Happy 1st Birthday Corbin Dean!

Garden of plenty

Our harvest last night.

This weekend grandpa Mark took Corbin to pick some Salmon berries. At first he wouldn't take them off the bush. Then he got the idea. Now he knows. We picked some of our strawberries the other day. He LOVED it! He wanted to pick them all, even the green ones. I think he might turn red soon.

Watch Out!

Corbin went to full walking this weekend. Watch out!

Imitations

Corbin has been making some awesome sounds lately! And practicing his walking skills all the time.

Of course we can never get on video what we want...but Corbin has been saying "mmmmm" after he eats somthing yummy. And then "Aaaahhh" after taking drink of water. It's sooo cute!

heat + babies = kiddie pools

It's been hot this past week. And hot for Bham, in the 80's! So we had to go out and get some pools and have some play dates. Corbin needs a little more time in the water I think. All he wants to do is stand. He won't sit down. He's so funny. He has been talking lots more steps. We keep trying to get it on video. So here is one that isn't too bad. He is probably 1/4 walking and 3/4 crawling. But each day he walks more and more!

And he got a new molar that I noticed yesterday! So last week was probably due to the molar situation. He is working on two more. Soon he will be a champion chewer!

A couple of steps from Corbin.

Brody, Luca, and Jack hung out in the pool. Corbin stood. Corbin aka "REI gangsta"

Look mama, I've got your sunglasses :-)

I am soo cool with these glasses on upside down!

All Corbin wanted to do was stand in the water. Meanwhile, Alden went from one pool to the next and back again.

Becky and Brody chillin in the hammock.

Even Adam had to get in on the kiddie pool action. He needed a little cool down after his ride home from school.

Who said parenting was easy?

Challenges.

No.
More.
Mobility.
Sleeping.
Food.
Sitting in High Chair.
Teeth.
Nursing.

Those a list of challenges right now. I know parenting isn't easy. Not that is has been so far but now we are getting into some more parenting decisions. And I don't have the answers. Signing is turning out to be a blessing and a curse. Now that Corbin knows how to sign, he can tell me some of what he wants. But then I know what he wants and have to say no. Or give in. He signs more and then points. No you can't have my cereal or coffee or the pen. You can have your cereal, a banana, some juice, a toy. NO says Corbin. I WANT THAT. POINT. CRY. I don't want to sit in my high chair to eat. I will cry and spit out food until I get out. Then when I am out. I want more food. No Corbin you have to sit in your high chair. NO. CRY. Then he doesn't eat. Do his teeth hurt? His other molars are coming in. Does he want something else to eat? Do I offer him other food? Ok. No breakfast. Do you want to play? NO. I want to sit on your lap and cry. Then he pulls at my shirt and signs NURSE. He is tired. We go upstairs. He cries getting his diaper changed. He won't let me set him down. He signs NURSE. He didn't used to need to be nursed down to sleep for a nap. But in NC, I nursed him because we were in a different place. Is that why he wants to nurse? Or is he hungry because he isn't eating breakfast? Or is he just excited he knows he can ask for something? So I nurse him. He falls asleep. He is so cute when he sleeps. He pulls blue softy close and the blanket my mom wove. And is asleep before I leave the room.

NO. It's my weakness. I use it too much. I need to use something else. I know this. I can remember when we got Brindzi and I kept saying NO over and over to try to get her to not do something. Adam asked if I was going to say NO all the time to our kid. Hmmm. I am working on it.

Am I building bad habits if I give in now? What can I give in on and what do I need to stay firm on? I need some discipline help.

We took him to the Sounders game again on Sat. night. It was not fun for me. He didn't want to be in the pack with Adam. He wanted me. He didn't want to be held. He wanted to walk. Where, on the stadium seats. On the hard concrete. Where I couldn't watch the game. He didn't want to hang out with Grandma or Aunt Meghan. He just wanted me. Down low. You can't see down low. He didn't want to fall asleep. Which was ok. But I still tried. I know we can't do the same things we used to be able to do. It's just an adjustment. I don't know if he will be going to any more Sounders game. Which means less games for either Adam or myself.

He is waking up at 6amish. But is then sooo tired. It could be his teeth. It could be the light. It could be that he likes to wake up then. But then he is cranky. Then I am cranky. Bedtime has been later because it's so nice and light out. I want to move it to 8pm... but then he wakes up so early. Is he getting enough sleep?

I LOVE him SO much. And for the most part he is not challenging. I think I am just having a challenging week. Thanks for letting me vent.

Fun in the Sun

It was gorgeous out this week. We had lots of picnics in the parks and time in the sun.

I "hosted" play group in the park.

We had a girls night out on Friday. It was much needed!

Today we ventured out for some beach time at Clayton Beach. The water was pretty cold but still fun to play around in the sand and mud.

I will post a walking video soon. We have one of a good amount of steps but it needs some editing. He is getting pretty good and correcting his balance.

He has also learned to purposefully say "dada" and he knows where his toes are!

Tonight

I'd have video for you, too, if Erin hadn't taken the camera to record for posterity her "Girls Night."

I turned around while fixing Corbin's dinner to see him walking across the kitchen floor. I counted six steps that time, but he might have had a few before I turned around. I cheered and clapped and he got excited and crawled really fast and poked himself with the canning magnet stick he had in his mouth.

Also: 8:05 pm and still babbling.

As Erin has mentioned, he's been taking a step or two, and then realizes he's an expert crawler and dispenses with this stumbling, step-by-step nonsense and hits the floor with all four.

But tonight.

After we ate I tried to see if I could get him to walk a bit more. He managed several four or five step wobblies, and it was very, very clear that he had shifted his ideas about what might be the most efficient or interesting mode of travel. These were clearly intentional, focused, brain driven steps, his whole body moving and adjusting and trying to find the best way to balance and move at the same time.

Super exciting.

11 months

Corbin turned 11 months while we were in North Carolina. Crazy. In less than a month he will be one!!!! He took his first steps on the 17th. I wonder if he will walk before he turns one?

Here are a few updates of what he is doing currently.

He free stands without holding onto anything for long periods of time. He can bend down and pick things up and then go back to standing. Last weekend he stood up on his own without using anything. He waves and claps while standing and plays with toys. He loves to walk holding our one hand. He just walks all around. He will take a few steps and then bend down and crawl though because it's faster, if we let go. I can't get a video yet because sometimes he will do it on command and others when you aren't expecting it.

He is signing more words. He now has "more" down. He uses if for more everything. Or "I want" since sometimes he hasn't even had it yet. I am trying to get him to point to what he wants or show me. He will sign more and I say "more what?" and he points. The other day he saw a jar of dill beans and signed "more" and pointed. I had no idea what he would think of them but he gobbled them up! He has also been saying more for nurse and then pulling on my shirt. So even though I have been using the nurse sign for a long time, now I am waiting till he uses it before he can nurse. I don't like him just pulling on my shirt. And trying to only let him nurse when it's time to nurse instead of just snack all day. He never used to snack but now that he knows more, I think he realizes he can get his point across. I need to now work on "eat" so he can use that along with more. Because sometimes he just wants to see something when he signs more, not eat it. He also signs "all done" and "dog" and is always waving at all kinds of things. We used "airplane" a lot while traveling, so now he will see something in the sky and point or kind of do "airplane". I will try to get a video soon.

He shakes his head all the time now. He knows when I either say "no" or "careful" or "Corbin" in the tone of voice that is a warning, he will look at me and shake his head like he knows he is not supposed to do it. It's pretty cute. Sometimes he stops and sometimes he needs to be redirected.

We think he has learned how to "woof" like a dog. We ask him what a dog says and he says "huuh" and sticks out his tongue. It's pretty cute! He can also point to a dog in a book when we ask where the dog is. Sometimes horses are also dogs though :-)

We read before he takes a nap and bed and have allowed him to pick the books. The other day he went over to his books and picked on up and brought it to me and put it on my lap. It was his dog counting book. He turns the pages for every book. Most of the time he turns the pages too fast to even read it, so we just look at the pictures. Fast. And then read it again.

He takes two naps a day and sleeps for 11-12 hours straight through at night. I am lucky to have a pretty good sleeper. He slept great while traveling too. Blue softy is essential for sleep though.

He has 8 teeth. The four main top teeth. Two middle bottom teeth and a tooth next to the bottom ones and then a molar on the same side. So his bottom is a little lopsided! His other molars are bulging and I think bothering him a lot. He will often hold his hand to his ear/cheek and cry. I know it's not an ear infection so I think his teeth hurt. He will also bang his head on the ground sometimes. I am not sure what to do about that.

He loves balls, cars, and phones right now for toys. He will pick up the phone and put it next to his ear and then give it to you. It's pretty cute too. We got him his own play phone that makes beeping noises so he isn't using ours. He has always pushed toys around on the floor while crawling and then one day he picked up a car and pushed it and started saying "vroom" or a version of that. It was amazing. I don't ever remember doing that with him, but he must have picked it up somewhere. Now when he sees a car, he does that. I am so curious to see how gender plays a role in his play. It's fascinating to me.

He climbs the stairs. Plays in the grass. Likes the sand and dirt now. Loves to swing. Mostly wears his hat without taking it off. Likes to go on walks. Likes baths but not getting water dumped on his head. Likes to take things out of things and then put them back. Likes to try to figure out how things work and look under things. LOVES strawberries and blueberries.

I think that about sums it up. Wow. Every day is something new. It's pretty cool to see him learn.

Hoop hoop, hooray!

Among the many things we've found ourselves busy with lately, we've spent a good deal of time in the garden. All that dirt we had turned out to be a heckuva lot of dirt, and we're just now getting to the end of it, after covering the whole garden, filling a new bed, and cardboarding and covering some rather annoying weed patches. While Erin was gone last week I set up soaker hoses, which are doing OK, except for a tendency to create rivers out of aisles.

This weekend the potatoes popped, and are growing like crazy. Also, I learned that moving the potato patch and putting onions where the pots used to be results in one thing: Potatoes in the onions. So there's that. I'm picking out the ones in the beds, but leaving the one in the aisle and a couple on the edge of the beds.

Our starts that sat too long (peas, salad, spinach, chard) have failed, except for the chard, which I think will end up OK. We were manacled by our dirt project, and they just sat in their pots for too long. So no peas for us this year, and we'll have to wait for salad and spinach (the seeds are just now sprouting).

I've been aphid hunting every couple days or so on our back plum tree. In past years it has been the neighborhood aphid headquarters. It's never had a plum, and we were set to cut it down if it didn't produce this year. It must have heard us talking about it, because it was loaded with blossoms, and now seems quite well-endowed with little green fruits. Anyway, I've been aphid hunting, just smushing them when I find them. And I've been smushing some eggs, too. And then today I decided to Google aphid eggs, and found I'd been smushing ladybug eggs. Damn! I haven't destroyed too too many, but I've definitely squished over a hundred eggs, I'd guess. I'm very depressed about this, since these eggs are set to hatch pest-munching larvae right in the heart of aphidland. I'll be more careful next time, I promise. Augh! I felt feel like an idiot. Probably because I was am one. Lesson learned.

This weekend we're picking up some basil starts, now that the hoop house is up. We'll put in a nice long row. The hoop house is very tall--maybe nine feet--and is both longer and wider than last year. And rotated ninety degrees. I'll have plenty of room to walk around and keep those tomatoes under control. Since it's so big, I'm wondering if I should put plastic on the ends so less heat escapes, but I'm worried about wind picking the whole thing up and dropping it in the lake. We'll see how things seem to progress. Maybe I'll add ends at a later date if the temp seems low inside.

Good earthing to ye.