TJ's Fourteeth Month

In order to stay positive I have to think way back to the beginning of TJ's fourteenth month. The month started out great. Our only setback early on was making the transition from two naps to one. We finally jumped that hurdle, and then we were given an even greater one: teething of the molars. This has led to lots of whining and lots of screaming in the middle of the night. Poor TJ. Poor me. haha. But those big ol' molars are mostly in and I can already see my sweet little TJ starting to come back into my life :) With out further ado, here are some pictures from the month, in chronological order:

Mikhael brought Blake over to play in the sprinkler and in TJ's new baby pool (thanks Amanda for the awesome birthday present).

They were both hesitant to get in the pool so I think we ended up just throwing them in. And somehow we managed to get this cute picture of Blake before she climbed out.

I love this picture of Blake dancing in the sprinker, while TJ sneaks in a few sips from her cup. Awesome.

Third Annual Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A with the Sirmans. So fun, and so worth it. TJ even got free food this year- a 12 piece chicken nugget meal. What a deal.

I love this picture of Julian- what a sweet little boy. I love that he and TJ play so well together. After eating/playing at Chick-Fil-A, they were able to have their first spend the night party at Kim's house! Thanks so much Kim and Stace!

The next weekend we went out to Chiefland to watch Trent compete in a three-on-three basketball tournament.

TJ was in heaven with all the balls, the trouble was trying to keep him off the court while games were going on.

Always finding something to get into.

That evening, Trent had the idea of taking TJ to an arcade, specifically to play ski-ball. It was such a blast. We only had one dollar bill to spend on tokens, which gave Trent and I two games each. With TJ helping on the side, we were doing horribly, but the particular machine that we were on must have been broken because twice (once for me and once for Trent) it spit out 100 tickets, and told us we had reached a top score?? We took our 210 tickets to the booth and got TJ a new yellow ball and a piece of candy for Trent and I. Success.

TJ has showed an increased interest in books this month. For a while his favorite book was this Crocodile book that my mom gave him.
Another favorite (with all the fun flip-ups) is his Spot books from the Sirmans. His current favorite is some random book called, "Fish Wish." I don't even know where it came from, I think it came in a bin of books I bought at a yard sale before he was born. It doesn't have thick pages so it's harder for him to turn, but he loves looking at the bright pictures and pointing out all the creatures.

We took a trip down to Fort Myers to visit a friend. TJ was getting a bit fussy on the way down so we stopped at a CVS to change his diaper. Across the street there was a bunch of cows fenced up. Random. But it was so worth it to pull over- TJ loved seeing the cows up close and in person. I am now anxious to take him to the zoo.

We went to the beach- Sanibel Island the first day...

And Anna Maria Island the next. As you can see from the pictures Sanibel was much less crowded, which was nice, but the water was not nearly as clear as Anna Maria. TJ loved chasing the birds at both.

Just like his dad- can't get enough of the beach.

My mom invited TJ and I to take a trip up to Beaufort (an Island in South Carolina just north of Savanah/Hilton Head) for a few days to visit an old friend. It was a beautiful trip. We stayed at the Beaufort Inn- an adorable Bed and Breakfast right in the middle of historic downtown.

We tried to take pictures of TJ as he explored the hotel. But getting him to look at the camera is impossible.

Here is my mom showing TJ the wall made out of oyster shells.

Beautiful green hydrangeas outside of our room. The Inn was made up of several buildings. We stayed in the "Carriage House," which I will interpret as "garage." Of course they fixed it up all nice, and it was quite convenient having our separate house so that TJ couldn't disturb anyone else's stay.

The first evening we spent with my mom's friend, Joan, and her two daughters, Lauren and Hannah. We walked around the town and ate dinner by the river. The next day Joan took us on a tour of the town and then we went to her parents house which is where this picture was taken of Hannah taking TJ for a drive on the golf cart. Joan's mom treated us to a huge, homemade, straight-from-the-garden, southern dinner. It was amazing. But we definitely ate too much which left us feeling bad the rest of the trip.

TJ has been quite the monkey lately. He likes to climb on and off the couch, and he recently has sucessfully attempted (while I nervously watched 2 inches away) climbing over the couch and onto the side table, and also over the back of the couch onto his highchair. He also likes to climb over the back of our futon and into this bay window area:
Here he is with an "uh-oh" look after being caught making a mess of things in the window area.
Of course he quickly escapes the scene of the incident so that no one will know it was him. Notice the magazines all strewn about and the lamp falling over. He is a mess.

We ended off the month with a rafting trip down the Itchnetuckne. TJ made it slightly less relaxing than usual, but we certainly enjoyed the adventure. Mostly I think TJ liked running around the trails (that lead to the water) with his life jacket on.

Here we are just before un-tying our raft and hitting the spring.

We were worried that he wouldn't like his life jacket, but he absolutely loved it! He kept beating his padded chest with a cheek-to-cheek grin.

Earlier this month, TJ saw me taking groceries in from the front room back to the kitchen. So he grabbed a bag himself and drug it into the kitchen. I said, "Oh, TJ, thank you so much!" and he turned around, ran and got another bag, and drug it to me, until, one-by-one, he had brought all the bags into the kitchen. He made me so proud that day. We love our adventuresome, often defiant, occasionally whiny, adorable little boy, more than words can say.