The Malones: Mondays with Crosby and Jane Claire

At 11:24 am, Crosby Fox turned 3 years and 34 weeks old!!! At 1:04 pm, Jane Claire turned 21 weeks old!!! What a whirlwind of a week it has been. I am ashamed to say it was all for the sake of gently used children's clothing. It was consignment week in Middle Tennessee. Other than Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is one of my favorite times of the year. Ridiculous, I know. I have so much more fun finding clothes for my babes than I do myself. If that isn't a reason to have Stacy and Clinton come to my front door I don't know what is. Not to mention the current state of my closet. Where was I?!? Consignment sales... Way back when I signed up to volunteer for my 2 favorite sales, I wasn't exactly using a calendar. So, silly old me signed up to work one sale when I was supposed to be shopping at the other! Way to go genius! In all actuality, it was probably for the best that it worked out that way. I spent as much money on 2 kids as I normally do on 1! The bank account appreciates my lack of organization. And in this situation, so does Blake! ;-)

But I am getting a little ahead of myself. Let me back up to Tuesday night. We joined the Autrys at the Cyr's house for dinner. It is one of Crosby's favorite places to hang out. Why??? Once guess...

He LOVES hearing Jeremy play the guitar. Although he really, really, really wants to play it all by himself! He is convinced an electric guitar is just as easy to play as the air version. I am thinking we need to tell Santa to invest in a much cheaper version for Christmas! ;-) Jane Claire was in such a cuddly mood. She looked so adorable all snug as a bug with LeAnne. Sweet baby girl..

I feel off the face of the earth on Wednesday and Thursday trying to get clothes hung and tagged and delivered. I left the house on Thursday at 8:30 to take Crosby to school and did not return home again until 8:30 that night! What a long day. And Miss Priss went right along with me. She worked the consignment sale with me for a few hours. Headed home with Lulu for a few hours. Then came back to the sale and off to a Matilda Jane sale before we headed home! CRAZY day I tell you. CRAZY!!! Fun times regardless. It is a good thing this only happens 2 times a year! I will be sure to pull out my calendar in the Spring. Although the little girl needs NOTHING for next Spring/Summer! Remind me of that come February/March please!

On Friday night AND Saturday night, dear little Jane Claire slept from 9:00-5:30 and 9:00-6:30. It was lovely! To top that off, she woke up talking so sweetly. Seriously melts my heart to hear that voice of hers. And we are hearing more and more of it. Love, love.

On Sunday afternoon, we headed to Baptist for the annual NICU Birthday party. This year was a super special year because we helped celebrate the retirement of Dr. Jorge Rojas. He is a special man to our family. He was the gentle doctor that tried so hard to stabilize sweet Caroline so we could enjoy her presence here on this earth. I can still see his face as he told us we would not get the ending we had longed for. He, along with our special friend, Danielle, took care of our sweet baby in last moments of her life. We got to know Dr. Rojas even more as we watched him care for out precious Crosby. As much as he wanted to send Crosby home with us when we left the hospital, Dr. Rojas wanted to make sure he did NOT come back. He kept him a few days longer just to be sure! We were fully prepared to go another round with him earlier this Spring but were pleasantly surprised with the gift of a NICU-less pregnancy/delivery! Jane Claire met him for the first time at the party! Needless to say, it was such an honor to be at the celebration to personally thank Dr. Rojas for the role he played in our lives. What an amazing man...

Crosby was ALLLL about playing the games this year. The first "attraction" was the tattoo line. He went with a purple monkey on the forearm. You'll see it... Then he got in line for Go Fish. I managed to snap a picture right as Jane Claire was giving her daddy a big ole grin so I had to share it! Too sweet...

Fishing...

So serious! I think he caught a Kit Kat bar... ;-)

Then he moved on to the ring toss. He might have been a little close...

Going in for a prize...

I am thinking the sign says this was the Mexican Jumping Bean Bag Toss maybe?!? He scored!

Meanwhile, Jane Claire was being entertained by Mr. Jason. It was going well at first...

Then she got all serious...

And bust out in tears!! So pitiful. It is so hard to be a baby...

The big kids had a grand ole time. It took a lot of effort to get one, decent (if you call this decent) picture of them. Margaret, Crosby and Jack...

We stood in line and finally made it to the man of the hour! We actually got a family picture with Dr. Rojas and everyone was looking AT the camera! Very impressed...

These little frogs were a HUGE hit with our bunch...

They threw them on the wall and watched them slowly work their way back down. Could have entertained them for hours! Good to know...

My name tag with Crosby's info...

The sweet NICU babies that brought the Malone and Rick families together. We are so very blessed to have these precious children in our lives...

Even when they are super silly!!

After the party, we headed to the park for a picnic dinner. Sweet Wells, another NICU babe, was strapped in for meal time. He was ready to PLAY with with the big kids at this point!!!

Little Bit and I just hung out on the blanket...

She was fine to chew on her hands while they played...

We finally loaded up the whole gang and headed toward the cars. They thought this was pretty awesome...

Of course we couldn't get them to all look at once!

Would you look at that Margaret with her arms so tight around Crosby's waist! She loves her Crosby and he loves her back!

Going for a ride!

"Heeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!"

What a fun day with great friends! We love Baptist and all of the doctors and nurses that took care of us while we were there.

We pulled out the exersaucer this week and let Jane Claire have a try at it...