TJ Goes to the Country!

Yesterday we visited my aunt, uncle and cousin in Pennsylvania. We went to a fall festival, an apple orchard and their horse farm. TJ loves the horsies (as TJ would say - Neigh!)

Jon was surprised this past Wednesday when faculty and staff at his school threw him a party for TJ. Although the guest of honor wasn't there, Dada enjoyed accepting the Elmo balloon, cake and generous gifts on his behalf. Thank you guys!

TJ "Smooching" Elmo

TJ's 2nd Birthday!

Last weekend was TJ's second birthday. We celebrated at the shore and this weekend we had a family party at home. Here are some pictures of the birthday boy as he discovers the joy of eating cake!

Today at Home...







In Ocean City...

In this installment, we thought we'd show you the many sides of TJ Miller.

The messy,-I-enjoyed-my-spaghetti side (blame dada for this one)

The people-come-to-visit, so-I'm-ultra-sweet side

The I'm-so-excited-because-Elmo-is-on-my-dishes side

The I've-been-hangin-with-the-homeboys side

The mama-will-let-me-do-anything-if-I-just-give-her-flowers side

The mom-will-you-stop-setting-me-up-I'm-only-2 side

I recently found out that there are so many people still checking out our blog. I will try to update more often, since it seems like people are still interested even now that we are home. TJ continues to do quite well. Everyday he is adding more words to his repetoire. When my mom was watching him today he said "flower" and "eye." I even think he said "thank you" to me tonight when I handed him his milk. It's been a blast to see how quickly he is progressing.

Here are some pictures from TJ's adventures over the past two weeks.

Fitting right in with laughs and giggles with cousins Catherine and Elizabeth.

TJ went into the big city with me for a visit at work. Here's TJ enjoying the riverview.

TJ charming the ladies at work.

Okay, I know we have a lot of pool shots, but this is with cousin Rachel who is only two-weeks older than TJ. However, right now she towers over him. It will interesting to see how that changes over the years.

TJ enjoying Rachel's birthday festivities.

Having fun with Aunt Jan.

We've been back in the States now for 4 weeks and TJ has been great. We had an occupational therapist evaluate him and she said that he's "amazing" and I'm not taking the word out of context! TJ has been dazzling his fans with high fives and blown kisses. Here are some pictures of our little stud.

He loves driving cars!


Getting a warm welcome from cousin Lindsay


Visiting with great-grandma, Nannie


He loves little pools and hanging out with cousins


At the beach - life doesn't get much better than that

We've almost been home now for two weeks. TJ is doing quite well. He's having a blast exploring and playing with relatives and friends. Every day we're amazed by how quickly he is learning things (and getting into things - I think he has Inspector Gadget arms). He is quite the clever two year old! He's also beginning to say some words. He now says his favorite food -"nana" (banana).

Swimming with Gram

Getting nice gifts

Saying "cheese"

Hanging with Gramma and Pop Pop

Playing with Papa, cousin Joe and a toy pitching machine (no, there's no pressure to play baseball:)

Here are some pictures from TJ's first couple of days at home. Everything is going well despite the fact he has a double ear infection, poor guy. We're also trying to establish a routine, toddler-proof the house, and organize everything after being away for so long. TJ is also beginning to meet his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

First breakfast enjoying his new high chair

Tossing a balloon with Pops

Helping Papa put together a toy

Enjoying the toy

Playing in a kiddy pool with cousins Catherine and Elizabeth

Shucking corn with papa and cousins

We're home safe and sound!

After 27 hours of traveling, we've made it home. We were a bit of a mess, especially TJ and his sleep schedule, but it could have been much worse.

We were greeted at the airport by Gramma and Pop Pop. TJ and Papa slept in the car on the way home, while mama lived up to her "little puker" nickname (luckily, we made it home just in time).

The overly tired and slightly ill road warriors

The two Timothys (TJ's namesakes are our two fathers - Timothy and James)

And TJ had a big welcome home sign waiting for him courtesy of Aunt Pat and Uncle Joe.



Today the grandparents stopped by and helped around the house, made dinner and brought welcome home ice cream cake for TJ, which he really didn't eat - in Kazakhstan they don't give children cold food or drinks, so he really didn't know what to do with it. I think that will change soon though :).

Thanks everyone for your well wishes. We know people have enjoyed this blog so we will continue to update periodically. Also now that we are in the world of high-speed internet we will post many more pictures on Shutterfly.com for people to view (we have over a thousand, but don't worry, we'll just do "best of"). It's just going to take me a few days, so check back next week!

Happily at Home,

Lisa, Jon and TJ

And we're off!

We're all packed and ready to go. Tomorrow we get picked up at 6 a.m. and should hopefully be pulling into our driveway in Metuchen around 10 p.m. tomorrow night. With the 10-hour time difference, that's a lot of traveling, but we'll be so happy to get home.

Thanks everyone for the support throughout the journey. This blog has been a lot of fun for us and has helped us feel connected with everyone at home. We'll post again to show TJ's homecoming.

Hopefully we'll get to see many of you soon, but we are going to ask people not to visit for the first couple weeks so we can establish a routine for TJ and further work on our attachment, which luckily is going quite well.

Best to all of you.

Love,
Lisa, Jon and TJ

This blog has propelled TJ to international stardom! He's had to resort to wearing shades wherever he goes so the flocks of lady fans don't recognize him...(okay, okay the only lady fan flocking TJ is his mama!)




Today we went on a gondola ride up the mountain for more beautiful views of the city.

TJ on the gondola. Believe it or not, TJ looked better than mama.

In front of an apple fountain. Almaty's name was originally Alma Alta which means grandfather apple. We've enjoyed a lot of good apples here.

Enjoying the views with papa.

The city of Almaty. There are a lot of construction cranes in this city. You can see the money pouring in. In fact, we were asked by quite a few people if we were here for the oil business.

Well tomorrow is our last day in Almaty! Hooray! We'll post one more time before we leave for our 20+ hour trip home. We did buy a bunch of little toys that will hopefully keep TJ occupied, but it's going to be ugly....