07/26/09

Well I am 15 weeks pregnant, 2nd week into the 2nd trimester and no signs of my sickness going away. In fact it seems to have gotten worse. I have forgotten what it feels like not to be nauseous. I feel really bad for Korben though because he is stuck inside all day with me, the heat is just too much for me to take and I feel more sick when I am out in the heat. Poor little guy only gets to get the mail with Daddy & go to Walmart sometimes. I am hoping this eases up before our Disney trip! I have my next dr's appt. this Wed. and I am going to ask the dr. if there is anything else I can take for the nausea as my medicine doesn't seem to help for very long (just long enough to eat sometimes, since I don't even want to eat now) and you can only take it every 6 hours.

I am really glad now that I do the Mommy's Day Out (MDO) program since Korben gets to play with other kids. We still have the 2 - one yr olds and the 2 yr old comes a couple of time a month. The other little boy I was watching stopped coming. This last Tuesday in the middle of the day somebody knocked on our door and it was our neighbor from 2 doors down and her son - who is a month younger than Korben. They wanted to see if Korben could play but Korben was taking a nap but I told her to come on in & her son could play with the other kids. She didn't know that I did the MDO program there and was so happy to find out that I did because she had been looking for a playgroup since her son is not in daycare either (they both work but work opposite so they don't have to pay for daycare.) So they are going to start coming down and she said she would like to hang out and chat & help me too so that is nice. Today when we got back from running to Walmart we saw her son playing outside so we decided to walk down & say hello. They were in the process of putting together a big plastic play fort with slides on it and her husband told me that it was funny that we came down there because that was for us for all the kids that come to the MDO program! He saw it out on the side of a nearby daycare (all taken apart) and he went and asked if they were going to get rid of it and they said yes. They told him once one part gets a crack in it they have to (by law) get rid of it and they are not allowed to sell it either so they told him if he ever sees anything out there he can take it. There is a few cracks in it but nothing some duck tape won't fix right up. Brent helped him out a little putting the pieces together - no instructions so it was like a giant puzzle. Us ladies watched the little boys play together and talked. They told us they have 2 swing sets in their backyard and they are going to take one down and give it to us as well - he got both those for free too. So that is very generous of them. I just wish we had more shade in our backyard. I plan on putting the lawn chairs under the only tree back there and sitting out there to watch Korben play. Hopefully then we can get out more with out me having to run around and chase him. Right now he just likes to run in our backyard but part of the backyard has bricks and stuff we don't like him to play with so we still have to chase him back there. Hopefully the play equipment will keep him entertained enough that I won't have to keep going back there to chase him. So I am excited for that!

On this past Wed. one of the local TV stations picked their top 5 cities in Oklahoma and they had a little festival type thing for it. Everything was free including the food - the Moore fireman grilled up hotdogs. So we decided to go out there for dinner once Brent got home. We had called my parents and they met us there too. They had free snow cones and free bouncy things and a giant blow up slide (Korben didn't go down the slide the line was WAY too long for that.) We ate and walked around a bit and then we let Korben jump. He had a lot of fun in there, not really jumping but running around. A couple of the kids in there were jumping and then falling down on purpose and then Korben would imitate them, it was really cute. The funny part came when time was up and the guy running it told all the kids they had to get out to let the next ones in, all the kids got out except Korben & one other kid. Korben would start to go towards the exit but then say no and go back to jumping. He did that 3 or 4 times before he finally listened to me when I told him I was going to send Daddy in there after him. He had a blast in it! Sometimes I wish Korben's birthday was in the summer so we can do things like that - my sis in law had rented a bouncer for Skylar's birthday one year and we all had a blast playing in it. Now the new baby is going to be born around the same time, I guess I just have a thing for winter babies. :)

Korben is getting smarter by the day. He now will sing the ABC's almost all the way through. Sometimes he will skip one set of letters, the next time he sings them it will be a different set, once he figures out how to put it all together he will know how to sing them. We think that is because of his new Elmo video that he likes to see every night. We also sing him the ABC's a lot. Friday morning - or maybe it was Thursday, I can't remember now - anyway Korben woke up early because he had leaked out his diaper and he came to lay down with me in bed while Daddy was changing out his sheets but Daddy had to get ready for work shortly after that. Korben was yelling for Daddy to come "lay down" so Daddy did but kept telling Korben he had to go to work and Korben did not want him to go so he kept trying to butter up Daddy. Korben kept giving Daddy kisses & hugs and grabbing Daddy's arms and wrapping them around him and saying "snuggle, Dada" it was really cute and he was being such a ham. Of course he NEVER does Mommy that way and he didn't want to have anything to do with Mommy then either. He got upset when Daddy did have to leave and now when we tell him Daddy has to go to work he says "ohhhhh, money" because Daddy had told him one time that Daddy has to go to work to make money to buy all Korben's toys. It is really cute the way Korben says it though - I need to try to get him saying that on video! One day last week Korben also started saying "Seattle" over & over again. I have no clue where he picked it up, the only thing I can think of is maybe he overheard Brent & I talking about Seattle although I can't recall us talking about Seattle recently but he picked it up from somewhere and has been saying it a lot now. Since he started saying it I have been trying to teach him that is where his Grandpa & Grandma S. live but he still just tells me "E." :)


We got Korben some new cloth diapers that were on sale and they were even cheaper than our normal brand of cloth diapers. I bought a med. & lg size, Korben can only fit into the lg but the med. will be for the new baby. I am thinking of going back and ordering a small as well for the new baby since they are such a great deal, the sale ends next Friday. One cool thing about it is that when they first ran the deal you had the opportunity to get your own discount code for it and whoever had the most people use their code they win a trip to OR where the gDiapers headquarters are located. What I was excited about is that anybody who has their code used 10 times then gets $100 gift card to their online store. I posted my code on Craigslist but not just for OKC but also in communities that I knew were more environmentally friendly - like Seattle, Portland, etc. I would look up on Craigslist and search for cloth diapers and when you search in OKC I come up with a listing maybe once a month but upon checking out these other cities I had lots of cloth diaper listings pop up. So I have 15 uses so far on my code so I get the gift card!!! The highest one at last count had 109 uses. What is nice about these diapers is you can also buy disposable liners (no chemicals in them & no plastic so they can either be flushed or thrown away and if they are thrown away they decompose in just 60 days rather than the 100's of years it takes for the regular disposable diapers) for them instead of just using cloth liners. We have been using the cloth liners so far and they work great but since it is looking like we won't have Korben potty trained before Disney I think the flushable liners are going to be our solution rather than having to put him in the disposables that make his bottom bleed. They are a little pricey though - I think like $52 for a pack of them - so that is what I am going to spend the gift card buying. The other nice thing about these diapers is that you only need to change the inside liner (either cloth liner or the flushable liner) when it gets wet and if poopy leaks out it only usually goes on the plastic liner that is in the diapers and that unsnaps and you just snap a new one in so you don't need as many covers (the orange diaper part you see in the pictures) and therefore have less laundry to do. We will bring cloth inserts and some diapers too for night time and the car & plane rides but the flushables should work great at the parks! Sorry to go on & on about diapers, I am just excited about them. Korben loves them too & will sometimes even ask (and throw a fit) to wear his "G" diaper, today I tried to put a yellow one on him and he said no and wanted the orange one on him! They also velcro in the back to prevent babies from taking them off - it didn't take him very long to figure that out but he actually likes to keep these ones on. They are also less bulky so his bottom doesn't look as big in them.


Here he was showing me his new diaper.

Where did the "g" go Momma? He was looking for it.

Ohhhhh there is the "g" it is on my bottom.



Then he decided he only wanted to wear the diaper and nothing else. Surprisingly he didn't even try to take the diaper off, he really likes them!



He has got very broad shoulders like Daddy & you can see them in this picture.

Well one of the little boys that come to our MDO forgot his paci one day so I dug one of Korben's out and let him use it that day (after sterilizing it of course) then after I cleaned it up and was going to put it back up Korben got a hold of it. We just let him have it in his bed and he was using it to chew as his molars are coming in. I went into his room to check on him while he was sleeping and found him sleeping with the paci in his mouth!!! We are NOT going to let him get addicted to one now! The next day I took it away and of course he never noticed - thankfully! These pictures look so weird to me though & make him look younger I think.


Hiding from the camera.



Here are some more of Korben's lovely photography. He picked up the camera while sitting with me and I sat and watched him press the on button and then start taking pictures - he knew exactly which buttons to push and didn't push anything else - amazing to me.




Wonderful shot of Mommy.

Korben's great shot of Daddy!


LOVES his bubble baths!



Korben jumping.

Korben & Daddy went to get the mail one day and they took a pretty long time, so when Brent opened the door I asked if everything was ok & what took so long. Brent said that he let Korben play a little in the front yard and then he brought Korben over to me. Our little man had his first taste of dirt and apparently liked it because he kept trying to lick his hands while I took the pictures - yuck! I hear that is a very common thing but I can't recall ever eating dirt.




Cheeeeeese!

Korben received a package from Grandma & Grandpa S. and he had to put on one of the new outfits immediately after opening it. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING!!!!! He also received a card in the mail that day from his Mimi and Grandad which he also loved. :) Thank you to everybody that sends him mail - he loves it!


Daddy let Mommy sleep in today and got up with Korben and took him to the zoo. Looks like they had a great time. Daddy took the camera & got several videos too.

04/03/09

Korben is starting to potty train himself!!! We are so excited that he has taken an interest in it. We are hoping by the time we go to Disney World this Oct. that he will be all the way potty trained but we are not forcing him into it. Right after he goes poopy in his diaper he has been saying "poopy." He has been willingly going to get his diaper changed more often than not. The last few days he has been running to the gate & points down to his private area & says "potty!" so we run to the bathroom & he tries to help me take off all his clothes. We have to dress him in the overalls or one piece rompers so that takes awhile to undo the overalls. He thinks he needs to have all his clothes off to go potty but he is learning just pants & diaper come off. He has not gone in the actual potty yet but he has either just gone (warm diaper) or he goes right after I put his diaper back on after sitting on the potty for 10-15 mins. I guess he gets a little gun shy & once he gets on the potty he doesn't go. Yesterday after sitting on his potty he got up, still bared butt & tried to pull off some TP, put it in the grown up toilet & then flushed the toilet & said "yay" so he is starting to imitate us. We are excited that he is just trying! I ordered him some books about going to the potty from my book swapping site & we got one of them in today. He had me read it to him about 5 times & then read it himself, which was a bunch of gibberish & then he would say "no diaper" "potty, yay!" He's cute! Grandma & Grandpa S. are going to be very surprised how grown up he has gotten. Brent actually got sad about that the other day.

I found some of Korben's rompers online in size 3T from Gymboree & they wanted $24.00 for each outfit! We went to the baby consignment store & they had 4 of the Gymboree ones in 3T for $4.50 each! Then I also bought 2 pairs of overall shorts. I need to go back & see if they have anymore rompers in as alot of times Korb ends up wearing 2 outfits a day. We like the rompers better than the overalls as they are easier to get off for diaper changes.

The mother's day out program is going well & we had another boy join so now I watch 4 kids (2 - 8 month old babies, 1 - 14 month old & 1 - 2 yr old) plus Korben & that is all I will take on. The newest boy is 2 as well but his bday is in Nov. so he is slightly older than Korben. He is the youngest of 4 boys. Korben has finally found his match. Korben kept stealing toys away from him & the little boy hit him & pushed him, boy was Korben SHOCKED. He has never had anybody hit him back before. I wish I had a picture or video of the look on Korb's face. Of course both of them got in trouble but I was glad that Korb got a taste of his own medicine. He is actually starting to listen when I tell him to share his toys & is starting to give back the toys if he takes them away. So I am glad this little boy is coming now. Also his mother and I have worked it out where we are going to start swapping babysitting so that Brent & I and her & her hubby can go on a date at least once a month. I am still a little nervous about that since he has never been left with anybody except his grandparents. She agreed to come here and watch him since he doesn't do well with change. We will go out during the afternoon for the first few times as Korben doesn't do bedtime very well with others. My parents came over here & watched him last Friday night while Brent & I went to a WhoDunIt dinner theater show & they got Korben to bed but he ALWAYS wakes up several times a night when somebody besides mommy & daddy put him to bed. It's like he waits for us to get home & then has to make sure we are still here. So I figured we will just start off slow so he gets used to her before having her put him to bed.

Korben has gone through a growth spurt recently & is now able to reach all the light switches and he can now reach the handle to the screen door. This has all been a big challenge for us. Korb has been in time out A LOT lately. I used to keep the front door open so he could see outside & he likes to see daddy pull up, he starts waiting by the door around 5 pm. Well now he closes himself in between the front door & the screen door & opens the screen door & tries to run outside! So now the door has to stay shut since the screen door doesn't lock properly. He figured out how to unlock the bottom lock of the front door, thank goodness he can't reach the deadbolt yet. I guess when he gets tall enough for that we will have to install one of the child locks at the top of the door. I blame Brent for all Korben's sneakiness! :) Just a little while ago Brent had to put Korben in time out for turning on & off the light switches & when Korben came out of time out Brent said to Korben "what do you say?" Korben will usually say "sorry & say no light switches (or whatever he did wrong) but this time he went on to say, "no buttons, no tv, no movies, no light switches" he just kept saying it over & over, it was pretty cute.

Korben has also FINALLY started to try to use his silverware, yay! He has been trying real hard & is getting better at it everyday. He still won't use it if he is really hungry or in a hurry but when he slows down towards the end of the meal he will start to practice with his fork, he seems to like a spoon better as he is always asking for a spoon.

Well that is pretty much going on here. I have just been busy taking 2 online art classes. One of them I used my xmas money on & signed up for back in Dec. & the other one is a free class & of course they overlap with each other so that has been keeping me busier than usual. This weekend we will have a busy weekend since there is lots going on here. Tomorrow morning the city of Moore is having their annual Easter egg hunt at a park not far from our house. They have each age groups seperated out for Korb will be hunting with other kids ages 0-3. I have never been but have heard each kid ends up with tons of eggs & some eggs have numbers in them & those eggs get bigger prizes, it's all free so we thought we'd check that out. After that we will be heading downtown to where they are having the Baby & Toddler Expo. We went last year & you can sign up to win prizes & Korben got lots of freebies. They had an indoor playground & tunnels for the little kids to play on but Korb was too small last year. They also have a mini photography studio set up & you get a free picture & they enter the child in the cutest baby contest. Last yr I didn't know until after the fact that the public gets to vote online for the cutest baby & toddler so once I get the link I will send it to everybody so Korben can win cause we all know he is the cutest in the world! Haha! :) This we will go to the Medieval Fair in Norman that is going on this weekend. So by the end of the weekend I should have more pictures. :)

Hope everybody has a great weekend!


Korben playing video games with Daddy.





Daddy didn't have Korben's controller plugged in, Korben is playing with the end of it here. Of course Korben didn't know that and was very intently "playing" the game with Daddy.



Korben got very messy eating lasagna & then we decided to give him some of the chocolate cupcake that we got from Marc's (my friend's son that I used to watch, he turned 2 last weekend) birthday party. Korb kept doing goofy things with his hands.







Marc didn't seem to know whether to cry or laugh or what when everybody was singing to him. He kept putting his face in his daddy's chest but then would look around & laugh, it was pretty cute. Marc didn't know what to think with Korb & the other little kids coming over & playing with all his toys. He was pretty nice about it though & just stood back & waited until they were done playing with something before grabbing it & trying to protect it from everybody else. Korb just runs up & grabs it, pushes, hits, and screams but we are working on that & getting better.