Christmas Decorations!

Just wanted to post a few pictures of my Christmas decorations...and of course, Corbin being utterly delicious :)

First year I've added red

Oh, hi!

Which one shall I eat first?

Could you not just squeeze him!?

Playing with the lights in his Christmas jammies!

Sup?

Dining room

Look at that chubs!

Big eyes!

Mr. Handsome

I love his face.

Mr. Rogers playing on the floor during church.  So squirmy!

Cutest boy clothes, ever!

Crawling!

So Corbin has learned to crawl. He pretty much does the whole belly dragging thing, which is fine. I mean, thats normal. But instead of moving one leg then the other, he has decided tobreak the confines of conventional crawling and go for the inchworm style. Both knees in, butt up, stretch out. Sometimes, when he is really on the move for something  he looks like he is playing leap frog. It is adorable!

I kind of hate him being moble because that means he is into ev.er.y.thing! Today alone, he broke an ornament, got stuck under a table, and trapped the cat in her kitty cube by trying to join her. Then later he was in the kitchen with me while I made the world's fastest fudge and he got into the water bowl. I seriously sat him on one end of the kitchen, ran to pour my fudge in a dish, and before I could finish, he had water everywhere. So, being the young mother that I am, I gave him a dish of water and let him go to splashy town! There is nothing cuter than a baby in a diaper playing with bowls on the kitchen floor. I would have taken a picture but my phone was dead and I didn't get my fancy digital camera on Black Friday like I wanted. [INSERT: forlorn puppy face].

Broken ornament

Baby Jail!

Also today, Sammy growled at Corbin for the first time. Actually, he snapped at him, too. Not sure what happened there. I didn't see Corbin do anything, but I'm thinking it has to do with Sammy being leary of anyone touching his back end. It's one of those things where you want to get mad at the animal involved but really can't because they are instinctually reacting. But at the same time, of course I can't have our dog biting at Corbin. Sammy yelped when Josh touched his side but I felt all over and he never even winced. Just like when we paid the vet $45 to pet Sammy for 20 minutes...to find nothing.

Be friends

Other than that, it has pretty much been blah and lazy days for us since Josh went back to work. Being broke and having a car seat hating baby sort of puts a strain on your social life. Oh well, at least I have time with my little fraaaand ;)

Thanksgiving laziness and 7 month update

Well, it's thanksgiving night. The baby is asleep, and I really should be. That is, on the off chance I make it to black Friday shopping before noon!

I wanted to do a quick 7 month update on Corbin. Yes, it's hard to believe. I used to wish time away so I could approach school breaks faster, celebrate Christmas, and other can-hardly-wait-for-it events. Now I'm clawing my way back to yesterday just to preserve what's left of Corbin's first year. Having a baby changes everything.

So at seven months, Corbin:

Weighs 17.5 lbs
26 inches long
Wears size 6-9/9 months
Size 3 diapers
Eats two meals a day
Drinks 5 or 6 four ounce bottles
Rolls both ways
Says MAMA!!!
CRAWLS!!!
Plays on my cell phone
Loves our dog
Has separation anxiety
Plays the "smile then hide my face" game with strangers.
His blue eyes are getting lighter
His hair is getting lighter
Wants to stand ALL THE TIME
Has stolen my heart
Is my sunshine

...and this just in... I think it will be a matter of days before he has his first tooth!

I apologize for being a blog bum lately. Between my old phone becoming impossible to function with, and Corbin yelling for mama when I even THOUGHT about leaving the room, I haven't had time. I was also a holiday bum and didn't get Corbin anything special to wear for thanksgiving. But I have bought him at least one Christmas article. Feast your turkey-coma-induced eyes on this:

Lay-Down-Awake Baby on the Tree Top...the new lullaby?

When I was 14 years old, my dog found a baby squirrel that had fallen from his nest.  I'm not sure if the fall did it, or my dog, but somehow the little guy got paralyzed from his waist down.  I wound up keeping Chippy in a cage for nearly 6 months.  I would take him out to exercise his front legs, bathe him, pet him... he would roll over for you to scratch his belly and under his neck.  I even let him crawl around outside some.  But, as you can imagine, climbing up trees did a number on his little squirrel-man bits.  Stop laughing.  I'm serious!  Eventually, as he got older, he started biting and not being so friendly.  So, I gave him to a wild animal rescue.  I'm sure they took extra loving care of Chippy.  Or euthanized him.  I try not to think about it.

Ok, and the point to all this?  I am a helpless animal magnet.  Whether it be little "gifts" brought to me by the cats (semi-alive baby bunnies, mice, birds) or "donated" pets that some jerk dumped off in my neighborhood... just like I'm also a nutso magnet, an old-person magnet, and a tell-me-your-life-story-and-all-your-hardships magnet.  Most of which, I don't mind.  Except for the nutso magnet.  Those usually don't end well.  Yeah...

ANYWAY...

Yesterday, I took Corbin to the doctor because I was afraid his cold was turning into an ear infection.  But I learned he was pulling at his ears because he's teething.  Even though there are no teeth present, or hinting at the contemplation of emerging, he is cramming everything into his mouth and leaving a trail of drool (and snot) every where he crawls.

Oh yeah, he is totally doing the army crawl/drag now!  Yay!

The pediatrician, who I totally love, kind of rubbed me the wrong way, however.  As I was telling her how his teething and congestion was keeping him up at night, somehow the conversation got brought to the fact that I rock him to sleep.  Ignoring the fact that he is going through his 6 month growth spurt, teething, fighting a cold/congestion, and dealing with time change, she automatically assumed his recent night wakings MUST be because I rock him to sleep.  I definitely had my share of post-doctor ranting yesterday

I know this can be a parenting hot topic, but in my opinion, it's my business and it's not like I'm feeding my kid slug bugs and roaches.  Which, I guess if you think your kid could benefit from the protein, go right ahead.  But my point is, I literally got reprimanded for rocking Corbin to sleep before laying him down.  Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is.  If I were still breast feeding, I would be nursing him to sleep each night.  I didn't even dare mention that we bed share in the mornings.  That would probably warrant a call from CPS or something!  There is not one parenting style that fits all.  I wish doctors would understand that not everyone is anxious for their baby to sleep through the night, start baby food, or try "Cry It Out."  And not everyone wants to bed share/baby wear/breast feed/make their own baby food.  Forget the "experts."  YOU are your child's expert.  At least you should be.

And that's all I got to say about that.

OH YEAH... the squirrel story. And you were probably thinking I'd gone off my rocker (pun totally intended) on that one!

After the aforementioned doctor's appointment, Mom, Corbin, and I went to grab some lunch.  When we left the restaurant and walked toward my car, I noticed a very handsome squirrel sitting next to the driver's side front tire of my car.  I walked toward my door, totally expecting the squirrel to take off running, but he didn't move.  So I got down and looked a little closer, and noticed he had a bloody foot and a bloody nose - no doubt had grazed somebody's moving car.  Well, my closer inspection warranted him to slowly (and in case you've never seen a squirrel in person before, "slow" is not in their repertoire of moves) ran under my car.  Great.  Not wanting to run over him, I honked my horn to get him to move.  I walked to the other side to see if he had ran into the bushes, but alas he was sitting on my passenger side tire.  I poked him with a stick, for sure that he'd bolt away.  No.  He just jumped up under the hood of my car.

OH JOY!

I guess being in the south, there is something to say about the whole damsel-in-distress bit.  Because, here I was, on my hands and knees, looking under my car, yelling at a squirrel.  Ok maybe that was less damsel-in-distress and more psycho-squirrel-lady.  A nice man came over and asked if I needed help, and after telling him the story, he left and returned with a metal pipe.  Quite honestly, I was a little frightened that 1. he was going to wallop the squirrel and 2. he was going to wallop my car in the process.  But he just poked around and made some noise and eventually the squirrel jumped down.

Then he jumped back up.

Now, I want you to put yourself in my shoes for a minute.  It's freezing cold outside.  Mom is in the car with an impatient, overly-tired, crying Corbin.  I'm standing outside Calhoun's with a complete stranger holding a metal pipe, yelling at a traumatized squirrel who will not leave my car.  And I had to pee. After a few more minutes of this, and the failure to actually locate the squirrel, I did the unthinkable.  I decided to drive away.  DO NOT JUDGE ME!!!

I'm not completely naive.  I am well aware Mr. Chippy is now in squirrel heaven.  I'm not certain, but I believe even healthy squirrels don't have extensive life spans.  I'm not at all fooling myself thinking that Mr. Calhoun squirrel will probably, if not already, die from his injury.  So my logic is this:  if he survives the car ride, at least he will be warm when he finally does die.  If he doesn't survive the car ride, at least his death will be quick.  Yes, I gave this some thought before I left the parking lot.

I am thankful that it is going to be very cold this week.  Because I do not look forward to what toasty dead squirrel smells like in my car.

Now for a totally random, unrelated, too-lazy-to-actually-write-about-it photo catch-up from the past week:

Redecorated the living room.  I do not look forward to re-redecorating for Christmas here soon...

Another Pinterest project

Corbin decided to introduce his forehead to the bottom of the book case.  The night before his 6 month pictures.

 

Daddy icing Corbin's head

Corbin had his 6-month pictures taken by Amber Rena Photography!  Here's a sneak peak:

Corbin and Sammy played together:

...aaand Corbin started army crawling:

...and he took a bath and attacked his ducky.  Ok, not really an update but I had to share!

Toes, Woes, and Deep Reflection

Ever notice how if the weather has been really nice, say, in the 70's, and suddenly it turns 50 degrees and everyone is freezing?  But if we had been experiencing 30 degree weather, a 50 degree day would warrant flip flops!  The same goes with my life.  Before I decided to stay home with Corbin, my life was a constant GO, GO, GO!  Being a teacher meant I never stopped working.  The gears never stopped turning.  And my brain never shut off.  I was beginning to think my life now was boring and mundane, and I started really missing the GO, GO, GO of working.

Then the proverbial rug got pulled out from beneath me...

Last Tuesday, I was getting ready to go with my husband to a work meeting over our new health insurance plan.  It was already turning into one of those moments where I felt the irritability rising up in me.  Corbin was teething and fussy, I was dreading the long, boring meeting with an infant, I didn't want to drive in rush-hour traffic to and from Nashville...I just didn't want to go.  But I was going to go anyway.  I had clipped Corbin's nails and for the first time in forever, nipped his thumb.  I don't know if you've ever cut a baby's nails before, but a.) it's impossibly arduous and cumbersome, and b.) if you do nip them, they bleed like you cut their whole little finger off.  Actually, the saying, "Bled like a stuck pig" should be recoined to "Bled like a nipped baby finger."  Anyways, I was running to get a bandage for his finger, barefoot of course, and wouldn't you know I kicked the leg of my coffee table full-speed.  I've done this a hundred times, and this time didn't even hurt that badly.  Until I looked down.  My toe was bent at a 45 degree angle...

...to the right.

Broken middle toe :(  (Red from the ice)

It wasn't minutes later that my whole toe was swollen twice its size and the top of my foot turned purple.  I couldn't bare any weight on it and even putting on a sock was excruciating.  "THAT'S IT," I said, "I'm not going to your stupid meeting."

Josh, clearly agitated by the fact that he couldn't show off his precious babe at the meeting (Corbin, not me), left while I laid on the couch with a bag of ice on my throbbing foot.  20 minutes later, he was back, obviously feeling the guilt of being less-than compassionate about my critical injury.

And this isn't even the worst part.  He had been home less than 15 minutes when his cell rang.  It was his sister, in hysterics, saying their mom had gotten into a four-wheeler accident and we needed to get over there.  We don't always take what she says seriously, or literally for that matter, but when other members of the family started calling, we realized it was serious.  Long story short, Josh's mom and dad were riding a four-wheeler without helmets, when she turned onto the asphalt from ground, and wound up spinning the back-end around and flipped it over.  His dad was thrown into a ditch, his mom landed underneath the four-wheeler...on her head.

She was life-flighted to Vanderbilt where she spent the next five days in the ICU and trauma unit for a fractured skull, swelling and bleeding around the brain, and three fractured ribs.  Her memory was spotty, her speech was muddled, and she acted very confused.

Through lots of prayer and a great medical team, she is home now.  Her speech is clear and she remembers everything except the actual accident.  She has an incredible headache and a gnarly case of whiplash, but she is going to be great!  Praise the Lord!  God had His hand over her.  It could've been much, much worse.

During this time, I struggled with a lot of thing internally.  I struggled with wanting to feel sorry for myself  while staying home with Corbin day and night while Josh was at the hospital.  I struggled with trying to not complain much about my broken toe/foot which made it hard to get around.  I struggled with my belief that God answers our prayers.  The last one I actually had been working through for a while.  I'm sure many of you heard of Lane Goodwin, the boy from Kentucky with cancer who everyone was giving a "thumbs up" to on Facebook.  My faith was shaken when he passed away.  I questioned why God didn't answer his parents' prayers to heal him, why God couldn't use his healing as a modern-day miracle, and if praying really did any good at all.  I found my own peace about it through lots of conversations, research, and prayer.  I won't share my beliefs on that whole situation, because who knows if I'm right or wrong.  All I know is, I found peace.  And I had peace the whole time Josh's mom was in the hospital.  And I was very adamant about remaining positive and speaking only positive and uplifting things over her.

I think God allowed my faith to be shaken for a season because He knew this would bring me closer to Him.  He knew I wouldn't settle for vapid responses from people who really didn't know the answer, either.  He knew I'd find my peace.  And I truly believe He did all this because He knew I'd need to be strong for Josh and his family that week.  He used me to help minister, support, and encourage.  Even as I sit here writing this, I am amazed as I reflect back on how these events unfolded and what it did to me as a person.  All I can say is, I serve an awesome God.

So, aside from all the injuries/drama associated with last week, there were also some light-hearted tidbits.  We finally painted the walls in the living room and dining room (yay!), I completed all my Pinterest projects/crafts (yay!), and I got Corbin's 6 month pictures scheduled and planned (yay!).

Coffee Filter Wreath

Wall Hanging

Wall color before... (notice the coffee table is GONE?!)

Painting our 20ish foot walls...

Dining room after

Living room after

Hallway after

Sometimes going to the mailbox feels like an accomplishment for the day.  Other times, it's making it through a family crisis.  Today was a going-to-the-mailbox kinda day.  Which is alright with me.  I could use a little boring in my life right now. So bring on the 50 degree weather - I'm wearing my flip flops!

Blessed :)