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.

My first Father’s Day

I know what you're thinking - this blog post is long overdue.   In June I celebrated my first Father’s Day with Tori and Turner.  I was very excited about it.  I made sure Tori didn't group our anniversary gift (June 16th) with my Father's day gift (due June 18th).  Two major events require two seperate gifts - those are the rules. 

OK back to the story.  The gifts were great; both humorous and serious.  You can see most of these in the photo to the left.  Starting from left to right, I got a nice card from Turner and a recordable Hallmark book.  I have to look closer at the instructions but I plan on reading and recording the story for Turner soon.  Next up, we have a card from Tori and a picture frame that Turner made at daycare.  The picture frame says, “Dad’s Pride and Joy”.  I plan on keeping that in my office, near my computer for those days where I wonder why I'm working hard or putting in late hours.  Lastly we have another card from Turner (clearly my son is an overachiever) and a coffee mug from Tori.

What’s not pictured here is a dog tag that Tori got for me.  You might be able to see it in the photo to the right.  I know what you're thinking and yes, Turner and I were wearing matching shirts.  The plan is to take it to get it engraved with a quote that I like; “Father, giver of strength, love and wisdom.  Son, giver of life’s greatest joys”.   After being showered with cards and gifts, Tori and Turner took me to brunch.  Tori and I enjoyed a great meal while Turner flirted with the waitresses. 

Thank you Tori and Turner for an awesome first Father’s Day!

Turner’s Quilt

A longtime family friend of Tori’s had a custom handmade quilt made for Turner. There isn’t much of a back story to this blog post. Tori and I wanted to thank Ms. Presnell for her kindness and generosity. We also want to thank Ms. Arletha Patrick for actually making the quit by hand! It’s really a beautiful quilt and great keepsake for Turner. You can see from the photos below that Turner loves it. However, it’s one of those gifts that are just too nice, so after these photos were taken we quickly put it put away so that Turner wouldn’t get it dirty. We plan on letting him look at it from a distance every year on his birthday.

Someone really likes blueberries

Turner & Sophie