Uh oh. It's been two months since our last post. Corbin's grown a lot in that time! Let's see... back in November we had Thanksgiving in Arkansas, spending the week at the Moses' house. Corbin had a great time, and we all miraculously survived the car rides to and from. Leaving first thing in the morning made a big difference; we arrived at our destination just in time to go down for a nap. Most recently, Corbin spent nearly four weeks in Arkansas over the Christmas break. Darrell and Robertta came and spent the weekend in Dallas and took him back with them on December 10th, because Mommy had finals the next week. He stayed with the Coles for a week before Mommy and Daddy came into town, then another week before spending one night in Harrison with Gran and Gramps. The last week was at the Moses' house before we all came home together on January 2nd (after the Razorback bowl game). Then two days later, Daddy left for an interview, followed by the arrival of Nana and Papa for a weekend conference. Corbin's been understandably confused, and still doesn't quite realize that seeing his grandparents so much isn't going to continue.
Corbin received lots of great toys for Christmas. (Fortunately, Mommy and Daddy returned to Dallas for a couple days alone and cleaned out all the ones he'd outgrown, making room for the new.) These days, he loves to play with his stacking alphabet blocks, new magnadoodle pad, driving steering wheel, electronic game pad, cash register, and new car mat with traffic signs. We've had almost half a dozen stay-at-home days now, and he's shown no sign of getting tired of anything. He also got several new books that we've been reading repeatedly before bedtime.
This past Friday, Nana and Mommy took Corbin to the zoo. It was fun, though exhausting. We tried to visit the monkeys first, but he was a little freaked out about something there. So we came back to them last, and that went over great. We got to see the male lion roar, and even the tiger. Corbin just kept looking for "more animals." Near the end of our visit, we rode the little train back to the other end. I asked him in several different ways if he was sure he wanted to, and he said yes until we actually got in line (even before the train arrived), when he started crying pretty hard. He was scared, but we didn't relent. After the train started moving, he was okay. Not exactly smiling, but no longer scared. We finally left the zoo at 2:00(!), and he fell asleep almost as soon as the car started moving.
So, what's changed in the last two months? Corbin's vocabulary and sentences are better, of course, and even his pronunciation is improving slightly. We still have to ask him often to repeat what he said, and don't always figure out what he means. He sings a lot now, making up songs just like his Mommy does. It's always a riot to listen to him talk to himself in his crib before or after sleeping.
He's been very affectionate, hugging all the relatives he barely knew (when prompted). A funny moment happened at the Johns' Christmas gathering when he handed out bells and proceeded to direct everyone in singing Jingle Bells, followed by the ABCs and a few other personal favorites. Mommy was almost laughing too hard to participate.
We've been working on un-spoiling him from all the grandparent time. That may be their perrogative, but it's our hard work afterward. He's back to saying "please" and "thank you," sometimes without reminders. But he's being very defiant, yelling "NO!" at us when we tell him to obey. Consequently, there has been an increase in spankings. What's cute is when he tries to negotiate everything. We'll tell him to eat 5 bites of broccoli before he can have more bread, and he'll immediately respond with, "Three." I'm not sure how much he's doing it on purpose, because he also argues when we tell him that Gymboree (or whatever) is in five days. Corbin would shake his head and say, "Six." Why would he want it to be longer? Maybe it's because at bedtime he "bargains" for more books or songs. I'll have barely started the last song before he starts demanding, "Two more songs. Three more songs. Four more songs." It would be funny if it wasn't so exasperting.
Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up better now that life is getting back into a routine. Corbin will go to school two days this week, then four thereafter.
