Christmas Dos and a Goofy Video

First of all, here is the newest video of Corbin showing off. It's dark and grainy because it was taken with our (totally junky) camera, but you get the idea. He shows off some body parts, does some animal noises, and dances a little. He's learning new things every day, it's so awesome to watch how quickly he catches on to some things. He's still a little confused with some animal noises... in Corbin's world cows say Baaa and hippos make some sort of strange aboriginal clicking sound. Also oranges are called Cheeeeeeeeeeese, regardless of how many times we correct him. Goofball. :P

Secondly, how are things going around here? Well, the biggest excitement lately was on Friday when Nate hurt his knee at work. He was moving a patient or something (and by patient I mean "resident" and by moving I mean "ambulating" or whatever fancy word they use there) and twisted it funny. He suffered through that night and the next day, and finally went in to the Urgent Care clinic yesterday. They put him on a "sit only" restriction for work, and told him he probably tore his meniscus. So he's off for a couple days, and may or may not be returning to work later this week (they might stick him in the HR office for a few days, if not, he is on worker's comp). So yeah. He's on the couch now. His knee hurts. Corbin, of course, insists on climbing on it. Poor Nate. :(

Thirdly, a recap of our Christmas in Kentucky. Long story short, we had a blast! Nate drove Corbin and I down to Lansing to meet my parents, and we took off from there. It was snowing, icing, or raining constantly on the way down. It was really an awful drive, and we were lucky to make it to the hotel in once piece. Thankfully the next day was much better, and all the way home we had smooth sailing.

We arrived at the cabin/house we rented on Christmas Eve. It was a full house with Corbin and I, my parents, Breanna, Christopher, Micah and Quinn, Sylvia (Breanna's mom) and Rich (Sylvia's husband), Viola (Sylvia's mom), and Trevor (Breanna's brother). Oh, and Molly (my parent's dog) and Samson (Sylvia's dog). It was a full house, to say the least. Corbin had a great time getting attention from everyone, playing with his new presents, and tormenting Micah by trying to steal her toys. ;) Poor Micah!
We laughed and laughed, talked, played some games, laughed some more, argued a teensy bit (varying political beliefs in that house!), shopped (a bit), opened gifts (for hours and hours!!), ate, and laughed again. It was so great seeing everyone. They are all family to me, and I love them to pieces. I'm so glad Corbin is going to be able to know them as well, and make friends with Breanna's girls. I hope our family's friendship continues into their generation. The only bad part was that Nate wasn't able to come. I know he would've had so much fun. Hopefully he'll be there next time.
Here's a few pictures from our trip (warning, pic overload!).

Quinn and I...



Santa even came! (does he look familiar???)



Corbin opening his Band in a Box (doesn't really seem like a good idea, does it?)



Corbin attempting to steal some of Micah's toys...


Chris and Quinn...



Corbin and Micah on their new couches...



Quinn (isn't she gorgeous?!?!)



On our way home... Corbin with his new lion.



I realize I didn't take any pictures of Breanna or Trevor or, well, pretty much anyone but the kids. Oops. :P Next time we'll have to take a family shot. Hopefully it won't be too long from now.

Our New Chair

On our trip to St. Vincent De Paul today, Nate and I stumbled across a real treasure. We were on the hunt for a smaller and less pointy coffee table, but this glorious chair caught my eye. It's a gold swivel rocker, and it's magnificent. I imagine it was made around the same time as our beautiful orange and green flowered couch. It is well taken care of, broken in, and just the size I was looking for. I HAD to have it.
So, now it's ours. Our gold swivel rocker, orange and green flowered sofa, and dark brown shag carpeting...we are slowly turning our house into 1964.

18 Months

Today is Corbin's 18 month birthday. I don't usually give a hoot about half birthdays, but 18 months is kind of a big deal. To celebrate, I let him have a half sippy of chocolate milk at dinner. He was thrilled. Anyhow, to mark the occasion I thought I would make a list of where he's at right now. Because well, I'm not feeling particularly creative and I love lists.

Corbin Likes:
-Wearing random hats
-Shoes
-Dogs
-Monkeys
-Showing people his belly
-Santa Claus
-Animal Crackers
-Yo Gabba Gabba
-His play kitchen
-Daddy's Sunglasses
-Making his "ugly" face
-Turning off the computer
-Raisins
-"Single Ladies" by Beyonce
-Fish
-Waving
-Going places
-Poking himself in the eye

Corbin Dislikes:
-Deli Meat
-Having his diaper changed
-Taking a nap
-Not being able to turn the computer off
-Having to leave a store before he's ready
-Not being the center of attention

He's now saying a few more things...fish, shoe, eye, ear, nose (kinda), up, truck, dog, dada. He understands a ton, and shocks me everyday when he does something I've mentioned but didn't realize he understood. He did surprisingly well in Kentucky, visiting with so many people that he had never met before (or didn't remember). He runs off with the big kids when we have Sunday dinner, and would much rather walk than be carried. He climbs up onto the kitchen chairs and sits at the table sometimes, like he's just waiting for us to bring him a snack. He uses a spoon and fork (kind of), and today he got to sit on his potty chair.
He's officially a toddler now, and although I miss my sweet baby boy, I am having a blast with my little buddy. I'm starting to actually feel like a Mom now. I know the last year and a half have been difficult, with jobs and money and everything else; but when people mention how rough it's been, all I can think about it my family...how lucky I am to have them. It may have been hard, but it's also been the best year and a half of my life.

Happy 18 Months, Buddy!





P.S. I know I still need to do a Christmas Dos, I'll get to it, I promise. I also owe a few people emails... I swear I will get to them soon, I've just been really slacking on that kind of thing. Plus they are the type that will take some actual thought and I never seem to have any of that left. ;)
Also I've used an excessive amount of commas in this post. For that, I apologize.

Christmas Uno

Just stopping in for a second to share some pictures. Corbin and I are off tomorrow to meet up with my parents and head down to Kentucky. We are renting a house with Breanna and her family, Sylvia and Rich, Trevor (Breanna's brother) and Viola (Sylvia's mom). Oh, and some dogs. Nate isn't coming, as he has to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It will be much less fun without him, but I know he's happy we are able to go.
Anyhow, because we will be gone for Christmas, we had our family (Nate, Corbin and I) Christmas today. Santa got the message to come a little early, and we had a nice time opening presents, eating lasagna, and hanging out together. Here's a few pictures from the day.






He really loves his Yo Gabba Gabba couch. He likes to point at all the characters and make us say their names. Over and over and over.

And a couple from playing out in the snow at Uncle Mark and Aunt Diane's.


I hope all of you have a Happy Holiday! Best wishes from all of us.

I'm a sucker for the Muppets

Tonight there was a new Muppets Christmas special on, and it was fantastic. I had forgotten how much I love the little guys. I tried to keep Corbin up to watch it with me, but he crashed halfway through (amateur!). He seemed to like them, though. Here's my favorite guy, Pepe....


Is he not the cutest thing? He left his life as a chef in Madrid to become a star in Hollywood. According to Pepe, "There were one too many close calls in the kitchen. I was mistaken for an appetizer, okay." Love him.

The movie was pretty simple. The Muppets had a pile of letters to Santa that needed to be delivered, it was Christmas Eve and the post office was closed, so they had to take them to the North Pole themselves. There were a few songs, a few guest stars. The bear (I forgot his name and wikipedia keeps showing me Fozzie. It's not Fozzie) was airport security and Nathan Lane was his cohort. At one point the Muppets were at the North Pole, and snow started falling, things started moving, and there was Santa in his sleigh!!! (Um, I hope I didn't ruin that for any of you. :P) I'm such a dork, I was watching from the kitchen while loading the dishwasher, and I just get this huge silly grin on my face. Santa!!!! Even at 28 (8??!?!?), I still love the fat man.

I've been trying to teach Corbin who Santa is. Relax, I talk about the Jesus part too, but at 17 months old a fat guy in a red suit carrying presents is way easier to understand. Anyhow, for Christmas this year "Santa" (Granddad) will be visiting the children, so my mom sent me a picture to try to get Corbin used to the idea. I show him that picture, as well as a video on Youtube about finding Santa. Now the kid is obsessed. On the video, when Santa comes up into view he starts pointing and shouting. When we are in Walmart he points at every Santa blow up, Santa book, Santa ornament, and Santa candy he can see. I can only imagine that when he meets Santa on Christmas day, he will be terrified. :P

Here's a couple of shots from today. He refused to smile for either of them, so you'll have to take what you can get. In the first one he's wearing a hat and messenger bag that cousin Carmen sent us yesterday. He's so metrosexual, right? In the second one he's showing his belly to the fish. It's good cause that involves two of his favorite things.... fish and showing his belly to things. He's a strange duck, sometimes.

Snow, Trees and Sniffles

So it's been snowing here. Quite a bit, actually. We have 12-18" inches on the ground, and snowbanks almost as tall as I am, as seen here...


See behind me there? Those are our mailboxes. The front parts are dug out, so they can still deliver our mail. The rest is a huge mound of snow. Anyhow, there's finally been a snow break for the last couple of days, but we have more coming. And coming, and coming, and coming. It seems this is pretty normal here. I'm not such a fan. We have snow mobiles that drive down our street. That's kinda weird. Sometimes this place is kinda weird.

Last weekend we went to Christmas in the Village with Amy, Michelle and Frank (that's my Sis-in-law, niece and nephew for those who don't know). To be more specific, we went to a craft show and watched a parade in sub-zero temperatures. The craft show was interesting. We were expecting a lot of doilies and toilet paper cozies, and we really weren't far off. The Cookie walk was no where to be seen (and damn, we were not happy about it. By we, I mean the adults. I'm sure the kids weren't happy either). We hobbled our cold, cold bones back to our house and decorated the place for Christmas.

In the evening we ventured out (bundled up like crazy!) to watch the electrical parade. It was actually pretty good, for such a tiny, tiny town. One truck was pulling a flatbed trailer with a bunch of people sitting around a real bonfire. Cool. Corbin enjoyed it, I think.... it was hard to tell as all you could see of him in the stroller was his nose and eyes. He must've enjoyed it, he was way warmer than the rest of us. I think it was about 6* with windchill. We weren't able to go see Santa afterwards, as it was just too damn cold. I was disappointed, but I'm sure we'll find another opportunity for Corbin to visit with him.

We found ourselves a tree at St. Vinnie's and promptly broke one of the legs while we were putting it in the car. It's now held at a slight angle with the help of fishing line. The soft/unbreakable/less important ornaments are on the bottom half, where most have been removed at some point by Corb-monster. It's all a little sad looking, really. Most of our Christmas village is out on our 2 little shelves, our stockings are hung above our TV with care, and Corbin has claimed the dancing, singing mouse as his own. We're all ready for Santa.

Corbin has been sniffley for a while here, I think the change in weather is getting too him. Nate and I have been on and off sickies too, as has the rest of the Roscommon clan. I hope this starts to go away soon, but I have a feeling that having a husband who works with old/sick people all day won't help.

Here' s a couple of random shots from the last few days...

Such a big boy!


Goofball :P


This is the infamous Elephant move. Arm up, raspberry noise. That's an elephant for ya, folks.


Mom, let's go!!!


Ready for Christmas in the Village


Enjoy the snow, ladies and gents.

This one's for my mom...

It's Corbin in a sweatshirt Mom made for me, many, many years ago. For some reason it wouldn't send in her email, so I'm posting it here for her. Now you all may enjoy it as well. You're welcome.