Rambling facts and memories

(Disclaimer: I am really sleepy, and I typed this without proofreading. Please have grace on my typos. I happened to be in the mood to "document" some things, so I though I better jump on it!)

Korben is just getting over a coughing/fever virus that resulted in double ear infections. This virus required two doctors visits, antibiotics and ear drops. We know everyone at cooper clinic all to well!

Just a week and a half before that Korben had strep throat. Of course, we all ended up catching it. This required doctors visits for Koben and me, as well as antibiotics for the whole family. Aaron's didn't get very bad because he caught it quickly with antibiotics. Mine was pretty ugly. Wish I could have taken a picture of the back of my throat. It could have been in a medical textbook

Of course 1-2 weeks before that we all had the stomach bug.

And a few weeks before that, Korben was on an antibiotic for a respiratory infection right after the new year.


To say the least, my little one still catches everything. It is always "whatever is going around." His doctors are not worried. They say it is normal for toddlers to be sick a lot when they play with other kids. They promise me his immunity will be exceptional by Kindergarten. I am praying that is true!


Somewhere in the middle of all this, I've had another gallbladder attack (I think) and frequent "pains." I have seen a GI doctor now, and agrees that it sounds like my gallbladder although none of my tests have shown that I have stones. He says that not all stones show up on ultrasounds and I may have stones that are the size of grans of sand. They do not go away on their own and will eventually form into bigger stones. There is a whole lot more I could say on this issue, but for some reason it is just not fun to talk about my gallbladder. I would much rather talk about Korben. Basically, I'm having a scope done on the 9th to rule-out anything bad going on in my stomach (Doctor doesn't think so, he just wants to cover his bases), and then I'm meeting with a surgeon on the 12th to talk about my gallbladder. Fun times.


So, what is Korben up to? Well, It is like night and day around here when Korben goes from being sick to well. He has been sick so much lately that I was starting to forget just how much fun he is when he is well. Korben is officially back, in all of his high-energy. If he is not dancing, he is drumming or playing his guitar. Everything is a drum to him. Even if I am buying groceries, each item I put in the cart is just another "drum" and he has to beat it to see how it sounds. And he talks...constantly. And repetitively. If the thinks you didn't hear him the first time, don't worry, you will hear it again, and again, and again.

He is not making much progress on learning his colors. It is almost humorous to hear him call four different colored crayons all "yellow." However, he is really exceptional with his shapes. He points out every heart, star, square, circle, or triangle he sees anywhere! This brings me to a story. On Saturday night I was putting Korben to bed and reading him a story. He has certain books that we read EVERY night. One is the farm book, which is an oversized hard back book with enormous pictures of everything relating to the farm. He was flipping the pages naming everything, as normal. He named the "pumpkin" and "scarecrow", then he started yelling "RANGLE!, RANGLE!" I was like, "What?" He continued to yell that and point at the scarecrow (which he had already named correctly). Then, out of frustration, he walked over and got his red triangle puzzle piece from his shapes puzzle and plopped it down on the scarecrow's nose, which I NOW noticed was a red triangle. Then he said "RANGLE" again, and it hit me..."Oh, TRIANGLE!!" AWESOME! I was so proud I almost cried. Bless his heart, all that time he was just trying to tell me that the scarecrow had a triangle for a nose. I thought it was brilliant that he was able to "think out of the box" and go get the puzzle piece for me to understand him. He knew I was so proud, and he was so proud of himself. He just smiled and hugged me over and over once he realized we were on the same page. So sweet!

This past weekend was our TWEEKEND event with the youth. Korben really liked going to hear the music. We stayed in the balcony and worshiped while the band played, but as soon as Daddy came on stage we had to leave. Korben doesn't understand that he can't yell at his Daddy every time he sees him on stage. I tried to cover his mouth one time when he yelled out and then he yelled "NOOOOO" even louder. I guess we will just be participating during worship for now!

Korben has so many FAVORITE people at church. Linda, June, Doris, Paul, Josh, and Scott! Korben adores our worship leader, Scott. Scott's wife Brittany is Aaron's secretary. He loves Brittany (who he calls "Omni"), but ADORES Scott (who he calls "Scotts"). We have a CD that Scott recorded in our car, and we hardly ever get past the first song because Korben wants to hear "Scotts, AGAIN! Scotts Guitar, Again!" Scott has NOOOOO idea how much he is talked about at our house (and in our car) by Korben! If I turn down the music for any reason, he immediately reminds me to turn it back up! Such. A. Mess.

We had Korben's two year old pictures done with Leigh Ann today. Seems like yesterday that we did his one year pictures! He was a little clingy/shy at first, but it didn't take long for him to be his ultimate "ham" self. I had been telling him all day that Leigh Ann was going to take his picture. I also told him that Leigh Ann had candy. For some reason, he decided he would call her "Lamp", so all the way there, he said "Lamp...Candy!" We slipped her some smarties candy to bribe him with and that was all it took! Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures on here in the next few days...stay tuned!

I posted this on my facebook the other day, but my blog is my baby book so I better write some of these stats on here. Korben is a little over 30 pounds, and really tall (not sure how many inches). He is wearing 3T jeans now! The length is perfect, and thanks the the adjustable waist, they are a perfect fit! I bought him his first pair of size 9 shoes and they also fit PERFECTLY. I don't know why I'm surprised his feet are so big with me wearing a size 10 and Aaron wearing a 15. There is no way he can get around big feet with our genes! He is in a size six diaper. He is not very into eating these days, but from what I hear from all my toddler mom friends, that is normal for this age. Oh well, I'm never going to stop offering. I hear that boys eventually like to eat! He seems to be doing better on the lactose intolerance issues. We have switched him from soy milk to lactose free milk. The lactose free milk has more calories and fat, which is a good thing for his age. He eats yogurt and butter on things regularly and never has a problem. He has even eaten several thing with cheese on it lately (even multiple bags of whole grain cheddar goldfish), and had no problems. Maybe he is growing out of it? Only time will tell!

Aaron and I are attending the "Simply Youth Ministry" conference in Chicago at the end of this week. I am so excited for a hundred reasons! When we get back it will be just a few short days until Korben's birthday party. We are having a "farm" themed party at CC's farm. It is going to be so much fun!

God is ridiculously good to us, and I'm so grateful for all he is doing in our lives. We are having a blast.

Snowman and curly hair!

Aaron made Korben his very own snowman! Korben and I watched his every move from the window. Korben would clap and say "awesome!", "man-man" (snowman), and "Yay, Daddy!" Aaron is so talented. He is so creative, and anything he ever does he does exceptionally well. I think his snowman is awesome! Especially for making it all by himself!












































Just had to share these pics of my curly headed little guy! It is not always this curly, but sometimes when he wakes up from his naps it is out of control like this! A lot of people said that after we got the first hair cut, Korben would lose his curls. Now that his hair is getting long again, I guess we are seeing that isn't true! I'm so glad! I love his curls!

Korben's First Snow Experience!

Fort Smith was lucky enough to get SIX gorgeous inches of snow (or at least, that is what we measured in our back yard!) It snowed all yesterday afternoon and all night. I seriously felt like we were living inside a snow globe. It was so beautiful! It had stopped snowing this morning, so it was time for Korben to experience it for the first time! Even though we have told him it is called "snow" , he continues to call it "man-man" which is his word for snowman. He got that word down pat at Christmas time after looking at so many snowman christmas decorations just a few months ago. When we finished playing in the snow today, without prompting, said "Bye Bye, Man-man." it was so cute. I guess we should have built him a snowman. The day is not over! :)

Soon, I will put up the video Aaron took with his camera of Korben actually walking out into the snow for the first time. It is on facebook, if you haven't already seen it. It was so hilarious because he didn't like it at all. Especially the fact that it was getting all over his shoes. He just kept saying "Shoes, Shoes."

We convinced him to stand in it long enough for me to shoot a little video of him in the snow. He thought it was funny when Aaron threw a snowball at me.





Here he is telling his Daddy to, "ZIP IT!" His coat, that is.






























"Cheese!"




























































































































This picture sort of looks like Korben is sitting in the snow, but he is just hanging in the air in an "L" shaped position. This is the position he would lock himself in if we would try to put him down. He did NOT want to get back int he snow! It was absolutely hilarious. The abdominal strength it took him to hold this position was astounding.

























It has been an incredibly fun weekend! The past couple nights Aaron and I have enjoyed watching the entire first season of the TV show "Friday Night Lights." We found that the first three seasons are available to watch free through our "live stream" netflix that we can watch through Aaron's X-box. If that sentence didn't make any sense, it doesn't make any sense to me either. Anyway, we have fallen in love with this TV show that started in 2006 on NBC about a high school football team in Dillon, TX. It is SO addicting! We only have to watch about 30 more episodes to be caught up to the year 2010. I am currently drinking my homemade french onion soup out of a mug as I finish up my blog, Aaron is playing a video game, Korben is napping...the house is quiet. I'm staring at the gorgeous snow through the window. These are precious memories I will never forget. What wonderful weekend this has been for our family.

Taller than Daddy?

There is a "guessing" formula that some doctors use to predict how tall boys will be when they are fully grown. At 2.5 years old they double their height, and use that to predict how tall they will be when they are full grown.

Korben is currently at least 36 inches (haven't measured in a while). If we doubled that now, he would be 6 feet tall when he is full grown. However, the formula says to double it when they are 2.5. That is almost 8 months away! I predict my little boy is going to grow to be taller than his daddy who is 6'2"!

This all became very real to me last week when we were all sick with the stomach bug. Aaron and Korben were still feeling pretty weak, and Korben was resting on his daddy. It is very rare to catch Korben lounging in someone's lap because he is ALWAYS on the move. After taking these pictures I realized just how tall he actually is! He definitely took up "half" of his daddy's length! CRAZY!

















































Poor Korben has had a run of bad luck with his health lately. He caught the stomach bug last week. Then, this week he has been running a fever of around 102. We took him to the doctor yesterday, just minutes before our snow storm hit, and he turned out to have pink eye in BOTH eyes. How did I miss this? As well as a REALLY red throat. I was so glad to hear that his ears looked good though. I'm always afraid to hear that he is going to have ear infections, even if he does have tubes! Dr. Beene gave him an oral antibiotic to kill the pink eye, and she said it could possibly help with his throat if he happens to have strep throat. His strep throat test was negative, but it is not 100% accurate. It is probably something viral though. That is what we do around here...we catch viruses. Professionally.

Cupid, guitars, 4-wheeling, and baby pics!

He doesn't look sick, does he? My poor little guy caught the stomach bug I had, and woke up this morning throwing up. He only wanted to drink water and a little bit of juice today, and his entire diet today consisted of 5 crackers. So far, I have to say, this has been the easiest stomach virus he has ever had. He has had 5 or 6 stomach viruses in his little life, and most of the time they are terrible. He went back and forth from really energetic, and then he would want me to hold him. I snapped these pictures during an energetic time this afternoon while I was tickling him.




















































































I snapped these before we left for church on Wednesday night. Here is my personal "guitar hero" jamming out before going to hear the Refuge Band lead worship.















































He tried to speed out of town on his 4-wheeler the other night before I could get him in the bath tub. Luckily, I caught him before he got too far (after I took the picture of course)!






























I just had to compare a picture I took of Korben today, with a picture I took of him at 2 months old. The picture I took today brought back so many memories of almost every picture I took of him when he was a baby because he would always hold his hands in that same position. Are these not the sweetest shots? Well, I guess I am a little biased!


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SING SING SING

Chris Tomlin's worship song, "Sing, Sing, Sing" has definitely become Korben's #1 favorite song. He asks for "Sing, Sing" all day long, and goes searching for instruments to accompany him. Even when he is done eating in his high chair, he will start beating his spoon and fork together to a beat and start singing "Sing, Sing, Sing..."

All we have talked about the past couple days is how beyond a shadow of a doubt, Korben has "got the music in him." I know every parent thinks their kid is a prodigy at something, so, we're not trying to be obnoxious here. However, he does really seem to have a gift for music. He would rather play with his guitar or drums than ANY of his toys!

He really likes to listen to music and stand up on his stool (his "stage") and dance, while he plays the guitar. Here is a short clip that will give you a little, tiny bit of a preview into what Korben likes to do all day long!

We are amazed at how well he holds the guitar, and how he continues to strum even when he is dancing.




Aaron thinks Korben learned some of his moves from Kris Allen. I'm pretty sure Korben has never even watched Kris Allen, but I'd have to agree that there is an uncanny resemblance of styles!






Have I mentioned how much fun we are having with our boy? :)

Ten Videos!!! You're welcome, Grandmothers!

When Korben was about 10 or 11 months when Lady Gaga came out with the song "Just Dance." We would just die laughing at how our baby, who couldn't even walk yet, would dance his little heart out when he heard this song. Our iPod dock has been broken for almost a year, and when we finally got it fixed, we played "Just Dance" for him to see if he loved it like he did a year ago. Sure enough, he did! I think it is so funny at the end of this video when he notices CC's picture on the shelf while he is dancing! This was shot at the end of November, hence the Christmas decorations.








I shot this at the beginning of December when he had just learned how to say "MEEE" at the end of this song. He LOVES sing this, although, there were a lot of distractions in the back yard that day. He really would have preferred to just "jump", which is what he said during the middle of the song.












These next two are from when Aaron's parents came to eat at my mom's house over the Christmas break. We were watching Korben dance to his favorite song "Down Down." After he had requested to hear "Down Down" about 15 times in a row, I just happened to catch on video when Aaron asked him what he wanted to hear and he said "UP!" I guess he is learning his opposites?





Here is Don (Poppy) showing Korben the video he just shot of him dancing. I love it when Korben puts his hand over his face like he is embarassed!


Here is the video I promised I would post of Korben and his cousins screaming on Christmas eve. It was so hilarious. It made for some great pictures, because it looked like they were smiling!



It is really hard to video Korben while he is "in the moment" anymore because he is so obsessed with my camera. He always wants to see what we're videoing, so the things I videotape are never as cute as the real thing. Korben knows that at the beginning of this particular song, it is a guitar playing. Anytime this song comes on, he runs to his room and gets his guitar. Here is a quick, re-enactment of what Korben does when he hears this song.



Here is the video clip with Korben learning to pray. I tell the entire story of this in the blog post "22 months: facts and stories."



I'm sure you've already seen this one on Aaron's facebook/twitter. But if not, this is one of our favorite videos from Christmas. Korben was teasing the cat with one of those toys that has a string and a fake mouse on the end. We definitely know that Korben was having more fun than the cat! You can't help but laugh when you watch this!



And last, but not least...if you need to see Korben dance to "Down Down' one last time, here it is!