First Teeth!

Corbin's first teeth finally cut through today! Exciting!

That doesn't mean she's been missing out on yummy food, though! She is very persistent about trying whatever we're having, even if it's not baby appropriate!

She seems to love cookies. A LOT. Even the not-baby kind.

Like Oreos. :)




And she's super mobile now! She's here, there, and everywhere, and everything goes right in her mouth! She does not discriminate! She takes to following me and Ryan around the house, and she always comes and finds us. Yesterday I was in the bathroom getting ready and she found HERSELF! It seemed like a pleasant surprise, as she spent the next five minutes in there laughing insanely at herself!



Life is so much fun with our little Corbi-lou. And here it is, the day before Christmas Eve! I'm so excited for our first Christmas! I think it's going to be a good one!

Happy Holidays! :D

Christmas Barbies

I love Barbies.

One thing that I have always wanted to do, should I have a daughter, would be to get her the Holiday Barbie for Christmas every year. It would become a traditional sort of thing.

I keep going to Wal-mart, and I keep looking at this year's doll, and then I get VERY discouraged by the price tag.

She's $40. Five bucks more if you get her from Toys 'R Us.

Ryan tells me that it's a waste of money, but I think this is something special, and I might regret it if I don't do it!

Tonight I decided to check the price on Amazon, and there is the 2008 Barbie, for $23, and FREE SHIPPING.

I think this is my chance!

So...do you think this is a waste of money? Or should I start my tradition now before I regret something later?



Advice! :D

Christmas Lights!

So I've been wanting to do one of these portraits, but it's taken me a while to get around to it! It was just as hard as I thought it was going to be! Hard to get the right light, hard to get my now mobile baby to be still, to quit drooling, to quit trying to eat the Christmas lights...sigh.

This is what I've managed:


[Looks best at full-size!]

I like it. But I'm not sure if it's THE portrait yet! I don't know, we'll see!

And I'm sooo behind on blogging. Corbin is now crawling and sitting up on her own! She almost refuses baby food, and wants to eat whatever we are eating, and will pitch a nice little fit if she doesn't get her way! She's also decided that she likes staying up late. :P But I wouldn't have it any other way. I love her too much!

Until next time!

Oh, PS. Some outtakes, lol.

\
Eating her tutu.


So done with this photoshoot!


Brooding.


Very interested in the pretend lollipop.


Trying to escape out the front door, Corbin-style.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a great Thanksgiving! We spent the day at my mama's new house and we ended up having 27 people there in the end! It was a lot of fun, and there was a ton of amazing food. Here's the day, in pictures, although they hardly cover the scope of everything that was going on!:


Ashley pouting as Corbin was throwing a fit. The timing of this picture is perfect.


My "baby" sister who just turned 18 and is about to graduate from high school and my probably my future brother-in-law, Rick.


Initially Corbin refused her pureed turkey, green beans, and sweet potatoes and would settle for nothing but a bottle.


Somehow she ended up covered in those sweet potatoes!


Much happier baby after her bottle and diaper!


The Boston Terriers, Madison, Winston, and Mary, very peeved at being on the other side of the gate away from the food and excitement.


Madison peeking at us under the gate, where she kept getting her head stuck trying to get in! Eventually she was successful!


Corbin enjoying herself with Uncle Richard.


Me and mama.


Franki and Richard, laughing at the babies.


Allison in her overly-large t-shirt, basking in the afternoon sun.


Me and Dylan, my favorite cousin ever. :)


Ginny and Adam, Ryan's youngest brother (Ginny is his girlfriend).


Corbin and Allison, sound asleep after a long day of fun, dancing, and laughter.

The only thing that would have made this day better was if Pop was there. The holidays really have me missing him, which was made even worse by the fact that everyone else was missing him, too. At least we all had each other!

Until next time!

Wait...what?

Yesterday Corbin was supposed to go in for her second flu shot and I completely spaced on the appointment until late last night after I had came home from work. This morning I called and rescheduled for today and so we were to take her in at 3:15 this afternoon.

Of course, all the time between when I called and the appointment I was completely dreading it because she was in such a good mood, as she usually is. Who wants to see their baby who is all smiles and all giggles get poked with a needle and have to see her cry hysterically? It's a huge bummer.

So we got to the doctor's office and we sat for a few minutes, and I found myself people-watching instead of perusing the magazines. Finally they called us back and sent us to room six. The nurse already had her supplies and I asked if I could make a bottle to give her for when the freak-out occurred. Ryan was asked to get her ready for the shot and so I had my back to them as it was happening, rinsing the bottle in the sink.

I can hear Corbin laughing and I'm like, "OMG...I hate doing this to her!" and then next thing I know the nurse is putting her used needle in the biohazard box and Corbin has a bandaid on her leg! She didn't shed a tear! In fact, it was like it didn't even happen, because she was still smiling and babbling!

I'm so proud of my baby girl! And I'm also glad to say that she's feeling much better and has recovered from her cold. Now it's time to get ready for our first Thanksgiving!

Here's me and Corbi-lou last night after having some yummy squash:



The most beautiful baby in the whole world. :) And I couldn't love her more!

Dear Summer...

Corbin loved her Thanksgiving card. She thought it was very, very tasty.



I, on the other hand, thought it was very adorable, even when soggy.



Thanks for thinking of us and sending cute cards!

Love,
Tori & Corbin

PS. IN OTHER NEWS...

Thursday we went downtown with an old coworker of mine, Heidi, and stopped in at Walker's Coffee & Pub, which is right next to Starbucks, yet I never knew it existed. I decided to go with the hot chocolate and it was AMAZING. They give you whipped cream with a bit chocolate drizzle, and then top the whole thing with a very pretty cherry! I was delicious, and only $2!

Corbin was decked out in her usual color of choice, pink. Pink hat, pink jacket, pink camo outfit, pink tights, pink stroller...yeah, you get the idea. She looked adorable, though!



I still can't get over how cute this hat is. Have I mentioned how much I love and adore The Children's Place? She was very bundled up!

And of course, she was hanging with the daddy.


And she loved being outdoors downtown with us, despite the cold!



We had to go home when it started getting dark because the wind picked up and the temperature dropped drastically! Sadly I didn't have her mittens with me, or I would have tried to stay longer! We had lots of fun, though, and I love any opportunity to show off the adorableness that is Corbi-lou!

Until next time! :D

My Baby is Sick. :(

I know I mentioned it a few posts back saying that Corbin hadn't got sick yet, and that I knew it was eventually coming...and sadly, it is here, and she has been pitiful.

Starting Friday night or so, she had this cough, but it sounded productive, so I wasn't too terribly worried. She didn't seem cranky at all and was just being her usual self. Saturday and Sunday, though, the cough got worse, and she was sleeping a lot more than usual. Last night she ended up sleeping in the bed with us because we were having to get up so much to check on her. She was having a hard time breathing because her nose was stopped up and she would just start babbling incessantly in her sleep and thrashing around. It was sad. :(

At around 5 this morning, I had to get out the bulb syringe, which she HATES. Anytime I've had to use it on her, she's screamed like it was the end of the world. But she couldn't breathe! What was I supposed to do?! So, I did what I had to do, and yes, she freaked out, but luckily Ryan was able to soothe her back to sleep.

And guess what? It made all the difference.

Slept like a baby. :)

HOWEVER, I did call Dr. Baker this morning and scheduled an appointment for this afternoon because she seemed to be running a slight fever when I got up to get ready for work and she ended up sleeping almost all day, only waking up to eat. I was able to get off work an hour early so we could go in, and he checked her out. Everything was fine, she just had a little bit of a viral cold, and he said it would probably pass quickly, and prescribed some baby cough medicine.

So yeah, my baby is sick, but I think she's getting better. Not quite as pitiful today, and Ryan and I were both laughing because the whole time Dr. Baker was in the room with us, she didn't cough one time. As soon as he left the room, she was barking up a lung. Silly baby. :)

And speaking of silly baby, here is a video of Corbin figuring out how to make herself swing, lol.

Happy Halloween!

Okay, so obviously I'm late on the Halloween post, but I've been enjoying my weekend off to the fullest extent...which means that I slept until 1:30 this afternoon. I did get up and feed and take care of Corbin this morning for about an hour, but lucky for me, Ryan took over so I could get some much needed R and R. And I feel great!

So Corbin ended up having TWO Halloween outfits, and of course I did pictures of her in both of them! We really didn't do anything "special" for Halloween besides the dressing up...I was feeling very under the weather Friday so I didn't want to go try to fight with kids at the mall for the trick or treat thing when Corbin can't even eat candy yet! And I didn't carve a pumpkin, either. OH WELL. However, I got some very adorable pictures, and to me, that's all that matters at this point. :P

Her first outfit was just a Halloween-themed outfit. The onesie was a gift from a co-worker, the socks came out of the $1 bin at Target, the tutu was $4 at Claire's, and the hairbows were like $3 at Walmart. And it was ADORABLE!

Pictures!






That last one cracks me up because it looks like she's sticking her tongue out at the pumpkin! And it was hard to get her to want to look at the camera because I made the mistake of having the dogs outside while I was trying to take the pictures, and she is so fascinated with the dogs that she wouldn't take her eyes off of them! All of these smiles were strictly for daddy! (She totally lights up when she sees him.)

Speaking of Corbin and Daddy, have I mentioned how much of a daddy's girl she is?



Yeah, he's whipped. :P

Corbin's second Halloween outfit was a little angel costume that Grandma Lewis sent that I paired with some rainbow butterfly wings that I also found at Claire's. (I really do love that store.) She looked so pretty and delicate, and I think she had more fun with this photoshoot (maybe because I left the dogs inside this time?).

More pictures! :D






Doesn't she look so happy? :)

And then, there's my new favorite picture of Corbin, where she's totally showing her true colors:



I see a little bit of Daddy and a whole lot of Mama in that picture. :)

Anywho, that's all for now, but I'll write back soon about her crawling escapades! Let's just say that it'll be any day now, as she's getting very persistent!

Baby Stats

Last Thursday was Corbin's six month check-up and she got FOUR SHOTS.

FOUR.

It was awful.

This time we were prepared and already had a bottle ready to go, since that soothes her very quickly. One of her shots was a flu shot. She has to go back and get the second in the series in a month, which is sad, but at least she'll be taken care of for flu season! That's one less thing that I'll have to worry about thankfully!

Corbin was also weighed and measured, and this month she was 27 inches long, which is in the 97th percentile for her age (which means she's measuring what is average for a nine month old...very long baby girl!) and she's weighing in at 15 pounds 14 ounces, which is average for a six month old. Very healthy! Dr. Baker cracks me up, though, because he kept telling us that she was perfect and that we did a great job with her and stuff. I think he probably tells that to all of his patients!

Anywho, here is the picture that I promised!



Heehee, her little tongue cracks me up.

And okay, I have two pictures. :P



I love this one! She can manipulate her own paci very well, and instead of sticking it in her mouth, I usually just hand it to her and let her practice doing it herself. She likes to stick her thumb down inside of it while it's in her mouth. She's pretty good at sucking her thumb. She also will suck on clothes and shoes if I'm not watching her! One day I was sitting on the floor with her after I had changed her and I was looking up at the television and then I look at her and she just had a mouthful of my pajamas. She's so silly.

And SPEAKING OF SILLY!

She's started doing the WEIRDEST thing this week!

She GROWLS!

Seriously, she goes GRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRR! When she's being fed or held or when is getting a little angry, she starts growling! We just crack up every time! I'm still trying to figure out where she picked that up from!

Well, tomorrow is Halloween, so expect lots of pictures over the weekend! Big day planned, hopefully! :D

Half a Year

Corbin is six months old and I can hardly believe it, yet I can see her growing and developing right before my eyes every single day. I have been very busy with work and so I really don't spend as much time blogging about her as I'd like, but I definitely have to showcase a few events from the past month.

First of all, Corbin met Aaron. Aaron is my best friend from high school's baby boy, who was born in June and is a little less than two months younger than Corbin. It was fun to be able to see him (and Anna, of course!), because I know I wont see him much as he's growing up. He looks just like Ben to me! He was definitely a chunk. I wish I could have spent more time with them!

Here are the babies looking at me like I'm crazy:



The funniest thing to me was that Corbin is an obsessive roller-overer (totally not a word, lol), and so towards the end of our little photoshoot, she decided it was a good idea to do just that...right on top of poor little Aaron. I think he was getting a little frustrated!



He seems a little confused, but he quickly shows his disdain!



And Corbin seems to back off, but not without a little bit of her shrill yelling she does all the time. Especially in public, lol.



HOWEVER.

In my opinion, the BIGGEST accomplishment of the month, is this:



This is a huge deal! She can hold her own bottle now! Holy moley. Now we she decides that she's hungry right as soon as I'm about to eat, I can still feed her and feed myself, too! How convenient. :) Now everyone is happy.

And, like I said earlier, she's an obsessive roller-overer. She just does it constantly. And I've started giving her baths in the regular tub lately and I always sit RIGHT OVER HER the whole time, and sometimes I even just get in the tub with her. Last night, however, I leaned over to get the towel ready (seriously took me less than a second, as it was already sitting right there), and she ROLLED OVER IN THE TUB.

GIVE MAMA A HEART ATTACK, 'KAY?!

She was fine, obviously, but it still scared me, and I think it scared her a little bit, too. But she quickly forgot, because then we had fun putting on our pajamas (while singing "It's fun to put on your pajamas"...it's a Yo Gabba Gabba thing). I have been having a lot of fun bathing her lately because she gets really REALLY excited about splashing. She kicks her little legs so hard and just propels herself from one end of the tub to the other. She is just laughing and giggling and it is more than contagious. She's such a sweetie.

Tomorrow we have our six month check-up and second doctor's visit with Dr. Baker. I'm thinking all will be well, but I'm not looking forward to the shots, obviously! I guess we are also lucky that Corbin hasn't been sick yet *knock on wood*, but I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing! She has to build up immunity eventually!

Anywho, it's time for me to go to bed (finally got Corbin down just a few minutes ago), but look forward to a Halloween photoshoot, because you can bet it's coming soon!

OH YES AND I ALMOST FORGOT...I entered Corbin in a BabyGap casting call...not sure if that will ever lead to anything, but I thought it was worth a shot...I mean, she is the most beautiful baby in the whole entire world. :P No, I'm not biased, not one bit!

Mama's New House

I am so behind on my blogging. I guess that's what happens when you work about 50 hours a week and you just come home and crash every night, barely making it until 10pm...seriously, I go to sleep most nights before 10. Unless there is a presidential debate on, because I am definitely up for those. I'm kind of sad there's only one more, but then again, it's almost election day! I'm so excited!

But I digress. I have some pictures to post!

A few weekends ago we went to my mama's new house (they are still moving in), and we had dinner there. I got to take some cute pictures (of Corbin, 'cause she's the best thing EVER) and have some amazing chicken and dumplings and see how the renovations were progressing. So here's what I have.

Firstly, here's Corbin and Nanna, and both are ALL SMILES:



Nextly, I have Corbin and the love of my life, and Corbin is the spitting image of her father:



Thirdly, I have a picture of Allison and Corbin eye-balling each other, like they just KNOW that their futures are filled with lots of mischief and merrymaking, as soon as Corbin decides she's ready to walk, lol:



And lastly, here's a very beautiful picture of Corbin and her contagious smile:



Of course, that last picture is kind of misleading because it wasn't long after this that she decided to throw the BIGGEST FIT she has ever thrown, and I was very upset. After some Tylenol and a bottle and lots of rocking, she finally calmed down and went to sleep, but it was definitely a trying moment in motherhood.

Oh, and here's a video of Corbin with her Restless Leg Syndrome, lol.

[Okay, so the video wont upload because my internet is still messed up, so I will try to get it on here soon! BOOOO... :( ]