Happy Birthday Christopher!

My sincerest apologies to my sweet baby, who's no longer a baby! I am so late in posting his birthday wishes...

Two years (and a few days) ago, this amazing little blessing entered our home and I will be forever grateful. He makes friends wherever he goes (seriously, it's amazing...you ought to see it) and his smile makes everyone around him smile in return. He has a serious addiction to balls and trucks...spotting or hearing one from a mile away. He excitement is contagious and his love of life is admirable.


From us, Christopher received a basketball hoop with which he is completely enamored. During wakeful hours, he is rarely more than 5 feet from the thing and has tried various heights, balls, and stools to make the elusive "swish" possible. Thank you to those who gave Christopher such wonderful gifts. He is blessed!


Happy Birthday to my sweet handsome boy! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

One Word Wednesday

"ROOOAAAAR!"

It must be a boy thing.

David is somewhat horrified when he witnesses his only son playing with his sisters' girly toys.

Somehow I think he would have been proud if he had seen the result of the play session that Chris had with the Polly Pockets recently.


Disclaimer: No Polly Pockets were injured in the making of this post.

This is how he rolls...

One Reason He'll be a Good Husband

I can't explain it, but Christopher loves the garbage can. He'll go get a tissue and halfheartedly wipe his nose, just so he can race the tissue to the garbage. Whenever I need something tossed, I hand it to him and he flashes a bright grin and runs to the garbage.

We are missing more than a few items around here. Our best guess is that our sweet boy was trying to be helpful, but Natalie's brand new turquoise flip-flops are probably peacefully resting at the city dump.

So when he got a card in the mail from Grandma last week with 2 dollar bills enclosed, I was determined to watch him closely.

I wish I had the video camera in hand! He played with the dollars for a few moments, closing them in the card, then pulling them out again.

Then, sure enough, he crumpled them up and ran away.



It's a bit embarrassing to post a picture of our bathroom garbage can, but I assure you that nothing too disgusting was in there....just half-used tissues from our son's perfectly dry nose.

And no, this is not an advertisement for Pantene.

Speechless

I promised you a few pictures that, surprisingly, rendered me (almost) speechless.

I was getting ready in the bathroom the other day, and the little ones decided to join me. I barely noticed when they unloaded my nail polishes. But I began to take notice when Natalie left in search of another "chair."


What is this, a toilet tea party? Potty Salon? Practicing our colors?


No clue.


But they had a ball for nearly 30 minutes playing with my polishes. On the toilet.


Once they learn how to open the things, I'm screwed.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Foxes

Sweet Sleep

Christopher slept from 7:45 PM to 6:45 AM in HIS OWN CRIB last night.

Let's just take a moment to hear the angels singing, "Hallelujah!"

Along with that, we have two colds (three if you count mine) and pinkeye.

One step forward, two steps back.

So if you're keeping track, that's four family members with 10 sicknesses over the last 15 days. The only one in the family that has not been sick is David, but he has a whopper of a cold sore under his nose, so I think that should count.

Instead of dwelling on all that, let's just revel in the fact that I'm not falling asleep as I type this. It's a big step.

David's first words this morning were, "So, how long do you think it will be before that happens again?"

I won't hold my breath.

2011 in Fashion

We are proud to present the latest fashion accessory for the new year...handsomely modeled by our own Christopher.



(Really, what were we going to do with all of those video cassettes anyway? They ought to be put to good use!)

Oh, and the pink necklace is another matter entirely.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

The Fantastic Mr. Dr. Fox

Yes, that is EXACTLY what you think it is.

This



Plus This




Equals:

an unscheduled bath,

air freshener,

an extra load of laundry,

and the sanitizing of anything he might have touched in the two minutes
he was out of my sight.

Unintended Reflection

These pictures are a few weeks old, but I was looking back through October's pictures and stumbled upon them.

That's our new dishwasher, by the way. I know y'all were aching to see it.

I picked out this doozy at the pumpkin patch all by myself (the pumpkin, not the boy). I love the tall guys. It had been standing proud on our front porch for 3 weeks or so, but finally bit the dust a few days ago.

Anyway, it was inside for a day when I was trying to mend its poor broken stem (hot glue worked just peachy, in case you ever need to fix a pumpkin's stem). I noticed it was just the right size for Christopher to smack, which is how the stem got broken in the first place, so I took a couple of pictures.

Do you see what I see?

LOVE that sweet face!

Here's one more, 'cause I just can't stop. (This one doesn't have the reflection, but I love the look on his face...)
You can go back to what you were doing now, but, for the record, I think my unintended reflection pictures are kinda fun...it's possible I'll be conducting a photo shoot in my very small kitchen with the other two children sometime in the future.

Like Father, Like Son

Is it possible that a preference for sparkly red toenails is in the DNA?

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Thinking Outside Inside the Box.

Yes Man

In the last week or two, Christopher has begun to nod his head in response to questions. In the video below, we were able to briefly capture his unique head nod on camera. Unfortunately, our beloved Allyson also has to make sure to shine in the video also! (Seriously, we have not been able to record a video without her interrupting it since Natalie was born!)

It is refreshing that Christopher chose to learn to say, "Yes" before he learned to say, "No". Now if only Natalie could begin to favor "Yes" over "No"!!!!!

Fall Beauty...or not.

Am I alone when I say I love the fall? It's not my favorite season; that would be spring. But fall is such an interesting season to me. School, and many other things, get re-started after the summer hiatus, weather cools just enough to be enjoyable, colors change and abound, new television shows start...I could go on, but I'm thinkin you get my drift.

Although it is by no means our habit, the little ones and I sometimes play outside for a bit after taking Ally to school. The mornings are cool, but not cold, and the sun is bright. On this particular day, I was enjoying the autumn leaves that are beginning to fall. The red ones are my favorite.

I really love that God created a season that kind of revolves around death (or at least hibernation), but infuses it with splashes of color and warmth. Take, for instance, this plant I thought was dead. (I'm sure my tendency to forget to water our flowers has nothing to do with its demise. I'm thinking it was bugs...or...uh...lack of rain...or any attention at all...or something.) But, out of nowhere the sweet thing goes and blooms again! See?


I was picking up my favorite leaves and showing them to the little ones. Chris examined the leaf treasures and promptly tossed them aside.


Natalie snatched one up and smooshed it into her purse as if it were the last apple cider doughnut.


Then she took her baby on a ride.

Yes, she is wearing her pajamas. (No judgement, okay? Sometimes 8:00 AM arrives a little too quickly to actually dress everyone. Ahem. At least Ally was dressed. And Christopher. And I'm pretty sure I changed into actual clothes, too.)

Before long, Natalie caught my fever and began picking up leaves of her own. This is the one she carefully presented to me as if it were a homemade pumpkin pie.



She quickly provided the words that must have been on the tip of my tongue:

"Aaaaah, look at duh cute little leaf!"

More proof that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Not quite right.

I currently have two binky-lovers. Hopefully within the next month or so, we'll have one binky lover and one recovering addict.

We have blue binkies and pink pinkies, green binkies and yellow binkies. But there's only one that is labeled for the owner. That one is usually under lock and key by the owner, but on this particular morning, it was left unattended for just a moment.

I couldn't resist snagging this shot. I think he looks kind of cute with a bit of pink, but it's not quite right.

#1 and #3

#1 and #2 can often get along, but only when #1 is not interested in what #2 has or #2 is not touching anything that belongs (or has ever belonged) to #1.

#2 and #3 are a bit hostile together, really. It's somewhat dangerous to leave them alone in a room. Someone will be pushed down and the other someone will pull the first someone's hair without remorse. Tears will be shed and mommy will be needed.

However, #1 and #3 are really precious together, as evidenced here.

Thought you'd like to know...

Just thought someone in the blogosphere would like to know...


...that our sweet boy...



...Christopher James (aka Bucca, Bubba, Buddy, and Little Man)...



...is now...




...WALKING!!!


Video coming soon!

Our Baby Boy

Here we are, June 23rd. Our sweet baby boy is one year old today.

One year ago today, we welcomed this amazing little guy into our lives.

I just can't explain what a blessing he has been to us. He is mild-mannered, easy-going, and snuggly sweet.

He loves being near his sisters and us.

He loves being held close.

He loves Ally's pink Polly Pocket car.

He loves pears and bananas. Whole, not baby food.

He loves walking behind anything that will move.

He loves stealing his sister's sippy cup.

He loves throwing balls.

He loves climbing the stairs.

He loves music.

He loves pots, pans, and Tupperware.

He loves kissing, with his teeth.

He loves wrestling.

And we love him. So much.

Happy first birthday, sweet Christopher.