10/21/08

Well Korben has been as ornery as ever. Not a whole lot happened last week besides the normal stuff. Naps are still an issue and now bedtime has become an issue. He refuses to sleep instead he just plays and plays in his crib. It is making me nuts because I know he needs the sleep and he is terribly cranky in the evenings without a nap. I just don't know what to do. At first I thought it was his teething since that is what usually happens but it has been going on too long. I set up an appointment with his dr. for tomorrow to have his ears checked out. I want to make sure there is not an ear infection. I also had to set a different appointment to talk to the dr. about his speech and to talk about A.D.D. I want to know how soon you can test for it. Since Brent has it and I think Korben might have it too. The nurse said I could mention this stuff to the dr. tomorrow but they are on a time constraint with 'sick' visits so that is why I had to set up a separate consult visit. That appointment is not until Nov. 17th though. I really think he is going to have to start speech therapy and I think it would benefit him to start it earlier rather than waiting until he is 2, even though it is only a couple of months earlier. I told Brent I wish I would have trusted my instincts and pushed the issue more with Korben's dr. when he was 12 months old and I thought he might have a speech problem. Even then he was not babbling like a 'normal' baby, he hardly ever said mama and baba or gaga which are the main ones for babies. He only said dada and now almost everything has a 'd' sound.

Last Wed. I took him to story time at the library and they were having baby sign language story time. As I was buckling Korben into mom's van I pulled a muscle in my back when I lifted Korben up into his seat. I think Korben's teeth were hurting him that day and we only ended up staying for about 20 mins. He didn't want to go into the story time room at all which is fine as there are kids and toys right outside the room so he played there. But he kept trying to run around the library and he kept screaming while doing so. We were disturbing everybody in the library and it was stressful and embarrassing for me so we left. Then he threw a fit because we left. So I had to pick him up and carry him and I was in terrible pain from my back. He stiffens his body and then starts flinging himself around. When we are at home I just set him on the floor and walk away but since we were outside it was not possible. I did try to get him to stand but then he took off running around the library into the muddy grass. So I picked him back up again. I set him down by the van to get the keys out of my pocket and he laid down on the ground. Once we got home both of us were much better. My back hurt the whole rest of the week though. :( I am going to try story time again tomorrow because I really think he needs more interaction with kids his age. I am sure it will be better this week.

Korben has been obsessed with Thomas the Train every since we went to see Thomas. He doesn't have much Thomas stuff....only the pillow Grandma & Grandpa S. got him, he has one book that I got from a online book swapping site (it came with some other books that I got for him so I didn't even realize he had a Thomas book until after we saw Thomas and Korb found it) and then he has the Thomas magnet that they gave us when we saw Thomas. He has to carry his Thomas book and his Thomas magnet (his pillow stays in his crib) with him everywhere throughout the day. I have him come into the bathroom with me so that he doesn't get into trouble and I say 'Come go potty with Momma' and he starts running around going "uh oh, uh oh" until he finds his Thomas book and magnet and only when he has both things will he come with me. Last week we did buy Korben a couple of X-Mas presents, we got him some Thomas bath toys and another Thomas book one that you push the buttons and it says things and plays music. Brent & I are curious to see if he is going to do that with Mickey Mouse and the other Disney characters after Disney World.

Oh I think I forgot to mention that my biopsies came back completely begin. So that was good news last week.

We didn't do anything this past weekend. Just hung out around the house and took it easy. On Sunday Brent was watching Korben and I went out to the kitchen for something and found Korben sitting in the middle of the table playing with the hockey charms that my mom and I made to sell at the Blazers Booster Club booth. Brent had forgotten to push in his chair at the table so Korben just climbed right up on it. Korben did it again today while I was watching him. I heard the chair move though and ran right in there just in time to see him climbing on the table. As I was pulling him off he swiped at the charms that we made last night and they went flying across the kitchen and hallway. He promptly went to time out and was very mad at me.

Yesterday Korben was getting ice out of the ice maker in the fridge door, he is tall enough to reach it now, and he spilled ice all over the floor. I went in there to tell him no and to clean up the mess and he was cracking up laughing because he was holding a piece of ice. My mom was in the kitchen too and I was trying to tell Korben no but then she started laughing because he was laughing and then of course I started laughing so I don't think he understood that he wasn't supposed to do that. Of course when he does something bad he does start hamming it up for you and tries to charm you. I think he really gets away with that with Grandma & Grandpa L. Yesterday he was also driving me crazy because he learned how to turn on the dishwasher, so all day long I had to keep turning it off. Then my mom left to go grocery shopping and Korben stood at the door looking out the little window on the door and kept saying "oh no, oh no" over and over and was crying because he wanted to go bye-bye too. I turned on one of the Thomas shows that Brent started taping for him and he ran to sit on my lap. I still don't like him watching tv and I don't usually let him watch it. But Brent does, he watches about half a Thomas show every day, that is all he will sit still for but during that time he becomes a zombie staring at the tv.

Sunday evening we went to the pumpkin patch to take pictures. We went to the same place that we went to last year. We couldn't get Korb to sit still so we had to put him behind all the pumpkins and then I took pictures as he climbed his way out of the pumpkins so he could run around again. Then we would pick him up and do it again, thankfully he thought it was fun and only got mad at us one time.

This morning Korben woke up at 6:40 and Brent was getting ready to walk out the door to go to work. I went to the restroom and to get Korben some milk and Brent had changed Korben's pull-up. Brent put Korben in bed with me so I could give him his milk and Korben was flinging himself around and wouldn't calm down. So I tried rubbing his belly and his legs and that usually works but this time I found that his jammies were soaked. He leaked out of his pull-up and Brent didn't realize it. So we pulled off his clothes and he immediately calmed down. We dressed him again then he drank his milk and feel back asleep. Poor little wet baby!

This coming weekend is going to be a busy one. Sat. there is so much free stuff going on that we are having to choose what we want to do. I think we have decided that we are going to the Affair of the Heart and then probably home for a nap - hopefully! Then we are going to go with my mom and my nephews and niece to a Halloween carnival that a church down the street is having. If Korben wakes up early enough we might go try to do the pancake breakfast before the local parade starts but if Korben lets us sleep in then we are going to. Then on Sunday we are heading to Tulsa.

Pics are of the pumpkin patch of course and pics of Korb in the overalls that Grandma & Grandpa S. got him. I thought I had better take pictures of him when I had them on him. I am not sure how often we will actually dress him in them as they are a pain to change his diaper in since there are no diaper snaps but they sure are cute! Korben was lining up his toys when I took those pictures, I took videos of that too which I will upload to YouTube one of these days.

10/12/08

Well we bought a stroller yesterday. I think I am happy with it. We spent an hour and a half looking and testing strollers. I did find the "perfect" stroller but not at a perfect price - it was $339!!! More money than I want to spend or even have for that matter. It was really nice though and had everything I wanted. I got the next best thing for more than half off the other one. It is the same brand as our big stroller and is almost as big with alot of the same features but the big difference is that it is 10 lbs lighter! That will make a huge difference getting on and off of the buses. Another big difference is that it lays all the way down so Korben will be able to comfortably take a nap. Our other one laid back but he was still reclining and that is hard for him since he is a stomach sleeper. Now he will be able to lay all the way down on his belly. So hopefully that will help with naps too at Disney World. Another feature it has that I love is the basket below locks into place, ours keeps falling down if we have too much stuff in there - and we always do. We also bought a new rain guard since ours ripped while we were in Seattle. We also bought a sunshade that hooks on to the stroller sunshade, it is see through so we can pull it all the way down and Korben can see out. I think that will be helpful since he is allergic to sunscreen like me, it's hard to keep the sun off him. Anyway the shopping trip itself was very stressful since my blood sugar was low and it was nap time for Korben. He kept screaming and then Brent would walk off leaving me with the diaper bag, Korbens shoes (he had taken them off himself and was eating them!) his sippy cup, toys and trying to put up several strollers back up on the high display. So we all three were stressed by the time we left there. From there we met up with my parents to eat Chinese food, they were treating us for setting up their bathroom while they were in Vegas. Korben fell asleep on our way over there and everybody was happy again once we sat down to eat. When Korben fell asleep in the car he had his play phone up to his ear still. It was so cute! I didn't have a camera and before Brent handed me his phone and I figured out how to take a picture with it he had already dropped the phone.





When Brent and I went grocery shopping Friday night (we'll never do that again after Korben has gone to sleep we didn't get home until 1 am and we were dead tired!) we bought Korben "big boy" diapers, pull ups. We had to switch to them because he kept leaking out his diapers which means he was outgrowing them and he was at the biggest size of diapers. So now he is starting over and is in the smallest size of pull ups. He still has a box of diapers left that we are using during the day but we are putting him in the pull ups at night. I am tired of waking up at 7 am and having to change out his bedding, which was happening almost everyday. I am just glad I was smart enough to buy a whole extra set of bedding including a pillow since half the time he sleeps on top of his pillow so that ends up in the wash too. We won't use the pull ups for potty training though because they are just as absorbent as diapers and alot of times the child can't feel that they are wet. After we run out of the diapers we are going to buy him cool pull ups for during the day, they turn cool when wet so it makes the child uncomfortable so they will tell you that they have wet. Korbens dr. said not to try to potty train him until he can tell us he is wet but esp. when he wakes up dry several times a week - he never does this. He will tell us he is wet or has poopy if we ask but then he runs away as he doesn't like to be changed. We are hoping the cool pull ups will fix that. I can't really blame him though because he gets such bad diaper rashes from his sensitive skin that it hurts him to be wiped. I don't know what to do for that, we even have prescription diaper cream, I change his diaper constantly, we use sensitive skin wipes, and have tried everything his dr. suggested but his poor little bottom constantly stays red. Anyway Korben thinks he is a big boy with his pull ups on. He laughs when we put them on him, they have Toy Story characters on them.





Two more teeth have popped up in Korbens mouth, they are just barely sticking out but they are there. Only 4 more teeth to go! But they are all molars. :(





We have been giving Korben a couple of chocolate covered raisins occasionally, he is so funny when you hand them to him he says "Yyyyyyuuuuummmmmmm" it cracks us up. I guess the only new words he has been saying are "kitty" (Itty) and he said "empty" yesterday. He is babbling a whole lot more.





This morning Korben woke up about 7 am and was wanting milk so Brent put him in our bed. We all went back to sleep (with Korben still in our bed) and I woke up at about 10 am and Brent was beside me but Korben was not. So I jumped up and yelled "Brent where's Korben" Brent jumped out of bed too and Korben was just walking around our room. Neither one of us felt him get out of bed and he was sleeping in between us. He was carrying around the cookies that Brent and I were eating last night. He didn't open them though. I don't think he was up very long though, if he was I am sure he would have torn apart the room. Or at least had the phone or the tv turned on since those are usually the first things he goes for.

We ended up putting our car in the shop today instead of yesterday. They couldn't find anything that should be making that noise but think it might be because of the brake pads that they used. They are going to change them out but they don't have the other type of pads and won't be able to get them until tomorrow. So tomorrow Brent will drive my parents van to work and I will use their car to go to my appointment. Then Korben and I are going to run errands with my mom.

This afternoon we went to the Blazers Welcome Picnic. The booster club (we are all members and my mom is a board member) had a cookout so we went and ate and talked to a couple of the players. The players then got up in front of everybody and talked a little bit about themselves but right as they were starting that Brent and I decided to leave since Korben was starting to get fussy. It was nap time but of course he didn't end up taking a nap. Brent did though.





Well I guess that is all. I don't have any new pictures of Korben. The one that is up there is the new stroller we bought. I hope these posts make sense, I never go back and read them, I always just type them real fast and then spell check but I know that won't catch when I use the wrong words. So hopefully I don't do that too much and if I do hopefully you still understand what I am talking about.

10/10/08

Nothing really new to report, just some new pictures. Korben with his great grandparents and with his Mommy & Daddy. He thought it was SO funny that my Grandpa was holding him for some reason, so the pictures turned out great since he was laughing so hard. Silly baby!

Korben didn't take a nap today.....again and we kept him up so he can see his grandparents before they head back to OH early in the morning. So it is now 10 pm and he is just now drinking his bedtime milk.

Brent has decided that he needs to get Korben used to Disney World before we go so he keeps playing Disney theme park music right while Korben drinks his milk. I think Brent is getting excited about taking Korben this year. :)

We don't really have anything planned for the weekend. We have to put our car back in the shop, it has been making a funny noise every since we got the rotors done so they are going to recheck it. We are going to borrow my mom's car and go look for a new stroller at Babies R Us, one that will be easier to haul around Disney World. I love the one we have - well I love our main stroller and our double stroller that we use when we have Ryan and Zylee too, but I hate the other 4 strollers that we have. Yes, we have 6 strollers and we are going to buy another one but this will be the first one we have purchased. :) I am in the process of selling 3 of the umbrella ones on craigslist and one of those I am going to give to my neighbor (Trisha), she was one of my bridesmaids. She is 6 months pregnant right now She is going to be having a little boy. Her mom had bought me our pack n' play for my shower (that I never got to have) and she also had given me another pack n' play from when she kept her grandkids that was for outside. Korben never stayed still long enough for us to use it so I gave it back to Trisha, she was excited as it was her first baby thing. Anyway I really would like a good lightweight stroller all the ones we have hurt my back because the handles are too low and they don't recline so Korben can't take a nap in them. I have a long list of things I want in a stroller so we will see how it goes. Hopefully I can find a perfect one and we won't have to haul around the big one so much, now that he is older he doesn't need that much support from a stroller anymore.

Well I had better wrap this up, we are going to put Korben to bed then head off to Wal-Mart to do our grocery shopping.