TJ's Sixth Month

TJ is six months old today, and he is getting so big. I hear it at least 10 times a day. It used to be- "he is so cute". Now it's- "he is so big". And it used to be- "he looks so much like his dad". And now it's- "he looks just like you". In the coming weeks I am going to bust out some copy-that-1980's-pose and let you decide who TJ really looks like. But for now please enjoy what seems like 100 pictures of TJ- it has been a very busy month and we have taken lots and lots of pictures.

Some of TJ's favorite things to do this month:

Play in his new bathtub, with or without water. It's a huge inflatable duck. Too bad it takes up our entire house. I think we are going to take this to my mom's house and use it as a pool toy next summer.

Play with Daddy.

Eat.
Play outdoors and jump in the Johnny Jumper. As you can imagine, doing both at the same time makes TJ's day.

Play with basketballs.

On Veteran's Day we took a walk to the park to shoot some hoops. More like, shoot some pictures of Trent, TJ and the basketball hoops. While we were there we got to see helicopters, jet fly overs, and skydivers as part of a big Veteran's Day celebration.

Our friends, Jeff and Stacey, gave TJ this adorable little outfit which we adore. It screams Trent Junior.

TJ, my mom, and I took a trip up to Helen, Georgia to see Meme and Lee at their Lorely timeshare. Growing up, this was my favorite place in the whole world.
But really who can deny the beauty of a Georgia Fall. This picture overlooks the timeshare where we stayed and the river that we used to go tubing down.
Posing in front of the vibrant red bush.

My mom and I weren't the only ones intrigued with the fall leaves.

And on our way back home we stopped by to see Jeff and Stacey's precious new baby, Berkeley. She is too cute for words. I adored the baby while Stacey and Cheyenne taught TJ how to play catch with the plush basketball. Biggest giggle fit ever.

I love Thanksgiving. There are so many good memories associated with the holiday, mostly because of the fun traditions established by the Barber/Meyer/Webb/Lunt clan probably before I was even born. The turkey bowl, the amazing food, the bonfire, and the pies. Oh my.

TJ and I spectated this year.

The smaller than usual, but equally as fun, crowd.

TJ didn't lack any attention. Cousins Rylee and Warner were literally fighting over who could play with him.
Stop me now, because I could go on forever. Just know that my favorite part of Thanksgiving this year was Black Friday shopping at Goodwill with my mom. We spent 26 bucks and walked out with these little vacuums which were a big hit among the young and old, a microwave (since ours broke a couple weeks ago), a brand new looking frog humidifier (TJ has been needing one, but 40 bucks, seriously?$2.75 on the other hand...), a football shaped crock pot, a Christmas tin which TJ loves, two brand new pink princess phones for my nieces for Christmas, a shaved ice maker, haha, didn't I tell you I could go on forever?
On Saturday my mom babysat, so that Trent and I could go to the FSU/UF football game.
Watching the Noles FINALLY steam roll the Gators was almost as good as shopping at Goodwill on Black Friday.

And since I was a deprived child who didn't get to go to Disney until I had practically out grown it, we decided to take TJ when he wasn't even 1/2 of a year old. Actually we had two Disney tickets from the Give-a-day, Get-a-day promo that were about to expire so we took a quick one day trip down to see the lights, ride a ride, and snap a few photos.
In front of the Magic Kingdom? Or is it Cinderella's castle? Mickey's castle? Give me a break this was only my second trip, ever, to Disney World. I wasn't exactly sure what the building was called, I just knew we needed a picture in front of it.

The Mad Tea Cup ride. So much fun. But TJ couldn't decide what was more fun, the 30 minute wait or the 10 second ride.
Definitely the thirty minute wait.
Okay so I googled it- this is the Magic Kingdom, and that building was Cinderella's Castle. TJ is on track to be much more Disney-educated than I.

Sometimes I wonder what my baby boy is going to grow up to be. He is showing so many interests, and I am just sitting on the sidelines trying to capture them all. Here are just a few potential career paths that his future holds:

Basketball player. I think he could watch Trent dribble all day and just laugh his head off. He definitely has a love for all things basketball. Plush ones, hard ones, ones that bounce and ones that roll. Big or small he likes them all.

Professional driver. Bus driver, NASCAR driver, taxi driver, you name it- the options are endless. All I know is when I gave this little boy a piece of the wheel he would NOT let go.

Rapper. I am so embarrassed to admit this, but it's becoming less of a secret that TJ loves his rap music. If he gets fussy in the car, I flip the radio to Magic 101.3 (Blazin Hip-Hop and R&B), and bada bing, bada boom- no more fussiness. They weren't kidding about the Magic part. And just for the record, his first favorite is Jay-Z's Forever Young.

Model. Maybe for the hat department. Or the Big and Tall department. Or maybe just the big department. He's all, "wait a sec, let me pop my collar."
Swimmer. No joke this is one of his top 10 favorite toys. Oh wait, he only has 10 toys. But in all seriousness, Trent's goggles keep him occupied for a loooong time. And he doesn't even mind when we put them on his head.
Plumber. I don't know where the stray Size 1 diaper came from, but when I put it on him I immediately knew I needed to grab the camera. This could be his future, ya'll.

Too much fun, the end.

Hallelujah

I have heard of moms texting their friends, announcing on blogs, facebook, etc. etc. that their baby slept through the night. But of course I wasn't going to be one of those moms. HA. Until TJ slept 8 hours STRAIGHT in his crib last night. 8 HOURS STRAIGHT. It only took 5 and half months, but hey, I am just happy for last night. I never thought that would ever happen. And it might not ever happen again. But it did last night. Now off to the roof top, so that I can shout the good news...

TJ's Fifth Month

Another month has come and gone, and TJ is growing faster than ever. Anything he can get his hands on goes straight to the mouth, and anything I try to feed him he gobbles right down. This month he tried oatmeal baby cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, applesauce, and soy formula, all for the first time. Loved each and every one.


TJ attended his first tailgate this month- the LSU vs. UF game. Mmmmm.... low country shrimp boil. I have no clue where TJ gets his love for food. After the tail gate Kim and Stace watched TJ so that Trent and I could go to the game. Craig and Cassie drove all the way from Texas to watch the game, and it was so good to see them there. Our friends, Truman and Sarah were also in town for the weekend and spent two nights with us. One of those nights we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries at 2 am. Needless to say it was a busy weekend and I didn't get much sleep...

So I called my mom and she dropped everything and came down to let me sleep while she woke up to fed TJ his midnight snacks. We can call this Mom-to-the-rescue-Monday, part I.

I have no clue why TJ thinks he needs a burger milk, at 2 in the morning.

My mom eventually had to go home, and my over-tiredness turned into some sort of flu. Body aches, headaches, sore throat, a low grade fever, but mostly just body aches. Looking back I am wondering if my body was just aching from carrying around this little chunk every day.

I don't think I have a picture of Mom-to-the-rescue-Monday, part II, but it happened, I was probably too sick to take a picture. She took me home with her that week because she thought I needed to get out of the house. And what better way to spend a day out of the house than to go shopping in Thomasville, Georgia? Since TJ weighs a ton I was sick with the flu, my mom strapped TJ to her with the baby bjorn and a-shopping we went. She bought him this cute little plush gator which will one day be that toy that he carries around with him everywhere. I will make sure of that.

Twins. Except Trent's face is long and narrow, and Trent Junior's is not.

Oh wow, she's back. But this time she brought an adorable side kick who also likes cute plush gators. See, TJ is just going to love that thing when he gets older, I already know it.

At the Rosen Shingle Creek.

We went down to Orlando with the intention of taking TJ to Disney World for the first time. But we fell in love with the secret Travelocity hotel that we booked and decided to take advantage of the amenities. After resting by the pool, walking along the golf course on the "nature trail" and looking for gators from the fishing dock we decided to make our way to Disney. But on the way we had to stop by the outlets to buy TJ a mickey shirt. We found a mickey shirt but while we were there we had to go into this store, and that store... Thirty stores later we were exhausted and headed home.

He preferred to ride around like so.

To finish off the month we went to the Micanopy corn maze with Kim, Stace, and Julian, the twin dino. The corn maze was a blast. Trent took off with TJ, who was asleep in the stroller, while the rest of us tried to keep up. For a minute I was worried we wouldn't be able to find them, but of course we did, and one turn later we found a secret exit and proceeded to take pictures of our matching dinos, which are featured in my previous post.

And since Kim was behind the camera in all the other pictures, here she is!

Happy Halloween

TJ's fourth month

Of course this month wasn't any different than last. I was too "busy" to post all the happenings of our growing boy as they came... so here goes the new tradition of dumping a full months worth of pictures into one post. This one we will call "TJ's fourth month". It began with TJ rolling over just one day after my previous post. He proceeded to roll over several other times but he hasn't done it much lately. I guess all those rolls were just accidental.

The boy loves to drool. He should always always wear a bib because he is always drooling. The doctor says he might be teething?
He also likes to suck his thumb. Usually his little pointer finger rests on his nose to make room for the thumb to go in further. He has been trying to suck his thumb ever since the day he was born but I have fought it off with the pacifier. Now he wakes up several times during the night when his pacifier falls out so as of today I declare TJ the winner- you can have your thumb, bud. I'm sure in about 5 years I will be fighting the no-thumb-sucking battle again but right now we both need sleep :)
TJ got his first hair cut this month.
All we did was trim off his little 1980's rat tail.
He out grew the infant insert in his car seat.
And started practicing sitting in his high chair, and did pretty good, although sometimes he would fall to the side.
Yesterday he had me laughing. I set him up in the corner of his crib and went into the other room to get ready for the day.
When I came back he was fast asleep while sitting straight up. He must be like his mom and especially my dad- we are both pretty good at falling asleep while sitting up.

Lastly, here are his stats from his 4 month checkup today:

Head: 17 (72 %) not sure where he got his big head from

Height: 25.25 (62 %)

Weight: 15.15 (69 %)

TJ's third month

I wasn't planning on doing another massive month-in-review type of post, but it looks like another month has come and gone and it's time to get this blog updated...

TJ tagged along for my 24th birthday celebration at Yamatos Japanese Steakhouse. Thank you, TJ, for sleeping through the whole thing.

TJ took his first trip out of state when we visited Jeff and Stacey in Georgia. Jeff is a coach for Elbert County High school and, despite a few car troubles on the way up, we were able to make it to his season opener. It was so neat to see Jeff coaching from the sidelines with the headset and wrist band, so professional.

The rest of our stay was spent indoors due to rain, but of course that is still fun when you are with fun people like this. We love, love, love hanging out with the Bennums.

While in Athens we visited with Meme and Lee and went out for a bite to eat. For some reason the group picture turned out blurry, which really is a shame. In the other picture TJ is rubbing his eyes- something he does now when he gets tired.

After Georgia we headed down to Tallahassee to hang out with my family. TJ wasn't a fan of my parent's pool but he did love the portable swing we set up right beside it.

My parents couldn't get enough of us while we were there so they came down to Gainesville that following weekend. My mom had TJ rolling with his new found love for laughing.

TJ has taken a few trips to the pool across the street at our old apartment complex. We love spending the afternoon with our old neighbors, Mikeal and Bronson. However, it's hit or miss whether TJ will enjoy the pool. He has to be full and the water has to be warm.

TJ got to spend a couple of mornings with Mr. Julian last week. Pretty much every day since the day TJ was born I have thought to myself, "how do people have more than one?" and hence I was a bit worried about watching the two babies by myself. Thanks to TJ sleeping most of the time, Julian being a really good baby, and lots of unexpected help from Trent and Mikeal, I didn't have to figure out the two baby thing quite yet.

Last Saturday TJ went to his first UF football game. He did so good. Here he is on the way to the game, along with some random filler picture.

And here we are at the game. He slept most of the first and last quarters and didn't seem bothered at all by the noise. What a trooper.

Lastly, some pictures from tummy time. He is much happier when on his back, but I read somewhere that he is supposed to be propping himself up on his elbows and rolling over by now, if not very soon. Needless to say we have been doing lots of tummy time the last few days and TJ is making some progress. He can prop himself up on his elbows and even scoots forward but his arms aren't as strong so he just drags them behind. Still working on the roll over thing.