Happy First CX... for your birthday you get a sibling.

So. Some exciting things have taken place.

First... Corban turned ONE!!!!! Yay, Corban. my sweet baby boy is 1 year old. I can hardly believe how quickly the time has gone. He amazes me every day. His personality emerges more and more. In fact, as his Dr. pointed out at his 1 year check up, his personality is that of a very strong willed little boy. If you're familiar with the different personalities, Corban is most definitely choleric. He is opinionated and will let you know what he wants, when he wants. He is also very outgoing and has such a funny little sense of humor. Thankfully, as Dr. T pointed out, I too am choleric. He felt confident that Corban would end up well balanced since I no doubt was not likely to give in to a 1 year old. Um, thanks Doc. Truly, this little prince amazes me. I owe him a blog all to himself on this topic... a blog singing his praise. Cheesy. That'll come later I suppose.  I LOVE him and am so thankful for him. He has made our lives incredible.

Second. I'm preggers. Today I am 18 weeks. YAY. Almost half way there. Little peanut number 2 is due on May 2nd. It's amazing how much this pregnancy has been like Corban's. A lil morning sickness, uber tired and then 2nd trimester has been a breeze. My only frustration is that I haven't been working out as much as I did with CX. I have the best of intentions... to start next week. :)  Baby 2 hasn't really started showing yet... but I'm sure I'll pop one of these days. There's no hurry... I have 5 more months to wear pregnancy clothes.  FYI, I'm 100% sure that we are having a little boy, but we find out for sure in a couple of weeks when I go to the doctor. His name will be Blaise. (God told me so in a dream... seriously) We're still deciding on a middle name. Dominic? Emmanuel? who knows. plenty of time for that. Jamon and I are just so excited. God is so good and we can hardly wait to welcome a new sibling for Corban. Yay, yay, yay.

Lastly, Jamon and I had our first family Thanksgiving. It was so wonderful. There is so much to be thankful for, as mentioned above, and we truly relished our day and weekend together. I cooked the whole meal and was SO nervous.  I'm not a turkey fan so I made two beer bottom chickens, green bean casserole, spinach casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls, stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, apple pie, fruit salad, fruit dip, sweet tea. mmmmm Delish! Jimmy and Nick, two of Jamon's basketball players came over and shared the meal and part of the day with us. Sadly, i didn't get one single pictures. i was too busy enjoying the moments. My heart is so full.

Jamon, Corban and I start with the presents from Oma and Opa. We're so thankful they were able to celebrate CX with us!

He's such an attentive little reader.

Yay for Corban!

Oma set up for Corban's birthday. SUCH a great job!

He's not much of a sweet eater. That lil bite was all he took. he prefers strawberries.

my beer bottom chicken. SO proud. :)

CX and I relax after a big ole Thanksgiving meal.

This pic warms my heart. Love that lil smile.

One of those days

I've been admonished. Not nearly enough blogging. Oh boy do I have admiration for those who can blog every day or every week or even every month. I just don't feel witty enough most of the time. Oh well.


So a couple of weeks ago was a day from you know where. Seriously. Let me lay this out for you. Jamon had an away game so I was going to be on task for picking up Corban from school. No big deal. Jamon was leaving for the game at noon, I needed to pick up Corban at 12:30. Cx and I would then spend the day together, playing, laughing, baking cookies. Who knows. Needless to say, the day did not infact go that way. I got stuck at work and was late picking up Corban from school. Thankfully, he loves school and didn't even notice. I was the only one  frazzed out.  As we arrive home I'm thinking about the things I need to take care of asap. Corban needs a diaper change, he needs to eat, I need to eat and then a nap for both of us. Ohhhhhh, if only it were that easy. As I, with hands full, approach the door to go in I realize it's locked. LOCKED. The door into the house is locked, the front door is locked, the back door is locked. I do not have a key to the house. (don't ask... I've since remedied the situation.) I call Jamon in hopes that he had left his car keys with the house key on them on his desk. No such luck. My only option... trying to catch Jamon who had already been driving for an hour. I was slightly less than thrilled. I finally convinced Jamon that I was not going to catch up to him since he was a solid hour ahead of me and rather, he needed to drop the keys off at the first place he saw. I would drive there, get them and drive home. All in all it was looking like a 3 hour round trip. All this with a baby in a soggy diaper,(the diaper bag was locked in the house), no pacifier,  no food for either of us, a cranky driver and baby. Oh well. Off I went. As I'm driving and Corban is screaming I realize the car is on empty. SWEET. We get gas, corban falls asleep for about 15 minutes. ahhhh, peace and quite. Then I get stuck behind an RV towing a car and three canoes going about 20 mph below the speed limit. Seriously... if I was holier I wouldve shaved off some serious purgatory time. Rather I just cursed under my breath. THEN a cop pulls behind me with his lights on. SERIOUSLY. I'm going below the speed limit, everything is up to date. WHAT???? Turns out he thought the window tint on the Tahoe was too dark. He even brought out a special little tool to test it. Sure enough, illegal windows. Thanks sir. Yep, in the 8 years my husband has had this car no one has every mentioned it. But I'm definitely glad you did today. Slow day on the road? Oh well, no ticket, just a warning and a now screaming baby since Mr. Cop decides it would be fun to try to chat it up with him through the back window. Off we go. Jamon had called to say he found a red and white bus that served food and he dropped the keys off there. The lady didn't speak any english, but he felt confident the keys would be fine and I'd get them. About 30 minutes later I arrive at the bus. Some sweet smiling lady is dangling my keys out of the bus window. Awww, she must've known they were mine. Was it the way I screeched into the "parking lot" or perhaps the way my face screamed exasperation. Needless to say, I said muchos gracias and turned around for the hour and a half drive home. now my mind turned to what has to happen when i get there. My dad and brother were arriving from OKC that evening so I needed to change the sheets, vacuum etc... but first I had to take care of CX and eat. We get home, I take care of CX and make myself a bagel... as I'm sitting down to eat, I figure I'd better check the flight to make sure it's not late. no it's not late it's 30 MINUTES EARLY... time to leave. The bagel gets scarfed, CX gets some food in the car and the house is not vacuumed. We're late getting Dad and Jake... but we make it. And the rest of the night goes smoothly. It was a ridiculous day. At every turn I was calling my sister... can you believe this? We both kept waiting for the next thing to happen... and it did not. Oh well. I can laugh now. God is good and nothing was seriously wrong. Corban handled it all like a champ and I teetered on crazy and champ. Whew. glad it was done and I could enjoy the weekend with my dad and brother.

hunger strike #1

Well hello blogosphere. Long time no see.

After a brief hiatus with no laptop I'm back (and not much thanks go to the Geek Squad and their less than stellar customer service). All I can say is thank goodness for the iPhone during this computerless time. Not to sound like a total phone snob... but seriously, how did I live without this lil gem? I'm never going back. i feel like I can actually capture Corban moments as they're happening thanks to the stellar camera. Not only that, but I can post those suckers asap to facebook. Literally, 1 minute. OH JOY. I could go on and on about this life with the iPhone... but how lame.

On to more important things. Corban is on a hunger strike. We're talking like 3 weeks of questionable eating habits. WHAT IN THE WORLD KID? At first I thought it was just because he had a cold... and although that didn't help the situation we are currently sans cold and still not eating much. Here's what I know: Corban will always eat pizza. Oh geez. I try to sneak in lil red bell peppers and spinach and stuff. Somehow his ultra sensitive pallet and fabulous tongue control manages to find them, sift them through chewed food and spit them out. At least I try. Everytime I see a mom with atleast 6 kids (Which is plenty in Ave) I'm always asking... what do you do? Will he starve himself? Am I a horrible mom? Thankfully these all knowing moms tell me the same thing. Don't worry about it. he'll eat when he's hungry, just keep trying. Okay moms... I'll keep trying. But I refuse to feed him cheese pizza every meal. Say a prayer as your eating your meal tonight that CX starts eating like a regular human being who is try to grow.

Corban has become quite the crazy. He's all over the place. Climbing couches, throwing himself on the floor like he's practicing to be in the WWF and then laughing, throwing everything he touches and dive-bombing off of everything taller than he is. Often I find myself saying "Corban, be careful" and then feeling like surely he's fine now. SERIOUSLY JESS???!!!! You think "be careful" will suffice. Corban will suddenly stop throwing himself off the couch because I said so. Oh pulease. back to reality. Grab the kids scrawny ankle and keep him safe. I'm amazed daily that he's almost one with no major incidents or injuries. Thanks goodness he has an AWESOME guardian angel. Thank you Jesus.

So today Jamon and I celebrate 2 GLORIOUS years of marriage. I can hardly believe it's only been two. It feels like my life. I LOVE it. Last night I was reminiscing about our wedding and how fun we had and how blessed we were by everyone there. A huge thank you to our family and friends for blessing us with their presence both at our wedding and throughout our married life. Thank you, we love you.

Well... gotta run. Jamon is home and I'm dying to spend some quality time with him while Corban naps.

Here are a few pics for your viewing pleasure: 

love, love, love,
Jess

Confessions

I'm going to be doing some soul-baring here. Embarrassing... but oh well.

Last week I went shopping. Oh glorious days of shopping. I was given some gift cards to Nordstroms... fondly referred to as Nordies, for my birthday. I knew exactly what I was going to get. Boots. I've been dying for a pair of cognac boots for the past 2 years. I've researched, looked high and low and the time had finally come to buy them.  I left my happy boys at home and headed to the Waterside shops. As I pulled up to the outdoor shopping center I could feel my heart beat a little faster. I drove past Anthropologie, J. Crew, Coach and then finally arrived at Nordies. I parked the car and entered into my old world. If you ask anyone from Austin where I shopped, what I loved, where my default go-to was in the days before Jamon, they'd answer Nordies. And this my friends was the first time I had been inside of a REAL Nordstrom's (not The Rack) in well over a year... maybe two. The chandeliers were beautiful, the piano playing was fabulous and then there where shoes. I meandered around until Mark came to help. I told him which boots I wanted and he happily went to retrieve them. While I was waiting I came across THE most perfect pair of nude shoes. Thank you Michael Kors for knowing how to design. When Mark came back he and I had a long, passionate discussion about the need for said nude shoes. I used phrases like "Ohhh, the perfect replacement for my nude via spigas from a couple years past... so dreamworthy..." blah blah blah. It was like speaking a language from my past, like I had known Chinese, or in this case how to speak about something other than Target t-shirts and how oddly each small doesn't fit the same. Anyway, I browsed the store a bit more, found a pair of jeans that I swear where made for me, someone took my measurements and cut. Glorious. And not to be had. When I called Jamon to ask if I could buy them he gave me a $20 price limit. Well... that could buy the tag... maybe. Off they went and I will be searching ebay incessantly until they show up and I snatch them away from someone else.

After my Nordies experience (seeing and trying on clothes that in reality I could never buy) I was really starting to feel reality set in. This fancy schmancy world was in my past. I don't really get these luxuries any more... but I went to Anthropologie and J Crew anyway... just to look. maybe a good sale was going on. And there was.  And as I cradled the most perfect $20 shirt I remembered that Corban was out of diapers. A box costs $20. Diapers or shirt? Diapers. Yep, reality check. I am a Mom... diapers come first. So I left the glorious world of fine clothing and sparkly over-priced goodies and traipsed back home. Not without stopping to get a Starbucks as therapy for my wordly little embarrassingly material self. On the way home I called Trish, she was a sweet heart and listened as I cried, yes cried. (This is where soul baring becomes embarrasing) I cried because I don't even have a remnant of my past "material life." I have changed and my life is different. Praise be to God who has blessed me with an incredible husband and a son who rocks my world. I wouldn't trade them for an endless shopping spree at all the glorious stores in the world. But last week was the first time I realized that for me it was one or the other. Diapers and food for Corban or a cute shirt for me. A pair of shoes for work or food for a week for Jamon. I'll take the diapers and food thank you very much.

So when I got home from this day of shopping and life lessons I was talking it over with Jamon. He doesn't pretend to understand who Michael Kors is or why I prefer to shop where there are chandeliers versus fluorescent lighting... he just nods and laughs. And then in true Jamon fashion says "Well I think you're the hottest mom around in your target t-shirts." and that was that. Target t-shirts it is. I enjoyed my debt ridden past and am thankful for the clothes I still wear from then... but I'm much more thankful and enjoying my life now. Really... how could I roll on the ground and deal with corban sneezing food on me if I was wearing a $100 shirt? T-shirts seem much more acceptable.

Montessori Day 1

Whew... day 1 of Montessori school complete. There were tears, lots of them... but they were mine. Jamon was so mortified. He knew it was coming and suggested he bring Corban to his first day of school today instead of both of us. I of course wouldn't have that. I got up early this morning to make sure all of his "supplies" were ready to go. box of diapers, check, ziplock bags, check, food, check and on and on it went. I wrote his name on his stuff... a temporary solution until I get the cute labels I ordered from www.mable.ca. When he got up I hugged him extra tight and picked out his first day of school outfit. Preppy yet tough was a good first day look. A striped polo that said Rock Hard on the back (It has a skull and crossbones... maybe too much for a 9 month old?) When it was time to go in Jamon carried Corban and I carried all of the goods. Corban of course started crawling right around and loving all of the news toys. I don't even think he knew we left when we walked out the door. It took everything in me not to make a big deal "Bye baby boy, bye bye, mommy loves you and will see you in a bit... don't cry, I'm coming back, byebye." Nope, none of that. I glanced across the room, in my head said bye baby, love you and headed out. I didn't want to make a scene. Corban was happy as could be and I didn't need to be the mom to mess it up. But as soon as the door shut behind me the waterworks began. Jamon drove me around for a bit so I could dry it up before work. Uggghhhh, my little baby is all grown up. I must brag for a moment... When I went to pick him up this afternoon his teachers said he did the best of any baby. He didn't cry and was all smiles the whole time. YESSSS!!!! I'm a proud momma. And then, as if I wasn't happy enough hearing that, when I said "Corban, Mommy's here.", Corban squealed, tossed his toy and crawled with speed like I've never seen over to me. My heart melted. I picked him up and he wrapped his little chubby arms around my neck. Perfection.

Now, i must say, I'm SO thankful for this Montessori School. It's called Casa De Bambini. Here's the link: http://www.casadebambiniofavemaria.com/ It just opened last year and I've heard nothing but rave reviews from my other mommy friends. In our state in life Jamon and I don't have the option of one of us staying home... and that being the case, we couldn't think of a better place for Corban to be. They're teaching him the sign of the cross and everything. Montessori school is Catholic at it's origin and this school in particular follows it to a "T" making sure all aspect of Montessori are taught. Blessing? YES!

Tomorrow we go again... I think this time with no tears from me. :)

Below is CX's first day of school pic. See how excited he is?