Friends

JT might be young, but he already has some friends. He doesn't have a say right now, but we are making wise choices for our son right now :)

Over the past week, JT has had 2 friends come over to the house and spend some time with him.

Last week, our friends Joel and Elizabeth were packing their moving truck as they were getting ready to move to Ohio. While John helped load up, I took their little 3 month old girl, Amelia, back to our house for a few hours. This way everyone was able to fully focus on getting packed and loaded and Amelia would be safe among the men moving.

Then yesterday, we had Finn, 2 months, over for the day. His Mommy. Erin, is a dear friend of mine and we teach Sunday School together to middle school girls. Erin is an awesome lawyer for the State of Tennessee and she needed to go kick some legal butt! Once Erin returns to work full time after the holidays, Finn will be spending some time with us during the week. So this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship for JT and Finn!

The boys had a great day. I took some pictures when they were up at the same time to capture the moment. JT looks like a beast compared to Finn! Crazy to think in a few years how this small difference of 3 months will mean nothing developmentally. Right now though, JT looks like a giant about ready to gobble sweet baby Finn. Cheers to new friends!

High Five!

Another milestone of reaching 5 months has already passed for the youngest Apedaile, JT. He's nearly 5 1/2 months since his busy Mommy doesn't make time to sit and write in the family blog often enough!

Everything continues to be going well for JT. He is still rolling over, though he's still a bit slow to do the tummy to back roll. He's done it, but not like he rolls from back to tummy. What's frustrating for him is when he's sleeping, he will roll on to his tummy and then wake up and not be very happy about it! He will proceed to cry, "snuffle" his face in his blankets, and call for help until I come to his rescue and flip him over. I'm careful to let him try to do it himself for a bit- making sure he's safe first- so he doesn't grow accustomed to needing help.

He continues to love his solid foods. He has had sweet potatoes and squash. When he has had these for the first time, he gives little to no reaction. For me, one of the things I look forward to with introducing solid foods and new tastes is to see that "sour" look on his face. I remember so clearly each of the girls doing so with their firsts, but JT apparently doesn't want me to have that memory of him. He is one cool dude I guess :)

In addition to him gaining some great strength in his tummy and starting to sit with support, our little boy has started teething! Poor little guy has been drooling like nothing else the past few weeks- to the point of needing to wear a bib or changing his clothes-, chewing on anything and everything, and just this week getting fussy at times. JT is also loving being able to sit in his exersaucer that Grandma and Granpa C. got for him when they visited this summer. A few days ago I was able to see the first hints of 2 little white "lines" of his lower teeth though I can't feel them through his gums yet. We have had a few issues during nursing of not treating the source of his food like some rag to clamp down on and pull on-OUCH! One of our new best friends is teething toys, Tylenol, and Orajel.

Happy Halloween!!!

Our family had a great time celebrating our 1st Halloween as a family of 6! This year was quite a bit different than previous years festivities. In the past 2-3 years the girls have been able to dress up in a themed trio. Examples are 3 blind mice and 3 little pigs- so cute! This year there wasn't a big focus on that especially since JT isn't really into getting dressed up. What ended up as the final product was JT was a little Tigger, Courtney decided on a Hippie, and Sarah and Lindsay did a duo of Thing 1 and Thing 2 from "The Cat in the Hat".

For activities we did again a variety of things. The weather forecast was looking pretty grim with a chance of rain and cool temps for Halloween. We saw that a local big church was doing a fall festival on Friday evening inside and we decided to go to that in case Saturday was a bust with weather. The kids all had fun with tons of inflatables, games, face painting, and candy. Then on Saturday, though it was soggy from earlier rain, it was clear! We started off going to Moss Wright park and walked this walking path that local businesses and churches decorate with themed tables and pass out candy. We met up with some close friends of Sarah and Lindsay there and walked the path together. Afterward, we dropped off the girls at their friends house and they went trick or treating in the neighborhood.

John and I decided to come home with JT because for some reason, he had only napped for about 2 hours during the whole day and he was one grumpy Tigger! It was quite cool out and those two things mixed together don't make for a pleasant experience for parents or kids. It felt so odd being back at the house before 8 and with only the baby. Though JT was sure happy to get into cozy PJ's and zonk out! The girls came home a few hours later with a ton of loot! They did get a few non-candy items that were a little odd: chap stick, mini quirt gun, a mountain camping style clip/key chain, and microwave popcorn. I hope this candy gone quickly and not in my tummy!!!