Good times were had by all.

Just want to share my newest, favorite Korben memory to date. Last night when I was putting him to bed I was giving him his bottle and he decided he didn't want to drink anymore. He was just laying on me making that "singing" sound that he does when he is sleepy. So, I started patting his mouth (I used to call this making "Indian sounds", but I'm sure that isn't politically correct to say anymore). He thought this was hilarious. He would hold a note out until he'd crack up laughing and then do it again. After a couple minutes of this, I had tears rolling down my face from laughing so hard. I stopped, thinking we'd had all the fun we were going to have with that little trick. Well, he quickly grabbed my hand and started patting it on his mouth for me to do it again. It was the most PRECIOUS thing ever! I told Aaron about it last night, so he tried it with him this morning. He did it all again, just as I had told him! Aaron thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

Some of you can expect to be getting your own copy of one of these pictures in the mail soon! Here are the pictures we took in an attempt to get one good one for our Christmas card. It was more difficult than it looks, I can assure you. Thank you, Sarah Hobbs, for taking these pictures at the church for us with such short notice. Thank you, Brittany Molder, for saying "Poop" a hundred times to make Korben smile.


This is not the picture we chose for our Christmas card, but I adore the expression on Korben's face. We rarely get a picture of him without his mouth wide open and smiling, so this was a different look for him.
























We really like this picture, even though it is not the one we chose for the Christmas card. It is probably the best picture we got of Korben that day.


























Here's a funny one for you, Julie. He would fit in the Rodgers' family portrait perfectly.

























"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

























After the votes were counted, this is the picture we chose for the Christmas card.



























Tonight at church, we (the youth group) had a tacky Christmas sweater party. I apologize for the quality of these pictures below, but you get the drift. We were tacky. It was so much fun. I love love love to dress up in crazy ways. My favorite days in school were always "mix and match" days. I was trying on my outfit this morning and Aaron suggested that I wear white pants because that would make my vest stand out more (he actually said that it would make it "pop"...wow) He is such a mess. The pants were way too big, so I kinda looked like MC Hammer. I have on two jingle bell earrings that were ornaments as of 8:30 this morning. They are snowmen that say "Kristen" and "Aaron." I thought Korben was going to pull them right out of my ears he was so excited about them. Aaron was showing me what he was going to wear to the party this morning, and he lovingly looked at the shirt and said, "Somebody put a lot of work into this." We wore our tacky sweaters with pride. We know that they were once AWESOME!



























Poor Korben. He doesn't stand a chance with us.

























Christmas is in a week, y'all! Get excited.

All he wants for Christmas are his two front teeth.

We spent the weekend at my mom's house because we had our annual Cunningham Christmas party on Saturday. It was great to visit with all of the family members we love so much, but rarely get to see. We were so proud to show off our baby. The party started RIGHT at his nap time, but he never fussed. He was such a good boy.

One of the best parts of my weekend was going on a date with my husband. We saw a couple movies and ate some great sushi all in one evening. Thanks so much, Mom, for taking care of Korben so we could have our first date in months!

Here is the long awaited picture of Korben's two bottom teeth (In case you didn't know, you can click the picture to enlarge). Aren't they precious? These first appeared to be breaking through his gums on November 9th, and as you can see, they are still tiny. I had no idea they would take this long to fully come up. His top teeth have to be coming in soon! He is always rubbing his top gum with his thumb. "All he wants for Christmas are his two front teeth..."

























Got a cute story for you. This morning I was dressing Korben for church. I pulled a sweater over his head, and as soon as his head popped out he looked at me with the biggest smile and said "Hey!" It made my day!!

9 month check-up

I just got home from taking Korben to his 9 month check up. Everything was great. He weighs 22 pounds and he is 30 inches. I found out he weighs more than 75% of 9 month olds, and he is taller than 95% of 9 month olds.

Dr. Beene was not concerned with the fact that he wasn't crawling, but she was surprised. We put his blanket on the floor so she could watch him move. She watched the way he goes from the sitting up position to all-fours. She watched him rock back and forth on his kness. She watched him try to pull up on the table. She watched him standing holding onto a chair. She, like me, knows that he is "on the verge" and knows he is going to be running circles around us in no time.

He babbled the whole time we were there, like he was trying to tell her what has been going on in his life. She said she was "very impressed with his verbal skills." HaHa. I like the way that is worded. In school I was called an "excessive talker." I think I would have preferred my teachers to say "Kristen Cunningham has some impressive verbal skills." Sounds so much better.

He had his second flu shot today. No tears. Praise the Lord. He had no vaccinations at this appointment, which was nice, but I hear he has to get 4 shots at his 12 month appointment. The nurse said that the 12 month shots sting more than the others, and she will probably have to ask my permission to give him a sucker. No problemo!

So, thats my report on our healthy 9 month old little boy. Now I'm going to get caught up on some ironing while Korben is still napping. Fun times.

A day in the life of our 9 month old (almost)

Tomorrow we are going to see Dr. Beene for Korben's 9 month check up. It will just so happen to be Korben's actual 9 month birthday as well! My baby is growing up so fast, and its hard to fathom how soon he will turn one year old.

I recognize that it is not normally a good thing to have to take your baby to the doctor, but I've always liked taking him for check ups. They are fun because he well, happy, and showing off for everyone who works at the clinic. Dr. Beene and I just sit and visit about all of the things Korben is doing. I've been thinking the past couple days about what she would probably want to know, which got me in the mood to update my blog. This may seem like a boring blog entry (Sorry, I don't have any photos or videos to post), but I'm sure that one day I will want to look back and know exactly what my 9 month old was doing (or not doing).

Saying: DaDa, Daddy, Hi, Hey, Hi/Hey DaDa, MaMa (rarely, and accidentally)

Drinking: Four 8 oz. bottles of soy formula a day. One when he wakes up, one 3 hours later, one 3 hours after that, and one before he goes to bed. I know that he will be transitioning off of the bottle in about 3 months, so I am working on introducing the sippy cup. Its a slow progress. He doesn't even hold his own bottle yet, so this sippy cup is not appealing to him at all. He actually does really well when I let him sip out of a real cup. Maybe we can skip the sippy cup all together( and make an even bigger mess wherever we go)? Who knows?

Eating: Right now he is eating a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, with a baby jar of some sort of fruit. He also eats cheerios, which he can feed himself. At lunch he eats a jar of vegetables and feeds himself torn up pieces of toast. At dinner he eats another jar of vegetables and/or fruit and something he can feed himself (cheerios, toast, or small pieces of pasta.) He is doing so much better at eating things without gagging. For a while, every time I put anything in his mouth he would choke. He has had a lot of practice with his cheerios, and now successfully gets almost every one of them in his mouth, and never chokes (lets keep it that way, Korben! Momma's heart stops everytime you choke/gag/cough profusely/etc.).

Doing: He sits up and plays with his toys for a long, long time. He loves to have a big basket of toys in front of him and unload each toy, one by one. He will thoroughly examine each toy until he is tired of it, put it down, and get the next toy from the basket. He will do this until the basket is empty. Then he usually tries to "pull up" on the empty basket which never works out for him. From the sitting position he will lunge forward on his hands and knees to get something. He will appear to be in crawling position, but once he gets what he wants, he goes back to the sitting on his knees. His crawling is slowly progressing, but these lunges I speak of seem to be happening more often. He is becoming a lot more daring and ambitious. If he is sitting on my lap on the couch, he will throw his body to the other end of the couch to reach something off of the side table. It doesn't matter what it is, he just wants it. He loves for me to hold his arms while he jumps on the bed. He loves to hear someone whistle. If he is sitting near anything he can pull up on, he will pull up into the standing position. However, he has yet to be able to sit up from the laying position, so he is still not pulling up or standing in his crib. I expect it every time I go in his room, though.

Sleeping: God has blessed us with the best sleeping baby ever. He goes to bed around 5-5:30 every night, and wakes up between 7 and 7:30 every morning. He usually takes 3, one hour naps a day, but recently he has had some days where he takes 2, one and a half hour naps. I think this is the sleep pattern where we are heading. The only sleeping issue we are having lately is that he will sometimes wake up in the middle of the night screaming because he has flipped over to his belly and he can't figure out how to roll back over. I know he does know how to roll over, I see him do it all the time. I guess he's just not thinking so clearly in the middle night...I can understand that. As soon as I roll him over, he is off to sleep again. I don't run in there instantly because I want to see if he will do it himself. I sure don't want him to think that he has a new trick for me to come into his room whenever he wants me. We told someone about this happening and he said "Its like he wakes up in the middle of the night thinking the mattress is attacking him." Well said.

Developing: He has two bottom teeth, but they are still tiny. He has been rubbing his thumb on his top gum for the past week, especially on the sides (where the canine/vampire teeth would come in) so I'm wondering if those will be his next teeth.
His hair is really growing and somewhat wavy. It has now finally grown back to be longer than it was when he was born. We can't go anywhere without compliments on his hair!
He is in size 5 shoes, size 4 diapers, and wearing 18-24 month clothes.
He went though a stage when he was 3-4 months old when he sucked his thumb whenever he was sleepy. I would always try to put him to sleep with a pacifier to encourage him not to suck his thumb. I thought he had kicked this habit, but I have started noticing the past couple of weeks that he sucks his thumb when he is sleepy, or seems to be having teething pain. I went in his room to check on him while he was napping today and he was asleep with his thumb in his mouth. I put him to bed with a pacifier, but he must have lost it and found his thumb quickly. He may have never stopped doing this. I guess he has plenty of time during his 14 hour nights of sleep to nurture a habit without me knowing. Hey, maybe that's why he sleeps so well?

Can I just say that this is my favorite stage yet??? I guess they have all been my favorite in their own way, but MAN he is fun right now! Aaron and I just can't get enough of him. I can tell that it is harder for Aaron to leave in the mornings (he probably kisses him goodbye 200 times), and he is always so thrilled to get home and see him. I guess the new "Hey DaDa" thing doesn't hurt either.

I will post tomorrow about how the 9 month check up went!

Thanksgiving

Friday the 21st of November, Korben and I headed to my mom's house. It had been almost 6 weeks since we had seen each other, and I was very homesick! On Saturday, Kim came in from Tennessee and stayed through Monday. We had such a wonderful time together. We spent time visiting with my grandmother, having many messy meals (Korben tried Biter Biscuits for the first time), watching old home videos, going to church, and visiting with family. It went so fast! Korben loved his Aunt Kimmie. It had been 3 months since they had seen each other! Korben was in love with Kim's dog, Melody. Three times in a row, when Melody walked in to the room, Korben said "HI" to her. I wouldn't have believed my ears, but mom and Kim heard it too. Of course, he hasn't said it since! We also appreciated Melody being a vacuum cleaner for all the cheerios Korben dropped. We sure did miss her after she left. "DaDa" was the phrase of the weekend. He said it over and over. We had just heard him say it for the first time from his crib on Tuesday (the 18th) morning. On Sunday night he realized he could blow raspberries on the leather couch. He would bend down and make the "noise" that it makes when you blow on the couch, and lean his head up and say "DaDa." This went on for several minutes. It was hilarious. His daddy came in late Tuesday night after finishing up the Thanksgiving Blessings service at our church. I don't think Korben said "DaDa" once on Wednesday...Aaron said it was because he didn't have to, his "DaDa" was with him and he didn't have to call for him! Good point.



First Biter Biscuit. He loved it, of course.




















Me, Korben, and Mema.


























Korben and Melody smooching.




















Mom, Korben and me before church.


























Kim, Korben and me before church.




















Korben loving on his big cousin, Carson.




















Kim was about to go home. Sad.




















Korben was giving her a goodbye hug.




















Getting acquainted with Santa.




















He wasn't scared at all. He was very amused with the "tricks up his sleeve." So amused that it was hard to get him to look up and pose. We have some professional pictures that I will post later.




















We saw this cute rocking horse in Dillards. You can see from my expression that I couldn't wait to get Korben on a horse.
























We drove to Heber Springs on Thursday morning to have Thanksgiving with Aaron's parents and Dustin. My mom followed us there in a separate car. I started out riding with her, but after being on the road about 15 minutes, Aaron asked me to get in his car in the back seat with Korben and block the sun out of his eyes. The sun was incredibly bright that day, and since Korben's car seat is still in the reversed position there was no way for him to escape it. So, I held up a box for 45 minutes. Aaron turned around and took this picture saying, "we're making memories!"


























We had the most incredible meal! No weight watcher points were counted that day, or the day after, or the day after that! Julie surprised us with an appetizer of "Pumpkin Soup." We will be eating that in Heaven, I'm sure, and it will be calorie free! Until then, pumpkin soup will have to be eaten in small, small portions! We had such a great time with Don, Julie, and Dustin. Not just eating (even though that's always a big part of our fun), but we also watched movies, played games, and did lots of playing with Korben. I guess we were having too much fun to take pictures. The only ones taken are on Don's camera, and I will post them as soon as I get them. I'm so glad Christmas is just a few weeks away because I'm ready to do it all over again.
Korben really wasn't himself most of the time we were home. He had rosy cheeks on most mornings, with a low-grade fever. I blamed that, and his fussiness on teething because he is still working on getting those two bottom teeth to come in. On Saturday he ended up with a rash all over his legs. It turned out to be Fifths disease that caused the fever, upper respiratory infection, and the rash. Poor baby. He has either been dealing with the complications of teething, or getting over some sort of sickness for a solid month now. I think he is much better today, although, he is still acting like his teeth are really hurting. They are so cute though. The two little white spots on his gums already change his appearance. I can't wait to get a good picture of two little teeth so I can post it on the blog.

People were so kind to think of us on Thanksgiving, being the first major holiday without Dad. I appreciate all the messages I received with those of you saying you were praying for me. I heard the phone ring all morning on Thanksgiving, with people calling my mom. It means so much to know that people care about us. Speaking for me, Thanksgiving didn't feel much more difficult than any regular day. The past two Thanksgivings have been terrible. Dad was sick and miserable on both, and the whole time we were thinking "Is this the last?" Someone sent me a message saying "I know its hard to be thankful this year." Well, as much as I missed Dad this Thanksgiving, I was truly thankful to know that he is no longer suffering. I know for a 100% fact that my dad is with the Lord. I know he is experiencing things that our brains aren't meant to understand this side of Heaven. I know he is waiting on us to join him. I am thankful for Jesus who gives us the choice of eternal life. I am thankful that my dad knew He was the only way. I can't imagine living this life, thinking it ended at death. God has a big picture that we can not see yet. Some would say, how tragic for a baby to be born just moments before his Grandfather went to Heaven. I say, what better blessing could God have given to help us cope? Holding Korben at that time made me feel closer to God than ever. There were many times I just held him and cried over losing my dad. In a strange way, just by cuddling my newborn baby, I always felt like God was cuddling me. God's way is perfect, even if we don't understand it...and for that I am thankful.

I could write for hours about all of the things we are thankful for everyday. I am so grateful for my husband. Marriage just keeps getting better. I love how we continue to grow closer to the Lord and closer to each other. Aaron wakes up, thrilled to go to work. He loves his job and everyone he works for and with. I wake up, thrilled to be a stay at home mom. I wish everyone could see all of the precious, new things Korben does everyday. I am just so in love with him, and I am so blessed to get to absorb everything he does everyday. We love our families so much. They sometime seem so far away, but it could be a LOT worse. A couple hours away is not much at all, and we are grateful for that. We are grateful for the health of our families. We know that anything can change in a second, and we don't want to take a single healthy day for granted.

I can't write this without asking for prayer. A couple in our church, Emily and Phillip Marsh have a 7 month old son named Collin who is in the nursery with Korben. Collin was just diagnosed with AML Leukemia, and he has just started chemotherapy at Children's hospital. I can't even think about this situation without crying. I can't imagine how terrified they are right now. Please pray with us for HEALING of sweet Collin Marsh. This is just one situation of how our lives can change in the matter of a second.

Thank you for reading this. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. "Count your blessings, name them one by one..."