6 Months Old

Our happy little boy is now a half year old! It's hard to believe how fast the past six months have been. Here's the stats from his 6-month check-up:

   Weight: 14 lbs 2.5 oz (2%)

   Length: 24 1/4 inches (1%)

   Head: 43 cm (36%)

They measured his head twice to make sure they got it right since the percentile is so much higher. So his noggin is growing pretty fast, but the rest of him is still really small!

 

This kid is rolling all over the place now. And when he can't quite reach something, he tucks his forehead into the floor, puts his bottom in the air, and pushes himself forward with his feet and toes. His doctor called that maneuver "the stinkbug." It doesn't look very comfortable, but it gets him where he wants, I guess. I'm sure that at this rate, crawling will be just around the corner.

 

Corbin loves to grab onto things. One of his favorite things to play with is paper. I let him play with this paper bag from Del Taco one night and he was as happy as a clam. Whenever it fell out of his hands he got very upset. I had to keep readjusting the bag in his hands because it would get too soggy and start falling apart.

He's now big enough to play in the Exersaucer. From the look of his face in these pictures I'd say he likes it! Once he's decided he's done playing though, he'll fuss until I get him out.

Sleeping babies look so peaceful. I snapped this picture of him sleeping in the swing because I loved seeing his little hands folded together. He looked so chill just sitting there.

Believe it or not, this little guy has two teeth. You can't really see the one on the right in this picture, but believe me both of his two front teeth on the bottom are there! I didn't even know he was teething! I was letting him chop on my finger one day, when suddenly I felt something scrapping me. I was stunned when I looked closer and could see his first tooth cut through. Leah didn't get her first tooth until 10 months. So I figured it would be at least a couple more months before his came. I guess I was wrong. I did notice more crankiness when the second tooth cut through, but that's probably because I realized it was coming and expected the symptoms the second time.

Here are some "Sibling Love" pictures. I hope these two always get along this well. Leah loves Corbin so much (as long as he doesn't get any slobber on her). And he seems to think that she's is something pretty special (or at least something highly entertaining to watch). By the way, Leah loves to hold his hand. Sometimes I'll go to get them out of their car seats and I'll see that she has been holding his hand as we were driving along.

I thought this next picture was so cute! Corbin was laying on the floor and Leah had found some scriptures. So she was pretending to read them and Corbin just kept watching her like he was totally interested in what she was saying. I kept hearing her talk about the Armies of Helaman, but she told me later she was telling him about Nephi.

A couple other things about what he's up to lately...Corbin loves books already. We read to Leah a lot and he always tries to grab the books if he's near by. He has a few that we let him play with and he loves when he can get his hands on them.

 

We have let him try some new foods. So far he isn't overly excited about spoon feedings, but he's getting better.

So, in short, life with a 6-month old is never dull. And I don't think it is going to slow down from here. But that's OK. We're just happy to have this cute little guy in our family!

August Happenings

After Ross finished teaching summer school, we took advantage of his time off to do lots of fun things. We didn't have plans to go anywhere for a vacation. So we decided to do a "staycation" and do several things around here, especially if they were cheap or free.

 

Some of our outings included:

• Playing at the new splash pad at the park
• Miniature golfing at Trafalga
• Swimming at Seven Peaks
• Swimming at my Aunt Kristine and Uncle Kyle's pool
• Exploring City Creek Center
• Hanging out with family

And those are just the things I didn't include pictures of for this blog post.

 

One of the other things we did was go to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point when they had their "$2 Tuesday" special. Going to a museum like this with a 3-year-old was quite an adventure. She had a great time, but we moved from exhibit to exhibit rather quickly. But still, we had fun.

At Leah's request (she requested it many times in fact) we went to "Jump On It" one afternoon. This is basically a big warehouse sized room filled with trampolines and bounce houses. It is one of Leah's favorite places to go. This girl LOVES to jump.

On a Sunday afternoon we drove up the canyon a bit to met up with some of our Leslie family for a yummy dinner. The food was great, but the company was even better. The kids had a great time playing in the grass, trees and (for the older boys) the nearby river. This gave the adults some nice time to visit. Too bad some of the family had other places to be that night. It cut our nice visit a little short.

On the last Friday before Ross had to report back to work, we took a little hike to a place call "Grotto Falls." The hike was really easy (less than a mile round trip). When we reached the waterfall, we were a little disappointed. Ross and I had expected something bigger. But Leah didn't care, she thought hanging out at the waterfall was so fun. The water was ice cold. I could only handle standing in it for a little bit at a time. But Leah walked all over the little grotto area checking everything out.

I had the amazing opportunity to attend BYU Education Week this year. Ross's sister, Norma, had invited me to join her. And I'm so glad she did. We just went to the evening classes. But it was so nice to get away for a while each evening and be spiritually fed. I didn't realize just how much I needed it until I was there listening to the teachers. I felt like my soul got the spiritual saturation it really needed.

Ross was so good to bring the kids over to campus each night so that I could take a break and feed Corbin. We would always meet by the duck pond. The first night we were there, I was sitting on the blanket feeding Corbin when a flock of ducks approached me. They are so used to being fed by people that I'm sure they were looking for a hand out. It almost made me a little nervous has they waddled toward me. I was worried that if I made a wrong move it would turn into a scene from "The Birds." Luckily they just walked on by once they realized I didn't have food for them. But I did snap a few picture of them when they were up close. Here's a few of them camping out to see if I have anything for them.

On one of the days of Education Week, my wonderful neighbor, Bonnie, was willing to take the kids during the gap between me needing to leave and Ross getting home. We have kids the same age. Her daughter, Millie, is Leah's best friend. So she sent me a couple pictures of the kids having fun together.

Here's a picture of Norma and me together at the end of Education Week. And a picture of me and my old roommate Kim, who was the teacher for one of the classes we attended. It was so fun to be taught by her. She shared so many things that I needed to hear. And it was even better that I could learn it from a dear friend like her.

Our cute little niece, Kirsten, is leaving to serve a mission soon. She has been called to serve in the South Dakota Rapid City Mission. So we were able to attend her farewell. She's going to be a great missionary!

On the last Tuesday of the month, I took advantage of "$2 Tuesday" at Thanksgiving Point again. This time we went to "Farm Country." They had lots of farm animals that you could pet and several learning areas. Leah loved the room where you could learn about how plants grow, are harvested, and then go to market. She also really liked the pony ride and wagon ride.

Repairs and Remodel

So as I mentioned before, our house flooded back on Mother's Day. And the repair/remodel process was VERY LONG. It took about two months before they were finally through. This wasn't because the work to be done was extensive, but rather because they only came about once a week (if that) to work on it. Apparently the restoration company was working with several different other companies to subcontract the work. So when you are dealing with so many different schedules, it seems the progress moves like molasses.

 

Here are some pictures I took to record the progress. I took these first three pictures right after we got back into the house after they had been drying the carpet and walls for a week. You can see where they had cut holes in the walls and ceiling and pulled back baseboards to help the wettest areas dry faster. If you look closely at the first picture, you can also see where the water seeped through the ceiling and left a yellowish stain.

I took these next two pictures after the sheet rock had been replaced. It hadn't been painted yet, and the putty to texture the ceiling/walls was still wet.

Since the carpet had been partially torn up already, we decided to go ahead and pay the extra cost have them replace the carpet in our dining room with laminate flooring. We have wanted to get rid of the carpet in the dining room for quite some time. So now seemed like a great opportunity to just get it done.

After we picked out the new flooring we wanted, it was several more days before they came to remove the carpet. And then it was another 2 1/2 weeks before the flooring man came to install the laminate flooring. So for all that time, our dining room table was in our living room. And our dining room looked like this.

That 2 1/2 weeks without a dining room was probably the worst stretch of this process. We couldn't use our dining room. And we had to be careful because we would often find nails that had been left on the floor. We also didn't really have a living room either because the dining room table was in the middle of it. So there was no place to really play or lay down on the floor. And the dining chairs were stored in the kitchen along with the ceiling fan. If you've seen our kitchen area, you know there's not a lot of space. So about half the kitchen floor was used to store stuff during the remodel process.

Needless to say, we felt pretty cramped during that time. Not to mention that our furniture upstairs in our bedroom was still crowded around our bed. It had been moved away from the walls and hadn't been put back yet because the carpet padding needed to be replaced first. So many times during those two months I felt like I was living in an episode of "Hoarders." Our house seemed like an obstacle course. Definitely not an ideal situation for a toddler and a baby.

We were so excited when they finally replaced the dining room floor! Leah "skated" all over the new laminate floor. And then when we moved the dining room table out of the living room, she ran all over living room carpet just because she could.

We have really enjoyed having this laminate floor. But you can definitely see all the crumbs Leah leaves behind after she eats. I can only imagine how dirty the carpet was with all the crumbs that were getting lost in it after meals with a toddler.

Doesn't it look good! After the floor was replaced, then they could paint walls, replace padding and clean the carpets. It all looked so good when it was done. It almost made all the hassle over the previous two months worth it.