Mobility with a side of Unwavering Patience

 Patience is not a virtue that I possess, nor will I ever, but one of my children has it down to a fine art.

This is my oldest as many of you know.  She was a super cute and very high-energy baby!

This is my youngest for those of you just reading the blog for the first time.  He is also full of energy!

And he has now become mobile.  Deep breath.  Life will never be the same and free time is extinct in our household!

He is still working on his stability, though. 

He is a super fast crawler.  One minute he is there, then the next he is wreaking havoc on something or someone four rooms over.

He has also learned to be a jokester.  This is the look he gave me as he was crawling over to jack with me.

He thinks he is so smart when he unties my shoes, but he only wants to do it if the shoe is on my foot. Leave a flip flop laying around, though, and he will put that in his mouth.  Great, huh?

But my oldest has nerves of steel and unwavering patience when it comes to dealing with her brother.  In the above pic he was yanking on her tail fairly hard and she never even flinched.  I finally had to go break up his fun because I was afraid he might rip her hair out.  He was so excited at the new toy he found!

Little Pope has also discovered the Team Leader's water bowl, which is like a rare gem to him.  We normally have the door closed to the laundry room, but he can sense when it is not and speed crawls to get there.

Even with such a huge violation of her personal space she still remains calm, which is more than her mama can say.

Have a great week!

Five Easters Later

I am tired, to say the least.  I am sure you needed to know that, right?  We are so happy that we got to celebrate Easter this year with the Littlest Pope, but I feel like we have driven to Oklahoma and back right now.  Wait, I think Oklahoma may be closer.  We celebrated Easter 5 times over the Easter weekend. 

One of the Saturday celebrations was at the Nutrition Nazi's dad's house.  Here my father-in-law was going into way too much detail about each child's area to hunt for eggs.  It really crossed the too much info line when he told one of the kids his area ended at the black chevy.  How many 4 year-olds do you know who can identify a black chevy?

Look Pops Mom got me an egg.  What's an egg?

Good thing I am not a super germ-a-phobe because he put every egg in his mouth, as he does with most other things.

Holy crap this is fun.  Carry me around some more, you look like you could use a good cardio workout.

Little Pope and his Little Cousin.  I think there are about 8 shots trying to get a good pic.  Photographing children is like herding wet cats.

Then the bigger kids joined in the picture fun.

The Bigger Popes.  My vertically-challenged brother-in-law spouted out that maybe Little Pope would get his height from him, to which I responded let's hope not.  I know I am not his favorite and I never try to be anyone I am not, so I figured I would call it like I saw it.

Daddy tell them these are my eggs, even if I can't eat candy yet.

My babies with their Easter baskets on Easter Sunday.  So sweet!

Wanna see what I think of your nicely prepared easter basket Mama?

I guess he felt it was better once everything was on the floor.

The Team Leader partook in her annual egg hunt!

Hurry up Pops and come open the egg for me.

My favorite 2 1/2 foot tall almost mobile troublemaker!

Look Mama, more stuff for you to keep up with.  Just what your OCD self needed.

Hurry up Grandma.  Your blinged-out shoes must be slowing you down.  Normally I do not let my child hang out in a diaper, but NN's grandparents like to keep their house very warm!

Little Pope enjoyed hanging out with his great-grandpa.

And his great-granny, who gets on the floor with him, even at 90 + years old. 

After all the Easter baskets and presents he was most happy with a paper towel roll and some love.  If only it stayed this way!

By popular request I am posting this video from a couple a weeks ago.

High Maintenace Doesn't Even Begin to Cover It

So first things first.  Little Pope recently hit the 9 month mark and of course that meant a trip to the doctor and a shot, and not the good kind!

We  learned out that our little one weighs 16 pounds 6 ounces and is 29 inches long.  He definitely got his body shaping from the Nutrition Nazi, which is great for him.  So why did I post a pic of my child on a scale at the vet?  Keep reading.

This is my other child, as you know.  We were at the river house less than an hour when the Team Leader cut one of her paw pads on an oyster shell swimming off the pier.  NN and I were putting the boat in the water to store in our slip and this is how she added to the situation.  Now it looks like we murdered something on the pier with all the bloody paw prints.

Several hundred dollars later and a hurried trip to the vet, it appears she is going to live, but they would like us to keep her calm.  I think we might win the lottery before that happens.

I actually took a few days off this past week to do fun things like take my really thin child to the park for the first time.

Then he went outdoor furniture and idea shopping with us at Restoration Hardware.

He has such good taste because he picked out the most expensive set that they had on display.  I know many of you think he learned this from me, but luckily for me this trait came from the Nutrition Nazi.  I used to think I had expensive taste until I met NN.

'But mama look how well behaved I am on this furniture.'  Well you can go to college or we can buy a $7,000 umbrella for the patio - your choice, Little Pope.

After walking him and his father off a cliff we took him to Pottery Barn Kids to look around.  He really liked the bunny rocker, but especially liked all the attention he got from random people telling him that he was sooo cute. 

I think I heard him ask me which font I liked best to monogram this little chair he wants.  How did I get so lucky to have 3 handfuls of crazy in my house? 

And so the sun sets on another crazy week at our house!

Out-parented by a 5 year-old

This past weekend we went to visit some of our good friends and see their beautiful new house.  It has been said that no matter how much time passes truly good friends can pick up where they left off with out noticing the time.  The only thing that seems to change each time we meet up is our age! 

This is their oldest, Carson, holding Little Pope.  I am going to apologize right now for all of the blurry pics, but trying to photograph children is like herding cats.

 He was so cute because he wanted to sit next to the baby.  There aren't too many non-relatives who want to take a chance sitting next to an almost 9 month-old.  Notice how he is eating a chip and patting Little Pope on the back.  Too cute!

When we got back Carson took a break from being the parent of the group to play with the Nutrition Nazi.  I tried my hardest to get a clear picture of the rowdiness, but to no avail. Little kids love to climb all over NN.

In case you missed it above, Carson's little brother, Bryce, and Little Pope are waiting in the wings for their turn at being picked up and spun around.

Then he went back to being the most-qualified of the group and found a suitable toy for the baby to play with AND spent quite a bit of time showing him how to work it.

Little Pope might be thinking about defecting to the Cody family for the energetic boys that keep him entertained for hours after our visit!  I can't say I blame him since it is not always fun and games at our house!

Lessons Every 8 month-old Should Know

Lately it seems like Toys R Us exploded in my living room thanks to the toy store our baby received for Christmas.  And though Little Pope has everything he could possibly want on the toy front, what he most desires is the attention of a busy adult.  So the Nutrition Nazi and I have had to come up with some inventive ways to entertain him, while working towards him being more self-sufficient.

Lesson:  Everyone pulls their own weight around this house, even you Little Pope.

Lesson:  Ripping Daddy's towel rack off the wall is frowned upon, even if it exposes poor workmanship on the part of our home builder.  This is Mama's less-than-thrilled face.

Lesson:  Just because you can't stand yet doesn't mean that you can't be valuable in kitchen clean-up.  Gotta love the diaper and socks look!

Lesson:  Learning to use the Mac correctly and being able to run Apple TV is a valuable skill in this household.  Now we can sit in the yard and annoy the neighbors with our outdoor speakers.  I mean who doesn't want to hear Party Rock Anthem as loud as our speakers will play it?

Now if only you could re-fill Mama's glass.

Lesson:  You are never too young to be the life of the party.

Lesson:  Class is priceless.  Clearly we have none!

Lesson:  Even though you have your first bobo, those eyes are going to take you far with the ladies.  Just ask your dad who has the same beautiful eyes.  On second thought just take Mama's word for it.

Riding the Team Leader like a horse is frowned upon

We will get to the riding the dog thing in a minute, but for now this your friendly reminder that Valentine's day is this coming Thursday, if you choose to celebrate the Hallmark Holiday, as the Nutrition Nazi affectionately refers to the day.  If not, lucky you! 

So I promised I was going to get back to posting recipes, and since I am not one to break promises here you go...Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips or Raisins depending on your preference.

This is a basic Oatmeal Raisin Cookie dough that can be found by clicking here, which will take you to the Quaker Oats website and a recipe called Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies.  I have used this recipe for 10 years or so and it remains one of my favorite go-to recipes. 

What's that you say?  You don't like raisins?  Have no fear I have a solution because raisins are not well-liked by the Nutrition Nazi either.  Simply separate the dough into 2 equal portions once you have mixed everything in, but the raisins.  Then add the desired amount of raisins to one of the batters (like I did for my father-in-law) and then add the desired amount of chocolate chips to the other batter (like I did for NN).  Killed two birds with one dough!

Speaking of occasionally difficult/needy... Little Pope always has to be part of the action even if he has no teeth and can't eat cookies yet!  At least he isn't screaming, though.

This past weekend we went to my parents' house for my dad's birthday, but the bigger reason was so that they could spoil our little one even more.  I am quite convinced the look on Little Pope's face was no accident.   My mom is holding him up so he can 'practice' walking and he is smiling because he owns her just like he owns all of his other grandparents.

One final picture I thought I would share...riding the Team Leader like a horse is very frowned upon in this establishment, but we need a break sometimes.  We had to give her chips to get this pic and even then she still is not very happy about it all.  He on the other hand could not be any happier!  The Team Leader definitely earned her keep on this particular day.

Have a great week and a happy Valentine's Day!