10 Recent Happenings

In no particular order:
1. Jared drilled his finger while putting down floor boards in the attic.

2. 4 Days in San Francisco,visiting Coleen, Todd, and Jake Staples while Amanda went to an ADA Conference on Adult Weight Management.

You could eat as much taffy as you wanted while in the store.
A little too much sugar for one night.

3. Jared attend the BYU vs UCLA game in Utah with the family.
4. Corban and Amanda went to the beach and experienced a difficult time with eating SAND- that's a new one.
5. Date night with the Allens and Papins, celebrating Brent's birthday.
6. Amanda became one of the 4 recipients of FABULOUS scrapbook supplies from Jen's "junk". Wish my junk was that exciting for others. This has made her (me) obsessed with scrap booking for the past couple of days.
7. Eating ice cream sandwiches and Go-Gurt in bed- it's what we are doing right now.
8. Amanda was fascinated by Jared and Brent playing a gory video game. This was a first of ever watching anyone play a video game besides Wii games.
9. Watching past episodes of The Office in lieu of fresh episodes.
10. Caught mice 10 and 11- again on glue traps.

This is the refrigerator.

10 Favorite Recent Things from Our Boy

In no particular order:
1. Nodding his head "no"- which probably is more about having figured out his head moves those directions really fast rather than meaning "no". He figured it out when looking at the shadows on the ceiling from a ceiling fan.
2. Opens "safety gate" to climb the stairs without supervision. Jared actually witnessed him learning how to do this from Nika. It was the following day when he surprised me with his new found abilities, and I got to him when he was about two-thirds of the way up. Good thing he only wants to go up.
3. Holding his own bottle. He has actually been doing this for awhile and is more skilled when half asleep in the middle of the night- go figure. During the day he will hold it for a little bit, but once you come to assist he will leave it to you so he can rub his head...or your arm...or the blanket...or Nika. It is usually his right hand.
4. Hollering out for us from the crib- standing up, holding on to the side rail. If left too long this holler turns into a distressed cry. Once you are in view, he is all smiles. If, however, you go out of view before removing him from the crib, he will return to the distressed cry. Sometimes Nika goes in to rescue him and he will start talking to her in a cheerful voice.
5. Turning of the computer. Little Tech Guy has become more sophisticated in his repairs, which now include turning off the computer while working. There really isn't a way to hide the button from him, he knows where it is suppose to be.
6. Saying "Da-da". He is really good at this when you say it first. He does make a lot of other sounds-this boy doesn't stop talking.
7. Crawling faster...and faster. It seems that everyday he shifts it up a gear. When Jared says "good-bye" as he leaves for work, Corban looks for the door to open and darts toward it. His crawling abilities get him in trouble every once in a while, like when he crawls under a chair, sits up, and discovers he is trapped by the "foot rests". I caught him one day determined to get one of Nika's toys and he was high-centering over one of those bars.
8. Dancing. This boy can keep rhythm with beatboxing. We discovered this when Jared was casually beatboxing, as he regularly does, and Corban started bouncing out the rhythm.

9. Sticking out the tongue. He does this in a lizard-like action. Not really sure what makes him do it, but the home teachers had him going for about 10 minutes.We never could quite get it with the tongue out because he is too fast- but that is why his lips are pulled in like they are.

10. Explorer. He doesn't really play with toys, so it is good we haven't put much money into them. He prefers trying to figure out how to get into the most difficult of spots, and then chattering loudly until someone comes to the rescue.

Love this boy! He makes me want to have a gazillion!

Enough Said?

This is what the boys did while mommy was at the gym tonight. Yes, that is what you think it is, TAMPAX brand. Maybe Corban could do some advertising for them. I must thank Jared for having pictures and a video for me, this is one I would have hated to miss.

I can't say it enough, I love being a mom! I just learned the acronym for my title: SAHM. I am a little slow, but just in case you didn't know you were a SAHM, it stands for Stay At Home Mom. So my favorite thing of the day is when I walk into the room and Corban will look up from what he is doing and give me a huge smile, like "Oh, Hi Mom!" We currently have a blockade up from the family room to the entryway. He is stand up at the ottoman (that's the blockade) and smile at me and pat the leather. I had walked in from being at the gym and he heard me, so he crawled over the ottoman and stood up. I was getting ready to take Nika out so I said my hellos to Corban and then I proceeded to walk out the door. I heard his upset as I walked away. It broke my heart imagining his sadness. Of course he wasn't too sad and by the time Nike and I came back, he was busy playing with the vacuum switch. But as soon as I said, "Corban", he turned from what he was doing and gave me my "hello" smile, and came crawling toward me so we could chat together. If they could all be like him, I would have a dozen!

CORBAN

Best of Friends

Corban and Nika are the best of friends. They keep each other entertained. They share in their likes of the rubber "dog" bone. When Nika is running her laps around downstairs, Corban just laughs as she goes by- every once in a while he will start to try to follow her. When we just get home from being away, Nika will come to Corban and give him kisses on the face or on the toes (which ever she can reach), and Corban will get this big smile.

Clink clink...clink clink clink...clink...clink clink....clink clink clink...clink...clink.

"What is that noise? Corban, where are you?"
Jared goes into the entryway and finds Corban in Nika's dish, pulling out all the food. I think he is learning too much from this dog. Luckily he was distracted by the food because just beyond the bowls is a big drop off onto the garage floor.

Having Computer Problems?

Call our Tech Guy, 1-800-4 CORBAN. He is fabulous at organizing cords. He will always get the job done with a smile.

Crawling and Climbing

Corban caught on to crawling with great ease shortly after our trip to Utah in July. Once he had the crawling down, it hasn't taken long for him to pull himself up on things- the couch, windows, baskets, his car seat, the ottoman- you name it. So I decided I would open the way for him to try the stairs. With no problem he climbed all 12 (there is actually 14, but I had him skip the first 2). The only problem is if he is wearing more than a onesie, he usually can't do it as fast- interference from the legs.

He doesn't have much of an incentive to learn to climb down when his best friend is at the top.

Wild Animal Park

We went to WAP on Labor Day, not realizing it wasn't the most relaxing place to go for a day off. There is a lot of walking! But we did have a great time. We went with Ali, Scott, Jake and Alisa. After about 5 hours, we took off to get dinner and GS. Then we had to say our goodbyes to the Seamans.

This is how Corban enjoyed the tour. He woke up half way through and was extremely happy- like usual.

Daddy played with him at the water park. Mommy pretty much had to play too to get the picture- well worth it!

Happy family

Corban Blue Eyes

In the last couple of weeks I have had to have a closer watch on Corban, or I find him having way too much fun. This was one occasion. Other such places have been in the fireplace, in the bathroom- trying to figure out how to get back in the tub, behind the chair in his room playing with the stereo speaker, in the cupboard eating the onion bag, under the piano trying to make way to the window seal, and just about anywhere he can figure out to crawl to and climb on.

Nap Time

Corban is still a pretty good napper. He usually takes two naps a day, one mid morning and one mid afternoon. This was how he enjoyed his nap one afternoon.

And this is what he looked like when he woke up!
He is usually very happy when he wakes up. The other morning, about 4:30 am, I could hear him chattering away- it was happy chatter. I listened to him as I was in and out of sleep. Finally the happy chatter turned into a whinny cry. I went in to get him, knowing he was hungry. He was standing up, looking over the edge of the bed. As soon as he saw me the crying stopped and a smile appeared, with a little jumping action from his feet. He does this a lot- cries to get our attention, but then he is as happy as can be when we are in sight. Of course if you disappear again, the crying returns. Oh, I love this kid!

His first tooth finally popped through at 8 months of age (almost exactly- on August 30th). The second one has since followed. They are sharp little things!

Catch of the Day...Multiple days in a row


Upon our arrival home from Lake Powell I had noticed a funny-not so pleasant- smell in our house. I didn't think much of it. Then when I was starting to straighten up the house and doing cleaning on Tuesday I came across some little droppings on the window seal. Why there, I don't know- there is no food to be found by the windows. Then I was in the kitchen on Wednesday morning and I noticed a big chunk of our bread was eaten, along with little droppings on the counter. "THAT'S IT!" I said, and off I went to buy traps. We bought two kinds- glue traps and SNAP traps. I figured anything was worth a try! We set the traps that night in the pantry (after finding more droppings in there). In the morning I heard this little chirpy, scratching noise coming from the pantry. Instead of getting it myself, I waited for Jared to come down and take a look. Surprise! Surprise! There were two little mice stuck in the glue. He drowned them and then threw them in the trash. This same thing happened the following 2 days, and then we caught 2 singles, making a total of 8 mice so far. Yikes! Hope that's all.