Playing with Letters

As we are furiously trying to get ready for the Littlest Pope's early arrival in the next week or so, it occurred to me that I haven't posted any updates along the way.  For all you know we changed our minds and said we were good with the Team Leader and Little Pope! 

So first things first.  There has been a minor complication in the last month with the baby's amniotic fluid being low, which will lead to an early delivery no later than the 21st.  Dr Adam, my perinatal specialist really doesn't have an answer, but I am lucky enough to get to have two doctor's appointments each week, and the nifty co-insurance portion to go along with it.  The Littlest Pope is going to be a big one, or so we think.  At  35 weeks (last Friday) the baby weighed 6 lbs, 7 oz, and its femur length is in the 86% percentile.  As Dr Adam so bluntly stated, "This baby is not missing a meal."

My awesome friend Kimmy put together a wonderfully small baby shower a few weeks ago.

She made not one, but two diaper cakes.

Maybe she will finally quit her crappy day job and come start a business with me.  Yes I called your job crappy, which is mild compared to what I could have said about it.  Sixteen hour days are not normal.

She also made this very creative fruit salad.

NN and Little Pope definitely enjoyed the fruit salad as evidence by the blackberry remnants on his chin.

Little Pope wasn't in the picture mood, but my mom was, so two out of three isn't bad! 

Spirit Fingers came to enjoy the festivities as well!

And on a final note for those of you who keep asking, and you know who you are, here are some of the potential letters of the baby's name.  There might be one letter missing from this, and one letter is for certain.  And no I will not tell you the baby's gender.  You will find out soon enough.

Maybe Next Year

I didn't have very high hopes for Little Pope trick-or-treating this year, but still we went out with the hoards of kids in our neighborhood.  My main goal was to get him to wear the costume and not rip it off.

This was the best picture of his costume I took all night.  He refused to wear the fireman hat from the start.  His hi-top converse completed his ensemble nicely.

We went to Uncle Bret and Sarah's for a pre-party, and Little Pope spent a lot of time feeding Paw Paw chips.

And then we attempted to trick or treat.  At our neighbor's house he was more interested in their gardening equipment in their garage than the candy.

We continued on a little further, but it was very clear this was not going to be the year he fell in love with Halloween for the candy explosion.

He was much more interested in playing in his car while Gramma followed as the safety police.

On a different note Little Pope is test driving daycare as our schedules allow.  He is starting daycare in January, but we are trying to get him used to his new surroundings to hopefully minimize the potential separation anxiety.  It is a little grainy, but take a look at how he faired.

One Going on Thirty

Our sweet, almost 17 month-old is very observant, and has been an old soul since the day he was born.  

Most weekdays we come home and go upstairs where I workout on the elliptical or lift weights, while Little Pope plays and watches movies.

So one day he follows me up the stairs, closes the safety gate, and then immediately climbs on the elliptical.  He hasn't quite mastered the feet on the pedals part yet!

He also thinks he is old enough to be lifting on the multi-gym machine.  I was around the corner lifting and found him trying to climb down after climbing all the way up on his own.  Pretty soon he will be cocky like the Nutrition Nazi and screaming I-I-I-I workout.  (Name that song.)

Then there is his passion for yard work.  He is always touching and feeling the mower and lawn tools in the garage.

He takes helping out very seriously.  Type A would probably be an accurate description.

In this pic I am guessing he was probably giving NN the evil eye for not working fast enough.

Hopefully he will not out-age us anytime soon!

Sunny and 75, or So We Hoped

Recently we had a short beach vacation planned, and the weather had been hot and dry for weeks.  We should have seen the change in the weather coming, but in Southeast Texas the weather people are rarely right.

We had high hopes when we arrived that the impending small monsoon that was predicted might change directions.  Unfortunately hope was not enough this time.

So we had to find other ways that did not involve the pool or beach to entertain Little Pope in between rain showers.

This broken sprinkler head kept him entertained for quite a while.

NN and the Team Leader decided to sit down because Little Pope played for so long.  Ok not really they are both just really short on patience.

Do you see a theme for this vacation?  Some of us sat down more than others.  Little Pope loved to play on the balcony.

Climbing on the chairs seemed to be an endless activity for him.  This would have been great if the balcony had foam rubber all over it since he is not exactly good on coordination and balance at this point.

Little Pope did show us how he could dance in the chair even with the wind blowing so bad that I started looking for feeder bands.

And he was on to the next activity.  For the record I am not sure what happened to his shorts.

There was a little bit of sunshine one day, just long enough to get a picture of our sweet little one.  Guess we will hold on to hope that next year's trip has more sunshine and less of creative entertainment for toddlers!

Five Years of a Crazy

Five years ago today, in the middle of Hurricane Ike, the Team Leader was born.  It seems like yesterday that we were driving to Dallas to go pick up our oldest child.  We had no idea how she would change our hearts for the better.

She was such a cute energetic puppy!

She started working her magic on the biggest nonbeliever first.  I think he quickly fell in love with his half-poodle he swore he would never own.  Way to stand your ground NN. 

 She was so little that she fit under the bar stool!

We quickly learned she was much smarter than us.

She was deprived of attention, as you can see!

She loved the backyard in the new house.  She constantly wants to go outside to play with her friends through the wrought iron fence.

Her love of fetching toys grows stronger each year.  Throw in water and she thinks she has won the lottery!

Last year she became a big sister, or Sissy as Little Pope calls her.

She is never too far from him, and always keeps an eye on him to make sure he stays out of harm.  Sometimes, though, his mischievousness gets him into situations she can't help him out of!

Occasionally she hides from her rowdy brother, but these two are ridiculously cute when he is feeding her cookies and she gently takes them.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl, and many more!!!

The Deer Whisper He is Not, but Big Brother to be...Yes

We were fortunate enough to get away to the Hill Country (New Braunfels and San Marcos) to a friend's house on the Comal River recently.  Every time we pull up to the house there are always deer in the yard, and this trip was no different.

See they are just hanging out not bothering anyone.

Little Pope's social skills still need a little work, though, and he went charging after the deer in his excitement.

The deer took off running towards a safer area, the golf course, when he began running towards them with a stick.  So much for the seeing wildlife up close this weekend because that officially ended any chance of them even looking at the front or the back yard as they pass by.

With all the deer gone Little Pope decided to run around the yard and pick up random things, like our cooler, rocks, and sticks.

He mainly entertained himself, though, by going up and down these couple of stairs.

Down with assistance nearby, if needed!

A very rare moment of pause.

Somewhere he picked up a big stick to carry around, and yes he did run around with it.

His favorite thing to do was to take multiple sticks into the house at one time.  I spent 30 minutes searching the house on departure day for sticks he squirreled away.

I did mention something else in the title, so read his shirt.

Coming soon...March 2014!

Have a great day!