Doughnuts with Daddy

Corbin’s Kindergarten class hosted “Doughnuts with Daddy” today.

Below are the answers Corbin gave about his Dad. I personally love that his job is “to work on his computer and have meetings”.  Well said, Corbin, well said…I don’t know what your Daddy does either

Here are my two boys ready to party!

The boys rotated through activity centers: playdough, reading, marshmellow tower building, arts and crafts, and of course doughnut eating!

Be still my heart…isn’t this picture with their two hands and a heart precious? Love it!

And finally, Corbin’s portrait of Daddy.  I think it’s all summed up in this one picture. We love our googly-eyed, crazy hair, fun dressing Daddy.

The Morning After

Here’s what the morning after a binge book addiction looks like:

Maybe you don’t suffer from a book addiction. Let me explain: it’s the “one more page” mentality. It’s when you are in a book and you tell yourself that when you finish the chapter you’ll stop. But inevitably the end of a chapter does nothing to satiate the appetite. Like any addiction, you need more, more, more, more pages to read.

Corbin, I’m not surprised, has a book addiction because I do too.

Corbin got his first taste of a book addiction hangover on a school morning and it wasn’t pretty.

Oh the struggle is real.

The hour is early.

But the regret of staying up and reading a good book is not there.  It just seems worth it sometimes.

#bookaddictionisreal

Hey Mr. Postman

As I had mentioned in my last post, we needed to construct a Valentine’s box for Corbin. So by “we”, I mean Chris and his trusty somewhat helpful sidekick Corbin, who worked together on Saturday.

It was decided that he would have an actual postbox with a opening, a flag, and his own postal sign.

Chris took the Pintrest idea and made it come to life. What a guy!

Corbin painted the flag red while Chris spray painted the box metallic blue. Then Corbin glued on his official signage.

Corbin tried out his mail slot.  It worked…his hand and half his arm disappered down into the empty box, it was exciting for some

Who doesn’t love a good mailbox? The box is the embodiment of hope….hope that you’ll find an awesome gift card waiting inside the box, hope that your favorite magizine will be housed inside, hope that a fun invitation will be sitting there….I think I’m maybe inferring too much into Corbin’s hug of the box….maybe.

Here’s the box in all it’s glory.  A slot, a flag, a personalized sign, all waiting for 20 little love-filled (maybe germ infested) kindergarten valentine cards.

And just in case you wanted to know, we are in Corbin’s favorite season: winter. But we are currently without his favorite thing about winter: snow. I’ve tried to tell him that snow amounts are usually very minimal in Kansas. But unfortunately for his short memory the winters here have produced at least two or three good snows. So far, no such luck this year.

Below is Corbin’s own words about winter:

Gotta love the word “stuff”. It’s an all encompassing word, isn’t it?

On With The Show…

Thursday night was Corbin’s first elementary school concert. 

The kindergarten and first grades combined for a 30 minute program called Animals, Animals, Animals.

Here the teachers are getting all the kiddos in place on the risers.

There’s Corbin singing his heart out…for the first couple of verses of each song.  Most of the songs were very repetitive and I think he was losing some enthusasim for them.

Oh, he is fun to watch!

The first graders had solo singing parts. The red head girl below is a good friend of ours from church.

Corbin said after the program that he wished he was a first grader becuase he really wanted a microphone.

Ha, watch out world, next year he will be a first grader….and the power of the microphone might be his. I’m scared

And in nonconcert related news this is a picture Corbin took of his 3-D tower of tea cups.  He worked very hard on this during several art periods. Corbs was so excited to finally bring it home to show us.

I do like the colors he picked. I think the muted earth tones are very soothing. Umm, maybe I should let Corbin help me pick out the colors for my new basement funiture that I hope to get one day!

Haircuts and 100

I outdid myself on the title, didn’t I?

Chris decided that he would buy clippers and start cutting his own and Corbin’s hair. I declined to have any part of this craziness.

However, Chris has done this two times already and each time he has improved. In fact, even the first time was passable. There were a few uneven and imperfect areas, but overall I knew it was better than what I could do.

So, hurray Chris for having the guts to go out and cut hair. Now I have an extra $25 in the budget to put towards my clothes budget, right?!?

Here is the master at work.

Looks like a satisfied customer.

Corbin had to get all spiffy for the 100th day of school on Monday. And since he is in kindergarten this is a big deal. The kids were asked to wear 100 of something.

So, we did eyeballs.

99 in the front…

and 1 in the back…

Not only did we have to buy and create his 100 thing shirt, but we also have to create a valentine box, get all his valentines ready to hand out, have a recent horizontal photograph, 4x6, printed off of Corbin and Dad, buy gift cards to restuarants for a kindergarten basket they are raffling off, and last but not least send cash with Corbin to buy a class gift for his teacher and a support staff at his school.

Kindergarten has been way more tough for Chris and I than for Corbin. The homework is killing us….when’s summer??

Rock Chalk (sniff, sniff) KU

Saturday my boys and my brother-in-law and nephew all loaded up and headed to the KU game.

This was Corbin’s first experience at a KU game and both he and Chris were excited.

On the ride there Corbin wrote me this note. It was super sweet to get this while I was sitting in a computer programming class. I’m not even joking…I spent my whole Saturday at a class learning about how to teach kids to code.

Here the boys ate some yummy hamburgers and gluten free french fries!

Corbin’s face is foreshadowing what is about to happen:

At the game, in their seats…one big boy looking extermly happy and one little boy looking a little pale.

And this was the second half. Corbin spiked a high fever and wanted nothing more than to leave. But there were 3 others in the car who were going to stay and watch that game…who can blame them!

So, Corbin rested on Chris’ leg and lap for the rest of the game.

On the ride home Corbin cried for about an hour and then fell asleep. Sunday, Corbin held steady at a 104° temperature throughout the day, and finally by mid-morning Monday the fever broke. But, it was a long few days with a sick kiddo up multiple times in the night. 

Unfortunately, Friday night we were at a friend’s house with a group of people and their kiddos. I’m praying no one got Corbin germs! I promise, he had no symptoms of not feeling well until lunch in Lawerence.

The other unfortunate thing is that Corbin now believes the reason he got sick was because he went to Lawrence. He does not want to go back. Yes, yes, I know KSU fans everywhere agree with him

What to Say?

I’ve been to a few baby showers in the last few weeks where the guests have been asked to write or give a piece of advice to the new mom.

I had a hard time with this request. Here were some choices I thought through:

 

“This is just a phase and it too will end.”

But here’s what I always asked when I got that peice of advice:

“When will it end?”

“I have no idea.”

“What do I do to get through it?”

“Drink, try to laugh at it, oh and drink.” ;)

For me as a new parent, that adviced did NOT help. I understand it now. I have perspective, but at the time when I just wanted someone to “fix” the tantrums it didn’t help.

 

“Sleep now while you can.”

Umm, ok when you’ve never had kids and you have no idea what sleep deprevation is this advice means nothing. They know that sleepless nights are coming but they don’t understand what that will truly feel like, so to me this is pointless to tell anyone. Unless of course this is your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th child; then you understand this saying but you’re too busy with the other children in your life to be able to actually take it.

 

“Just relax, you’ll figure it out, it just takes time.”

Nope, that doesn’t cut it for me. I know I’ll figure it out eventually, I would just like someone help me get there now. So I feel like this advice is just a little patronizing.

Those were just a few that flitted through my head. But for me, those pieces of advice never worked. It’s more like words of moral support and encouragment.

Each child is unique and what works for one doesn’t work for another. Every parent has different views and expectations.  Each family works differently. 

So, what’s the best advice I could give?

“Most parenting problems and questions you have can’t be answered by people. Parenting is a partnership between you, your spouse, and God. I promise you that parenting will be the one gauranteed way to get you on your knees to pray. It will be the one gauranteed way to make you feel like you NEED Jesus because you certainly don’t have a clue what you are doing. So, my advice, buy a good cushion or knee pad because you are going to be spending a ton of time down there.”

Ok, gotta wrap this up…apparently there is a “major” problem in Corbin’s room right now. (I can guess the problem will be that parts of his Marble Run aren’t going together exactly as he would like….anyone have any advice?)