Firsts and Favorites

As TJ's experiences and abilities expand, we are seeing some fun evolution in his preferences and interests.  To track, document and share these developments, we plan on updating TJ's "firsts and favorites" every 4 months.  This first entry will include a fair number of backdated items that we missed before this series started.  Enjoy, and let us know if there are topics/items that you would like to see included!

Food
first = avocado
favorite 12-18 Months = sweet potato, pirate booty
favorite 18-24 Months = apples, cheese, hot dog, whole milk, cheese quesadilla

Words
First = dog
favorite 12-18 Months = More
favorite 18-24 Months = TJ, Bubba, Dada  (He's fully capable of saying Mama, but continues to refer to Raminta as Bubba.  Too funny!)

Toys
First = activity center

current = Megabloks, stroller (mostly for chasing dogs), kitchen (cutting velcro food), ball (kicking)

Books
6-12 Months = Llama Llama Red Pajama
12-18 Months = Born to Read
18-24 Months = Go Dog Go

Movie = Finding Nemo (followed closely by Clifford the Big Red Dog)
Video Game = Minecraft (from which he learned many of his animal sounds along with the fact that "beef" comes from cows and we get "pork" from pigs)

This little dude is growing and changing soooo much right now.  We love where he is.  A great example is yesterday when we were moving mulch.  I gave TJ a trowel.  He dug at a small hole in the yard, making a small pile of dirt nearby while Raminta and I did some prep work.  Once we were ready for our main project, moving mulch from one area to another, TJ helped shovel mulch from the yard into the wheelbarrow.  After a while, he got bored with that and started shovel it out of the wheelbarrow, at which point Ra was starting to rake in the new location, so TJ decided to take the rake and help with that.  The whole thing was alarmingly close to having another useful member of the house helping in a yard project (or at the very least, someone who didn't require one of us to constantly be managing him).  Yay for TJ!

...and yes, I realize that this story is a claim that we're excited about TJ's development into a new little person when really it's obviously a cover for our efforts to skirt child labor laws.  There have to be a few small benefits to parenting, right?