We Have a Thief in Our Midst!

(Note: Let the video cycle through once, then you can enjoy the theft uninterrupted.)

Giveaway - From the Critters

How would you like to go out to your mailbox and find this little beauty sitting there?

I was recently contacted by CSNStore's promo team and they offered to sponsor my first giveaway here on Behind the Three.

Melissa and Doug is one of my favorite brands when it comes to kiddie toys. Well made and whimsical, M & D's toys just exude happiness and encourage childlike wonder. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to giveaway a Melissa and Doug Flapping Duck Push Toy, courtesy of CSN's toysandgamesonline.com. Rian and I love finding online resources for amazingly priced toys - and this site is one stop shopping! If you have little ones of your own, your best friend is expecting or if this little dude just makes you happy, please sign up as a follower and leave a comment and win the chance to give him a home. (Folks that are already a follower just leave a comment.)

Rules:
1. Only one entry per person.
2. No anonymous entries will be considered - I need a name and an email address folks!
3. The winner will be selected Febrary 5th using Random.org.

Chris

Thrice in a Lifetime

Courtesy of Anita Kunz (metroactive.com)

Sorry for the play on a Talking Heads song but I thought it appropriate. Well there has been a new development with the Critters.................(drumroll)......................talking! Reese has decided to take the bull by the horns and start talking. As his mom said, "he is so smart, well on his way to becoming a doctor." While his first word wasn't "cardiologist," it was still impressive. Reese decided to start small with the word "DaDa." Now a lot of the time he will string it together six times ("DaDaDaDaDaDa"), but there have been some occasions where he will just say it once. Of coarse it is about as tough to get in video as Bigfoot.

I think Hadley will be the next to speak, you can just see she is trying so hard. As everyone should know by now CarCar will do things when she is good and ready, so we have stopped speculating on when we think she will do things.

Chris

Happy Birthday Grandma Kate!

A Huge "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" from the Critters.

Reese's New "Buddy"

Its amazing when you see one of your children open up to someone and make a new "buddy." Reese's new buddy is his Uncle George. Reese met Uncle George over the holiday break as Aunt Jane and Uncle George were down from Winona, Minnesota. I think that George had an instant bond with his "little buddy" too.

Over the next few days it was fun to watch Reese and Uncle George interact. Uncle George pretty much became the sole person who fed Reese. Uncle George would have the bottle, bib, burp cloth, and binky ready before he would begin the feed. While this was convenient for Uncle George, Reese would sometimes get a little impatient.

Over the next few days Uncle George would come up with persona's for Reese depending on what he was wearing that day. The first day Reese was a banker due the the button down and sweater vest that he had on. The next day Reese was a pirate. This was my favorite day to see Reese and Uncle George together. George came up with some great quotes for Reese:

1. Shiver me timbers.
2. Hey buddy, pirates don't cry.
3. Hey buddy, I don't think that pirates use binkies.

There was also a lot of "ARGGGGGG's" said.

The next day Reese became a soccer player due to his striped onsie he had on. Finally Reese was a lumberjack. He had a flannel plaid shirt on and really looked like he should be toting around an axe. George informed Reese that he had a "Husqvarna" chainsaw and that he could use it. Rian nixed this idea spouting something along the lines of Reese being too young and too small. As Uncle George would say, "Oh well, too bad little buddy, maybe when you get older."

You could definitely tell that Reese and Uncle George made an connection and Reese can't wait until he can see his Uncle George again.

Chris

Like a Tsunami

It finally happened, we the Critters are sick, all of them. On top of that Rian and I are also under the weather. CarCar appears to be the one who infected everybody as she was the first to show signs. Tuesday night and Wednesday night were less than enjoyable. Little to no sleep while feeling like garbage is not a good combo.

We broke out the humidifier that Rian registered for and let me tell you that thing can create some moisture. The humidifier looks like a frog and it appears that it was trying to create a marshland in the nursery. The floor was quite damp when we would come in the nursery but there was quite a bit less congestion to go around.

Well we are all on the mend and hopefully the Critters will not have to go through this again anytime soon. Hopefully the weather will finally warm up, we do live in Florida don't we?

Chris

Lucha Libre

CarCar was sporting her new hat on Sunday and when we arrived at Costco we saw this:

She was apparently trying to be a Mexican Wrestler known as a Lucha Libre or she was planning on holding up Costco. Luckily we were able to talk her down and we fixed her fashionista hat before we entered the store.

P.S. - CarCar is the funloving Critter so she wanted you all to have fun with this link.

Chris

Baptism

The Critters were baptised on January 3, 2010. It was a wonderful sunny (a little bit cold) day. We headed off to St. Lukes Lutheran Church, were Rian and I were married, around 10:00AM. We had to have a quick run of the program and then we were off. Pastor Arp, who also married us, performed the Baptism. Each God Parent held their God Son/Daughter during the Baptism. Jane held Carson Jane, Allison held Hadley Ann, and Laura held Reese David. It was a wonderful service and the Critters were excellent. There was not a hitch during the service. As usual the Critters looked exceptional in their Christening gowns/suit.

After the service everyone loaded up and headed over to Chez Vincent for the Baptismal Luncheon. It was a wonderful meal, and it was even better with the folks that were there. It truly was a perfect day. I want to thank everyone who came to share in the Critters special day.

Pictures:

Baptismal Font.

During the ceremony.

Jane and CarCar.

Allison and Hadley.

Laura and Brother.

Adrienne and CarCar.

Harrison and Reese.

The Attendees.

Pastor Arp, Rian, Me, the God Parents, and the Critters.

Laura and Reese by his banner.

Chris

Gator Bowl 2010

Pic courtesy of Warchant.com

Rian and I were able to sneak off to the Gator Bowl to see Florida State take on West Virginia in Bobby Bowden's last game. Let's just say that it wasn't the nicest of days. The weather folks got it wrong once again. I wish I had a job where I could be wrong 50% of the time. It felt more like the game was in West Virginia rather than Jacksonville, Florida. Throw a little rain on top of temps in the 40s and you have a great tailgating day. Oh, and for good measure Rian and I had flip-flops on, because once again it wasn't supposed to be cold.

Luckily we took Grandma Kate's car and she had some jackets and scarves in the back, the bad part is all of the outerwear was Navy and Yellow - West Virginia University school colors. Rian was decked out in yellow (pseudo gold) pants and a white shirt and I had on my new FSU game day pants and a white shirt. You can see where I am going with this, Rian looked like a straight up West Virginia fan, and I just looked really confused when I added the navy and yellow jacket to my FSU pants. People kept asking me if I was confused or rooting for both teams so I just told people I was celebrating the entirety of Bowden's career. (Note: I have no idea what Sanford's colors are.)

It stopped raining around kickoff so instead of rainy and cold it was just windy and cold in our upper deck seats. The game was great, an FSU win, which this season was few and far between. We headed off back to Orlando after the game to get some much needed rest.

Pictures:

Rian as a West Virginia fan.

Rian and I at half time, notice my navy and gold jacket.

Halftime celebration for Bobby.

Final Score, Go Noles!

Chris

Poop

This is definitely a post that Brother is going to look back on a despise me for but it was just too funny not to mention.

It started off innocently enough, Uncle George was playing with Brother and he detected a whiff of something foul. I grab Brother to change him. I take off his jeans without a second thought and I grab his leg to lift his rear end up and that's when I noticed it. MY HAND WAS COVERED IN POOP. Brother had pooped so much that the poor Pampers diaper just couldn't contain it. It was all down his leg and it coated the inside of his jeans.

As you can imagine the sight of my hand covered in poop got quite a reaction from Rian. She is screaming about how disgusting it is, all the while not getting me any paper towels for my hand. I remove the diaper and it only got worse from there. I really did not know an eight month old child could poop this much. The poop had gone up his back and somehow it made its way to his armpit. How it got there I have no idea. At that point I made that command decision to wipe everything off and head straight for the tub for a bath. 10 minutes later Brother was a new man, about a pound lighter and squeaky clean.

His clothes were another story. I had to take them outside and hose them off before putting them in the washer.

We figured out the culprit was summer squash, needless to say that will not be served in our household again.

Chris

The Great Escape - Abbey Edition

Unfortunately this does not involve Steven McQueen or James Garner, it involves Dog Sister and a lot of running.

8:15AM (12/30/09) - A call goes out that Dog Sister had made a break for it. She had wedged herself between a gap in two fences. This gap had been covered by the orange plastic fencing. The strange thing is that Abbey will not even push a partially open door to get through. She will sit there and whimper until you move the impediment that is obstructing her way. So with Rian in the shower, my mom and I shoot out the door (we where at her house, Dog Sis was at Grandma Kate's) forgetting one key thing which will come back to bite me in the butt, my cell phone. We get into Grandma Kate's neighborhood and try to find Uncle George and Aunt Jane who are already on the case. Unfortunately, they did not have a cell phone either, so finding them proved to be a challenge.

8:35AM - We rendezvous with Uncle George and Aunt Jane on a cul-de-sac and find that Dog Sis has run into a backyard, with you guessed it, another gap in a fence. I run through this backyard out into a drainage canal easement. I look right, then left, and I see a small little white creature walking about a quarter mile away. Usain Bolt had nothing on me right then. (Note to self, when chasing dog do not wear flip-flops.)

8:37AM - While not world record time, I caught up to Dog Sis. Now we start the cat and mouse game. We run down this easement for awhile until I start to see familiar houses. I couldn't believe it but I am now back where I started in my mother's neighborhood. This chase has now gone through two counties in Central Florida.

9:10AM - After more cat and mouse games, I thought that I had Dog Sis penned up in the lake by my mom's house (It is fenced in aside from a few walkways). I took off for my mom's house to tell Rian to call Grandma Kate and have the troops head to my mom's neighborhood.

9:25AM - Reinforcements arrive and they find an exhausted, flip-flopless, and muddy Chris, and a Dog Sis who is ready for a little more fun. My mom pulled some sort of police cruiser move and had her car blocking the road in front of Dog Sis. She called out an Abbey ran right to her (why couldn't we do this an hour ago). Dog Sis had been apprehended. After retrieving my flip-flops from the easement we headed back to Grandma Kate's were a nap was had by all.

8:01AM (1/2/10) - Here we go again! Dog Sis has now used her teeth to rip a hole in the orange plastic fencing. I will spare you all the details but we apprehended her in under 25 minutes this time.

Needless to say that day a lot of metal fencing was purchased in Central Florida. That remedied the situation.

It is a good thing that we all like Dog Sis.

Chris

Critters First Christmas 2009

First Christmas, I can't believe that the Critters are having their first Christmas. Rian and I tried to set some restraints on the gift giving, one present per Critter. Lets just say that that didn't work. We are looking into a U-Haul to get their stuff back to Tallahassee. Apparently you cannot ship live things through Fedex, sorry Dog Sis. We headed down to Orlando on the 23rd of December. To say the trip did not go smoothly would be an understatement. Once again we hit quite a bit of traffic on the way down. Not to mention, the Florida Turnpike was down to one lane each way. We rolled into Orlando around 9:30PM. Once again Reese made an unsuccessful attempt to go to Cafe Risque on the way down. Mom vetoed that one. I will prepare you all for what you will see in the picture section, CarCar had a little accident about 5 minutes after we got to Orlando. Dog Sis was so excited to see everyone that she was jumping around and jumped and hit the tree then on to CarCar. NOT DOG SIS'S FAULT AT ALL. Dog sister is usually more careful than most people around the Critters.

Christmas Eve started off a little earlier that normal. We hit the children's service at St. Lukes at 4:30PM. All I can say is that service is right up my alley. I had to change a diaper twenty minutes into it and by the time I was back from the car folks were heading out. On to Grandma Barbara's house for Christmas Eve dinner. After sufficiently stuffing our faces and reading The Night Before Christmas we took some photos. (see below) The Critters wanted to get off to bed so that Santa could come, especially CarCar. She had a very specific list for Santa Clause. CarCar wanted a TomTom GPS device for her future car and car wash solution in her stocking. Quite a few people may find this odd but CarCar is a very particular child. She is just very excited about getting a car.

Christmas came at the same time as most days, 7AM for the feed. Then it was go time. The Critters definitely received more than the one allotted present. After the present bonanza we got ready for another feast. After gorging ourselves again we began to prepare the Critters for their first New Year.

Pics:

The Critters on Christmas Eve. (Notice the wound on CarCar. We say she was attacked by a puma.)

The whole fam on Christmas Eve.

Brother with a very stylish hat. I wish you all could see the hat in action. It is quite loud and has plenty of flashing lights. (It might cause more seizures than a Japanese Cartoon.)

CarCar getting her car wash. Unfortunately she did not get her TomTom.

No need for presents, CarCar just wants wrapping paper.

Chris

Photo of CarCar - 1/2/10

CarCar

Chris

Its a Nice Day for a Critter(less) Wedding

Well the wife and I were able to head down to Sarasota the weekend before Christmas without the Critters, well at least after we dropped them off with the Grandma's at Wildwood (quickly becoming a hot spot with the Critters). While the Critters were heading to Orlando we were off on our baby less escapades.

We arrived at the Holiday Inn a few minutes before we were to leave for the Rehearsal Dinner. We decided to start the weekend in style by heading to the hotel bar. Two beers later we were on our way to the Rehearsal Dinner at Marina Jacks. Rian and I had a great time there and the food was fan-freaking-tastic. A few (many) beers later we hoped on the bus to head back to the hotel, but low and behold we stopped at the Ritz (the other wedding hotel) to drop some folks off and the shuttle driver asked everyone if we wanted to grab a drink at the bar. A few drinks later we were once again off for our destination hotel.

Nine thirty the next morning came very quickly. Rian and I got ready for the day and headed off for a restaurant called Yoder's. I was unaware of this at the time (it must not be widely published) but there is large Amish community in Sarasota. While I was disappointed about the lack of horse drawn buggies, those Amish folks can make a mean meal. After breakfast we headed down to the ritzy shopping district to look around. We popped in a few stores and quickly realized the Tallahassee and Sarasota are quite different. After a little while we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the big shindig later that night.

We were off once again in the shuttle heading to the wedding/reception site. (Note: a shuttle is a very nice feature for parents on their first Critterless venture.) The ceremony was held outside at the Lakewood Ranch Country Club. Unfortunately we were told if we were 5 minutes earlier we could have seen a good size gator crawl out of the pond and into the brush. After a wonderful ceremony we headed inside to the reception site. Off to the bar. Let me just say that the band they had blew away any other wedding band I have seen. Another great time had by all, but we retired a little earlier because we had to hit the road and pick up the Critters. We headed to the Serving Spoon that morning for breakfast and were off to Wildwood. We had a great Critterless weekend but couldn't wait to scoop up the little guys and head home. Even better, I only had a three day work week when we got back, then off to Orlando for Christmas.

Pictures:

Ceremony Site

Liz and Marshall

Reception Site

The ladies at the wedding

Chris