Happy 1st Birthday Turner!

One year ago today, my son Turner Alexander Moore was born at 3:17pm.  I feel like I should write something profound but I can’t seem to find words to express my sentiment towards him.  I think I’ll keep it simple and say that I love him and I will do anything for him. 

Turner, when you're older and read this I guess the main thing I want you to know was that during your first year, you were the most important thing in my life. I can't imagine loving you more than I do now but I know that as we both get older, my love for you will only continue to grow.

Happy Birthday, son!

Our first Christmas with Turner

It’s Sunday morning.   To most, just another average Sunday but at the Moore household, it’s Christmas Sunday.  I am excited about seeing my family for the Christmas holiday but wanted Turner’s first Christmas to be in his home.  The only solution I could think of was to celebrate Christmas a week early before we leave town.   We put Turner to bed Saturday night and then started to stack gifts under the tree.  Funny, as we were placing gifts under the tree Santa appeared with a few extra gifts.   

Sunday morning, I set-up the video camera and turned on some Christmas Soca.  Turner walked out from his room and saw all the gifts under the tree.   Tori and I got some nice things ourselves but it was really about seeing what Turner would play with.  Thank goodness he was interested in both his toy cars and his Elmo doll.  The winning toy of the morning was a set of car keys though.  As I write this, he’s still playing with him.  

Not too much more to say here, I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. 

Decorating the house for Turner’s first Christmas

I love Christmas.  I always have and I always will.  It’s hard to describe why but I just have so many great memories of this holiday - lots of love and laugh over the years. One of my earliest memories is crawling under my grandmother’s bed and finding un-wrapped gifts for my sister and I.  I would crawl under the bed daily leading up to Christmas and play with two G.I. Joe action figures and the tank they came with. 

This is the first year that I get to share my favorite holiday with my son. I'm going all out.  If I could rent a Santa to have him come drop off gifts, I would.  I haven' rulled that idea out for future years.  Anyway, back to the story.  As you know, we traveled to Nashville, TN for Thanksgiving.   Normally, I would start putting up Christmas decorations immediately after Thanksgiving but after a long drive and traveling I didn’t have the energy.  I also had to travel for work after Thanksgiving.   

As soon as I found some free time, I put our tree up. Turner helped. He resisted the urge to play with the decorations.  It took a while to get the tree up but it was fun.  I then hung our wreath on the door and put two 3ft pine trees on each side of our front door.   We have candles in most of our windows and I’ve hung lights around the front porch.  It’s subtle compared to some houses in the area but it works for us.

Wait, how could I forget the stockings!  Tori and I started hanging stockings two or three years ago and this year, we purchased one for Turner.  He already has two small toys in it.  I noticed that mine is flat.  I’m not upset though. Cash and checks don’t take up much space. 

What should you get Turner for either Christmas or his birthday?

It just hit me. This is great month to be Turner.  He has three Christmas’ and two birthday parties.  We’re going to open gifts from Tori and I at home before we depart for Orlando and once we arrive there, he’ll open some more.  Once we arrive in Atlanta, he’ll open gifts there as well.  That same week (December 30th), he’ll open birthday presents.  Once we fly back to Philadelphia, he will open presents at his second birthday party (January 7th). 

With all these opportunities to celebrate with Turner, Tori and I thought we'd say a few words here and hopefully make shopping easier for our friends and family.  Tori and I have done some shopping for a few gifts for both Turner’s birthday and Christmas.  We got him the Rock-n-Roll Elmo, a Radio Flyer 4-in-1 bike, and some small toy cars.  Turner has been a good boy this year so I’m sure Santa will be dropping off some extra gifts. Almost anything from LeapFrog is good.  He also loves "Baby Signing Time" - we only have the first DVD.   We like the idea of educational toys and books for him.

For anyone looking to buy him clothing, even though he’s a 12 month old – it’s probably best to get him pants that are for an 18 month old.  He can still fit 12 month old shirts but some short-sleeve 18month old shirt would be good for next summer.  He’s currently a size 5 in shoes.  He has a pair or sneakers already.  We like soft soled shoes too (pediped).  Gift cards are always a safe bet and easy for us to carry back home from traveling as well as books.  We also have a 529 college and savings account for him.

Christmas in Orlando, FL and Atlanta, GA

In a previous post, I mentioned that we celebrate Thanksgiving with Tori’s family and Christmas with mine. A few people have been asking us what we will be doing for Christmas this year.  Good news – we’ve finally figured it out.  We’re going to Orlando and Atlanta. Wait, two cities? Doesn’t sound like we’ve figured it out but please continue reading.

Normally, my family does a rotation between D.C., Orlando and Atlanta.   Last year it was in Orlando and this year it is supposed to be in Atlanta.  My older sister (Kerry)  in Atlanta who normally hosts is expecting her first grandchild (Congratulations Victoria!) and won’t be hosting this year.  After emails, texts and phones calls with family, we have decided that we’ll be joining the Orlando crew for a holiday celebration this year.  It was in Orlando last year at my Brother Sammy’s home but since Turner was due right around that time, we obviously couldn’t travel.  My brother, sister and father are in Orlando and it’s the largest concentration of my family.  Turner has never been to Orlando.  I’m sure he’ll enjoy it though. He has three cousins there, his grandfather, two aunts and two uncles.  One of his cousins (Alakai) is only 1 month older than he is.  It’ll be fun to see the two of them playing together.

It doesn’t stop there.  We’re going to drive over to Atlanta and see my mother, sister, aunt and cousin.  Our cousin Ondrea, is co-hosting a birthday party with us for Turner; more on that later. You might recall, that our cousin Ondrea was the first family member to come up and see Turner.  She flew up from Atlanta and came straight to the hospital.  We decided to host a birthday party in Atlanta so that our friends and family could help us celebrate his first year (also not everyone can travel up to Philadelphia for a party here).  That’s where our holiday travel ends.  It will be great to be around family in both Orlando and Atlanta.  To our family in both cities – get ready because we’ve just booked out tickets!

Turner’s growing vocabulary

Over the last 6 months, Turner’s vocabulary has really been growing.  We started with ‘Ba’ and we got a “Mama” followed by “Dada”. Nothing special but now, we’ve heard him utter “Buh-bye” while waving, “Hi”, and “Go”, “Dog”, “Uh Oh” – with a really funny face.  I'll try to get a photo.  He also says “Up” when he wants to be picked up.  I’m trying to get him to say “Ooh yeah” but no success yet.  His grandmother really wants him to learn, “One” for his birthday. I’m not so sure if that will happen but we’ll see.

Turner’s First Thanksgiving!

Tori and I have large families and our families are distributed across the country.  When you have large families that are scattered throughout the U.S. (and Canada if I count my younger brother and sister), it makes it difficult to get together for the holidays.  To make things simple we decided to divide up the two major holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We will celebrate Thanksgiving with Tori’s family and Christmas with my family.  While visiting family in Nashville, TN, it was decided that Thanksgiving would be held back in Nashville, TN.

To save on costs, we decided to drive down from Philadelphia to Nashville.  It’s a 12 hour drive.  Our strategy was to get Turner ready for bed and wait until he fell asleep to drive down while he was sleeping.  The plan worked perfectly.  He woke up a once or twice and looked around but overall slept until the following morning.

We arrive Wednesday morning and Tori’s parents arrived Thursday morning.  We had a great dinner and shared lots of laughs.  No one went out shopping on Friday – we took a different approach and went to the Nashville Zoo.  This was Turner’s first trip to the zoo.  He seemed to enjoy it.  Not that I didn’t enjoy the trip but the Philadelphia Zoon is much better.  I’m looking forward to taking a few trips there next summer. 

Saturday, we took a family portrait.  There was some confusion about what everyone would (or should) be wearing but I think it all came together nicely in the end.  We managed to get a few individual pictures if Turner that we are going to use for his birthday party invitations.

We left Nashville at 5am on Sunday morning and made it back to Philadelphia Sunday night.  Turner was a real trooper dealing with all that time in the car.  Overall, Thanksgiving was great.  I am already looking forward to celebrating next year with family.

Visiting Family in Jackson, MS & Nashville, TN

As most of you know, Tori is from Mobile, AL.  What you may not know is that she has family in both Nashville, TN and Jackson, MS.  Actually wait, if you read this blog regularly you know that one of our baby showers was held in Jackson, MS so obviously we have family there.   We usually take a trip down to the south once or twice a year.   Now that Turner is here, our family in the south really wants us to visit more often.  Two major family events were happening in July of this year.  The first was Tori’s grandmother’s birthday on July 4^th in Jackson, MS.  The second was the birthday of Tori’s niece, Sinclaire Elizabeth Rowland July 11^th in Nashville, TN.  

We decided to fly into Nashville, TN and meet Sinclaire then drive to Jackson, MS – 6 or 7 hours away – so that Turner could meet his great-grandmother.   It might sound like a lot but we’re used to it.    Visiting family in Nashville and Jackson as a success. 



Everyone was glad to finally meet Turner and he enjoyed all the love and attention. It may have been Turner’s first trip to Jackson, MS but it won’t be his last.   He’ll be spending at least a week there every summer and as you’ll see here – Thanksgiving dinner was also held in Nashville, TN this year.