Thoroughly Thankful Thursday: Pope Francis Edition

For the last few weeks, the eyes of the world have been on the Church. This is a change, to be sure. There are over a billion Catholics in the world, but there generally isn't much attention given to the Church on a day to day basis. Turning on the news this week to live reports from Vatican City was pretty awesome! 

This morning, those news reports were extra special. In case you've been living under a rock for the last 24 hours, the conclave of Cardinals chose Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina as the new Pope. This all happened just as I was leaving for work yesterday, so I missed the live telecast for the most part. Thanks to Catholic radio, I did get to hear the new Pope's first blessing. Emily and Erin got to watch the whole thing with their grandma. I'm so thankful for all this modern technology. Imagine how special it would be to actually stand in St. Peter's Square for a new Pope's first blessing. Thankfully, since most of us will never get to do that, there's TV to take us there. That's the first thing I'm thankful for today.

The second is my baby girls, who are doing more "big girl" things every day. We just replaced their infant car seats with toddler seats this week. I installed them by myself (just a little mama pride here!) and I can already tell a difference. Instead of gymnastics and cajoling to get the girls strapped in and the seats snapped in, I just have to put them in and fasten the straps. They love the new seats, especially Erin, who was on the verge of being too tall for her old seat. There is a certain amount of convenience associated with infant seats, being able to take them in and out of the car and snap them into strollers and grocery carts, but we found a new fold-up stroller that will take the place of our carseat stroller frame. As for the grocery carts, both girls sit up reasonably well on their own now, so I have a seat cover for one to sit in the cart and then I can use the Ergo to carry the other. After yesterday, I don't think Erin will be the one riding in the Ergo - she spent the whole time pushing up to a stand on my hips. We were only at the store for about half an hour, but she was very irritated that she couldn't see where we were going like Emily could. If we'd been there any longer, I'm sure there would have been a meltdown!

First ride in their big-girl carseats!

We went to the park and tried out the toddler swings earlier this week, too. Though both girls were more or less dwarfed by the seats, they had a lot of fun swinging. Erin loves having her hair blowing (a lá convertible commercials) so that was her favorite part. Emily just liked to swing back and forth and didn't seem too excited about her hair blowing. (To be honest, she doesn't have that much hair yet, but she does seem to be getting a little more every day!) 

The distance between the swings made it hard to get a closeup, but both girls had a great time!

The third thing I'm thankful for today is the fantastic weather we've had this last week. It's finally warmed up, and we've had some really spring-y days with highs close to 70 degrees! It's supposed to cool off and start raining today (after all, it is Oregon) but it still feels like spring. I love it. It's been great to have lots of time outside with Emily and Erin. I'm excited for weather like this all the time soon! 

Now it's your turn. What are you thankful for? Share in the comments or link to your post below!