Passing the Time, Fox Familly Style

Time is crawling here in the Fox household this summer as we anxiously await the addition of (STILL yet unnamed) Baby Boy #3. We've each found our own ways to cope with the long summer days that seemed so carefree in June, but now just seem ENDLESS.

I left work in March and never realized how much of a welcome distraction work provided during the last few months of my other pregnancies. The boys keep me plenty busy, of course, but without the discipline required to do a job I am getting paid for, I am too mentally unfocused to even read books or blog. These days, it seems the most intellectually taxing thing I can do is get through a People magazine - it's pretty sad. But I did finally start last week to wash/put away baby clothes and get the baby's room ready, so he will actually have a shirt to wear and a bassinet to sleep in when he comes home.

With graduation behind him, Aaron is working part-time for one of his professors this summer as he waits to start his real job in October. His other big activity this summer is that he has been "in training" to run a 10K race on July 26th. A race he probably won't even get to run since both my OB and my midwife are predicting that Baby Boy will arrive before the end of July, despite my August due date. But there's nothing Aaron loves more than signing up for big events that occur a few days before I give birth. He signed up to take his GMAT on a Saturday in July 2005 and Drew was born early the following Tuesday morning. It's a good thing we are pretty sure we are done with babies, because I'm sure on the next one he would work his way up to something great like scheduling a cross-country house move and closing on the morning of my due date.

The boys, for their part, are having a blast this summer and keeping us on our toes. The precious, creative little darlings have added a few new favorite games to their repertoire:

• SEATBELT - sit on your bum at the top of the stairs and slide down as fast as you can, using only each other's arms wrapped around your waist as restraints to keep you from tumbling down and cracking your head on the hardwood floor at the bottom of the stairs.
• CRASH TEST DUMMIES - set up the tricycle and play motorcycle and the top of the little hill in our driveway and careen towards the back of the family van at full speed, stopping inches from the van's bumper.
• KUNG FU PANDA - paste a mean look on your face and run around kicking the crap out of each other while screaming, "Get the bad guy!". Assume authentic martial arts pose initially, but quickly switch to an all-out pummeling attack mode.
• SHARK - attack your brother in the bathtub while he is practicing his back float. Demonstrate your ability to hold your breath underwater by taking a deep breath and slamming your face into the water as hard as you can (occasionally dipping too far and slamming your face on the bottom of the bathtub as well). Splash as much water as possible outside of the tub and if all else fails and there is still water left in the tub after you're done playing Shark, resort to filling up empty shampoo bottles and just dumping the water outside the tub.
• GLUE TATTOO - during arts and craft time, take off your shirt and smother glue on your stomach. see what kinds of things will actually stick to your stomach if you put them in the glue.

We know that we should be enjoying the last few weeks of (relative) peace and quiet before we revert back to baby mode (where there will be no shortage of activities for anyone to do), but it's been hard to think about anything else except baby (me) and new job (Aaron). Maybe we should take a page out of Cade and Drew's book and play a little Glue Tattoo once in awhile to pass the time...