December & January

 Well, I sure don't get around to updating our blog much these days! So, once again here is a ridiculously long post containing the last 2 months of our lives.

From December 22nd through January 2nd, we went to Myrtle Beach to spend the holidays with Jason's family. It was a long, relaxing and much needed (at least for Jason) vacation. Jason and I had the opportunity to go on a few dates, which was also much needed! We went to Charleston one day for a horse drawn carriage tour of the city, followed by a walk through the town to look at shops and dinner at a delicious seafood restaurant called Hyman's. A lot of famous people eat there and they post the names of those people on the table they sat at, Patty Labelle sat at our table.

 Also, we went to see a couple of movies. Having kids is the best, but going to see movies is something we really miss doing now that we have kids. So we try to take advantage of free babysitting when it's available in order for us to get our movie fix. We saw Mission Impossible 4 and Sherlock Holmes, they were both awesome, I am just so amazed by how clever the Sherlock Holmes movies are, I loved the first one but the second one was even better! Anyway, Jason's parents loved spending time with their grandkids, too. The week was great and it was depressing to come back to reality, as always! Here are some pictures from our trip: 

Christmas Eve: 

We took the kids to take a picture with Santa

I bought this dress specifically for the occasion... oh the money we waste! I'm obsessed with her cry face, it's so cute! Not so obsessed with her cry, however...

Eli "helping" with dinner.

Our Nativity reenactment:

I was Mary.

The shepherds.

And the angel.

Kyah-Lynn was Baby Jesus.

Reading Christmas stories.

The fam.

 

                   Uncle Cory and the Christmas tree        Eli in his "bedroom"/ Grandma and Grandpa's dark
                                                                                  closet which caused him to sleep WAY longer than
                                                                          he normally does.

Christmas morning! This was actually after church, we just felt the need to put Eli back in his jammies.

Well, we all felt the need to get back in our jammies.

Eli loves cars!

Eli was the present distributor, surprisingly, he wasn't very excited about unwrapping things. 

He threw the moose out of the little decorative chair so he could sit down!

We got him a real chair for him to sit in instead, and his favorite present: a Thomas the Train electric toothbrush!

First pair of Nike's... sadly, one of these shoes was lost at Costco only a week later.

Uncle Cory got Eli a toy guitar.

Kyah-Lynn wasn't too excited about her first Christmas.

Making Christmas breakfast. Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year we had church, then presents and didn't actually get around to "breakfast" until about 2 in the afternoon.

Oh hey!

Nap time.

Our day at the park:

It was cold out! 

Grandpa tried to show Eli how to feed the ducks bread... but Eli was more interested in eating the bread himself.

Other random pictures from the trip:

Can we ever take enough pictures of a sleeping baby?

Monkey in the middle.

There was a train ride at the mall that Jason took Eli on.

He was a little nervous at first.

Grandpa got in front of the camera by accident and I think this picture is funny.

In order to take pictures, I had to run after the train while it was driving around the mall... so they're a little blurry.

After taking Eli to ride the train, we went to get all-you-can-eat wings at Buffalo Wild Wings. In case you didn't know, this is offered every day between 11 and 2, for $9.99. We were pretty excited about it... and the 4 of us ate 80 wings! I know, disgusting. We felt disgusting too! For the record, the boys did not compensate for me, I ate 20 wings too! Again, I know. Disgusting.

Eli likes to dip. He ate a lot of ranch dressing.

He just kept shoveling that ranch dressing in... he never actually took a bite of the celery, or anything for that matter!

3 generations of Glovers! And gorging ourselves on some poppyseed bread. I think we ate 5 loaves in a week.

                                                                     Ewwwww... 

                              Buddha baby.                     I'm sorry, but he is so ridiculously adorable!

Playing games. Something we did not do nearly enough of on this trip!

Kyah loves her Uncle Cory.

I know, I know, I go a little over board with the sleeping pictures.

When Jason and I went to Charleston, I forgot to take pictures! However, Grandma and Grandpa babysat Eli and here are the pictures from their fun day together:

No trip to Myrtle Beach is complete without heavy brainwashing attempts at making Eli a die hard Boilermaker.

New Year's Eve:
New Year's Eve is a big deal for Jason's family, they usually have friends over, make tons of food and play games all night. This year, however, we were pretty lame. We were all really tired and ate some food, played a few games but retired to the couch pretty early to watch tv. 

All week I wanted to give Eli a haircut so he would be handsome for family pictures after Kyah's blessing, why I felt the need to procrastinate doing it until the night of New Years Eve? I don't know.

                                                                      Folding his arms for prayer. He didn't get to stay up late
                                                               with the rest of us.

Family "squeeze." We always call hugs "squeeze" and now Eli doesn't know what a hug is.

Suctioning out the boogies. The down side of winter, my kids have been sick the entire season! Suggestion: Don't plan to have a baby right at the beginning of flu season.

Anxiously awaiting the New Year... so I can go to bed already! Just not a night person.

Everyone's last picture of 2011:

Look alive Tiff!

And... Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve is Jason and my first date anniversary (this was 3 years), but we have never actually been together for a New Year's kiss, this was our first! I wish I was more awake at the time because I was really excited about it!

   

Kyah got to be Cory's New Year's kiss. Awwww.

On New Year's Day we blessed Kyah-Lynn in church.

       

Eli got this cute back pack for Christmas. It has a bunch of church-appropriate activities to occupy him during Sacrament. The only problem is, if we let go of his hand while he's wearing it, he'll topple over! Such a little guy.

Isn't Eli's tie so cute? It was a Christmas gift from his Grandma, many people have asked so I will just mention that she ordered it on Etsy.

The "circle." Jason and his Dad, Cory held the microphone.

Such a pretty little lady.

And finally, on our last night in Myrtle Beach, Eli had his first trip to the ER. He woke up in the middle of the night crying and tugging on his ears, he hadn't ever had an ear infection before but we figured that must be what was wrong. We took him in and sure enough, it was an ear infection. He was so upset! I have never seen him like that before, all he wanted was to be held by me while he cried. I'm a horrible person to admit this, but I kind of enjoyed it! I hate to see him suffer, but he's just growing up so fast and becoming so independent that I can't help but cherish the rare instances when he lets me hold and baby him. To me, he still is a baby!

Look at that sad little face!

We got home from the ER just in time to get a few hours of sleep before we headed back to Birmingham the next morning. Fortunately, the drive was pretty nice, Kyah, by some strange miracle, slept for 6 hours! We just kept driving until she woke up. By the time we made our first stop, we only had a couple hours to go! Usually when we take road trips we have to stop about every 2 hours, at least! Anyway, it was kind of sad to come home and take down our Christmas decorations, Jason had to be back at work the next day and school the following week. We definitely had the post-holiday blues. Such is life.

Other random pictures from the past couple of months: 

                                                                           Like mother, like son. We sure do eat a lot of Blue Bell

                                                                  around here!

The blue tub makes her eyes pop.

Eli tries to pick Kyah up a lot, I have to be really careful to keep her out of his reach all the time. 

Jason and I think they look identical. Nobody really agrees with us.

We got Kyah a bumbo and it's now Eli's favorite toy. In fact, just a tip to those of you having a difficult time entertaining your toddler, give them all their old infant toys!
Case and point:

Then

Now

 

Then                                                             Now

Then

Now  

 

Then

Now

Told ya!       

Eli had his 18 month appointment. He's 18 pounds, 4 ounces and 30 inches long. He gained a whopping ounce since his last appointment. He is such a cute little guy. He still wears 6-9-month clothes, and walks and talks but looks like he's way too little to be doing either. I love it! However, I'm really anxious to turn his car seat forward facing since we are always taking road trips, so I'm desperately trying to pack on 2 more pounds! Aside from his tiny size, he sure is developing quickly. It's amazing how much kids this age absorb. Each and every day I am impressed by things he knows and does. His vocabulary is really developing, he can repeat a lot of 1-2 syllable words and is starting to put 2 words together to form little sentences. He is obsessed with cars and being outside or anywhere away from home. As soon as he wakes up he runs to the door and says "keys." When I tell him we have to eat breakfast first he cries. My days are a lot easier if I just succumb to his need to be outside and get out of the house as soon as possible each morning. We go to the park or, if it's raining (which it does a lot here), the museum that I have a membership to, run errands, go on play dates, etc. Jason got me the most amazing Christmas present which is a gym membership that includes 2 hours of babysitting each day. By the end of the day when I just don't know how else to entertain this little boy, I go work out and let him burn off some energy at the gym nursery. It's a gigantic play area with slides and toys, the ladies that work there are awesome and take good care of him too, I don't know how I ever lived without it! But still, he cries every time we come home! It drives me crazy because with a young baby, I sure wouldn't mind doing a bit more relaxing... preferably at home! I just keep telling myself it's better he wants to be on the go rather than sit at home and be lazy. Childhood obesity is certainly not a threat to this one!                                      

 

Isn't she so cute?

 Ridiculously gigantic and adorable headbands Jason's mom got Kyah. There are 12 different colored headbands and flowers that can all be mixed and matched. I'm obsessed with them, picking out her headband/flower combination is pretty much the highlight of my day. Unfortunately, she hates them and they fall off constantly. But I'm persistent!

Aa for Kyah-Lynn, she had her 2-month appointment (She's now 3 1/2 months). She was 9 pounds, 3 ounces and 21 inches long. She's in the 15th percentile. We're pretty proud that one of our children made it out of the below 0-3 percentile. Still waiting on Eli... she might outgrow him! Anyway, this little girl is amazing! To say I'm a bit obsessed with her would be an understatement. She finally grew out of the newborn stage about month ago. She has become a lot more alert and is SO happy! She sits quietly and either sucks on her hands or coos to herself but every time we even look at her she lights up. She seems perfectly content if I'm busy with Eli or something and not paying much attention to her, yet when I do pay attention to her she's the happiest girl in the world. I could spend hours just talking to her and watching her grin! She's starting to giggle too, which absolutely melts my heart! Basically, she is perfect in every way.

Things are going great now, however, it has definitely been a long few months! Both of my kids had colic but Kyah was on another level than Eli. She screamed her head off, unconsolably, every single night from AT LEAST 8 pm to 2 am. Often times longer. This went on for 10 weeks! Jason and I didn't sleep in the same room because the only way for either of us to get any sleep was to take shifts with her while she cried. It would take almost an hour to settle her tummy down after each feeding. She would projectile vomit after almost every feeding, too. It was so sad. I asked the doctor what to do and he said as long as she's gaining weight he wasn't worried. Thanks a lot for the help! It was very hard to know that she was crying so much because she was in pain, plus it was kind of taking a toll on our sanity! We tried everything to help her. I stopped eating dairy, which helped a little but not much, I cut out caffeine, too. We tried colic pills, anything to make her stop crying! Nothing worked, we just had to wait for her system to mature. In addition, she couldn't sleep flat on her back because it aggravated her reflux, so we're now having a hard time transitioning her from her infant cradle (which she's beginning to outgrow) to her crib. And lastly, she refused to nurse so I've basically been hooked up to a pump every 4 hours... going on 4 months now!!! It's awesome! Not really.

Oh and on that same note, can I just say that being a stay at home mom, pumping and bottle feeding my baby pretty much defines inefficiency! It's frequently been the case where I'm sitting there pumping a bottle for 30 minutes while Kyah-Lynn is lying next to me screaming her head off because she's hungry! Unfortunately, she screams even louder when I try to nurse her! Time consuming and annoying, not to mention storing the milk, pump and bottle sterilizing, bottle warming, etc. It made our 2 road trips since having her joyful as well!

Anyway, thankfully, we are through the colic! She has occasional tummy troubles but usually she just needs a good burp and is fine. With a lot of persistence and patience, she is finally beginning to nurse a bit too! She is also sleeping 12-15 hours each night, 5-7 hours without a feeding... we're getting there! Life is better and now that I have the most wonderful little girl I ever could have asked for, I can honestly say, she was certainly worth the hardship! We are absolutely in love with her and watching her develop each and every day is a lot of fun!

And some more pictures:

 Eli likes to take Kyah-Lynn's binky... she gets very upset.

 Much better!

He likes holding the banana more than he likes eating it.

Good thing my child-proof locks work so well...

Making trouble sure can be tiring... better sit down and take a break.

Eli's Aunt Erin and Uncle Ryan gave him a paint set for Christmas.

One morning I was making breakfast, obviously not paying as much attention to Eli as I should have been, when I looked over to find him watching tv like this.

He got stuck and cried for me to come help him get down.

One morning I lost Eli... I looked everywhere, called his name but could not find him. The door was locked so I knew he hadn't left the apartment... and then I found him in the corner, lying in the swing with his blanket covering him. When I finally saw him he had the biggest grin, he had intentionally been hiding from me! I was more impressed than upset.

 Eli taught himself how to put on his shoes! I felt so proud. And you may be thinking, why doesn't he have pants on in any of these pictures? Well, because he runs away from me when I try to put his pants on, so I only put them on right before we leave home.

I want that big thing on her head!

 Eli got his very own pillow. It was kind of a big deal.

As for Jason and me, we're getting used to never seeing each other. He leaves around 4 or 5 in the morning for either school or work, depending on the day, and returns home anywhere from 9-11 pm. When he's not at work or school, he has never ending meetings for group projects, studying and papers to write. He was recently called as Young Men's President as well. Which occupies any "spare" time to come by. Basically, I feel bad for him. Hopefully at the end of this program, he'll be blessed for his hard work and land a job that he really enjoys. I on the other hand have 2 fun kids to hang out with all day! Not much to complain about there. I desperately miss my husband and Eli misses his "Dada" but it sure does make us treasure the little time we do spend with him. Besides, knowing that this is all temporary and will hopefully provide a better future for our family, makes it a lot easier!

That's all for now!