Ga Goo

So while I was making dinner tonight Corben was talking to himself in his playpen when I heard a distinct "Ga goo" sound. So I went over to him and repeated it thinking he may say it back.....this is what happened........

This is the first time he has laughed. We have had a few giggles here and there, but nothing like this!

Clapping, Raspberries, and Scooting

The past two days have been big for Corben. He has learned 3 new skills....well actually 5 because he is starting to FINALLY roll from his tummy to back and from his back to tummy. While talking to a friend of mine, she shared that in her experience, when babies are learning a new skill they tend to show changes in their sleeping. This would be a great explanation why my 12 hour sleeper now wakes up every 30-45 minutes all throughout the night! All of this plus our going on 6 week teething (Dr. Grassl agrees that they are right there below the gums, but those teeth refuse to pop through!) .....I am hoping for a good night's sleep any day now! But all of these new developments are so worth it!

The first skill is clapping! This video does not do him any justice because he usually doesn't miss this badly. But it's the best I could get on video.


Raspberries started yesterday.....


And the last thing is scooting. You'll notice his forehead is all red from the inch-worm scooting :) I deleted the good video of him doing a bunch in a row on accident, so here are a few clips that I edited together :)

4 months

Corben turned 4 months on Wednesday which brought us to the doctor for a check up and more shots.


Dr. Grassl continues to be impressed by his growth. He is in the 97th percentile for height coming in at 27.5 inches and is in the 95th percentile for weight weighing 18 pounds. What a big boy.

I was given the green light to start him on stage 1 baby foods. I plan on making his fruit and veggie baby foods, but while I am testing out what he likes and if he has a reaction to anything, the Gerber "supported sitter" foods is so much more convenient. We started on peas 3 days ago and he LOVES them! Tomorrow we are going to try green beans.

Love this bib :)

Here is his picture in the chair....he was sooooo grumpy this day because of his immunizations so I wasn't able to get a smiling picture.

He is continuing to get stronger everyday. He still isn't rolling over (he can and has, but does not do it consistently). His doctor said that because of his size he may do things a little bit later. He is plenty strong enough but I think coordinating that big body can be a little overwhelming and difficult for him. He can, however, bear all of his weight while standing and just use us to hold onto for balance. Standing is a favorite activity for him for sure!

Well I debated on whether or not to write about this next thing, but figured that the more people to pray for Corben the better so here goes the other news......

At his check up, Dr. Grassl heard a murmur in Corben's heart. She said to not worry but wanted us to see a pediatric cardiologist, who we saw today.

Dr. Baron was recommended by our friend's stepdad, who is a cardiologist. Turns out he trained at Texas Children's Hospital and with Dr. Friedman, the pediatric cardiologist that I saw all throughout my childhood for my heart condition (which is in no way related to what Corben has).

After an EKG and listen with the stethoscope, Dr. Baron decided it was best to do an Echo-cardiogram (ultrasound) on Corben's heart to see what was causing the murmur.

It turns out that he has what is called a Bicuspid Aortic Valve Defect. It is a congenital heart defect that he was born with.He says it is fairly common for a heart defect. It should not effect Corben's life much, other than monitoring. For his first year, he will get ultrasounds every 3 months so see if the condition progresses. If it is staying the same, he will move to every 6 months and then eventually just once a year.

Worst case scenario is that it will require a heart catheterization surgery in his future to go into the valve and balloon it open (as the condition narrows the valve opening). It shouldn't effect his ability to be active and play sports, etc.

Dr. Baron said there is no way to predict what will happen. We will go back in September for another ultrasound to see if it has worsened or stayed the same. It is not something that will just go away, so we will just pray that it stays the same as his heart grows.

I am sad for him that he will have to deal with this for the rest of his life, but I know that it is something that can be fixed if it becomes problematic. Seeing your baby with leads on his chest getting an EKG and then holding his hands and body still while he gets an ultrasound on his heart is just absolutely heartbreaking though.

I can only imagine what my parents went through with me while I was going through my heart problems and then my surgery. I am so blessed that they always stayed strong for me.....I don't know how they did. I guess as a parent you just do what you have to do. I am just glad Corben couldn't understand my tears as they hooked him up to the EKG.

So that is that. We would appreciate you keeping Corben's heart in your prayers. Steve asked me tonight how I would explain this to Corben as he gets older. In one way, it is good that this was caught now, because going to a cardiologist will always be his "normal" and won't be a scary thing for him. But I will make sure that he knows that God just made his heart special. And I believe that to be true in more ways than just this condition.

"Remember, you are special because I made you, and I don't make mistakes." -Max Lucado's You are Special

Good Day

Today was just an all around good day.




We took the girls for a walk.

Well we took Sally for a walk and Annie for a ride.

We went out for sushi for dinner and Corben got some good daddy time in.

Corben cracked me up when he was playing with his "giraffey" in the car. He so desperately tried to get this into his mouth!

Then we had a very happy bath time!

Just a normal day, but got some cute pictures and wanted to share!

More Firsts

Corben had his first dance recital this past weekend. He spent a lot of time with Mommy at practices, rehearsals, and then the real show. He was such a good boy throughout it all. This boy LOVES music (it has got to be the amount of music I listened to while pregnant). So add music with sparkly costumes and lots of dancing and we have one very happy and entertained boy. He even stayed for both shows (the second one started at his bedtime!) and watched the entire thing both times without a peep! What an amazingly good boy! Aunt Kelly and Uncle Josh came to visit for recital! This was his big boy outfit for the day :) This is to prove that my baby DOES in fact cry.....I was just about to leave to take him to the high school, so I was nervous the day would be a disaster....

And here he was snoozing in the dressing room in between shows....looks comfy huh?

The other big first for Corben was that I started him on rice cereal of Monday. Dr. Grassl told me he could start when he is 4 months (which isn't until next week) but he was getting fussy in between feedings, but gets bored with the bottle so I couldn't increase his food that way. He can sit up with support, so I figured we'd give it a try. After figuring out that he didn't need to suck on the spoon, he did awesome! He is getting cereal with his 10am feeding for now. I think he is too hungry after sleeping 12 hours to be patient with it for his 7am for now. Today he had 2 bowls AND finished the rest of the bottle that was left over after making the cereal with it :)

Some eating videos........

Corben also is enjoying playing in his jumper gym now! I wrap a blanket around him just for a little extra support, but he loves exploring and touching everything. here are a couple of short "playing" videos