Melissa – Page 50 – Our Family Adventure

Sprinklers and watermelon

Today it’s supposed to be another scorcher. Channel Two said 105 with the heat index. I weeded the garden this morning around 10 am, but it was still ridiculously hot. We have tons of tomatoes and beans coming in, and the zucchini, cucumbers, and squash are starting to grow. How exciting.

To help Ajax beat the heat we pulled out the sprinkler. He was pretty hesitant at first and basically it was Dave and I both holding him running through it, but then he worked up a bit more courage and walked through it on his own and then thought it was fun to grab the sprinkler head and push it back and forth.

After the sprinkler fun Ajax relaxed with Dave and I and ate watermelon. What a perfect summer day.

DSCN6063 — Safe distance, checking things out.

DSCN6070 — He didn't want to let go of my hand. It was cute.

DSCN6052 — I haven't run through a sprinkler in years and I must admit it was pretty fun.

DSCN6086 — Serious student of water sprinklers.

DSCN6089 — Does anything scream more than cold watermelon?

DSCN6092 — Ajax loves this little chair which we put up next to the patio set with us.

Home Turf – Fourth of July

There is just something about stepping off a plane and blasting into your home terminal. It’s a sense of calm and confidence, and the feeling that you are not the tourist/visitor/businessman from out of town. I don’t travel often by any stretch of the imagination, but I have accumulated a modest amount of miles. This is how I felt when I walked off the plane into Metro- home.

Yesterday I returned from a four day trip to Washington D.C., where I attended the annual immigration attorney conference (a must as far as continuing education goes). I was in class most of the time and that left almost zero free time to see some of the sights, which was a shame as we were near Mt. Vernon and I’ve never been. Oh well, the discussion regarding advance issues in citizenship will help me far more in the long run than seeing the home of George Washington… right?

While I was gone Dara was kind of enough to come down and babysit Ajax (thank you!). Word on the street is that the pair had a great time and even ventured an excursion to Ikea. While I was gone Ajax seems to have changed immensely. He has three new teeth and his hair is longer (Dave is urging for a hair cut). Ajax has also fixed “bye bye” onto almost everything. For example – bye bye mama, bye bye dada. He also now says – bye bye squirrel, bye bye kitty, and bye bye diaper (he will then take his stinky diaper and throw it away). How crazy is that?

We attended a Fourth of July BBQ yesterday and today we’re relaxing. It’s 100 degrees outside with the heat index and I’m exhausted. There are things going on around town, but I’m just happy being home with my guys. Our only plans include a watermelon and steaks on the grill.

Finger painting

Here is Ajax’s first attempt at finger painting. He was a bit tentative as he doesn’t really like his hands dirty, but he did ok. I put his art on the fridge.

Freezer cooking

I’m slowly getting on board with this freezer cooking thing. Mentally I was signed up months ago, but the actual physical execution of the thing is coming along more slowly. Today the weather has been a bit weird, it will go from sun to dark clouds and rain in minutes and the tornado siren has been going on and off, along with the weather man excitedly pointing out funnel spottings (some a little too close for comfort). What a crazy summer.

Since we’ve been stuck indoors I’ve kept busy and made calzones. Dave and Ajax played and watched UP while I made the dough and during one of Ajax’s naps I made the actual calzone. We now have almost two dozen in the freezer! I also just learned that you can actually freeze smoothies, so I picked up some plastic freezer cups and we now have four smoothies ready to go! I have pork shoulder going now in the slow cooker for pulled pork sandwichs and that too will go into the freezer. Have I mentioned that I LOVE my chest freezer? I do.

Ajax has been pretty bummed about being stuck in the house, but I did buy him some finger paints and we may bust them out after his nap… I’ll let you know how that goes, lol.

DSCN6040 — Smoothies in the freezer, really who knew?

Sunday Shopping Day

Well it is of course Sunday and that means my shopping day. I got up early this morning and left before Ajax got up and hit up – Meijer, Rite Aid and Kroger. I’m a maniac! I didn’t snap a picture of my Meijer trip, but I spent $43 and saved $50 (this is more than I had planned on spending, but I’ll be in D.C. next week for a conference and wanted to make sure there were quick dinners/snacks in the house for Dave, Dara and Ajax).

Rite Aid –

Purchased – 4 packs of Stayfree (buy one get one free), 4 John Frida hair care products (4 for $20), 1 pack of Pampers (clearance price – $5.99) – in total $34. After coupons I paid $8.67 and received $10 toward my next purchase. So I made $1.33. This would have been a bigger money maker had I not bought the Pampers, but ya know – gotta have ’em!

Purchased – 1 family pack of Luv ($15.99), Coppertone suncare ($8.99), Natural Instinct hair dye ($7.99), Crest toothpaste ($2.99). My total was $35.96. I used the $10 from above and coupons and paid $10.82. I got $8 back and Rite Aid will mail me a check for$4.99…. so I made $2.17 with this transaction.

Kroger –

Purchased – 2 Gillette body washes (buy one get one free), Batman bandaids (awesome… and on clearance for $1.59), and Nexcare medical tape ($1.04). In total $11.61, after sales/coupons I paid $1.12. Since I took back bottles from our BBQ ($9.70), I actually paid nothing out of pocket and got money back. Cool.

Little Gardener

Today I finally got my tomato plants some much needed support. They were getting too tall and toppling over. We went to two different stores, but no one had those silly tomato cages (which I had considered buying earlier in the season, but thought they were a waste of money… this is my first attempt at gardening remember), so we ended up buying stakes and I zip-tied the heck out of those plants. Ajax tried to help but ended up stomping on some of our green pepper plants and then almost tripped on the string I used to section off the garden, lol. Dave ended up taking him to play on his play area and watch from a safer distance.

Ajax finally got another tooth in (grand total = 7 teeth!). So hopefully he’ll be in a better mood and sleep a little better. He’s been a bit of a pistol, lol. Something Dave and I have also been talking about, is how incredibly loud Ajax is. We used to think that all babies/kids were just loud and that that was the normal volume for all kids. Recently however, we’ve been hanging out with a LOT of other kids Ajax’s age (or there abouts) and we are realizing that our child has no control over the volume of his voice. I know he’s Italian and all, but it’s a little ridiculous. For example today at Meijer Dave and Ajax went to look at some things and I was to catch up with them. Well I had no difficulty in locating them because I heard Ajax throughout the store! (I have even had cashiers say- so you’re the one making all that noise!). What a little personality.

DSCN6010 — Cutting the grass! Oh we finally bit the bullet and hired a lawn crew to come cut the back half of our yard, as Dave simply couldn't do it with our little push mower.

DSCN6012 — Peas. My Aunt Lynda got me these cute markers for the garden (thank you!).

DSCN6019 — All in a row! My tomatos are finally up off the ground.

Frannie

Ajax is all about animals right now. At my parent’s farm there are horses, cats, and dogs. Ajax kept taking my hand and making me walk him toward the horses. He just wanted to be held and pet the horses. His favorite horse seems to be Frannie, and he kept wanting to feed her apples and grass. He would also point at the barn cats and say, “kitty.” Luckily he couldn’t actually catch any of them since they were too fast for him (they have claws and would not appreciate being grabbed).

DSCN5904 — Ajax kept trying to catch the cats, but fortunately they were too fast for him.

DSCN5905 — Cole kept trying to herd Ajax.

DSCN5908 — Ajax and his favorite horse, Fran.

Father’s Day in Detroit

This weekend was fun and exciting, not so much with the quiet and rest which we had planned, but oh well!

Saturday we finally got our house, yard and garage back in order from the BBQ last weekend. We also put a major dent in the mountain of laundry that had been piling up. My parents were then nice enough to watch Ajax for a few hours so that Dave and I could have a date night. We did dinner and a movie (The A-Team), while Ajax and my folks went to a BBQ with family. Ajax had a blast with his cousins and loved playing with their toys. Kids always love other people’s toys better.

Sunday we headed to downtown Detroit for the Detroit River Days, a large summer festival along the river. It was a beautiful day and the crowd wasn’t that large. Ajax had chicken shawarma and part of an elephant ear for lunch. He also took his first ride on a carosel and loved it (I had to kind of drag him off it). He also played in some interactive water features that were pretty neat. We also got to explore two large ships, one of which belonged to the coast guard; Ajax loved the control room with all the flashing lights and switches. He was pretty beat on the way home and zonked out.

DSCN5961 — The ship Dave wanted to explore.

DSCN5934 — This animal didn't move up and down, so Ajax was pretty ok with it.

DSCN5929 — Ajax thought sunglasses were pretty cool.

DSCN5924 — This is the Detroit Renaissance Center

DSCN5927 — The Detroit River and the Ambassador Bridge

DSCN5955 — Ajax loved this water fountain.

DSCN5958 — Looking cool near the fountain.

DSCN5978 — Ajax and I on the Coast Guard ship - and look Detroit police in the background. Detroit is so safe.

DSCN5985 — Ajax wasn't too sure of this fountain, the water was pretty cold.

DSCN5973 — Enjoying an elephant ear while watching a jet sky show.

DSCN5965 — The city has done a lot of work along the river and I must admit it looks wonderful.

Relaxing with family

Ajax went to bed at 7:00 pm tonight. Again, seven. Such a busy little man.

Ajax and I headed out to my parent’s house yesterday morning, as that seemed to be where everyone was staying/congregating. We went to dinner, did a little shopping, and played quite a bit. We had wanted to hit up the lake, but unfortunately the weather wasn’t too cooperative. It was very nice seeing everyone, as people are pretty spread out these days. We stayed the night and played today as well! Ajax didn’t go to bed till 9 last night and only had one nap today, he was so busy.

Fawn and I headed into Tecumseh today and had a nice lunch and did a little window browsing. The kids were great and so well behaved. On the way home they both zonked out.

BBQ and family

We’ve never had a large BBQ at our home because we’ve always been worried that if the weather turned bad, where would everyone go? Well with family in from Washington (My Aunt Lynda, Cousin Andre, his wife, Fawn, and their two-year-old son, Daniel) we decided we had to celebrate! This is Fawn and Daniels first trip to Michigan, so everyone wanted the chance to meet them. There were about 40 people over and everyone seemed to have a great time. The weather was very cooperative, a little overcast and not too hot. The kids had a blast, playing the majority of time in the water toy- this necessitated several outfit changes though…

Dave maned the grill and put a Cajun fry to some hamburgers and hot dogs. Ajax seems to be in quite the bully-mode and tried to push all his male cousins around, however, Emma, who is four months younger than him seemed to the only one to put him in his place. It was pretty funny.