Don't be mad at me, Nicole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmyPvOqehQM


Because my sister is never going to tell anyone this, I am sharing it. Click on the above link.

My sister is Mrs. Awesome. I know.

Apparently, there are these sisters who have become celebrities because of their vlogging and now they have a published book, make up line, clothing line,reality show deal, etc. ( based on my lack of knowledge of make up/fashion, I clearly have no idea of any of this)


I know all teachers have kids that they influence (Hello, greatest profession ever!), but I don't think they all go on to become "celebrities".

Also, Nicole did not tell me about this video, I just searched to find it. She showed me all of the fun stuff that "Blair" sent her for the girls (the girls!!) and then told me about her story.

It is crazy.

Dinos, JPA and some other things

Sort of our motto around here. 

 Only my parents.....

 3 year check up: NO shots! And, for the first time EVER, Anderson is not under 50th % in weight! Usually he hovers around 20-30, so this is pretty fun. I have no idea what the normal blood pressure of a 3 year old is supposed to be, but I am assuming that is it.

Because his pediatrician heard a heart murmur, we took A to a pediatric cardiologist for a very long EKG and Echo ultrasound. The doc was not super worried, but it is still a bit daunting walking into that office. He is "totally normal" and we just continued our quest of paying our out of pocket maximum on insurance for the year. 

I am not sure that many 3 year olds have been to an ophathamologist, dermatologist and cardiologist, but we don't play games around here. 

Because my sister is awesome and clearly more creative than I am, she made Lily all of these "busy bags" with random things in them...and she made us a set! Anderson loved puting these little beads on pipe cleaners while we were at dinner and I was shocked because he normally is not what we would call the "sit down" type. Proof that I love 3! Plus, I felt like it sort of doubled as vision therapy...

My dad went to FHS to blow up balloons for PiDay. I am not sure what balloons have to do with that, but I do know that if my math teacher had hired a balloon man for a lesson, I would probably be much more capable of doing math equations.

The 2nd diaper cake that Mom & I have made-this one is a little better than our first attempt (sorry, Clare-we tried!), but it is probably the last one we will make since I don't know any more pregnant people.

"Discover the Dinosaurs" came to Knoxville and we went with Jack, of course! There was a fossil dig....

Bobble time....

Daddy time...

T-Rex riding...

lots of grinning...(and a bunch of other stuff that I didn't get any really good pics of, but we did have a lot of fun!)

JPa turned 63 and we were so excited to celebrate with him! (the face painting was left over from Dr. Seuss day at bagel place...when your kid sleeps 7 total hours in a 24 hour period, you find lots of activities)

Such a good pic of 2 people that we love SO much! You will notice the "Glover" cake, which is a staple at every Glover birthday. I remember the first year it was present at my birthday and I knew I was officially in-especially since my birthday, Austin's birthday and Brandon's birthday are all in the same week, so that is a lot of cake baking!

A little hand has discovered the lighter...

St. Lucy & St.Patrick!

Please look at this preciousness in her little baptismal gown! This is my very own Goddaughter, Lucy as she geared up to become an official Catholic!This same gown was worn by her brother, her mom, her grandma and a bunch of other people as they entered the greatest religion ever.(C'mon, you know Catholicism is amazing just based on the news/attention focused on the new pope!)

The parents/Godparents and Lucy, of course! I have yet to actually take a picture holding her where I don't look terrified, but I have big plans for the future as there will be lots of Sissa/Lucy times!

This baby was so perfect and slept the entire time so we all got to hear the prayers and really focus on what was happening. Very cool! I love how excited Clare is in this picture! I am so honored to officially be a part of Lucy's family :)

Festivities after the baptism included a little hang out time for 2 besties!

We exist!! Am I tilting my head in hopes that it will make me appear slimmer? I am not sure. Love Clare's furry daughter, Bean, stealing the show in the picture, too!

A little t-ball practice with dad. 

I am not sure if you knew, but Anderson sort of likes green...right. Was this holiday made for us, or what?? He had a green shirt (thanks, GG!), green shoes, green patch, green glasses, green antennae thing, green fruit bar, green juice box, green underwear and was totally stressed because he did not have green pants. We made a green cake and green jello and he totally pinched people who were not in green. We even went to the green grocery store (Publix)  where he yelled from the cart, "Excuse me, why are you not wearing green?" to random people as I tried to shush him. Hilarious.

Uncle Austin went to mass with us and we convinced him to tag along with us to the zoo!

The first animal he wanted to see was the snakes. He was SO excited about them and was totally disappointed that he couldn't touch them.  **Can anyone else visit the snakes and not think about Harry Potter busting out the snake when he got to tag along to the zoo??**

Someone.is.getting. fat.

I love our zoo because of the animals, the kids' area...

and, mostly because of these goats. I am seriously obsessed with them. I found a pregnant one!!  (*disclaimer: I really mostly love the zoo because teachers get in free, but the goats are really a close second)

Uncle Austin had his first goat brushing experience. Life changing. 

To complete the day our friend Tess came over to dye eggs with us and eat green cake. Anderson was NOT remotely interested in dyeing eggs. Like at all. I did have to write "Heroes in a halfshell, Turtle Power" on one, but mostly he just wanted to play in the water. 

Good times. 

PUBLIC and the EYE

We are at a GREAT place in patching world now, but that doesn't mean that we don't still have some rough times...

I've realized something recently. Randomly, it was an old man in an elevator at my last doctor appointment that triggered this epiphany.

A lot of people ask about Anderson's eye. I mean, a lot. And, it does not bother me. At all.

When he was a baby in an eyepatch and little bifocals, people mostly seemed sort of scared of him/us. I admit I probably was not giving off the most welcoming vibes, so that might have contributed to this. Even though he was older than most of the other ikids were when they began this journey, he was so little to me. A 12th%ile in weight 13 month old is pretty tiny when you think about it. It think his tininess deterred questions, but every now and then, someone would ask about his eye and, again, I was not exactly encouraging of the questions, so it usually did not go well. My biggest issue was the way it was worded, "What is wrong with him?" Bobblehood instincts are at their height when the son of the Bobble in question is criticized, so I do not apologize for my possibly very rude reactions.

So, for a long while, I gave a short, clearly agitated response, or my husband told people stories about our pet parrot and the "accident." I was hurting and worried and pissed off and resentful and all kinds of things and just did not feel like I owed an explanation to Public.

But, the passing of time usually works in our favor, so here we are now. Since he is older and clearly normal based on his constant talking and activity, I think people are less intimidated by him and his much calmer Bobble. Public asks ALL of the time about his eye and it is so predictable. I was sort of chuckling to myself when the interaction happened with Old Man in the Elevator because I was mentally envisioning each step before it happened.

We have a Public Eye Question routine, which I find hilarious.

Question #1: This falls into 2 categories: Old Men & Women.

Old Men always ask in a very sympathetic way, "What happened to his Eye?"

Women always ask, "Does he have a lazy eye?" One person ever has asked if it was a cataract. That was the mom at CVS who gave up patching her toddler because it was too difficult. Shudder.

The Reaction: So, I answer with a brief explanation.

 "He was born with a pediatric cataract, so he has a transplant lens and we have to patch his good eye to strengthen his vision in the cataract eye."

Old Men always look very sad at this answer.

Women always share a story about how their nephew/cousin/neighbor/friend had a kid with a lazy eye who had to patch for 30 minutes for 6 months.


Question #2: ALWAYS..."How long does he have to wear it?"

Pause. I wish I had a camera to record the reaction when I say, "Until he is 7, so 4 more years."

Hilarious. I cannot explain the instinctive reaction this answer. It is pretty shocking to hear, when I think they were expecting 6 months or so. When I add, "We have been patching about 2 1/2 years so far, so 1/3 of the way there!" it just gets even better.


The Reaction:

Old Men always look very sad at this answer. Initially they are anyway, and then...and I love this part...I see a bit of admiration in their eyes as they watch this awesome kid in all of his 3 year old glory, just throwing things, attacking someone, destroying something.etc. Possibly I see the admiration because I am looking for it, I am not sure, but most of the old men (they are very predictable) will say something like, " It doesn't seem to stop him!" or " That will make him stronger." or something along those lines. I answer with, "Kids are resilient; he is awesome!" or some other canned phrase, give a big smile and haul my little terrorist off to our next stop.

Women always share a story about how their nephew/cousin/neighbor/friend had a kid with a lazy eye who had to patch for 30 minutes for 6 months. (WHY? Why ON EARTH would you tell me this? Clearly we are not only not in the same boat, we are not even in the same ocean...but, I nod in agreement and appreciate the attempt at a connection.)

Anyway, we have not reached the point where Anderson explains it himself to adults, but I know that is our next step. This conversation is such a routine part of our day and I know it will not be one day, so this is just another attempt at keeping up with every single aspect of our daily lives. :)

More pics of Reese!

 This is my precious second niece, Reese! I am just so in love with her, but at the same time I am sort of confused because it doesn't seem like she has always been with us. I am so used to my Lily Pad and, despite the months of preparations for this baby, it just seems odd that I have another niece. I have only seen her twice, which is part of my sadness. She does not even know her Sissa yet. But, don't worry, that will be corrected soon! Love her little outfit here!

 Max was pumped to hang out with Reese. Every time I held her he would go crazy kicking at her. So precious. BFFs from the start.

 Please, please tell me the immediate weight loss situation is genetic and will be repeated in May with me.

The precious big sister!

Nicole has been so calm...it is sort of weird. While we love our Lilster dearly, she was/is a bit on the intense/dramatic/loud/sort of difficult side, so I think Nicole is totally prepared for a normal baby. Reese cries and is up a lot and inconsolable and homesick and all of the normal things that newborns are, but in a much more not as shrieking way...

Hanging with the fam

Back off, Aunt Manda! I called dibs on Reese! 

Seriously, Lily is so IN LOVE with her Aunt Manda and I have totally accepted that I am second aunt in line. I mean, I prefer Amanda over myself, so I can't entirely blame Lily. 

 Because Mom & I just drove up to see them the day, I left Bug & Brandon at home where they had a pretty epic Boy's Day. They made a monster truck at Lowe's Build & Grow and apparently it is the "mutt" one, so it had ears. Odd, but fun.

They went to the park where Anderson played one of his favorite games, "I want to sell you something!" He loves to play this at stores, much to the enjoyment of the employees. 

As my due date gets closer (still 2 months away, though!),  I worry a bit that I am going to forget so much about our life now. Anderson and I are basically best friends. How is the new little person going to change that? We have such a routine and I just love hanging out with him. I am sure I will be just as excited when there are 2 little boys still in the their pjs in the cart at Publix, right? For now, I am just enjoying my awesome 3 year old Bug. 

The New Normal

*Very lengthy post for my own benefit. I want to remember where we are now.*

It has been 7 months since my (our) life was literally changed in a matter of a 6 minute phone call. While it might not seem like my job switch was that life altering because I am, in fact, still in education, the position and school change literally altered most aspects of our daily life.

 Then, less than a month into my new job, I found out I was pregnant.

Then, our house flooded and we were uprooted for about 6 weeks.

 I remember Emily telling me that I just had to figure out my "new normal". And now, I feel like we are there. Granted, in less than 3 months, we are going to have an even crazier "normal", but I want to remember what it was like when we were just 3.

5-6am: Anderson wakes up at some point during this hour. We just never know when it will be, but if one of us breathes too loudly or, God forbid, sneezes, he will be up even earlier. (No, he is not in our room and he does have a sound machine) It is fine that he wakes up early because we are up, too, getting ready for work, feeding the girls, letting the girls out, giving them even more water than they can possibly drink. (I am convinced that Chloe is diabetic) I usually try to fold a load of clothes, put up the dishes, finish making lunches, etc. in the morning, just depending on what time we get up. Our washing machine has a 9hour delay option, which is amazing. The clothes usually have to sit in there for a bit, bit they are washed when I get home, which makes drying and folding manageable in the evening.  Anderson is a GRUMPster most mornings. I foresee a really fun time awaiting us in his middle school years. He usually watches cartoons (Ninja Turtles, Team Umizoomi or dinosaurs on YouTube on the ipad)  and drinks milk/eats a pop tart/waffle/yogurt/something else.

6:45-7:10: We leave for school or Noni's. Ideally, we need to leave by 6:45, but as everyone who lives in the real world knows, ideally does not always happen. Getting Anderson in the car is a routine in itself. I have to open his car door and then he races the garage door. This is sort of like our own Groundhog experiment. If he wins, the next hour goes well. If the garage door gets up before he gets in, I am glad I am going to work. I drop Bug off at school (with  much clinging to me, fake tears, pleading, etc.) or at Noni's where he is pretty happy and playing when I leave. Even though he loves his Noni & Bop, there are some mornings where he is just in a foul mood and if they open the door before he knocks or look at him before he is ready...I am glad I get to go to work.

7:55:I get to work. Somehow, no matter what time we leave I cannot get to work prior to this time. It takes me about 40 minutes to get to work in the mornings.

8-?: I spend my day doing what seems very much like some form of running laps. I attend meetings, complete teacher observations, attempt to interpret various forms of data, deal with lots of parents, discipline/assist students, monitor many hallways and lunches, make phone calls, send emails...you know, work! My actual days look totally different than when I was teaching (I miss History), but the amount of energy required to spend a day as an educator in any aspect does not vary. It is CONSTANT when you are in charge of a high number of little (or big) people in any form. There are many days when I seriously have to remember if I made it to the restroom at all that day. This is maybe the one similarity between being my 2 positions. I do LOVE, LOVE some Education, though. I cannot imagine a job more perfectly made for me. I love how every day is different, how I get a front row seat to the future, how I get to realize that, despite society's view, teenagers are pretty awesome.

The time I leave varies every day. At least 2 times a week I have an athletic event, a parent meeting of some sort, a meeting, etc. and don't get home until sometime between 8pm-midnight. Some really rough weeks, we have as many as 4 things to attend in one week. But, every now and then, we only have one event per week and that is pretty nice. On a "good" day, I have picked Anderson up and we are home before 6pm. Some weeks those days seem rare, but other weeks, there are quite a few that I make it home "early".

Anderson's day is spent having all kinds of fun with Noni or GG or at school where he gets to play with other kids, go outside, do fun activities where they sneak in learning and, always, he wears an eyepatch. The best part of the days he goes to school is picking him up because he runs right to me and is SO excited to see me. I know this will stop one day, so I am loving it right now!

I am really lucky that my kid has such awesome ways to spend his days.

Speaking of lucky, some days my mom comes over and lets my dogs out or bring me food or run an errand for me...I know, I should embarrassed.

6-9: On the days that I work late, either Mom or Toni bring Anderson home (we only have one car). Brandon & Anderson have quite a few Daddy/Bug evenings where they play way more hard core and do more exciting things than when I am home.

Depending on how long he had it off that day/if he took a nap at school, Anderson gets to take his patch off sometime between 5-6pm. I will NEVER get tired of saying, "You can take it off now, Bug. Good job wearing it all day!"

Most days, we get home around 6pm and I start dinner or finish cooking it from the night before (one of my saving graces has been the fact that I am literally a FREAK of a planner and I try to make dinner the night before if it is something that will work with that), let the dogs out, feed the dogs, give Chloe gallons of water, unpack all of the lunch stuff from the day, play with Anderson, etc.

When we eat dinner, we always say our favorite part of the day. We started this awhile ago and it is precious to hear Anderson ask us our favorite parts. If we say something other than, "When I picked you up from school" or "When I got home and saw you", it does not go well. We are trying to work away from him only allowing us one answer, but it is a really fun way to have a conversation about the day.

Brandon usually gives Anderson a bath/shower while I clean up from dinner and make lunches for the next day. Brandon takes his lunch 4 days a week, Anderson takes his twice and I, of course, eat lots of food every day. Anderson's is usually some combination of cheese, grapes, watermelon, strawberries, applesauce, jello cups with fruit, peanut butter crackers, cheetos, peanut butter sandwich, goldfish, cereal bars, a cookie, etc. Pretty monotonous, actually.

We play dinosaurs/emergency/rescue/Ninja Turtles/trains/race cars/ etc. before bedtime. Then, we brush his teeth, read a few books, say our prayers, talk about the day, etc. and "go to bed".** Since I get home later, I am ok with him staying up late. I miss that little Bug.

Anderson's bed time varies depending on if he took a nap that day.** He DOES still need a nap in order to not be a total monster in the evening, but the price of a nap is a kid that is just not tired until some ungodly time of the evening. The no nap thing does not bother me as much now that he is 3 because I think it is more normal for a 3 year old to not nap than for one to nap, so I am in a much better place than I was when he was 20 months old and stopped napping.

We take turns laying on his floor at night until he falls asleep**. This can take anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour. You just never know, and this is a surprise that I do not enjoy. The only day that we are determined that he go to sleep by 9pm is Sunday because we enjoy a little Zombie craziness during The Walking Dead. On Sundays, we basically do not let him sit down and make up all kinds of crazy, energy consuming games in order to accomplish the 9pm bedtime feat.

Once he is in bed, I usually do some laundry, dishes, finish lunches, start dinner for next day, etc. Then, I read. I have to read at least a little bit to end the day. I don't care if it is midnight and I cannot see straight, I am going to read at least a few pages. I am basically no different than a crack addict when it comes to books.


11pm-5am: This part of the day is where the real fun usually begins!  I would say Anderson has not really slept all night since November 2011. I know, he has slept all night exactly 1 time in 2013. It was a Sat. in Feb. and it was beautiful. He wakes up anywhere from 1-5 times a night and either yells, "Bobble! Bobble!" from his room or just appears next to my bed. One of us gets him, walks him back to bed and proceeds to fall asleep on his floor until we wake up with every limb dead asleep and stumble back to bed to get ready to do it again.**

Gabbi always stalks me in the middle of the night, so she just appears wherever I go. I think she secretly loves the middle of the night wake up calls. She is my own personal guard dog from the monsters under the bed.

**SLEEPING: Go ahead, judge away. "I would NEVER sleep on my kid's floor!", etc.

I was there, too. Such a sweet world to be in, really.

I blame Anderson's non sleeping situation on 3 things: the toddler bed curse, the EYE and the fact that my kid does not seem to require sleep

We made Anderson cry it out the DAY he turned 12 weeks old and after the first few weeks, he was a rockstar at falling asleep on his own and sleeping through the night. He never slept much past 5:30, but he slept from the time he fell asleep until then, which was pretty great.

Enter....the EYE.  Because we did not find his cataract until he was almost 1, he was 13 months during his surgery. During those first post surgery weeks, we could not really let him cry, we had to do the hourly drops and we were traveling back and forth from Knoxville to Bham quite often. This is is when it began.

Then, we had to make up for lost time (the first 11 months of his life when we were not patching) by keeping a patch on ALL of his waking hours. Around this time he decided to start giving up naps. We were determined to make him keep napping and moved the pack & play to an upstairs closet, so we were not tempted to get him until after his nap. (sounds awful, but just more proof that we did not just give in!) We were blessed with a stubborn one, so he would cry for a good solid hour and never fall asleep. Ultimately, we did not have an hour to lose without a patch, so we had to rethink the plan. This is when naps started to phase out. Sadness. (If "this one" is still napping on his second birthday and does NOT need a patch when he wakes up, I will go ahead and pay the travel director who clearly booked me on a vacation!!)

Ok, flash forward to 20 months. He is off and on napping, but still goes to sleep on his own and sleeps through the night until 5:30 or so. Then, one night, he appears in the living room...after he is supposed to be asleep. I am not sure any parent ever forgets the shock/hilariousness of seeing their kid after they are supposed to be asleep and realizing their precious offspring figured out how to scale out of the crib. Like the amazing parents we are, we ignored this for as long as we could, until the possibility of broken bones became a little too real. Then we switched to a toddler bed.

It was too early; he was too young.

 He kept getting up, so we reversed the lock on his door. Did you hear me, anyone who was judging? WE REVERSED HIS LOCK! After a month of him screaming, banging on the door, calling, "Bobble, I scared, I need you! Bobble!" we were insane. This went on for hours. I am serious, I kept a calendar with times and I slept in my closet to try and ignore it.

We started going crazy, so we started sitting in his room until he fell asleep and walking him back to bed in the middle of the night.

And, the rest is history.

Our "bed" next to his. It really is ridiculous,but I am tired and this works better than crying it out at his age.  

We have tried everything: night lights, a sound machine, the door open, the door shut, walkie talkies so he can talk to us, bribing with a "sleeping" chart, etc. We are switching him to a full bed upstairs in a week or so when we get it, so we are going to try some new tactics then.

I am, sadly, pretty used to the non sleeping thing. It has been well over a year, so it is more routine than anything. I do worry a lot about what we are going to do with 2 kids waking up in the middle of the night because it does not seem like Anderson is going to outgrow this anytime soon. I love how people talk about "phases". The 2 hardest things we have had to deal with have been going on 2 years now (EYE and sleep issues) and I tend to think of a phase as something that lasts 6 months or so. I know he will outgrow the non sleeping thing and I will never regret if I did enough to show him how much I love him. Because, if sleeping on the floor next to his bed when I am gigantic pregnant is not enough, then I just don't know what is!

I love our perfect life and the routines that we have created. I know I am going to forget all of this once we become 4, so I am glad I am recording it in a very verbose manner:)

Under the Big Top! (& some other things)

Constantly on a mission to show us his Ninja skills. Seriously, how high is he jumping?

 Dino painting at Noni's. Just another day.

 My children are destined to spend an inordinate amount of time at high school athletic functions.The few things Anderson knows about my job are: It is very, very, very, very, very far away (he says dery), I have chocolate milk in my little fridge for him (from the cafeteria), there are football and basketball games & I work with Mr. Incredible (my boss looks a lot like him). Seems like a pretty sweet gig.

 Speaking of work, I had to work late at a parent night function and this was part of my dinner. It was delicious.

Hanging out with JPa!

 Valentine's Day dinosaurs from Aunt Manda!

 It was P day at school and all the kids wore Pajamas! He chose his Pirate ones, accented by a Patch, of course. He brought a Police car for Show & Tell and a much nicer than I am mom brought Pizza for the class! Also, check out the Dr. Seuss shout out in the background! The theme this month is Literacy, which is amazing. I fully believe that Literacy is one of those amazing things, like hope and faith, that keep the world going, so I am all about it getting it's own month.

 A Big Brother outing with Jack to Chuck E Cheese! Love their faces:) Anderson is always telling me, "Jack is my best friend. Nobody else can come to my house because he is my best friend." It is sweet and sort of selfish all at once. Classic 3 year old.

That moment when you realize that OCD tendencies are clearly genetic.

 Last weekend we went to the circus!! It was so much fun, despite Anderson's awkward expressions. He left with a new Circus sword that cost more than his actual ticket. Whatever.

 This boy and his Bobble. (I asked him what my full name is and he said, "Bobble Glover". Duh)

 We were SO close! This is not even on zoom!

* Also, there were people protesting the circus because they are cruel to animals and I was really confused. I saw the treats that they were secretly given to them whenever they did anything and all of the attention and love they were getting. They are not grazing on the Savannah or wherever elephants live, but it seemed like a pretty nice set up. Reminded me of my girls who, while they are not hunting in the wild, are still doing ok. I mean, I am pretty sure pillows and chicken broth in your dog food do not happen for wild canines. Point is, I think the circus animals are fine.

Because what screams "Circus" more than an overpriced snow cone in an elephant bowl?