Meet the newest, littlest member of our family: Zu Zu.
Meet Zu Zu, Ajax's new bestest pet.
Grandma Dara bought Zu Zu for Ajax this Christmas and it is his new favorite toy. To Ajax, however, it’s more than just a toy, it’s his very own little pet (poor kid needs a dog). Now at first I must say I thought this thing was a little silly, it’s an electronic mouse that runs along, spins in circles, and makes a variety of cute noises.
Ajax is near obsessed with it. It just cracks him up. Zu Zu will zip along the floor and Ajax will crawl after it calling- Zu Zu! Zu Zu! He played for almost an hour with Zu Zu this evening before bed. Because Zu Zu was so busy this evening, Dave had to perform an emergency surgery and replace his triple A batteries. Ajax was so upset when Zu Zu stopped running and kept hovering around Dave while he changed the batteries. He was very relieved to see his Zu Zu up and running again, he was very concerned.
Following Zu Zu around the kitchen floor.Can you spot Zu Zu?
Today is Martin Luther King day, a federal holiday, so I had the day off work. Ajax and I had no plans on leaving the house and that was exactly what we did.
Ajax was up at 7 am, about twenty minutes after Dave left for work, I was hoping to get at least an hour more of sleep, but the nino had other plans. We sat on the couch and watched the Today Show, which had all the fashion recap from the Golden Globes last night. I love those types of fake morning news shows that really just talk about fashion and Hollywood gossip with semi-important world news stories sprinkled in with the weather. Ajax was quite the sport and let me sip on my coffee and watch my show till almost 8 am before asking for breakfast. After breakfast we did some laundry and then hit up the kitchen for a mini-cooking day.
Ajax loves to help me cook and is actually a pretty good little helper. I made some pizza dough to freeze as we love making homemade pizza and Ajax diligently added the flour to the mixer (I love my mixer). I ended up just giving him a teaspoon and letting him add as much as he wanted- measuring smeasuring. We also did meatballs and pulled pork for burritos. I also found this tasty looking recipe in a Martha Stewart magazine for chocolate chip and cherry cookies. Mine looked absolutely nothing like the picture but they were still pretty good!
When Ajax got bored of helping me cook I put on Sesame Street and gave him a snack. He than sat on the couch and told me everything that was happening on TV. It was a running commentary of Elmo and Big Bird shenanigans. Ajax is definitely feeling better and was in a wonderful mood all day. We had an excellent day today.
Ajax made me bring this toy up from the basement and had a great time re-discovering it.Helping me cook!This was my view while baking. Ajax telling me all about Elmo and snacking. How wonderful ,eh?
This evening we had a combined birthday party for my Grandpa Valentine and his sister, Annie. There were a good 20-30 loud Italians present and lots of little cousins for Ajax to play with. Unfortunately my grandpa wasn’t able to attend his own party as he is currently in the hospital, but the doctors think he’ll be released soon and in good health.
Ajax played well and had a ton of fun playing chase with his cousin Jordan. My parents were there as well as my Grandma Flo, who is up visiting from Florida. Ajax had a great time playing with grandparents and my mom even found a cart to push all the kids around on. Although there was pizza and salad and fruit, Ajax was to excited to eat, so we had to re-heat some mac and cheese with hot dogs for him once we got home. Stubborn kid.
Today I went grocery shopping at Meijer and must say I’m pretty proud of my haul.
Dave and I recently jumped aboard the Dave Ramsey bandwagon. For those of you who have never heard of him, he’s a financial dude with the idea to live your life completely debt free. Dave and I decided that to get where we want to be, we had to get our finances in order and that meant a change in the way we did things. To accomplish this goal we’ve set a budget using cash envelopes and so far so good. We’ve budgeted $75 per week for groceries, paper items (TP, paper towel, etc), cleaners, bathroom stuff (face wash, soap, etc), and baby items.
Transaction one.
I purchased 20 yogurts and 3 spices for a total of $21.09; after coupons I paid $11.95 and received two catalinas totaling $4.50 (remember that’s basically cash back to use toward another transaction). I’m always buying yogurt, Dave and I each have at least one a day, we’re big yogurt people. Ajax though still can’t have yogurt; and still breaks out in a terrible rash if he has it. He is fine with other dairy products and I have tried a variety of yogurt brands, but still no luck.
Transaction two.
Here’s my second transaction. Now I won’t give you an itemized list (because that would be boring), but my total was $107.52; after coupons I paid $50.26.
Some of my highlights- 1) two bottles of advanced Maalox ( $4.79 a piece) = free; 2. two 89 oz bottles of OJ ($3.99 a piece) = paid $5; 3. lunch meat ($2.50 a piece) = paid $2; 4. two coffeemate creamers ($1.50 a piece) = free; 5. one shirt for Mr. Dave ($14.99) = $3.75.
Today has been a pleasant Saturday. Ajax woke up at 6:30 am so we (by we, I mean Ajax and I, Dave slept in till almost 9- I’m so nice) were up nice and early and got to watch the sun come up! Yea sun! After breakfast we dropped my car off for an oil change and hit up Target to pick up a quick gift. In the afternoon I attended a baby shower and Dave and Ajax stayed home to “man” the house.
While I was gone they shoveled a good portion of the driveway and Ajax was quite proud of his contribution to the chore. Dave said that they hadn’t been outside but two minutes when Ajax inadvertently flipped a shovel full of snow into his own face. He’ll get the hang of manual labor, next is cutting the grass.
Dave and Ajax are now watching a Western and Ajax keeps pointing out all the horses on TV and talking to them. He just said- no horsie, bad horsie, horsie oh horsie! He likes animals.
On my way home from the shower I stopped by Kroger to pick up milk and here’s what I snagged-
My total was $18.55; however, after sales and coupons I paid only $4.13. Really I just paid for the milk and cereal as the toothpaste was free. My family goes through cereal like there is no tomorrow.
Slowly but surely Ajax is starting to feel better. This infection really took it’s toll on him… and us (he still has six more days on the antibiotic). Since Ajax wasn’t sleeping, we weren’t sleeping, and boy was it beginning to show. Everyone’s patients were wearing thin. Anywho, he is definitely feeling better and returning to more agreeable spirits and by extension so are we.
Tonight I picked up pizza on my way home from work. As soon as I walked in the house Ajax came bolting into the back room- Hi mommy! Hi mommy– PIZZA! He then reached his arms up and tried to carry the pizza into the house for me. As the boxes were way to big for him to carry I let him “help” me and set them on the counter in the kitchen. He could not scramble into his high chair fast enough, saying – pizza, pizza!
After dinner we did bath, per usual night time routine, and after bath Ajax had a cup of milk on the couch. When he was done with his milk, at about 7:15 pm, he scooped up both his silkies and asked to go to bed. I said- you want to go to bed now? And he responded- yea. So he said goodnight to Dave and off to bed he went. How cute is that? I’m sure he’ll be up at 5:30 am, but oh well.
[no pictures – for some reason I haven’t taken many this week. sorry!]
So I feel a silly. Here’s what happened. All day Sunday Ajax’s mood continued to be, well … difficult. He was getting frustrated and hitting and thumping his head. He then proceeded to get up several times throughout the night. He was warm and upset and somewhere around the third time he got up I realized, he still has an ear infection.
I ended up taking him back into the Doctor’s office today where it was confirmed- yep, the infection never cleared up. The amoxicillin unfortunately didn’t do the job and we’re now onto augmentin, which my mother-in-law says is a pretty serious antibiotic. Because this is his second round of antibiotics he is also on probiotic supplement. The Doctor said that the infections seem to be reoccurring in his right ear so that the cause is really anatomical and not anything that we’re doing wrong or bad (which made me feel better).
What I chopped up to troubled twos was actually Ajax saying he didn’t feel well. I feel quite horrible.
I did three separate transactions so that I could roll my UP rewards through each one. Here’s my haul-
(2) Stayfree maxi pads – reg. $3.99, on sale for $2.50 = $5.00
TOTAL= $5.00, after coupons I paid $1.30 and received $2 in UP rewards
(4) Kellogg Special K cereal – $4.79 per box (sale buy one get one free) = $9.58
(2) Quaker granola bars – reg. $3.79, on sale for $2.50 = $5.00
TOTAL = $14.58, after coupons and UP rewards paid $3.96 and received $6 in UP rewards
Britta filters – reg. $21.99, on sale for $14.99
(2) newspapers – $1.35 = $2.70
TOTAL = $17.69, after coupons and UP rewards paid $10.59 and will be getting a check from RA for $3.00
All said and done I think I did pretty well. We needed Britta filters and I was happy to get them for under $10 bucks and we needed granola bars. Dave and I bring our lunches to work each and everyday, that means I’m always on the look out for good prices on lunch stuff. A $1.50 for a box of Quaker granola bars is a good price (the off brand granola bars run $1.99 in comparison). There are a lot of really good deals at RA this week, with lots of free items; however, after a while you learn what works best for your family and can focus in on those deals.
This morning I took Ajax with me to the mall to return a few things giving Dave some quiet time as he’s a bit under the weather. We returned our items without issue and then we scooted off to the mall play area. Ajax played well, climbing over the obstacles and running around, but then I could tell that he was getting tired and going down hill fast. When Ajax gets tired, his bullying side comes out, and the mall play area was no different. After a few head bonks, I scooped him up and we headed home for a nap. He of course didn’t want to leave and I had to wrestle him into his coat, but I won.
After nap and lunch we ran to Office Depot. Ajax loves Office Depot for some reason and had to try out all the chairs and point out all the pens we passed. He made a few random runs down aisles, forcing me to chase after him to the point where I had to put him back into the chart so that we could check out. He became so mad at being confined to the cart that he began screaming and tossing himself about. He got so mad that he actually hit his head against the side of the cart, making me think I need to invest in a helmet for my son. While I paid, Dave ended up taking Ajax to the car so that the other patrons didn’t have to hear his yelling.
Our afternoon was quiet, Dave and Ajax stayed home while I went grocery shopping and then we had a nice dinner. Ajax decided that he would eat every other pea, throwing one on the ground in between. After dinner he then decided that the floor peas were worth eating and sat under his high chair eating them. Great.
I think we’re heading into definite Two territory which is difficult for the us and the little guy as this is a frustrating time for him as well.
Ajax in his bomber jacket.
Posing.Floor peas.Caught eating floor peas.
Also, I wanted to show you that you can use coupons to save on more than just food and tooth paste! Office Depot is offering a rebate on HP paper. So I bought two reams of HP paper, totaling $15.58, after coupons I paid $11.40 and will submit the receipt to get a full rebate! Ta da, free paper.
Tonight we rounded off our holiday activities with a Christmas party at Ms. Karen’s house (Ajax’s babysitter). All the other kids and parents were present and it was a very loud and hectic party… which is to be expected with a house full of kids. Ajax got a little too wound up and by time we got home (at about 6:45) he ran to the couch covered himself up with his blanket and demanded his cup of milk. I couldn’t get him to eat anything so I gave him a quick bath, a cup of milk, and right into bed.
At bedtime I realized Ajax left his stuffed frog (aka “froggie”) at Karen’s house. Lately he’s been asking for specific stuffed animals at bedtime. Currently he has his two “silkies” which he sleeps with every night. He also has a lion that he rotates and his frog. Luckily, he was fine with his silkies and lion tonight, but I had a bit of a panic thinking he was going to ask for his frog.
