I am guessing they missed the memo

Little Pope celebrated his first Halloween this year, and as you would expect he was full of enthusiasm!

See he even has a onesie that says it's his first, just in case you may have been confused.

I just don't think he likes orange.  Normally he will smile for pics, but not on this particular day.  Guess he's not going to UT.

My other child was less than enthusiastic, as well.  Normally she will sit and pose, but apparently she missed the memo just like the baby.  Maybe she is upset she's not the baby anymore.

She might also be a little agitated because her costume does not fit so well!  

He's so excited that he fell asleep!

Finally a little happiness from the little bear or ewok depending upon your personal preference.

Sweet boy!

We also went to a Halloween party at NN's step-brother's house.  I tried my hardest to get a pic of the 3 cousins, but trying to get a 4 1/2 month old, 4 year old, and almost 8 year old in the same spot on Halloween is impossible,

I did get a good pic of the brothers.  Now I can at least show him his cousins!

Have a great week!

Four Months in the Making

A few weeks ago our little one hit the big 4-month mark, which earned him a trip to the doctor to be poked and prodded, and lots of sympathy from us.  He now weighs 11 lbs and is 24 inches long.  In a big achievement his head circumference and his length have made it onto the percentile chart, where he is in the 25% percentile.  This is a huge improvement from two months ago when he was below the chart!  He is such a happy baby, and now he is starting to eat rice cereal.  Let me show you how that is going.

If you will notice Little Pope is clean and smiling, so the disaster has not begun!

Chatting with the Nutrition Nazi about all the college football upsets.  Mom pipes in that while we love college football in our house, she would really prefer he did not play football of any kind.

Dammit I've been hoodwinked into eating something that is the consistency of paste with no nutritional value or taste!

What is this crap?

Never mind I'll just chew on my hand.

Is there anything the Team Leader doesn't eat?

Something else has his attention...

...the ceiling fan!

I think he is telling the Nutrition Nazi 'No way Jose' to any more of that rice cereal!

Ok maybe one more bite!

Still smiling at the last bite or maybe because it's the last bite!

  

Have I mentioned that he has this one wrapped around his finger?  I bought him a sign that says 'Who needs Santa when you have Gramma?'  It is so true, luckily for him!

 

The Team Leader is turning into quite the protector of her little brother.  She does not necessarily want him in her personal space, but she wants to know what you are doing with him and where he is all the time.  Finally we start seeing some returns on our investment!

Have a great week and let's hope really hard for some fall weather!

Walmart is making Little Pope dumber

A few weeks back I went to Walmart to buy Little Pope a bumbo.  I was excited to find that they had the blue one that I wanted.

These are a little hard to find because they were recalled because people are idiots.  It is not rocket science that you should not leave your small child unattended, let alone walk off and leave them on an elevated surface. 

So I checked the bumbo to make sure it had the seat belt kit.  See it says 'Restraint Belt Included' and it was actually in the box.

So I get up to the counter at Walmart to pay for my purchase and after a lengthy wait am told that I cannot purchase said Bumbo because it is 'unsafe' for my child.  WTF?  I really thought they were joking.  I tried explaining that 1) it has the seat belt kit and even showed them, and 2) why the hell is it on the shelf?  They had no answers, and I had to leave before I ended up on the news.

So I have pictures of this elusive bumbo, you say?

I even have pics of Little Pope sitting next to NN watching football.  My mom went to her Walmart and purchased a Bumbo free of stupid people.  I may never be able to shop at the Walmart by my house again.

Moving on to happier things...here is a recent video of Little Pope and the Team Leader.  She is super protective of him, but not always fond of having him in her personal space so this video is somewhat of a miracle.  Be patient, it is a little slow in the beginning.

Have a great week!

Ten Four

So this past week I went back to work, and though I had major anxiety, the week wasn't so bad at first.

I did get to come home to this happy face everyday.

He usually wanted to be fed as soon as I got home.  I think he is going through a growth spurt because he is constantly eating when he wakes up.

And while he smiled through it all he ended up with conjunctivitis and I received a sinus infection as a welcome back to work present.

The only good that came of it all was that we found out that Little Pope now weighs 10 lbs 4 oz.  Last time we had him weighed in mid August he was 7 lbs 6 oz, so he is definitely catching up.

Hopefully we will be better and back with a longer post next week!

Learning to Give a Hoot

This weekend Little Pope went to his first Rice game where they played Marshall.

We dressed him in his best Rice gear.  Ok so it is his only Rice clothing that fits and I had to have it shipped from Turkey.

Here he sits chatting with NN about how bad Rice is playing, and how he is not sure that he wants to go to Rice.

Then the game became so boring and slow that he fell asleep.  I totally felt his pain on this one.

Then we let him lick a pretzel and it was like we gave him crack.  I am fairly confident that he is ready for solid food.

And even though the Owls lost in overtime we had a great day!

Have a great week and send positive thoughts my way because I am going back to work on Monday and I am not ready to be away from Little Pope.  :(

The Third Best Day of the Nutrition Nazi's Life

This week the Nutrition Nazi and I are celebrating two years of legally being married.  Now those of you that went to Mexico in October 2 years ago may be a little confused.  We actually were married in the states by NN's dad, who is a judge, because otherwise our marriage would not have been recognized in the states.  In honor of this day I thought I would share with you the story of how we met that I originally posted to our wedding website.  It is comedy at it's best!

The Truth of How We Met

As with any story there are always two sides, so here is mine. In order to understand how it all happened, you must first understand the atmosphere of the apartments that we lived in when we met. Every weekend the pool looked like MTV's Spring Break that many of us grew up with. Simply put it was one big over-the-top party every weekend!

NN:  Up to this point the story is accurate.

So one of these weekends I was hanging out with some of my friends, that I had previously met at the pool, just watching the party get cranked up. Apparently in all of this NN was somewhere in the mix pretending to be working a cross-word puzzle, but in reality he was scoping the talent for the next Miss Right Now! I however was completely unaware of him in the massive crowd that normally showed up on Saturday. 

Fast forward to later that next week.... I had to walk through the pool area to get a couple of packages in the office. As I am walking back through, NN gets out of the pool and proceeds to introduce himself. All the while I am being nice, but thinking to myself who is this unemployed guy who has clearly been at the pool most of the afternoon. (There were lots of these types in the complex, so it was a fair assumption that unemployment or his parents may possibly be supporting him!)

NN: Given my responsibility to accuracy I am compelled to interject the truth! It was a beautiful, sunny Wednesday afternoon. I was getting a little sun by the pool and thought I saw a cute girl in comfortable clothes. The next thing I know its the same girl, Crystal, in a skirt and heels! Wow I thought as she came up to say hi. She had a good story about a package at the office she had to get, but we both know that she just had to meet me!

Anyways...So occasionally I ran into him around the complex, but then it turned into borderline stalking. From then on every time (and I mean every time) I would be working out he would be walking his dog through the pool area where the gym was located. (Barkley was super-fit after all those walks!)

NN: Barkley and I did see her in the gym on our walks. Crystal has a nice smile, and the enthusiasm with which she used that smile and the eyes she was giving through that gym window just compelled me to finally go in there and give her a one date opportunity. Nice of me right?

At first I dismissed it, but then one day he showed up outside with the dog and then mysteriously disappeared and then magically appeared on the bike next to me in the gym within a matter of minutes, working hard to close the sale. I think I heard things like, "Well you know I like the opera, the ballet; I have a boat...." (It still makes me giggle!) Then not long after that sales pitch we happened to run into each other one morning before the party got cranked up, and he asked me out to an Astros game, and I said yes (despite my dislike of slow moving sports - like golf - j/k), and well you know how the story goes from there.

NN: It did work out extremely well despite our different versions of how we met!

Happy 2nd (Legal) Anniversary!!

Defcon 5, We have a Code Brown

Little Pope recently hit the big 3 month mark.  We must be doing something right occasionally in all of the sleep deprived days and nights because he is growing bigger and stronger every day!  Here are a few pics from the past month.

Sitting still for a picture may never happen again since he is so hell bent on being mobile.

Ok maybe when he is sleeping, but those moments seem to be far and few in between.

He is still somewhat of a serious child when he sleeps.  I am guessing he is pondering how much smarter he is than us.

Little Pope has taken a liking to his Baby Einstein playard, especially the sun on top that lights up and plays music.

Every now and then it seems like he is singing 'I throw my hands up in the air sometimes Saying Ayo I gotta let go'.  ( Name that song.)

He also likes to kick his feet around to the music.  Hopefully he is gifted with better dance moves than his dad, who was practicing break dancing in the shallow part of the pool the other day.  I guess he is going to a break dancing fight because that is the only logical reason for a 40 something to be practicing break dancing.

Right now you are looking at this happy face and probably thinking he is so sweet, right?  For the most part that is true, but our sweet little one has us coining a new phrase in our house - Defcon 5 and Code Brown.

 You see over the past month Little Pope has become very comfortable in public.  So comfortable in fact that he almost always has us calling a Code Brown every time our food hits the table in a  restaurant.  He thinks it is hilarious.  Oh yes you know what I mean, and I swear I have actually checked him to see if all of his parts are still intact because the sound is so deafening.  I am now a pro at changing defcon 5 level diapers in my small backseat because they never occur when we are in the SUV.

Have a great week!