Just Keep Swimming! and Roosters... Oh wait, I mean Dinos!

Corbin went swimming for the first time, well actually twice, (once at Jason's Mom's house and then at his Dad's house) over the weekend! Our child is definitely a water baby :) Which is wonderful because I can take him swimming all summer in our parents pools! He looked so cute in his Safari swimsuit!

Posing with Mommy before getting in the pool for the first time!

First time in the water and he likes it! Whew!

Last week my classroom studied Dinosaurs. Being the great teacher that I am (yah right! I am still learning, as this is my first year teaching) I decided to dress my child according to the theme. I was all excited to finally have an excuse to buy the cute organic cotton onesie that I had been wanting for Corbin at Central Market. It has a stegosaurus on the front and the matching hat that has stegosaurus spikes! Well, after I get Corbin all dressed the first thing Jason says to Corbin is "Oh, I like your rooster hat!" I quickly told him, "Its a dinosaur! Look at his shirt!"

Mommy and Corbin before she had to leave for work to teach her students about dinos!!

Mr. Rolley Polley

So now Corbin is deciding the world is, in fact, his oyster; and he's prepared to roll all over it! It all started two weeks ago when he rolled over from his back to his stomach, and then later at my mom's from his stomach to his back. We managed to capture the moment of Corbin's agony:




We also got to take Corbin to his first Benihana's experience... Aside from experiencing sheer terror as a devilish flame erupted from a mound of soon-to-be fried rice, he had a very good time watching the chef perform all the tricks they're so famous for.






Here's another picture of Corbin being as cute as a button whilst wearing a hat.

Secret Agent Man

Besides my obvious, undying, unconditional, unrelenting, *trails off into some cliche love song...* love for both Corbin and MacKenzie, there is another passion of mine... art! Yes, in my spare time I love to create art of the digital variety. Most of it is Japanese-inspired, but I also enjoy branching out into scenery and realism. Here are a few works that I'm particularly fond of:

Scenic:


Pop-art:


Manga-style:

Beautifying our house

Jason contacted our Realtor, Maria Tedder, to see about the possibility of moving in the next year or two and what kind of house we could get. Jason works at National Instruments as a software engineer which is about a 30-40 minute drive from our house with traffic. I am fortunate enough to work about five minutes from our house. When we first bought our house a few months before we got married, I was only substituting and Jason was working at AMD, so living down in South Austin was more suitable option. Now, that Jason has been working at National Instruments for a year now he is getting really sick of the drive and being stuck in traffic. I wouldn't blame him! I hate being stuck in traffic. He sometimes doesn't get home until after 7:00 pm and now that Corbin is here he doesn't have a lot of time to see him in the evenings.

One thing that Maria told us was that we could add hardwood floors to our home and we would get that money back when we sold our house. Its an idea we had been toying with for a while for a few reasons.

1) Kylie (our Austrian shepherd/Border collie mix) sheds like nobodies business! And her hair gets matted into the carpet,
2) When Kylie and her sister Lucy (she is in a new home in Hutto :() were puppies they chewed a hole in our carpet and two years later it is still there!
3) We don't want Corbin crawling around on dirty, dog hair infested carpet. (Even if we vacuum the dog hair is still embedded in our carpet)

So this afternoon we went to Lowe's and tried to get a quote. After asking two people to help us and waiting for like 45 minutes, NO ONE CAME! I was not happy! They need to work on their customer service! Luckily, Corbin slept in his stroller the entire time! We then went to Home Depot. Someone helped us right away and the lady was very knowledgeable! But alas, the laminate wood floors are something that is way too expensive and not worth putting in this home.

We are going to look into putting bamboo or real hard wood into our next home where we will live in a lot longer than only 3 or 4 years.

Hillarious Huggies Commercial

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KXnRuyJZkUw

I saw this commercial while watching one of my favorite TLC shows Jon and Kate Plus 8. If you have a little boy, you can seriously relate! I have been peed on a few times by Corbin! Jason and I could not stop laughing when we saw it! Enjoy!

Mother's Day Weekend and Corbin's Doctors visit

Hanging out at E-Ma's House! Don't I look cute in my U.T. shirt?



Hanging out with Mommy on Mother's Day a the Clay Pit! "Gosh, why are there always these flashing lights and I always have to pose with Mommy and/or Daddy?"

Mother's Day weekend was definitely an eventful one! My parents were out of town so my brothers, Brenton (17) and Sutton (13) spent the night on Friday night. We then had to go to my mother-in-laws house because Jason's grandparents were in town for the weekend from St. Louis.
While we were there I started feeling sick to my stomach. I pleaded with Jason to go home but he told me to go lay down in his sister Niki's bed. Well wouldn't you know that while I was laying down Corbin rolled over for the first time! I was so upset that I missed it! Jason and Wendy (mom in law) saw it! I finally convinced Jason that I really wanted to go home because when I feel sick, I just want to be at my own house! Well later on that night I did get sick. Come to find out when I went to work on Monday morning a ton of teachers/faculty members also got sick from something that we think was from teacher appreciation week.

On a happier note I was able to see Corbin roll over on Saturday. I got a picture of him right after he rolled over. He is so proud of himself!

After laying around all day Saturday and recuperating, I was looking forward to my first Mother's Day. Jason's Mom made lunch for everyone, which was yummy! It was nice to just relax. We then went to Clay Pit restaurant with my family. Indian food is my favorite! Corbin got me a nice Tassimo coffee maker for Mother's Day and let me say I love it! Working with my kiddos I sometimes need a extra dose of wake up juice!

This afternoon we went for Corbin's three month doctor appointment. I still can't believe our sweet baby boy is already three months old! He now weighs 13 lbs 8 oz and is 23.5 inches long. We have to go back next month and get another round of four shots. Sorry Corbin! Dr. Aiello told us that if all goes well we can start on rice cereal in the next month or two. I would like to wait until he is at least six months if at all possible. Dr. Aiello said if Corbin starts to wake up more than once in the middle of the night he may need the rice cereal to get him fuller longer. Right now he is either almost sleeping through the night and just waking up to cry or eats once. So we shall see.

3 Months

I remember when MacKenzie was pregnant with Corbin, someone (or many people, rather) told me to really cherish the moments when Corbin is young. It's hard to imagine that 3 months have already gone by since Corbin was born, and what's amazing is I can't imagine my 26+ years of being alive without the last 3 months in it.

I also remember the feelings I had from the moment I got that call at night while sitting in my dad's media room ready to watch a movie with everyone; hearing MacKenzie's soft, yet strong voice inform me of Corbin's upcoming debut to the world. I remember that in that first few seconds of realizing what had happened, I subconciously began to evaluate everything I was as a person. Would I be a good dad? I never considered myself to be a very affectionate person, or at least in public; could I really show my child unwavering love and attention, no matter what the circumstances? Question after question drilled through my head for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality lasted only a few seconds. Immediately, all thoughts of doubt were flushed from my mind when I realized that none of those questions really mattered now. I was going to be the father I was meant to be.

After 3 months, all I can say is Corbin has been an absolute blast, and I'm the happiest a father could ever be.