As years go by...

Me and Clark's birthday weekend is coming to a close. We had a really nice couple of days. On both Friday and Saturday, Clark was able to get off work by 5 p.m. We went to the movies, ordered pizza, and ate lots of ice-cream cake (and when Clark and Corbin sang happy birthday to me, Corbin sang, "happy birthday, dear Corbin..." You gotta love that kid!)

Clark has officially entered another busy season for work. All three of us can't wait for April to come, and to bring a normal work week back to us. I have also been really busy this month with my job. I have been re-verifying acupuncture and chiropractic benefits for most of the patients at the health clinic I worked for before Corbin was born. I have logged about 30 hours in the last two weeks. I will hopefully be able to complete my huge to-do list in the next couple of weeks, and I should get back to working 6-8 hours a week. It has been pretty crazy, but Clark and I both really feel that it is also a big blessing to our family. Obviously the extra money is greatly helping our budget; but also the last couple of weeks have just flown by, and so it is really helping me to get through Clark's busy season.

Today and yesterday I managed to take Corbin's 2 1/2 yr pictures. He is definitely a fun little guy!

This picture above is the one that I chose to enlarge and print out, but I had a really hard time deciding. His cute personality shows through so well in some of these.

"I hiding, Mama!"

I really like this one too. Maybe I'll have to enlarge it as well...

But I like to cry

Today I sent Corbin to time-out because he was throwing a tantrum. He was yelling and crying for a while, so I told him he couldn't get out of time-out until he stopped crying. He immediately stopped crying, and he looked at me with a confused expression. Here is how conversation went after that:

Corbin: But I like to cry.

Me: Well, that's fine, but you can't get out of time-out until you stop.

Corbin: But, but...I want to. I like to cry. I like crying. I want to, I want to.

Me: Okay, but you have to stop crying to get out of time-out.

Corbin: But I like it. I like to cry.


Also, you will notice Corbin starts all his responses with the word "but." This is a new thing, and at first I thought it was kind of cute, and that it made him seem more grown up. However, after a few days of hearing it all the time, it's starting to get a little old.

This morning we took Corbin to the hospital to get the stent from his surgery removed. He was put under anesthesia again, and it was just as hard to get the mask on his face this time, as it was for his surgery a month ago. But everything went well, and now all that's left to do is stay on medication and go in for an ultrasound on Corbin's kidney in approximately 4 weeks.

Corbin was really funny when he woke up from the anesthesia. The nurse asked him what he wanted: apple juice, soda, or a popsicle. Corbin wanted a popsicle. So the nursed asked, "orange, grape or cherry?" And Corbin said, "popsicle." The nurse said, "I know, do you want orange, grape, or cherry?" Corbin said, "popsicle." This went back and forth a number of times until Corbin finally got it, and said he wanted grape. Corbin loved the popsicle, but all the talk about grapes must have really put him in the mood for some real grapes. He started begging over and over for grapes. Clark and I kept telling him the hospital doesn't have grapes, and that we would get some on our way home from the hospital. However, this didn't make Corbin feel any better, because he insisted that the store also had no grapes.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! Christmas Eve we went tubing at a nearby park. Corbin loved "sliding" and he insisted on going down the hill by himself. The afternoon we went to a party at a friends house. We ate good food, visited, and played fun games. The we came home and drank hot chocolate while we read the Nativity story from the Bible.

Christmas day was so much fun. Corbin's favorite present by far was the train set that Santa brought him (I think Clark has had just as much fun playing with the train as Corbin has!) He was also really excited about the wagon he got from Grandpa and Grandma G., and the snowman stacker he got from Grandpa and Grandma B.

We missed being with family this year, but I think that we really enjoyed being together and working on creating our own Christmas traditions.

5 years

A few days ago Clark and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe it has already been 5 years. Time flies by way too quickly. Our wonderful friends watched Corbin overnight for us, so that we could get away. We stayed downtown, right off the 16th Street mall. We ate at the Cheesecake factory, looked at Christmas lights, and relaxed. One funny thing happened after we checked into our hotel. We headed up to our room, only to find that it was already occupied! Clark quickly shut the door, and we went back to the front desk, where they upgraded our room and gave us free breakfast. We both got a good laugh out of that.

surgery

Yesterday was the big surgery day to fix Corbin's urinary reflux. The day started out stressful. Denver got some snow overnight, so the traffic was terrible. A 30 minute drive took 90 minutes. Luckily, the doctor was also running late because of the snow. Once we were all check in and ready to go, the nurse told us that one parent could go to the surgery room with Corbin until he fell asleep. I volunteered to go back with him. He was really scared of the mask, and we had to hold him down while he cried and screamed, "no, no, no!" until he finally fell asleep.

The surgery lasted about 2 hours, and everything went really well. The doctor was able to confirm that Corbin does in fact have 2 ureters coming out of his left kidney. So the doctor removed one, and then rerouted the other ureter. He put a stent in that will need to be taken out, under anesthesia, in about a month. The great news is that the doctor was able to take a nice look at the right kidney, and it is in really good shape.

Once Corbin woke up, we moved to the Pediatric unit, and spent the afternoon watching movies. He was in a little sad and in pain that afternoon, but once he fell asleep at around midnight, he was out for the count. He woke up the next morning really happy and really to go home! He has been so energetic and happy today! We cannot believe that he had surgery only yesterday! What a little trooper.

Playing in the waiting room.
All dressed up in our gowns, ready to go to the operating room.

Just waking up

Corbin was a big fan of the popsicles. He ate around 5 or 6 of them.

Scarfing down dinner. He had a really great appetite at dinner.

Check-out day. He was so excited to go home!
Corbin got a balloon bouquet from Grandpa and Grandma B, and he was loving it!

twinkle star

We put up our Christmas tree today. Corbin was really excited when he saw the star that would go on top. He started singing "Twinkle, twinkle, little star." I thought it was so cute, so I ran and got the camera and made him sing it again :)


We also have some smaller trees with lights on them. One of them is maybe 2 feet tall, so I thought it would be fun to put it in Corbin's room. Tonight as we were tucking him into bed, Corbin gave me and then Clark a hug and kiss, and then he ran over to his tree and gave it a hug as well. So cute! I am so excited for Corbin to experience this Christmas (and I think he is pretty excited about it too!)

gobble gobble

We had such a great Thanksgiving. My parents and two of my brothers, Troy and Kyle, were able to come out and visit. Our little townhouse was full to the brim, and it was so much fun!

Here is a list of some of the things we did while they were here:

* Ate a wonderful Thanksgiving meal

* Played catch outside, and enjoyed the beautiful weather

* Played lots of board games

* Kyle, Troy, Clark and I went to a DU (University of Denver) hockey game. I had never been to a hockey game before, and I really enjoyed it. Corbin stayed home with my parents and watched "Cars" While watching the movie, Corbin looked up at his grandparents and said, "I so happy"

Corbin helping make rolls Here is Corbin in his football helmet.
Black licorice buddies

Snuggling up to watch "Cars"

zoo day

Corbin and I went to the zoo today. We had a lot of fun looking at all the animals. Corbin's favorite thing was the duck/geese pond area. We stayed there for at least 10 minutes. He loved watching the ducks swim, splash, and dive under the water.

I looked out the window...

Making binoculars is one of my favorite crafts to do with my Sunbeam classes. We make them for either the "I am thankful for my eyes" lesson, or the "I am thankful for birds" lesson.
This last weekend we finished up a roll of paper towels, so I decided to make Corbin his first set of binoculars. He has had so much fun playing with them! Today he was looking through them and singing, "look out window...popcorn tree!"