Category: Developments

For a while now Dave has been pushing for a haircut for the nino.  I, however, have steadfastly refused.   Tonight during dinner though I realized that the nino’s hair was in fact out of control.  It was like I was seeing his wild mop for the first time, the wispy blond hair curling over his ears…. yes the boy needed a haircut.

After dinner Dave plopped Ajax into the tub and turned on the beard trimmer (it was the only thing we had).  Ajax thought it tickled and did very well with it!  His hair, however, was just too long and the trimmer wasn’t cutting it.  After bath time, I sat him on the counter in the bathroom and while he played with his toothbrush I took some scissors and trimmed it up!  I think it turned out… ok, luckily he’s too little to be embarrassed by a “mom cut” because honestly cutting hair is not my specialty.   I think I’ll invest in buzzers and he’ll get a buzz cut till he’s old enough to care.

Would just like to take a moment to give a few updates regarding the Nino.

1) Paci update.  Life without a paci is starting to get a little easier.  Ajax, however, is definitely still testing the boundaries when he goes down for a nap or bedtime, but he’s doing much better about sleeping through the night.  Last night he only got up once.  I would have let him cry, but Dave snapped out of bed and was downstairs before I knew what was going on.

2)  Repeat.  Ajax is repeating everything.  I mean everything.  And he’s good, he’ll pick up the tone and everything.  His latest word, from Dave, begins with a “t” and ends with an “urd”.  Charming, no?  Dave could not stop laughing.  What a lovely dinner conversation.  I wish I could honestly say that that has been the worst his has uttered, but that would be a lie.

Lately Ajax has been all about reading.  He’ll bring you a book, sit on the floor and then listen to you read while turning pages.  It is so darn cute.  His favorite right now is still “Hippos go Berserk” and “Goodnight Moon.”  Dave can’t seem to read “Goodnight Moon” without doing a Christopher Watkins voice (like that SNL skit), however, the humor is completely lost on Ajax.  I think it’s funny though.  I’m hoping Ajax likes to read as much as we do!

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.

Ajax has really been into phones lately.  If you’re on the phone, than he needs to hold it and say hi and of course press every button.  He also thinks that just about everything is a telephone.  He’ll hold the remote control up to his ear and pretend to talk into it or any toy really.  He’ll also hold the “phone” just behind his ear, which is pretty funny.

Yesterday when Dave was talking to his sister Ajax demanded the phone.  To give Dave a few minutes of talk time I gave Ajax my cell phone, which of course was a mistake, as he somehow unlocked my phone, got into my phone book and called Jets Pizza.

Tonight when I was taking Ajax to bed we were standing in the living room saying good night to Dave and Ajax said – night night.  Dave and I both looked at each other shocked!   He said it clear as day and then he said it again- night night.  His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds it’s just incredible.  He is constantly talking, hi ma, hi da, it’s so cute.

I finally got some pictures of Ajax walking (because we all know that he can walk).  He walked from his car to me and then back to his car, and then to me and then to Dave.  He was all over the place.

We’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t really done a developmental progress report for Ajax in a while.

Ajax’s imagination and curiosity are developing more and more everyday.  He will make up games for himself and sometimes want you to join in, which can be difficult as you don’t always know the rules.   He’s also getting closer to walking, but no first steps to report.  He loves stacking objects.  He’s not terribly coordinated yet, so his towers don’t always stand, but he’s very interested in putting things into larger containers, or stacking things on top of one another.

Ajax is also talking nonstop.  I mean constant chatter.  He’s also stringing words together- daddy ‘n’ momma, baba ball, etc.  It’s pretty cute.  As I’ve mentioned before he also loves to sing and hum while driving in the car. Again, so cute.

On a food note, Ajax is a pretty good eater.  On Wednesday Ajax and I met Dave for lunch before his doctor’s appointment and at the restaurant Ajax ate lamb (from a yero), we were shocked, but he ate it up!  He does not, however, like eggs.  He hates hates eggs.

On a sleep note, Ajax has been sleeping beautifully.  He generally sleeps from 8 pm to 6:30 am during the weekday and sleeps into 7:30 pm on the weekend.  This is a much needed sleep improvement as he had gone through a 2 month stretch of getting up 2 to 3 times per night.  Tonight for the first time I also put him to bed without giving him a bottle first (or sippy).  I just laid him down, gave him his paci, and left the room and he was out.  yea!

Now that Ajax is a year and his party is behind us I’ve stuck to my word and we did away with the bottles.  That being said, it’s been a slightly stressful day.  I’m trying to transition Ajax so that he takes the majority of his milk during mealtime from a sippy cup and doesn’t rely on a whole 6-8 oz bottle for each nap (like he’s grown accustomed to).  To help ease the transition, I did give him a sippy cup during nap time, but it just wasn’t his bottle and boy was he mad.  I mean throwing the cup, screaming at the top of his lungs mad.  The screaming, however, didn’t last as long as I thought it would and he ended up calming down with his pacifier (lesser of two evils).  We also need to start working on this screaming thing, which he finds hilarious, and this throwing… but he’s a boy so that may never go away.

We’ve also given up formula completely and he is now only taking whole milk.  We’ve also given up all purees, he only gets applesauce (because he likes it).  So overall, our little guy is growing up.