December 27, 2015

Fox, Katie & Nadine in 2015: Week 51

Day 351
Christmas Lunch with the Staff

Day 352
Fun Afternoon at the Children's Museum with a Fox and Liam (My co-worker's grandson who I watched this week)

Day 353
We met our friend Kristy and her son for dinner, Christmas Lights and (fake) snow that night.

Day 354
Fox's grandparents joined us at the Train Park and we all met up with Ashlie and Brad afterwards for dinner.

Day 355
He's the best gift ever!

Day 356
Beautiful Sunset in our neighborhood

Day 357
This boy loves his balls! These days, he insists on sleeping with at least one every night! 

December 24, 2015

Fox | 19 Month Pictures

A few random pictures from Fox's 19th Month of Life!



This was at an Antique Store and Fox loved this little bouncer seat. If he had been a little bit younger, we might have gotten it for him...he was not happy when we took him out! 
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December 23, 2015

Fox | 19 Month Update





Weight:
Haven't weighed him lately. He was 24.6lbs when we went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago for his cold. 

Height:
Not sure

Health:
He’s been sick on and off ever since we came back from vacation at the end of November. Cruise Ships and Airplanes are just so germy! He’s been having a runny nose and cough, we also went to the doctor to rule out an ear infection (which thankfully he didn’t have), but he can’t seem to shake this cold off!

Nicknames:
Big Honey, Bubba, Turkey, Schatzi, Bubbles, Mr. Fox, Foxy, Pumpkin, Poodle 

Eating:
Same as last month, picky as can be. I really, really dislike feeding him, so Katie usually does it, because I keep worrying that he’s not eating the right stuff. I pray for our next child to be a great eater!
On the cruise, Grandma gave him ice cream and he has been obsessed ever since (he hasn’t had it since we returned, but still yells Ice Cream every time I open the freezer!). During the Cruise he demanded Ice Cream every night and just kept saying “Ice Cream” and “Bitte” (German word for Please) in the most pathetic and sad voice I ever heard. It was pretty funny, although I wish he would ask for more broccoli instead!

Teething: 
No new teeth this month, he has 16. 

Sleeping:
Same as last month! He’s been sleeping great. We get about 11 hours at night and 2-3 hours for nap. 3 hours is the norm, but you never know. 
He goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 7am.
We still do the same routine, Milk, Books, Lights out and Singing until he tells us he’s ready for bed (the whole thing takes about 15 minutes). He now associates Milk with Books and vice versa, i.e. when we read books during the day, he thinks he should get milk too. Or, whenever he has milk (he gets a cup first thing in the morning, before nap and before bed), we have to read books as well. In addition, he asks for a “Decke” (German word for blanket) to go along with this routine, he usually wants two blankets to get all cozy and he loves it. He is still excited to go to bed and wants us to cover him with his “Decke” too.

Diapers:
Size 4

Clothing:
18-24 months, Size 5 Shoe  

Social:
The hitting has become much better, he also has been very gentle with our dog Cosie and cuddles on him now instead of trying to hit or kick him.
He is still shy around a big group of people, but gets out of his shell very quickly. He does not play with other kids yet (or rather very rarely), but is okay with sharing his toys. He has a very sensitive soul and does not like it when another child takes something away from him. He doesn’t get mad or tries to take it back, but just starts crying and is very sad. Same goes when another kid hits him, he never hits back, but gives us the biggest boo boo lip and starts crying. So sad!


Words:
Too many words to count or remember. It becomes very frustrating when he tries to tell us something and we don’t understand what he means and keep guessing. When we guess the right word, he gets really happy and excited. We call him the one syllable king and he is still mostly speaking one word “sentences” (I guess you can’t call that a sentence, but I don’t know how else to describe it).
A few new words he has picked up this month that I remembered to write down:
Stuck, Awesome, Sucker (Katie called me a Sucker and Fox repeated it – we have to be careful what we say now!), airplane, shoe, ice cream, socks, Decke (Blanket), Cookie, Tucker
He also understands what cold means and says “brrrr” when it’s cold and pretends to be shivering, so funny!

Likes:
Music and dancing, being outside, swimming, bigger kids, sleeping on his side and stomach, Cosie, showering, having his mommies attention, watching videos of himself, playing hide and seek, playing soccer and basketball, riding and sitting in his cozy coupe, being independent, reading books, balls, riding those mechanical cars in the mall, climbing, watching the Disney parade on youtube, Kettle Corn (we can thank grandpa for that one!), pretend driving our car (he throws an epic meltdown whenever we tell him no), the Ocean, playing Mini Golf and Hockey, playing with Grandma’s dogs, playing Cars, Shrek the Halls (Katie’s dream come true to watch this with him!), Santa, Carousels, drinking out of a big cup with a straw, Christmas Music (“Santa Claus is coming to town” is his favorite!), Tackling us, Disneyland Parade

Dislikes:
Putting lotion on after his bath, when we don’t allow him to do something, when we go inside after playing outside, trying new foods, when someone he loves gets hurt

Fun things we did:
This month has been so much fun already! Fox took his 14th airplane ride and we went on a Family Cruise to the Caribbean, where Fox swam in the ocean for the first time and also swam with dolphins. We did a lot of Christmas activities and enjoyed every moment of this magical time with our one year old: We saw Santa, took Fox’s Christmas pictures, went to see (fake) snow at one of our outdoor malls, saw the Fairmont Princess Christmas Lights display, had a cookie and ornament exchange with our friends at our house, decorated our house and tree, went to Zoolights and looked at Christmas Lights!

Milestones:
His language is still exploding and it’s so fun to be able to communicate with him.

What we’re looking forward to:
To experience the rest of the Christmas Season with Fox and to celebrate his second Christmas with him!
We are also thinking about possibly spending New Year’s at the beach In Mexico and are looking forward for our new au pair to arrive at the beginning of January!  

December 22, 2015

Christmas Lights 2015

Looking at Christmas Lights is one of our favorite Christmas traditions. We started doing this years ago, when we first moved to Arizona (in 2008) and always add new houses and neighborhoods to our growing list of "must see". 

Katie's sister usually joins us, but this year, the entire family (minus Brad) came along for the ride! We started out with dinner at Joe's Crab shack before hitting Starbucks for some Hot Chocolates!

Notice how Fox is copying Katie's expression! That kid does everything his mommy does. 













One of these days, I'll have to learn how to use my camera in low light situations. It always frustrates me that I can't figure it out, so most of these are cell phone pictures!

A few days later, our company did a Christmas Trolley Tour to look at all the Lights around our side of the City. It was freeeeeezing in the trolley, but so much fun!





I can't believe Christmas is already this week! Eeeks! Even though we did a lot, I feel sad that my favorite season is coming to an end. I keep thinking about how Fox will be so much older next Christmas and how we will only have a limited number of years before he gets too old for Santa and the "Magic of Christmas". But this day is not today, so we'll soak up every Christmas moment we get with him. It's truly the best! 
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December 21, 2015

Fox, Katie & Nadine in 2015: Week 50

Day 344
One of my friends texted me this picture from Fox's soccer class. These four have known each other since they were teeny tiny and now play soccer together every week. Next session we'll have even more friends join his class, so fun! He really loves soccer and is quite good at it (at least that's what everyone is telling us). I'm sad that I'm not able to take him there, but grateful for friends who send us pictures and videos!

Day 345
Katie and I have been together since May of 2007 and got married in October 2014, but never had rings. So on this day, we went out and got rings! I still can't believe it and I love it so much! Katie's ring is the left one and mine is on the right. 

Day 346
Looking at Christmas Lights with the Family! We had such a fun day (and night)! There is a really cool neighborhood about 30 minutes from us, where literally every single house in the cul-de-sac is decked to the nines. We went there a few years ago and it was worth a return visit. It was freezing cold (for us anyway), but we had a great time!

Day 347
Katie loves to watch Women's Soccer. So when we had the chance to get free tickets to the US Women's Soccer Team Game, we jumped on it! It was a fun night with my favorite girl!

Day 348
Katie told me that her grandma bought these hats 20 years ago and made the entire family wear it for Thanksgiving one year. Let's just say I was glad that I was out for a work seminar that day and didn't have to wear one of these when Katie brought them into work that day!

Day 349
We had our Company Christmas Party and rented a Trolley to look at Christmas Lights. If you look closely, you can see us somewhere in that picture...! This is our favorite Christmas House in Phoenix and we usually go every year. 

Day 350
Morning Cuddles in our bed. 
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