Christmas Collage

We had a great month of December with many Christmas celebrations spread throughout.

Corbin is certainly a blessed little boy to have so many family members to love up on him!

Is It Me?

So, I’ve been told that last year the Chiefs didn’t do so well.  Like, ranked one of the last in the league.  Now, I wasn’t around then (just hanging in Momma’s tummy) but I’ve noticed that this year, when I have been around and watching most every game with Dad, that the Chiefs are going to the playoffs!

I don’t want to be self absorbed, but does anyone else see the trend?  With me: winners, without me: losers.

Yup, the Chiefs need me.  Let’s just call me their honorary muse, their tiny pocket of luck…maybe their victories would have happened without me, but let’s be honest…I don’t think so:)

Go Chiefs!

Twas The Night…

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house not a Williams’ was stirring not even a mouse.  The stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Corbin was nestled all snug in his bed while visions of baby food danced in his head.  And Jenn in her ‘kerchief and I in my cap had just settled our brains for a long winters nap.

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.  Away to the front door I flew like a flash.  Turned off the alarm in a mad frantic dash.

The glow from my cell phone off the new fallen snow gave an eerie blue color to objects below.  When what to my contact filled eyes should appear but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer.

With a little old man so lively and quick I knew in a moment it must be St Nick. More rapid then eagles his deer they came and he whistled and shouted and called them by name.

Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer and Vixen.  On Comet, on Cupid, on Donner, and Blitzen.  To the top of the porch to the top of the wall.  Now dash away, dash away, dash away all!

And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof the prancing and pawing of each little hoof.  But poor Santa forgot a chimney we lacked.  So he had to go ‘round to the door in back.

He had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.  However he said that he planned to lose weight.  Because Jenny Craig meals were soon to be his fate.

He then was quiet and went to his work.  Filled Corbin’s stocking with many a perk.  And laying his finger aside his nose out the back door his body arose.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle and away they all flew like the down of a thistle.  But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

12 Days of Corbin

Corbin, Chris, and I made some changes to the 12 days of Christmas because really who wants a pear tree, lords a leaping, or geese a layin’?

So, here’s our updated version which we have renamed the 12 Days of Corbin.

9 Days Until Christmas

Corbin, are you ready for Christmas?  

Did you get momma’s gift yet?

What was that?  Haha, I would agree Corbin.  You are the best present I could find under my tree:)

8 Months

8 months have gone by and, although we have made progress, Corbin is still not crawling. Momma needs this to start happening soon because her knees are sore and tired. However, he does roll very proficiently, scoots, slides, turns, and crawls backwards a little, but forward crawling has not happened yet.

Corbin has begun to start trying to pull up on things. With a little assistance he can get up.

The word “no” is beginning to hold meaning to him. Although I don’t think he fully understands, there are times when we say no and he stops, looks at us, and then proceeds. So, you know the saying “which part of ‘no’ don’t you understand…?” For Corbin, that would be the do NOT do it part.

Corbin can feed himself pretty much anything I sit in front of him and he loves it! I do too, it’s very fun to watch.  Corbin concentrates so hard and he’s very proud of his own efforts; as he should be!

“Dadda and Momma” are frequently heard in our house.  Although Corbin hasn’t associated the words with us, it’s still fun to hear.

So 8 months have gone by and he’s grown and changed as we knew he would. I’m curious to see what Corbin will be doing in this next month. Crawling? Walking? Reading? Writing? Ok, ok, I’ll lower those expectations just a tad;)

Happy 8 months Corbin!

Shutterfly to the Rescue

I’m not a procrastinator by nature. I’m really not, but for some reason this year when it has come to Christmas cards I’ve been putting it off. And out of all years to not be on top of things this should not be the year. It’s Corbin’s first Christmas!

I had lofty goals of snapping a perfect family picture; where everyone is color coordinated, smiling, with a green sparkly tree in the background. But no, that hasn’t happened yet.

However, the other day I was talking to some friends who just raved over Shutterfly cards. They assured me that, even though it’s December 12, I still had time to put together a card. I was told Shutterfly has great cards, easy to put together, and fast delivery. After minutes of discussion the guilt began to settle in. If it’s really THAT easy to do, then shouldn’t I at least give my first child center stage in his first Christmas card? Mommy guilt settled in.

So, with guilt driving me, I went over to the Shutterfly website and began to glance around at the cards. Oh my goodness…there were SO many to choose from. I quickly picked one, out of many that I liked, and decided to see how easy it was to put pictures in the card. Let’s face it, technology is not my strong suit. If this was going to be too time intensive I felt confident I could find a way to shed that mommy guilt.

But, to my amazement it was easy, easy, easy. I mean so easy that I felt confident that Mom could even pick a card and put pictures in it. (And if you know my mom that’s saying a lot; for example, one time she called to say her computer wasn’t working. Umm, did you try turning it on! Yup, that helps:)

Ok, so after finding out how easy it was to put in pictures I decided that yes, I could do this. Now, I just need to get that elusive perfect picture. The pressure of getting a great family picture with coordinated looks, big smiles, and the cute poses just wasn’t going to happen in a couple of days. So instead, I thought I would focus on Corbin. How hard could it be to get  pictures of Corbin, an eight month old, in holiday spirit.

Well 40 minutes later, a hoarse voice, and myself totally exhausted, I found out it’s a little more challenging than I thought. But no matter, I got enough pictures that I needed to put together the perfect holiday card.

In about 5 minutes I choose this card and had it assembled. Thanks Shutterfly! It took me less time to put the card together then it did to get the “perfect” picture. And now I have holiday cards to send out to show Corbin on his first Christmas!

On top of that, now that I know about Shutterfly’s Christmas cards I now have other ideas for gifts. They do photo calendars (who wouldn’t enjoy a monthly picture of Corbin!), Christmas cards, or other gift Ideas where you can order a photo mug (where every sip you take, sweet Corbie’s face would be right there…what grandparent wouldn’t love this).

Christmas cards, done! Grandparent gifts, done! Shutterfly is my new Santa Clause…ask and you shall receive.

Quotables

You can learn many things from children.  How much patience you have, for instance.  ~Franklin P. Jones

So true. Corbin is beginning to understand the word no and I’m beginning to wonder when he will actually listen to it:)

A characteristic of the normal child is he doesn't act that way very often.           ~Author Unknown

This quote will save me thousands on therapy!  So glad to know that my crazy child with his tongue constantly sticking out is just normal.

There was never a child so lovely but his mother was glad to get him to sleep.     ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Truer words were never spoken. You are very wise Mr. Emerson.

A First Glimpse of Christmas

We put up our Christmas decorations last weekend and Corbin has been loving them just as much as we have!

 

 

Enjoy Them Now…

If one more well-intentioned, caring, sweet person says to me, “enjoy them now while they are young” I think I will scream, cry, lay down on the floor and have myself a nice ole hissy fit.

It’s been interesting that the age group saying this to me is middle-aged to older people. Never a young mom coming up to me saying “enjoy this age now…”. Why is that?

I have an answer. It’s memory loss. The older you get and the farther your kids get out of the “enjoy them now” phase the memory gets more fuzzy. It’s harder to remember exactly how smelly those diapers were, or how often you changed them, or how many hours of sleep you didn’t get, or how many public humiliations your child gave you. Yup, age does funny things to the memories. It makes the good ones really clear and the not so good ones a little more distant and hazy.

I KNOW what they are saying is true, but while you are in the present it’s hard to UNDERSTAND what they are saying.

When I was pregnant with Corbin, many people would tell me “enjoy your free time, go out on those dates with your husband, sleep while you can…”. And again, I knew what these people were saying was probably true because my life was going to change dramatically, but it was hard to actually understand what they meant. And besides, when little Corbie was just a babe in the womb – kicking contently and silently around, never really causing me discomfort, pain, or problems – it didn’t really bother me to hear that advice.

But now, Corbin is out. He’s free, he’s his own person and enjoy them now while you can is a little harder to hear from people. Now Corbin is 7½ months old and has apparently developed another personality. Seriously, this boy went from hardly crying to being a whiny machine. (Ok, someone is going to tell me babies are always changing…seriously, now’s not the time to be throwing around these pieces of “wisdom”… :)

Corbin now has “separation anxiety” (that’s internet diagnosed). Ironic, I stay at home all day, seriously how can you possibly have a separation issue. Oh I know, set him down in the living room, walk to the kitchen (5 feet away…literally, I measured it) and viola, separation has occurred! Wow, really? That’s all I have to say about that.

Then there’s his “separation anxiety” with all things unsafe and not baby approved. For example, taking a cord out of his mouth results in a whine fest; umm, excuse me Corbin, Mommy just saved you from electrocution. Or a remote that has found its way into his mouth; take it away and it appears that we have another alpha male who needs to have control of the remote.

So please, if you see a beautiful, gorgeous, well put together young mom (that would be me :) please don’t tell me to enjoy my child while he is young. Because I am; I really am. I’m enjoying the moments that he giggles so hard he can’t stop, the cuddles I get while reading a book, watching him be fascinated by running water (is that just weird or cute?), and the look of concentration he gets when feeding himself a green bean, and the pure joy of success he has on his face when he actually gets in his mouth.

Yes, I’m in the present, enjoying those moments. But I’m also in the present, not enjoying so much the massive poopy diaper disasters, the random spit ups at church on my slacks that I just got back from the cleaners, and the whiny-all-day “separation anxiety”.

So thank you all well-intentioned sweet people, you don’t have to tell me to enjoy them now because I’m doing that, just in the present where all memories good and not-so-good are fresh like a dirty diaper.

And of course I had to add a picture.

Here’s Corbin all bundled up to enjoy the “brisk” weather.

Pooped Out

A trend has begun at the Williams’ household this past week.

It’s not a good one.

It’s not a pleasant one.

It’s actually on the verge of unspeakable.

Corbin loves his jumper (the one I put together…by myself!) and uses it daily.

So, this past week like normal we scheduled some time to go play on the jumper. A good time was being had by all when a foul odor rose up from the direction of Corbin’s seat.

The smell, it triggered an old memory. My breathing went rapid, my heart rate increased and I went into a full on panic. Oh my goodness, flashback to the restaurant blow out diaper!!!!

Oh yes people, Corbin pooped…while jumping. Not any old poop, nope a big, juicy, runny one. (Sorry if this is too graphic, but please imagine what I experienced in real life!!)

I picked him up and dangled him two feet in front of me (There was no reason for me to get hit by the poop if it could be helped) and dashed up the stairs, down the hallway and into his room. I laid him on the changing table and braced myself for what I was about to see.

Slowly, I pulled off the pants…..oh my goodness. It’s there, dripping all over his legs. But when you’re jumping, stuff doesn’t just go down, oh no it goes up as well. So I unsnapped his onesie (which, by the way, meant I had to actually touch the poop. There may have been some gagging involved!). His back was covered halfway up with the mess.

Of course this meant it was also on his onesie, and to remove that I had to go over his head. So the mess spread all the way up and onto his head by the time I got the shirt off.

Well needless to say he got a bath and I got about 20 minutes of clean up work. :)

So, how is this incident a trend? Because this occurrence didn’t just happen once; we are up to three times. Three times in one week! Is the jumper now cursed?

I’m in a moral dilemma right now because on the one hand I see how much joy and pleasure Corbin has playing in his jumper, but on the other hand three times now the jumper has been the cause of some nasty poop related clean up messes.

I want to put a ban on going in the jumper, but I know that would be selfish…or would it? I am going a little crazy from cleaning up this mess. I could say that it would just be helping me keep my sanity and how could that be selfish?

I’m sure that I’ll let him keep jumping (so please don’t email me Mom and tell me that I’m denying your sweet little grandson pleasure ;) , but I am praying that this little trend will soon stop.

Thanksgiving 2010

Corbin celebrated his first Thanksgiving with family and even tried out one of the best parts of dinner…dessert! (well just the whipped cream) He had mixed reviews.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Easy as 1, 2, 7…

Corbin has created a step by step pictorial demonstration of his new (and actually useful) skill.

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Thanks for sharing Corbin.  Although it may not be the most efficient or fastest way to sit up from your tummy it works!  And we enjoyed watching you figure out this new experience.

Good job Corbin!

Boxed In

So, what are you to do with a diaper box before it gets recycled?

Play in it of course!

Peek A Boo!

Hey, how’d you find me?

I’m concentrating…and yes the tongue helps me.

This box is a happy place.

Big Boy Seat

Last week Corbin officially made the switch from a baby carrier to his big boy car seat.

The seat appeared to be ginormous in my car. I thought Corbin would be swallowed up by it. But nope, he fits perfectly and looks like such a little man in the seat.

I was under grand delusions that once we got this car seat it would be a breeze to put him in and get him out. Nope, not true, livin’ in a fantasy world. It’s still time-consuming and a little tricky to get him in and out. I’ve bumped his head at least 10 times (sorry, mommy will try to do better). He’s also so fascinated by his buckle that he leans forward EVERY single time I put him in it. So, I have to continually push him back while I try to buckle him in. Oh, it’s exhausting and I’ve literally been sweating by the end of the process.

Oh, the adventures in parenting continue! Onward we go…and now we have a safe new big boy car seat to travel in!

7 Months

Corbin is seven months old today!

And as he enters into his seventh month of life he has new abilities, talents, and tricks to take with him.

Corbin’s strongest ability is teeth growing.  I’m not sure how this skill will carry him in life, but for now it’s useful.  This boy can grow some teeth…he already has six!

The teeth have helped him in the eating department.  He loves cheerios and is getting pretty proficient at getting them into his mouth and chomping them up.  It’s fun to watch his intense concentration at this process.

Although he may not be crawling yet, we are working on it.  And by “we” I really mean me.  I’m modeling how to crawl to the point where my jeans are going to start wearing through at the knees!  Corbin on the other hand has shown little interest in trying this skill out for himself.  But he does seem highly amused at watching me crawl around…great.  Anyway, he may not be crawling, but he can roll like a tumbleweed and get to where he would like to be.

Ahh, and to my great delight Corbin can hold his own bottle.  Amen!  I don’t know why this makes me so happy; I still hold him while he drinks his bottle. I’m just now hands free.  And for some reason this makes me feel liberated!

Two things Corbin loves to do for entertainment  these days are play peek-a-boo with a blanket and clap.  It’s pretty entertaining for us as well.

So, as Corbin goes into his seventh month he may have some skills, but I have a whole list of new skills we are going to be working on.  Oh Corbin, you aren’t done yet…we’ve got work to do:)  Don’t worry it will be fun!

Happy 7 months Corbin!