It's almost 2010, we just finished dinner and a game is on the table, so you just get pictures from our Christmas family celebrations. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve and I look forward to what 2010 may bring. Love and Peace to you all!!!
Corbin is getting into the Christmas and Holiday Spirit lately. He is so much fun right now. He turned 18 months this week! Crazy! Not just with the holiday things that are happening but everything in general. I don't know if it's because his language is exploding and he can express more now or he is just aware of more thing or most like a combination of both. Everything is new. He repeats everything we say. His favorite things right now are winter/Christmas themed. Our Christmas tree, the lights, the ornaments, snowmen, SANTA, singing Christmas songs, everything! He is obsessed with Santa and his reindeer. We have been reading "The Night Before Christmas" illustrated by Tasha Tudor and given to me on my first Christmas by my grandmother. He loves the drawings and the Santa and Reindeer. He will say them over and over and over again. He can't get enough! When we are out at night he loves the lights and wants "more more more" and gets excited when he sees a Santa.
So we thought it would be fun to go and see Santa and get his picture taken. Last year I was on a quest for a good real, and cheap, Santa. I didn't find one and then I was at the mall, which I had just avoided thinking it would be bad and it was the best Santa I had seen. So this year, I didn't even really look around. We decided to brave the mall and get there right when it opened. He was so excited. There were about three other people in line in front of us but he kept wanting to go ahead of them. When we were finally in front, he kept trying to just go up and say hi. We told him he needed to say behind the green line. He kept sneaking a toe or foot over to see what we would do. At one point he even tried crawling across! He was getting impatient but then FINALLY Santa came over to say hi! He gave him a high five and walked over to his chair but noticed a rocking horse on the way. The rocking horse was way cool. He wouldn't sit on Santa's lap but instead sat on the rocking horse and Santa knelt down. Corbin was so busy trying to rock that he wouldn't really smile for the camera. But we finally got one where he was at least looking at it. We will scan it when we get a chance. He was sad to see Santa go and when we had to pass him leaving, he was really sad. He wanted to go back!
"Look there he is!"
This afternoon we went to Becky and Kevin's to make cookies and exchange them. I decided that I wanted the boys to do gingerbread and sugar cookie cutouts. So I made the dough this morning... put it in the fridge to cool. But I have my mother's genes and her recipes (which are not exact- Yes, you know this is true mom :-) and then tried to make the frosting... again no recipe just the ingredients... oops 1/4 cup butter not 2 sticks... and then the sugar cookies were too soft and just turned into sugar melted cookie wafers! Oh well. The gingerbread turned out ok, a little dry and cooked a little long. But the boys loved cutting them out and helping roll out the dough! It was worth it to just see them have fun!
By the end Corbin was my little flour monster! Corbin and Brody had no complaints at the final outcome though. Frosting, cookies, how could you go wrong! Tomorrow I will make Mexican Wedding Cakes with my messed up frosting recipe, butter and sugar and now all I need to add is flour and nuts! I am getting excited to see how Corbin reacts to the rest of all the Christmas excitement that is coming our way with our families!
That's right you read it right... there is another little Erin & Adam on the way! I am pregnant again :-) I have been slowly telling people and then made the web announcement though Facebook yesterday. I was trying think of a cleaver way of blogging about it but instead decide to just come out and say it. I am 11 weeks along, due around July 6, and feeling pretty good. I had about 2 weeks of late afternoon/night nausea but other than that feeling good. It's true what they say about your second pregnancy, you keep forgetting you are pregnant, it's almost old hat. You have this little toddler to think about and love and cuddle with. You know what it's going to be like (mostly) and what to expect. I have picked up a pregnancy book once. With Corbin I was reading every week, every day, always thinking about it. I started going to prenatal yoga again last night. I think it will be good to get some alone time with just thinking about this baby. We are very excited to introduce another little baby into this world and to see Corbin be a big brother!
Adam and I also had our first date together in a long time this weekend! We spent the whole afternoon and evening together without Corbin! Almost 8 hours!! Kevin and Meghan came up to babysit, check out her blog for some great pictures. They had a great time with Corbin and Adam and I got some Christmas shopping done, dinner out, and even a movie! We need to do it more often. Then this morning we got to enjoy a late start home with Adam because of the snow. Hopefully Corbin and I will go out and play in it a little...if he ever naps!
Alrighty...another catch up post! We have had spotty internet since before Thanksgiving and it finally got fixed today. We lost our free cable though. We didn't watch much anyway so it shouldn't matter.
Corbin has been talking up a storm. Here is a video from the middle of November. He LOVES soccer! And dada playing soccer.
We have been very busy and yet not. It's been nice. We had the BI Grandparents and Neal up for Thanksgiving weekend. We were thankful to not have to travel that weekend since we are traveling for Christmas. Our friends Daylen, Chris and Luca also joined us for dinner. It was great to have a full house and play host. Corbin added "Nza", and Grandma to his names he can say now.
We had to take advantage of our resident Santa. Now all we need to do is get Grandpa Mark a suit!
One day we were just hanging out and Corbin just started doing this! Crazy kid!
And finally.... Corbin got his first haircut! He no longer has his cute little whispies. Although I loved them, I do admit he looks all grown up and cute with his new do.
Watch out. I am a big boy now!
For some reason I let Adam try to cut some of it... this is what happened. Adam says every first haircut has to have some sort of mess up, it can't be perfect.
Last night we enjoyed the Second Annual Jill and Paul Christmas Party. They offered free Christmas trees again...but they were pretty scarce and didn't even meet our low Christmas tree standards. Here is our tree from last year. But we still had fun eating good food, playing fun Christmas games, winning the prize for best dessert, Fudge Stravaganza (Fantasy fudge, Choc. Peppermint fudge, Butterscotch Pumpkin fudge, and Peanut Butter Choc. fudge) and best drink our homemade pressed cider!
Corbin had a blast with his buddies. They were running up a storm.
So then we ventured out in to the cold windy blue sky day to get our Christmas tree. We heard one place was charging $35 for any tree over eight feet. So we went there first. Really it was $45 for 12 feet and under! Wholly molly. The most we have ever paid for a Christmas tree was $10 from the National Forest. It seems outrageous! We felt that if we were paying $45 it better be the best damn tree we had ever gotten...and we didn't find it. So we left. We hadn't done any other research so we were out in the county not knowing where to go. I had the brilliant idea of going to a corner store and getting a paper. At first Adam didn't want to buy a paper but I convinced him. And it was a good thing I did. They had a whole section devoted to U-cut Christmas tree farms in the county. The first one said "all tree's $15". Our decision was made. We figured it would be another Charlie Brown like tree farm, which would be perfect for us. When we got there all the trees were perfectly trimmed. The kind that looks like a dense cone. The ones I don't like. But they were $15 so we couldn't complain. They said they just wanted to get rid of them all, it might take them a while, it was a pretty big lot! We tried to search for the least perfect tree. We think we found the one and only...we suggested next year they leave some un-trimmed.
Corbin says "this one".
Here dad, let me help you cut it down.
Helping carry it to the car.
Corbin got to place the first ornament, his sock monkey from last year. It's also a colored lights year... we have to switch every year. I like white lights, Adam likes colored. We switched to the LED lights this year. It's taking a while to get used to them... but they will save on energy use!
He thinks the stockings are pretty fun, especially the snowman on his.
A little different than our tree from last year. I don't think it will be falling over on us this year, unless Corbin tries to climb it...which is not totally out of the question.
It's fun to have it up. It smells wonderful in the house. I am interested to see how many ornaments come off the tree. Corbin had a lot of fun putting them up. He kept saying some funny word that didn't make any sense but meant something to him. He loved saying "Snowman" for all of our snowman ones. He also liked the sleds and the wheelbarrow. He tried to push it around. It feels like Christmas, it's cold, we decorated and now all we need is some snow!
In other news, we sold our rental house. It closes on the 23rd! Great Christmas present! We already have allocated all the money...and are dreaming of a new car, a new fireplace, and a fence out front, as well as refinancing this house and lowering our payments. Then it's all gone! We will miss that little house.
Corbin and I said good bye to nursing this past weekend. Almost 17 months of breast feeding. It was met with very mixed emotions. I knew that I was going to stop when it seemed right, most likely somewhere around 18 months but I wanted the time to be just right. And the time just seemed right for both of us. He was only down to nursing one time, at night before bed. And lately he has nursed very little, often pointing to his bed and saying "nigh nigh" before he was really done. He also started asking for Adam before going down. He just seemed ready. He goes down fine with Adam or other people without nursing or asking for it later in the morning. So far it's been 3 nights and he hasn't even cried when Adam puts him down. One night he asked for me but not to nurse and as soon as Adam put him down he just went straight to sleep. Tonight I might try putting him down with Adam. Mostly I am going to miss our cuddle time. He's not too much of a cuddler so nursing gave us that opportunity. Although he has been a little more cuddley lately, more than he has ever been. So now we just get to look for new ways to connect physically and emotionally. I will miss it, it was an amazing experience for both of us.
Like I said, Corbin is now 17 months! Holy wow! He is growing so fast! The biggest changes lately have been in his language. It seems like every day he learns a new word. I tried counting the other day and he has over 40 words and that doesn't count his sounds for animals or things. Or his signs. It's pretty amazing.
A couple of other things... he now has all of his teeth except for his 2 year molars, which I suspect will come in early too. He loves to "push" things like his wagon, the stroller, us, blocks, etc. He is putting "babies" nigh nigh and giving them kisses and blankets. He loves to run from the kitchen and back and forth. He kicks and throws his soccer ball and says "Goal"! When you ask him how old he is, he holds out his finger and says "one". He is having a few more temper tantrums when he is frustrated. He has become a picky eater, which we are trying to navigate. He loves his buddy Brody and misses him when he's not around. He is doing lots of coloring and even some painting lately. He loves to splash in puddles and dance in the rain. He can do lots of the hand motions to the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Wheels on the Bus". And so much more.
Corbin and I took another epic adventure this past weekend/week. Since I don't work on Monday's and Friday's and had a day to use that I wouldn't get paid for, and Veteran's Day, I decided to go and visit Jed and Kara in their new stomping grounds in Denver. We also bought my mom a ticket for her 60th birthday. Corbin and I left on Friday morning from Bellingham bright and early. Our flight out of Bham was late and we had to run to make our flight to Denver or get stuck in the airport till 1:30. Our bags didn't make it but we did. We landed in Denver and it was almost 70 degrees! Last week it snowed 2 feet and then 70!
Jed and Kara just bought a house, a good fixer upper :-) But it's got a great yard, backs up to a public golf course and has access to the bike trail that runs all along the river into the city. We got to visit the school where Jed is teaching, Hinkley High School :-) He is doing Teach For America and it's really challenging him...which it would do to anyone, even if you have teaching experience.
Although Corbin was a little fussier than usual and his sleeping was a little challenging, we still had fun. Although we missed Adam terribly. I keep questioning myself when I get home from these trips about why I do them by myself because I am always beat at the end. But we had fun seeing Jed and Kara and my mom. Corbin showed them all his newest tricks and learned some new ones. His vocabulary is skyrocketing now. It's so cool how he is learning to say new words each day. His favorite word of the trip was "snow" because we found some snow banks to play in. He also got to ride a train and was going "choo choo" a lot too :-) We are working on "I love you" right now.
On Saturday we went for a short little hike outside of Golden. We got a late start, so we didn't go too far but we saw some good wild life and snow.
On Monday, my mom and I took the light rail into Denver and walked to the Childrens museum and met up with a high school friend, Michelle and her daughter Lily who is just a few months younger than Corbin. He had fun exploring the toddler area, climbing and driving the old fire truck.
Lily and Corbin trying on the fire fighter jackets.
Another high light for Corbin was Jed and Kara's bunny, Kevin (after the dog in "Up"). He kept saying "hi" to Kevin and making his bunny sound/face (scruntched up nose). Kevin comes in the house sometimes and he was so good with Corbin. He let him pet him, and give him kisses! Boo also wanted in on the action.
Corbin was pooped today. He was asleep before we even got out of the airport. We had some rough sleeping nights. Hopefully he will adjust easily again. We are glad to be home. I wished we lived closer to Jed and Kara but we are lucky to get to go and visit them.
"Look there he is!"
By the end Corbin was my little flour monster! Corbin and Brody had no complaints at the final outcome though. Frosting, cookies, how could you go wrong! Tomorrow I will make Mexican Wedding Cakes with my messed up frosting recipe, butter and sugar and now all I need to add is flour and nuts! I am getting excited to see how Corbin reacts to the rest of all the Christmas excitement that is coming our way with our families!
We had to take advantage of our resident Santa. Now all we need to do is get Grandpa Mark a suit!
Watch out. I am a big boy now!
For some reason I let Adam try to cut some of it... this is what happened. Adam says every first haircut has to have some sort of mess up, it can't be perfect.
Corbin says "this one".
Here dad, let me help you cut it down.
Helping carry it to the car.
Corbin got to place the first ornament, his sock monkey from last year. It's also a colored lights year... we have to switch every year. I like white lights, Adam likes colored. We switched to the LED lights this year. It's taking a while to get used to them... but they will save on energy use!
He thinks the stockings are pretty fun, especially the snowman on his.
A little different than our tree from last year. I don't think it will be falling over on us this year, unless Corbin tries to climb it...which is not totally out of the question.
Lily and Corbin trying on the fire fighter jackets.
