By Jove, I Think He's Got It!

My FIL can, in a word, be a little...dense sometimes. Being a grandfather,while important to him, is not always his first consideration. Since I grew up with grandparents who thought I had hung the moon and have a mother whose seeming first priority is to be a wonderful grandmother, this attitude is quite foreign to me. And I'm not ashamed to say it irritates me on a pretty frequent basis. He has been getting better over the years though, and with the exception of my mother, is the person most frequently found at any of my children's events and is a pretty big cheerleader for them.
Anyway, FE and the Princess have birthdays coming up very quickly. We're doing friend parties for each of them and a small family get together as well. It's generally my practice to check dates with people before I decide on a time, but our schedules are jam packed right now and I didn't have any leeway on the dates and times. I just figured whoever makes it, makes it. Mark was talking to his dad about the dates and his dad said that the date for the Princess' party was fine, and that although he had tickets for a football game (season tickets for the school I don't name on my blog!lol!) on the evening of FE's party, going to his grandson's birthday party was much more important, so he is going to skip the game. WHAT??? Who are you and what have you done with my FIL??? I am quite shocked. This is not his usual attitude, at all! And? Because he has a big trip coming up and the Grand Canyon hike around Mark's birthday? He wanted to plan for Mark's birthday dinner now. 6 weeks ahead of time! This is a man who calls the week of to try and plan events (which, if you know me, you must know makes me INSANE! My calendar fills up QUICKLY!). I don't know what is happening to him, but I must say I like it!!