Bet you're wondering what a C.O.X.C.U. is, aren't you?

I haven't written in a while, and I think it's because I get very frustrated when I get on my computer lately because we've been having internet issues. A technician actually came out yesterday but didn't do anything, and that was also frustrating. I just want to brag about my beautiful daughter; is that so wrong?!

Things, as always, are wonderful. My daughter, who really is America's Next Top Model, grows more and more beautiful everyday. I'm not kidding, she's gorgeous! And for those who were asking, her eyes are almost brown, with a hint of greenish-blue in the center. I think they will eventually turn brown completely, like Ryan's, and I'm totally fine with that. I'm resigned to just sharing my nose. And that's cool I guess. Except I HATE my nose. :P Well...I guess Corbin and I share more our of personalities than our looks. :)

For example, what do you do when you want daddy to pay attention to you and do something for you? Well, whining doesn't hurt!



(Okay, okay, I totally kid! Ryan is amazing, I hardly have to ask him to do anything. He's right there, being the best daddy and best husband ever. I'm so lucky.)

In other news, Corbin can almost sit up on her own! She can hold herself up pretty well, usually using her hands as a brace, and if she's on the bed, she'll hold onto the sheets to keep herself upright. I'm so proud! And today when she was laying on the floor on her blanket, I saw her push herself upright for a few seconds! Holy moly! She's seriously going to be sitting up and crawling before I know it! It scares me just a bit! I keep thinking about how Christmas is almost here, and she's going to be 8 months old on Christmas! EEEK! What kind of toys do you buy for an 8 month old?!

I already know one thing I'm definitely getting her: A Brobee pillow! I love Brobee, he's totally my favorite. I think she'll like it. I'm going to order it when I get paid later this week in case Hot Topic decides they want to quit carrying all this nifty Yo Gabba Gabba gear before Christmas!

And speaking of holidays...what is Corbin going to be for Halloween?! I just don't know! I see a lot of cute baby costumes, but the cuter ones are for bigger babies! GRR! I wanted her to be Snow White. Maybe next year? I don't know, I guess we'll just have to see, but time is running out! AAAH!

Well, I'm going to end this with a few pictures from our latest tutu photoshoot from Saturday. :D Corbi-lou is so darling in pink. <3



This is my favorite picture, so it has officially been added to my portraits portfolio, lol. But here is a great outtake:



MMM! Tutu looks like cotton candy, tastes like tulle!

And finally, a C.O.X.C.U. (not really, lol):



<3

Five Months Already?!

So Corbin will be five months old on Saturday, and I can hardly believe that it has truly been that long since she was born. This Saturday will also be the one year anniversary of the day I found out I was pregnant. We have come a very long way in since then!



To see just exactly how far we've come in the past five months, please refer to the following list:

Corbin laughs and smiles almost constantly, especially at Ryan, and especially at me when I'm coming in from work. She also watches the dogs very intently, and lately I've noticed that she's taken to watching other people and children.

Speaking of watching, Corbin watches a little bit of television. She watches Yo Gabba Gabba everyday with daddy at 11:30am, and then again at 5:30pm, usually with me if I'm home from work. It is such a fun show, and we all get really into it, dancing and singing along. My favorite part of this is that every time DJ Lance Rock comes on the screen, Corbin starts smiling and laughing. She recognizes him and he makes her happy. It's awesome.

Corbin also likes watching America's Next Top Model with me, the only show that I watch regularly. It's so cute.

She loves music and will sing along. She gets really loud and shrill. She also does this when she's excited and wants to talk. I think those conversations with her are the most entertaining I've ever had in my life.

Corbin loves the outdoors. She really should get out in her stroller more. It makes her happy, and of course that makes me happy.

She has been sleeping through the night since she was two months old. Nowadays, she goes down about 8 or 9, sometimes 10, and she wakes up again at around 8 or 9. Sometimes 10. Sometimes even later. Have I mentioned how wonderful and perfect my child is?!

She has outgrown almost all of her baby clothes, and she's currently in the 3-6 months size onesies and she's fitting into a 6-9 months skirt that I got for her at The Children's Place. Crazy! Growing like a weed!

Speaking of growing, she can now fit into all the headbands I've been buying for her compulsively (I am a headband addict, so I can't help myself), and so her options for hair accessories have greatly increased.

Corbin can roll over. It makes bedtime a little more interesting, because I can't just set her on her back anymore and give her the paci and call it a night. She has to roll over a few times first and then whine as she's sitting in that position. She also sleeps on her belly most nights, which at first frightened me, but since she can roll over both ways, I've relaxed. If that's what she wants! She also will sometimes sleep with her butt up in the air. I think this baby is going to be crawling before I know it!

She's started grabbing things. Earlier this week she had rolled over onto her belly and dropped her paci. She then reached out for it and put it back in her mouth properly. I was stunned! Babies are friggin' smarter than people give them credit for! She really has a thing for those Pacimals pacifiers. And they come in pretty colors. :)

We've started solid foods, and so far she's had rice cereal, carrots, squash, and today sweet peas. Sweet peas, are by far, the favorite. She was so excited and happy the whole time she was eating them, so much so that she worked herself up into an insane frenzy when I couldn't make her a bottle fast enough. I've got a few more little jars of veggies left to try out, but I think it's time to break out the fruits. After all, she hasn't tried anything yet that she doesn't like! It's like she was a born eater. The first time I strapped her into the chair and brought the spoon to her mouth, she opened up wide like she knew exactly what to do! I'm so proud.

People ask me all the time how my baby is doing, and all I can do is gush. She is so perfect, so beautiful, so laid back; I couldn't be luckier! My favorite days of the week are Saturday and Sunday, and not because it's the weekend and those are my days off, but because I get to spend the entire day with her and Ryan. My favorite activity? Taking mid-day naps. :)

James P. Sullivan

When Ryan and I got married, we went to Disney World on our honeymoon, much to my delight, and much to his distress, I'm sure, lol. We only had about $65 for the entire trip as spending money, so we put almost all of that into buying some food so we could pack lunches while we were there and the rest went towards parking and gas. Even though we only had such a small amount of money, we still made the most of it and had a wonderful time together, and I ended up with one souvenir.



I got a stuffed version of Sulley and Mike from Monsters Inc., one of my favorite favorite favorite Disney movies (after Toy Story, of course). For a while I had them hidden away in the closet because Winston had taken an unhealthy interest in them, and I don't know if you guys are aware of the destructive capabilities of a Boston Terrier with a stuffed animal, but let's just say this was definitely for the best.

Flash forward almost two years, and someone finds out they are pregnant.

After getting the crib set up (a few months before Corbin was born, lol. Not sure why!), I put Sulley in Mike in the corner. They have been there since the day she came home from the hospital, just hanging out, being cute and fluffy and happy looking. And Corbin never paid them any mind. Until today.

So I'm sitting here at the computer, and all is quiet, and then I hear Corbin in her crib laughing. I peek up over the railing and I see that she has rolled over onto her belly, is facing the corner of the crib where the big blue stuffed monster is, and she is seriously giggling at him. I cracked up. She usually gets really cranky when she rolls over onto her belly, but I think today when she made her discovery, she was pleasantly surprised. Luckily, the camera was handy, so I grabbed it up and started filming. I need to get a bigger memory card, though, because I only got a few seconds of footage. Or maybe I should just get a real video camera! :P

So, without further ado, here's the video:



Heehee, I love my little girl. She cracks me up. I'm so glad that I had a day off and could finally spend some much needed time with her. :)

Starting Solids

I'm so excited because this week I had the pleasure of trying Corbin on some rice cereal. I bought the box a few weeks ago, but I haven't had the time to sit down and get to doing it, because I just KNEW it was going to be a huge ordeal! Baby chair, bib, tiny bowls and spoons, mixing the cereal...you know! I was excited!

I know that most books said to make it pretty soupy, but I made it kind of clumpy and thick, the way that I thought made it look the most appealing. I just mixed up some of her soy formula in with the cereal in a tiny bowl. I accidentally poured in too much cereal (it comes out of the box WAY faster than I anticipated!), but she actually ended up eating almost all of it! I was so proud.

So here is the picture of her facial expression upon the first bite:


She seemed a little shocked! The funny thing was, she opened her mouth when I brought the spoon near, like she was completely anticipating eating! I think she's been long overdue for solids, but I guess it's better late than never! :P

She was really liking it, though, and was strangely UN-messy. I was expecting there to be food everywhere and all over her and all over her bib, but it totally wasn't the case at all! Look at how neat of an eater she is!



After she ate about half of the bowl (I was surprised she even at that much!), we went to the bottle so that she could go ahead and get that formula in her. :) But I think she really likes her chair.



And here's the after-cereal picture!



Very little cereal to be seen, except for a bit around the mouth. So ladylike...

...except not! The next day when we had our dinner of rice cereal, she was in the mood to put her hands in her mouth after every bite and then grab her feet, so it was going from spoon, to mouth, to hands, to feet and everywhere in between! It was all over her nose! It was adorable, though, and she ate the entire bowl and then took her entire bottle. She is a little eater!

I'm going to go and buy her some veggies to start this week. I did cereal first because that's usually a good place to start, and then I'm going to do veggies and then fruits. Fruits last because we don't want her to not eat the vegetables! I think I'm going to start with carrots, what do you think? :)

[Oh, and PS. I totally tasted the rice cereal, and it actually didn't taste bad. It's very bland, but has a very subtle sweetness to it. Made me feel better to feed my baby something that looked so gross when it actually tasted okay. :)]

It's Swimmy Swim Time!

Okay, totally a reference to Yo Gabba Gabba, the coolest kids show out there, in my opinion. Ryan watched it with Corbin on Friday (I had to miss it, as I was still at work) and he said she probably didn't blink for the entire 30 minutes, lol. How fun! It's so cute.

But that's totally NOT what this post is about! :D

So this weekend we packed up the family again and made the trek down to middle Georgia! On Sunday we went to Uncle Scott's for Nanna's birthday party. It was fun being with the family, and we got to see baby Haley (my cousin who was born two weeks before Corbin), and of course Allison and Dot Dot. I love kids, especially the ones in my family, but I also realized how aggravating they can be! Corbin has a very VERY specific pacifier that she takes, and it's the one that came with her Pacimals pig. Pacimals are kind of new and you can only get them online (a coworker of mine got Corbin hers). It's seriously the only paci she will take, and the extra ones you have to order online.

SO...one of the toddlers (Dot Dot, I'm sure, but I still love her!) ran off with Corbin's pacifier. I was pretty upset, but luckily we were able to get one at Walmart that she will sort of take, but very reluctantly. Needless to say, I was ordering some more tonight as soon as I got home! I hope they come quickly, as they are shipping out of Atlanta!

Anywho...so last night we went and stayed the night with Ryan's family, and today we got to take Corbin swimming! It was so much fun! I have so many awesome pictures, so it's hard to narrow it down to a few to post on her blog, but I'll do my best.

First, we inspect the water. She doesn't seem too sure about this, lol.



Now we go to the person she trusts the most, which is Daddy. He's going to keep her safe and happy, always! :)



Taking a look at all the blue before we are submerged.



And now it's swimming time! And no, we aren't so sure about this, daddy!!!



I think she needs a minute to get used to the water. It was a little chilly upon first dip, but felt great very quickly. She looks a little happier already, but still a bit unsure, lol.



Well, it doesn't take TOO long for Corbin to warm up to the idea of swimming! Pretty soon she is all smiles and laughter!



I think her favorite part was getting to swim on her belly. She was kicking those little legs as fast as she could! I think it made her excited to think she was propelling herself across the pool!



And she swam with mommy, too! And please, excuse the fact that I feel too huge and fat to be seen in my swimsuit right now. I was more comfortable in my bathing suit two months after Corbin was born than I am now! Not to mention it just wouldn't fit! Hence the oversized tee-shirt. Oh yeah, and I bleached my hair, too, lol. I just can't leave it alone! Who knows what color it might be next week!




And of course Winston and Madison wanted to swim, too, right? LOL, well...sort of. I did manage to get Madison in the pool, but she was out in less than 30 seconds!



Family photo! I'm actually thinking this might be the VERY FIRST PHOTO of all three of us together! We should probably fix that!!



And finally, she decides that she's ready to get out of the pool. One last moment with daddy!



And now he hands her over to mommy to get dried off. We remove the swimmy diaper and wrap her up really cozy-like! She was all smiles. I think she really enjoyed herself. :)



And then, the final shot of the day before she completely PASSED OUT, before even making it back in the house!



Seriously, the child could not keep her eyes open, and stayed sound asleep the entire time she was getting dressed. It was too adorable. Maybe I should take her swimming more often to get those good long naps out of her! And of course, she slept all the way home to Athens. I love my good little baby goddess. :)

I'm totally looking forward to next summer when she'll be able to swim a little better and appreciate it more! Oh, the things I look forward to! I can hardly contain myself when I think of them, but at the same time I just don't want her to grow up! EEEEE...the woes of being a mommy.