on having boys…

Well we found out on December 19th that we are having another BOY! I have to admit that I was a little sad at first. All throughout this pregnancy I’ve had a feeling it was a girl, but I think that was just because I was hoping & praying for a girl this time. I absolutely LOVE having Corbin and really wanted a boy first, so I was thrilled when he turned out to be a boy…but I always pictured myself with one of each. Maybe its because almost everyone in our families who have more than 1 child have at least one of each…or maybe its just because that’s how it was for me growing up. I am the oldest and my biological brother is 13 months younger and my adopted brother is 5 years younger. Who knows!

I am super close to my mom and I definitely want to be able to have the same kind of special mother/daughter relationship with my own daughter some day. Not to say that there isn’t something super special between mothers & sons (because there definitely is and I feel that with Corbin), but it is just different. But who am I to say that it can’t be just as good? The mother/daughter relationship is all I know, so that’s all I can relate to right now I suppose. Donny is very close to his mom (and his whole family for that matter), so I just hope & pray that we are able to raise our family the same way and I don’t end up with a son who moves across the country and never calls him mama. Haha! He can move – he just needs to stay in touch – OFTEN:):)

Enough on that tangent though! Even though I have a couple stupid, superficial fears of how our relationship will be when my boys get older, I know where they are rooted and I know they are not from God. I can now honestly with 100% of my heart say that I am beyond excited to be having another boy. To my surprise, the sadness I felt was so short-lived and I’m thankful for that. Obviously God is putting another boy in our lives for a reason, so I am completely OK with that. And more importantly, I am incredibly thankful that this little boy is totally healthy so far…especially after the losses we have had this year.

Growing up I always wanted a sister and although I do not have a biological sister, I am fortunate to have Weina who I have considered my sister since she came to live with us my junior year (her senior year) of high school. Before Weina, I was a big sister to a little girl my parents fostered for just over a year. When times were good (which unfortunately were fairly short-lived with her) I loved being a big sister to her…but it wasn’t quite the same as having a sister closer to my age. Sharing a room with Weina for 3 years before we both moved out in college are some of my fondest memories. Now we are both married with 1 child and another on the way and we are still as close as ever. Being adults with busy lives & lots of responsibilities doesn’t allow us to see each other as often as we wish, but she still is and will always be a part of our family.

Having had the experience of having a sister for the past 12 years, I know how special that relationship is as well and I am super excited that Corbin will have that with his little brother. I think he is going to be such a great big brother and we hope that the spacing (it will be almost exactly 2 years) will be perfect. I am such a sap these days that I can’t even think about watching and encouraging their bond without getting teary-eyed:)

Side note: I know this post sounds all final like we aren’t having any more kids or there is no hope for a girl, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Ever since I can remember (I was 7 when we adopted my youngest brother), I have always wanted to adopt and have felt that calling. Donny is totally on board, but I knew I wanted to have at least 1 or 2 biological kids before pursuing that option if possible. So…if that is God’s will for us – and we sure hope it is – at least 1 more child will be in our future (years down the road though probably). Maybe that child will be a little girl…maybe not. I will leave that in God’s hands:)

 

 

 

 

monkey has some news

I think I have a pretty good excuse for being MIA lately:

More pictures, details, and posts to come soon – I promise!

Gross!

Donny said I should blog this…and since this blog is for our memories, I figured he was right. (I’ll spare you pictures this time though!)

I have not started truly potty-training Corbin yet, but he has recently taken the initiative to tell me every time he poops, so I figure I better be proactive and see what happens. You definitely won’t hear me complaining if I have him potty-trained by the time he’s 2. We’ll see!

This week I started sitting him on the potty to get used to it. The first time it freaked him out a little, but the second time he thought it was pretty funny. He doesn’t understand what he’s supposed to do while sitting there yet, but my hope was that he would go one of the times and that would help it make sense. Yesterday he started telling me he was stinky before he actually was – and I knew he was due – so I quickly undressed him and rushed to the bathroom.

We quite didn’t make it:(He pooped in mid-air and it landed on the white bathroom rug. I didn’t even see this happening, so I stepped in it. Then Corbin stepped it in. And while I was cleaning our feet, Opie ate it. Seriously gag-inducing gross!!

Hopefully next time we’ll have better luck:)

Locked in the basement

I’m not sure whether to be thankful that it took 16 months before I had my first official mommy panic attack or start scheming now for the future pranks my mischievous son will have up his sleeve…

Let me preface the story by saying that I unknowingly crushed my phone in the vault at work on my way out on Friday. The vault door is so heavy that I have to use my hip to get it closed and my purse got got in the door a bit. I didn’t realize until I got home that the part of my purse that got stuck contained my phone. My screen was shattered to pieces… my 3rd iphone to get a cracked screen…unbelievable.

Now fast-forward to Saturday morning. Donny left early and was gone all morning. He wasn’t sure when we would be home, but he figured it would be around 10 ish. Corbin and I slept late and after we finished breakfast, I ran downstairs to throw a load of laundry in. I closed the door behind me (because we have gotten in the habit of closing the basement door behind us ever since Corbin started walking) and a few minutes later, I found myself locked in the basement!!

I banged on the door to get Corbin’s attention in hopes that he would come back and unlock it. I succeeded in getting him to come back, and he kept trying to open the door, but just didn’t understand that he needed to unlock it first. After many frantic attempts at opening the door, he lost it and sank to the floor in a puddle of tears. I could see him through the small opening between the door and the floor and it was so sad. He then laid down to look under the door at me and my heart broke as he cried harder.

I was totally helpless. There is no way out of our basement except through that door. We have glass block windows, and some of them have vents in them, but the vent opening is only about a foot wide by 5 inches tall. I was stuck down there with no cell phone (hence my preface to the story), no land line (because we don’t have one), and no idea when Donny would be home.

Once I realized that Corbin just wasn’t going to unlock the door, I figured I would just have to wait it out until Donny got home (which I was expecting would be any minute). I starting singing & talking & trying to play games with Corbin through the door in hopes that I would distract him from all the trouble he could get into with a house to himself. And thankfully he was so beside himself upset that he didn’t budge from the landing and eventually ended up crying himself to sleep on the towel I stuffed under the door for him.

Meanwhile, I tried to remain calm even though my mind was wondering a mile a minute about of all of the horrible things that could happen if he decided to get really mischievous. Would he figure out how to open the back door and go outside to play with Opie, or fall into the toilet, or get a knife or a match or something dangerous out of a drawer, or climb on the table and fall off, or choke? Any number of things could have happened!

I searched up and down for anything that I could possibly use to get the door open since you know I wasn’t strong enough to bust it down:)I managed to find a screwdriver. Really?!? Out of all the crap in our basement, that was my best bet. I wasn’t hopeful that it would work, but I was determined. I jammed that thing up and down the door with all my might and FINALLY I popped the lock open and was FREE. I ended up being stuck down there for about an hour…and I can safely say it was one of the longest hours of my life.

I am so thankful that everything turned out ok and we escaped what could have been a huge disaster! You can bet I’ll never make this mistake again either:)

The door took a little beating, but not too bad.

And just in case you’re wondering…later that day in between the 2 birthday parties we had to go to, we stopped at the Apple store and I was graciously given my 3rd FREE iphone4. I love Apple [and no I do not make out with the employees like Donny so lovingly accuses me of doing]!!

Goodbye July

It has been a somewhat light photography month for me due to planning around Jenny’s birth & our trip to Chicago. Then, the wedding we were supposed to shoot last weekend got canceled at the last minute because the groom is in the military and got called to duty. I felt terrible for the bride, but it worked out great for me because I ended up having my birthday weekend totally off! It was sooooo nice:)All in all this has been a great month and we have squeezed in a lot of much needed fun.

A couple weekends ago, we headed to Chicago to visit some of our besties, Kim & Scott. Ever since they moved there about 5 years ago, we have made it there at least once a year for a visit. Usually the only time we can go is around Christmas because photography is slow during the Winter months and that is when Donny gets the most time off work. Any time of year in Chicago is fun, but since this would be our first time bringing Corbin, we wanted to go in the Summer. The weekend we planned to go just happened to fall at the same time as Tour de Fat so it was perfect! It was a pretty laid back weekend for the most part filled with a yummy mexican dinner & margaritas on Friday night, tour de fat festivities & a patio grill out with friends on Saturday, and then the beach on Sunday. As usual, the weekend was over way too soon, but we are thankful for the chance to visit. And thankful for a well-behaved little boy who made the road trip & stay there a breeze;)

Last weekend I celebrated my 29th birthday. Hard to believe I only have 1 more year of my twenties left. Better make it count!;)Grandma kept Corbin overnight on Friday so Donny and I could go out. We went to dinner and then saw the movie Horrible Bosses. I am almost ashamed to admit that I laughed so hard I cried THE ENTIRE MOVIE! Normally movies like that don’t do much for me, so I’m not sure if I really liked it that much or if I just really needed a good laugh:)Either way, I can’t wait for it to come out on redbox so I can see it again!

I’ve noticed that Donny and I don’t have many pictures together these days, so we took one on my birthday with the trusty iPhone. We really need to get some real ones together soon!On Saturday I got to sleep in – yay! Then we went out to Donny’s parents and lounged around all day with the fam. Donny’s mom made us all her famous ribs & then we had Italian cream cake for dessert. I’ve been working out extra hard this week to make up for all the good food I ate last weekend:)

After dinner, I took Corbin & Opie out to play. The light was gorgeous and I took in the few precious moments when it was just Corbin and I out there together. This is my adventurous boy @ 15 months.

A few minutes later, everyone came out for Kynlee’s first dip in the pool. The kids got in for a little but, but Corbin enjoyed running around naked just as much as he enjoyed swimming!

Even though July brought  some very dark days, I’m thankful for all the bright ones that came too. Hoping for many more bright days in August!

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