The New Bachelor

Alright ladies, prepare yourselves, I have found the perfect guy for next season's "The Bachelor!" He is approximately 3 1/2 feet tall and weighs 40 lbs. He lives in a lovely one story home along with his mother and father and will attend pre-K in the fall. You guessed it...TJ Hill!!!

What, you ask, is the reason behind this nomination?

We don't watch much T.V. at our house in the evenings other than the Brave's Game playing in the background. But, I do have to say, Monday nights at the Hill House, are my reality T.V. indulgence nights. I always watch "The Bachelor" or "The Bachelorette" every Monday night and ususally TJ plays cars on the floor in the living room while I am engrossed in the show. I know, this is a sad fact, but I can't help myself! Anyway, back to the story...Well, yesterday we were eating lunch at Logan's and TJ always likes to unwrap the silverware from the napkins and hand it out. So, he was unwrapping my silverware, and as he pulled out the fork he looked at me with a charming smile and said, "Mommy, would you accept this fork?"

The Power of Please

We were at the lake this weekend, eating lunch on Saturday, and for some reason, for a short time, TJ had a mean streak flowing through him. He didn't want me to sit at the table, under the cool breeze of the fan, with he and Nana. He kept telling me to get up and move and I kept joking back with him that I wouldn't. So, after bantering back and forth for a few minutes, he got kind of quiet. You could almost see the wheels turning, and then he says, "Mommy, if I say please, will you do anything I tell you?" I knew I needed to answer this carefully because he was questioning the power of using "please" and contemplating on whether he should really say it or not. So, I said "Well, I won't always do what you ask just because you say please, but you should always say please because I definitely won't do what you ask with out it." Then, he sits quietly again and seems to be pondering his next move. "Mommy, would you PLEASE move and go sit in that chair?"

Nana and I couldn't help but laugh at his attempt to get me to move from the table again and test whether "please" would help him get what he wanted. I just said "Thank you for asking nicely, but no, I am good where I am." He huffed a little in annoyance, and then was over it.

Lightning Bugs, Mosquitos, & Bug Spray

Disclaimer: This isn't going to be a funny post like ALL of my previous ones ;) It is more for documentational reasons. Sorry to those of you who read my blog to get a good laugh at our expense!

TJ has a new hobby...BUGS! He is extremely interested in all bugs, and doesn't discrimiate or pick favorites (exception - mosquitos). At Nana's house he collected a rolly poley, some-sort of flying bug (that Nana killed), and a cute little green inch worm. Lately at home, he has been going out at dusk to collect lightning bugs (aka fireflies, for those of you who aren't from the south). He is pretty good at catching them and will stay out catching them as long as we let him. Nana has a little bug cage that he has brought home which he keeps his bugs in. During all of this bug catching, TJ has developed what looks like chicken pox all over his legs. He has some on his arms and even 2 whelps on his face! Thomas and I seriously thought he might have chicken pox and even took his temperature hoping this would explain TJ's extremely fussiness lately (since he is 4 years old and should be getting out of the whinny, fussy stage, right?). Well, no temperature...just more mosquito bites than I have ever seen per square inch of skin!!! He is scratching constantly and even looks like he is doing the "pee-pee" dance while he rubs his legs together to scratch! So, I bought some bug spray!

So, last night as soon as we got home from Vacation Bible School, he grabbed his bug-barn and ran out the front door to catch yet another 1000 lightning bugs (which I might add seem to escape out of the bug-barn and I find them randomly throughout our house...like in my bed). I was changing clothes so I asked Thomas to run out and spray him down...I didn't mean that literally, but he did just that! When TJ came in I wiped his legs and arms down, but still smelled that bug spray odor even on his face. I asked TJ if Daddy had sprayed his face, just joking about it...well, yes, Daddy did spray his face with bug spray. I am no doctor, but I don't think you are supposed to spray your face with bug spray.

That's Awesome!

TJ is definitely ALL boy! I have known this fact for a while, but this morning he just added another check to the list. While doing our daily commute this morning, TJ, as usual, was in a talkative and inquisitve mood. Asking questions about random things, such as "Mommy, what is 50?" What exactly did he mean by that? "It's a number?" I responded. "Ok." On to the next random thought...

TJ: "Mommy, why did that bird have boobies?"

Me: (Trying not to laugh out loud, or so that he can see me) "What bird, Honey?"

TJ: "That bird on the movie last night."

Me: (We did watch Happy Feet last night on TV, so thinking back, I did notice that all of the female penguins had a yellow shading on their chests.) "Well, they were girls."

TJ: "Were they Mommies?" (Pause) "Yeah, they were girl, Mommies!" (Pause) "That's AWESOME!"

Not exactly sure what he was referring to as being Awesome, I didn't ask!

Grab a Tissue for This One

Most of you know that we had a rough start to this year with our miscarriage in February. We were unsure of how to handle telling TJ that he wasn't going to have a brother or sister for a while longer, because he was super excited to be a big brother. How do you explain that to a 4 year old? So, we decided we would just answer his questions as they came and not try to explain the situation. As I have stated numerous times, TJ is very inquisitive and wants to know WHY about EVERYTHING. So, he has asked on numerous occasions about "his baby." I have always answered the best way I knew how by telling him that the baby wasn't in my belly anymore and explained that God would give us another baby when he is ready for us to have one. As I have also mentioned before, TJ remembers EVERY answer I give and often tests me to make sure I give the same answers. So, while at the beach, Thomas, TJ, Uncle Mike and I were driving, and TJ tells Uncle Mike "you can sit there, and this is my baby's seat, so you can't sit here." Uncle Mike responded, "you have a baby?" And TJ said, "well, it's in heaven with God and when he's ready for us to have a baby, then he'll give one to us." Of course, I'm driving and tears are streaming down my face. What a sweet and precious gift to have such an amazing little boy. We are truly blessed to have him in our lives and if God provides us with other children one day, we will be thankful beyond measure!

Thank you to all of you who have been there for us this year...the thoughts and prayers have been felt and we are doing great!

Bubba

The above picture really has nothing to do with this story...I just like pictures, and I thought this one may look like someone named Bubba ;)

Any way, TJ has been into playing "Mommy & Daddy" lately. He is always the Daddy of the babies (beanie babies). After church on Sunday, Thomas and I headed to Nana's house to eat lunch and pick TJ up. When we got there, we walked out onto the deck where TJ and Nana were cooking and playing. As soon as we opened the door, TJ started giving directions.

TJ: "I'm the Daddy and Nana's the Mommy of the babies."

Me: (Nice to see you too, missed you, can I have a kiss and hug?) "Ok."

TJ: "And Mommy, you're Grandmomma."

Me: (I'm not quite ready for that stage.) "Sounds good...I'll just spoil the babies."

TJ: "And Daddy..."

Thomas: "Yes, who am I?"

TJ: "Daddy, you can be BUBBA."

We all laughed hysterically. "Bubba"...Who's Bubba? The remainder of the day we spent calling each other Grandmomma and Bubba. I think Thomas is seriously considering being called "Bubba" one day when he is a grandpa!!! At least I have plenty of time to change his mind!

I Will Never Miss the First Day of T-ball Again!

I thought I would share these T-ball pictures of TJ and Thomas... since they are the ONLY ones I have! As I have mentioned before, I do love my husband and know that he does his best to make me happy (most of the time). However, I was out of town on a girls beach trip during TJ's first t-ball game. And, I knew that all of the kids were supposed to get their pictures made and a team picture too. The boys called after the game to tell me how it all went, but never mentioned the pictures, and of course I was at the beach relaxing and didn't think to ask. Several weeks later we walked up to the field excited to watch yet another awesome display of athleticism and I see that all of the other parents are adoring their t-ball photos!

Me: So, I excitedly ask Thomas..."where do we pick up OUR pictures!?"

Thomas: "well, I didn't get his pictures made..."

Any of you that know me, know that I take way too many pictures, but pictures are my hobby! So, I am just dumbfounded that MY husband wouldn't get TJ's pictures taken of his FIRST t-ball season!!!

Me: "Are you kidding me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY NOT!"

Thomas: Looking all innocent like that might save him,"Well, I forgot the little form-thingy that I had to fill out, so I just didn't get his pictures made..."

Me: "You don't think that you could have maybe asked for another one???"

Thomas: "I didn't think about it..."

Needless to say, I am still a little bitter over the fact that I don't have any pictures to commemorate TJ's first t-ball season and team (since this has been several weeks ago). So, I made them both stand in the yard and I took tons of pictures...they aren't professional pictures mind you, but they're all I've got! Enjoy!

Crush

I thought I would get him until he is at least 10 years old, but NO...someone else has stolen his heart! TJ officially has his first crush at 4 years old! This is Ali, cute girl huh?! TJ and Ali met back in March of this year while she was in town visiting her boyfriend, aka his Uncle Carson!!! TJ didn't hold back one bit. He chased Ali around the whole weekend and after dinner at Amsterdam, he went in for the kill! When getting up from the table, he darted past his Uncle Carson, around the table, and grabbed Ali's hand. He quickly let her know that he is always the line leader, so they needed to walk to the front of the group. Hand in hand, they strolled through the restaurant and all could see love was blooming in the air. Well, Ali had to leave after that night and go back to Athens. But, as fate would have it, Uncle Carson brought the two back together last week at our beach trip! Throughout the week, TJ smoothly worked his magic on Ali...he would pretend dinosaurs were kissing her (so he could), he would place his hand on her thigh, he found numerous shells on the shore to give her, and invited her to play Hi-Ho-Cheerio! It was a magical, wonderful week!!!