The birthday celebrations

Anderson's birthday is really close to Christmas, so my mom guilt makes up for birthing him then by letting his birthday drag on for months each year. It is sort of exhausting and fun all at the same time. This post is from random celebrations over the month of January.

The birthday scavenger hunt! One of the perks of the "close to Christmas" thing is that I used stuff that wouldn't fit in the stocking for the scavenger hunt. You have to stretch the words out a bit on the poems to make them rhyme correctly, but they will fit...sort of.

*He LOVES the octopus & he totally corrected me that they don't actually live in the midnight zone. They live in the twilight zone, apparently. Whatever. I was mostly proud I rhymed the words.

**This has created a huge octopus obsession in our house. (possibly mine...) Did you know they can not only become the color of their surroundings, but also the texture? So they can literally become coral? And, they can open jars! I saw this on Wild Kratts & it blew my mind. YouTube it right now! Apparently, they are the smartest invertebrates. They can also fit their entire body through anything they can fit a tentacle through and have sharp beaks. They are ugly as all get out, but this stuff is pretty cool.

 And...I got a half snow day on Anderson's birthday!

I made a chocolate chip pancake in the shape of a weird looking A. He wanted nothing to do with it and preferred his normal mini frozen pancakes, but it was a sweet thought on my part. (Yes, kudos to me)

 In possibly one of the greatest twists on the month, Anderson chose Sam's Club as his dinner place of choice. Seriously, the little concession area that sells pizza is his favorite place to eat. We have got to get this kid out more. I do love that all the grandparents came, no questions asked! I would tell people, "We are going to Sam's" & their faces were so confused as they tried to place a restaurant with that name and then, even more confused when they realized what I was talking about. I thought it was awesome because what is better than combining a birthday dinner and trip to get garbage bags all in one?

 Cute little shirt from GG, Birthday book from Aunt Manda, presents from everyone...spoiled boy!

 SO lucky to have grandparents who live  close enough by to go to dinner at Sam's & come by for some cake.

 Love my parents.

 Brandon loves when he comes home from work & I say things like, "Can you decorate this cake to look like space?" And, he always does it without missing a beat. Shout out to Bobble Cole for ordering the planets, too.

He wanted a space cake with no words on it because it was supposed to be just like space. While they were decorating the cake, he was sharing all of his info about each planet...the number of moons Jupiter has, which planets are the hottest/coldest/biggest etc. Space just seems like a natural thing for all boys to be interested in, for some reason.

Oh, Max & I were there, too! (And, Bop in the background)

Aunt Donna & Uncle Jeff brought him a pogo stick! How great of a present is that??

 We did not have his actual party until the end of the month because I thought that, somehow, this would mean less stuff in my house. Alas, he is just as loved/spoiled by other people no matter when the party is.

The party theme was "Anderson" (Transformer cupcakes, Ninja Turtle goody bags, race car evite, lego  activity, shark pinata, dinosaur plates, sports napkins, pirate decorations)...I learned my lesson last year when I planned a FireTruck party & he decided he wanted a dinosaur one the day before, so this year he picked out everything. It was so much fun!

 I love Reese's face here. She is seriously the most precious, tiny thing and she totally will call me her mama. #gotmydaughter

 There is this great company called House Party that basically sends you free stuff if you agree to share it with people. I always apply for them and have "won" quite a few. One of the best ones was this Hot Wheels/Mega Blocks one where they sent me all these individual cars & this super elaborate stunt center thing FOR FREE!! Um, yes please, (There are no pictures of the stunt center because it is still not completed...way too complicated)

I think all of the adults were cussing me under their breath during this part of the party. Ha ha.

 Oh, someone.

 Already besties. This girl is 1 now! What on earth. And, she totally stood up by herself at his party so I think that is some kind of sign that our families are bonded for life.

 Of course Bop was there. Oh, there....my mom's house. Yes, I basically invited myself (and quite a few party goers) over to my mom's house for a party. I love my parents for their ability to be patient, let a 4 year old's party take over their house and add balloon aliens to the mix.

 How do my kids not realize that it is not real life that their grandfather is a balloon man? I will never tire of the randomness/amazingness of this.

 Of course GG & JPa were there, too!

 Max looks crazy, but how is this the only pic I got of my mom?

Me: Mom & I are going to make a lego pinata

Everyone I told: Ok

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THAT WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA??

In Mom's defense, I totally screwed it up, so I accept complete blame for why the recycling bin gained some new materials that day.

Bobble Cole & her tight relationship with Amazon saved the day with a shark one.

Brandon totally took one for the team & held it so Nicole could get a turn since Noah technically busted it.

*It was really cold that day, but I figured our kids could go outside to bust a pinata when a century ago they would have been outside in this weather milking cows or something.

Love.

I love everyone at this table! So grateful Lily can always come, the adorableness of Sunny cousin Jack is a staple, of course. And, Chery's kids add so much fun and cuteness to the mix!

One of the most important life lessons I have learned is to play to my strengths and I just really and truly do not like to bake/cook. So, the cupcakes at Sams are my staple for any function that requires a celebration. I feel that my goody bags/pinata filled with cheap Christmas clearance stuff and the totally free Hot Wheels stuff makes up for this. And, we clearly believe in supporting Sams in many ways around here. 

The goody bags. 

A random video Nicole recorded of the Hot Wheels fun

SInging Happy Birthday

I have asked Nicole to plan Max's party as his present. Playing to my strengths, again. Stat tuned.

Finally....tubes!

This guy has had 7 antibiotics in 3 months...some number of ear infections (we are not sure how many because it seemed like some of them were just the same, stubborn ones that refused to leave us) and a definite need for some tubes.

He was so good the morning of the surgery & since he is so young, he was first up that morning, which helped calm a Bobble's nerves.

Even though I knew it was going to be a relatively short "procedure", I still snuggled the heck out of him & clung to him when it was time to hand him over. (I also picked Hughes' brain about the anesthesia & called a friend of ours who is a nurse at Children's to make sure that she texted our people with a good word about this Mr.) Since he is under 12 months, he did not get the "happy juice", but he was pretty good about going with the nurse.

With the exception of being a little tired, he was great right after we got home!

*Perspective: we have to put drops in his ears twice a day for a week and make him sit for a total of 3.5 hours (15 minutes/2x a day....is that 3.5 hours? someone double check my math) The doctor was like, "Read a book with him, play with a favorite toy; he is not going to want to leave the cotton balls in and it is going to be a challenge."

I giggled.

3.5 hours!! Total. Hilarious. That is a day in the life of an iKid AFTER 3 years of patching. I think we can do that ;)


Everyone says that tubes are some kind of "miracle' and I cannot imagine him being any more perfect that he already is!

Remission!!

We heard a new word last week...REMISSION!!! There really are no words to express how elated/grateful/relieved/excited/overjoyed we are to be at this stage in the game with out J-Pa. We are, of course, not surprised at all because our J-Pa is a fighter, but it sure is nice to be here!

WAY TO GO, J-Pa! We love you!

Max: 8 months

 Got some 8 month sticker pics!

This was the best I could do until Brandon intervened and took the couch pics. 

Obsessed. Me with him. Just in general.

I refuse to let his biological mother have him when she arrives. 

FAVORITES: the bathtub, the faucets on the tub, the water in the tub, standing by the tub, climbing on the tub, anything to do with the tub.

This has worked out well since the last few weeks have been filled with many baths thanks to antibiotic overload and a stomach plague.

Another favorite is GG's lap, for sure.

He really is this cute in person.

People love his hair. It is so fuzzy and weird lengths and sticks up all over the place and is this perfect blond color. I love it, too. 

So much love between these brothers. 

Max at 8 months:

-loves crawling everywhere as fast as he can, loves the tub, loves climbing up the stairs, standing on everything and basically trying to be his brother. 

-loves me the most right now. I will take it. (Also very partial to Brandon, Noni & GG)

-is getting 4 teeth, has lots of hair, blue eyes, chubby legs and terrible ears (6 antibiotics..tubes are scheduled) 

-loves finger foods/baby food fruits/bottles from grandmas/drinking out of a straw (not a straw cup, just if we hold the straw & give him a little)

-not a huge fan of being strapped in anything (car seat, stroller, my arms in public, grocery carts, etc.)

-He has terrible ears. He has been on 7 antibiotics due to ear infections since he was 5 months old. No bueno. 

-Goes to bed about 7:30 (or later) and wakes up a few times and then up for good about 6. He does nap pretty well now and will even sleep for an hour at a time sometimes.*

*Having 2 kids has taught me the "Every kid is different" lesson because I actually believed in Crying it Out with Anderson & probably scoffed at people who had kids who didn't sleep through the night. I just assumed they didn't cry it out, not that they did & it didn't work. We made Max CIO on 2 different occasions for over 2 weeks at a time and he never learned to self soothe. Those pesky double ear infections got us every time. After the second time I found out he had 2 ear infections & that is why he wasn't sleeping, I gave up. I refuse to make my baby scream when his ear are hurting and once I accepted it, I have rather enjoyed my middle of the night snuggles. Lesson learned by me: don't judge anyone's parenting because you don't know their story. And, all kids are totally different. 

 Showing off those teeth!

 Sitting in the Publix cart. Max was pumped & thought he was a grown up. He also thought he could eat Anderson's Cheez-its, so that was an entertaining battle to watch.

Every time I go to Publix with them I use the self check out (I can better manage my coupons if I am doing it myself) and the lane assistant/cashier person is always a male. Every time I am watched in awe as I bounce a baby/try to contain him, try to prevent Anderson from destroying everything/licking anything and ring up all my stuff, while sorting coupons and bagging everything. Welcome to the world of being a female, it's busy here.

In true "My mom is Melissa Glover"  form, Max attended his first school event last week! For real, I am starting to realize God gave me boys because he knew if my kids were going to be raised at sporting events, at least they will be interested. He was SO good and crawled around my office & the bleachers, impressing everyone with his drooling skills. 

Hmmmm. I never took his 8 month sticker pic. I need to get on that. Expect that to be added to this post at some point. 

Good for me.

So, I have this job. And these blue eyed boys. And a perfect husband, a hoarding personality (I hoard words & memories too, hence the blog posts), 2 dogs that always need water, a house covered in dog hair, a refrigerator that never stays organized, too much recycling for our container, a Snoopy bandaid stuck on the bottom of the garbage can that I see every time I change the bag but ,yet, never remove and family members that want to eat dinner every, single night. It is exhausting. But, as it turns out, exactly where I am supposed to be.

I was going to title this post, "I struggle" because I do. I really do. I struggle multiple, really thousands of times, daily. When Gabbi wakes me up & I still have 2 minutes left to sleep, when the 7 minutes prior to getting out the door always takes at least 12 minutes, when the 8 month old has never slept through the night, when the person in front of me at Target is writing a check, when Max poops in his car seat, when my New Years' Resolution of taking at least 10 minutes to eat lunch crumbled in shambles my first day back to work, when I am trying to fit in quality time in with everyone, while also getting dinner ready, cleaning up, making lunches, folding clothes, washing dishes, bath, bed and story time and figuring out the latest Show & Tell* all in the same 2 hour stretch in the evening, when I have to work late (past 9pm) 3 nights in one week, when I try to cram every errand ever in on the weekend.

I know every mom who has ever lived feels my pain on all of the above, so thanks for being in the trench with me.

*I kind of hate Show & Tell. I mean, every Friday? Really?

But, probably the greatest thing I struggle with is the mom guilt. I read somewhere that "guilt is the most useless of emotions" and I was all inspired and going to use that for my mantra because it is so true and then I failed miserably at actually remembering it.

To be honest, I constantly question my decision to take my job. Usually these doubts enter in my mind on the long drive home at 10 pm on a Tuesday night when I've just left the basketball game I was covering and I think of everything I need to do when I get home before I can crash. Or, when I think how some professions have lunch hours (or 10 minutes) or how when I was teaching I was occasionally home by 6pm more than one night a month. I just miss my kids and Brandon and my house and my ability to set the 9 hour timer on my washing machine and not have mildewed clothes because I am gone way longer than 9 hours. (It is way cool that my washing machine has a timer. I realize this.)

This is not helped by the fact that the majority of people totally, blatantly, shamelessly,  without fail judge my decision. I cannot tell you how many people have made some kind of negative comment when I tell them what I do. The response is always, "Oh, I bet you miss your kids", "I could never do that;I love my kids too much",  "I was going to be an Administrator, but I decided I am really a mom first", "I can't believe you work that much, you know you can't get this time back", "I treasured my time with my kids when they were small. I never wanted to work too much", etc, etc, etc.

I can tell you how many people (besides my family, of course) that have made a positive comment to me.

One.

 Anderson & I ran to Ingles (I never go to Ingles, it is expensive, but it was close) to get orange icing the night before Thanksgiving to make turkey cookies and I ran into the mom of one of my old students. She told me about her daughter's wedding and job and all this business. I told her that I had a 6 month at home in addition to the 3 year old. She asked when I was going to return to work. I said, "I went back when he was 2 months. But, I am not at FHS, I am an Assistant Principal at Powell." Then, I waited for the negative comment and she cocked her head, looked at me and said, "Good for you."

What.

GOOD FOR ME.

Darn right, good for me. Because I do struggle (a lot. I struggle a lot), but I* am making it happen. I literally am at work at least 50 hours a week, not including my commute and yet, my kids still love me, my husband is still perfect, my dogs still need water and I still manage to half heartedly feed all of us everyday. I am grumpy and tired and forgetful, but I am loved and happy and so, so living in the perfect life. True story.

*We. We are making it happen. I fully admit without Brandon, my mom and Toni, I would be living in a car or a gutter somewhere.

Point is, my boys will be raised with the belief that women are equal to men (I am not a feminist, but still), that hard work pays off, that TV & sleep is overrated when there are projects to complete, that their grandmas love the heck out of them and that their dad is just as capable as their mom because he is in charge at least a few night a weeks. And that, if they are good, Bobble will take them to a sporting event where they get to eat popcorn & starburst and play with the little ice thing in the tiny fridge in my office.

Also, I truly think I would go crazy if I had the hardest job on earth-stay at home mom. You all are the real heroes.

Really, being a mom, no matter what the work/home, home/work, home/home, work/work situation looks like, is the hardest thing ever, so GOOD FOR ALL OF US!

Plus, there's FaceTime and if that is not basically the same thing as raising kids I just don't know what is.

Christmas Break

The fact that I live at school & spend way too many days working in the double digits of hours is sort of made up for when we get breaks. (Sort of...)

Noni got Bop & his buddy matching boots for Christmas  Anderson could not wait to get to work doing whatever it is that they do outside all the time.

Total savings for the year at CVS-$918   Percent savings for the trip-94%
Future Melissa, you are welcome that younger Melissa was frugal.

Real Life. Lots of errands. Not sure what Anderson is eating here..

A visit from our girls! (please ignore Max's 3 month pants-we were at the doc & that was all I had in his diaper bag)

This girl will put on a show.

*"Ok, I will do a dance recital for everyone," was said with an exhausted sigh, basically out of nowhere,  followed by a sparkle dress outfit change and demands for music.

We went to a Kids' Discovery Center for a New Year's celebration & it was really fun because they have a bunch of science exhibits that are very interactive and there was a celebration for New Year's Eve with a giant ball, streamers, noise makers and all kinds of celebratory things.

Anderson is really into space right now and was so excited about the space shuttle and telling anyone who would listen random facts about Mars.

ANDERSON LOOKS LIKE HARRY POTTER AND I JUST REALIZED IT!!! (he is holding a confetti popper or something. I can't remember the name of it, but it is clearly a synonym for a wand.)

Sunny came with us & she is just adorable & we love hanging out with her. 

Max & Reese took over most areas, as usual. 

 Then..the plague hit us. I was covered with more puke on the first day of 2014 than I was in all of 2013, I think. Clearly a sign of good luck. *This continued for a few days off & on.

Poor Max had the following over the same span of 5 days: a stomach plague, an ear infection, his 6th antibiotic in 2 months which means a destroyed stomach, 2 emerging teeth. And....he is still perfect.

*What kind of kid is this baby who literally pukes on me, keeps me up all night and covers everything with antibiotic poop/spit up and yet, literally makes me the happiest Bobble in the world? (If this is not a sign that he is going to get a letter about Hogwarts when he is 11, I don't know what is.)

 Noni games.

 We taught Lily about boy crafting...our volcano.

My boys in their matching vests from Noni. 

 BONUS: Thanks to the freezing temps (it was kind of fun to see 1 as the temp) and snow, we got a snow day to hang out together! We went sledding and drank hot chocolate and played and then ran to to the YMCA the second their child care opened in the afternoon because we were going crazy. (I.I was going crazy)

Anderson LOVES ice & I think it is because he can destroy it. He will go outside and just try to break the ice in the sand box all of the time. He loves it.

I definitely enjoyed my time off with these boys!