Shows!

From the time Corbin was quite little he has always been in love with "shows." Even before I let him start watching TV he would pull all the dvds off the shelf at our house (and typically at other people's houses as well) and tote them around with him.

So, recently I let Makelle start watch the Baby Einstein's Sign Language video, and I think she may instantly be just as addicted as her brother.



(She really did start out sitting on the couch, far from the screen.)

It has, however, taught her sign language pretty well. She started saying "more" and "all done" right around 10 months and can now sign "mommy" "daddy" "milk" "drink" "bye-bye" "eat" "sleep" "cereal" and a couple other things I believe.


She also got a Sesame Street Babies music video for Christmas that we let her watch and has instilled a love of dancing in her. I am afraid she may already be very "girlie" because Corbin never cared about dancing this much or this young.


Cute little girl... I just have to remember that in a few years when I am stuck at ballet recitals every weekend :)

Free Day at the Zoo!

I love the curiosity of little kids. The questions they ask... the things they notice... the conclusions they come up with. Any activity that allows me to see the world through the eyes of my kids is always a good thing.


Oh man... I just love these little guys, and it was so fun spending the day with them. (Now some mothers would be hesitant to let their 3-year-old hold the baby balancing on a statue... but you will notice she is so over bundled that I don't think she would even notice if she did happen to fall :)

It is weird how getting in for free somehow made it easier relax and let them enjoy themselves more. It was a last minute decision to go, and I had no determination to "get my money's worth" so I just let them loose in the gates and Corbin would look at the little signs and point out which way he wanted to go and what animal he wanted to see next. He was cute.


Makelle was obviously much more interactive this time around, what with being a little older and all. She would stand up next to each exhibit and just stare with a huge smile on her face pointing at the animals. It didn't seem to matter if it was a common bunny or a giant exotic tiger, she loved them all the same. She would also occasional wave "bye-bye" to the animals. Adorable little thing.



Avoiding the entrance fee also made me feel justified to splurge and let them both ride on the carousel. Corbin loved it! He was beaming with pride and kept pointing out that he was doing it all by himself. (Since I was over standing with Makelle) -- Side story, Makelle is starting to take a few steps here and there and whenever we get excited for her and congratulate her, Corbin always runs by shouting, "look at me Mommy, I can walk too!" "Yes, Corbin, I have never been so proud.")

A Quarter of a Century

Last week was my 25th birthday, but we were all feeling a little sick... plus I married an auditor who doesn't get home until quite late this time of year. So we waited and celebrated with my family this weekend.


(For commentary regarding that kid's simle, please refer to the previous post :)


My mom made one of my favorite meals for dinner (manicotti), Caleb "made" (more like assembled :) me an ice cream cake, and I got to open some fun gifts and cards from everyone.

Thanks to everyone who thought of me on my 'Special Day' as Bean calls it. It was fun. In some ways I feel quite old and in other ways I still feel like a kid, but overall I have to say life is pretty great right now.

Smile

For Family Home Evening this week we had a lesson about how to be nice and make friends by smiling at people.

We asked Corbin to show us an example of how you can smile at someone...



"Perhaps we should keep practicing," says Makelle with a quizzical stare.

Blueberry

This one is for you, Uncle Pom.


Bean's new favorite treat happens to be quite messy. But when your kid thinks frozen blueberrys are a form of candy, what else do you do other than immediately give in?

Peas

The saga continues as we discovered that Corbin is also allergic to peas now.

On Christmas Eve he had a slight reaction at dinner and I couldn't figure out what it was... to be honest I thought he was just being a pill because he didn't want to eat his fish, and that he was just crying so hard he made himself throw up.

So I took him upstairs and let him eat some more rice so he wouldn't be hungry and it got worse. That is when I figured maybe he wasn't faking it. But we were really careful to make it without milk or eggs of any kind, so I was thoroughly confused.

Then last night I fed him peas with his dinner and he had a full blown reaction with the hives and difficulty breathing and everything. That is when I made the connection that there were peas in the rice on Christmas Eve and although he has had peas numerous times, that was the first time he had had them since we found out he was allergic to cashews. And technically peas are a legume, with a similar protein structure as nuts.

So there you have it, the cashew allergy is actually bad enough that peas now trigger an immune response as well. Things just keep getting better and better with this kid.

You can't help but love him though, he is such a little trooper to put up with so much hassle.

Learning to Share

Corbin is pretty good at sharing with his little sister...


... as long as he gets to be in charge of the sharing :)

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam...

Today Corbin officially entered Primary on his first day as a Sunbeam. I remember when he started in nursery it was pure excitement, and I couldn't wait to drop him off so I could attend my church meetings in peace, but that was more or less babysitting. Sunbeams he actually sits on his little chair and participates in organized activities and listens to little lessons. Man, he really is getting so big and smart.

It was actually not quite how we had pictured it to be. He has been talking about going into Sunbeams with "the big kids" for weeks now. And the big day finally came right as we switched to 1 o'clock church and low and behold Corbin falls asleep not 15 minutes before Primary starts. So I moved him onto the hard floor next to me in Sunday school assuming he would wake up any minute and I would take him in to his new class.

But and hour and half later he was still sleeping and I knew he would be crushed if he woke up and discovered he had missed the whole thing, so I tried to wake him up and take him into his classroom. I left him half asleep on his chair with his thrilled new teachers and by the time I came back to get him 20 minutes later he was grinning ear to ear, chewing on a giant wad of candy and telling me how great it was. Hopefully he can adjust to this new schedule and make it to sharing time as well next week.

New Year

On New Year's Eve Caleb was able to leave work a little bit early and we went out with my family to the movies. Caleb, Matt, Eric, Cameron and I saw Avatar together. It was pretty good... but very long, it would have been better if they had sped the storyline up a little. While we were in our theater my parents took Corbin to see The Christmas Carol. He says he really liked it. And I have to admit, I felt a little left out hearing him talk about it. This was the first time he has ever gone to a movie without us... it is a little thing, I know, but shows that our little man is growing up.

Then we ate dinner and played Monopoly Cities with all the Lloyds' before heading over to the Walker's house to ring in the New Year. We didn't go over there until pretty late and we assumed that the kids would fall asleep on the way and we could put them to bed at their house and stay up and play games. The plan worked pretty well with Makelle, but our stubborn little Corbin held out until after 2:00 am when we finally headed home ourselves. Good news was they both slept in until almost 10 the next morning, so we still ended up with a decent night's sleep.