9 Months

Corben enjoyed his first Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday) and even sampled a bit of turkey.  We hosted our first house guests, Pop Pop and Grandma Cathy, at our new home.  The new playroom/guest room combo worked out well and the kids loved all the extra attention.

 Bryan and Corben are almost identical - it's scary

This was our first Thanksgiving without Nina.  Even though she was here 91+ years, Thanksgiving week was also her birthday - I can't seem to separate the two.  Nina and Thanksgiving.  I made Orange rolls for breakfast on Thanksgiving.  Nina would make those for us every time we stayed with her - and sometimes just for lunch.  I am so lucky to have had her for almost 35 years - and Thanksgiving with family is a great reminder.

On to happier news.  Auburn won the Iron Bowl and in truly dramatic fashion.

Still cannot believe this game

I let Bryan and Colin go to the game with the other football fanatics while my Mom and I stayed back with the kids and Colin's step mom.  Mom and I were wine sipping, muffled yelling (to make sure the kids got a nap), football fools.  I'm sure Cathy was truly horrified that women can act this way over football!  I have seen people videoing themselves watching sporting events.  At first I thought this was really odd - ok, it is still really odd but I really wish I had been videoing my kids when Davis ran back that missed Field Goal.  Cora had on her precious Auburn dress, Connor was wearing his lucky Auburn "Moorhouse" shirt courtesy of one of our favorite Alabama fans! and both were double fisting shakers screaming "AUBURN" - pretty much like maniacs.  Corben didn't cry with all the excitement so he must have really understood the importance of this game.  Sure, it was an amazing win and I would love nothing more for Auburn to win 2 more games this season - but in Alabama winning the Iron Bowl isn't the only thing, or even everything - but it sure makes the next 364 days tolerable.  We believe that the sunset the night of the game foreshadows the winner  - we also joke that "You Can't Get To Heaven in a Red Canoe, because God's favorite colors are Orange and Blue - see the sunset the night of the game at the lake . . .

And the sunset from the stadium - looks less orange but I'll just blame the photographer (ahem Colin) - it was truly Orange and Blue.

Over the weekend Corben turned 9 months old.  He is cutting his top two teeth and one of them was pretty painless (from my vantage point) and the other one has been hurting all week long.  Why do teeth take so long to come in?  I used to joke that I would pay 100K if I could have children already born with teeth.  On top of the teeth Corben got a double ear infection.  These boys and ear infections.  He's been sleeping ok considering.  Some nights are perfect - other mornings start early and occasionally he is waking up at 1:30am.  The tooth is almost thru so I am hoping we are back to a normal routine soon.  Mama is tired.  All.the.time!

He is cruising and thinking about taking a step but isn't quite steady enough yet (thank goodness)!  We are slowly introducing foods but it is much slower than usual because there is just so much else going on that sitting down to feed the poor baby doesn't happen usually unless we are eating dinner.  Puffs are his friends.  Everyone calls him the "Happy Baby".  He isn't happy all the time but he loves people so he is happy about 99% of the time around new people.

Corben weighs 19 pounds 13 ounces and is 29 inches tall.  So that is 55% for weight and 75% for height.  To compare . . . Connor at nine months was 20 pounds 2 ounces and 29 3/4 inches tall.  Cora was 16 pounds 3 ounces and 28 inches long (at 9 1/2 months).

We got our exterior work done to the new house - finally!  Honestly, it didn't really take that long and it wasn't really disruptive but the kids couldn't play outside safely until it was finished.  Well, it is finished.  Now that it is cold, rainy and all my kids caught colds.  Perfect.  Ready for Spring now!  Oh, and our backyard - which used to be a pool and is now a beautiful green yard - is covered in leaves.  I mean covered.  Kicker is - we have no trees in the backyard.  Seriously.  Can you imagine what it was like to clean a pool in a yard that has no trees but gets covered in leaves?

Oh Cora - is all of terrible 2 but has her endearing moments.  She loves her Corbie and is always looking out for him - like when she makes sure he gets enough puffs so that she can give "One for Corben, 20 for me!"  He he.