January 2012

January began with a bang!  We decided we were going to wean Joy off the bottle and move to a sippy cup for every meal.  This did not go over well at all.  At all.  Not even a little.  I would have told you that my Joy was strong willed, but she displayed a will of  steel during the month of January when she went 15 DAYS without drinking any milk willingly.  She would throw her sippy cups, refuse her sippy cups, and just glare at her sippy cups while making the sign for "bottle." If she ever did pick up the cup to take a tiny drink, we would smile, clap, or say "yay," and that would cause her to slam the cup down and not dare pick it up again. (Needless to say, there were lots of opportunities for discipline during these weeks...)  We had to give her milk through medicine droppers, and through very soggy cereal and oatmeal.  We had to give her ice chips and fruit to prevent dehydration.  We talked to her doctor regularly for advice....because we didn't want to do the wrong thing.  She assured us we were doing the right thing, but she told us she HAD to get enough milk...but to not under ANY circumstance give her back her bottle.  At her 15 month check-up, she had lost a little weight, but she was very healthy otherwise.  She told us to be diligent, and so we planned for more battles.  The next morning when I gave Joy her sippy cup of milk, assuming she would reject it fully, she picked it up and drank as if she had been doing that for weeks.  She never fussed about it again.  Praise the Lord!!

We did have lots of fun playing with our new Christmas toys during January too!  Daddy even got in on the fun as we built with our Mag-neat-os! 

Lizzie, Sara Kate, Keri and Hugh came over and we had a fun little lunch on my birthday! (Lizzie was home sick from school.)

The most exciting thing we did on my birthday was to appear on the Dr. Drew Show!  Leigh Anne Tuohy's assistant called us and asked if we would do Leigh Anne a huge favor and appear on the Dr. Drew Show to be interviewed along with Leigh Anne.  It was very exciting, and we were all quite nervous.  After make-up and hair touch-ups, we went into the studio to do the live interview.  It was so fun, and the kids did GREAT!!!  It was quite a birthday experience!

Jack and Joy love getting into any box they can....here they are in a double-box boat!!  :)

Scrapfast 2011 was so fun and complete with four babies!!!  We missed having Mela.  We went back to our Japanese restaurant for lunch and started a new tradition of making a late-night doughnut run to get hot Krispy Creams!  Mmmmmmm!  Even the babies tagged along!

Here we are....!  Mmmmm!

Joy hates taking a bath, but on this day, she was particularly cuddly afterwards.  We took advantage of the moment!

Love this sweet baby!

Even Daddy got to share in the love!

My sweet babies love to read books, and this one is a favorite!!

Sadly, at the end of January, we said goodbye to Grandpa Billy.  We spent several days in Kentucky for the funeral.

Spending time with Grandmother is always so special!!

Me and my sweet Memouse!  :)  I sure do love my Grandmother!