Well the beginning of the week started off pretty uneventful. The only thing that had been going on was Korben was constantly hungry, asking for food every hour and kept saying he was hungry. I tried to distract him first to make sure he was truly hungry & he usually was. He was also waking up hungry in the middle of the night & seemed in pain & kept sleeping in bed with us. This was his 2nd week doing all this. I told Brent I was pretty sure he was going through a growth spurt since they are only supposed to have them every 6 months at his age and his last one was right around when he turned 2. Well when one of the little boys came over for Mommy's Day Out I could see a difference! That little boy will be 3 in Nov. so he is a few months older than Korb, they were the same size and on this past Tues. Korben was at least a full inch taller than him! We hadn't seen the little boy in 2 wks since we had canceled the week before when Korben had a cold. Talk about growing, no wonder why our little man was hurting so bad! We had to even buy him more clothes - well just shorts really, he has moved up to a 4T but when he wears his big boy underwear he can fit into a 2T - those cloth diapers really make his butt big! Anyway we happen to go into our favorite baby consignment store and they had tons of clothes on clearance for only $1.00 so he is stocked up for a little while now!

Korben is quite comfortable in Mommy & Daddy's bed or as he calls it "Mama's bed"


I don't know why this picture rotated itself - I can't figure out how to fix it, sorry!

So things had been going fine until Thursday morning. He had been enjoying his mail from Grandma & Grandpa S. & from Grandma L. Wed. night Korben had slept in his bed all night long and the next morning when he woke up I went to get him and I was half asleep. I stood him up on his changing table to take off his pants and that is when I noticed he was covered in something. I thought it was poopy at first and I couldn't figure out how it leaked out of a onesie and his pants. Then I realized it was vomit and his bed was covered in it. We had the monitor on all night long and he never made a peep. I feel like the world's worst Mommy for letting him throw up all over himself and sleep in it and I didn't hear it & didn't help him. :( It still makes me so, so, so sad to think about. So naturally I was very concerned, esp that he didn't wake up and I called Brent then I called Korb's doctor's office so a nurse could call me back as I wasn't sure if I needed to bring him in or not. Brent is such a great guy, knowing how nauseous I have been he came home for his lunch break and cleaned up Korben's bed for me. Korben didn't run a fever until later that evening but he did start having diarrhea. The nurse I talked to said it sounded like a stomach flu and not to force food on him (he had barely touched breakfast or lunch that day) and once the diarrhea started I had already started the pedialite which she said to give him (or water) instead of fruit juice or milk which would make it worse. Today is Sunday and his poopy's are just now starting to be normal again. I guess I had a touch of what Korb had the 2 days prior to him getting it but I chalked it up to the pregnancy. This weekend Brent got it but seems to be doing much better now. So we didn't have the greatest of weeks around here.

Korben loving his mail with stickers in it from Grandpa & Grandma S.

He would tell me which sticker he wanted and tell me where to put it.

"Mama shirt please"

With all the stickers on him.

Look Daddy I got a card too!

Other than our horrible sickness around here thinks are going pretty good. Korben is being as cute as ever! He is SO lovey and one day when Brent got home from work Korben walked up to Daddy's speaker and hugged it and said "I love (he says wuv) you speaker" then he hugged the DVD rack and said "I love you movies" then hugged the tv "I love you tv" then back to the other speaker. It was really cute. He has been counting objects now instead of just counting, like if you ask him how many books he has, if it is two or three he doesn't even have to count he will just look at it and say 2 books or 3 cars or whatever. He really is very smart, I don't mean to keep bragging about him but he really knows more than every other 2 yr old I have ever known. He is doing very well with his colors too but a lot of times if you ask him what color something is he won't even look at it and will just say "pink" I had a friend tell me that means we are having a girl! Haha! He also has been loving watching this video on YouTube with Daddy that is Elmo singing the ABC's and now he is trying to sing them. He sings A through G and then he finishes off with singing Twinkle Little Star, he figured out that they are the exact same melody. I don't know if I have mentioned before or not that Twinkle Little Star is his favorite song (Mommy has sang it to him almost every night since he was born) and he knows all the words to it and likes to sing it all the time. Yesterday Korben cracked me up because he took one of his stuffed Mickey's and laid Mickey down on his table and said "shhhheeww stinky poopy diaper" he pretended to change Mickey's diaper then he carried the pretend diaper to his rubbermaid toy box (which he had previously emptied) and said "trash can" he threw the diaper away and then went back to Mickey and put a new pretend diaper on him and told Mickey "new diaper - all clean" he proceeded to do this to 2 other Mickey's that he has, it was REALLY cute! Speaking of diapers, no new progress made on the potty training. He started not wanting to get his diaper changed because Mommy had put him in some disposables and he got a horrible, horrible rash again. :( I just don't know what we are going to do when we go to Disney World. I don't know how we are going to carry dirty cloth diapers around until we can wash them but if we put him in disposables his bottom bleeds and it is SO heartbreaking.

Korben got a new "big boy" laptop that has a mouse with it. We didn't intend to buy it for him now, we were going to wait and use it as a car toy for when we drive to Disney World in Oct. We showed it to him in the store and he refused to let go of it. Normally we will show him a toy in the store and he will play for it a bit and then be fine with giving it back to us but not this one he wanted this one very badly. We were bad & gave in but he loves, loves, loves it. He lined up his chairs and other laptops and said that was his desk, one chair & computer were for Daddy & the other for Mommy. His favorite activity on there (it has 30 different activities you can do) is the song playing one. He LOVES music and plays his pianos for me every day.


Korben has been just so helpful lately. I had my camera on top of the entertainment center after taking the laptop pictures and later that same day we were getting ready to go grocery shopping. Korben just had a poopy diaper that Daddy was cleaning up and I was grabbing the grocery list. Korben was left alone in the living room for just a few mins. When Daddy went out there Korben had my camera in hand, managed to turn it on and took the following pictures of himself! I am still laughing about it - he is so smart!






When we got home from grocery shopping that same night Daddy went to turn on the tv for Korben while we unloaded & put up the groceries but the remote was no where to be found. I had it last and left it on the arm of the couch (before Korben had gotten left alone in the living room) so I started looking for it but couldn't find where Korben put it. The next day Daddy finally found it, Korben had stuck it on top of the entertainment center (where we normally keep it) but it was behind a picture frame so we didn't see it. I guess he then got distracted by the camera. Korben getting the camera was the 2nd time he had gotten something down from there and we couldn't figure out how he got it. We quickly figured out he climbs up Brent's sub woofer and then can reach up there. Sneaky - I mean helpful little boy! I have a little box that my Grandparents made me up on top the entertainment center and it is in the shape of a seashell & inside it I have some shells from some of my trips to the beach and Daddy found those shells all spread out today on the top of the entertainment center. I have one big shell in there but it was missing and I asked Korben where it was and he said "oh, movies" and then pointed to where he had stuck the shell on top of a row of movies. He is really getting very chatty too & he has a great memory! He still thinks Grandma & Grandpa S. live at the "E"! :)


I was doing Korben's laundry and was switching out the changing table pad when Brent brought Korben in to change his diaper. Korben decided to hide from Daddy. We thought he looked so funny we had to grab the camera.



Korben's hair is already growing back - the top has one little area where it is starting to curl up now - you can see where it is in this picture.

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.

02/18/09

Well we hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day! We sure did! Brent & I had plans on going to the new Cheddar's for a Valentine's lunch. My mom & Larry knew we were going & gave Brent a gift card to Cheddar's for hooking up their surround sound & helping them hook up their dvd burner & showing them how to use it. So that worked out nicely for us. We were so excited that we got a Cheddar's in Norman, it was one of our favorite places to eat when we lived in Plano.

Brent surprised me & got me a book I wanted & the collectors edition of my new favorite book -Twilight. If you read I highly recommend the series, right now there are 4 books out. I was staying up until 2 & 3 in the morning reading them! If you don't read make sure to watch the movie - at least I am hoping it is as good as the book - it comes out on DVD towards the end of March. It is about vampires but don't let that stop you, I am not into vampires & all that at all & I LOVED these books, it is really more of a unique love story. Anyway I borrowed the books from my mom so I don't own them. I have been trying to get them from my book swapping site but so many people are wanting them they are extremely hard to get. Usually I don't reread books so after I am done with the book I trade it. I only have two books that I have always kept & one of them I have reread about 3 times, the other one I have only read once but I do plan on reading it again. Anyway that says alot about these books that I want to not only own them but reread them again. Sorry for going on about this, I could talk about Twilight for days - just ask Brent! ha -ha! So let's just say it was a very good Valentine's present for me!

On Sunday we had somebody coming to look at our TV. We were selling ours since we got Keith's. Brent promised me if I let him have Keith's TV & we sold ours I could take the money & buy a new couch. Ours hurts my back really badly. It is really comfy for naps but not for just sitting. In the meantime for months now I have been looking on Craigslist every day to find a good deal on a couch. I knew I wanted a microfiber one as that is what my mom's recliners are made from & I love them. They are soft & clean up very well. So on Sunday I came across the best deal ever, somebody was moving & needed their couch gone that day. They said it was only used in their formal living room & mostly the cats just sat on it and the microfiber was too much of a pain to keep cleaning everyday because the cat hair stuck to it. I called my dad & he came to pick me up & we drove to the north side of OKC to go & get it. So it came with LOTS & LOTS of cat fur & took me 4 hours to clean it all up. I vacuumed & then steam cleaned every single spot on the couch. Brent ended up doing the cushions for me as I was so exhausted & had pulled my shoulder out of place cleaning it. But I had to get every single piece of cat hair off of it since I am allergic. I swelled up so bad & my face broke out in hives & I itched like crazy until I got it all clean but it was worth it for only spending $50.00!!!! You can see from the pictures it was an EXCELLENT deal! Brent & I are very happy with it.

We did end up selling our TV but they didn't come to get it until yesterday. Brent brought home fast food for dinner since our water was turned off because we got a new water heater!!!! YEA!! No more fast showers & having to keep turning down the cold water. We have got great landlords! After we ate I headed to Wal-Mart to pick up the other cloth diapers I had ordered for Korben, I had them shipped to the store so I didn't have to pay for shipping. While I was there Brent said I could buy a few things for the house since I didn't spend that much on the couch. I got a rug that matches the new couch - we had a blue rug in the living room. I got a couple of throw pillows that were marked down half price. I got a blender since ours broke when we lived in TX and we hadn't replaced it yet & I have been wanting to make homemade salsa & breadcrumbs. The blender was on clearance too, $10 off! Then I sale that they had the towels on clearance too & I found purple ones, so I got light purple & dark purple! Brent & I have not bought new towels since we first got together almost 10 years ago & most of our towels we hand me downs from Brent's mom when he moved into the dorm. I had forgotten that towels were supposed to be absorbent! I almost bought some luggage too as we only have one big suitcase & always have to borrow my mom's big suitcase but the one that was on clearance was only a med. size bag but it was such a good deal ($50 marked down to $15) I almost bought it. I looked to see if any of their large bags were marked down but they weren't. You would think that store is going out of business because almost everywhere I looked everything was on clearance. When we went grocery shopping there last week I bought a big toy police car set. It was $25 marked down to $5.00, I got it for my nephew Ryan. I put away & will give that to him for his birthday in May. I thought about getting one for Korben but it has tons of little people & parts & it was for ages 5+ and I really didn't want to store it that long.

Anyway I had fun, I had a little shopping spree I don't think I have done that since I was single. I don't usually like spending money on myself & I really hate paying full price for anything. I also would rather buy some items used as it is usually cheaper but more importantly it is better for the environment. I had also bought some Valentine's Day stuff that was supposed to be marked down but when I got home I checked my receipt cause I thought it was a little higher than I calculated & sure enough I got charged full price for all the Valentine stuff. So I am going to take that back tonight & I think I am going to buy some new pots & pans. I was going to get them last night but I felt like I had gotten too much stuff already. After talking with Brent he agreed that we need them, we bought them when we moved in together & some of my pots are from when I first moved out with a friend when I was 18! It is pretty bad when all the non stick coating stuff is almost off of it.

Anyway we have been having MAJOR issues with Korben keeping his clothes on at nap & bedtime. Today he actually started taking off his clothes during the day. He has been taking off his clothes & peeing all over his bed. At first he couldn't figure out how to get off his cloth diapers but now he has figured that out as well. We have been having to change his sheets at least twice a day. We are so far behind on laundry now because we still have the little bitty washer & dryer, hopefully in the next couple of years we will be able to afford new ones. Today I put him in overalls & just a little bit ago while I was typing this I heard him whining & I went to check on him & sure enough he was trying to take off his shirt but he couldn't get it off because of the overalls & he was stuck. I ran & got the camera & took some pics & a video clip.

Korben is starting to say 3 word sentences, like he will say "up, please, okay" or "open please, okay" he always says okay at the end because if he asks me nicely & says please then I will say "okay" so that is what he wants me to say. He has also gotten very into play doh. Every morning, he has "hand please playdoh" or "play doh please okay" it is cute. He really only likes to open the lids of the play doh & then he tries to eat it alot of the time!

Our new water heater is working very, very good. Before I timed my shower from the time I turned on the hot water until it ran out it was 4 mins. Then the plumber came out & messed with it & I was able to take a 12 min shower but that was with having to turn down the cold water every min. or so & soon the cold water would be all the way off & the water would be warm at best. So last night I wanted to take long shower & I had conditioner in my hair & bent down to shave my legs & my hair fell in my eye & a piece of hair got stuck in there! I couldn't see, I sprayed water in there & that stopped the burning. I had to cut my shower short - at 15 mins and I didn't have to touch the cold water at all and no sign of hot water running out!!! Anyway I took my contact out & called for Brent to hold it for me with saline in his hand since I don't usually soak my contacts I had no idea where a case was. I could see the hair but I couldn't get it out. Finally after about 15 mins I was able to move the hair to the crease of my eye & pull it out. When I pulled it out I could feel it pulling from behind my eyeball - ewwww, it was gross feeling! The hair was at least 3 inches long!!!! My eye was so swollen & irritated I ended up just throwing that pair of contact away and put in a new pair this morning. That was quite an adventure though!

Oh & I am still trying to get a good picture of Korben's big butt with his cloth diapers. You just can't tell how big it looks in the pictures but it is pretty funny in real life.