He's Growing Up

There are some things that Corin does that make it really hit hard that he is growing up, developing and progressing. Tonight I had one of those moments. Usually when Corin eats it is deconstructed. For example, today all of us went out shopping. We go out every year to get specific Christmas decorations for cheap; lights for the outside of the house and Village pieces. Afterwards we went to lunch at Old Chicago, since I had a craving for pizza (which can be bad for the heartburn, but when I'm pregnant I get focused on one food that I want and nothing else sounds good enough to replace it. The heartburn actually wasn't bad because Shane and I shared a stuffed pizza with Canadian bacon, red peppers and tomatoes and I ate little of the marinara sauce that comes on the side--Hurray! I got what I wanted and less heartburn!) Corin was excited to get pizza too. So, he got his own mini pizza and pulled off the pepperoni and cheese before eating the bread. When he eats a sandwich he pulls off the meat and cheese to eat first and the bread is last (so at home he just gets meat and cheese on a plate with some crackers) So, anyway, this is his normal way of eating "put together" foods. But, today for dinner was different. I didn't make dinner tonight because we had a big lunch and there were left overs from our Christmas Eve dinner (All the left overs from Christmas dinner got left at my parents house) Corin said he wanted cereal and that is what he got. He usually eats dry cereal and a sippy cup of milk, but tonight he "poured" (the sippy cup is leak proof, so nothing came out) into his bowl of cereal and so I decided that he could try eating cereal, the grown up way. HE DID GREAT!! Sometimes he reverts to eating with his hands, which drives me crazy because I have the thought "you should be old enough to eat with utensils" But tonight he did for 2 1/2 small kid bowls of cereal (Wheat Chex, he has always been good whatever kind he is given, usually its on the healthier side) I know that he is growing up, but tonight was just one of those stronger affirmations of it as I watched him eating cereal with milk on it. It is a bittersweet moment to watch your child grow up and develop. Some moments are nice, like now he will play and imagine with his toys, can communicate and other times when I look at our screen saver of pictures of him when he was an infant I miss that too. But, now we are starting over and I'll have my little infant Declan to hold in my arms in March and have my little boy Corin to help get things for me.

Merry Christmas!!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas, we certainly did! Santa set up a train track for Corin this year. I'm glad he got the memo that it works better for us if the presents from him are opened and set up, since Corin wants to play with them right away. Last year this wasn't the case, so Corin got quite upset that everything was in boxes and needed to be set up. Corin had a great time opening presents from us as well. He would open one and then go back to his train set while Shane and I opened one a piece, but than he got into an opening frenzy and started tearing off paper so fast from all of our presents that it was hard to take pictures and keep track of which presents were being opened. It was great fun!
This is a really short blog entry for such a fun Christmas morning of present opening, stockings and playing with all the new toys, but I want to save all the details for Corin to write about in his December epistle. Here are a few pictures for a sneak preview into our wonderful Christmas morning.


Playing with his new train set. He had some pieces of track, Santa just brought more and put it all together for him so it was ready for play right away.

Opening presents! What fun it was to tear the paper off and see what was inside.

Corin's stocking was stocked with new engines to go on his track


A Thomas coloring book, he decided to read it.

A Thomas backpack, it had to be put to use right away.

Blocks in a wagon! He drove it around.

This is the perfect outfit, so we had to make it our Christmas Day outfit!

His Auntie Allison gave it to him!

Little Sponges

It's amazing how much Corin picks up on

Especially if Daddy is doing it, Corin has to do it too!

How many lights do you need on??

When I was growing up, my dad would always say this to us, since we weren't very good at turning off the lights or thought we needed more lights on in the house. Well, Corin seems to be this way. He loves turning the light switches on and off. Especially during the Christmas season with the Christmas tree and village, he HAS to turn on the lights to both of these right when he comes downstairs first thing in the morning.

The Wonders of a Box

What really is there to say? Corin LOVES to play with boxes, as I believe most kids do. Every since he could crawl he has been climbing into boxes or baskets that he could get his hands onto and was allowed to climb into. Everytime there is a box around he wants to play with it, no matter what the size of it is. Today, I was making Mac and Cheese for lunch and he wanted that box. When we go to Costco, he wants to play with the milk box and anymore that we get (the best place for boxes). I love to see his face light up when he sees a box and is able to play with it.

I have so many pictures of him inside boxes or baskets, these are just the most recent of them.

Brrr it's Cold!!

It was ice cold today (in the negatives!), so we stayed in our warm and cozy home, but at the beginning of the month we had a snow storm and Corin was able to go outside and play. He had a blast running in the snow, kicking it, jumping in it and "snow sliding" We did have a few glove casualities and he DOES NOT like snow on his face. He would get some on his face and then take his gloved hand and try to wipe it off, which didn't help and only made it worse. Good thing Mama and Daddy were there to help with the dilemmas!

Gingerbread House

On Sunday, we made a Gingerbread House as a family!! I LOVE that Corin is getting old enough for us to do fun family activities together! Sometimes I think I may as excited to do these activities as Corin is. Partly because I can take many pictures of him doing it and also because he is able to do these sorts of things and understands. He was SO excited to make the house, that he threw a tantrum before church and we struggled with eating dinner, but we eventually got to it and had a great time!! It’s the simple family things that make it all worthwhile! Corin’s favorite part was eating the candies instead of putting them on the house and licking the icing off his fingers!