Mondays with Crosby

At 11:24 am, Crosby Fox turned 1 year and 33 weeks old!!! We have been blessed with his presence in our lives for 85 whole weeks. My, my. Time sure does fly when you have child. I will never understand where it goes. I try my best to enjoy every second of him But inevitably, there are moments I take for granted. There are times when I am distracted. Times when my parenting skills are pretty pathetic. I know how fast this is going, yet I still get wrapped up in a busy life and let it pass me by. Oh to slow it down...

We had a little buddy over for a few hours on Tuesday. I decided to exercise my pathetic parenting skills and let them sit in front of the TV together. It was kind of cute...

I suppose it was a "nail biting" episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! I didn't watch so I am not sure what it was! I was too busy taking pictures of them. What is it about their little feet that is so stinkin' cute...

We spent a few hours in Columbia on Sunday afternoon. Apparently it was "wear your green clothes day" at the Lipscomb abode. Crosby got the memo but I didn't!!

We met the Malone crew (minus Jason, Kerri, Sam and Gid) at Macaroni Grille in Cool Springs to celebrate Anne Claire's birthday. I didn't get many pictures because Crosby had another less than stellar public performance. I think our faces kind of give you an idea...

I will blame it on the fact that I had to wake him up from a nap before he was ready. That and the fact that he is 19 months old and I think it just goes along with his age. At least we could tickle him and get a few laughs out of him...

I went to get him out of his bed after another 3+ hour nap. I haven't enjoyed his naps as much this week. I find myself wanting to hold him a little more. Wanting to kiss his little face and squeeze him tight. He just looks so big in there now...

Way back when, he barely took up the top corner of the bed...

Now he is all over the place... My sweet boy...

I love him...

He melts my heart...

He fills my life with so much joy...

I am so grateful for him...

This family is still on my mind. I hope it remains that way, as their walk though grief has barely begun. I dare not compare my grief to theirs. For what they are experiencing, I do not know. What I do know is that support from friends, family and even complete strangers helped me through my journey. I am asking that you do the same for them. Please love this couple and their sweet boy...

These words

are too precious not to share...
Long Awaited Child

Please continue to pray for this precious family.

Request

It is 11:36 pm. I can't sleep. My heart is broken. I received a text around 8:00 pm asking me to pray for this beautiful family. All I knew was little Bane had been put on a ventilator at Vanderbilt. I said a quick prayer and went about my business. I thought of them off and on as piddled around the house...starting a load of laundry, ironing a pile that has been sitting there for days. Folding a load that has been in the dryer since the weekend. You know, typical, routine chores. I finished and went down to the bonus room to get my phone and started to head up to bed. I had a voicemail and started to listen. The words were nearly too much to bare. All I remember hearing was "Little Bane didn't make it".

Tonight, I was pouting inside about having to stay up late to do boring, mundane housework. Tonight, this family watched their 10 month old son's life slip away.

Will you please help cover their family and friends in prayer?

Mondays with Crosby

At 11:24 am, Crosby Fox turned 1 year and 32 weeks old!!! As usual, we have had another super busy week. We had the first big consignment sale of the season, Monkey Business. I volunteered on Thursday and Saturday so I could shop early and get him lots of cute clothes for the fall. I LOVE this sale and have fun helping out. Plus it allowed me to shop early. I was the only person shopping in his size so I got all the cute stuff first!!! So fun and addictive. Good thing there are only a few more this fall...

Our church is hosting an exhibit through World Vision for the next week. I was able to walk through the experience on Sunday morning and then volunteer that afternoon. Let me say it was an emotional and eye-opening event. If you live in the area, I would encourage you to take 20-30 minutes out of your week to experience this for yourself. It is free and open from 10am-8pm. It will be worth it!

We had a birthday party to go to on Saturday for this little fella...
Crosby had a good ole time playing with someone else's toys...
He was especially fond of the mower. Imagine that. It has an engine. And wheels. And his dad uses one...

He was most excited about his first experience with Cheetos. Hence the picture of "Cheetos Face" up top!

And the Capri Sun was a special treat...

It was fun to spend time celebrating with the girls (and their families) from my CBS class...

Tonight we decided to take a family trip to the Williamson County Fair. I have heard lots of great things about it and wanted to give it a try. There is a section just for the little ones that is fabulous...in theory. It goes like this...The kids get and apron and a basket when they walk in the door. They fill their baskets with apples from the apple trees, eggs from the chicken coup, corn from a feed trough, milk from a cow. Then they plant some of their seed. They give some to the chickens and some to the cow. Then they get to "milk" a plastic cow. The get to "brush" a plastic sheep. At the end, they take all of the goods they collect in their basket and "sell" it to a farmer's market. They get a "dollar" for their goods and get to buy a treat at the very end. Everyone leaves happy! I wanted Crosby to have that experience.

We should have known that would be an unlikely outcome for us before we even walked away from the car! He threw fit #1 when we put him in the stroller. Fit #2 through #6 ish came while we waiting in the admission line. Fit #7 came when we walked into the arena. Fit #8 came when we kept him from getting on a train that had a "no climbing" sign on it. Fit #9 - #4,000 came during that sweet little walk through the toddler farmer's market!!! He did not want their apron, or their basket, or their eggs, or their corn, or their apple. He wanted to get back out of that building and to get on the gators (or whatever you call those things...) he saw riding around the fairgrounds! Thank goodness there was a tractor he could actually sit on. It bought us a few moments of peace...

This is the only picture of Crosby actually participating in the toddler farm. He tolerated playing in the dirt for about 15 seconds. Long enough for me to take a picture...

Notice he did let me put the apron on. There were all kinds of animals to see at the end of the market. Crosby was a little more agreeable there. We got to see an alpaca, a pot bellied pig, a horse, a long horned cow, a dairy cow, a donkey, sheep, chickens and more. But these were my favorite...

If piglets stayed that small and adorable as the ones on the right, we would have one as a pet. Too bad they will all be the size of the one on the left in no time flat. Especially if they keep eating the way they were when we walked by! Ravenous little piggies.

We thought it may be best to leave the toddler farmer's market and attempt a few rides. We walked all over the place trying to find one he could ride. He was too short for the ones we could ride with him. We were too tall to ride the smaller rides. Finally, we decided to take our chances on the pandas... We strapped him in REALLY tight and off he went...

I just love how these pictures make it seem as if he was going sooooo fast...

He wasn't. But we finally got a great smile out of the little man...

Then we tried the helicopters...

Success once again...

It really is pretty gross to think about him strapped into that filthy seat. Just know we did wipe him down once he got off each ride. I don't know how much good it did but we tried!

Riding on daddy's shoulders...

We decided to go on one last ride. A family ride on the carousel. Needless to say, somebody does not like to wait for everyone else to get on. He just wants them to start the ride as soon as he is seated...

Considering all of the fits Crosby threw over the course of the evening, this was one of the more pleasant, grumpy faces...

He was able to pull it together once the ride started...

But he was most excited about what he could see in the distance...

The silly gator thing that you can see parked in the background...

We could have saved money and gone to Home Depot for the evening if all he wanted to do was sit on "tractors"!! At least Crosby finished out the evening on a semi good note. As for me, this should give you a clue as to how my night ended...

If you know me well, you will know which of these fried bad boys I got...

I just had to say I tried one...

And it was good. But I think I prefer them straight out of the wrapper. Now I can tell myself I am doing good by eating the lower fat version!?! Or something like that...

To give Crosby a little credit, he had a late night and a super early morning. I am choosing to believe he was just tired. That is why he was quite possibly the worst behaved child at the fair!!!! I'm just hoping he will redeem himself next year...

A few of our favorites...

Crosby LOVES these little books... They are probably 2 square inches in size. Perfect for his palms to grip. We have Sesame Street, Tonka Trucks and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. They come in a little case with a handle or a strap at the top for easy transport. He looks at them over and over and over and over...

I LOVE these sheets.I learned about these from Corey when Crosby was just a tiny thing, but I already had sheets. He was a pretty clean baby so I rarely had to change his. ( I know, that is probably gross to admit...) But seriously, he never spit up or pooed in his bed. It seemed silly to spend money on sheets when they weren't much of an issue for me. Then he turned one and started getting all snotty and such. The sheets needed to be changed constantly. Let me tell you I quickly realized how hard it is to change crib sheets. After a few rounds of me vs Jenny Lind and Jenny winning every time, I broke down and ordered a set of these bad boys. Best move I ever made. Jenny's got nothin' on me now!! I am such a dork over these things, I wash them all the time just because I can!! Totally worth every penny. Even when your child is 1! I need to see if they make these for queen size beds... And you have to watch the video on the Clouds and Stars homepage. Pretty funny! Jill, you NEED these if you don't have them!

These have been a pretty good investment for the summer...

I am a little sad to see they have been marked down! I paid full price... Oh well. I saw them at the beginning of the summer and thought they seemed like a good idea. Cheaper than having to buy bags of disposable diapers over and over. I can't say that I have really had to test them out. Knock on wood...but Crosby has yet to poo in his swim diaper. It is so late in the season, I would probably just throw these away if he did!! I need to buy a bigger size for next year anyway. Might as well do it while they are on sale! :)

On the same note, Crosby wouldn't be with us if it weren't for this...So ours looks a little different than this one. It is made by the same company and functions the same way. This life vest has literally saved his Crosby's life on multiple occasions. Well, I guess that is a stretch. I have never been far enough away from him for that to even come close to happening. But had it not been for this vest, going to the pool would be nearly impossible. He does not want to be held. He wants his feet to touch the ground at all times. He does not care that sections of the pool are 4 feet deep and he is not. He wants his feet to touch there too! He wants to be in control of his movement at all times. He wants to go down the slide over and over. He steps into the "deep end" without thinking twice. Going to the pool is nothing short of a workout for me. Seriously! Forget the bathing suits with flotation in them. They just throw them face down, into the water. Kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me. But what do I know? I did everything I could to avoid using this bulky vest that hides his adorable swim shorts. It had to be done. This is the only device that flips him onto his back if he gets into deep water. And the handle at the top is the only way I can catch the child most of the time. I HIGHLY recommend this to the parent of an extremely busy/active/wild/whatever you want to call it child like mine. It is the only way to go to a pool! Safely anyway!

So there you have it. A few of our favorites! Share your favorites with me if there is something I NEEEEEED to know about!!

Mondays with Crosby

At 11:24 am, Crosby Fox turned 1 year and 31 weeks old!!! I am pretty sure it was right around that time today that things started going downhill. We made it 19 months without really having a diaper rash and I was hoping we could avoid one completely. Not so much. I realzied we had a problem right around lunch time and boy was it ugly! It just breaks my heart to see my little man in pain. The sweet thing walks like he just got off a horse. And I have seen no horses in my yard. Crocodile tears poor down his face when I change his diaper. He grimmaces and even flinches when I try to carry him on my hip due to the "pressure" to the general region. Pitiful, I say!!! Pitiful! I slathered my baby UP tonight before he went to bed with some miracle oinment I was given at a shower last year. Let's hope it hasn't expired! I want my pain-free baby back!!

He had an eventful week. Too bad my camera doesn't have many pictures to prove it. I made an attempt when we took a little trip to Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Company earlier this week. Blake has been friends with the owner (Scott) since childhood. Crosby and I set out to get a birthday present for Blake's brother and took the camera along. The cool wall decor was screaming for a photo shoot. Crosby, however, had other plans...

Seriously? The child was all over the place. Crawling on the floor, getting chocolate dust all over himself, and me for that matter. He threw a few fits. Tried to go beyond the "employees only beyond this point" point. He threw his sippy cup followed by his favorite new toy, the Mini Cooper. He would have nothing to do with standing still. So there you have it! Pictures from our lovely visit to O&S! Crosby aside, Scott has an amazing setup! How exciting to see his business doing so well! I am completely in love with the design of his wrappers. They matche my house perfectly and would look precious in a frame...don't you think?!?! While Scott may have enjoyed our business, I am sure he has had his fill of Crosby for a few months at least! :)

On to other exciting news...we are packing up the high chair! Somebody is now in a booster...

And has his own placemat...

And does not like to have Mickey, Minnie or Pluto covered by food!!!

He looks so big. I am not super happy about that part. Secretly, I want to keep the high chair out just so I can live in my little world of denial. But the kitchen is small so I had to be realistic and free up so space.

Pretty pathetic post. I know. Maybe I will throw in a few extras this week. Lake Day 2010 with my TTU girls tomorrow. Minus the men and kiddos! VERY excited!!!!!! And then there is the Monkey Business Consignment Sale on Thursday! I got TONS of great stuff for Crosby last Spring. I am hoping there is a lot to pick from for the Fall/Winter! I am so pumped about it. Then, Otter Creek will be hosting World Vision Experience: AIDS. You should REALLY reserve tickets and see this for yourselves. They are free so join us!