Girlfriends

Ellie is a little bit boy-crazy. I have no idea where she picked that one up....

Now I feel my Mom & Dad's pain when all I wanted to do was hang out with boys my whole life.

But she sure has some cute little girlfriends.

I hope we get lots of fun, girly play dates all summer long.

Quotes of the Day:

"I wanna go on the Choo-choo!" - Park @ the Boulder Creek Fest

"I'm totally soaking drenched," - Elle @ the Old Town Arvada fountain park.

"AHHHHHHHH" - Aunt Wendy @ the Slide Park

Old & New

I was counting the other day in my head - as we drove in the rain to pick the kids up from Grandma Barbara's - I was counting grandparents. We had a lazy rainy movie day at the theater down the street from our house. Two movies sandwiched around a quick lunch with my Grandma Lola had me thinking about grandparents. We've got so many grandparents you couldn't throw a stick 10 ft without hitting one...but that would be mean.

Elle & Park have eight grandparents and five great-grandparents. (Two of them they have never met as they live in Washington state but they are more than thoughtful with their long distance cards and gifts.) And three of the great-grandmas live right here in town. Eliana calls Great-Grandma Doris and Great-Grandma Lola "The Girls" as they live in the same building and generally show up together at events, go on trips with us, and she must just think they laugh like girls. And great-grandma Mary lives just up the road in Greeley. She makes Ellie laugh with her stories about me when I was a girl and I think Ellie can hardly believe that they are true. Mommies were never little girls...

In the last few weeks I inherited a bunch of Grandma Lola's linens. This is a big deal. I'm obsessed with tea towels. And real napkins. I love them. So I got to pick through baskets of tea towels she embroidered herself 60 years ago. And napkins and tablecloths she made for teas and luncheons and bridge and other things that I know nothing about. It's a little piece of history I can use everyday.

And I've been asked to write my Grandma Mary's story. Interview her - not a challenge as I could talk to her for hours - and write it down in a book for all of time and history and (okay...more realistically) our little family to enjoy forever. I only hope I can do her justice.

And then tonight, when Mr. Pope came home from getting a haircut and straight shave, Ellie told him he looked "Brand New!!" He hadn't shaved for a month. He was a hairy old beast.

And now he's new.

Geek Chic

I need to brush up on my geek knowledge. After hanging out with Mr. Pope for a couple weeks I'm afraid he's on to me and my recent lack of geeky intelligence. We took the kids to Free Comic Book Day (it's the first Saturday of May every year, y'all.) It was the first outing we'd taken as a family in over a week and was kind of Mr. P's dream come true with his "Avatar: The Last Airbender" loving little Ellie-Bellie and his little boy, Parker.

I know Pope always wanted a son. Someone to share all of his nerd stuff with. Comic books. Video games. And Star Wars. And EVERY superhero movie ever. And Parker pretty much came into the world with the same apparent loves. One of his first words was "Batman" after all.

But upon our return from our happy little outing I was asked to read said free comics. Over and over and over and over. And while Parker already knows who Batman, and The Flash, and Robin are he had a few questions about some of the other guys. And I didn't know their names. For shame, Veronica. For shame.

Parker was shocked, I'm sure, only because he thinks I'm some sort of all-knowing Madonna figure. Hehe. But Derrick - oh, he knows better. And he's not quite sure why I'm so out of the loop. He's not sure why I don't know anything about the "Thor" movie that just came out. (Or is it not out yet? See, I don't know.) And he's not too sure why I'm convinced that the name "Aqua Lad" sounds a little too funny to be taken seriously.

I need to brush up, I guess. Add some extra geeky boy knowledge to the old skill set. Both to improve my much loved comic book reading with my little man and to impress my sexy geek husband.

But really, Aqua Lad??

Flowers & Snuggles

I spend time being grateful. It's important. It's too easy to get caught up in the negative. So this week I'm grateful for my husband and his mostly speedy recovery. And getting the time with him that we've had over the past week and half...even if it's not under the best of circumstances. And I love him because he's not down-in-the-dumps about his situation either. We were laughing and making jokes just minutes before they took him into surgery. He's a brave guy. And he's stronger than I give him credit for sometimes.

And I'm grateful for our moms for helping us so much during the early days when he was just home, on tons of meds, in lots of pain...and I was bolting up to Greeley everyday trying to pretend that I wasn't totally worried about what was happening in my little home.

But we've been reunited for the past couple weeks. And things are as normal as they ever really get around here. I wanted to cry Eliana's "Mother's Tea Party" at her preschool was so cute. The kids served us cookies and punch and made us all sorts of thoughtful presents and even sang us a song that Ellie continues to sing around the house...."I like the way you look, and I like the way you cook! So I just want to say, 'Happy Mothers Day!'" She's just big all of a sudden. We have real conversations about very important things. And she tells Mr. Pope he needs to call her if he needs anything. Very important.

And I'm glad we've taken away that blasted binky as Parker is much more fun to be around without that plug shoved in his face all day and night. He's talking so much too. The other day when Derrick told me Parker said something funny "out of the blue." Parker looked at him all squinty-eyed and said, "No, Dada. It was purple." Hehe. And just today he corrected me while we were playing horses that his was "A baby horse, not a big horse, Mama." He's putting 2 and 3 sentences together at a time. It happens so quick.

And I love the sunshine (now that it's back). And I can't wait to have the family over for Mother's Day Brunch tomorrow even though it involves and evening of cooking and cleaning. But I'm grateful. (And I'm posting this late. Updates to come.)

QOD: "I wanna tell Mama bye-bye." - My little Park

"This taint supposed to be happening to me!!" - My Mister

I have issues...

Not one to shy away from my own psychotic neurosis (is this the right word? I'm suddenly unsure that what I'm saying in my head is not this actual word. Ugh, now I'm off on a whole other psychotic linguistic tangent before I even get to the one I'm blogging out...) I have some confessions to make.

I have issues.

Having suffered from a bout of "stranger danger" while in junior high school I have a thing about locking doors. It drives Mr. Pope CRAZY. I will literally lock him out of the house when he goes to check the mail. And not even realize that I'm doing it. I lay in bed at night wondering if I've checked every door and window in the house enough times. I CANNOT sit in front of the windows at night without the shades drawn. I have issues. And this is just how I deal with my particular kind of crazy on a normal, daily basis. I'm okay when Mr. P travels. I'm home all the time with the kiddos and function as a fairly capable grown-up/parent/moderately mature adult figure.

But I can not venture out of this comfort zone for any reason without significant ramifications. Ramifications mostly affecting Mr. Pope...but ramifications nonetheless. Waiting for our delayed flight back home from the beautiful oasis of Roswell, NM (complete with aliens) we watched "Law Abiding Citizen" on Pope's iPhone. And I'm pretty sure I had an aneurysm.

I remember watching a movie with my mom when I was youngish. Maybe in high school. I think it was called "Eye for an Eye" with Sally Fields. She freaked out at this terrible scene and while it was terrible and it scared me I couldn't relate to the mother/daughter aspect because obviously I was just the "daughter" part of the equation at the time. But oh gosh. I freaked out seeing it from the "mother" perspective and now I can't answer the door. Ever. At all. That poor lawn-mowing kid will just have to stand on my doorstep in the rain cuz I'm not opening that door for anything, little dude. And Mr. Pope, you're sleeping with the light on for a month and getting up to check each and every little sound I hear at night. And I don't sleep much, so good luck.

It's rough, thinking about the bad stuff. Anyone hurting your kids. Being a grown-up. Sometimes I'm not a fan.

Quotes of the Day:

"I'm Batman. You're a cheese-ball." ~ Park

"There's no way in God's underwhelmingly brown earth that we're gonna make this flight." Mr. Pope as I drove 100 mph through New Mexico from Roswell to Albuquerque. And made the flight.

Pirate Paaargh-ty!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet 4-year-old Eliana and my 2-year-old Parker.

We celebrated with all of those in our lives that make us happy and make us laugh. And make sure we always have a good time. Our best friends and ALL of our family joined us for delicious Baargh-B-Q, Grandma Judy's amazing Pirate Birthday Cakes!!, a pretty cool jumpy castle and a general good time. We are so blessed by the wonderful people in our lives.

We had about 15 little ones take turns in the jumpy castle. And then an adult jump where someone who shall remain nameless almost toppled the whole thing over. Great action shots provided by Uncle Chris and his awesome new camera.

We were so excited to have all of the uncles here for the big day. Uncle Chris was just back from India and Uncle Dan and Rylee got in from Florida the morning of the party. I was so excited to see the big guys that I apparently couldn't keep my eyes open for the pictures. This happens to me.

Mr. Pope did a great job managing the events. I'm the planner. He's the doer. I love it.

Ellie and Parker did a great job on the Pirate Pinata! They both took a few great swings before Big Micheal busted the poor thing to piece in one swoop and broke the hearts of Cole and Dylan, who had yet to take a turn, wide open as well. It was soooo funny.

Uncle Grabe (not a real uncle as we already discussed uncles. But he probably should be as he is entirely dedicated to the job) came dressed as a PIRATE. The jumpy house actually went still and silent when he walked up. It was the best entrance probably in the history of the world. And Pirate Gabe taught Parker is first joke: Q: "What does a pirate say eating beans?" A: "Arrgh! Pttttt (fart noise.) Parker will say the punch line. And laugh his little pirate face off.

And I got a little snuggle time with my niece, Rylee. She is about the cutest thing ever. And I stole these last two pictures from Wendy's blog. I should really download all the pictures we took of the party that are still stuck on our camera......

Oh, and I turned 31. I had sushi and waited with great people for a Rockies game to get officially snowed out and then ended up drinking some terrible whiskey and grenadine drink. Thanks, Nurni. Thanks. And Aunt Wendy celebrated her birthday yesterday. We missed her dinner as we've been cursed with the plague in our house this week, but we hope she had a great day.

Oh, Birthday Week!! (Or Month) I sense this whole thing will start to become more and more exhausting.

Happy Birthday Love Bugs.

Quotes of the Day:

"Dada, I wanna cheese ball." Parker (his first full sentence)

Doctor: "So, Eliana, you have a cough and a fever and runny nose. What is bugging you the most?" Eliana: "Ummmm....Parker!!"

Big Stuff

Derrick likes to sing me Micheal Buble songs. I think it's because he has a secret desire to be a lounge singer. Once, in a karaoke bar when I was pregnant with Parker, he sang me "Everything" and I cried my eyes out. I'm not a crier. I blame hormones. And Derrick's amazing eyes...

But these days I'm singing a particular Buble line myself. I think it goes something like, "It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me. And I'm feeling good." (Come on, you know you wanna sing along. Come on. Do it...)



But "irregardless" of the sing-song factor, it's true. I've been bowled over with the sentiment over the past few weeks. For one thing, I'm working a little bit on a new project and it has made me realize that my "baby days" are behind me. Don't get me wrong, our kiddos are little guys, but they're not babies anymore. It's actually possible for me to leave them for periods of time. Not so a couple of years ago. And having something that isn't directly related to their immediate needs is something I haven't experienced in four years. Even more than that, Little Miss & Mr. Big Stuff SHOW me that they're big - we're in a new part of our little family life - and that's amazing.

We went to the Zoo one weekend. And the swimming pool. And to the play land. And the park. And shopping. We can do things and go places and I don't immediately think "Why on earth did we think that was a good idea?" when we get home. It's moderately awesome.

My kids. They're big stuff. 4 and 2 in the next couple of weeks. Where has the time gone? Everyone tells you it goes by too quickly...but I'm feeling good.

Quotes of the Day:

"Okay, mama." - little P
"I need to hide these eggs from that mean old Easter Bunny! I don't want him to take them! And mom, you'd better lock the door so he can't get in" - Eggiana
"It's like 2012 inside my body," - Mr. Pope on whether or not he's dying.
"Mom, you look like a refrigerator with shoes." - Mr. Michael to his SKINNY mama Katie. ;)