We're Expecting!

Merry Christmas! On Christmas Eve, we finally started telling people, starting with our family, that we are having another baby!  It's been so fun sharing with all our friends and family, and seeing the varied reactions.

But I want to share the rest of the story too.  As some of you know, we've been trying for a while. With Theo, we got pregnant right when we wanted to, which made the waiting for this baby more frustrating and disappointing.

And when I say waiting, I mean trying for nine months, maybe longer.  I know it's nothing compared to what some people go through, and now I have a greater empathy for them.

Anyways, about three weeks ago, I started feeling off.  A voice in the back of my mind said, "maybe you're pregnant!" But I would push that thought away as hard as I could.  I'd thought it before in months past, and it made the reality of not being pregnant even more disappointing.  So this time, I wasn't about to fool myself.

Soon, though, the morning sickness kicked in. I'm afraid Theo got to watch a lot of TV while I just laid on the couch, immobilized by feeling yucky. This was a Monday, and Corbin's last day of the semester was Tuesday, so I only had to make it alone for so long.  I was beginning to believe I was really pregnant, but I was still cautious. 

On Wednesday, Corbin came grocery shopping with us, and I threw a pregnancy test in the cart. I wanted to know if I was sick for a fun reason, or if I needed to see a doctor right away.

The plan was to do the test the next morning, but I was so excited (and hadn't been sleeping well anyways) that I woke up at 2:30 AM and knew I wouldn't be able to sleep if I didn't know. So I took the test, came back to bed to wait the two very looong minutes, and went back to check results.

This was the kind that has a minus sign for not pregnant, and a plus sign for pregnant.  The vertical line was very dark, but the other was super light.  Corbin ended up coming in the bathroom to help me interpret the results, before we realized that the dark line is the one that indicated pregnancy anyways.  We felt pretty silly about not getting it.  That's why they don't tell you to take the test in the middle of the night, I guess.

Yay!  A baby on the way!

We decided to wait til Christmas time to tell everyone.  That was a very long two weeks of waiting!  But this is how we told most of our family:

"I am making a gift for you (some people got it right then),  but it won't be done until July or August (most everyone got it here)."

Corbin took the ruse awkwardly long with a few people, causing me to yell into the phone, "We're having a baby!!!"

It was a pretty fun Christmas activity!

I want to give Corbin the biggest shout out imaginable.  The timing on my morning sickness has worked out nicely (maybe God had that in mind when he made us wait). Corbin finished his semester right when I started feeling sick, and won't go back to school until the end of my first trimester. That means he gets to spend his 5 week vacation taking care of an energetic two year old, an invalid wife, and most of the house work.  I feel really lame not being able to help much, but Corbin has done an amazing job taking care of us. He does it without a word, and usually with a smile.  He's a wonderful husband and a wonderful daddy. 

I'm so glad we get to start this journey all over again! Let the adventure begin!

December, you snuck up on me!

Wow, it's been far longer than I thought since I've posted something. But I hope to make up for it!

December has been awesome. Corbin finished out the semester and we've been relaxing at home for over a week, now. Something I've learned from school breaks past is that Corbin is a home body. He is so busy during the semester that all he wants to do is stay home, record music, catch up on sleep, etc.

It sort of conflicts with my vision of how breaks go, which is us going out and doing things as a family. So when I would say, let's play in the snow together, and Corbin says, no thank you, I would just resign myself and none of us would go out. But not this break! If Corbin doesn't want to come out with us, I still need to go out.  I am realizing more and more that I need time around other adults, and I need to have adventures out of the house.  Theo too, cabin fever overwhelmed during our week of being snowed in.

What I'm saying is, I love having Corbin home to help with Theo and around the house.  He has been a lifesaver!  But I also need to feel ok about leaving him behind when he wants to be left behind. I think that will be good on many levels, or else the five week break could get very long.

We took the side off Theo's crib, and he has been doing great! For the most part, he will stay in his bed and sleep after I've rocked him and sang to him a little.  But sometimes, he doesn't.

Yesterday, he was supposed to be taking a nap, but every time we put him down and left the door cracked, he would come out.  Imagine a sleepy eyed Theo, bursting into the room and saying, over his pacifier and with a sleep-croaking voice, "Ta daaa!"  He did that to us a few times, and although it is very cute, the man needed to sleep!

So we put him down again, and this time shut the door.  What ended up happening was Theo knocking on his door for a while, then falling asleep next to it.  I'm pretty sure he slept at least an hour on the floor.

Then last night, he did the same thing.  When Corbin opened the door after an hour, he had to slowly push Theo's sleeping body out of the way so he could get in to move him. So sweet!

One of my favorite things I get to do each week is explain the Sacrament to Theo during church.  When the bread and the water are being passed around, I whisper in Theo's ear about how we take the Sacrament to remind us of Jesus, and the beautiful sacrifice he made for us.  Then we talk about how Jesus loves us and wants us to be happy.  I love getting to review it with him every week, because it's a great review for myself too!

We went to the mall to get a Christmas present for Corbin, and ended up playing for almost an hour on the coin operated toys.  Did we even use coins? No, who needs them!  Below, he's sitting in a little ice cream truck, and he served me lots of ice cream from the side window.  He's a good business man. 

We're so excited for Christmas here at the Miller home! Stay tuned for our special Christmas edition of the blog!

Catching up on November

This will be an odd compilation of thoughts and stories, seeing as I haven't written consistently this month. Enjoy!

There is an equine annex near our house, so we drive past it very often. The other day, it was so cold that the horses were wearing coverings to keep them warm. I mentioned that the horses were wearing jackets, so Theo repeated over and over, “Horse. Jacket.” We were on our way to drop Theo off on campus with Corbin so I could run some errands. Apparently, Theo carried on the horse jacket conversation with Corbin after I left, but it obviously didn’t make sense to him. That is, until they rode the bus home, and Corbin saw the horse jackets for himself. They were both quite excited about the discovery.

I teamed up with a bunch of ladies from church to create a "quiet book." I am making thirteen copies of this awesome page, and then we'll trade pages.

I think it turned out quite nicely, and I can't wait to give the whole book to Theo for Christmas.

Corbin and I have been reading the New Testament for our couples scripture study, and tonight we are on track to finish! I am also studying the Old Testament in my personal study, and I realize that these books were really not written for our time.  It's really great to have all these stories and accounts through history, but there is a lot of weird stuff to sift through. Stuff that is from another culture, another time, another understanding of how the world and God's relationship with it.

It makes me appreciate the Book of Mormon a whole lot more.  It was written in a similar time frame as the Bible, and it is another testament of Jesus Christ. The Bible seems like a bunch of writings that were thrown together, because they were available, which is nice to have. But the Book of Mormon was compiled very carefully from a lot of different writings for a specific purpose.  In its introduction, it says that it was made for our day.  It sure makes a lot more sense to me, and I feel like I don't have to work quite so hard to glean the spiritual messages from it. Reading the Bible helps me appreciate the Book of Mormon so much more.

Corbin and I went on a date a while back, and I got these sweet new shoes. I put them on right outside the store, and threw the old ones in the trash.  Best part, they were only $10.

NaNoWriMo is going really well for me.  I'm almost at 40,000 words! I'm so close to my goal of 50,000 words by Nov. 30th, and I feel such a sense of accomplishment already. But I need to keep it up if I want to win!

I'm not sure if I've talked about this yet, but there is so much free food floating around Cornell Campus, it's astounding. Corbin gets free lunch many days of the week. He is such a lovely husband, he brings me home leftovers very often. Yummy veggie or humus wraps, sandwiches, chips, cookies.  It sure makes my day. Thanks, Love!

I am so excited for Thanksgiving! We’re staying in New York, and we will be dining on turkey with our new best friends from church, the Passeys. Sara’s sister and family will be joining us, so Theo will have an 18 month old play mate to enjoy. We sure are lucky to know such quality people.

Sara said something to me a while ago that warmed my heart, and I think about it fondly. We had been playing at their house, and before we left, she stopped me. She said she liked the way we parent Theo. It looks like we have fun, like it’s a pleasure to be a parent.  And that we’re patient with him.

As a mom I’m constantly evaluating my actions, so it was nice hearing that from an outside source.  It gave me confidence that maybe I am doing a good job.  Sometimes, Theo and I are bored, or he does something that makes me want to throw him out the window. But most of the time, we have a lot of fun and enjoy each other.  So thank you, Sara! You made my day, and many days since!

The Passeys joined us for an event on campus last week.  Josh Malina, who we are fans of because of West Wing, came and spoke about how his Jewish life and his acting life intermingle.  It was so interesting, and very entertaining.  Thanks for pointing it out to us, Holly!

And last thing I wanted to talk about, but certainly not least. Shelley bought Theo's and my tickets to Argentina!!! I'm not sure if she wants us to pay her back in pesos or dollars.  We will be ditching Corbin at the end of January and staying til the end of February. We are so so sosoosososoooooo excited! I've had intentions of learning Spanish before we go, but all I know at this point is si, and como se llama (and that's only because Shelley told me).

Christie's wedding, Corbin's TED talk, my NaNoWriMo

About a week ago, we got to go back to the TriCities for Corbin's sister's wedding. We had an absolute blast, and the wedding was wonderful. Christie looked beautiful. When they were saying the vows, I could see Adam's face perfectly, and he looked so full of love.

Corbin, Austin, and I got to sing and play during the lighting of the unity candle. I'm so glad Christie let us be involved, and now we have another pretty song in our repertoire.

Theo's favorite part was playing with Corbin's cousin Terese's son. He is three, and so full of energy. Theo loved running around, jumping through hula hoops, and being silly with him.  He called Theo "FeFo," and how awesome is that?

Theo was a champion traveler on our many flights. It gives me hope for the very long flight to Argentina we will be making in January.  By the way, that's happening!

In other news, our stake president (higher up leader in the church) came to the Branch today for our conference. He spoke for a few minutes at the beginning of Relief Society, and began telling a story of how his 18 year old son wanted to put an ad on Craig's list for a bassist.  He is an amazing guitarist and singer, and needed someone to jam with. President Beck told us how worried he was that some creepy guy would respond, and introduce Jake to drugs and persuade him not to go on a mission. But he agreed on the terms that whoever replied would have similar standards to his own, and not be a creep.

So when Jake got an email from a guy almost ten years older than him who lived in Ithaca (they live about an hour away), he was apprehensive.

Then he stopped and said, "You know who it was?  Corbin Miller."  And everyone in the room laughed out loud.  I guess Corbin was an answer to President Beck's prayers, and he talked about how we don't know when we will be an answer to someone else's prayers.  And he said this awesome sentence, that I wrote down so I could remember it. "You can be the Corbin Miller in someone's life." Yay Corbin for getting in with the Stake President!

Anyways, Jake and Corbin played for a TED event that was going on in Corning. They went to the dress rehearsal on Friday, and Corbin had a sleepover at their house. Theo and I didn't get to come see the talk, but  we came to pick him up, got lots of leftover snacks and treats, and took a look through the glass museum where it was being held.

I'm so glad my husband is talented and nice and wonderful. He is a good influence on me to put myself out there, develop my talents, and not be afraid to try new things.  I sure love that guy.

Theo at a play lab at Ithaca College. yes, I pimped out my son to research.

In other other news, my NaNoWriMo novel is going really well. I have about 17,000 words so far (about 35 typed pages), which is almost to where I should be for today.  It started out a little rough, but I know it's improving because I'm more comfortable talking about the plot and stuff.  I love creative writing, and it's so fun to have an excuse to do it!

Halloween Partaaaaay!

Last night, Corbin and I went on a hot date to explore Downtown Ithaca.  We visited an art gallery, and was blown away by the prices of all the pieces.  We also browsed around a used book store (I mostly explored the children's section and loved it!).

Being so gentle to a fire belly toad

Afterwards, we retrieved Theo from our friends the Swigerts. Sidenote: Theo is the luckiest boy.  We had been reading one of his stories earlier in the day, where pizza is pictured.  He had then started crying because he wanted pizza so badly, but we didn't have any.  Guess what the Swigerts had for dinner with Theo.  Yes, pizza!

Anyways, the Swigerts then joined us at out Sciencenter for their spooky Halloween night!

We got there right in time for the spooky science show.  Some chemistry students from Ithaca College showed us smokey dry ice, a chemical combination that changed colors, over and over!  They also did some fun tricks with liquid nitrogen, made green slime, and made "elephant toothpaste!"  I was definitely entertained, and Theo was enamored!

Then we went upstairs to see the lizards and snakes.  I'm not sure Theo was too into it, but I had a wonderful time!

It was so fun to explore with the Swigerts!!

 On Thursday, we went to Wegmans for a trick or treating extravaganza.

I got a chance to test out our face paint set. This picture doesn't show it too well, but it's as if I have the mouth of a dinosaur. Pretty sweet, right?

 
We got a lot of awesome candy.  I say we, because admittedly, Corbin and I ate most of it after Theo had gone to bed. He'll never know the difference that we ate his "dadannn."

We were supposed to meet our lovely neighbors there, but because of communication difficulties, only saw them for a moment.  It was great seeing the kids' costumes though.  

We still have several Halloween activities to attend in the next week, and it made me glad that we chose a low maintenance costume.

I sure love sharing in the seasonal fun with my sweet boy!

Three Random Stories

Theo and I had some friends over to paint pumpkins. Obviously, Theo's was a masterpiece.  When Corbin saw if after he came home, he first thought it had gone bad.

I have three random stories to share:

1) The other night, Corbin was leading the pillow talk.  He told me about his Star Wars books, then gave me a graphic description of tape worm, then somehow got back to Star Wars.  I don't know how he did it, how I let it happen, but I know I'll be doing more discussion guiding in the future.

2) Last night, Theo woke up crying- the kind of cry where I knew I should probably get out of bed and check on him.  So I picked him up and we went to lay on the couch.  I thought he had fallen back asleep, but when the one o'clock bus went by, I heard his sweet little voice next to my ear whisper, "bus." He went back to sleep really easily, but I'm glad we got to share that moment.

3) I recently remembered something that happened to me in kindergarten.  I remembered arguing with my classmate named Brittany about how Jesus was perfect.  I still believe that Jesus Christ led a sinless life, but I now know better than to yell in someone's face about it.  I guess that's what 20 extra years of experience has taught me.

What do Pumpkins, Stake, and Taffetas have in common?

Last Saturday was a busy day, full of fun and excitement.

Cornell hosted a pumpkin carving party for kids of grad students, so we got all up in that action. We absolutely had to put Theo in his frenchman costume, and doesn't he look awesome?!

There were free pumpkins, treats, and other cute kids to enjoy.

We carved a picture of one of Theo's current favorite things: sheep. 

He was a very patient boy during the whole process. Also, he amazed me by keeping his barrett on pretty much the whole time.

Corbin timed this picture just right to make Theo look like a perv. 

 By the way, I drew on Theo's face with my liquid eye liner.  I never realized how sparkly it is until I wiped his face off and his sweet skin was shimmering.

After we finished carving, we dropped the pumpkins off at the car, and took a turn around Bebee lake.

New York certainly knows how to do fall.

Afterwards, we went home and rested up before Stake Conference.  In the afternoon, we went to church, ditched Theo in the nursery (where he had a fabulous time) and enjoyed the spiritual messages from our Stake president, temple president, and other members in the area.  The theme of the meeting was finding peace through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and I came away feeling so uplifted and refreshed.

After the meeting, there was a pot luck with so much amazing food!  We got to see our friends, and even got to reunite with our friend Martille!

After we'd had our fill, Corbin and Theo whisked me away to my Taffetas performance.  That's right, the talent show we'd been rehearsing for has happened, and it went fabulously!  The entire show was wonderful, with a variety of fun and beautiful musical acts.

Hopefully there will be a video of our performance on facebook soon (I know I want to see it). I will miss spending so much time with the ladies in the show, until of course the actual show rehearsals start picking up in February and March.  It was a wonderful opportunity for me to get out of the house, take a break from Mommy land, and do something that I love. 

Cotton Swabs, Chickens, and Pie

Yesterday, I got my cheek swabbing kit from the Be the Match registry. By sending in my cheek cells, my name and type (or whatever... I'm no doctor) will be put on the national list for being a bone marrow donor.  Thanks to Whitney for pointing me to this, because it sounds like such a cool opportunity to save someone's life!

As I was saying, I swabbed my cheeks, and Theo thought that was pretty cool.  So I got him some Q-tips of his own and he put it in his envelope.  What a cute helper!

Last weekend we visited Corbin's band mates' home.  They live on a miniature farm, which is awesome.  Theo screamed and screamed with excitement when he saw the sheep.  That put them a bit on edge, but the boy sheep was only too happy to come over when we had delicious alfalfa pellets to feed him.  Theo thought they were pretty tasty too.

They also caught one of their chickens to show Theo.  He was very gentle to the creatures, which was a proud mommy moment for me.  He ended up herding the chickens around though, in an attempt to catch one himself.

There were all sorts of fun instruments to test out.  When he sat down to the drums, he laid himself a beat and sang us a beautiful song (pictured above). Nice deep guttural aaahhhs, so cute!

We went home with fun memories, plus a bag of delights from their garden.  They were so accommodating and sweet! Theo and I will have to accompany Corbin to band practice, just to visit the farm again.

On Sunday night, we held church choir at our house, and it turned into a regular party!  Our pianist brought adorable little pies to share... grape pies!  Apparently that is a New York thing, so she had to try it for herself and share. 

When Theo caught wind that there were treats nearby, he stood in the kitchen crying, "paaa, paaaaa!" until he got his serving.  He obviously loved it, and was purple for at least 24 hours.

After choir was over, most everyone stayed to hang out.  Kristy recited out of our Halloween jokes book.  Example: What's the difference between a ghost and peanut butter?  Ghosts don't get stuck to the roof of your mouth!  A real knee slapper.

Also, we had been discussing West Wing (the show) with our new best friends the Passeys, so they brought along the first season on DVD, and we watched a couple episodes.  I'd seen many episodes before, but not these.  I'm glad they took the DVDs back to their house, because I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and I would have watched it all in like two days.  Thanks for looking out for my productivity, Passeys!

Taffetas update: we worked out choreography for our medley performance that will be on Saturday.  Now we just need to polish it up, and bam! We'll be up on stage!  It's turning out well, and I'm loving it!!!