The Fox Factor

Return of the Fox Family Christmas Letter

2011-12-17T10:20:00.004-05:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Those of you on Facebook are up to speed on the minutiae of our every day life – as far as the rest of you know, we fell off the planet, since we couldn’t get it together enough to do a Christmas letter last year. Yay for sorely neglected blogs that allow us to avoid tracking down holiday paper and formatting margins so we can actually get the letter out (up?) this year.

In case you missed it, in 2010 we moved from Georgia back to Texas. That whole transition, while fairly seamless, was a lot bigger transition than we expected, and included a lot of fun things like our Georgia house not selling due to the sucky economy and us temporarily living in a too-small apartment and then renting a too-small house in Austin. But it was all worth it to be closer to family and also have our kids in super-great schools. As a bonus, we both ended up in jobs we really love!

Lest we allow things to stay the same long enough to get dull, we bought a house in July of this year and moved over 4th of July weekend. The new house actually has a similar look/feel to our Georgia one – it must be our “type”. It’s got a nice big backyard, which the boys LIVE in, and lots of little custom touches throughout the house. We have some cosmetic renovations to do and eventually, when the boys get big enough to complain about privacy (or lack thereof), we will probably add another bedroom, but there are no time-sensitive renovations to be made, which made the house quite a find for our budget in this area.

The kiddos are doing great. Cade is in 2nd grade and Drew is in 1st. Their interests can pretty much be boiled down to 2 things: LEGO and Star Wars. Because we make them interact with the outside world, Cade has taken up guitar and Drew is playing basketball this year. Both are in Cub Scouts, forcing Cara to learn her way around the den mom world and even (gasp!) camp. Both boys do really well in school and save up all their orneriness for home, so we can’t complain.

Joshie, who will be called “Baby” for the rest of his life, is rapidly losing all semblance of baby (mostly because he is three now and not a baby at all anymore). Last year, we were worried because he was a man of such few words – now he NEVER. SHUTS. UP. He is under the impression that he’s at least 6 or 7, so he has us in stitches all the time with his precociousness. He’s super naughty but so darn cute - he has us all wrapped around his little finger.

Aaron is happy in his current role at Dell. He is managing a team of folks in several countries, and was excited to go to Brazil for the first time this summer. Cara loves her job at The Christi Center, a nonprofit that provides grief support and is a lot less depressing than it sounds (think angels on Earth).

Every year, we’re surprised to look back and realize that in addition to all the running around town to work, school and activities (plus the occasional trip to see the grandparents in Houston), we’re able to squeeze in a little travel as well. This year, various combinations of us hit up Disney World, San Francisco and Napa, a grand tour of Texas for spring break, the Kentucky Derby, Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, Palm Springs, CA, New Orleans, and Brazil. Whew! We hope 2012 brings as much fun!

We’re definitely counting our blessings, and you’re among them. We hope all of you have a wonderful holiday and a healthy and happy new year. Our door is always open, so if you ever find yourself in ATX, stop on by!
Love,

The Foxes

A Return to Normalcy - Whatever That Means

2010-10-17T14:35:00.003-04:00

As a follow-up to my last ~~vent~~ post, I'm delighted to report that things are finally starting to calm down a little and we had our first fun-filled family weekend since moving to Austin.

The past two months have been absolutely consumed by moving-related activities and honestly, it's difficult to focus on much else when you're drowning in cardboard boxes filled with your life's possessions. It turns out that unpacking five people worth of stuff takes longer than one (including me) would think. We've been lucky enough to have my sisters and parents to help with the kids, which has been a HUGE blessing, but I've been feeling pretty guilty that while other people seem to be having lots of fun with our kids, we haven't felt like we could take the time to have fun with them.

This weekend, we'd finally had enough. We shoved the last few unpacked boxes into the garage to be unpacked at our leisure and mapped out a fun-filled weekend, kicked off by Pizza Night on Friday. On Saturday we checked out a fabulous little family-friendly Oktoberfest at a local microbrewery. Talk about a perfect afternoon - gorgeous weather, beer that surprised us by not sucking, and just the right amount of games and other activities for our crew. The afternoon was further sweetened by a surprise Texas win over Nebraska and a trip to one of my favorite college haunts for Mexican food for dinner. The kids surprised us by being on their best behavior all day long - until about the last 15 minutes of dinner at the restaurant. God love the little guys, they can only stand wearing their human costumes for so long.

Despite all the fun things on the list for the day, the Bigs cited their favorite activity as "playing Mario Brothers" on our old-school NINTENDO that Aaron discovered in the unpacking process. Yes - we are the only family in the ~~neighborhood~~ world that doesn't have a Wii, but can still rock Mappyland.

Sunday brought more play. I'm embarrassed to say that while finding a good women's Bible study was at the top of my list when we moved here (check), I had yet to report anywhere for Sunday services. I finally got it together enough to check out a new church this morning, and was comforted by how much it felt like the old one I loved so much in Smyrna. Afterwards, the Bigs and I met friends at a playground while Aaron suffered through a haircut with Joshie, who has been sporting the Cousin It look for several weeks now. In the afternoon, the Bigs and Aaron headed to a kids improv comedy show, while I tucked Joshie in for a nap. While reading his nap time stories, I realized that it was the first time in weeks that we were laughing and snuggling together and I wasn't fretting about needing to be doing something else - which felt really, really good.

Perhaps it's because I jumped back in the church saddle this morning, or maybe I'm just finally feeling like I have a little breathing room, but I was particularly grateful for this normal, average weekend as a family - with everyone in good health and good spirits.

Of course, never let it be said that there is a dull moment around here. In the afternoon, the church kindly sent a welcome committee member by with a welcome packet and a coffee mug. Aaron answered the door, with black grease and debris from fixing our grill smudged across his forehead, and directed the man to me. As I chatted with him, in the background the boys were panicking because somehow Josh had managed to eat the yellow color tablet from their science experiment. I hurriedly thanked the poor man for stopping by and hustled him out down the front walk, right past the boys' pumpkins, painted with robot faces and decorated with green feather boas and little pink cowboy hats (don't ask!). As he left, I apologetically said, "Thanks so much for stopping by - it's a little crazy right now." I wanted to add, "It isn't always like this."

But that, of course, would be a lie.

On the Move

2010-09-20T23:14:00.005-04:00

Since about 2004, the only constant for our family has been change. It seems that each year has presented a different challenge that makes life seem a little harder than it should be. The past six years of our lives have featured such themes as "Have a Million Babies in a Row" or "Heading Back to Business School Without Spousal Buy-In" and my most recent favorite "Consulting: The Fastest, Most Sure-Fire Way to Wreck Your Family Life". The theme for 2010 is definitely "Moving Sucks".

It was January of this year when we first starting kicking around the idea of moving back to Austin to be closer to family and awesome, free public schools. If you had told me back then that it was going to take nine months of strategic plotting and planning to somehow get all members of our family and a houseful of furniture to Austin with at least one person securing a steady paying job, I might've said, "Thank you very much, but Atlanta works just great for us!"

And Atlanta did work great for us. But Austin is already working better. The PROCESS of getting settled in Austin, however, is well...a process. A process involving a lot of change. And it's starting to wear on me a little.

First came the process of getting the (still unsold) house on the market. Then came the job search process. Thankfully, the job acceptance process came with a whole lotta benefits to make moving easier (thank you, God, for relocation packages), but we still had to make the actual move. Aaron came first, followed by the kids and I a week later. Since relocation benefits included 2 months of furnished corporate housing, our furniture stayed in Atlanta to keep our house "staged" and (presumably) sellable. We settled into the temporary housing, while looking for more long-term housing. We secured long/mid-term rental housing, designed to buy us some time to figure out where to buy long-term. We returned to Atlanta to pack up furnishings, moved them into the Austin house, and are now in the process of getting unpacked.

Somewhere in all that change, we got three kids settled in new schools as well as t-ball, chess club and cub scouts, and got Aaron settled in a new job. Thankfully, my job remains the same, but the mechanics of continuing to do it while moving a household, as well as accounting for the hour's time difference between me and my partner and clients throws a few wrenches in the works, just for good measure.

The good news is, nothing has really gone any differently than what I expected. It's just that what I expected is a lot harder than I expected. I'm tired of living in transition. I'm tired of meeting new people (not a good thing, when you're in a new city). I'm tired of turning utilities on and off and registering for tags, titles, and licenses. I'm tired of missing my Atlanta friends while trying to make new ones and unpacking a house while owning one in another city that sits empty. Most of all, I'm tired that my Blackberry broke and I haven't had time to get a new one so I'm using an old-school flip phone with no email access - in a part of town with crappy cell coverage.

On the bright side, we love Austin. We love being closer to family. We love the schools. We love our new (slightly downsized) house with a fenced-in backyard in a great neighborhood in a great central location. And did I mention the awesome, free public schools? So I know that all the change will be worth it. But I'm just ready to be past it - so we can move on to next year's change.

Which, God help me, better be something as simple as getting a cat.

If You Can't Beat the Heat, Join It

2010-08-31T14:45:00.003-04:00

One of the very few things (ok, the only thing) I dreaded about our move back to Texas was the heat. Granted, I grew up in Texas heat and Atlanta ain't called "HOTlanta" for nothing, but Georgia is not nearly as hot as Texas and I'm convinced that you lose heat tolerance really fast. And with actual temperatures close to or over 100 in Austin in recent weeks and the heat index soaring WAY beyond that, I was pretty much convinced I was gonna melt as soon as I crossed the state line.

But it actually has not been bad - I've learned that you've just got to modify your lifestyle. Just like it actually makes a difference to wear a hat and layer in the winter (I speak of other places - Texas, of course, doesn't have a winter), there are a few things you can do to mitigate the heat here. Things that have worked so far for us:

1. Keep all shades drawn at all times. Sure, I have Seasonal Affective Disorder all summer long, but losing my mind is preferable to suffocating from the heat.

2. Run all fans on high at all times. You may feel like you're about to blow away every time you sit/stand still, but that's better than sweltering in stillness.

3. Run all errands in the morning. Joshie, who has a vocabulary of like 2 words, added the word "hot" about 2 days after we got here. That would be to describe the buckle on his car seat after sitting in the sun all morning. It's really best to stay away from your vehicle from the hours of about noon to 9 pm.

4. Shade helps. Parking in shade will lower your internal vehicle temperature about 10,000 degrees. Standing in shade will not lower your body temperature at all, but it will delay heat exhaustion by a good 10 minutes or so.

5. Drink lots of water. Every family member has a water bottle and I fill it up before we go to the park or outside, but it never seems to be enough water. I'm getting ready to install a water cooler in the van.

6. Wear lightweight, light-colored, breathable fabrics. I'm totally bummed that my spandex catsuits aren't going to be getting much use here, but I'm probably getting too old for them anyway. It's cotton sleeveless shirts and skirts for me all the time now.

7. Humidity matters! In Houston, where it is 100% humidity year-round, you need another shower the second you step out the door in the morning. But Austin has more reasonable humidity levels and it's amazing what a little less moisture and a slight breeze will do for you. Just another one of the million reasons why Houston sucks and Austin rocks.

Move to Austin: Week 1.5

2010-08-19T10:10:00.002-04:00

It seems that I must update my status on Facebook a lot more than I think I do, because several friends have emailed in the past few days wondering if I am ok because it appears that I went out to buy lunchboxes and never came back.

All is fine here, it's just been a little bit of an adjustment and a few things are making it hard to communicate with the outside world on a regular basis.

We're currently temporarily living in a 2-bedroom apartment. This has the kids' sleep schedules all out of whack because they are in one room - they are up early, go to bed late, and naps are a crapshoot. Because of this, if they do nap, I am freqently napping as well because they exhaust me so much.
Also, they are not in school yet, so ALL THREE CHILDREN ARE WITH ME 24 HOURS A DAY. This is the main reason why you haven't heard from me. Honestly, don't be surprised if you come to see me and find my unresponsive corpse at the bottom of the apartment stairs - they are eating. me. alive.
Finally, the apartment has spotty cell phone coverage and we can't get the wireless internet to work. This means that I have to be either standing on the balcony to talk or within 3 feet of a wall so I can plug in the cable modem and type. Talk about old-school.

Basically, between the lack of space, the fact that it is 1.5 million degrees here all day so you have to keep the blinds drawn to keep the inside temperature at a reasonable level, and the many small children milling about with Constant Needs, I'm feeling a little like a cave woman these days. A cave woman with the granite countertops I've always longed for and a nice pool and fitness center, but still....

I think we'll head to the grandparents' house this weekend so we can spread out a little, and school starts for Cade on Monday, so that should help. In the meantime, if you're flying over Austin, keep an eye out for my smoke signal and stop by - I'd love the adult interaction.

Move to Austin: Week 1

2010-08-17T16:04:00.004-04:00

Although this blog has been largely dormant over the past couple of years, I can totally see it taking on new life as a way to keep our beloved friends in Atlanta (and around the world) updated on what we're up to in Texas. With the bulk of my family now nearby, you will no doubt see the cast of blog characters expand as they make guest appearances in our household on a more frequent and consistent basis.

So far, life in Austin is good. Key highlights/updates:

Atlanta/Austin drive - can be summarized in one word - "sucked". My mom was gracious enough to fly out to the ATL and help me get our crew to Texas via car, because we decided that as hellacious as that sounds, it would be easier than me getting 3 kids, 3 car seats, a stroller and a plane full of luggage to Austin by myself. During the 2-day trip, the Bigs were as good as gold as long as they had a steadily rotating supply of electronic devices (iPod, Leapster, DVD player, etc.). Josh fussed and screamed the entire way and was just generally unpleasant to be around. In retrospect, I think he was getting teeth and we should have busted out both the ibuprofen and the Benadryl a lot sooner than we did. The real hero of the trip was my mom, who tirelessly sang children's songs across all 4 states and even learned to drive faster than 65 by the end of the trip. But in all seriousness, I could not have done it without her.
Austin living conditions - Our house in Smyrna hasn't sold yet, and we are temporarily in a furnished corporate apartment until we figure out whether we want to buy/rent and where. Said apartment is actually nicer than our house, has amazing views of the Texas Hill Country, AND comes equipped with a fabulous pool and fitness center that we do not have to maintain ourselves. The whole "no-maintenance" thing has us wondering why we ever wanted to be homeowners in the first place. The only drawbacks of of the apartment are A) it only has two bedrooms and B) it is on the third floor. We have circumvented these issues by A) putting all three boys in one room and B) teaching the Bigs how to be grocery Sherpas.
City of Austin itself - is still fabulous. Did I mention how pretty the Hill Country is already? Austin still has all the same amazing dining options I remember from my college days, only now I can actually afford to take advantage of them without a loan from my dad. What I had forgotten, and what I love MOST, is how laid-back it is here. I took the boys to scope out our Chick-Fil-A today and was amazed to note that only a handful of moms in the place were wearing makeup. Several were in *gasp* running shorts and t-shirts! The one mom that was fully decked out Atlanta-style in a precious sundress complete with jewelry, blown-out hair, and makeup, looked oddly out of place. FINALLY - a place where I can be true to my low-maintenance tendencies!

So yeah - all in all, it's pretty good. We still face just a few key challenges to getting settled, which include:

Kids are making me crazy. School starts next week - that should help. Hopefully.
It is hotter than hell here. Every day this week will be over 100 - no joke.
Now that they are all in the same room and unsupervised for roughly 8 hours a night, the Bigs have discovered how to team-lift Baby out of the Pack-N-Play. This means that all three boys are standing in the doorway at the crack of dawn, greeting us with smiles. On the bright side, Baby's vocabulary is expanding to include "'Ello!" as a morning greeting. Obviously, a 2-bedroom apartment is NOT a long-term solution.
Finally, the pesky matter of finding somewhere permanent to live. Do we buy? Do we rent? And where? Only time will tell...

Georgia On My Mind

2010-08-11T23:09:00.004-04:00

With kids, work, and Baby Bunching keeping me hopping, it's no surprise that eight months has passed since I last posted on this blog. Started as a way to document and remember the blur that is our life with young children, it seems only fitting that I post on the eve of our last day in our house before we move.

With life calming down just a tad over the past year, Aaron and I saw fit to spice things up by throwing all cards of major life decisions up in the air at once. Our too-small house, too-crappy public school, and too-expensive private school situations coupled with the prospect of a change in Aaron's job forced us to re-examine our living situation. After ten awesome years in Atlanta, we decided it was time to return to Austin to be closer to family and good, free public schools (as well as Longhorn football and rockin' Mexican food). The whole concept of "moving back to Austin" turned out to be easier said than done, and it took us seven long months to work it out, but we are finally Lone Star State-bound.

Ironically, when we bought this house, we never intended to be in it longer than a few years, much less have kids in it. Three children later, the house is bursting at the seams not only with stuff, but with memories. As first-time home buyers, we closely monitored the construction of the house and labored over optimizing the layout and selecting the right flooring, back splash, paint colors, etc. for our tastes (and potential buyers down the line). With loads of extra space after we moved the contents of our one-bedroom apartment into the three-bedroom house, we filled the extra bedrooms with two cats. As first-time car buyers, we brought home our first major purchase besides the house and kept the one-car garage meticulously neat to accommodate the new vehicle. As first time parents, we nervously carried Cade into the house in his infant carrier to introduce him to his "brothers" (the cats). With each new addition to the family, we celebrated and decorated with more baby gear, eventually forcing the car (and the cats) out to the driveway to accommodate our growing collection of strollers and babies.

As the boys got older, we explored the park and the neighborhood, taking frequent "family walks" to the Smyrna Market Village and library. We settled at the preschool across the road and joined the church affiliated with the preschool. We joined the local MOMS Club and made a group of good, lifelong family friends. We attended countless concerts in the town square, joined the neighborhood playgroup, and shopped at the local farmer's market.

The house, and Smyrna, has been good to us. It's with bittersweet sadness that I say goodbye because it has housed me during what I consider to be the best years of my life. I know there are lots of good years to come and that a house is just a house, and that family and memories will be with us wherever we go - but that doesn't make it any easier to leave the house where our family first started. Because even though technically we're going "back home" to Texas, leaving home in Georgia really sucks.

A Window into Cade's Soul

2009-12-30T21:04:00.002-05:00

I am on an organizing rampage and since he is sleeping, I thought I would organize the eldest child's shelves in playroom, which he is EXTREMELY possessive of. Contents of said shelf include: 2 alarm clocks, 6 old cell phones and chargers, a roll up drum set, a globe, his camera, his dice collection, a plug-in flashlight, an electronic coin jar, a 3-drawer box of tapes from the 80's, 2 CD wallets filled with CD's, a card shuffler, a headset, his wallet filled with fake credit cards, a toy laptop, a Lightning McQueen CD player, a tape player with a microphone to sing along, a Halloween tree that plays "The Adams Family", and his latest prized Christmas acquisition: a record player and some of my dad's old records from the 70's. Strange, strange child, that one.

2009 Christmas Letter

2009-12-22T19:40:00.008-05:00

We post this letter on Christmas Eve with many apologies that the Christmas cards that typically accompany it will undoubtedly be late since we just put them in the mailbox a few minutes ago. We traveled for a week at Thanksgiving, again the first weekend in December, and left to spend Christmas in Salt Lake on December 19th. It was a whirlwind holiday season this year, and our Christmas cards were unfortunately one of the casualties. You can thank us later for extending the joy of your holiday season by delivering the cards a week late. Merry Christmas to all!

Dear Friends and Family,

Our 2009 letter picks up where last year's left off. We are pleased to report that we did achieve our 2009 New Year's resolution NOT to have another baby this year. While little Joshie has been the light of our lives, the arrival of the third boy in less than five years has made our hearts and our hands feel very full and possible cured Cara's baby fever forever. Life has been so busy, in fact, that you will find this blog sorely neglected. With time of the essence we are communicating "boy stories" via Facebook (with great frequency) and Twitter (not so frequently) - you can find us there.

Beyond "busy", 2009 can best be described as a year of transition for the Fox Family. Our biggest boy started kindergarten this fall, which has been a total family experience. Never what you would call early risers, we've had to adjust from a 9 am school start time at a school across the street from our house to an 8 am start time at a school 20 minutes away. It would be fair to say that Cade can frequently be found squeaking into school at 7:59. Scheduling aside, he absolutely adores his new school and frequently comes home with tidbits of information on obscure topics such as Kandinsky and hoodoos, in addition to ABC's and 123's. Much to Aaron's relief, Cade recently started reading, because God forbid we have an illiterate first-grader on our hands. Everyone has been very happy with Cade's school.

Drew has also seen changes this year as he struggled to adapt to the daytime loss of his best playmate, Cade. Fortunately, he has a little buddy at school that even surpasses Cade in playmate compatibility, so the two can frequently be found at each other's houses after Drew gets out of Pre-K at noon. Spurred by participation in Cade's homework and his naturally competitive nature, Drew is also reading. It has been a very cool thing to watch the two boys take "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" reading responsibilities off our hands.

Josh has had a huge year, tackling crawling, walking, teething and talking. He attends Parents Morning Out one morning a week, which he loves. He spends the rest of his time alternately being babied by mom and doing his best to be a 5-year old in a 1-year old body so he can keep up with the Bigs.

Cara enjoyed a successful professional transition this year as she and a partner started The Development Team, a company that provides fundraising and development consulting for small non-profits. Despite the recession, business has been really good and 2010 promises to even better. Cara's also still blogging at Baby Bunching, which has such a wonderful and loyal following that plans for a book on the same topic have been derailed a little as we've spent time nurturing the little online community that has developed.

Aaron spent the year getting settled in at Bain. 2009 was the quietest year he's had in a long time, transition-wise, and he was grateful for it.

We also got to witness the life transition of lots of loved ones this year. We traveled to Indiana at Thanksgiving to see Cara's sister get married, to Texas to see her other sister graduate from college, to Virginia to see Cara's friend Linda's (the other half of Baby Bunching) new house, and back to Texas to see her friend Andrea's new (ish) baby who is the same age as Josh. We also took a huge family trip to Tennessee for a week where we had lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins to keep us busy. We rounded out the year with a trip to Salt Lake City to spend Christmas with Aaron's mom, "Bubbe". In retrospect, we realized that we get around pretty good for a family with a flock of small children.

We know that 2010 will bring more change, as we debate school options for Drew and are forced to finally confront the fact that we outgrew our house two children ago. Since we're at a loss as to how to solve these issues on our own, we pray that God's hand will guide us and also continue to keep us healthy and happy, along with all of you. Merry Christmas to all and best wishes for a stellar 2010.

Love,

The Foxes

Aaron, Cara, Cade, Drew and Josh

PS Looks like the online Christmas letter has become an annual tradition because it saves trees and is, frankly, just easier. To compensate for our eco-chic laziness, the annual slideshow has become a tradition too. Check out highlights of our year here.

Josh Talks

2009-12-07T19:21:00.003-05:00

Tonight Joshie finally spoke his first real, clear word, and it was...

Daddy.

Seriously, is it too much to ask to get a little "mama" out of these kids once in awhile?!?!

Adam's Fall From Grace

2009-11-12T19:29:00.002-05:00

Story time is a magical hour here in the Fox household. No matter how much the boys act like wild jackasses at dinner and bath time, once they crawl into bed and we snuggle up with a few books, they suddenly transform back into humans. While they have a few time-tested favorites that irritate the crap out of us (Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs for me, Thomas the Train for Aaron), for the most part they are willing to explore a wide range of fiction and non-fiction books, paying rapt attention and even intelligently participating in discussion at times.

Tonight's selections included a chapter from Mrs. Piggle Wiggle (Cade's choice), followed by the story of Adam and Eve in the Children's Bible (Drew's choice). After all, nothing like washing down tales of naughty children with the story of the original sinners, eh?

The discussion following Adam and Eve was particularly funny tonight.

Drew (pointing at cartoon Adam's strategically placed foliage costume): Heh HEH! Adam's NAKED!

Cade: That's because he's a Native American! (he is obsessed with Native Americans this week, per the current Thanksgiving unit at school)

Me: Hmmm...I don't think he was a Native American, buddy.

Cade: Oh yeah, I forgot - he's a soldier.

Drew: He's not a soldier! You can't be a soldier with no clothes!

Cade: No he WAS a soldier. Then he ate the apple, so now that's not his job anymore.

Me: Oh really? What does he do now?

Drew: Now he's just a naked guy that does nothing.

So I'm thinking this Fox Boy version of Adam's story might make a great muse for Seth Rogen's next movie character?

Flu Shot Festivities

2009-10-22T19:31:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, after receiving a pre-recorded message from the CEO of Kaiser Permanente that H1N1 flu shots would be available to select priority groups (including children) today, I decided to suck it up and take my crew in ASAP to get vaccinated. While I know there's no guarantee that the vaccine will actually prevent us from getting the flu, there have already been confirmed cases at our preschool and church and I figure we need all the help we can get. Additionally, we were scheduled to get our regular flu shots 2 Mondays ago, but 2 of the 3 boys were running fevers and we had to cancel. Which means that we were due for not one, but TWO shots PER KID.

As a veteran mom, I knew this would suck. But honestly, it would have sucked whether we did it today or three weeks from now and in the meantime, we would probably all get the flu(s), so I just needed to do everyone in one fell swoop and have it off my list. I am pretty no-nonsense about shots, probably stemming from the time I was a kid and witnessed a gaggle of nurses literally chasing a screaming kid down the hall at the pediatrician's office trying to pin him down for a shot. My mom took one look at him and told me that if I ever dared to do that, what I got from her when we got home would be far worst than the shot so I'd best just sit there and take it. So I was prepared to take it in more ways than one today.

We picked Cade up from school and headed directly to the doctor's office, hoping to beat the after-school/work rush for the walk-in flu shot clinic. When we arrived, there were already a good 7 or 8 people in line (not including the ones already processed and waiting). Step #1 was to determine immunization eligibility and fill out the necessary paperwork. To Kaiser's credit, they were well-prepared and had a staff person helping customers to pre-fill forms while standing in line. Unfortunately, this individual was unable to deviate from the flu-shot-eligibility script in any way, shape or form and the conversation went like this:

Me: Hi - I'd like to get 4 seasonal flu shots and then 3 H1N1 just for my kids, since I don't fall under the priority guidelines.

Her: Have you looked at the priority guidelines?

Me: Yes - at home.

Her (handing me a sheet of the guidelines): Ok, I'll need you to look at this sheet and confirm that you all meet the criteria guidelines.

Me: Ok, well, it says kids between 6 months and 24 years and my kids are 1, 4, and 5, so they fit.

Her: What about you?

Me: No, I'm older than 24 and I don't have any of these health conditions and I'm not pregnant, so I still don't fit.

Her (eyeing the children): Do they fit?

Me (thinking): Well, they have not aged 19 or more years since we started this conversation, even though it FEELS like they have, so YES, they still fit.

Me (speaking): Yes, they fit.

Her: So you want 3 H1N1 and 4 seasonal?

She handed me a tall stack of paperwork to complete and then directed me to the receptionist's desk, where the receptionist proceeded to confirm about 50 times that I wanted 3 H1N1 and 4 seasonal shots. After a lengthy wait, during which Josh insisted on exploring every inch of the waiting room on his hands and knees and then promptly pooped his pants (forcing a detour to the ladies' room to change him), our name was called at last.

We were shuffled into the cubicle of the poor soul who had the unfortunate designation of Flu Shot Nurse. Even more unfortunate was that she was apparently accustomed to vaccinating nursing home patients on their deathbeds and not energetic young children who grow more and more anxious the longer a shot process takes. The regular pediatric nurses are so quick on the draw that they're in and out before a kid even knows what hit them, but this visiting nurse had all the time in the world.

After she confirmed approximately 56 more times that I wanted 4 seasonal shots and 3 H1N1 (WHAT is so hard about the freaking math, people?! I knew I should've just lied about being pregnant!) she began entering the information into the computer. Very, very slowly. And she messed up a few times, so she had to start over. And then she had to line up band-aids, also very very slowly and without great precision, requiring her to start over with those. Meanwhile, Cade was rapidly approaching ineligibility due to aging out and I was about to score eligibility by going into cardiac arrest right there in the little room.

When it was go time, Cade chickened out and sent Drew to the guillotine first. I was so proud of him - he just took it like a little man (mainly because he was desperate for the M&M prize I had waiting for each boy at the conclusion of shots). When it was Cade's turn, he went BALLISTIC and even had poor Drew crying for him and hiding in a little ball under the chair. Poor Joshie had limited escape options due to his lack of willingness to walk, so he just had to sit there and get stuck in rapid (or as rapidly as the nurse could move) succession. Cade and Drew both actually tried to leave the room at that point - it was pretty hairy by then. All the while, the nurse was dragging her ass and I was hissing, "Just DO it! Just get it over with! Just stick them!"

In the end, everyone left with flu shots and it only cost me chocolate milk and fries and Chick-Fil-A since the lame Capri Suns and M&M snack packs I'd stashed into the diaper bag didn't even BEGIN to make it up to them.

A Funny That Does Not Involve the Children For Once

2009-10-14T12:59:00.003-04:00

A few days ago, energized by a blogging conference I recently attended, I was chatting to Aaron about some exciting new technical developments I had on my mind.

Me: It's awesome - Linda totally just told me about how I can post in the notes on the Facebook fan page for The Development Team (my company) and link my tweets to the notes post instead of messing with setting up and maintaining a whole new blog for the company - I can't believe I didn't think of it!

Aaron: That is awesome.

Me: Now if I can just get a Google Wave invitation....

Aaron: Did you sign up for one?

Me: Like the day it was released. Hmm...maybe I can tweet/Facebook it and see if I know someone who has an invite - I think you get 8 to forward when you get yours. Maybe someone I know already has it and I can snag one.

Aaron: Who are you? I swear, it's like being married to some 14-year old tech geek.

Me: At least now you know how I've felt all these years.

Josh the Energizer Bunny

2009-10-08T23:46:00.005-04:00

Our children are all what I would politely call high energy. We have yet to have a baby that is content just to laze in the stroller and happily watch the world go by. No, all of ours have to be right there in the thick of things, doing their part to keep the universe off-kilter. I find this interesting because while I am admittedly high strung, Aaron is so laid back that not even a rapidly approaching Mack truck could cause him to quicken his step when crossing the street. It's all good with him, ya know?

And yet, when it comes to the approximately 456 gazillion different combination of DNA that our genes can produce, the spaz trait is apparently highly dominant over the chill trait. Which means that we have a 0% chance of producing a child that is mellow, which is apparently exactly the same chance that we have of producing a child that is female.

The latest child to give me a run for my money is sweet Baby Josh. Still sweet, but no longer baby really, he is evidently trying to make the case to change his name legally to Hell on Wheels. The kid is EVERYWHERE. If there is a physical challenge that presents itself, Josh is happy to tackle it and will often go searching for it. Recent antics have included:

Scaling the baby gates before he even knew how to get up the stairs on the other side of the gate once he got over it. A climber - yay!
Trying to squeeze his whole body UNDER the baby gate after we raised it a few inches in an attempt to keep him from trying to go OVER it. He was foiled by Drew (who told on him) and his chubby little tummy, which trapped him halfway through, ala Peter Rabbit under Mr. MacGregor's gate.
Climbing onto the rocking chair in the nursery and rocking the crap out of the rocker (standing, facing backwards) just to the point where it almost tipped over. And laughing the whole time about the thrill of it.
Attempting to walk down the stairs. Even though he still prefers to crawl on level ground.
Walking up slides at the playground. Even though he still prefers to crawl on level ground.

And the list goes on and on. His complete and total lack of fear or ability to moderate risky behavior combined with my hearing loss means that I literally have to keep my eyes on the kid all day long. Because when he's sky diving off the arms of the sofa, I'm not gonna hear it coming from the kitchen.

Even more awesome is the fact that he is quite possibly the world's WORST daytime sleeper (although I suppose I can feel grateful that he is an awesome nighttime sleeper). Whereas most babies his age sleep anywhere from 3 to 5 hours a day, Josh only sleeps in 45 minute stretches, once, sometimes twice, a day. This leaves a lot of hours where he is roaming around in public (i.e outside the safe confines of his crib) and needs to be supervised. By me.

Not only does he not sleep, he doesn't seem to need the sleep and rarely melts down over lack of sleep. This week, he has has gone almost every day without napping until 4 pm, at which point he snoozes for about 45 minutes. He then comments for another 45 until I feel bad that he's yapping to himself trapped in a crib and I release him from the ~~cage~~ crib.

Secretly, I am jealous because I've always felt that sleeping, along with eating, is a GIANT waste of time. When I think of the increased productivity I could achieve if I gave up all forms of refueling, I get positively giddy with excitement. So I'm thinking the kid may have a real gift. Now we just gotta figure out how to channel it....

Just a Bad Case of the Mondays. On Tuesday.

2009-10-06T21:49:00.002-04:00

Some days suck so bad that you just gotta ~~cry~~ blog it out. Today was one such day.

It all started with Drew's class trip to the zoo. An annual tradition for the 4 year olds at our school, I attended last year with Cade but was wise enough to get a sitter for Drew and Josh (a screaming, refluxey newborn at the time). For Drew's trip this year, I figured I would bring Josh along since he had never been to the zoo and might enjoy seeing the animals. I figured wrong.

His main problem was that he wanted to crawl all around the zoo (he CAN walk, but won't), preferably in the direction of the zoo exit. His staunch refusal to sit in the stroller escalated into the mother of all tantrums and ended with him being completely and totally inconsolable. After I was sufficiently embarrassed in front of all the parents, a couple of them graciously offered to put an end to my personal hell and bring Drew home if I wanted to leave with Josh. Which I didn't because I didn't want to spoil it for Drew, but it was clear that Josh was determined to spoil it for the whole group if we stayed, so we left. Josh sobbed and hiccuped all the way to the car and halfway home,while I sobbed and hiccuped on the phone to a friend over my mommy guilt for bailing on Drew and screwing up his field trip.

And no, I never did discover the source of Josh's mystery zoo meltdown.

Once he was calm, I decided that as long as I was down to one kid, I would tackle a couple of errands on my list before it was time to get Drew. I blew past the freeway exit of my house, just in time to receive a call from my cleaning lady. Admittedly, there are language barriers, but from what I was able to ascertain, she was locked OUT of my house, while her things and my house key were locked IN my house. The possibility of accomplishing errands disappeared in front of my eyes as I headed home to rescue her. Trying to look on the bright side, I convinced myself that it was a blessing in disguise that I was now 10 minutes from home and able to come to her rescue instead of all the way across town at the zoo, as I was supposed to be.

Unfortunately, the language barrier was bigger than I thought. I arrived home to find a clean house and a key on the table, but no cleaning lady. WTH?! Errands apparently blown off for no reason now. Pep talked myself into being grateful that least least I now had a clean house.

After an unsuccessful attempt to nap Josh, who was WIRED by this point, we picked up Drew from the mom who was nice enough to bring him home. Out of extreme guilt, I offered to take him to lunch at any place he wanted and he chose (of course) Chick-Fil-A. I felt so bad about the zoo debacle that he even scored a brownie, plus the nifty little graduated cylinder toy and science booklet in the kid's meal.

Off to get Cade! Knowing that with the way my day was going that it would be a mistake to take all 3 boys home and keep them cooped up in the house all afternoon, we headed for the park, despite the grey dreariness of the day and the earlier drizzle. Josh happily rolled around like a pig in mud, free from stroller constraints at last. The Bigs, however, had nonstop issues. A HUGE science fan, Cade was beyond upset about not having a graduated cylinder of his own. The boys put it to good use by using it to knock the crap out of each other for awhile until I told everyone we were packing up and going home.

STILL determined to turn the day around, I bathed Josh and put him down for a very late nap and settled in to provide constructive activities for the Bigs. We used the graduated cylinder to do a liquid layering experiment with molasses, oil, and water. The boys, mystified by the layering, began "testing" all sorts of disgusting concoctions in the experiment such as salad dressing/milk/water, whipping cream/apple cider vinegar/juice, etc. When that experiment had lost it's luster, I whisked the graduated cylinder to the sink to rinse it out and....dropped it. Oily Disgusting Concoction splattered all over the counter, cabinets, (previously clean) floor, and my jeans. And yes, in case you were wondering - they WERE my fancy jeans and not the 5 year old faded Mossimos from Target. Grrrr....

This only strengthened my resolve to turn the day around (I really enjoy beating my head against a wall like that). We moved on to an experiment involving baking soda and vinegar explosives, which was really satisfying for everyone, save for the wet toilet paper trails it left in my front yard.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully except for Cade hitting me and getting sent to time-out and Drew's dinnertime in-depth description of the (fictional?) dead bloody zebra with bones sticking out of it at the zoo. For good measure, I decided to cap the day off with a tiff with an Ann Taylor sales clerk and a trip to the grocery store, which I hate.

But as they say, tomorrow is another day. God help me.

Josh Walks. Or So I Heard.

2009-09-28T23:50:00.006-04:00

Once again, it's been way too long since I've posted updates of the boys' antics on this blog. Truth be told, I am so lazy that I have abandoned blogging for greener pastures where my musings are limited to 140 characters or less (namely, Facebook and Twitter). My name is mud all over the blogosphere, including Deep South Moms, where I'm so delinquent in posting that I'll probably be evicted from the site sometime this week, and Baby Bunching, where everything I write lately is uninspired and crappy. I am, however, excited to attend a blogging conference in a few weeks, which I hope will fuel a burst of creativity and reverse my tendency to conduct all communication in the form of perfunctory status updates.

The erosion of my writing skills aside, one of the main reasons I started this blog was to capture the milestones that are so glaringly absent in the baby books of my second and third children (and really, the first after about the age of 9 months). So today's milestone of the day is (drum roll, please).....

Joshie took his first steps!

I would tell you exactly how it went down, but I can't. Because I didn't see it. Yes, the sole living witness to Josh's tentative foray into the big boy world is his brother Drew. What kills me is that I was literally sitting across the table from Drew, right in the same room when it happened, but the dining room table was blocking my view of the Caboose. Who walked for Drew, but refused to walk for me a few minutes later. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

See how much more interesting and succinct the Facebook version of this story is?

Cara cannot believe that Drew just saw Josh take his first steps and I missed it!!!"

Josh is a Fox that Wants to Talk

2009-08-17T09:43:00.004-04:00

As if there aren't already enough opinions around here already, Josh is chiming in to register his at a young age. He started saying the usual "Mama", "Dada" and "Bye" about a month or so ago, making noises that could have accidentally coincided with the appropriate use of these words on an occasional basis.

But last week he had a vocabulary explosion. At first, I wasn't sure if my claims of his talking could be substantiated. In addition to NOT hearing things that ARE being said, my whacked out ears have been known to HEAR things that AREN'T being said. But I am pleased to announce that I have received independent confirmations from Aaron, my friend Julie, our beloved babysitter Ninny, and both Cade and Drew that Josh is really talking!

In addition to more pedestrian baby terms such as "Uh oh", here's a sampling of Joshie's musings last week:

Both please and thank you, unprompted (finally, I have succeeded in raising a kid with manners!)
Cracker
I like it
Want it
Chugga-chugga (as in choo, choo)

And my personal favorite:

Big Chicken (in honor of Marietta's famous landmark, which we now pass every day on the way to Cade's school)

Also, upon witnessing uncouth behavior on the part of Cade this weekend, Josh registered his displeasure by shaking his head "no" and leaning towards Cade growling, scowling, and shaking his little raised fist.

Yes, I think he'll do just fine here.

Open Mic Night at the Foxes

2009-08-10T23:29:00.004-04:00

Cade starts kindergarten on Wednesday, so I've been using the bedtime/tuck-in time these past few weeks as an opportunity to really talk up kindergarten. Cade likes to ask lots of questions about what he will do there, how the day will go, who will be there, etc., etc.

Apparently, tonight Drew finally had it with the kindergarten talk. He informed us that we would no longer be discussing kindergarten and tonight's topic would be "Dinosaurs". To that end, he submitted the following questions:

Why is a Stegosaurus so small compared to the other dinosaurs?
Why is an Allosaurus so big?
Why does a Brontosaurus have such a long neck but such a small head?
Do plant eaters have teeth?
Why do Troodons live on the other side of the sea from the other dinosaurs?

He also surmised that a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth is about the size of a banana, in case you were wondering.

Take THAT, kindergarten!

Enough Baby Talk Already, Kiddo!

2009-08-03T14:59:00.002-04:00

I've talked before about Cade's periodic insistence that our family is not complete. Today at the pool, he suddenly busted out with, "I really think we need a sister, don't you?"

Ummm....no, sweetie, actually I don't.

Lately, I've been feeling more and more comfortable with that "done" feeling - like all of the Foxes are here. For his part, Aaron informed me that he has publicly announced that any future Fox babies would be both unplanned and available to the highest bidder. In case you missed his press conference, consider yourself informed by virtue of this post.

While I'm pretty sure that Cade's recent fascination with babies and siblings is age-appropriate, I find it slightly bizarre in his case since he has basically done nothing but get siblings since the day he was born. You'd think he would be sick to death of new babies, not hungry for more!

Hopefully he's not one of those Damien/Bad Seed kids that can make things happen with his mind. Or if he is, hopefully he will just settle for starting fires or something. Otherwise, bidders get your paddles ready!

And He's Off!

2009-08-02T21:54:00.002-04:00

I started a post three weeks ago to commemorate the fact that Joshie FINALLY decided to get up off his rear and start crawling, but I never finished it or posted it. Such is life for a third child's milestones.

Now that post is sadly outdated because as of this weekend, he has mastered stairs. The "up" part he got pretty quickly after just one assisted trip up the stairs. It only took one almost-fall for him to realize that he needed to turn around to do the "down" part, but he had a hard time figuring out how to get turned around to come down backwards. Two straight days of practice and 100 supervised assists in the launch down the stairs and he's got it!

Just in the nick of time, too, because before he figured out how to get down, he figured out how to scale the baby gate. In their frequent trips up and down the stairs, the Bigs often knocked the gate over to about a 70 degree angle instead of it's fully upright position. Josh could handle getting over that no big deal, but on more than one occasion we found him halfway over the fully upright baby gate, clinging for dear life like a little monkey scaling a tree.

The caboose has officially mastered stairs and the baby gates are on their way out the door - hallelujah!

Reliving My Childhood

2009-07-20T20:09:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was coloring/drawing with the boys when Drew shoved a blank piece of paper at me and instructed me to "write my childhood". Huh?

"What does that mean?", I asked him.

"You know, your childhood. Write it. Here's mine." (shows me a rather large piece of paper filled with his signature rows and row and rows of neatly scrawled letters and numbers, frankly a little reminiscent of "A Beautiful Mind")

"Look! Here's Daddy's - I already wrote it! His goes "A-M-A-N.", Drew announced.

"Uh, ok. Umm. Mommy's not sure what you mean by 'writing my childhood'. Cade? What does that mean? Did you write your childhood?", I asked Cade. To which he responded,

"No. I can't remember mine."

Joshie's First Word!

2009-07-16T22:30:00.005-04:00

Joshie's been babbling non-stop in an effort to make his voice be heard among the chaos for months. He and I have long conversations where he knows exactly what he's talking about, but I'm totally in the dark. He also frequently shouts and gestures and issues non-sensical edicts to his brothers.

I've been trying to encourage his verbal skills by providing some coaching and teaching him to "Say Mama!", but the little bugger just grins at me and says, "DADA!" Since he's never actually used this word in connection with Aaron, I've decided it doesn't count as his first word and it's just his super special way of saying, "Mama" to keep me entertained.

But today he decided to start speaking our language!

In case you were wondering, his first word was "bye", and not "shut up, you jackasses", as I predicted it would be.

Cade's Family Planning

2009-07-14T23:00:00.003-04:00

Fairly certain (completely certain, from Aaron's perspective) that our family is complete, we have been on a baby gear purging rampage this week. We've made everal trips to Goodwill and bid adieu to the high chair, Jumperoo, and a big bag of maternity clothes. The Exersaucer is waiting its turn for dropoff tomorrow, and Cade noticed it in the van this morning.

Cade: Mommy, what's the Exersaucer doing in here?

Me: Well, Cade, Joshie is done with it so we're going to take it some place where other children can use it.

Cade: Why don't you just put it back in the closet?

Me: Well, because we're not having any more babies in our family so we don't need it.

Cade: Why?

Me: Well, because Mommy and Daddy feel so lucky and blessed to have our three, beautiful healthy boys. We think our family is just the right size and we don't need any more babies.

Cade (outraged): MOMMY! How can you even wish that! Every day is a chance for a new baby!

Me (taken aback by his reaction and actually alarmed at the legitimacy of his claims): Uh, well Cade, um, we're out of room for new babies in our house. We can't just keep having more babies - we don't have anywhere for them to sleep.

Cade: Well, Joshie can move onto the air mattress and the new baby can sleep in his crib.

Me (laughing): Oh, really? And where would the new baby after that sleep?

Cade: There won't be any more new babies after that. There's only one more.

Eerily, this conversation reminded me of when Aaron and I were in college and he gave me a trip to the psychic one year for my birthday. I think that was the year after he gave me a WonderBra - he's an awesome gift giver like that.

Anyway, the psychic assured us that we would get married and we would both live long, happy lives, with one point of concern - I would have 2 children and he would have 4. I've spent all these years wondering where the hell those other two kids are that he fathered before he met me. But now that I've got 3 kids, I'm wondering if her vision was a little cloudy...

God help us all.

Cade's Mini-Me

2009-07-11T20:09:00.007-04:00

As the youngest (and up until now, least vocal) child, Joshie doesn't seem to get as much blog billing as the other boys. But I have a feeling that is seriously about to change.

Physically, Josh has been Cade's mini-me from very early on. Early baby photos are pretty much indistinguishable and it looks like it's gonna stay that way.

Interestingly enough, it's starting to look like they're going to have very similar personalities as well, save for the fact that Josh is a much more mellow kid than Cade ever was. But now that Josh is officially on the move (he started crawling about a month ago)and able to express preferences by crawling away from things or slapping them out of your hand, we're experiencing a little bit of dejavu. For example:

-Josh has no use for baby toys. Zilch. He is not fooled by the authentic-looking Parents toys key chain and he will let you know (loudly, with fists clenched, Cade-style) that he prefers the real ones. Blocks? No, thank you. Shape sorter? Are you kidding me? Please pass the markers (NOT crayons!) and the Hot Wheels.

-He is single minded in his focus. If he is trying to crawl across the yard and into the street than he will do it, by God, and no amount throwing toys in his path or redirecting him is going to distract him from his goal. The only thing that will stop him is when you carry him away (howling, fists clenched) inside.

-He has a strong preference for electronics and moving parts. His latest fascination is bike wheels. We got sick of peeling him off his brother's bikes for fear he would fall during outside play time, so when not in use, we tipped them on their sides. This is OK with him - he is content to spend countless minutes spinning the bike wheel first in one direction, then the other, mesmerized by the motion. If no bike wheels are available, he will settle for a cellphone, a calculator, a cordless phone, a TV remote, or some equally age-inappropriate contraption.

-He has no fear. If we're at the pool, he wants to be "jumping" off the side or splashed, preferably in the face. Crawling across the driveway? C'mon - make sure there's some acorns for him to crawl over and scrape his knees on - where's the challenge in concrete? Sitting on the sofa is for pansies. He prefers to scale it, crawl right off the edge, and dangle by a toe from the coffee table.

Yep, the two are so much alike that we often find ourselves wondering how we ended up with the genetic anomaly that is Drew. I once jokingly suggested to Aaron that it would be fun to keep having kids as a little statistical experiment - just to see all the variations of children we could produce.

Yeah, he didn't think that was funny either.

Proud To Be An American

2009-07-09T10:17:00.002-04:00

The star of today's story is Drew. In honor of the 4th of July holiday, a realtor in our neighborhood stuck little plastic American flags at the base of all of our mailboxes. Once the holiday was over, the kids quickly seized ownership of the flag.

This morning we found Drew marching through the living room, waving the flag and singing at the top of his lugs, "I'm an American, I'm an American, through Christ Our Lord!"

I'm not sure who would be more proud - The Pope or The President.

I Smell a Rat

2009-07-06T21:59:00.003-04:00

Aaron (upon arriving home from work): Hey, guys! How was your day today? How was camp?

Cade: We were late to camp because Mommy didn't drive fast enough to get us there.

Drew: Yeah. And she ran a red light on the way to the dentist. It was an accident, but still...

Aaron: Oh, really? Wow. Well, what did you do at camp? How did it go at the dentist?

The boys' response was to run off, laughing hysterically and refusing to comment.

For the record, they were NOT late to camp.

Isn't It Funny...

2009-07-06T20:50:00.005-04:00

how life can change in an instant?

It's been a challenging couple of past years for the Fox family. For the record, I do not recommend back-to-back babies with business school sandwiched in between and a third baby tacked on the end. And I have a giant dent in my living room wall (where I literally "threw the book" at Aaron) to prove it.

But lately, since Joshie arrived safe and sound and Aaron graduated and returned to the land of steady paychecks, things have been rocking along pretty good for us. So good that I often found myself saying a little prayer of thanks and wondering how long "too good" could last.

Last week, we had a wrench thrown into the works. I got a call from my doctor, who has been monitoring a cyst on my ovary since I was pregnant with Josh. It turns out that the cyst did not get the memo that it is supposed to dissolve on it's own and is in fact, getting larger, and has a "hard mass" to it. Which caused my doctor to mention that there is a teeny tiny chance it could be cancerous and has to be surgically removed ASAP.

First of all, I really feel that there should be some mathematical qualification of how "teeny tiny" a chance of cancer has to be before a doctor can just leave the word "cancer" out of an explanation at all. Because it really does not help a person feel better about the surgical procedure (however minor) that they have to undergo ASAP to think that instead of restored health, cancer may be waiting to greet them on the other end of the surgery.

It took both Aaron and me a good 24 hours to get past the shock of the surgery part of the phone call, because it was the first time in the course of a year's worth of monitoring the cyst that the word "surgery" had every been used. I stupidly assumed that it would either dissolve on it's own, as cysts are wont to do, or we would just monitor it from now until the end of time. That'll teach me not to be more proactive in monitoring my own health from now on.

Of course, surgery sucks because it involves anesthesia and a recovery process, and the potential of the entire ovary having to be removed. But ever the Pollyanna, after a day or so of wallowing, I decided to look on the bright side. After all...

-I will get to spend at least half a day or more sleeping on the day of the surgery, which is quite possibly the most sleep I have gotten in 5 years.

-I will be forbidden to lift my children (this part I will miss) or perform menial household tasks (this part I will not miss) for a week following the surgery.

-Even if they have to take one of my ovaries, it will be OK because perhaps it will slow my gush of childbearing to a slow trickle.

-My doctor has caught the (remotely possibly cancerous) cyst very early. Given that I have been pretty much been continuously pregnant for the past five years, I have enough pictures of my uterus and its various inhabitants to stage a traveling art exhibit. The little gremlin in question surfaced somewhere during Joshie's pregnancy, so we've been monitoring it since it appeared.

-Most importantly, the person that has to be poked, prodded, and cut is me and not one of my children. Although Aaron was quick to point out that it would be highly unlikely for one of our children to have an ovarian cyst, but you get the point.

All that to say, I'm nervous as hell about the surgery even if I am trying to focus on the positives. I know it will likely all be fine and even if it isn't, I know it will all work out according to God's plan for me.

I've never been more grateful for the flurry of small children in this house that keep me too busy and too tired to do much thinking.

Finally, Living With All These Boys Pays Off

2009-07-05T14:42:00.003-04:00

This morning as I was making breakfast:

Drew: MOMMY! There's a GIANT beetle crawling down the hall upstairs!!!

Me: OMG, a ROACH! Sickening!!! Quick - go tell Daddy!

Drew: It's OK, Mommy - I give Cade my shoe. He take care of it.

Me: Are you SURE? Go tell Daddy to make sure.

Judging from the extreme sounds of running and shoe (both large and small) thumping that ensued, that "beetle" probably definitely regretted wandering into our house. But I don't care. At least I didn't have to see it, kill it, or dispose of it. Thanks, guys!

Time Flies

2009-07-01T21:02:00.004-04:00

It's hard to believe that a month has passed since I last posted, and even harder to believe that there is anyone left reading this blog. But I always hear we still have a few loyal fans that are reading, so I try to get back periodically to post updates.

This past school year blazed by in a flurry of activities and I was really looking forward to the peace and quiet of a lazy summer. But alas, that peace and quiet has eluded us so far. I'm starting to realize that such is life with three small boys!

Cade kept us hopping the first month of summer with his activities, including swim team, vacation bible school, and a week of day camp at the new school where he will attend kindergarten next year! He absolutely adores swim team and really made great strides with his swimming over the course of the season, which was only about six weeks long. As a former competitive swimmer, my heart was bursting with pride to see him get so into it - it was definitely my "helicopter mom" moment. Now that he's coming along on his stroke technique, next summer I think we will focus on swimming the entire length of the pool without stopping to see if he is beating the swimmers in the other lanes. Cade also had a blast at his camp at his new school. While he initially complained that I signed him up for reading and writing camp instead of sports camp (yeah, I've become one of THOSE moms), he really got into it and even offered the teacher an unsolicited goodbye hug on the last day. Considering the fact that he "hugs" his own mother by extending an arm so that she may bestow a kiss upon it, he either REALLY enjoyed the camp or was hot for the teacher - I'm not sure which. But at any rate, it looks like he will be happy at his new school, which is a relief.

Drewbie is laying low activity-wise this summer, since he was worn out by soccer in the spring. But he was able to not only attend vacation bible school, but retain information there as well. He now writes "bible" any time he can connect pen (or crayon, as the case may be) to paper and wants to inform anyone who is listening that he knows how to spell and write "bible". He also informed me the other day that when he had a problem, he intended not to go around it, under it, or over it, but THROUGH it - with God's guidance. There was some water involved in the initial explanation of his new life philosophy, which leads me to believe he is channelling his inner Moses, so yay for VBS. When he's not being holier-than-thou, Drew is writing letters and asking to spell every word he can think of. He is so into writing, spelling, and sounding out letters that I predicted he would begin reading by the end of the summer. Last week, he surprised me by sounding out "Cara" and "Texas" - damned if the kid can't read and he hasn't even turned 4 yet. Cade has ability, but little interest, in reading, so I'm hoping a little healthy competition will spur them both into a lifelong love of reading.

Josh, you may be surprised to learn, is far from reading, but finally decided to get up off his butt and start crawling at almost 10 months. He started crawling one week, pulling up the next, and now this week is desperate to tackle stairs. The number one item on his agenda is keeping up with the Big Boys, so the minute they leave the room, he's racing after them. When he hits one of our many baby gates (2 sets of stairs in the house), he yowls longingly until someone takes pity on him and lifts him up to be reunited with his brothers. It's his misfortune that he will always be 3 years behind them, but it looks like that's not gonna stop him from trying to keep up.

A funny note on Josh is that he is Cade's mini-me. The physical resemblance is striking (to the extent that we are glad the baby pictures are date-stamped!), but personalities are emerging as very similar as well. Joshie is a tad bit more of a snuggler than Cade was, but is rapidly getting too busy to put up with much cuddling anymore. The one thing he already shares is Cade's complete disdain for baby toys and fascination with electronics. Like Cade when he was a baby, Josh has little use for traditional toys - preferring instead to pass the hours with cell phones, keychains, TV remotes, and (lately) poker chips.

It's weird how fast the information age changes us. When I started this blog it was an easy and simple way to keep everyone updated with the doings of the kids. Somewhere along the line, even this became too time consuming and now most updates on life with the Foxes are posted via Facebook (I'm trying to make the leap to Twitter - @babybuncher2) so find me there if you want to. I'll keep trekking along on the blog when I have a few minutes to hammer out the novella-length post required by my infrequent updates. 'Till next time....

Hungry, Anyone?

2009-06-01T22:59:00.005-04:00

One of the reasons I started this blog was to capture some of the milestones and nuances of the boys' childhoods that I am miserably failing at capturing in their (yet unfilled) baby books. To that end (and because I'm perpetually behind on the blog in addition to the baby books now), I thought I'd jot down a few notes on a recent observation.

The boys continue to amaze me by all of the ways all three of them are so completely different from each other - from birth. I think I've said it before, but anyone that questions the theories of nature vs. nurture has clearly never had multiple children.

The most recent way they amaze me is in their VASTLY different eating habits. While they all started out eating pretty much anything I put in front of them in the early days, they quickly developed their own culinary preferences.

Cade has Aaron's built-in junk food regulator and won't overdose on garbage food, but refuses to let a vegetable cross his lips. He will ingest some fruits, such as pineapple and cantaloupe, but fair warning - whatever fruit he likes today will likely be completely unacceptable tomorrow. Also, he shares my extreme distaste for mushy (read: ripe) fruits. When it comes to fruits and veggies, he will only consume apples and oranges on a consistent basis. Eats his sandwiches with peanut butter, no jelly and prefers milk to water. Loves macaroni and cheese and hot dogs.

Drew shares my sweet tooth and penchant for starches. He's a bottomless pit when it comes to junk food and pretty much starts lobbying for snacks about 5 minutes after breakfast has ended. If he can't score a junky snack food, a dinner roll or other bread of some sort will suffice. On the bright side, he'll eat most vegetables and a variety of fruits and will do so with a smile on his face. He's pretty much a vegetarian and has been since he was tiny. Eats his sandwiches with jelly, no peanut butter and prefers water to milk. Won't eat macaroni and cheese or hot dogs.

At only 10 months old, Josh also has food preferences even though he's only been on solids for a few months. Joshie is our carnivore. The kid simply cannot consume enough meat. His three favorite foods are meat of any sort, green peas, and black beans. He doesn't care much for cheese, yogurt, or other dairy items. he has had only had a few splashes of juice and isn't allowed to have cow's milk yet, but seems to prefer water to anything. Isn't allowed to have peanut butter or hot dogs yet and will throw macaroni and cheese on the floor.

Josh and Drew are neck and neck for the Biggest Eater award in our family - if there's one thing that's clear, it's that we will be hard pressed to afford to feed them both when they are teenagers. In the meantime, I'll just continue my fruitless quest to find the perfect meal that all three of them will actually eat.

Josh Gets the Short End of the Stick (or no stick at all, as the case may be)

2009-05-05T21:09:00.004-04:00

Joshie's favorite thing to do these days is "play" with the Bigs and lucky for me, they are already pretty good about babysitting. But never let it be said that they aren't already using their Big Brother status against poor Josh, who will undoubtedly spend the rest of his life trying to keep up with them.

Case in point:
Cade and Drew are way into Bristle Blocks, Lincoln Logs, Tinker Toys, and cars. One of their favorite games is to build these elaborate cities on their bedroom floor with houses, garages, and stores and drive all their cars around in them. Yesterday I parked Josh on the floor next to them so they could entertain him while I folded laundry. I told them to share with Joshie and give him some toys and they promised they would. When I came back into the room, they must have had 4.5 million assorted pieces of cars, blocks, sticks, and logs all over the floor. There were seriously enough toys in that room to share with every kid in town.

Josh, however, was contentedly sitting off to the side of the pile, without anything else in his reach, sucking on the letter "U" from our LeapFrog refrigerator magnet set. Simple needs, that one.

2009-04-23T23:13:00.002-04:00

Red letter day in the Fox household - Josh is finally starting to crawl (well, OK - scoot, and backwards and that) and Cade and Drew invented a new game called "Flurb".

How does one play "Flurb", you might ask? Well, it involves highjacking the new plunger that your mother bought to unstop the kitchen sink and suction cupping it all over the floor and screaming "Flurb!" every time the seal pops and you lift it off the floor. Once you have mastered these basic flurbing skills, you can move onto more advanced ones such as Flurb Racing (stick and unstick the plunger all the way across the room to a designated finish point so you can "win the race") or Flurb Reaching (suction the plunger to the refrigerator and pantry doors, jerking them open from afar by yanking on the plunger handle).

Never let it be said that my children aren't weird, er...I mean, creative.

Long Time, No Post

2009-04-20T22:11:00.003-04:00

It's hard to believe it's been three months since I last posted. Life has been so crazy that I'm barely holding up my end of Baby Bunching and Deep South Moms and this blog has been sorely neglected. But here's a classic story from today that illustrates one of the many reasons for my absence:

Cade and Drew have managed to befriend a 9 year old boy in the neighborhood named Thomas. Thomas (who may or may not have parents?) spends most afternoons riding his bike unsupervised down the middle of the streets in our neighborhood. He is Cade and Drew's hero because his bike doesn't have training wheels. Sometimes he plays with the boys at the park and for the past couple of days he has dropped by to invite Cade to "go riding" and Cade is desperate to do so.

Today he stopped by again and wanted them to go riding and I told him we were leaving for soccer practice in a bit so they couldn't come out, but if he wanted to, he could come back tomorrow and they could ride bikes in the back, provided they didn't leave our driveway.

Cade and Drew were so happy that they literally started doing a dance of joy, hugging each other and singing a song and acting like psychotic screaming freaks on our front porch. Josh, as usual, was screaming his fool head off in his high chair while all this was transpiring.

Thomas looks at them and then looks at me and says, "It must be hard to be you. I'd better come over tomorrow and help you."

Nothing like being a nine year old's charity case.

Dreaming Big

2009-01-29T18:42:00.002-05:00

Two posts in one day is a world record for me, but my memory is crap so I gotta post this stuff while it's fresh in my mind...

Overheard tonight at dinner:

Cade: I'm going to be a PILOT when I grow up! Brad's dad is a pilot, but he only flies for Delta.

Me: That's great, Cade! I think you'd be a great pilot. You're really good at electronics.

Cade: Yes, I'm very, very smart at electronics.

Me: Drew, what are you going to be when you grow up?

Drew: A robot!

Me: A robot! Wow! That's awesome! What do robots do?

Drew: (walks around like a robot)

Cade: Maybe you should be a rocket ship driver instead. Or a bus driver, maybe.

Joshie's First Tooth!

2009-01-29T10:35:00.003-05:00

Joshie got his first tooth yesterday! I have yet to be able to capture it on film, but I have a bunch of really bad outtakes. I'll spare you posting them and wait until I get a good one...

Cade is so proud of Josh's new tooth that he constantly has his finger in Josh's mouth so he can "feel Joshie's big boy tooth". Which is really pleasant for Josh, I'm sure. Cade wants to know if Josh can eat big boy food now, specifically Chick-Fil-A nuggets and also wonders when he is going to get around to standing up on his own.

Cade also noted that Josh is doing all kinds of new things this week, including "looking out the window of the van for the first time". Get ready, Josh. Now that you can see out the window of the car, you'll be enjoying a whole new world while you spend most of your days schlepping your big brothers around town.

Already? But I'm Not Ready!

2009-01-21T19:23:00.004-05:00

I've done a good bit of whining about Josh's constant fussing and his inability to sleep for long stretches. The good news is that he's finally starting to outgrow that. The bad news: he's also starting to outgrow me.

For the past few months, his "off switch" when it's time for sleep is to snuggle up on my shoulder with a pacifier and Lamby, his soft, plush lamb blanket. But within the past week or so, he has decided that he no longer needs my assistance going to sleep and, in fact, prefers to do it on his own. His Lamby alliances have switched to Paul, a little blanket with a frog head (like a smaller cousin of Lovey) that was given to him by his godmother. Paci has been replaced by his thumb. This is awesome now but will suck (haha)when I have three kids who are finger/thumb suckers in braces because you can throw away the paci, but you can't cut off the thumb.

More than any of the other boys (probably because I know he is my last), I have savored the quiet time that Josh and I have before each nap and bedtime when I shoo the other boys out of the room, crank up the white noise machine, and rock my sweet baby to sleep.

But of late, he'll only snuggle for a very few seconds, but then arch away and can't seem to get comfortable or settled enough to sleep. What he wants is for me to love on him for a very few minutes and then put him in the crib so he can settle himself to sleep.

Most moms (including me, up until a few days ago) would do anything for self-sufficient sleeper like this. So why I am so bummed? Because my big baby starts kindergarten in the fall, my middle baby is all set to play soccer this spring, and my small baby doesn't want to snuggle with me anymore. I'm not ready for this.

Poor Drewbie

2009-01-20T19:48:00.004-05:00

As a middle child, Drew frequently gets the shaft. Two examples from the past week:

Aaron took the boys to the park, where he and Cade proceeded to run ahead along a little trail. Drew, unable to keep up, literally dropped to the ground, curled up in a ball, and said sadly, "Oh...I'm a Lost Boy." He IS on a Peter Pan kick right now, but still...Aaron said it was pretty heartbreaking.

And the second example - Conversation overheard while getting ready for the day this morning:

Aaron: Hey guys, let's get ready! Cade, put your school clothes on - you're going to school. We need to hurry - Mommy has a meeting and she's taking Josh with her.

Drew: Where am I going?

Aaron: Uh...to the meeting with mommy, I guess.

Cade (to Drew, while pointing his finger in Drew's face and gritting his teeth): Yeah. And DON'T SAY A WORD while you're there.

Just so you don't feel too bad for him, he was actually getting dropped at a birthday party, not going to the meeting.

No Rest for the Weary

2009-01-19T19:51:00.001-05:00

Today is MLK Day. Historically, neither Aaron nor I have had this day off from work, so we were pretty pumped about the extra three-day weekend this year and looking forward to some relaxation. Fortunately, we have our kids to keep us on task.

Coming downstairs this morning to find Aaron flopped on the couch relaxing with a cup of coffee, Cade barked, "DAD! Stop laying down on the job!"

And the Rocking and Rolling Continues...

2009-01-13T23:42:00.001-05:00

Our first real family dinner conversation where everybody participated and was actually talking about the same topic and responding to the previous person's comments. See the synopsis on Atlanta Parent.

Rocking and Rolling

2009-01-13T17:01:00.002-05:00

I am on FIRE today and am so excited I just have to post and share my joy. Baby has finally gotten on a decent schedule where he takes two (long!) naps a day and is in bed by 6:30 for the night. It has opened up a whole new world for me - I feel like I'm starting to get back in the groove of things.

So why am I so happy today? Here's what I have to be thankful for:
-My cleaning lady came this morning and my house is clean from top to bottom.
-I'm working on an awesome work project that I love and had a great meeting with a colleague this morning about some exciting other new opportunities.
-After the work meeting, I had time to make three stops of errands on my list before I had to get the kids from school. Bonus points - they were all returns, which means I actually got crap OUT of my house instead of bringing more in!
-My kids had Stay-N-Play, which means they ate lunch at school and I didn't have to mess up my (clean!) kitchen.
-The two youngest took a nap, which means I got quality one-on-one time with Cade - yay!
-The baby slept and the boys entertained each other so I had time to make not only tonight's dinner, but tomorrow's as well (chili). This is a lifesaver because Cade has choir at 5 pm on Wednesday's and scraping together dinner after that is always a nightmare.
-My hubby came home early and children are still either sleeping or occupied, which means we might get to ACTUALLY HAVE A CONVERSATION!
-Since he is home early, dinner will be early, and I will have time to run to the gym.

I am so happy I could just cry. Life is good. And yes, you may address me as "SuperMom".

Drew's Mystery Ailment

2009-01-08T21:54:00.004-05:00

Yesterday Drew woke up from his nap and he couldn't walk. He was fine when he went to sleep and when he woke up, he stood up and fell over. Not really in a brain-failing-to-communicate with legs kind of way - it was more like a putting-pressure-on-the-leg-collapses-it kind of way. He proceeded to spend the rest of the day getting around by either crawling (on the stairs or carpet) or slithering like a snake (on the hardwoods). If it wasn't so pathetic, it would have been comical.

For his part, Cade was quick to take advantage of Drew's handicap. This next sentence is really long, but it exactly describes what happens, so stay with me here. Prancing around in his underwear after bath, Cade filched a quarter out of Drew's piggy bank and proceeded to dangle it in front of Drew while doing a dance and then shove it in the top of his butt crack/underwear waistband and race down the hallway laughing hysterically while Drew slithered behind him crying. There's nothing like a little brotherly love/stripper dance to finish off the day.

I searched the offending leg for broken bones, scratches, bruises and bites - there were none. I pressed him for an explanation and he claimed that it started hurting when a crab crawled up from the beach and bit him. Not helpful, given that we haven't been near a beach since May. He also claimed that the area in pain was his knee, despite the fact that he was crawling around on his hands and knees. We did a "faking it" test (read: bribed him with candy to walk) and he failed, leading us to assume that the injury was, in fact, legitimate. I gave him a dose of Motrin for what I assumed was inflammation of some sort and sent him off to bed, thinking he would wake up better.

Only he didn't. In fact, in the middle of the night, we found we heard a thud and found him half-asleep, crawling to the bathroom, moaning "Water! Water!". Hmm. Can half-asleep people fake injuries?

Off to the pediatrician's office for me in the morning! But not before a stop at the preschool to drop off Cade, where three different people informed me that either their children or others they knew also woke up one day unable to walk. Diagnoses ranged from MRSA to a bacterial hip infection that required a month in a wheelchair. Awesome.

At the doctor's office, we were treated to not only a visit with the pediatrician, but also xrays and blood work, plus Josh barfed all over me for good measure. The children enjoy ganging up on me like this. Three hours later, we still had a gimpy leg and no diagnosis. Our pediatrician agreed Drew was not faking it, but couldn't make a diagnosis and told us to wait it out through the weekend and come back on Monday if it wasn't better to discuss specialist referrals. This was awesome too, because it gave me the opportunity to wonder what kind of specialist referral he had in mind - ortho? neuro? oncology? Given a lack of definitive information, my imagination loves to run wild.

Back at home, the children were climbing the walls and it was a fairly warm, sunny day, so I packed Drew into the stroller/wheelchair, strapped the baby into the Baby Bjorn, and coaxed Cade into walking next door to the park. Drew limped around at first and then began (gimpily) chasing friends from the neighborhood around the park. By suppertime, he was a new man and pretty much recovered.

Normally, I would be mad that I missed bible study and wasted an entire morning that included signing a waiver that I wasn't pregnant (x rays) and conducting a physical restraint in the presence of needles (blood work) at the doctor's office. But on this day, I am so grateful that my son is apparently healthy again and I can avoid the dreaded specialist that I don't even care.

A small reminder that nothing should ever be taken for granted, especially not the good health of our children.

Cade Does Laundry

2009-01-04T22:38:00.004-05:00

Earlier today we came upstairs to hear Cade crying hysterically. Why? Well, he climbed into the laundry hamper. Unfortunately, Drew then proceeded to tip it over and run away. It landed with the opening flat against the nightstand, trapping Cade in the hamper. Stellar parents that we are, we started cracking up so bad when we saw him that neither one of us bothered to help him. The visual picture was so priceless that as he was screaming, I shouted to Aaron, "Wait! Let me take a picture first - this is totally blog-worthy!" And the story really is much, much funnier with the visual. But in the end it seemed as though we should free him sooner rather than later, so I missed the photo-op.

I'm hoping that this will teach him a lesson and prevent him from continuing his habit of climbing into empty giant Rubbermaid storage containers. On the inside covers of said containers, there is a picture of a child climbing into them with a giant "NO" circle across the child. This is to prevent suffocation. Other children might be deterred by this, but my children simply use it as a idea springboard for this and other equally ridiculous and dangerous activities.

On the bright side, at least the laundry hamper had air holes.

Josh Goes Psycho

2008-12-23T20:41:00.003-05:00

Josh is teething, which is not fun. But on the bright side, at least I know it this time. Believe it or not, I failed to recognize the signs of teething in both of the other boys until we were WEEKS, maybe even a month or so into the process. It is one of the low points of my parenting career that I found my (pregnant with Drew, very morning sick) self screaming at a fussy 9-month-old Cade, "What is WRONG with you!?!??!" Only to realize a few days later that what was wrong with him was that he had two teeth simmering under the surface of his gums. Oops.

I didn't do much better with Drew and questioned why was waking up 15 times a night for two weeks before I realized that (duh!), he also was teething. I will say that teething manifested itself in different ways in each of the boys, so it's not entirely my fault that I didn't recognize it the second time around. But still, I felt pretty bad about being so clueless, especially since because they were so close in age Cade had just finished teething about 5 minutes before Drew started.

It turns out that practice doesn't necessarily makes perfect when it comes to motherhood, but it does hone your maternal instincts (even if it also dulls your intellect somewhat). This time around, I recognized the signs of teething right away and put Josh on a nice steady dose of Motrin to ward off sleepless nights and incessant fussing. Which is a good thing, because it turns out that one of his unique teething side effects is split personalities.

At his last feeding tonight, he was fussing intermittently, alternately refusing to nurse and then subsequently devouring the breast. I figured he might need to burp, so I propped him up on my shoulder. He then proceeded to go all Hannibal Lecter on me, grunting and clawing at my face, while trying to nurse on my nose and cheeks. It was so comical that I had to laugh. Really hard. So hard, in fact, that I scared him and he started crying again. I finally got him calmed down enough to begin nursing again, and he immediately went from being fussy to being Chatty Cathy. He would nurse for a few minutes, then "talk" to the boob, telling it (apparently) baby jokes and then laughing raucously.

All righty then, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde. As long as you keep sleeping through the night, I don't care how crazy you are during the day.

Overheard

2008-12-16T13:37:00.003-05:00

at naptime today:

Me: Time for nap, guys - it's 1:00.

Cade (with his Thomas the Train backpack slung over his shoulder): Mom - I'm leaving for Baby Jesus's house - I'm going to Bethlehem.

Me: You can go to Bethlehem after nap.

Cade: I can't - the angels told me to be there at 1.

Hmm. Bummer. Looks like no naps today, but I guess having a prophet in the family could come in handy someday.

Just Another Day in the Life....

2008-12-15T13:21:00.005-05:00

Every once in awhile, the absurdity of my life really strikes me. Life today, for example.

Josh is teething and is a little fussy, so I've been wearing him the Baby Bjorn carrier pretty much all the time lately.

Drew is recovering from an ear infection so he is on antibiotics, which he HATES to take.

Cade's latest electronic obsession is disposable cameras. Every time he cajoles me into getting him one, he takes all 24 pictures in about 2.5 seconds and then refuses to get them developed because he doesn't want the lady at the drugstore to dismantle the body of the camera - he wants to keep it. So he just keeps taking fake pictures and watching the flash go off until inevitably, the battery dies. Then he places the dead camera in a giant Ziploc bag camera grave with the others that have gone before it. But recently he figured out that if you remove part of the cardboard covering, you can actually put a new battery in and bring the camera with all the film that is used up, but not developed, back to life!

Normally, none of these things would be related. Except for this morning when I found myself on my hands and knees, wearing Josh in the Bjron, pinning Drew to the floor to administer medication, and shouting, "Cade! Stop taking Mommy's Christmas gift batteries for your dead cameras!"

And I have to ask myself, once again, "Is this really my life?"

2008 Christmas Letter

2008-12-09T01:00:00.000-05:00

Note: In an effort to be pseudo-green this year, we moved our Christmas letter online. As a lover of both giving and receiving of Christmas cards, I can’t quite bring myself to bring the entire card online. But the letter is a start. Some of you may be asking, “What Christmas letter?” If you are an in-town friend that we see frequently, we have historically spared you from our annual synopsis of the mundane details of our daily life, mostly because you were there for most of them. But you’re in for a treat this year – you, too, Atlanta friends, can have a rare glimpse into life with the Foxes…

Dear Friends and Family,

Hard to believe it’s that time of year again already. Lots of big news to report this year!

For those of you that we don’t get to talk to that often, we really fooled you by having another baby in between last year’s letter and this year’s. Joshua Quinn Fox joined us on July 24, 2008 and weighed in at 7 lbs, 15 oz and 20.5 inches long. A big boy, Josh boasted these stats despite the fact that he was 2 weeks and 1 day early. Our babies keep getting bigger and arriving earlier, so for those of you who are wondering when we are ever going to stop reproducing, we’re pretty sure this is the final chapter – lest we give birth to a 32-week first grader next time. Poor Joshie struggles with reflux (something neither of our two other kids had – what a pain it is!), so he evenly and skillfully divides his time between barfing up the entire contents of his stomach and cowering in fear from the unique brand of “loving” offered by his older brothers. Frequently, Josh can be found gazing at his brothers in disbelief, likely wondering how he had the rotten luck to end up in a family of such monkeys. At 5 months old, Josh has already mastered critical infant skills such as holding his head up, thumb sucking, rolling from front to back, and griping his brothers out when they try to take his toys.

On to Drew, who graduated to Middle Child status this year. We’ve blogged in the past about the perks of this position, but Drew seems to be taking it all in stride. Drew is our easygoing boy – he has simple needs and few wants. Drew’s primary interest is his cars, preferably of the Disney Pixar variety, which he calls “smiley cars” or “cars with eyes”. His second love is monster trucks, but in a pinch he will settle for an ordinary Hotwheel. Drew’s favorite activities include Playing Cars with Cade at Home, Playing Cars with Garrett at School, and Playing Cars with Whomever Happens to be on the Playground Next Door. Notice a theme? When he is not Playing Cars, he is working puzzles. He’s apparently some kind of freak puzzle genius (he’s pretty much up to 100 piece jigsaw puzzles), which is a bizarre talent that will certainly come in handy someday if his career in Working with Cars doesn’t pan out. Other big news in Drew's life includes the fact that it looks like he is a Lefty like his dad.

Believe it or not, our big boy will turn FIVE in February. It doesn't even seem possible, but he has grown up so much in the past year that it's definitely clear he's not a baby anymore. Cade has a long and deep-rooted love of electronics, and this interest continues to develop. He has graduated from Dustbusters, vacuums and CD players and moved on to oscillating fans and alarm clocks (he has 4, including the pink Hello Kitty one he asked Santa for last year) and computers. Cade never tires of disassembling electronics (hasn't quite gotten the reassembling part yet) or tackling "home improvement" projects with his dad, such as changing lightbulbs (the extent of Aaron's home improvement abilities). He also enjoys cooking with mom. Cade starts kindergarten in the fall and we are currently in the process of applying to private schools since our local public school "Leaves Every Child Behind", as Aaron says. We're hopeful that Cade will be accepted into a school that appreciates his pre-electrical engineering skills.

Aaron graduated from his MBA program in May (cue choir of angels). He accepted a job with Bain & Co. and is happily ensconced in the consulting world. His job didn't start until October, so we had LOTS of time over the summer to enjoy each other's company and bond with the new baby. For his part, this made Aaron doubly grateful to have an office to escape to come fall.

Cara left her job in March and now fills her "extra" hours by taking care of the baby, volunteering at the boys' school, and continuing her volunteer work with the Junior League of Atlanta. She also blogs for Baby Bunching, Atlanta Parent, and Deep South Moms. Lately, she has had to spend more time being a mom than writing about being one, so traffic is a little slow, but she hopes to get back into more frequent writing mode after the first of the year.

Noticeably absent in this update are the Fox cats. We lost our beloved Cuckoo a few years ago and last December, Jocko returned to Indiana to live with his original owner, Cara's cousin. We miss him, but know that he is much happier in her home than he was hiding out from our children in our attic.

All in all, 2008 was much kinder to the Fox Family than it is shaping up to be to the rest of the world. This year we are particularly grateful for the many blessings in our life, and we pray that God continues to bless us and you with health and happiness in 2009.

Love, The Foxes

Aaron, Cara, Cade, Drew, and Josh

PS Now that we're online, we can truly bore you to tears. Click here for a photo slideshow of the year's highlights. Warning - these are raw, uncut images of our life because, really, who has time to edit photos with three children under the age of five?.

A Fashion Mind of His Own

2008-12-08T10:14:00.000-05:00

Cade has always been a super-snazzy dresser. God forbid a collared shirt with buttons or a pair of dress pants should come within 10 feet of him. Like his father, he is most at home in something like a SouthPark t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants with the Lucky Charms leprechaun on them.

Today, as I slipped a Gap sweatshirt on over his head, he read the word and said, "MOM! Stop putting these Gap shirts on me! They're so Gappy!"

Do they sell shirts that say "Goodwill" across the front?

Josh in Action

2008-12-04T21:18:00.002-05:00

Life has been pretty hectic lately. Fabulous, but hectic. It appears that I had forgotten how much work is entailed in having a baby in the house. It also turns out that having three children is twice as difficult as having two, not merely the 1.5 times as difficult I was expecting. But we're finally starting to get settled into thing, for real this time (I think I said that a few months ago). Josh is settling into a decent sleep schedule instead of screaming intermittently all day and then pretty much from 5 to 11 pm continuously. Mercifully, we've discovered his "off" switch - snuggling him up against a soft, fluffy blanket with a lamb head that Aaron's mom sent for Cade. Neither of the other boys really took to "Lamby" (Cade was already smitten with "Lovey" - I'm not sure what it is with my kids and blankets that have animal heads), but give Josh the lamb and a pacifier and he's good. Even better, he's finally reached the stage where when the pacifier falls out, he can find his thumb. Baby able to suck thumb=more uninterrupted sleep for mom and dad.

Our video camera conked out on us about a month ago and we are using an old-school one that doesn't allow us to get videos online. But I took this using my new Crackberry (LOVE IT!) and thought I would make my first attempt at getting video on the blog so everyone can see how big Joshie is getting! Apologies in advance that it is a little grainy and also a little too long for anyone except the grandparents to see through to the end. In case you're wondering, he DOES roll over before it finishes. Now for the show - fingers crossed that when you click on it, it actually plays...

Moby Wrap Giveaway on Baby Bunching!

2008-11-20T09:30:00.001-05:00

Seems like I have lots of friends with new babies and you guys gotta get one of these - the Moby Wrap. We're giving one away over at Baby Bunching - drop by and comment before Sunday 11/23 to enter to win one!

Cara's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

2008-11-12T12:59:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. It actually started the night before when I had to rush Josh to urgent care for a bacterial skin infection. That's when you know a bad day is going to be a doozy - it starts before the sun even comes up.

It started off okay with yet another school tour for Cade while we try to figure out where in the hell is is going to go to kindergarten since our assigned public school "Leaves Every Child Behind", as Aaron puts it. Can I just say I am OVER the Atlanta private school application process.

Leaving the school tour and processing my findings with a friend while driving, I almost had a head-on collision with a landscaping truck. Totally my fault, but still, did the little man with the swiveling stop sign have to be SO nasty about it?

Still processing the school tour as I arrive in the parking lot of my doctor's office (my THIRD visit to said office in 24 hours due to various children's medical issues), I somehow lost part of my hearing aid in the parking lot. Not good. Deaf as a post without the hearing aid. Day quickly takes a nosedive.

Enter doctor's office and endure gynecological prodding. Nope - day definitely not improving. On top of that, learn that I have gained SIX POUNDS since my last doctor's visit just two months ago. God definitely kicking me while I am down today.

Leave doctor's office. So distraught over lost hearing aid and weight gain that I decide to hell with it, with a butt this big, what's another 2 pounds. Drive through and get a Chick-Fil-A milkshake for lunch.

Arrive at school to pick up oldest child. Don't want him to see the milkshake because I haven't had a drink to myself in 4 years and don't feel like sharing, so I put it in the cupholder in the driver's side door.

Upon arriving home, pick up the milkshake only to have the top fall off. Milkshake is running down my pant leg and my entire shoe is filled with milkshake. Cade notices milkshake and says, "What's that, Mommy?" Damn. On the bright side, I've spilled one pound of my two pound lunch.

Walk in the door where baby has been fussing for babysitter all morning. Feed baby and he promptly pukes AND poops all over me.

Strip down and throw pukey/poopy clothes in washing machine. Decide that since babysitter is here and all three children are occupied, a hot bath is just the ticket for turning this day around.

Nope. Not so much. Used all the hot water to start the pukey/poopy laundry. Take quick ice bath and throw on fresh clothes.

Moving on to the next part of this glorious day - taking the two older boys to the dentist. What was I thinking to schedule the gynecologist and the dentist on the same day? Fortunately, dentist appointment goes swimmingly and in a shocking turn of events, boys are on their best behavior and have no cavities. Only problem - the dentist's office reeks of vomit.

Oh wait - that's my hair, courtesy of Baby Josh.

Fast forward several hours - attend birthday party for girlfriends with November birthdays. Knock back 2 glasses of wine and three beers. With each drink, my bowling skills get progressively more laser focused and I end up winning the pot. An hour before it's over, this day is FINALLY starting to turn around....

I'm It!

2008-11-12T11:39:00.001-05:00

Crap! I was tagged by Del Pico De Gallo. Several weeks ago now. Not that I don't appreciate the link love (cuz I do, Elizabeth - thank you!!!), but I had a hard time finding time to string two coherent thoughts together and write something to pass the love on. Wiggy Baby's constant fussiness has pretty much zapped both my brain and my sense of humor lately (although he IS so precious I could just eat him up), but I'll give it a shot since Del Pico De Gallo is a dedicated Baby Bunching reader and I owe it to her, really.

To play tag, I've got to mention six things that haven't been revealed on this blog and then tag six other bloggers. So here goes...

This is probably the first time I've ever been virtually tagged for something that I've actually bothered to tag someone else. Seriously, if you send me those lame Getting to Know You/Send a Recipe/Sign Your Name to the Petition/Forward to 10 Friends and Microsoft Will Donate $10/Mother Theresa Prayer Chain/etc./etc. I do not ever forward them. It's not because I don't love you (or want to pray for you, or donate to your cause, or support your political efforts), I just don't have time to read them, more less forward them. So, thanks, Del Pico De Gallo, for helping me lose my tagging virginity!
I have a serious addiction to volunteering. If you are a non-profit, a school, or a city task force of some sort and you ask me to do something, I will almost always say yes. I will almost certainly say yes if it involves a leadership position that allows me to A) organize social events or B) boss people around.
I have really bad life management skills. Partially due to item #2 in this post, partially due to the fact that I am always running late because I manage my time poorly, and partially due to genetics (my mom shares many of my same foibles listed below). When I send you a birthday card or present, it will always be late. I will always say I am going to call you, and then actually DO so 2 weeks later. My to-do list is never done and half the time it isn't even organized. I always have ten closets that need to be cleaned out and 15 bags of stuff that I have already cleaned out but just haven't gotten to Goodwill yet. If anything involves the US Post Office, it will take me two weeks longer than it would have otherwise. I have the best of intentions, just can't ever seem to get it all to come together at once...
I check my email obsessively, but get so much that I can't even respond to it. I always think I am going to come back to it, but once it drops off "today's emails", it gets lost and I won't.
I think roaches are absolutely sickening. When I spot one I will shriek hysterically like a girl and stand on a chair until my husband comes and kills it and takes it away. But I am okay with other bugs - spiders, ants, etc.
I love having all boys. In fact, I prefer it. People always assume I want a girl, but there is only room for one princess in this house and it is me. I am definitely a Girly Girl, but I am secretly grateful not to have to deal with Little Girly Girl things like hair barrettes, tights, missing Barbie accessories, excessive crying over minor bodily injuries, and catty cliquey fights (which yes, start in preschool!).

Now I will tag six people that will either love me for linking them or hate me for adding to their to-do list. A couple of them also have new babies, so probably the latter. Monkey Business, Mom Without a Map, Mommy Needs a Time Out, Stimeyland, A Bushel and a Peck, and Profoundly Seth.

Am I A White Trash Mom?

2008-11-11T20:19:00.000-05:00

Today I'm participating in a SV Moms/Deep South Moms book club for the book The White Trash Mom Handbook. Basically, author and fellow Deep South Mom blogger Michelle Lamar uses this term to denote not socio-economic status or class, but a frame of mind and philosophy of motherhood. Meaning, if you're not a Perfect Mom, you're a White Trash Mom. Lamar offers strategies for coming to terms with your inner White Trash, including how to fake it for the school bake sale, getting the most "bang for your buck" when choosing school volunteering activities, a housecleaning guide for WTM's, and tips for dealing with "The Muffia" (i.e. the poser moms that want you to think they are perfect moms, only they aren't because there is no such thing).

But the topic that resonated the most with me is the chapter on "Your Children Will Be In Therapy...Get Used To It", specifically the section dealing with Momisms - things we say to our kids. This chapter recalls many old favorites that we heard from our own mothers, including the bits about:

Cut it out right now or you will have to clean up your own blood when you break your head open
No one is touching ANYONE in this house EVER again
If you know what's good for you, you won't.....
I am on my last nerve!
You ruined this nice_______for your sister. I hope you're happy.
And the infamous If I Have To Stop This Car One More Time....

This waltz down memory lane caused me to add a few to the list that I have found myself shouting to my kids in recent years...

Get down here right now before I get to the count of three!
Get your thumb out of your mouth.
You're old enough to put your own shoes on.
Hurry up! We're late!
No, you may not have (fill in the blank junk food). You need to make healthy choices about the foods you put in your body.
I AM ON THE PHONE! Go upstairs and I will call you when I am done!
And the always infuriating (to kids) - "Because I am the mom and I said so!"

Here are a few uttered in recent months that I never in my wildest dreams imagined I would find myself saying in this lifetime:

Do NOT touch your brother's penis - that is private to him!
Don't you talk to me about Dustbusters ONE MORE TIME until you put your peepee in the potty! (Nope, not a typo - my oldest's potty training incentive was a Dustbuster, no joke).
Butt is a potty word. If you want to say butt, you need to go in the bathroom. (Child retreats to bathroom, where I can hear him jumping up and down and saying, "butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt" repeatedly".)
Listen, if your brother bit you and you bit him, then you're even Steven. Both of you, stop crying!
If you sit still until we're done with Mommy's appointment, I will let you take a picture with my cell phone.
If you wake up your brother, I will beat you!

Yep, I think it's safe to say that I'm in touch with my inner White Trash Mom. Anybody else with me on this?

"Is this really my life?"

2008-11-10T10:18:00.003-05:00

If I had a nickel for every time I asked myself the question in the title of this post, I would be a rich, rich woman.

The latest antic to cause me to ask this question is a story witnessed by Aaron:

Yesterday he was watching all three boys while I was at a school open house for Cade for next year. He left all three downstairs (mistake number one) and ran upstairs briefly to get something. When he left, the boys were watching TV and the baby was lying on his baby gym.

When he came back, the baby was lying on the baby gym (now collapsed) with his one-piece outfit ripped open (it buttoned down the front) and Cade was hooked up to my breast pump.

Seriously, guys? Not even the breast pump is sacred!??!?

A Blessing and Curse

2008-11-07T10:47:00.004-05:00

Busy week in the Fox household - we've been struck with a double round of the flu AND pinkeye! We are so contagious that I'm considering erecting one of those giant termite fumigation tents around our house. I'm now on lockdown with all three children for the second straight day in a row and yesterday was especially awesome because Aaron worked until 11 pm!

The reason I haven't jumped off the roof yet is because Baby Josh appears to be settling into a sleep schedule. Who knew that if you stayed home, followed your baby's natural sleep cycles, and put him in his own bed, he would sleep!?

Cross your fingers for me that it sticks.

Not much posting going on here lately, but you can read about Drew's antics on Deep South Moms today.

Middle Child Syndrome Starts Here

2008-11-04T13:23:00.002-05:00

Lest you think I am the worst mom on the planet, I'd like to preface this by saying that life is pretty crazy right now. Josh is (still) screaming 23 hours a day, although he's doing better since we had his reflux medication adjusted (again) last week. This past week was Halloween and then on Sunday, we had Josh baptized. It was a beautiful day and we were so fortunate to have many out of town family members and friends join us for the weekend. But all of that to say, I've had a hard time staying on top of things lately. As evidenced by the following story:

Last night, Aaron came down from giving the big boys a bath and accused Drew of smelling like a homeless person. Appalled, I pressed him for further details and he absolutely INSISTED that Drew smelled like BO and urine when he got him undressed to dump him in the tub. Aaron asked me when the last time was that Drew had a bath and we started reconstructing the events of the past week. Come to find out Drew did, in fact, smell like a homeless person because for one reason or another, he had not had a bath in OVER A WEEK. Yep, that's right. The other boys had been bathed multiple times throughout the week, but not Drew. Poor kid. Since he is pretty easygoing and sandwiched in the middle, I have a feeling this will be the first of many, "Has anyone fed/bathed/played with/even SEEN Drew?" stories.

Boob Men

2008-10-26T09:41:00.004-04:00

Still not finding a lot of time to post these days - baby is keeping us hopping. But I couldn't resist jumping on real quick to share this gem of a story...

We had a Halloween party this past Friday night and as of Friday morning, there were still components of costumes that needed to be purchased. Lucky for me, the big boys are home from school on Fridays so I got to take all three boys to Wal-Mart!!! In the rain!!! I've posted before about how much FUN it is to run errands in the rain. And yep - it's still this fun! But anyway...

The trip to Wal-Mart was actually going pretty well. The big boys were on their best behavior until we walked past the socks and underwear department, specifically, past the bras.

"BOOBS!", Cade shouted - laughing and pointing. This prompted Drew to crack up and scream, "HA! Boobs!!!" and laugh and point as well. Then, being the clever AND musically inclined children that they are, they proceeded to make up a song entirely composed of the word "boobs" and sing it at the top of their lungs while I quickly tried to steer us away from the source of their inspiration. A fellow shopper noticed me shushing them and rushing away, head down, and commented, "Wow. Three boys! Lucky you!"

Lucky me, indeed.

Note: Lest you think that it is age inappropriate that my three- and four-year old boys know about boobs, I just want to assure you that their boob education comes from the fact that I nurse their brother, not that I let them watch porn.

Fast Food Smackdown: Burger King vs. Chic-Fil-A

2008-10-10T23:33:00.003-04:00

Living in Atlanta, we are huge supporters of the hometown company and frequent Chic-Fil-A a least once per week. Today I decided to take the boys to Burger King instead because I had a coupon and it was right next door to the place where I got their hair cut. Big mistake (Burger King, not haircuts).

Here's what happened the last time I went to Burger King:

Idiot at Counter: What can I get you?

Me: A whopper junior value meal and two kids meals with chicken nuggets.

Idiot: Do you want fries with the kids meals?

Me: No - apple slices, please (apple slices are advertised on sign above idiot's head as an alternative to fries)

Idiot: No apple slices.

Me: Well, what other sides are there besides fries?

Idiot: Only fries.

Me: I guess I will have the fries then. Thanks for asking me what I wanted.

We were not off to a much better start today. Here's what happened:

Idiot at Counter (not the same idiot, a different one): What can I get you?

Me: A whopper junior value meal and two kids meals with chicken nuggets and chocolate milks. And I have this coupon for a free kids meal (hand coupon to idiot).

Idiot: Free kids meal must have soda, not chocolate milk.

Me: Why?

Idiot: Because it shows soda on the picture in the coupon.

Me: Does it normally cost extra to have milk instead of soda in the kids meal?

Idiot: No. But the coupon says soda.

Me: My kids aren't allowed to have soda.

Idiot. Ok. (puts two milks on tray)

Boy. Glad we cleared that up.

Anyway, this was my second meal at Burger King in probably five years and I remembered why I am so loyal to Chic-Fil-A. A quick comparison:

Burger King: Rude idiots at counter who ask me stupid questions and screw up my order every time.

Chic-Fil-A: Polite, intelligent people at counter who never ask me stupid questions and always get my order right.

Burger King: Idiot at Counter forgets to give me my drink cup.

Chic-Fil-A: Store manager carries my food to my table since I clearly have my hands full with three small children. Bus boy picks up my trash when I am done and stops by several times to see if we need drink refills.

Burger King: Nasty food that tastes like plastic with chargrilled drops on it.

Chic-Fil-A: Yummy food that tastes fresh.

Burger King: Filthy playground that hasn't been cleaned since the place opened and smells like someone vomited in one of the slides.

Chic-Fil-A: Clean playground with hand sanitizer conveniently located at the exit.

Burger King: Stupid kids meal toys that don't have a point. Today it was a little i-dog (or i-penguin or i-whatever) that you can dress up in a Halloween costume made of stickers. Uh. Ok.

Chic-Fil-A: Educational books and games in the kids meals that my kids actually play with.

Burger King: Restaurant so dirty I would sooner have my kids pee in the parking lot than go into the bathroom at the restaurant.

Chic-Fil-A: Restroom so clean it is one of the few public restrooms I will actually take my children into.

Verdict: Chic-Fil-A wins hands down. I threw away the rest of my Burger King coupons before we even left the restaurant. It is not worth saving $2.99 to suffer through the Burger King experience.

A Day in the Life

2008-10-08T11:13:00.001-04:00

Author's note: I have been horribly neglecting this blog lately, mainly due to two reasons: lack of time and lack of ability to string two coherent words together. Turns out that a new baby, while providing tons of material, also causes a little bit of writer's block. To see why you haven't heard much from me lately, check out the following post, which outlines a typical morning lately. No joke and no exaggeration. Because really, who could make this stuff up?

Today started off not good. And it is getting, well, not gooder. A brief synopsis:

Jolt awake at 6:47 am to sound of baby screaming. He has graciously allowed me 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep and he is hungry. There is no ramp-up or warning with this baby - just instant notification of demands. Feed baby, get him back to sleep, and return him to his crib. Sneak upstairs to check email before big boys wake up. Enjoy 10 minutes of blissful uninterrupted emailing, only to see that baby is wigging on monitor. Turns out, big boys have woken up and are looking for me, so they barged into baby's room and woke him up. Because I'm always just hanging out in baby's room and that would be the logical place to find me, right? ARGH.

Bring all three boys downstairs and start breakfast process. Breakfast passes without incident, injury or spill this morning. Say a prayer of thanks for small miracles. Get everyone dressed and loaded up for school. It is raining this morning, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing since Georgia has been in a drought for approximately three years, but it will make the long list of errands that I have to run this morning a little bit messier.

Drop Cade at school. On to a list of four errands. I have written before about my adventures running errands with a three year-old and an infant that hates his seat. It's no wonder that I put off outings with these two. I feel like Pavlov's dog - I can only take being beaten down so many times before I just want to throw up my hands and give up.

Tackle first errand on list - grocery store. I am making dinner for a friend who just had a baby by c-section and while I hate grocery shopping with kids (and in the rain), this is the only time available where I won't have all three kids. One less kid = exponentially easier outing, so I bite the bullet.

Since I am only buying a few items and I also need to visit the post office in the same shopping center, I decide to put the baby in the stroller and let Drew walk. Open the trunk to discover that I forgot to unload the boy's bikes from when I took them to playgroup yesterday. The stroller is at the bottom of the trunk. Unload bikes (in the rain), dig out and assemble stroller, load baby,shove bikes back in, grab Drew by the hand, and sprint into store.

Since Drew is not strapped into a cart (which violates one of my Cardinal Rules of Errand Running and today I remembered why), I brilliantly bribe him with fruit snacks to walk nicely next to me. I not so brilliantly allow him to eat the fruit snacks first, which means that not only is he not walking nicely next to me, he is dashing around the store maniacally laughing in a fruit-snack induced sugar high. Mercifully, baby has knocked out and is asleep and not screaming for once.

Manage to collect everything I need, stuff it into the stroller basket and get to the register. In another small miracle, Kroger, which I hate, manages to not screw me today with A) a line that is 2,000 people long, B) a checker who is in training and doesn't know how to work the scanner or the keypad, or C) an elderly person that is holding up the line by paying a bill for $10.61 in pennies.

We walk over to post office. It is 9:36 and naturally, the self-serve machine is broken and the service window doesn't open until 10 am. My post office is even more awesome than regular post offices and it is open from 10 am to 4 pm with a break from approximately noon to 2 for lunch, with 15 minute coffee breaks on either end. The package that I have been trying to mail since May will now have to wait another 4 months.

The lion has awakened. Baby begins to stir and I know that my time is limited. Sprint across the parking lot in the rain with both kids and try to shove groceries and stroller back in the van. By this time, baby is in all-out wail and I know that I have to abort the mission and leave the other three errands on the list undone.

Arrive home and immediately begin feeding baby. Drew is playing cars on the dining room table and somehow manages to fall off his chair, hitting his lip on the table. Blood is everywhere. Put screaming baby down to attend to screaming preschooler. Get blood under control, calm Drew with a bowl of Cocoa Puffs (am definitely not winning any Nutrition Pyramid Mother of the Year awards this morning), and dash back to screaming baby. Bonus in this situation: Drew's shirt is brown which means that maybe it will not be ruined by the blood or Cocoa Puff stains. Another small miracle.

Feed baby some more. Drew has finished snack and is still half crying and begging to watch his Cars movie. Put screaming baby down again and realize I don't know how to work the downstairs DVD player. I tell a screaming (again) Drew that we have to wait until Cade gets home to watch a DVD and I frantically search for some other suitable substitute show on TV.

Realize that I have become that mom. The one that has to wait for her 4 year old to get home from school to show her how to work her own DVD player.

It is now 10:15 am.

Our Little Brainiac

2008-09-30T00:16:00.000-04:00

Tonight, while doing workbooks, we learned that apparently Cade is retaining information on phonics, despite the fact that he refuses to let on to us that he ever learns anything. And he's so modest about his brilliance...

Aaron: Wow! Cade! How did you get so smart?
Cade: Just lucky, I guess.

What's in a Name - Part II

2008-09-28T22:56:00.000-04:00

We are a big nickname family. In fact, virtually none of us (including our extended family) go by our real names. We're a crazy cast of characters that include Goopy, Grumpy, Mug, Boots, Bubbe, Tari, and Mr. Aaron. Basically the only ones in the family with normal names are my sister's dogs - Chloe, Bonnie, and Macy.

Cade's in utero nickname was Kid Fox. When he was born we started calling him "Bird" because he was covered with soft, downy hair and opened his mouth like a baby bird when he was hungry. I now realize this is not horribly original and basically describes all infants, but hey - we were first time parents. And so he is Bird to this day.

And then along came Drew. His fetal nickname was Bob. When he was born, Cade called him "Bubbo" instead of "Brother", and eventually that got shortened to "Bub". Which, ironically, is pretty close to Bob - he came full circle.

Enter Josh. The boys named him "Pawl" (Paul with a VERY southern drawl) before we even knew if he was a boy or a girl. Now he goes by one of two names. Sometimes he is "Baby" (see this post for the backstory on the origination of this name). And of late, Aaron has been calling him "Toad" because of his melancholy nature and his startling physical resemblance to Toad in Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad children's book series (a Fox Family Favorite).

Here is a side-by-side comparison:

Uncanny, huh?

Syndicated Again - Woohoo!

2008-09-23T07:20:00.000-04:00

Another one of my Deep South posts was picked up for MCT syndication! Thanks to Bubbe and Goopy for the material.

The Swiffer People Think I'm Stupid

2008-09-16T12:53:00.000-04:00

I have written before about how motherhood is making me an idiot. Unfortunately, I can't remember where or I would link it. But yesterday I reached a new low.

A commercial came on for the Swiffer mop. Clearly targeted towards my demographic, the commercial featured a mom-ish looking woman about my age. In fact, I think I may actually own the outfit she was wearing. But I digress.

The commercial was talking about how the Swiffer mop was so great that this mom was finally ready to leave her old mop. Just then, her doorbell rang and there was a flower delivery man at the door bearing flowers for her. From her old mop. Which was peeking out from behind a tree. The mom rolled her eyes and shut the door.

And I laughed. Out loud. For several minutes.

Really?! Has my sense of humor finally eroded to the point where I find a mop sending flowers so funny that I laugh out loud?

But I gotta say, were I not so loyal to my Clorox mop, I would dump it for a Swiffer just because their marketing people obviously have some uncanny glimpse into my psyche....

Introducing Baby Josh

2008-09-14T23:57:00.000-04:00

Since Baby Josh hasn't gotten much publicity on this blog, I thought I'd take a minute to introduce you to him. Yes, I already introduced him by name. But now that he has been here with us for a few weeks, we're starting to get to know what his personality is like. Just thought we'd share with you...

Joshie is an old soul. Life is very serious when you're only seven weeks old, you know. There's not much to smile about, especially when you fear for your life on a daily basis because your two older brothers cavort about your personal space like a bunch of mentally ill chimpanzees. As I've mentioned in other posts, poor Josh is having some reflux issues which, for awhile, caused him to scream for about 23 hours out of each day. That also did not leave a lot of time for smiling.

Thankfully, we've made progress in resolving (or at least reducing) those problems and he is a MUCH happier boy now. We've broken him down and the craziness of our family has finally cracked his serious facade somewhat. He smiled (in a non gas-related manner) for the first time last week! This was, of course, the highlight of our year. There is nothing more precious than a toothless baby grin, especially when directed in your general vicinity.

His favorite activities include:

Staring impassively into space. If I try to coo at or talk silly baby talk to him, he stares sternly back at me with a look that says, "I'm a baby, not an idiot, you blithering dolt."
Reading a family favorite - Friends of All Sizes - with his dad. It is the Fox Family tradition that introduction to literacy begins with this six-page, cloth-covered tome.
Watching his brothers in a disapproving manner. Sometimes their idiocy gets the best of him and he cracks a smile.
Taking a bath. Preferably without the "help" of his brothers.
Watching the Glo-Worm "video" crib toy in his crib. This scrolling Glo-Worm screen with music was one of Cade's favorite toys and he generously released it to Josh for his temporary use.
Eating. Definitely a boob man.
Staying up late. He typically does not retire for the night before 1 am.
Being held by anyone who will hold him. This is his activity of choice.

More on Josh later as his personality continues to evolve!

My New Personal Assistant

2008-09-09T21:34:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time, I was organized. Maybe a little too organized. My own mother threatened to shove my Daytimer up my ass at one point, when she asked when I might be available to do something and I gave her a two-hour window three weeks out. That was my junior year of college.

I still have a Daytimer (nope - can't make the leap to electronic calendars). And I even write stuff in it sometimes. But then I forget to look at it. Which is why I am screwing up a lot of things these days. Like the time I sent Cade to school an hour late on the first day of school because I thought he was only supposed to go for one hour instead of the full three. Turns out, the one-hour deal was for Meet and Greet day. Oops. But hey - I'm sure I can make it up to the school with my uber-volunteering, since at said Meet and Greet day I signed up to work the Christmas party for both of the boys' classes. On the same day. At the same time.

Anyway, my point is that I've been so scatterbrained of late that even my children have very little faith in my memory. Just to be on the safe side, Cade decided to take the bull by the horns tonight and leave me a reminder taped to his school bag.

Just in case you can't read it, it says, "Don't forget to take Cade to choir practice tomorrow (Wednesday). 5 pm. You moron. "

Fun for the Whole Family!

2008-09-07T18:01:00.000-04:00

Today I'm blogging at Atlanta Parent about our adventures last weekend at the Decatur Book Festival.

Them Against Each Other

2008-09-06T22:55:00.001-04:00

It all started when Cade was practicing his back float during bathtime and apparently hogging too much room in the tub. Drew tackled Cade, sat on his stomach to pin him down, and spit a mouthful of water into Cade's open mouth. Nice.

Cade retaliated by waiting until Drew was lying on the floor getting his nighttime diaper put on after bath. Then he took a flying leap and stomped on Drew's stomach.

The worst part is that in neither instance did the "injured" party cry. In fact, they laughed hysterically.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread...

2008-09-03T14:26:00.000-04:00

So the (big) boys have discovered a new game. Last night as a special treat, they got a bubble bath in the big jacuzzi tub in the master bath. They used this as an opportunity to cover the entire bathroom in bubbles. Why? Because they were scooping up bubbles and throwing them at each other, pie-in-the-face-style, while screaming, "Daily Bread!".

Huh?

I guess they have been paying attention in church after all.

Us Against Them

2008-09-01T20:58:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has siblings can attest that no matter how nuts you make each other, there is a certain camaraderie that develops by nature of the fact that you are allies against common enemies - your parents.

The big boys have definitely solidified their alliance. Recently heard at our house:

A few weeks ago, as they heard Aaron stomping up the stairs to yell at them to stop goofing off and go to bed for the five THOUSANDTH time that night...
Cade to Drew: Hurry! Get down! He's coming!!!

Tonight, Cade sent his emissary (Drew) down from the playroom to ask if we would come up and type in the password to unlock the computer so they could play pbskids.org. We told Drew no, as it was time to do bath and bedtime stories.
Cade (screaming down the stairs): Drew! Did they say they would come set it up?
Drew: No. They said they would not set it up.

I must say, it was kind of a rude awakening. It definitely feels weird to be old enough to be "them" and not "us".

What's in a Name?

2008-08-28T22:16:00.000-04:00

Of late, my children have become obsessed with their names. They want me to write out their full names so they can painstakingly copy them beneath my writing. Then we have to write out the full names of the rest of the family, including their grandparents and aunts. Then we have to talk about why each person has that name (i.e. if it is a family name or some other connection). We do this pretty much on a daily basis. The only thing that changes is the color of marker we use.

We have always had issues naming our kids. Only Drew's name (Andrew Joseph) chose itself, mainly because we were lazy - it was the name my parents had chosen for my youngest sister, had she been a boy.

We vacillated back and forth on Cade's name and finally settled on Peter Cade - Peter after Aaron's grandfather and Cade because we liked it (it was before the days when Caden was so popular). Calling Cade by his middle name has never given us any problems, except for at the pediatrician's office, where we have been patients for almost 4 years now. The doctor still issues instructions like, "Sit still, Peter." or, "This won't hurt a bit, Peter.", while Cade looks around the room wondering who the hell Peter is. Despite my multiple attempts to correct the doctor and her staff, they just can't get it. Until his 4 year checkup, when they started calling him Andrew. Yes, time for a new doctor, I know, but that's another story...

And most of you have probably read about our recent trials naming poor Joshua Quinn.

So today Cade threw us by a loop by informing us that his name was no longer Cade. He now wants to go by Quinn. Because he "likes it better".

That'll throw the pediatrician for a loop.

Boys and Their Toys, Part II

2008-08-25T14:00:00.000-04:00

I am not a fan of teeny tiny plastic toys. Especially those with a million movable parts. Perhaps because toys fitting this description seem to be primarily targeted towards boys. As a girl growing up in the pre-Polly pocket days, I was successfully able to these tiny critters, such as army guys, Star Wars guys and their battleships, and the most evil of tiny toys with movable parts - Transformers.

Yesterday, we received our first Transformer as a gift. The boys, who know nothing about Transformers, were inherently drawn to the package. The begged me to open it, surveyed the jet-looking toy before them and asked, "Does it turn into something else?" Seriously?! Do guys have a sixth sense about this stuff or what?

Using the handy accompanying 45-step, poorly illustrated instruction booklet, I was able to make exactly zero progress after a good 20 minutes of trying to turn the Transformer from a rocket/jet type thing into a robot. Cade finally got impatient and snatched it out of my hand and in three swift moves, actually made it resemble the Decepticon on the package.

Drew wanted it to go back to a jet, but Cade couldn't figure that out. I tried to, but I accidentally ripped his arm off (the Transformer's, not Drew's). When I told the boys I couldn't figure out how to get it back on and we would have to wait for Daddy to get home, Cade replied, "I know just what we need to fix it! A soldering iron!"

Spoken like a true guy.

A Brief Moment of Thanks on Sunday Morning

2008-08-24T14:01:00.000-04:00

We got a free pass from God this morning. Since the baby fussed through church last week, this week I left him at home with Aaron and took the two big boys with me. Unbeknown to me, Aaron was taking out the trash when we left. I shut the garage door and we left. Because of my hyper-vigilance about locking doors, this means that Aaron was locked out. Not good on a normal day. Especially not good given that on this particular day, the baby was locked in. Even more not good because by the time he realized he was locked out, I was gone. Even MORE not good because my cell phone was in my diaper bag, which was in the house. And not with me.

He started walking to church (it's a 10 minute walk) before he realized that I would probably kill him if he showed up there having left the house (with the baby in it) unguarded. So he knocked on the door of every neighbor, only to find that they were all gone. Finally he found one home across the street who was willing to A) stand guard in the rain on our front porch and B) let him borrow her car so he could drive to church and fetch me and the keys to unlock the door.

It was probably only ten minutes between when he found me and when we retrieved the baby, but I swear it took ten years off of my life. It took me a minute to register the sight of Aaron (in his trash-taking-out clothes and sandals) standing before me in church. Sans baby. Naturally, I flew into a panic. We dashed home, leaving the big boys in the church nursery. Of course, we drove up to the train tracks at the entrance of our neighborhood just as the gates were lowering. Aaron wanted to drive through them, but I truly felt like the only thing that could make the situation worse was if we were dead on the train tracks (having decimated our neighbor's car) with half of our children locked in the house and the other half in the church nursery. Nope. Not a good plan. So he u-turned like a bat out of hell to beat the train at the next entrance to the neighborhood and we flew up the street to our house.

Once home, it was all painless. We unlocked the door and quickly retrieved the baby, who had worked himself into a tizzy enough to have snot all over his face and a little spit up. Our neighbor, bless her heart, tried to calm my hysteria by assuring me that she had been listening to him cry through the window and he was fine. She assured me that had she needed to get to him quickly, she would have broken the window. But my heart is still pounding four hours later.

So thank you, God, for looking over us this morning. And thank you, Nadine, for being such a good neighbor and missing church yourself to help the Fox family.

PS. Yes we did remember to go back and collect the big boys. We are crappy parents today. But not THAT crappy.

What Are Cade, Drew, and Josh Up To Now?

2008-08-23T21:33:00.000-04:00

These are busy, busy boys. Funny stories from this week:

Cade has a new trick where he launches onto the sofa and stands on his head on the sofa, bracing his feet on the wall (thanks, Little Gym!). We basically yell at him 15 times a day NOT to do this, but he keeps "forgetting". Aaron reported the following conversation today.
Aaron: CADE! Why do you insist on doing that all the time?!?!
Cade: Because I'm a jackass!
Oops. Not sure where he picked this up. And I'm really not sure. That's one word that isn't in my potty mouth repertoire....

And while getting ready for bed one night....
Me: Drew - come here so mommy can put your jammies on.
Drew: Ok, mommy. I know no one wants to see my butt crack.

And last but not least, Baby J. Before he was born, we heard from so many friends and family about the laid-back, go-with-the-flow, sleep anywhere/anytime temperament of third babies. Well, apparently he didn't get that memo and not only that, he thinks he is an only child. He prefers to be held - all the time. Actually, this makes for not such a funny story by 1 am each night...

For the Grandparents

2008-08-19T21:26:00.001-04:00

And now, because I know the grandparents will be ticked off that I have time to post pictures of my stupid cupboard but not my baby, here is a picture of my baby.

Making Progress!

2008-08-18T20:36:00.000-04:00

So my "free time" has come to a screeching halt with the addition of the latest Fox. Not that I am complaining. I am content to sit on my dead butt loving on him all day long, which is pretty much what I have been doing for the past month. While my house falls to shambles around me.

On Friday night, some friends came over and brought dinner. As we were picking up the kitchen after eating, my friend asked me for some plastic containers to package the leftovers for my fridge. Producing said containers was easier said than done, as the container cabinet (which also holds my children's plastic plates and bowls) was a tangled mish-mash of mismatched lids, bottoms, and assorted odds and ends. I was seriously embarrassed by the state of this cupboard.

On Saturday morning I was resolute that if I did not do one other thing besides sit on my butt and love Baby J, it would be to tackle this cupboard. Around 11 I grabbed a few free minutes and took everything out, matched the lids to bottoms, and either recycled or tossed everything mismatched. In the spirit of one of my favorite mommy bloggers and her organizing website, The Junk Pyramid, I thought I would share my results:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I can't figure out how to rotate the stupid picture so you will have to lay your head down sideways on your keyboard looking at the screen to get the full effect.

And that, my friends, is why the birth announcements haven't been mailed, the baby thank you notes haven't been written, and the laundry is piling up. But hey, at least I can put my leftovers away now.

The Olympic Rings Under My Eyes

2008-08-18T00:25:00.000-04:00

I look like crap these days. For two reasons:

1) Baby J stays up half the night and insists on being held from 5 pm to 1 am until he finally conks out.

2) For the past week and a half, we have been staying up half the night watching swimming and gymnastics.

I have seen more Olympics this year than I have of the past 5 Olympics combined. I will be sad when they are over because I will have to go back to watching Law and Order reruns until my little night owl gets his schedule figured out.

One Hot Mama

2008-08-14T14:07:00.001-04:00

Blogging at Deep South Moms today. And my post was picked up for MCT syndication next week (a first for me) - woohoo!

Baby J Wakes Up

2008-08-12T21:06:00.001-04:00

I knew this would happen because I remembered it with my other boys. Around week 3 of their lives, they seemed to "wake up" and develop opinions on everything. And they haven't been quiet since then.

After blissfully slumbering around the clock for almost 3 weeks, Baby Josh is now officially awake. For the third straight night in a row, he has been awake from pretty much 5 pm to midnight or 1 am. And letting us know that his lungs work just fine and he will be weighing in heavily and frequently when he is wet, dirty, gassy, hungry, wants his pacifier, etc.

But hey - I can't complain. When he finally conks out, he is going some decent sleep stretches - anywhere from 5 to 7 hours!!! Woohoo!

Too bad the big boys get up at 7 am and advice to "sleep when the baby sleeps" only applies to first time moms...

War Games

2008-08-08T16:39:00.000-04:00

I'm over on Deep South Moms this week, talking more about Cade and Drew's favorite games. Check it out!

Ruminations on Parenthood

2008-08-06T12:40:00.000-04:00

To see how much I'm enjoying Baby Josh, check out my cross-post on Atlanta Parent today.

Introducing He Who Is Un-named - Still. Sort of.

2008-08-03T14:20:00.000-04:00

As predicted, Baby Boy #3 joined our family in July instead of August, although even earlier than expected. He was 2 weeks, 1 day early, born on July 24 at 11:36 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 15 oz and was 20.5 inches long. The weight thing made me glad that he hadn't hung out for another week or two - I would've been giving birth to a baby the size of a first grader.

The baby's name was (and continues to be) a small source of contention. As this was our third boy, we were running a bit dry on ideas for boy names. Despite the fact that we had 9 months to come up with one, we entered the delivery room with our options narrowed down to 3 or 4 combinations, none of which we were both crazy about.

So we didn't name him. He continued to be Baby Boy Fox for the first two days of his life while we tried to see if he "looked" like any of the names would suit him. Nothing really stuck. By the end of day two, my mom and I were calling him Squeaky No Name, which seemed appropriate enough for the hospital setting but not formal enough for a birth certificate.

All the while, Aaron and I continued to discuss names. We turned off our cell phones to avoid the countless calls from well-meaning friends and relatives wanting to know if he had a name yet. Knowing that we HAD to name him before we left the hospital, the pressure was really mounting and the naming discussions got tense. It turns out that only one of us had actually been considering name options for the past 9 months. My husband informed me that he really hadn't given it much thought until the past day or two and he felt it was a decision that couldn't be "rushed".

We finally came to pseudo-consensus on Joshua Quinn. Sort of. We both liked both of the names, but couldn't decide if we wanted to call him Josh (Aaron's unstated top choice, despite the fact that I asked him 100 times to display a preference) or Quinn (my clearly stated top choice). So we agreed to call him Quinn. We called the grandparents and a few friends to begin spreading the word for us. And the matter was settled. Or so I thought.

Fast forward to the next morning. When I hear Aaron whispering, "Hello, Baby JOSH" to the baby. Clearly the matter was NOT settled. So we delayed making a decision and sent out his email birth announcement under the name Joshua Quinn (no nicknames mentioned). We marched through the next few days calling him everything from Josh to Quinn to Josh Quinn (Cade's choice). Finally, when he was 5 days old, I found myself telling my mother in law a story about him where I repeatedly called him "The Baby" because I didn't know what his name was. And I decided enough was enough. Aaron clearly preferred Josh and I was getting to the point where I really didn't care. And besides, Josh was growing on me.

We're still spreading the word to a few key friends from the early days that his name has changed, so if you're reading this, help us out.

Welcome to the Fox family, Baby Josh. And get ready, because yes - we are always this insane.

Passing the Time, Fox Familly Style

2008-07-16T14:56:00.001-04:00

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...

Baby and Me

2008-06-29T22:22:00.000-04:00

After failing to post on any of my blogs for several weeks, I am on a roll tonight! To hear how the boys did at their Big Sibling class yesterday, check out my cross post at Atlanta Parent Online.

Food Wars

2008-06-29T21:26:00.000-04:00

The children are officially on a food strike. Actually, let me clarify that - they are on a nutritious food strike. In the past, food has never been an issue with the boys. Cade was an adventurous eater from an early age, eagerly consuming foods such as sushi (the safe kind - with the fake crab) and Indian foods (the spicier, the better) before he had even turned one. A glance at Drew's baby pictures from months 4 to about 18 clearly demonstrate the he never met a food he didn't like. My doctor mistakenly suspected twins very early in my pregnancy with Drew and he was such a big baby and ate so much food that we have a running family joke that he ate his twin.

But they have both officially outgrown that now. The short list of foods they will happily eat includes:
-Macaroni and cheese (only the DayGlo orange Kraft variety)
-Peanut Butter and Jelly (will accept on whole grain wheat bread with all-natural peanut butter, as long as the jam isn't sugar-free)
-Cereals of pretty much any kind, including Kashi (which just infuriates Aaron since he is pretty much staunchly opposed to any foods that are either organic, environmentally sound, or perceived to be politically correct in any way)
-Oatmeal (as long as there is brown sugar)
-Apple sauce (all natural, sugar free)
-Yogurt (must be the generic Publix bright pink or blue kids yogurt cups)
-Fruit leather - kinda like a Fruit Roll-Up, but with no sugar added
-Bratwurst (does this count as a food?)

Drew will still consume certain fruits, provided he is in the mood. He will eat an entire pineapple one day, only to deem pineapple completely unacceptable the next week. But by introducing a carefully orchestrated fruit rotation, I can get him to ingest watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, grapes (only red ones), and oranges. And the occasional apple, which he will chew and then regurgitate undigested, but I figure it counts because some of the nutrients absorb during chewing, right?

Cade eats no fruits (too mushy!) and no "begetables" (no reason cited). He will choke down the three or so bites that I mandate in order to earn some other food goal (like a handful of Cheese Nips), but the negotiation and gagging involved hardly make it worth my energy. We have even gotten to the point where he will no longer accept bananas carefully disguised in banana bread.

I love to cook, but I refuse to cater to their food demands by making special meals. Every night (okay, most nights) I prepare a delicious meal with ingredients that I think will be acceptable to most members of the family and we sit down to eat as a family. Drew will pick out and consume the tolerable components of the meal, but Cade doesn't even try the food, and the other night he was so bold as to take one look at the pasta dish and exclaim, "Wow! Disgusting!"

Since they rarely eat at meals, they are naturally hungry (and begging for inappropriate snack foods) all day long. It is making me absolutely CRAZY this summer. I always swore I would never make food an issue, but this is getting ridiculous! I don't have a problem with anyone eating a handful of animal crackers IF they have eaten dinner, but small children cannot exist on Goldfish crackers alone and I am sick to death of playing Food Police. A good friend with kids the same ages cracked down by purging her house of all junk food, which I keep saying I'm going to do, but can't bring myself to do. Isn't there any other way to win the Food Wars?

My Big Little Boy

2008-06-18T22:01:00.000-04:00

Today at bathtime, Cade informed me that he was going to take a shower instead of a bath. Since past attempts at showering have resulted in him darting in and out of the shower changing his mind about whether he actually wants to be there or is afraid of the water, my first instinct was to refuse the request.

But something about him seemed more determined this time, so I acquiesced, and to my surprise, all went well! When I asked him if he was ready to get out, he pulled the shower curtain shut and said he wasn't "clean enough" yet! This from a child who spends the bulk of bathtime trying to dodge the washcloth and my hand with the shampoo in it?!?!

He seemed so grown up that I felt sad. There was a time when I was eagerly anticipating the day that even one child would self-sufficiently bound into the shower instead of leaving me to micromanage every aspect of personal hygiene and the tsunami of water on the bathroom floor afterwards. But now that another Big Boy Moment is here, I just want to press "pause" on all of it. Maybe because Cade has had a string of Big Boy Moments these past few weeks, including:

He dresses himself. Underwear is always backwards, but who can see it anyway?
He makes his own oatmeal in the morning. He isn't allowed to use the microwave, but he mixes it all and puts it in the microwave and then calls us to heat it up.
He now swims the width of the pool with his face in the water and is able to tread water when he gets tired.
He has FINALLY started to peepee standing up. Which I have mixed feelings about. I feared he would get beat up in the locker room if he didn't learn this skill before high school, but it is such a messy skill to learn that I am really missing the days when my bathrooms didn't all look like gas station restrooms.
He has started calling us "Mom" and "Dad" instead of Mommy and Daddy. Which made me sad until I realized that he is still one step behind Drew, who calls us "Cara" and "Aaron".
His absolute favorite pastime is listening to music on his CD and tape players. Really loud. Every time I scream up the stairs at him to turn the music down, I have a flash forward to the teen years and wonder how I got there so soon.
He has eclectic taste in music. He loves everything from The Wiggles to The Nutcracker (year round) to Tom Petty. He has totally raided our music collection for his favorites, leaving Aaron and I with just The Bangles and some Billy Joel. He is desperate for a record player like they have at school. Yep - the vinyl kind. Next thing we know he will be asking for an Atari.
Speaking of music, he commented to a lady at the pool the other day that he liked her cool I-Pod.
His made his first attempt at a curse: "Holy Drat, Mom! I think this is broken now!"

Of course I am proud to see him getting so big and things are certainly easier to manage in the day to day since he is getting so self-sufficient. But in the grand scheme of things, it's going too fast for me - it seems like just yesterday I was anxiously awaiting Baby Cade's arrival.

I'm not sure if it's just pregnancy hormones or if all moms feel this way. I just know that I'm grateful that at least Drew is still afraid of the shower.

A Mommy Moment...Or 15 Hours of Them

2008-06-06T12:44:00.000-04:00

I was so proud of us this morning - we were out the door at 9 am and on a roll. By noon, we had hit the pediatrician's office (Drew tripped over the rug in our living room and gave himself his second head injury of the week), the haircut place, the dreaded post office, and ToysRUs for a new baby pool.

That pretty much pushed everyone to the limit, so we dashed home where I rushed around to get lunch ready. During which time Cade says to me, "Mommy! Why do you have a lollipop on your bum?" I turn around and sure enough, there is a blue sucker stuck to my rear end. I said, "Oh my gosh, Cade! You're right! How long has that been there?" His response: "For 15 hours."

And he's right. We got lollipops at the haircut place. Stop #2 this morning.

I am officially a cliche. The pregnant woman in line at the post office with her screaming brats and a lollipop stuck to her ass - how sad.

Where in the World are Cade and Drew?

2008-06-03T20:55:00.001-04:00

What are Cade and Drew up to these days? Summer is off to glorious start for us - check out my Atlanta Parent post on summer in the Fox house.

Summer Reading

2008-05-28T21:08:00.000-04:00

Summer is off to a roaring start and I'm pretty proud of my spring/summer reading list so far. After basically a 4 year hiatus from reading anything longer than a Real Simple recipe, I've made my triumphant (albeit, temporary, until baby comes) return to my favorite hobby - reading! Since I quit my job in March, I've covered:

Eat, Pray, Love
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Water for Elephants
The Boelyn Inheritance
An Inconvenient Wife
The Tipping Point
Blink
The Vaccine Book
Parenting, Inc.

Plus some others that I have left off because I've either forgotten or they are so embarassingly idiotic that I don't want to admit I actually read them all the way through.

All of this while continuing to stay on top of my thrice-daily readings of my usual repertoire of Hop on Pop, Where the Wild Things Are, Berenstein Bears Go to the Doctor, Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom, and other preschoolian favorites. Are you impressed yet?

It is the last book (Parenting, Inc. not Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom) that inspired my post today on Atlanta Parent - check out the cross post since I'm off to start a new book instead of writing another blog post.

Happy Summer and happy reading to all! Keep me posted if you read anything you think I should add to my list!

In Case You Can't Get Enough of Cara...

2008-05-19T23:58:00.000-04:00

While few of you ever comment on this site, I am developing a decent readership given that this blog was developed for family and friends. There are over 2000 of you now that have checked in at least once, but don't worry - my stupid blog counter isn't working right so I can't get into the analytics to see who you are or how often you read. So useful. I am hoping that my fans are made up of actual family and friends and not 2000 child molesters hoping to get a bathtime shot of my kids.

For those of you that don't know, I also blog for Atlanta Parent Online, where I believe I have a following of approximately 2 people, mostly due to the fact that I don't think the blog is very well publicized or maintained. I've emailed them several times and asked them to update my profile and my counter so I can see actual readership, to no avail. However, now that I've posted about it here, maybe some of you will read and tell your friends (I can dream, right?), so I guess I better slap a post up there tomorrow.

Recently I have been invited (after borderline harassment of the site's founders) to blog for Deep South Moms, which has sister sites in Silicon Valley, DC, Chicago, New York, and a whole bunch of other cities I can't remember right now. This super-cool regional forum has guest bloggers such as Katie Couric, so I am pretty excited to be allowed to post my ramblings there - hopefully they won't kick me off.

All of this started as an effort to keep family posted on the antics of Cade and Drew, but has now evolved into a secondary mission of a way to help develop some sort of a virtual following/platform for a book I am writing with a good friend who also has children close together. Our book proposal is now sitting on the desks of 17 editors (5 rejections so far), so say a little prayer for us that Baby Bunching (check out the super cool post my co-author wrote for the Washington Post parenting blog) suddenly becomes of compelling interest to the middle aged men in publishing that make decisions about what the rest of us will read.

In the meantime, keep reading and tell your friends to read too!

Spoke too soon

2008-05-17T11:59:00.000-04:00

about the peace and quiet thing. Apparently simultaneously sawing and supervising is too much for an MBA grad. I glanced out the window to see youngest son riding bikes on the driveway with nothing but a shirt on. Aaron's response when asked why Drew had no pants on?

"Well, he peed his pants."

ARGH!

Life After Graduation...

2008-05-17T11:41:00.000-04:00

is rougher than we thought it would be. My oldest child (i.e. the one I married) continues to give me a run for my money. Yesterday Aaron spent the whole day with a hangover because he was out drinking and playing video games at Dave and Busters until all hours with school friends. On the bright side, he amassed over 800 points when his friends gave him all their tickets and he was able to win a giant Sponge Bob Square Pants stuffed animal for the boys. It took Aaron and me 3 years to aquire enough points to get a similar sized Big Bird toy for Cade right before he was born.

He finally started to feel better around 5 pm, but then made himself sick to his stomach playing his new Call of Duty 4 XBox game. It turns out that war games are really only fun if you know how to work the controls and properly pivot and run simultaneously. Otherwise, your character runs into a lot of walls and it makes you really motion sick.

Fortunately, he was able to rally to stay up until all hours again watching the Jazz in the playoffs -the game started at 10:30 our time. He is no doubt relieved that they lost and are out of the playoffs so he can go back to hitting the sack at a normal hour.

Poor (31 year old) baby.

This morning he was up bright and early (10:30 am) and is now doing some project out in the garage that involves sawing the edge of a piece of wood that is dangerously close to his own thumb. I'm not complaining since he has the little boys out there with him and they are playing spaceship. This means that I am free to roam the house doing chores in peace and quiet and they will be available to run for a towel and call 911 when he saws his freaking hand off.

Is this really my life?

Graduation Day is Here!

2008-05-13T20:35:00.000-04:00

Aaron has graduated at last! His grad school education has been a long haul for all of us, starting with the moment he E-MAILED me about this time three years ago to let me know he had signed up to take the G-MAT - "just to see" how he could do. I knew it was over. Almost 7 months pregnant with Drew, I was livid. We talked about him going back to business school once before we had Cade and again before we got pregnant with Drew and both times he decided to put it off. Didn't the final decision warrant at least a discussion/phone call as opposed to an email?!?! I mean, do we or do we not live in the same house!??!

From that moment on, it has been a 3 year long rollercoaster ride. First it was the stress of studying for the G-MAT and squeezing the actual test in before the baby's arrival. I constantly fretted that the baby would come early (or worse, come ON the day of the test), but Aaron kindly reassured me that as long as I went into labor after 7 am on testing day, the testing room would be locked and there would be no way I would be able to disturb his testing anyway. Nice. As it turns out, Aaron took the test on a Saturday and Drew held out until early the Tuesday morning following.

Then came the application process. Applications, letters of recommendation, and essays for five schools. Then the agonizing waiting process. Then the acceptance process (two of which came with scholarships - a nice bright spot in the whole ordeal!). All with two children under the age of two in tow, during what was probably the most difficult year of my life. Or so I thought.

We ended up accepting at Emory, which alleviated the need for relocation and its associated hassles. It would definitely turn out to be a blessing for me, although poor Aaron has suffered a brutal cross-town commute for the past two years since the school is literally about as far away from our house as it could be and still be in Atlanta.

Then came the moment of truth - Aaron quit his job and started his school adventure. The first semester was a struggle for all of us, as he balanced the heavy school workload with his responsibilities as husband/father. Throw in his innate desire to be 19 years old for the rest of his life and the ample social opportunities associated with school and it was a pretty explosive year. In fact, we have still a dent in the living room wall to commemorate the book I threw at him in the moment that it all became too much.

But Aaron survived and so did our marriage. The second semester was better, despite the brutal interns hip interview process, and it was followed by a super fun summer in California for all of us while Aaron interned at Google. By the second year, the brutal job interview process and waiting game was old hat. We all took it in stride and celebrated when Aaron's top choice job offers came through. The spring semester of the second year brought a different pace as Aaron realized that his days as a student were coming to an end. He held down the fort academically, but really focused on making up for as much lost "fun" time as possible, including a spring break trip to the British Virgin Islands. This time, when the socializing became too much, I was able to simply point to the old dent in the wall instead of throwing a new book at him. He got the message.

Which brings us to today - and graduation at long last. We've still got an entire summer to survive before he starts his new job, but I can't help but be proud of him and of us for surviving the past two years. Although I think it would have been easier and more fun had we done this BK (before kids), I'm not sure that Aaron would have been as focused or have gotten as much out of it. So, like most major life changes, it worked out for the best. And now we are looking forward to the next two major life changes: a new baby in August and the return of a steady paycheck in the fall.

Drew Ism

2008-04-29T22:30:00.001-04:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything funny for the grandmas. Here was Drew's funny tonight:

Aaron: Hey Drew - look at all those cars you have! Where's Mater? (Mater is Drew's favorite character from the movie Cars)
Drew: Daddy! Mater's not a car! He's a hiccup truck!

Duh! It's the Cereal!

2008-04-29T21:51:00.000-04:00

So by now most of you have probably heard about the recent study asserting that a mother's diet at the time of conception may influence the gender of her baby. A recent New York Times article on the study discusses the theory that although X and Y sperm ultimately determine gender, higher food/calorie intake and higher glucose levels during conception makes "conditions" more hospitable for for male embryos. Skipping meals results in lower glucose levels, which makes it difficult for male embryos to survive. The study makes the leap that women who eat breakfast and have diets high in potassium, calcium, and vitamins C, E, and B12 tend to produce sons. Further, there was a strong correlation between eating breakfast cereal and producing sons!

While it will be interesting to see if the theory holds up to further study, it certainly sheds light on my tendency to produce male offspring. While my caveman husband has been walking around pounding his chest about producing a flock of sons, I have long been consuming mass quantities of two of my favorite foods - cereal and bananas. Coincidence? Maybe not!

My love affair with cereal started in college and has lasted all the way to present day, although it has subsided somewhat. There was a time in my single days when my grocery cart literally contained a gallon of milk, a bunch of bananas, 3 boxes of cereal, 10 different kinds of beans, and a bag of rice. Thankfully, my palate has matured a little (I've moved from Lucky Charms to Kashi), but cereal is still high on the list. The boys must have inherited a taste for the stuff in utero because it's high on their list too, as well as their father's. I kid you not when I say that a fourth of our weekly grocery bill is due to the 5 boxes of cereal and 3 gallons of milk we consume each week.

With the news of our third boy, almost everyone asks us if we plan to "go for the girl" and have a fourth. Considering the fact that I have not missed a meal since the day I was born and at least 2/3 of those meals have been cereal, we definitely don't plan on giving this theory a test run. Which is just fine with me. We seem to be pretty good at this boy thing.

Cheater!

2008-04-21T22:19:00.000-04:00

Just wandered into living room to find that husband has plugged TV back in and is parked in front of it. Apparently I failed to see the memo that NBA playoff programming is exempt from National TV Turnoff Week resolutions.

National TV Turnoff Week

2008-04-21T21:38:00.000-04:00

This week (April 21-27) is National TV Turnoff week. Yes - this is an actual event, started by a group of people who were clearly watching too much TV. I'm not sure about the history of when or where it originated (or who exactly it was watching too much TV), but I've caught wind of it in a couple of places these past few months and LOVED the idea. Gross national statistics aside (the average American youth spends 900 ours in school but 1500 in front of the TV, 66% of US families watch TV during dinner, half of children ages 6-17 have TVs in their bedroom, etc.), I am starting to get concerned about the amount of TV time in this household. Which is really interesting, given the evolution of screen time in our family.

Once upon a time when Cade was a baby (and until he was almost 3), he watched zero TV. I registered for Baby Einstein videos because the few moms I knew told me they were educational and stimulating and really, who can argue with a video that claims to turn your child into a Baby Mozart. But I could never quite bring myself to pop one in. And yes, in case you're wondering, his first toys were age appropriate books, his first taste of cake was at his first birthday party (featuring a nutritious yet baby friendly carrot cake), and he never had a drop of juice to drink until he was close to a year and a half old. I was pretty granola back in those days.

Then along came Drew, 17 months after Cade. Desperate for time to nurse, shower, and pee, I cracked open the Baby Einsteins and wished that Cade would magically develop an attention span long enough to watch one. No dice - I had already spoiled him. He was way more into Clown Mom than watching a pull toy duck crawl at a snail's pace across the screen to an annoying tinkling song that makes you want to punch the TV.

At some point (I'm not sure when since I had long stopped filling out the baby books by this point), Drew became interested in TV. A more mellow child by nature, he was content to watch the duck do its thing and even hung in there long enough to watch the psychedelic swirls do their thing. And then we learned that Cade loved Elmo (through books before he ever saw him on TV) and music, so we could actually buy a little peace and quiet if we picked our programming carefully. It was all downhill from there.

We limit screen time, naturally, but I have noticed it creeping up to uncomfortable levels lately. I almost always count on it for the dinner prep hour - I can't make dinner with rug rats underfoot so The Wiggles are my saving grace. Then I became pregnant (and exhausted) for the third time and realized I was counting on Curious George to keep Cade entertained during Drew's nap so I could catnap. Then there were the assorted times where I just needed them out of my hair - for a phone call, an uninterrupted conversation with their father, or just to read the Sunday paper. And suddenly I found myself feeling as irritated by their pleas for TV as their pleas for junk food - how did we get from carrot birthday cake and fabric covered books to this point, anyway?

So Aaron officially put the kids on notice today. They seemed to take the news in stride, until he pointed out that "no TV" means no DVDs or videotapes either. And he unplugged the TV just to make sure. We survived the first day OK, but I'm still anxious about the rest of the week, mainly because it means more gigs for Clown Mom . And I'm wondering if computer counts as TV (pbskids.org buys me as much time as Maya and Miguel). Stay tuned. And will someone please let me know when National Throw Out the Junk Food Week is?

The Voices in My Head

2008-04-19T22:30:00.000-04:00

I'm writing over at Atlanta Parent today about my garrulous children. Come check it out.

My Three Sons

2008-04-08T22:18:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, so I said we weren’t going to find out the sex of the baby in advance this time. But my husband (and practically everyone else I knew) made me absolutely bonkers by asking on a daily basis and I finally caved. After which, my husband felt bad and told me we really didn’t have to find out if I really didn’t want to, but the mental shift had already been made for me so it was too late.

As evidenced by the title of this post, it’s ANOTHER BOY!!!

Most people assume that I am desperate for a girl, since I have two boys already. Interestingly, this is not the case. Having grown up with two sisters (one of whom is ten years my junior), I feel kind of like I’ve already “done the girl thing”. I’ve attended scores of dance recitals, shopped for countless Christmas/Easter/Birthday/Prom/Formal dresses, and survived exposure to more rounds of PMS than I care to think about. But I’ve never been to a soccer game, saved money on haircuts by just going with a buzz in the summers, or been on the “let’s just be friends” end of a breakup before. I’m pretty excited about all of this. As a bonus, I never ever have to plan a wedding again – I simply perform the mother-of-the-groom duties by writing a check for the rehearsal dinner (which my future daughter in law will plan herself because she will be afraid I will mess it up), wearing beige, and shutting up. And probably, no one will even notice if I wear the same beige dress to all three weddings, so I can spend the cash saved on a really expensive handbag instead.

Aaron pointed out other benefits. We now have enough men in the family for a golf foursome and a two-on-two pickup game. Which means I will never have to play sports to even out the team and when they are older I can spend my weekends perusing the mall (in peace and quiet) while the boys play and watch whatever sports they want to with their father.

So far, these are the only cons I’ve thought of:

I will have to listen to a lot of talk about sports. All the time. Forever.
Some areas of my home will always be stinky. My own bedroom smells okay since the female/male ratio is balanced, but my boys are only 2 and 4 and their shared bedroom already smells like a mixture of sweaty socks, throw up, and rotting dead animals, even after a thorough cleaning.
I will probably make a lot of trips to the emergency room and I should really get used to seeing blood and protruding broken bones now.
I will need to take out a second mortgage to buy groceries when they are teenagers. We are already going through 2 loaves of bread, 2 gallons of milk, and a million boxes of cereal a week…
I will need to take out a third mortgage (do these exist?) to pay my car insurance in about 12 years.

So yeah, I’m pretty excited. Except there is one last con – we have had so many boys, we are out of boy names. Currently accepting nominations…

It's Good to Be a Mom

2008-03-27T21:16:00.001-04:00

Today was one of those rare days when parenting seemed almost easy. This was a blessing after a several week stretch of behavior so bad that several times, I came seriously close to looking into how young military schools would accept small boys.

It all started when Cade was campaigning (for the trillionth straight day in a row) for a booster seat as we loaded into the car this morning. He is desperate to move out of the carseat and into a "big boy" booster where he can use a "real" seatbelt. Since few things outside the realm of electronics actually excite or motivate him, I decided to seize the opportunity. He's been giving me a hard time lately with following directions, getting dressed, and cleaning up after himself, so I offered him a little deal. Dress yourself for the next week and cooperate during bath/bedtime and Mommy will buy you a big boy booster. He jumped on it.

At lunch time, we made a sticker chart so we could track his progress. And boy, did he progress! Not only did he get the AM and PM stickers I promised him for getting dressed nicely (AM) and doing bath/bed nicely (PM), he earned a bonus sticker for model behavior in between! What constitutes model behavior in our house? Well, behavior that other parents (i.e. those that have girls) probably consider every-day behavior. A few examples:

In the morning, Cade brushed his teeth and put the toothbrush back in the holder, rather than flinging it down the hallway.
When it was time to wash Big Lovey, Cade cheerfully threw him in the washer and helped me start it instead of screaming and crying on the floor next to the washer the entire time it was going.
At the playground, he generously shared his Goldfish crackers with his friends by handing them to the friends, rather than standing at the top of the playscape and pouring them down on top of the friends, his usual style when "sharing" with his brother.
When eating lunch, he ate all of his food (including the fruit!) and then put his plate in the sink instead of shuffleboarding it across the kitchen floor to see if he could knock his brother's plate (also discarded onto the floor) into the dining room.
When waiting in line to order dinner at Chick-Fil-A (dad worked late, mom was too lazy to cook), he refrained from tackling the brownie display at the cash register and knocking brownies onto the floor while insisting he was entitled to a brownie.
At bathtime, he did cave to the temptation to create a tsunami to wipe out the bathtub dinosaurs, but then promptly jumped out of the tub, apologized, and asked for a towel to wipe up the water on the floor.
At bedtime, he politely listened to 4 books, closed his eyes, and went to sleep instead of delaying bedtime by an hour asking to peepee, drink water, keep the light on, or sleep in another room than his brother, insisting that "Drew smells like throw up."

As a bonus, what Aaron and I have suspected all along is true: left un-harassed and un-riled by Cade, Drew will actually also behave 99% of the time!

What can I say - this was my dream day. I don't dare hope that I see another one any time soon, but it was so great that one about every 4 years is enough to keep me going.

Entering the Age of Manipulation (Er...Innocence)

2008-02-26T20:43:00.000-05:00

So today marks Cade's fourth birthday, which I can hardly believe. I started getting teary eyed last night, when Aaron remarked as Cade was going to bed, "Good night, three year old! When you wake up tomorrow, you'll be four!"

In preparation for turning four, Cade has experienced an explosion of skills in recent weeks, including becoming quite the conversationalist, learning how to dress himself (for the most part), and really trying to serve as a positive and helpful example for his potty training brother. Unfortunately, his bargaining and manipulation skills are developing quite quickly as well. A few cases in point:

In an effort to get the boys to help around the house with small chores we have developed a new chore and consequence system. If I ask the boys to say, pick up a toy as their chore, they must do that chore by the count of three (REAL count of three, not ongoing count of three) or lose a privilege. In order to earn that privilege back, they have to do THREE chores to make up for not doing the chore in the first place. A few days ago, Cade protested taking cars up to the playroom from the living room. He lost his privilege for TV the next day (it was already nighttime) and told me he wanted to take the three chores to earn it back. So I told him the first chore was to pick up his freaking cars and take them to the playroom! He was furious that his plan hadn't worked and told me he meant he wanted three DIFFERENT chores. Sorry, buddy - no dice.

To curb goofing off and getting out of bed at bedtime, we instituted a three consequence system for bedtime as well. Not to be outsmarted, the other night Cade sent Drew as his emissary to let us know that "Cade needs something." When we got upstairs, it turned out that Cade had simply "forgotten" which cup of water next to the bed was his and which was Drew's. Unwilling to risk punishment for getting out of bed, he sent Drew the Sacrificial Lamb on a parental-finding/bedtime stalling mission.

Cade's manipulation has gotten progressively more brazen and this morning, in celebration of his birthday, he kicked it into high gear. We popped into the drugstore to pick up a few items. His usual maneuver is to follow me around asking for assorted items, to which my response is always, "Not today." or "Put it on your birthday/Christmas list". Today's coveted item: a Sponge Bob Square Pants disposable camera, which he handed to me and said, "Can I get this mommy? I really, really want it!". Watching me draw a breath and prepare to refuse him, he sweetly said, "It's on my list because today is my birthday!". Leaving me little option but to cave - after all, you only turn four once.

Sassy As All Get Out

2008-02-18T21:10:00.000-05:00

Cade, who has always had a sophisticated sense of humor, has been in rare form lately. He's finally reached the stage that most of his peers reached two years ago - that is to say, he never shuts up. For a boy who staged a speaking boycott for the first 3 1/2 years of his life, he now suddenly has something to say about EVERYTHING - usually with tongue in cheek humor. A few examples from the past few days:

On Valentine's Day, during a discussion about love and what it means:
Me: Don't you love mommy, Cade?
Cade: No.
Me: Why not?
Cade: Because I don't have a heart.

Cade and Drew acted like absolute beasts in a restaurant one night and as punishment, I told them we could not go to Chick-fil-A for lunch and play on the playground for the next week. This was on a Thursday. The next Tuesday, we had occassion to meet some friends at Chick-Fil-A (stupid mommy had long forgotten about the punishment). As we were pulling into the parking lot:
Cade: But mommy, we lost this privilege!
Me: Uh - that was last week. This is a new week. Mommy hopes you learned your lesson - do you think you can behave now!?

While chasing Cade down after bathtime to try to wrestle jammies on him:
Me: Cade, why are you so skinny?
Cade: Mommy, why are YOU so fat?

Arriving home after an entire morning at the circus where Cade scored third row seats, two free hats, a bag of cotton candy big enough to feed an entire circus, and even a few covert sips of diet coke.
Cade: So guys, what are we gonna do today?

While eating a snack after a trip to the grocery store:
Aaron: Cade - if you're going to eat those grapes, you need to wash them off first.
Cade: Are you JOKING me?

I seriously do not even want to THINK about what this kid will be like as a teenager - I'm exhausted already.