  I am fighting the urge to smack my face while typing this post because I swore I’d never be one of those moms – the moms who share every single detail of their child’s life, even the embarrassing ones that may eventually come back to haunt them.

So, here I am, doing that very thing.  Oh well, hopefully Anna won’t hate me for it one day.

Anyway, we’ve noticed that Anna has been showing some interest in using the bathroom outside of a plastic clump of landfill (aka a diaper).  I know it’s not even worth it to press the issue if she’s not ready, so we’re going to take it slowly.

My mom and I were at Target this past weekend, and she bought Anna’s first toilet.  It looks like this:

Disclaimer:  That’s not Anna.  We also don’t use that kind of toilet paper.

So, it’s a cute toilet.  It has turtles on it.  Who doesn’t love turtles? 

Anna has adapted to the toilet fairly quickly.  She loves sitting on it and putting toilet paper in it.  She didn’t quite grasp the concept of what to actually put into it until tonight (8-11 – this will post on 8-12). 

After sitting on the toilet for at least 5 minutes, she finally did the deed, and we seriously couldn’t be prouder of her. 

Granted, this is just the beginning of a long process, I’m sure, but it’s truly amazing how excited two parents can get over pee.  You would’ve thought Anna walked up to us with the winning Powerball ticket by our reaction.

Maybe it was overkill.  It probably was.  Gee, that’s so unlike us.