The past two weeks

Last Tuesday, August 4th, Aaron called me with some interesting news. He said that his ministry assistant, Brittany, had just tested positive for the flu, and his intern, Brandon, had a fever and was feeling really badly too. Aaron confessed that had eaten "the rest of" Brittany's sandwich the day before, and although he wasn't feeling any symptoms yet, he was afraid that there was a high possibility he was going to get sick too. Since Aaron knows that Korben catches everything, he lovingly "kicked us out of the house." Well, he basically suggested that we go to my mom's house early. We were already planning to go to my mom's on Saturday in preparation for a road trip to Nashville on Sunday. He said that if he didn't feel bad by Thursday that he would come and visit us before we left for Nashville.

Good news is that Aaron never got sick. Bad news is that Korben did. On Wednesday, Korben started getting a fever. Thursday I took him to the doctor (my back up pediatrician in North Little Rock), and he tested negative for the flu...praise the LORD. He had just caught another lovely fever virus. We thought he was getting better, so Aaron and I headed out on a date Friday night in Little Rock while my mom kept Korben at her house. His temperature went up a degree for every hour we were gone. By the time we were home he had 104.5. My poor mom had just given him a lukewarm bath, and was feeding him popsicles when we got back. He was almost lifeless in her arms. We felt terrible! Fortunately, his temp started to head back down after that, and he was well by the next day. I guess it had to get it's "worst" before it got better. He slept in bed with me that night which made for lots of unforgettable memories. (There is nothing like waking up in the middle of the night and seeing Korben sitting up in the bed staring at you.)

So, Sunday we headed to Nashville, as planned, to visit my sister! I was very, very, very nervous about how Korben would travel. He usually does not like to go to sleep in the car, and if he is not sleeping he spends most of his time screaming. However, we rigged up a DVD player in the back seat and that made all the difference in the world. The trip broke down like this: 1.5 hours of baby einstein, 1 hour nap,1 hour of happy rested time, 1 hour at cracker barrel, 1.5 hours of baby einstein, and 1 hour nap. I seriously could not have asked for anything more. He did AMAZING.

Aunt Kimmie and Melody greeted us, and had special surprises for Korben! Korben got a very cool work bench that has a hammer, screw driver, saw, and all sorts of boy toys that make lots of fun noises. He loves it! She also got him some of the "original" goldfish crackers that are not cheddar. I didn't know they existed, and Korben loves those too! Thank you so much for being so un-necessarily generous.

We spent 3 nights with her and had such a good time! She just got a new job and moved to a new place, so we helped her hang pictures and mirrors, as well as helped with a little re-decorating. Korben was such a trooper with the shopping, and slept a lot, so we were able to be really productive!

I would have to speak for Korben and say that the hilight of his trip was feeding Melody. It was hard to get him to eat his food because he couldn't wait to feed her! I've rarely seen him get THAT excited, and Korben is a very excitable little boy! His face would almost turn inside out he would smile so big after giving melody a bite of food. He could say "Melody" pretty well, but he preferred to just yell "GOG(Dog)" everytime he saw her. He also liked to sit on her. If he knew he was about to sit on her, he would grab a book so he could "read" it while he was sitting on her. I was never able to get a picture of this because Melody would move so fast, but it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.


Why don't I just show you some pictures??








About to pull out of my mom's driveway in the loaded-down car! I'm so thankful for my Honda CR-V! We needed all the space we could get!


















Sweet, sleeping baby.





















Korben is checking out his new toy from Aunt Kimmie.
















Feeding the "Gog."

























I thought it was ironic that these "cousins" almost had the exact same hair.



















Reading his book.


























I'm going to try to find all of the pictures we have of this exact pose over the past 10 years (Melody turned 10 this summer) and put them on my blog sometime.



















Mom and Kim























This picture captures the way Korben acted towards Kim for pretty much the whole trip. We learned our lesson. If we want Korben to bond with someone quickly, we will not talk about them a whole lot and say anything about giving hugs and kisses. It seemed to work against us. Of course as soon as we got back home, he lovingly pointed at all of her pictures and said "KiKi" for "Kimmie." He is SUCH a stinker. I've already told Kim that it won't be long and he will be a teenager, telling me he wants to move in with his cool Aunt Kimmie.



















CC is teaching Korben to color at our stopping place, Cracker Barrel!



















Checkers!!


















Rocking in the cool cracker barrel rocking chairs!






















































Dear DVD player, we love you. Thank you for providing quality entertainment to this restless child.











We love you so much, Kim! We had such a great time just being with you! We just wish we could hang out more often. Looking forward to the next time we can be together.




I plan to post soon about all the funny things my 17 month old little stud is doing these days. I have been SOOOOO busy since I got back to Fort Smith at the end of last week. Aaron and I have just been running in circles. I had things to mark off of my to-do list, and unfortunately my blog was last on the list. But hey, at least we have clean bathrooms and ironed clothes!