Big Ole Brain Dump

I should be cleaning the kitchen after last night's dinner with Rob and Anna, but I'm not.
Instead, I'm going to waste all of this kid-free time telling you what's in my brain.
What have I been doing? I'm a Twitter Addict and on Facebook too much.
Here are the June Pics - I realized I never linked them here.

How about a fun Fox story?
It's potty time, y'all. Poop, too.
I spent all day asking Fox to tell everyone in earshot what he did to Daddy's toe. "I pooped ona Daddy's (big pause) toe...".Vance will tell that story on his blog this week.

We've been talking about the potty for awhile now. Sometimes he's interested, sometimes not. This weekend, pretty interested.

(I would be almost finished with this if I didn't spend so much time linking.)

So anyway, we sit him on his little potty, we talk about making sure his 'boy parts' are pointing down into the potty, we run the bath water to motivate the pee-pee, we read books, etc, etc.

Yesterday Fox peed on his potty. Then he gets up and wants to dump it in the big potty so he can flush. However, he's not quite finished peeing. So when he flushes and hears the water, he realizes he needs to pee more. So he pees all over the floor and base of the toilet. Lucky for me, this is just as I need to leave to make it to Carey's twin shower. So I handed Vance a towel, kissed the both of them and headed off to celebrate with the girls.

This afternoon he pooped and peed on the big potty with Daddy holding him in place. Tonight before bed he peed (a lot) on his little potty. I guess we're potty training. Time to go get some pullups.

Fox and I have been to Orlando three times in the past 6 weeks. The first trip was to see this sweet lady, my Granny. She's 84 tomorrow, and lives in Charleston, SC. We had a wonderful visit, going down on Sunday and heading back on Tuesday. Lots of cousin time, of course. Here are a few of the best pictures from that trip.
Reading tiny little books with Grandpa
Watching ridiculous amounts of Thomas the Train while sitting in Granny's chair (or on her bed)

Lots of hugs and snuggles with my sweet nephew.

The second trip was completely unexpected. Fox and I were getting ready for church around 9 on Sunday July 13th. My sister calls and asked if I had talked to Mom this morning. Now, in my family, "have you talked to (insert name of another family member) today?" is code for "something is wrong but I hope I don't have to be the one to tell you". Of course, I haven't talked to anyone yet. Shannon starts crying and tells me that one of her and Jay's best friends killed himself the night before. I immediately start crying too, and Fox is seriously confused. I told her we would be there in 5 hours. She tries to tell me not to come, but I told her she didn't have to worry, I would pack and leave.
So I quickly packed for Fox and I for an indeterminate length of trip and headed to church to tell Vance his family was leaving and I didn't know when we would be back. The drive down was not at all terrible, Fox was content with his books and the occasional puppet show from the top of my head.
Dylan was already at my parent's house, he stayed over with them for the weekend. Then he stayed with me at their house until Thursday morning. There was lots of cousin time and I tried to take decent pictures of them.
Cheese, anyone?
I was amazed at how the details worked out. Typically, my week is full of stuff going on. Doctor appointments, playdates, co-op babysitting, and little jobs. That week, my calendar was completely empty. Not a coincidence. I needed to be in Orlando, to help my sister and love on her and Jay. Thursday we got to spend some time together, mostly talking about the fact that it was okay to be upset and that it's okay to ask for help. Friday we took the boys to Target to get their pictures done. I'm sorry to be so biased, but these are some seriously cute boys.
After pictures, we had lunch and then Fox and I headed back home. Vance was so glad we were home, but was terrible leaving my sister when she was still in so much pain. Thank you to everyone who prayed and please continue to pray for them and their friends. There is still a lot of healing going on, and it will be a long road to recovery.

The third trip had been planned well in advance. My Uncle Bill and Aunt Kathi were coming down from Michigan (where we visited last summer) and they wanted to see the boys. Vance got to come with us this time. We had a great visit, celebrated Shannon's birthday, and enjoyed swimming in the neighbor's pool.

Some other fun pictures - most of these are also in the July upload that I just finished.

Fox likes to 'fix' his scooter and digger like Daddy fixes cars. This mostly consists of him turning them upside down and sticking crayons in any available orifice and turning them, kind of like a screwdriver I guess.
He also loves to play his guitar with Daddy. Using a pick is a special treat since we usually have to retrieve it from inside the guitar afterwards.

Is there anyone else who loves to give their kids lemons? He makes these hysterical faces, and then asks for more!

This is the point when Daddy decreed it was haircut time.

Rock on!

Post-Haircut Cheese!

I love my sweet Dylan.

Fox loves his Daddy. This was at Coosh's after we returned from our 6-day trip to Orlando.

I am constantly amazed at how awesome my kid is. I love him more than I ever thought possible, and more every day. Vance and I are truly blessed.
He is the funniest, smartest, most exhausting boy on the planet, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
Okay, enough for tonight. Hope you've enjoyed novel. ; )