Ayla's 14th Month

Ayla is really starting to show a social personality. She loves to give hugs and kisses; she lights up when I ask for one and almost never lets me down. Her favorite game is to go back-and-forth between me and someone else, giving hugs/being held. Sometimes she will go around the room giving huggs to everyone. And she has no problem letting people she hardly knows hold her. It is interesting, though, because there are some people that she is automatically scared of, and other people that she is instantly in love with (to the point she will beg for those individuals to hold her). She holds a special place in her heart for her Daddy and Kaeme, and of course she sorta likes her mama, too.

She is an observational little girl, and when she hears something in another room she will peek her head around the corner to see what's going on. She loves books, but will only let you read about 1.25 pages before she is ready to hop off your lap and pick out another (I think her favorite part is picking out the book). She loves little bottles of lotion, shampoo, etc. and has learned how to open the flip cap with her teeth. So far we haven't had any lotion-dispersed-disasters but it seems imminent. 

This month she was tall enough/smart enough to figure out how to climb on and off the couch, and has since been experimenting with other obstacles (chairs, stools, toy chests, etc). She also likes to climb in and out of her little chair, and was doing it all month with the happiest grin on her face, but I have yet to pull out the camera to capture it. The camera was handy, however, on our trips, outings, and Easter, so that's what we have pictures of... 

Ayla wants to like splash parks, but she doesn't. She inches towards the water, then, after it splashes her, she turns around and squeals with her shoulders shrugged to her ears. She does this over and over again. 

Here she is doing the shoulder shrug after running through the sprinklers during our parking lot pool party.

She also likes to get really close to puddles of water? She does this all the time!!

Ayla definitely was in on the ballon fun.

Hiding in the ballons.

Trent's sister made this cute panda hat for Ayla's birthday. It came in handy during our surprisingly cold March.

Ayla loves to receive love and attention, especially from brother.

Here's the two of them just before entering the Jacksonville Zoo.

EASTER

Walgreens free Easter picture day! ha

Ayla and Ella Grace giving hugs just prior to the egg hunt.

TJ and Ayla in their matching easter outfits, except it was freezing so we had to add layers.

I threw her dress together out of an old tank and a blanket sized scarf that I never used.

I love how Ayla get's excited about the little things, like being outside and walking around.

She was obsessed with Kim and would not let poor Kim put her down.

She was probably thinking, "go ahead Mom, I'm waiting here for Kim!"

I was surprised with Ayla's egg hunting skills- she knew to pick up the eggs,

And put them in her basket.

And she thought it was great fun! I was not expecting that at all.

She didn't, however, know how to open the eggs- that's the best part!

Discovering their baskets, just before church.

It was hard to squeeze everything in before morning church, so here is the best we could get of them dressed in their Easter outfits.

Ayla hunted for more eggs with Sophia and TJ after church.

When TJ unwrapped her bunny and handed it over, (instead of grabbing it) she dove in mouth first.

We picnicked in the park with the Bennums, here's the kids doubling up on the swings.

Jeff chased Cheyenne and TJ around the park, and Ayla chased Jeff. She couldn't get enough of him.

By the end of our trip to the park, all the kids were covered in dirt, especially their faces.

Ayla practiced her climbing skills at the museum. 

DISNEY

After finding out about the Florida resident deal we decided to tag along with our friends to Disney.

And I am so glad we did- it was Amazing.

We took the boat over just after the park opened.

It was a low-crowd day so we did very little of this (waiting in line).

And lots of this (rides). Trent is showing the kids where we are now (it's a small world) and where we are going next. 

Ayla enjoyed chomping on her own apple during It's a small world

Of course Ayla begged Jeff to hold her, and he was too nice to not give in.

Ayla found the only dirty puddle at disney and splashed around in it.

She is a messer and sometimes a stinker, but I sure do love my baby girl.

TJ's 34th Month

TJ fell just before Easter, giving him a little pink Easter bunny nose as shown in the pictue above. He's a boy, and plays hard, and usually has some sort of scratch or bruise to show for it. This month TJ really got into TV, as in, we actually have to monitor the amout of TV he watches because he can sit there and watch it for longer than the twenty minutes here and there that he used to subscribe to. He fell head over heels in love with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and pretty much everyother show he watches on the "real" cartoon channels (in the past he only watched BabyFirstTV and loved it). He also watched his first movie from start to finish (Lion King) and has been heard singing "oh, I just can't wAit to be king" and the likes ever since. His favorite song, however, is "I am a child of God," and he will randomly sing it throughout the day. It's not his self-proclaimed favorite, but I call it such due to the frequency of him singing it.

I think TJ has the memory of his father (although I once had good memory too)- if he hears something once it is engrained in the memory (and he will probably repeat it several days later). He remembers all the little kids names at kids club, church, and playgroup better than I can, which is convient for me when I forget. He repeats things that I say like, "oh gosh!" After hearing him say it repeatedly I made a mental note to stop saying it, and sure enough he stopped saying it too. He frequently will tell me something bad that will happen if he makes a bad choice, and then will say, "and we don't want that to happen." 

And all that stuff is good for memory sake and all, but in terms of actual milestones we have a big one this month- TJ ALTOGETHER QUIT USING A PACIFIER. It started to become a big hassel to get him to take a nap and then when he finally fell asleep he would sleep for at least three or four hours and it would be a big hassel to get him to go to bed that evening. So the "paci fairy" came and took all of his pacifiers and now he just goes to bed earlier in the evening without a paci and he gets his 12+ hours of sleep then, rather than splitting it between daytime and nighttime. It's been at least three weeks now and he is pretty proud of himself for not using a pacifier. He asks me everyday how old he is because the paci fairy said he is almost three, surely one of these days he will wakeup a three year old. I am pleased with how well the Paci Fairy idea worked- better than all the other tricks I tried because we could both be mad at her rather than him being mad at me! He talked about how if he ever saw the paci fairy he was going to "poof her on fire." Glad it wasn't me he wanted to "poof on fire."

We had some leftover ballons from the RS birthday party.

I think these ballons entertained both TJ and Ayla for the entire day. No other toys were needed.

We tied them to his bike to keep the fun going.

When his friend, Julia, came over to play, she picked out a few colors for her bike, too.

They wouldn't stop giggling over these ballons!

While TJ and Julia were in the backyard playing, I raked leaves and scooped them into the trashcan. Next thing we know TJ and Julia were in the trash can too!

Too much fun.

TJ still loves to jump- off of high surfaces, in the middle of the room, you name it. 

But his favorite place to jump is in puddles.

TJ is always coming up with a creative way to play with his (or my) stuff- here he is  placing all the beads from the bottom of my craft box on his train tracks.

TJ still enjoys riding his bike, one of these days we will take the training wheels off.

While TJ was riding his bike this tree got in his way. He says, "oh! I know!" and runs inside the house. A few moments later he is trying to chop the tree down with my hand miter saw! 

We took a trip down to Orlando for a job interview and stopped by this fun lake and splash park in the area. TJ enjoyed riding his bike in circles around the park.

We drove up to Jacksonville one day to go to the zoo with Stevie and Dana

They enjoyed the playground area where they went down the slide together over and over again.  

And here they are waiting in line for the train at the zoo. 

One sunny Saturday afternoon we had a pool party in our parking lot.

TJ jumped through the sprinklers,

And into the pool, all while we soaked up some sun... in our parking lot.

Our neighbors joined in on the fun and even helped wash my mom's car!

We did a little pre-Easter egg hunt in the park with some friends. TJ and Julian enjoyed watching the cows.

and running along the walking trail before everyone arrived.

They also came across this fun tree to climb on.

Once all the other children arrived the egg hunt began.

And shortly thereafter the candy-eating commenced.

After church on Easter Sunday TJ participated in another egg hunt with Trent's friend's daughter, Sophia.

TJ and Sophia figured out how to swing themselves.

After all the eggs were found they hugged and we parted ways.

That evening our neighbor dropped by with chocolate bunnies for the kids. Despite the Easter bunny leaving no candy behind, TJ sure made out well.

Our friends from Georgia, Jeff and Stacey, came down to stay for a few days. Here are their girls with TJ at the museum.

Cheyenne and TJ exploring  a museum exhibit.

The next day we went to Disney with our friends, more pictures of that to come in TJ's next post...