Kicking up a storm

Two teeth erupted in Corbin's mouth this week. About the same time as all our stormy weather here in Bham. He has one little bottom tooth and I thought his other one would make it's entrance any day. He was rubbing things on his gums like no tomorrow and cranky. Then at our Baby n me class I had him upside down and I saw that his top two teeth were cutting and he had little blisters! The next day they fully popped through! He won't let you get a look unless he is upside down! Then he just opens his mouth and smiles! It's pretty cute. I know you might not be able to see too much in this shot but now he no longer has a gummy smile :-)

He is also perfecting his army crawl. He can go and get a toy. He is doing some yoga positions like plank and a lazy down dog. That butt goes up in the air but then he doesn't really know what to do with his knees. I went down to Babies R Us with Daylen and Luca to get baby proofing stuff. Yow. Baby gates, plug covers, etc. My plants have all been evacuated from the living room floor and are now living in new and higher ground.

And then tonight we went swimming! All that kicking around he does on the living room floor finally had a purpose! He was talking up a storm while looking at the water and once he got in, he splashed about. We did things like grab for toys, throw them and then go float to get them, sing songs, have them float on their backs. Corbin floats about as well as Adam, which is almost zero. Then we all had to get out of the pool because a baby pooped! So we go in the big people pool which was colder but they still had fun! Corbin and Brody were turning blue but he never once fussed, even when Adam dunked him! Twice! I think we might have a swimmer on our hands! I was in the pool too so I only got a couple of pictures.

Wow, that is like a really BIG bathtub...

As some of you might have heard, I guess we made national news, we had some flooding and landslides this week here in Bham. All the school districts except Adam's and Blaine were canceled on Wed. and Thursday because of flooding. Whatcom Falls was roaring!

Baby in motion

The end of 2008

Ok. Get ready for a lot of pictures! This is what happens when I don't get to post for a week. Or just that I take and post a lot of pictures :-) We are finally home and glad to be, although we had a great time with both of our families! Corbin's first Christmas was really fun. We got some really great time in with aunts, uncles, grandparents, great grandparents, and friends! Corbin got some really fun new wooden toys including some second hand blocks and a train and some great books. There was also a monkey theme, since he is my little monkey! Corbin also had two slightly tramatic events. He was too quick for us and grabbed a hot bowl of soup on Christmas Eve and burned his little hand. It blistered but he is now almost completely healed! It was hard on both of us for about a half hour! But then he hardly seemed to notice it. And we learned our lesson of what happens when you don't lable food in the fridge and make your own baby food. I had made him some apricots and my mom put them away so when I went to take out the apricots the next morning, I just went for the organge food in the tupperware. Later he became really constipated, in pain, grunting, sweating, crying, and then finally pooping! The next day when I went to take it with us both my mom and Adam said "that's not apricots, it's canned pumpkin pie filling!" Oh no! Now we know why he felt so bad! Of course it had things in it he probably shouldn't have but he survived and is all better now! Poor little guy!!! Now I need to lable my homemade baby food!

I wanted to start the tradition of reading him the "Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve. This book was given to me by my paternal grandma on my first Christmas.

My dad got out his rope and made up this great stocking hanging system using rope and a ladder behind the mantle so that we could all hang up our stockings!

Grandma knitted and felted Corbin's first stocking for their house!

We walked around my parents neighborhood in the snow on Christmas Eve. It was so beautiful out!

Jed and Kara finally made it! They had to fly into Sacremento and then take the bus to Medford where my grandpa Dan picked them up and drove them the rest of the way. All the crazy weather everywhere made it quite a LONG trip. Of course their luggage didn't make it and in fact Kara didn't get hers until they went back to Seattle to fly out!

We built some snowpeople out on the deck. Even mom helped!

The next day, when my battery was dead, they started leaning. Over the next two days the one on the right tipped into the other one and then they finally fell over.

Christmas morning!! Corbin's first stocking!

Oooohhh a monkey. I think I will put it into my mouth!

Jingle bells and some socks! Wow!

Adam in his new Seattle Sounders Jersey.

Yeah, a whole box of blocks for me to put into my mouth!

Some new books.

The bows are fun too!

We went out for a Christmas Day ski and stopped at the warming hut for some cheese and sausage. Yum!

Our skiing family! The benefits of having a former US Ski Team member in the family are many. He not only passes down all of his old clothes for the rest of us to wear but he doesn't need to bring any of his ski stuff with him which is good because with no luggage, it would have been hard to ski. Kara just used my mom's old skis and boots. And the second good thing, was that Jed could again ski with the Chariot in the deep powder instead of Adam. We thought they would have groomed after teh 6+ inches of snow that had fallen but no... so unfortunately only Grandpa, Kara, and I were on classic skis. So the gowing was slow. But it was still fun!

Here is Corbin's first tooth!

More Christmas!

Corbin and the boys, playing games of course!

We decided to host our Second Biennial New Years Eve Dinner. We grew by almost 2x as much this year. We missed Sabe and Tom but had lots of fun! We invited 14 of our friends to come over for New Year's to celebrate. Adam made a 6 course Spanish meal out of his new cookbook, 1080 Recipes. We spread the meal out over several hours, babies going to bed, waking up, eating, drinking wine and hot buttered rum.

And Corbin is moving around like crazy. This video doesn't do him justice. He is all over the place. Today I set him down in the Kitchen and when I cam back he had dumped Brindzi's water dish all over the floor. I REALLY need to baby proof I guess!! He is going to be crawling in no time. He can move around and around and backwards and tries to get his butt up in the air. He moves his little legs sooo fast. I can only imagine how fast they will go once they hit the ground!

Happy New Year! Who know what this year will bring! It was a pretty amazing 2008. I am looking forward to all the new things that will come in 2009.

Dead battery

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, or winter wonderland fun! We had a great Christmas with Corbin and family. Unfortunately my camera battery is dead and I cannot find the charger for the life of me. So until then, I cannot post the most recent pictures. Just imagine a cute little 6 month old little boy ripping wrapping paper and finding treasures inside of boxes. Or just the box themselves :-) He is a mover and a shaker. I feel that any day he is going to get up on all fours and the chasing will begin.

4 generations of skiers

Today the sun came out just for us to go skiing for the first time of the season. It was a gorgeous day! The perfect day for four generations of skier to be out. My grandpa, my mom, me, and Corbin were all out, ages 91-6 months! Pretty cool! Here we all are. This is a bad picture but it shows all of us- Grandpa, Marge, mom, dad, Jed, Kara, Adam, me, and Corbin in his Chariot!

Corbin got pulled by his uncle Jed, his grandpa, and finally Adam. Each one got a workout! Corbin slept the whole time.

Grandpa and Corbin.

Makes those hills even harder :-) Maybe Adam will now be my speed.

Sleeping away!

It was Kara's first time out on cross country skis! She did great!

And here are the four generations of cross-country skiers! Pretty cool!

Snow in the NW

Well we made it to Bend despite all the NW snow that shuts everything down! We were lucky that Adam didn't have school on Thursday or Friday so we could pack and then leave earlier than 5 pm on Friday night. We left Bellingham after Corbin's 6 months doctor's appointment. He is 27 1/2 inches, 85%ile and 16 lbs 10 oz, 35%ile. Tall and skinny! Anyway...we left Bellingham in two cars because Jed and Kara were going to be flying into Seattle and then driving our second car down to Bend too. The freeways were pretty good leaving Bellingham until we got to Arlington which got slammed with snow. The freeways were all icy and crunchy. Sometimes only two lanes were clear. It was slow going until Everett. Then it got clear again. We had gotten the tire fixed on the Nissan but when Adam stopped for gas, the tire was low again! So to make a long story shorter, we left it in Seattle with Kevin and Meghan to get it fixed again (thanks guys). After all that we were only ahead of our original schedule by a few hours! We made it to Portland just as it started snowing again. Stayed with Sam and Ali. Got up to more snow. Needed the chains to get out of the city streets of Portland. Got on the freeway. Went really slow. Got almost up to Mt. Hood before we had to put the chains on again. Chains. Then dry road to Bend. Snow again in Bend. Few! It was a snowy and long trip. Corbin was a super trooper. He slept most of the way! And hardly cried at all! So was Brindzi! So now here we are at my parents house. Now Jed and Kara are having a hell of a time getting here through Chicago, Portland, and then Seattle. They are hoping to skip going to Seattle and just get off in Portland...so much for getting the tire fixed. Oh well. Hopefully they make it somewhere. I am glad I am not flying.

Here Corbin is all snug in his Chariot with the ski attachment! We didn't have ski's on because we didn't want to ruin them on the trail, although the coverage was better than we thought. It worked pretty well to just pull it. His head was a little bobbly but next time we will fix the head rest a little. My parents house is right on the canal with access to some awesome trails to the river!

Corbin all snug as a bug with Grandma!

He did much better in the snow this time. Brindzi wanted to let him know how much she loves the snow!

Hmmm...I seem to be stuck in here!