Leo's Been Here SIX years!

Six is big time: you go from being able to tell people your age by holding up one hand, to having to hold up TWO hands! 

So how is Leo at six years old? Funny, challenging, smart, stubborn, silly, quirky, curious, frustrating and creative. 

He's into Star Wars, pirates, Legos, science, "making up stories," knights/castles, art and DOGS! This is the kid who used to ask as we knocked on someone's door, "Do they have a dog?" And if they did, well, we didn't have a whole lotta fun at their house. Now he walks up to dogs he doesn't know and pets them. (I know that's not a great habit but it's such an improvement over the dog-terror we used to endure.) 

Anyway, Leo loves dogs so much that he agreed to give up his birthday presents from friends and have them donate to Canines for Disabled Kids. He was inspired by Ginger, the therapy dog who visits their school. In fact, I think it was Ginger who helped Leo get over his fear of dogs. So we arranged for Ginger to make an appearance at his birthday party! See photos and video below. 

I'm not saying this donation thing was all his idea. It DID take some arm twisting but once I read him the stories online of kids who need therapy and service dogs, he agreed. When people donated online, 50% went to the charity, 40% went to Leo and 10% went to the website that organized it. So don't feel too bad for the kid; he got presents from family and was able to pick out a Lego castle too. He got just the right amount of presents for a six year old. 

He had his birthday party at WOGA where he and Gus take gymnastics. The coaches let the kids do really cool things like swing from a giant rope into a foam cube pit, bounce on big trampolines and jump from a high platform. Leo also got to show off some of his gymnastics skills. See video of him doing "a candlestick" below. Both sets of grandparents, Tia and lots of friends came to his party. 

On his actual birthday (today), we kept it low key--candles in his pancakes, lunch and cupcakes at school with me and a small cake after dinner. We have learned that Leo does best when things aren't too over-the-top. (Oops, Disney World!)  

We haven't taken our annual "What a difference" photo yet but I will post that when we do. For now, here are about 100 pictures and videos from Leo's birthday weekend. (What was I saying about low key?) 

We were about to watch him open his presents when he suddenly decided to lead us in "Happy Birthday to Leo." 

Class Cuties

Warning: These class pictures are so freakin' cute your head might explode. 

First, Gus' Bears Class: Clearly they have been told to put their hands in their laps and some of them (including Gus, second from the left on the front row) think that means "put your hands in your crotch." They all look a little confused and how about Vincent in the back, who just can't resist a wave? 

You can judge for yourself but Leo's teacher (who has been at this for many years) says the picture below is the "best class picture she HAS EVER SEEN!" I agree. I mean, they all have awesome grins and it helps that they are just naturally adorable. Leo is no exception, right there front and center. And he says he hates school! Well, when he looks back at this picture, he will only remember the good times. 

Egg-cellent Easter

When it's Easter time in a family-focused suburb, there are egg hunts out the wazoo. The weekend before Easter there were two we could have attended: 

"Which one should we go to?" I asked Frank. "The one where they get to hunt for eggs in an indoor pool or the one where thousands of eggs fall from a helicopter?" 

"Um, neither," Frank said. "Why don't we just do the egg hunt in our neighborhood next weekend?" 

Good point. Cause I mean, if eggs are swimming in pools and falling out of the sky, where do you go from there? So after that I decided that simplicity would be my Easter motto. They hunted for eggs at school and in our neighborhood but that's it. And the eggs were just on the ground in plain sight. Oh, and we did do one egg hunt in our backyard. 

I told the Easter Bunny to go easy on the baskets so they each got a chocolate bunny, some jelly beans, a coloring book and a puzzle. 

Frank and I went to the Easter Vigil at church on Saturday night so on Sunday morning, we just took the kids to breakfast in their Easter best. 

Obviously, Jesus is the reason for the season and we didn't forget that. Leo can recite the story of the crucifixion and resurrection in his sleep. It's just that the bunny, baskets and eggs are pretty fun too. 

#TBT on my Blog

For those who are not super Facebook savvy, let me explain the title: TBT is "Throwback Thursday" and people use it when they post an old picture on Thursday on Facebook. And the hashtag? This is how my friend Carrey put it: "So if you hashtag something, it makes it, like, a thing?" That's right.

So I was looking through old blogs, trying to find posts about my gum surgery that I had in 2006. My sister-in-law Julie has to have this surgery soon so I told her I would find my--what I though would be very detailed and informative--reports. As it turns out, it's more about the food I ate while recovering and how foolish I acted while on the drugs. Not sure it will be much help to her.

Taking this trip down Memory Lane made me think it would be fun to post an oldie but goodie. And lo and behold, it just happens to be Thursday! #PerfectTiming

July 12, 2006: 

So Long, Soft Diet

Yesterday I went to the periodontist to have the last of my gum bandages removed (some had fallen out on their own) and for a check-up. This would signify the end of my soft diet.

The last time I was at his office I was quite loopy from the drugs so I felt a little embarrassed as I walked in yesterday. “Well, hello there, Elsa,” the receptionist said with a giggle. I vaguely remembered saying to her when I first got there two weeks ago, “I need to go the bathroom. Gimmee that toothbrush key!” (The key to their bathroom is on the end of a toothbrush). And then I think when I returned it I said, “Don’t worry. I didn’t brush my teeth with it,” but I may be imagining that.

Then the hygienist came out and greeted me in the same way. I barely remembered her. She said that during the first part of my surgery (which was really just a deep gum cleaning) I kept saying, “I don’t like that…I don’t like that.” As she told the story the receptionist AND insurance lady both laughed and said, “I remember her saying that!”

It’s sad that some minor gum surgery is rivaling my 21st birthday.

The most embarrassing thing was seeing the doctor. I remember when I was in the midst of the surgery, he and his assistant (what’s up, Luther?) were over my head, discussing Grey’s Anatomy. I soooo wanted to be in the conversation and I kept trying to comment. But since all this stuff was in my mouth and I was really out of it, all I could get out was, “MigDeemy!” Translated into English that’s “McDreamy!”

So the doctor would ask Luther, “So isn’t the main girl in love with her boss?”

And I would say, “MigDeemy!”

Then Luther explained how Meredith slept with George but she started crying. The doctor said, “Why did she do that?”

I sputtered, “Beguz see of MigDeemy!” (Translation: “Because she loves McDreamy!”)

“Quit talking, Elsa!” the doctor and Luther said simultaneously.

So seeing the doctor yesterday was a little weird but he didn’t comment on my McDreamy outbursts. And he gave me the green light to eat anything I want. I had started to adopt this policy in the last week anyway. I moved on to chewable soft foods about a week ago but stayed away from crunchy foods like Kashi and chips.

Now I’d like to briefly reflect on my soft diet and point out one highlight and one lowlight:

Highlight:
I invented this fantastic new smoothie: Blended bowl of Kashi
It’s everything you would put in your bowl of Kashi (milk, Kashi) plus a banana. Oh, and I throw in some flax seed as well. Whoever got us that smoothie maker as a wedding gift, we definitely gotten your money’s worth.

Lowlight:
When Frank stole my cupcake.
I bought Frank these awesome cupcakes from Wal-Mart for his birthday but I couldn’t eat any. So when I started eating soft chewable foods I decided that one of those cupcakes would be my first splurge. I can’t tell you how excited I was to bite into this cupcake. It was chocolate with creamy pink icing on the top. Oh, and there were sprinkles. Sprinkles! My only regret was that it wasn’t bigger. I thought, “This cupcake will be gone soon so I better enjoy every bite.” So when Frank asked for a bite I was a little bummed. He’s always so nice about sharing with me that I caved. He bit into it and when he gave it back to me all that was left was this thumb-sized bite of the chocolate part. No icing! No sprinkles! I freaked out. “I can’t believe you ate my whole cupcake! I haven’t eaten in a week! I was so looking forward to that cupcake and its icing! You suck!” I think there may have even been tears. Lucky for him, we had more.

So let this be a lesson to you: If a girl has been on a soft diet for a week and finally gets to bite into something, don’t take it away from her! I’m pretty sure MigDeemy would never do that.

Weekend Hodge Podge

This weekend we went to the Downtown Frisco StrEATs festival where we ate, drank and listened to bands. The boys (all three of them) really enjoyed the kid bands from School of Rock. I agreed that they were talented, but a little loud and heavy for this mama.

Leo always loved the book I Love you More about a mother and son but I just read it to Gus on Saturday. He did the same thing Leo used to do where he hugged me in the part that says "And he wrapped his arms around her and with all the love that he had…" It was pretty freakin' sweet:

During Sunday mass we usually send Gus to the nursery and Leo to preschool faith formation. It's been working pretty well for us. But this week they didn't have FF because of Palm Sunday so Leo came with us to "big church." He loves to color during church but we told him that he should try to stand as long as he could during the long gospel. He did his best but about halfway through he asked if he could color again. "I've already heard this story two times," he told us. After, he said that he WAS listening and he was following along in his Easter coloring book. He showed us how he colored the crown of thorns, the tomb and Pilate. We were impressed (and we think that totally made up for him not standing up during the gospel).