Month: July 2013

I just had to sprint upstairs (time 8:15 pm) and calm a crying and upset Ajax who was insisting there was a ghost under his bed.  I gave him a hug, dried his cheeks and together we checked under his bed.  No ghosts but several tractors.   I then had to position his dragon next to him to protect him through the night.  He said his dragon comes to life at night and breaths fire.   He also said that his moose also comes to life at night and turns into a real moose who throws all ghosts out the window.

On another funny note, Ajax loves all songs having to do with tractors.  That of course limits the pool to country songs.  Lately his favorite song has been “John Deere Green.”  Here is how Ajax sings it – John Deere Green!  Biddy Bo Bow Sher-lise!  In a hot summer….  This morning Dave and I finally located this elusive song – it goes – John Deere Green – Billy Bob loves Sherlise…  How cute is that?  We plan on putting together a play list of songs for him… a country playlist.

When I picked up Noomi from daycare the teacher was saying that she knows there’s trouble when its silent.   When you don’t hear her.  Today during a quiet period Noomi rearranged the cribs, one of which had a sleeping toddler in it.  Apparently she pushed it about 3 feet against the wall.   She will be a danger when she starts walking.  Right now she is still holding onto your hands, but she is picking up the pace and speeds all around the place while yelling.  She is also now saying – cup, “what’s that?”, tractor and Ajax brother!  It’s darn cute.

Another weekend has flown by and here are the family updates!

On Friday, after getting the kids from daycare we stopped by Kroger and did some grocery shopping.  I can honestly say that shopping is now easier with two kids than it was with one.  Noomi sits there pleasantly and while she does try to grab things off the shelf, she does so quietly, so that’s nice.  And Ajax is the best helper at the store.  He loves to count out apples and different items for me.

On Saturday, we ended up doing quite a bit of running to a few different stores and then drove around the Grand Ledge area, which we thought may be a possible location to move to.  Our landlords agreed to an 8 month lease so that next spring we can move to an area with better schools, as our little guy will be starting kindergarten in Fall 2014!   I spoken to several neighbors, coworkers, friends, and teachers, and all agree that Lansing schools are deplorable, which means we need to move as we have not been able to come up with a viable educational alternative.   Overall, although Grand Ledge was ridiculously cute, it was not the best location as it would put us West of Lansing making it that much farther for Dave to commute and putting farther from family.   We’ll keep looking.

On Sunday, as we were all gearing up to leave the house it started raining and the weather dropped to a cool 63 degrees.  After some discussion, we decided that Dave would stay home with Noomi and I took Ajax to Mason, MI, for the most awesome tractor fair, where we met my mom and grandma Flo.   Ajax was so excited he could barely contain himself.  He loved all the various tractors and could hardly focus.  The only difficult part was when the steam engines started whistling.  It was so loud that it scared the heck out of Ajax and he was about done.  It took a lot of bribing to get him to calm down (grandma Mary bought him a new tractor).  Overall, it was a great time.

When I was dropping Noomi off at school the teacher asked me what we did at home when Noomi hit.   I said,  oh really, she’s hitting?  She doesn’t hit at home.  Well, I guess tell her no and put her hand down.  The teacher said, ok!   When I picked her up after school I had to sign an incident report as another baby had bit Noomi and she had a little red mark on her arm!  The teacher explained that Noomi had crawled into the ball pit, took the baby’s ball and hit him… so he bit her.  I guess what goes around comes around.   When I got home I explained all this to Dave and he said, Melissa, Noomi has totally been hitting at home.  Ajax agreed.  I honestly have no memory of her hitting!  I guess that’s what happens with the baby of the family.

Ajax has been parking random toys in our closet.  I think it’s pretty funny.

Our holiday was a bit spread out and highly enjoyable!

Dara stopped by Lansing on her way home from running a muddy 5K with Lisa and Theresa.   She stayed the night and then on Wednesday morning she and the kiddos headed up north, while Dave and I went to work.  We ended having a date night and bumming around on Thursday (the 4th) and then headed up north on Friday.  Dara reported that Ajax talked the entire time up north and Noomi slept almost the entire drive.   Both kids did wonderful up north without us.  They listened, ate well, and best of all went to bed nicely and slept through the night!

When Dave and I got up north, the kiddos were happy to see us.  Of course, Ajax hardly paused in his tractor talk and Noomi was enthralled with the dogs, especially Eli. I helped Dave make a movie, so that was fun.   Ajax showed us where he dug holes and pointed out the ducks.   Noomi raced around the house nonstop and wants to hold onto your hands and walk around.

On Saturday, we went to a pig roast with some of Dave’s friends (since high school) and Ajax had so much fun racing around with the other kids.   There was a little pool and he went splashing and “swimming.”   They played tag and even tried a bit of tennis.   Dara ended up taking Noomi home to bed and we let Ajax stay up late and play.  He did very very well.

On Sunday, we headed home and it took us a record 6 hours to get home.  Around Pinconning everyone had a meltdown after spending near 3 hours in the car, so we stopped for a late lunch.  Once back on the road the kids zonked out, which gave Dave and I some nice quiet on the drive.

It has now been so long since my last update that as I sit here, I can’t even recall everything we’ve been up to lately.  I guess I’ll give some highlights on the kids and family.

Noomi

Ms. Noomi now has 3 teeth and a 4th is coming in fast!  She now has her two lower centrals and two upper centrals (8 isn’t quite in yet).  She now has a sippy of milk with each meal and has all but phased her bottles out.  While at home over the weekend, she down right refuses a bottle and only wants her cup or your cup, which ever is closer.   She is still an amazing eater.  Tonight for dinner she out ate everyone (in comparison to body ratio) and Dave could barely keep the food on her tray.   She also wants to walk everywhere while holding onto your hands.  She cruises along the sofa and can pull herself up on anything.  She is also more of a climber than Ajax was and tries to step up or onto or into everything.  She finally remembered that she can roll from her back to her stomach (for 2 months now it’s like she forgot she knew how) and one night she figured out she could roll over and pull herself up in her crib and yell.  Therefore, Dave spent a good 1/2 hour going in/out of her room lying her down.  She found it funny.   We also started reading her a story before bed and she absolutely loves it, she listens and points to the picture and wants to help turn the pages. It’s very cute.

Ajax

It amazes me the things he comes up with.  I love our morning drives into school because he talks and talks and talks.  For example, the other morning he was very interested in the concept of – girlfriends and boyfriends.   He asked what a “girlfriend” was (I responded it was a special lady friend) and then he asked if Noomi could be his girlfriend, I explained no.  He asked if grandma could be his girlfriend, I explained no.  He asked if I could be his girlfriend, I explained no.  I then told him that he has to be 18 to have a girlfriend and he seemed ok with that.   He is also such a boy and obsessed with all bodily-bathroom functions.  I blame school. He still love construction, tractors, equipment, and trucks.  As a matter of fact he has already requested that when he is old enough to drive, could he please have a pickup truck.  Since he’s so keen on big ticket items, we also (finally) counted his piggy bank money and split it up into three categories: spending, saving and giving.  And then I took him shopping.  He picked out a gift for Noomi’s birthday and then spent $5 on himself (matchbox cars).  He stood in line and handed the cashier the money all on his own, though he got a little embarrassed and tried to hide behind me.

Family

Our weekends have been a bit hectic as I’ve had to go into the office on Saturday for the near the past month prepping for trial.   One weekend we headed into Dearborn for a graduation party and Ajax had a blast playing with his cousins who were up from Florida visiting.  Him and Eli (a mere 3 months apart) found a sand pit and at first were just making castles, and then they were drizzling sand over their feet, and then they were throwing it into the air over each other and rolling around in the sand.  Before we left the party I actually had to give him a shower and put him in clean clothes.   We also went to a pig roast this past weekend and had a ton of fun.  Noomi walked everywhere and went to everyone who wanted to hold her.  Ajax ran and played hide-and-seek with the other kids.   He was also so curious about the pig and kept asking if we were going to eat it’s boogers.

She’s Italian 🙂

Also on exciting news I finally got my Dyson vacuum cleaner!!  I was so pumped that I vacuumed the whole house!