Tuesday, July 31, 2012

busy... and how to entertain the Nielsen's for at least half an hour

We've been busy this summer... birthday parties, visiting family, softball games, swimming lessons... add in a mad case of hand foot and mouth disease and it feels like we've barely had time to appreciate the warm weather and take advantage of the beach! (we've only been once this summer!! Catastrophe!)

Corbin-o has been busy too... it seems like if he's not eating or sleeping, he's busy doing something.  Like bugging Nora.


Nora's life has improved since Corbin discovered how awesome it is to share his food with her.  I swear she sees me getting the highchair out and her eyes light up.

Nora recently had 'THE BEST NIGHT OF HER LIFE' when a family of opossums moved into our pomegranate tree. (Mr. Incredible informed me that Possums do not live in California... only Opossums... and that I had to say Opossum on the blog because otherwise I would misinform the WHOLE WIDE INTERNET.  Whatever... here's a link).

Nora is a hunting dog... at least by breed.  If anyone fired a gun within a ten mile vicinity of Nora, I'm pretty sure she would attempt to squeeze her round behind under our bed for the rest of the day.  Heck, if anyone turns on an air compressor, slams a door, or breathes in suddenly Nora is usually trying to hide someplace.  So much for the hunting thing.  Anyway, I digress... as usual.  (hmmm moment of epiphany... my blog is just one big, rambling steam of thought with a few photos thrown in...)(another epiphany... that's what most blogs are...)

Anyway, Nora is a hunting dog and does 'point' at things... like bugs, birds, leaves blowing, occasionally the neighbor's cats (who laugh at her I'm sure), and always the mailman- whom she hates. Examples below:
 

Nora pointing at a squeaky thing.


Nora pointing with her back foot (?!) at a bug.


Nora pointing at the neighbor's cat and wearing cow horns.


So the other night, Nora was pointing at our pomegranate tree.  And whimpering.  I looked out into the dark yard in time to see her lunge and hear a heavy 'thunk.'  And then Nora pointed and whimpered more.  Mr. Incredible went out to investigate and found a big O-possum, well, playing possum while Nora pointed.  So we made her come in and go to bed and the next morning the O-possum was gone.  Nora was dismayed.

Last night, while suffering through the horrible coverage of enjoying the Olympics, Nora was outside, freaking out again.  Except she wasn't just pointing- but leaping up into the air near the pomegranate tree.  


She looks totally mad-dog scary here... she's really not... just imagine the cow horns on her again.

So we got out a flashlight to investigate.


And found this:


What?  You can't see anything?  Well, Mr. Incredible held the flashlight while I took photos of the tree... for about half an hour.  Because I swear there's something in there man!


Ha! I told you!



Ok... that little drip coming off its nose really grosses me out.  I'm pretty 'pro- furry- animals- of- any- kind' but possums, excuse me! O-possums! are nasty.  But this beast captured our attention for a good half an hour and Nora got to jump around and cry like a psycho dog for most of the night.  

Ex-cite-ing times at our house, let me tell you!

Blech... I can't look at that photo anymore and I surely can't leave that as your parting image, so here's this:


Look who discovered his tongue yesterday!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Corbin Style




 


droooool...



see... not always the perfect smiling baby



Monday, July 23, 2012

12 months of Corbin














“Today you are you! That is truer than true! 
There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” 

Corbin-o Turns One!

Today is Corbin's First Birthday!  We celebrated with family and few of 'his friends' yesterday with a Boxes and Balloons party.  We decided on our theme based on Corbin's favorite things- cardboard and balloons.  It turned out to be a fun (and cheap) party to bring together.  Here's the invitation I designed:


For the last few weeks Mr. Incredible and I have collected cardboard boxes from friends, family, dumpsters, etc!  Then each night once Corbin was in bed, I would fire up the glue gun and get my xacto knife 'on' and make various cardboard creations.

Here's kind of a view of the scene:


(there's a baby in one end of that castle box... not just an adult with his head in.  Sorry Jake for the unfortunate photo!)

The boxes seemed to be a hit- the babies climbed through and enjoyed opening and closing the doors and windows... success!







We added some fun red and brown/white touches...


Auntie Mandy made her secret recipe Sangria for the adults to enjoy:


And oh, what first birthday party would be complete without a smash cake?


Well our smash cake went unsmashed as Corbin-o decided cake was evil and worthy of throwing a crying fit over.



We gave up on the cake and Corbin enjoyed an ice cream cone instead (finally proof that he is my son too!)


Happy Birthday Corbin-o!  What a year its been!

I'll post a year of Corbin-o photos in a bit ;)

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Corbin Style






chevron boardies and neon stripe tank: made by me