Happy 3rd Birthday Little Pope

 It's hard for me to believe that Little Pope recently turned three.  It seems like I was just posting about his unexpected early arrival, and now he is three with a 16 month-old brother!

The day before his party he provided valuable skills testing the icing before we frosted the cupcakes.

I always try to get a few pics before the party starts.  Of course he rarely stands still long enough!

A picture of these two standing still at the same time is even rarer!  They are so similar, but yet so different!

This year I managed to get individual pics with the Nutrition Nazi and myself.  Each year we get a little more organized.

Just for comparison here is Little Pope's 1st birthday party.

And here is his 3rd.  I never noticed until now how much these kids have aged me.

I am not sure if the Team Leader was hiding or waiting for the party to begin so she could beg for food.

They were so excited when the bounce house showed up.

And even more excited once it was fully inflated.  It took hours to convince Little Pope to actually get in!  Of course he still tells me about how the bouncy house is gone.

Time for a song, cupcake, and a lesson in patience.  He never makes it to the end of "Happy Birthday" when blowing out the candles.

I love seeing my extremely thin child excited about eating a cupcake.

I was even more excited when he actually ate it! 

Time for pics.  Grandma looks so happy!

Ninety years apart in age, but joined in dessert love!  Priceless!

Just Sitting Around Doing My Own Thing

Men don't think sometimes before they speak, especially when it comes to the context of their conversations with other men.  I am certain that the Nutrition Nazi is rolling his eyes right about now, but all is fair in love and war.  I hear him telling his friend this morning on the phone that I was hanging out doing my own thing, like I was getting dressed in my swimsuit with my ultra fit body to go sip mimosas by our imaginary pool while our well-behaved children played nicely with each other and the Team Leader.  Nope there's absolutely no sarcasm to that last sentence.  So let me show what has really been going on.

In late January I took the Team Leader to a new vet closer to home and asked him to check her right rear leg because she occasionally limped after playing hard.  The news was bad, but hopefully manageable with rehab.  She had a partially torn ACL.  The other option to rehab was to spend $4,000 re-engineering the knee and countless weeks rehabilitation.  

Bad luck hit a few weeks later when she fully tore the left rear knee compensating for the right partial tear.  After meeting with the surgeons we started to get ready for the tough weeks ahead.  The roughest part being that she would need to be crated for 6 weeks.  Poor dog!

 She made it through the surgery and overnight stay with flying colors, although my nerves took a beating.  I should have lost more weight with the amount of worrying and pacing I did waiting for her to come out of surgery and then come home the next day.  She cam home with a small pharmacy of drugs and very rigorous rehab schedule.

We tried to give her options on her confinement so that she did not get bored with her crate.  Camo loves the Team Leader so much and did everything he could to climb in with her.  It's probably one of the few times in her life she was happy to be inside the crate!

I took the boys to Petsmart to buy her something to make her feel better.  Little Pope found a dog toy that doubled as a bat and Camo tried to throw every ball he could find under the shelves.  We settled on some treats and a small squirrel toy.

A few weeks after the surgery we were starting to get excited that things were going well in the Team Leader's recovery.  Apparently we should have been a little more guarded with our hope.

Less than 3 weeks after surgery she blew out the partially-torn right ACL.  The surgeon had the tech come and tell me it was fully torn because she did not want to have to break the news.  The surgeon and I discussed all the options and decided the next surgery would be immediate, and valuable reward points on my purchase to follow.

Leading up to the surgery I was extremely nervous and feeling really bad for her.  I knew exactly what was coming.  I, nor The Team Leader, were looking forward to an additional six weeks of confinement added to the three weeks of time served.  I forgot to mention she had to be walked three times a day for 10-15 minutes each time.  I can't imagine how much she hated us for taking her for walks after surgery on each knee.

The team leader survived the second surgery well and began the road to recovery.  She also sported the most expensive, crappy looking poodle hair cut I have ever seen.  I told NN that I was renaming her Europe because the expense of fixing her was a really nice trip to Europe.

And not to be outdone by his big sister, Little Pope had hernia surgery on Friday for hydrocele.  He did amazingly well with all of the unfamiliar faces that came in and out of contact with him at the surgical center.

Luckily his recovery is going much quicker than the dog, thank goodness.  

All's well that ends well.  The Team Leader got a clean bill of health at her last check up so hopefully our luck is changing.  I am thankful that everyone seems to be doing well.  Now maybe I can go find that imaginary pool with mimosas and well-behaved children!

Easter Overload

We had many fun Easter events that we attended this year.  So many that by the time the kids got to the Easter egg hunt at our house Easter morning they were basically not interested!

The fun started with a Easter Bonnet and Hat parade at Little Pope's school, then followed by the Easter bunny and an egg hunt.

He really got excited about the Easter bunny this year!  He is waiting and looking at the Easter bunny talks to other kids.

The poor little girl next him did not have a great time during this part!  Luckily it was short-lived and her mom was close!

Having fun at the egg hunt!

The boys were too cute working as a team at the egg hunt!  Camo picked up eggs and put them in Little Pope's bag.  I had to make him put them in other kids bags towards the end so that we did not go home with too many eggs!

Bless these two ladies who wrangle these toddlers and even smile doing it.  Aren't the little girls' hats too cute?

Next was the Easter Fair at Sweetwater Country Club!  I can't believe he sat still long enough for this to happen!

This time Little Pope got up close and personal with the Easter Bunny!  

There was also a trackless train that we rode many times!  I guess it reminded them of the rodeo carnival!

Camo had a good time running in the grass!  Such simple things make him happy!

Then it was on to the Pope Easter with the cousins.  My poor sweet niece is still the only little girl.  She is smart enough to stay away from the other 5 knuckle-heads!  She quietly colored while waiting for the Easter egg hunt.  The boys ran around crazy in different directions.

Finally Easter morning at the Pope house!

He likes the idea of the Pez dispenser more than he actually like Pez.  I have s serious supply of the Pez candy since he does not like it!

We had our egg hunt inside since it was pouring outside.

Like I said earlier they were basically ambivalent at the beginning and lost interest in less than a few minutes despite the eggs being blatantly obvious.

The enthusiasm is going downhill quickly! I ended up picking up most of the eggs.

He was excited about this toy for exactly 5 seconds.  All of my hard work of finding non-candy egg stuffers was somewhat wasted.  However the Team Leader loves hunting Easter eggs!  This was actually the first time she came up the stairs in over a year.

So I saved the best for last.  With all that has been going on with her I actually forgot until the day before Easter that I had not bought anything for her Easter basket.  So off we all went to Petsmart.  I am glad because she had the most fun!

And like any good pet parent and half-poodle lover, the Nutrition Nazi was right behind carrying her basket and opening the eggs with her treats.  She knows who runs this show and she has and very terrible haircut right now!

Rodeo Grace

This year we took the kids to the Houston Rodeo for the first time.  I was definitely nervous about taking two non-compliant toddlers into the huge crowd.  Here is how we fared.

We started in the exhibit area with the newly-hatched chickens.  I think Little Pope loved it because they were eye level.

I tried educating him about what the little ones turn into, but he just kept laughing at the big chickens running around crazy.

Little Pope is obsessed with selfies!  We had to pause so he could say cheese and be silly!

At least one of us was focused on the task at hand.  The other was captivated by who knows what.  Clearly I need to take them out more!

Little Pope LOVED this ride, which was one of three he was big enough to ride.

He rode it several times and did not want to leave!

Another obsession of his is tractors.  I know he was in heaven because he got to climb all over this one.

A little fun playing in the corn.  This walk-through exhibit outside was really cute because it taught the kids about farming and spending/saving money.

The Nutrition Nazi and I got to go to the actual rodeo part a couple of times.  I was trying to get a pic of the mutton bustin, but my phone did not want to cooperate on zooming in.  I think Camo will love this event when he turns 5.  He will be the one the sheep talk about afterwards!

The pic is grainy, but we got to see Tim McGraw one night.  Even with the so-so sound system he still puts on a great concert.

I saved this pic for last, because the biggest lesson we received at the rodeo was a reminder to always act with grace.  So Little Pope wanted to ride the zebra, but started to freak out before the carousel started moving.  I took him off and moved to another lower animal, but still no luck.  A gentleman came up beside the zebra with the man sitting on the zebra in front of us the pic and asked if Little Pope was going to ride it.  I told him I didn't think so and asked if he had someone who would like to ride it.  He very politely told me that his special guy would really like to ride it.  He handled the situation so calmly and walked behind the fence to stand with his wife.  

They watched their child go around with all of the other children, but treated him with the respect of an adult.  I am not certain I could ever handle this situation as gracefully if the roles were reversed.  I spent the whole ride playing with Little Pope, but wondering if I handled the situation well.  I was given the answer when the same gentleman handed me the remaining unused tickets on his ticket card as we exited the ride.  And so grace bought Little Pope another ride on the beloved tractor ride!

I hope through my actions my wild, but sweet boys learn to handle situations like that with grace and dignity and reciprocate the same to others.