"No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"

Five Little Monkeys has quickly become TJ's favorite bedtime story. He got the book for his birthday from his Aunt Linda and family (a huge shout out to her for the present).

It all started a month ago when Daddy started his story time routine with TJ at bed time. Rich is an animated reader and always makes story time fun with his many voices and expressions. And if you know the Five Little Monkeys storyline, you know that, with the right reader, it can be rather amusing. TJ would sit on Daddy's lap and have him read the book over and over. The part that brought the most giggles was when daddy would "BONK" his head with his hand as the monkey in the story fell.

TJ has read the story so many times that he is now internalizing some of the monkeys'-- and daddy's-- behavior. TJ now bonks his head for sheer delight. And he things it is a hoot. He will use his hand like daddy does, but the other day he learned what a real BONK was. Ouch! I thought, that has got to hurt. Yet TJ shook it off as best he could and when he was of better sorts, believe it or not, he bonked his head with his hand as if to make the association. He gets it! This little guy is putting two and two together. I was amazed. But what tickles me even more about this story is that now, every time he walks by the corner of the table, he points to the corner and makes a wide berth around it. I guess he does not want that kind of bonk on the head again.

Here is hoping he will not now want to jump on the bed!

Missing Daddy

Wow! Where did the time go? Our last post was all of our vacation photos with no explanation, no stories, and know sharing of our big news. . . . TJ IS A WALKER!

Yep. We wrote before that he took his first steps on the 4th of July, but it was not until he was at Grandmas until he really started moving. I think he wanted to wait and share this special moment with his Grandmother and run all over her enormous living room. It was amazing to watch. When TJ finally got going he was so proud of himself. He would get this big. huge smile as if to say, "Hey, everyone, look what I can do. I am so cool!"

He started off with the "Frankenstein walk". You know. . . hands out in front. . . . teetering back and forth. But now, he is successfully walking/running and even holding things in his hand. It has been wonderful to watch him accomplish this milestone. . . scraped knees and all.

Now the big news in our family is that Rich has left for Fort Dix, New Jersey: the first stop in his deployment to Iraq. I am sad but also curious to see how TJ adjusts to the day to day life without dad. He has been such a daddy's boy. He gave his first smile to dad. His first bought of laughter was to his dad. And even his first word was "da-da". It is so clear to see how much he loves and enjoys time with his father when you watch the two of them together.

Before Rich left, we recorded Dad reading some bed time stories on our video camera. Our hope is that TJ can still be read to at night by his daddy, even though he is far, far away. The other project I will be working on is making a story book for TJ about his daddy so that he can constantly see pictures of Rich and be reminded of him as much as possible.

Rich will be greatly missed this year. But we will all do our best to make sure that he is far from forgotten.