TJ's 22nd Month

TJ had a fun month filled with some of his favorite things: family, friends, and the beach. He started off the month with a visit from Grandpa Gene, followed by a trip up to Jacksonville to see Stevie, Kame, and Papa, and lastly, a visit from Grandma Doodle. TJ may have to share the attention with his new sister, but with visits from all four grandparents, he certainly didn't get short-changed this month.

After picking up Gene from the Orlando Airport, we went to Downtown Disney where Gene took TJ for a ride on the train.

During his stay, we took Gene to our closest beach, Cedar Key, where TJ buried him in the sand.

Cedar Key might not be the prettiest beach, but it does have a pretty awesome playground right on the water.

 TJ had a blast climbing up,

yelling down,

and swinging.

But mostly he just liked to swing. I swear this boy could swing all day long if a person had the patience and strength to push him that long. It might have something to do with the fact that he lived in an infant swing for the first five months of his life. And you can bet Ayla is being raised the same way.

Of course you can't go to Cedar Key without picking up some of Tony's World Famous clam chowder. Despite the unsure look on his face, I do believe TJ enjoyed it as much as the rest of us.

Trent, TJ, and Gene took a boys weekend down to Sarasota to hit up the beautiful beaches of the Gulf Coast. Gene and TJ also took a few trips to the park. Gene played with TJ, and TJ likes to play hard. By the end of his two week visit, Gene was exhausted. Here he is sleeping mid-day while TJ desperately tried to get his attention.

TJ was invited to a one-of-a-kind, super-duper, St. Patrick's Day play group. By one-of-a-kind I mean the Kim-kind which means the decorations were through the roof, the food was the bomb, and the company was fantastic. Here TJ is enjoying some St. Patty's day snacks with some of his close friends.

And here TJ is enjoying a drink with his leprechaun 'stache.

We played at the Longleaf pool with some friends. TJ loves to splash in the water. 

He also loves to play with water toys.

Kim and Stace invited us over to their house to watch a session of General Conference and to eat dinner. These two bare-bummed boys crawled past me, pushing their cars, without their pants on. "Where's the camera, Trent?"

Next up: Trip to Jax Beach to visit Cousin Stevie. Kame and Papa were there babysitting while Andy and Dana were at a wedding. TJ was in heaven that weekend at "Stebies" house. Like TJ, Stevie also loves his Cars. He has lots of Cars toys. And he lives on the beach. Enough said. Now when we pull into our own neighborhood TJ whines, "No home! Stebie's home!" or while we are driving around town he will optimistically ask, "Stebie's house!?" "Sorry bud, not today."

Trent and his Junior at their favorite place on earth.

Trent wanted TJ to burry him in the sand. Trent called me to help. I was catching some much needed rays and declined the offer...

But this little lady perked up from a few yards away and accepted the offer. 

Favorite place on earth I tell ya.

To finish off the month, TJ's Grandma Judy aka "Doodle" came to visit. We first hit up Lake Wauburg, a lake owned by the University for student's and their families to enjoy. I say "enjoy" but of course that comes with the condition that you like playing in dirty water while baby alligators lurk from a distance. Judy was brave enough to sit with TJ on the shore and protect my baby from all those baby gators.

Grandma Doodle spent much of her time pushing TJ on the hammock in the back yard and also the swing at the park. TJ enjoyed every second of it.

Grandma Doodle took us to Daytona Beach for Easter Weekend. We hit up the local Easter Egg Hunt and searched for eggs beach-style with a sand bucket turned basket. 

We also visited the tallest light house in Florida- located on the Ponce Inlet in Daytona.

And we climbed to the top.

TJ climbed every step on his own. I am not usually afraid of heights, but boy did this make me nervous.

My little one year old, however, showed no signs of fear. Here he is taking in the view from the top.

After climbing down, we headed to the beach. The "tallest lighthouse in Florida" looks awfully tiny from here.

Ever since our trip to Jacksonville Beach we promised TJ we would buy him a kite. After looking high and low for one, the dollar store in Daytona finally pulled through for us. On the Ponce Inlet in Daytona, TJ flew his first kite.

TJ has officially graduated from the highchair and now sits comfortably in this booster seat at the table with us. He is a good eater, as usual. This month he has also become quite good at jumping, identifying colors, sharing, talking, counting, and making friends. At times he is a good brother to Ayla- giving her spontaneous kisses, gently patting her on the belly, and wanting to include her in our activities. Other times he is a not-so-good brother- stealing pacifiers, pulling her arms, and not-so-gently patting her on the belly. Maybe he is simply testing his limits with her, or perhaps becoming a bit jealous of all the attention she is receiving? Who knows?
Occasionally he's a stinker but overall he's a sweetie. That we do know.

Ayla's First Month

Ayla is now one month old! While most of her time is spent sleeping and hanging out at the house, we have had a few fun adventures this month- outings to target, the park, the zoo, the doctor, the grocery store, the bowling alley, IKEA, and church, vacations to Tallahassee and Orlando, and visits from Kaeme, Papa, Gene, Andy, Dana, and Stevie.

She has been a pretty good sleeper, but waking up to feed her every three hours was no easy adjustment for me, I do like my [continuous, 8 hours of] sleep. But now that I am used to sleeping in three hour increments, on the rare occasion that she gives me a four or five hour stretch I feel like I've had the best night's sleep of my life! It's amazing what a little perspective can do :)

She is gaining weight like a champ, and as of her one month birthday, has outgrown her newborn clothes... onto the 0-3 month collection. At her doctor's appointment today she weighed 10 pounds 6 ounces, and measured 21.5 inches long, putting her in the 76th and 59th percentiles.

This is the picture we took with our phone at the hospital and sent to our friends and family to announce her birth via text messaging. If I didn't send it to you, that means I need your phone number on my new phone, or it's not on facebook, which my phone incidentally syncs up with.

On the day we brought Ayla home from the hospital there was an unexpected cold front. We bundled her up in whatever hats, gloves and blankets we could find for the ride home. Once we were home my mom took every opportunity to snuggle with her to keep her warm.

The weather warmed up quickly though, and by Valentine's Day we were outside taking pictures.

Here she is sporting her cute heart outfit from my mom, while almost falling out of the red basket.

Ayla got to share her first bath with TJ!

During our trip to Tallahassee, Ayla was able to meet her cousins Warner, Rylee, and Rex along with Aunt Brittany and Uncle Alex.

Ayla and Papa frequently took naps together in the lazy boy.

And she got in a few snoozes with Daddy too.

Last week we drove down to Orlando to pick up Trent's dad from the airport. While we were there we stopped by Downtown Disney- here she is hiding behind TJ in the baby bjorn.

Last weekend we decided to take Ayla to church for the first time. Here she is all dressed up in her cute outfit from Rachel Glenn.

And here is our very first family photo! For some reason, none were taken of all four of us together at the hospital (or anytime after), so here we are, one month later.

Ayla is just beginning to smile more, usually while she is sleeping. More often than smile, she does this cute grunting noise that sounds just like a chuckle.

So far she has been such a good baby for us. We can't get enough of her pretty little lips and distinctive little nose. I think she looks like my sister or maybe my mom, but maybe I'm wrong. Either way, the family took a vote, and we've decided she's cute enough to keep.

TJ's 21st Month

TJ's 21st month was his first month as an official big brother. Bringing little Ayla home from the hospital, and having her stay, hasn't phased him too much. He hasn't shown any signs of jealousy, except he is 100% envious of her pacifier. Overall he is very sweet and loving, and always tries to share his things with her, even a pacifier when she starts to cry. We tell him over and over to "be gentle with baby sister," but I still feel the need to keep a close eye on him when she is in reach.

One of the first times holding Ayla. He will usually hold her for 2.5 seconds before he is done and is ready to push her off his lap.

I received the advice from many people to have a gift for TJ from the new baby. I forgot about this until we got home from the hospital and decided these blocks would have to do. They are his new favorite toy. He wants to play with them all day. When I ask him who gave him the blocks, he always says, "Ayla."

We went on a walk to the park for the first time with Ayla. TJ swung while Ayla slept.

We went to the arcade and played some skee ball. Ayla slept while TJ played.

Andy, Dana, and Stevie were so thoughtful and came down to Gainesville and brought us lunch. TJ loved playing with cousin Stevie.

TJ and Stevie loved how Andy read this book to them. They wanted him to read it over and over and over again.

After a rain storm TJ put on his rain boots and went outside to take full advantage of the big puddles.

Fishing for a special leaf.

Found it!

Helping push the trash can in.

We took the kids to the Santa Fe Teaching Zoo.

It was so much fun, TJ loved seeing all the animals, and Ayla enjoyed being pushed in the stroller while she slept.

His favorite animals were the peacocks and these tree kangaroos. It was fun watching them eat their lunch.

We took TJ bowling for the first time, and the last time, because let's be honest- it was a failed outing. Even though we went on the BOGO free night, it was still way expensive and TJ was fussy when it wasn't his turn to bowl. And it was the first outing that Ayla didn't stay asleep the whole time.

TJ got to spend a lot of time with my parents this month. My mom came down to help for a week, then TJ spent a few days in Tallahassee with my parents. Trent had a three day weekend so we all went to Tallahassee for that. He was obsessed with playing basketball the whole time we were there. All he wanted to do was play "Bass-key ball" "Bass-key ball!"

Trent had TJ doing a little workout with him outside. It involved flipping tires like Tim Tebow.

This little yellow dump truck has been TJ's favorite toy to play with at my parent's house for a long time.

My mom has been such a big help with TJ. She makes everything fun for him, like playing with squirt bottles while going to the bathroom.

And of course TJ was a big help to my mom- vacuuming the kitchen floors like a pro.

More like a professional mess maker- there is so much for him to get into at my parent's house. Here he is getting into my mom's makeup bag.

All of a sudden my little toddler seems so grown up. I used to adore his tiny little features and pinch his tiny little bum, but now every time I look at him I can't help but think he is humungous! Despite him being so grown up, we still have him sleeping in his baby crib, rather than a toddler bed. I can't imagine him going to bed easily without it, and I'm not willing to give up his long three hour naps quite yet. Potty training is still going well. He can now do the whole process- pull down pants, climb onto the toilet, wash and dry hands- all by himself. He also seems to be talking much more this month, saying words more clearly and putting multiple words together. I could ramble on and on forever about all the new things he is doing and learning, but mostly I want to remember how sweet my little boy is, and how his smile and excitement for life brings so much joy to our lives.