TJ's Eighteenth Month

TJ turned 1.5 years old yesterday. He is growing up, that is for sure. This month he started trying to talk more than ever. He tries to repeat words when you ask him, but the first syllable is usually all you will get. Bless his heart, surely one day he will be more articulate. This month TJ went from being a big flirt (like he has been ever since he learned how to smile) to being a little turd- giving strangers a slight scowl before eventually, sometimes, warming up to them. I used to be embarrassed with how much attention he would draw in public by waving, smiling, and being friendly with strangers, but this new phase is far more awkward. I feel like I have to constantly explain that he does this to everyone (so that they won't take it personal). Thankfully he is still as sweet as ever to his parents and most people he is familiar with, always giving kisses and hugs and making us all feel special with his excitement to see us. Hopefully his unfriendly behavior towards strangers is just a (quickly) passing phase.

We were able to spend a couple weekends with my Dad in Tallahassee (my mom was out of town). While we were there we spent time with my brother, Alex, and his family. TJ loved drawing and getting taken care of by cousin Rylee.

For Thanksgiving this year we were able to take a week long trip out west. We first flew to Arizona and spent one day with my mom and sister. We then flew to Utah and spent six days with Trent's family before DRIVING Trent's mom's car back to Florida (which took three days).

During our layover in Miami we had the super fun surprise of running into one of my best friends from freshmen year at BYU, Brenda, and her husband and adorable little twin girls, Isabella and Ava.

Since we both had long layovers, we were able to sit down and eat lunch together while catching up on each other's lives. TJ was pretty excited about these adorable little girls. I'm hoping he might run into one of them in about 20 years.

Our long layover in Miami turned into an even longer layover, which cut into our already short time in Arizona, but it was still so nice to see my mom, sister, niece, and nephew. We tried to get a picture of TJ and Mason with their matching shirts, but this was the best we could do.

TJ always has a blast with Kalil, she is such a fun girl!

When we arrived to Utah, Trent's sister, Sabrina, was there with her children. These three-Adie, Chase, and TJ- played so well together. It was so much fun to watch them run around and be sweet to each other.

Trent didn't tell his dad, Gene, we were coming to Utah, so Trent brainstormed, and planned, and texted ideas with his sister beforehand, and they finally came up with a fun way to surprise their dad. It involved something along the lines of Adie bringing TJ to his door. But TJ fell asleep on the car ride over to Gene's house, so we had to come up with a last minute change of plan. Sabrina took her kids inside and told Gene there was a surprise in the car. When Gene went out to the car he saw sleeping TJ. Trent and I were hiding in some nearby bushes. It was great. Gene didn't know who the sleeping child was at first, and was confused, but once he figured it out Trent ran over and gave him a hug. I think it turned out to be a great surprise.

TJ has a new passion for trucks, trains, and buses. When he sees one while we are driving (which seems to be every two point five seconds) he gets all excited and points and repeats, "Truck! Truck!" or "Bus! Bus!" both with that familiar quiver of excitement as when saying "Ball!" Trent's step dad, Wes, drives a school bus for Salt Lake City School District so we took TJ and Chase, who also loves buses, down to the bus yard to see Wes and all the big school buses.

TJ even got to sit in the drivers seat, and Chase got to pull the horn. What a treat.

Trent's dad wanted to take the grand kids on a train ride, but due to illnesses we had to reschedule and scale back from the Frontrunner to the Trax. We met Gene downtown, hoped on the Trax, then walked a few blocks to the library. Adie wasn't feeling well so I pushed her in the stroller and TJ rode on her lap. The trip to the library was a fun adventure.

Trent's mom took her grandchildren to Wheeler Farm. TJ is still really into animals, so he had a blast.

All the cousins: Austin, Cameron, Adie, Camie, Chase, Kaitlyn, and TJ. Missing James, Braden, Bryson, and Parker.

Family photo on the farm.

Judy took all the grand kids to the city pool. I accidentally forgot my swimsuit, which was probably a good mistake to make when you are seven months preggo.

I also forgot TJ's but Debbie was kind enough to pick one up for him at the DI. After the pool we spent time with my cousins, Sally and Tice. As usual, it was a great time chatting with them, although I didn't take any pictures.

We were able to spend a little bit of time with Trent's friends on Thanksgiving morning. It was so good to see John and Emilee again, and I was able to meet Jeremy and his family for the first time.

We had a big Thanksgiving feast in Morgan at Trent's Aunt Kate's house. There was lots of good food and fun company.

TJ hit it off really well with all of Trent's mom's family. He instantly loved his Great Grandma Heiner.

When we got home we quickly switched gears to Christmas, first by going to see all the lights and blown up lawn ornaments placed around the pond at North Florida Regional Hospital. TJ's excitement for everything Christmas this year is making it even more fun for Trent and I.

We also put up our own tree(s) and Christmas decor.

TJ loved the Christmas balls and carefully helped hang them on the tree.

The most anticipated change for TJ's eighteenth month was him moving up to nursery at church. We have been looking forward and counting down to this momentous occasion ever since TJ started walking. Six months of anticipation, folks. As such, we expected it to be a big deal, you know, where the nursery workers welcomed him in with open arms and he cries because he doesn't want his parents to leave. Nope. TJ just ran right in and started playing with the toys. No one noticed he was there and TJ definitely didn't take notice of Trent and I leaving, despite us pulling out the camera phone to take pictures and us yelling, "Bye TJ! Have fun! Be a good boy!"

What a "good boy" he is. I find myself saying this over and over throughout the day when he listens and obeys. When Trent gets home I hear him say the same thing over and over to TJ as well. We are both so proud of TJ and the sweet, obedient little boy that he is.

You know you're nearing the end of your pregnancy...

when your husband comes home to find you with wet hair, wearing your oldest pair of blue jeans and a plain white shirt, and asks, "what are you getting all dressed up for?"

My reply was, "ummmm..." as I did a mental recap of the last 6 months and realized that showering and getting dressed in general were becoming increasingly rare.

Besides poor hygiene, here are a few more updates on this pregnancy-

- While baby girl used to rarely ever move/kick, she turned a new leaf a few days ago and has been jumping and a jiving ever since.

- They say towards the end of your pregnancy you start "nesting." I think this began for me at the very beginning of this pregnancy when we decided we would stay in our little two bedroom town home. I have been trying to deep clean, organize, and make room for baby girl ever since.

- When I was pregnant with TJ I put a lot of thought into eating healthy, preparing healthy meals, etc. Nowadays I put a lot of thought into making sure the whole family eats. Unfortunately, it's not always healthy.

- My doctor gave me the go ahead to continue working out and playing volleyball until my due date. Working out at the gym is going well, but playing volleyball is becoming a bit much. I played last night and have been wobbling around ever since.

- I was having a lot of pain earlier in my pregnancy but it kinda just randomly went away (until today, after playing volleyball). My friend, Angela, gave me the advice to use the elliptical, so I tried it, and love it. It feels like a good workout but it doesn't hurt like lots of walking/running does for me.

-Now that I am feeling little miss thing move around, I am liking this pregnancy more and more. Feeling the baby move is the best.

- Here I am at 27.2 weeks preggo:

Oh wait, that was when I was 27.2 weeks preggo with TJ. I'm over 27.2 weeks preggo with baby girl and have yet to take a single belly shot. But I should so that I can compare it to the picture above, and then cry myself to sleep. I have gained the same amount of weight to date as my last pregnancy, but last time it was isolated to my belly. This time my baby has shown herself in my arms, legs, back, face, etc.

-I was about to publish this post, but then Trent read it over and said I should add a for real belly shot from this pregnancy... so there you have it... my very first side view picture of this pregnancy. 27.5 weeks along.

-TJ wanted in on the photobooth fun so I picked him up for one picture. He got all excited when he saw himself on the computer screen and kept saying, "TJ! TJ!"

-A few months ago TJ began putting "baby sister" and "belly" together. He gives baby girl kisses by kissing my belly and shares things with her by placing them on my belly. One time, he put my cell phone on my belly, baby girl instantly moved, and you could see the cell phone bounce up. I told TJ, "Baby Sister just kicked the cell phone!" TJ then stood up and used my belly as a tee and the cell phone as his ball and kicked that thing right off my belly. He thought it was so fun and wanted to do it again, I however, was not comfortable with him kicking at my belly.

- I am dying to see what she looks like.

- We are pretty certain we will use my grandma's middle name (which is also my middle name), Rose, as her middle name. Our favorite first name to go with Rose is "Ayla." There are so many cute girl names too choose from. I narrowed my list down to about six names that I liked with Rose and Trent and I discussed each one and decided Ayla was the easy winner. We really like the name, but if you have a better idea let us know- we still have a few months to change our mind :)

TJ's Seventeenth Month

TJ is seventeen months old now and is just the sweetest little thing. He loves reading books, playing with balls, being outside, and recently- his mama. He has always been a daddy's boy but lately he has been a little more attached to me. Probably his favorite thing to do is help (throw away trash, feed my mom's dog, flush the toilet, take dirty diapers to the trash can outside, unload/load the dishwasher, pick things up, bring things to you, or anything you ask him to do). He always gets a big smile on his face when he gets to help and gets the praises from it. He also loves to share toys and food with friends (especially when he gets to put the food directly in your mouth). I am loving this age.

My mom came down to visit and to work on crafts. TJ got to play outside while we cut burlap.

Even with my mom's help we couldn't get TJ to look at the camera to snap a decent picture.

TJ was really interested in the Christmas tree balls we were making, he didn't want much to do with the burlap, but he wanted everything to do with the balls. I'm not sure how we are going to manage his ball obsession when it comes time to put up and decorate a Christmas tree.

The ambulance and fire truck have been making frequent trips to our neighborhood to help an elderly neighbor. TJ loves hearing sirens around town, but when they come into our neighborhood he gets especially excited. He stands on his bed and looks out the window until they are gone. While my mom was here she took him out to get an even better view. But standing on the fire truck was a little too close for comfort.

And sitting on the fireman's seat was much, much too close.

We went to a family night at Gainesville Health and Fitness and TJ got to compete in games, like sac racing. Free shirts were given out to the winners, the losers, and the people like me, who just assisted their child in losing.

TJ got his face painted for the first time.

And he got a prize from the Queen and King. He picked the bouncy soccer ball.

We went to Chick-fil-a on one of their little Tuesday family nights and TJ had a blast.

For Halloween TJ dressed up as Batman and Trent dressed up as Robin. Here they are at the church's Halloween activity.

After eating chili we headed out to the parking lot for some trunk-or-treating.

Here they are after the trunk-or-treat. TJ was loving his lollipop.

During Trent's fall break we headed down to Orlando and did a swap-a-roo with TJ at the temple.

We stayed at our favorite hotel- the Rosen Shingle Creek. Priceline pulled through once again. If you are ever looking for a good deal down in Orlando, go to priceline.com, choose 4 star and above, I-drive South area, with a golf course, and name your price as low as you want- we did $49. They have always given us the Rosen Shingle Creek or the Rosen Plaza. Both are nice.

We went to downtown Disney where Trent took TJ on his first train ride.

On our way home from Orlando we went to a pumpkin patch in Ocala.

TJ got to pet horses,

Run through a corn maze,

Go on a hayride,

Play in a bathtub full of corn,

Feed donkeys,

Pick out a pumpkin,

Try to pick up every pumpkin in the patch,

And spend time with Dad.

When we got home TJ helped me carve our pumpkin. We did the batman symbol, of course.

On Halloween night we all got dressed up again and went trick-or-treating with the Sirmans family. I was a pregnant version of Catwoman.

TJ had so much fun running door to door with Julian.

Here is TJ with Julian, the horse.

And here we are after trick-or-treating. I wish we would have taken a big group shot with Kim and Stace.

TJ is getting so tall- he can reach things off the kitchen counter now- including this burnt cupcake I made for a girls night. I couldn't figure out why he was crying, except that maybe it didn't taste good?

I am so over this pregnancy, and ready to be done being pregnant. We all know that. But I would give being 6 months pregnant forever if I could keep TJ the exact same way that he is now! Have I mentioned I am loving this age?