Katie S. 28

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  • Archive for January, 2008

    Monkey Speak, Monkey Puke

    Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

    I know I keep writing posts about Corbin and all the crazy things he has been saying and doing, but I’m so forgetful these days that I’m scared if I don’t write them down I won’t remember how stinking hilarious he was as a toddler. Its funny how as a parent you don’t realize how often you say certain things until you hear your child repeat them back to you. Corbin has started saying, “oh gosh!” every time he drops or spills something, and lately he has taken to calling everybody ‘honey.’ At the breakfast table in the morning he will say things like, “More oats please honey,” or, “what doin honey?” I never realized that I said either of those things, but now that my son has made me aware of it I catch myself saying them all the time.

    This morning Corbin had Chris and I laughing hysterically and feeling pretty sheepish at the same time. Last night at dinner he had been stabbing at his place-mat with his Thomas the train fork. Of course this is not what we would consider to be acceptable behavior, but in our exhaustion we didn’t really think to address it. It wasn’t until we were clearing off the breakfast dishes this morning that we noticed that last night’s stabbing had actually punctured the place-mat and made tiny dent marks on the table. Chris called Corbin over to show him his handiwork and to explain that this is why we do not stab things other than food with our fork. He then asked Corbin one of the most dangerously leading questions you can ask a toddler, “What do you say buddy?” Instead of the apology we were both anticipating, Chris’ question was answered with an exuberant, “Holy Crap!” Of course we couldn’t help but laugh at his exclamation, which naturally encouraged him to repeat the phrase over and over again. Suddenly it became his reply to everything. As in, “Corbin, Nana is coming to see you this morning,” “Holy Crap!” “Corbin, I think you need a bottom change,” “Holy Crap!” and so on and so forth. Now granted there are worse things that a toddler can repeat back to a parent, but its still not exactly something I want him saying to the other children in the nursery on Sunday. So it looks like we are going to have to make some very concerted efforts to curb our vocabulary lest we be thought of as the parents of that potty mouthed kid.

    Now in other toddler related news, about an hour and a half after the holy crap incident, Corbin was struck with his first official stomach bug. Before today he has never thrown up more than once in a 24 hour period, so vomiting every 20 minutes since 8:00 a.m. has the poor little thing pretty ticked off. He is nauseated and dehydrated and totally exhausted, and if not for my saint of a mother I would be at a loss for what to do to help him. Luckily she was planning on coming over today anyway so between the two of us we’ve pretty much had the bases covered. One of us holds his head while the other holds the bucket or towel, then one of us cuddles with him while the other runs a load of laundry or goes to the store to buy Pedialyte or a thermometer. He was finally able to keep down about an ounce and a half of fluid about an hour ago and now he is sleeping somewhat fitfully on the bed next to me. This is a picture from this morning when he fell asleep on his bedroom floor for about two minutes between rounds of puking. I just feel so bad for the kid because he must be wondering what the heck is happening to him. It actually got to the point where we knew he was about to throw up when he started yelling , “NO, NO, NO!” at the top of his lungs as if he could somehow verbally intimidate the sickness. Poor guy. more-christmas-07-021.jpg

    Jumping Beans

    Friday, January 25th, 2008

    I’m realizing that children very quickly become their own little people with their own opinions and preferences. At not even two years old Corbin already has an opinion on which movies he likes and dislikes, which pajamas he wants to wear to bed and how he prefers to eat his eggs. He has his own thoughts and feelings about the world around him and in many ways, his own little life. Its somehow strange to me that at only 22 months he already has his very own friends, kids who he frequently asks about and enjoys playing with immensely. Now granted most of his friends are the children of our friends, but its just so interesting to see that even toddlers can feel particularly drawn to certain people for whatever reason. This is a video of Corbin and his buddy Joshua jumping on the couch. Joshua is one of those friends whose company Corbin really seems to enjoy. He talks about him often and points out the toys and books that remind him of his pal, and every time we drive by Joshua’s neighborhood we are sure to hear a gleeful, “Joshua’s house!” from the back seat. I am very grateful that Corbin has friends like Joshua, and Gracie and Caleb and Elliot and Hailey and Stella and Mac. I’m a firm believer in the idea that we are not meant to do life alone, and I am so fascinated by the fact that my toddler seems to instinctively get this concept. I love that my son is drawn to other children, and it is my prayer that throughout his life he will be surrounded by the kinds of friends that will love him unconditionally, and challenge him faithfully. I would also love to think that some of the friends he has now will still be in his life as he grows up. If for no other reason then for the satisfaction of thoroughly embarrassing him with videos like this one and pictures of him having bath-time with one or two of the above mentioned young ladies!

    An Unsaved Dog

    Thursday, January 17th, 2008

    As I have mentioned before in this blog, I was a very strange and mouthy child. Every statement made to me was answered with a question, and I had a nasty habit of pointing out each and every misstep or indiscretion that I witnessed, regardless of whether or not it was the appropriate time or place. I was the little kid on the block who made it my personal business to let all of the other children know that Santa wasn’t real. And once when I was four years old I loudly informed the waitress who was taking her break at the table behind us at *Swiss Chalet that she shouldn’t smoke. When she asked me, “who says?” I fired back with a boisterous, “Jesus says!”

    So now that my son is talking quite a bit more I am starting to fear the worst, I think that Corbin might actually take after…gasp….ME!! This morning while I was making a quiche for some friends who were coming over for brunch, my son, who isn’t exactly strong in the patience department, started swatting at the dog. I looked down from what I was doing and told him that we do not hit and that we need to be nice to Bingley because he is our friend. Corbin, who evidently is processing things in his own unique way, thought about what I had said for a moment and then replied firmly, “No nice Bingley. Bingley no know Jesus.” For a moment I just stood there dumbfounded, wondering where the heck my 22 month old had picked up such strange theology. I mean on the one hand he had it kind of right in the sense that we don’t believe that animals can be saved, but on the other hand he was way off in the sense that we are definitely called to be kind and loving to believers and nonbelievers alike, and yet on the OTHER OTHER hand…he’s not even two years old yet and what the heck does his assessment of Bingley’s eternal salvation have to do with the fact that I just asked him to quit hitting the dang dog!!?? All I can guess is that when he heard that Jesus wants us to be kind to our friends he somehow got his wires crossed and decided that the rule only applies when our friends are also friends with Jesus. What’s sad is that I actually know some adults who think this way too, but I think that is another blog for another day.

    * For all of you non Canucks, Swiss Chalet is a Canadian restaraunt that serves a wide variety of chicken dishes. Picture Ruby Tuesdays meets Chick-fil-A, meets a great big vat of steeming awesomeness.

    My Crazy Boys

    Monday, January 14th, 2008

    Chris has been home with the stomach flu for the past few days, but this was taken over the Christmas break. Its hard to believe there will be three of them in a few months!

    You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

    Crazy New Years

    Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

    This was a very eventful holiday season for the Songer family.  Chris’ brother Dustin proposed to his girlfriend Sylvia a few days before Christmas and they are now engaged to be married.  I am so excited for them and I can’t think of anyone I would rather have for a sister-in-law.  Then Chris’ mom, who has been in excruciating pain for about a month and a half, found out that she had to have a cyst removed from her spine.  Although we knew that she would need surgery once the doctors realized that the cyst had grown and was now resting on a nerve, the actual process was a bit more intense than we had hoped.  It involved cutting away at the bone at the top of her spine in order to remove the cyst, and then replacing it with bone that they removed from her hip.  Vickie had her surgery on the morning of New Year’s Eve and thankfully it went very well and we were all able to visit her in recovery by that afternoon.  Unfortunately, shortly after Dustin, Sylvia, Chris and I arrived at the hospital to see Vickie, Chris and Dustin’s 17 year old sister Paige was in a car accident on her way home.  She wasn’t badly hurt in the crash but they had some concerns about internal injuries so she was taken by ambulance to Vanderbilt’s trauma center to get checked out.  Chris’ dad, grandmother and brother all went over to Vanderbilt to be with Paige while Sylvia, Chris and I stayed at Baptist with Vickie.  The tests all turned out fine and Paige was released at around 8 p.m., but naturally the entire ordeal was very hard on Vickie because no matter what a mother has just been through personally, her first instinct is to take care of her children when they are hurt or scared.   We stayed at Baptist until about  9p.m. when Chris’ grandmother came back to stay the night with Vickie so that Chris’ Dad could go home and take care of Paige.  By the time we finally got home after picking Corbin up from my mother’s that night, we were so exhausted that we fell asleep about an hour and a half shy of midnight.

    We are so grateful to God that at the end of the day everyone was alright and that He perfectly orchestrated so many details so that both Vickie and Paige were surrounded by family throughout the entire ordeal.  Vickie should be released from the hospital either today or tomorrow with orders to take it easy and wear a neck brace for the next few months, and Paige just has some minor cuts and bruises, but sadly no more car because it was totalled in the wreck.  So that was our oh so eventful Songer holiday season.  I have a bunch of pictures and a few video’s from Christmas that I promise to post in the next few days now that the craziness has died down a bit.