Category: Developments

Tonight for a 1/2 hour Ajax played a game.   A game he made up all on his own.   I had the laundry basket filled with clean folded clothes on the couch.  Ajax had four hard cover books and kept picking up one book at a time and pushing it into the basket.  Then he would pull the books out, one by one, throw them back on the couch and push them around before picking them each up and tossing them back into the basket.  He kept singing to himself as well which of course added to the cuteness.

Another game Ajax has developed is throwing things off the step into the back room.  Ok this isn’t the more creative game in the world, but it’s still pretty funny.  He throws everything off the step- shoes, books, baskets, really anything he can get a hold of.  He also love shoving things under the refrigerator.  I have several toys and a cutting board under there that I keep nagging Dave to get.

On Wednesday I was talking with Kristy and she asked when we were going to switch Ajax over to whole milk and sippy cups.   For some reason I thought Ajax would intuitively give up bottles on his own once he reached a certain age.  I cannot tell you why I believed this, but there you go.   Honestly, I hadn’t even realized that he was at the age where we should be working on switching him over.  So, I did some research and we now have a plan!  We’re hoping to have him down to two bottles by his birthday with a sippy cup at each meal with whole milk.  Well, that’s our goal anyways, I’ll keep you posted!

This evening Dave’s dad, Rod, came by to visit and have dinner.  Ajax was thrilled to see him and was honestly wired the entire time he was here.  I think he was showing off because at one point he went from a crawling position and then just stood right up!   He then stood there for a moment before kind of lunging at me.  This is the first time Ajax has done that!

Ajax is now into 18 month Pajamas, I cannot believe it.  For the past few weeks I’d been fighting with his long legs, cramming them into PJs that were just a little to short and a little to snug.  I kept saying, Dave this kid needs new pajamas!   I’m just amazed that he’s into 18 months and honestly they really aren’t big on him.  It seems I’m always looking for new pants for him because he just keeps getting taller and skinnier.  It’s hard to buy pants for him since he’s so skinny, but with such long legs, it’s always a compromise- too big in the waist or too short!

Ajax’s new word is now “ball” and he now knows what a ball is; and he’s been repeating “ta da!”  He’s so smart.

Thought I’d do one more post tonight as Ajax learned how to walk using his new stand-up push toy he got for Christmas! This afternoon when I was folding laundry he flipped over the basket, used it to stand up and then began pushing it around the living room. I got so excited that I gave him his little push toy and what do you know, he pushed that around the living room too.  We had to keep turning him around though, because he would just run into the wall or couch and couldn’t figure out how to turn. I know I’m a broken record at this point, but really I think he’ll be walking very soon!

I think Ajax is on the verge of another developmental breakthrough.  His sleep schedule has been a bit rough lately.  He goes to sleep well, but has been fussing during the night and then waking between 4:30 and 5:30 am.  AM!   That’s tough because I get up for work at 5:45 and I think, oh I could have gotten a few more minutes of sleep (which is just the best sleep of the night really).  Dave isn’t that phased as he’s up at 4:45 am every day (I don’t even know how).

I really feel that walking is right around the corner for Ajax.  He certainly is fearless.  As a result of this new found bravery and sense of discovery the kid looks like he’s been in a battle.  He has red welts on his hands and bruises on his forehead.  His knees are black and blue.  Honestly, he falls over everything and pulls himself up on everything, even the unsteady things.

We also got hit with a pretty big storm last night, but luckily did not lose power.  We got a total of 8.5 inches and the majority of schools across the state closed for the day.

Although Ajax is very apt at using the pincher grasp, he now thinks it’s more efficient, during mealtime, to use both hands to monkey grab fistfuls of food and cram it into his mouth.  It’s pretty funny.  However, when you take him out of his highchair you realize that he’s sitting on half his meal.  This means that he now goes directly from the highchair to the bathtub.

In the movies where children hang on their mother’s pant leg while the mom dances around the kitchen trying to make dinner, well I’ve always thought that was just sort of a comedic take on parenthood.   I never realized that yes, in fact that is what children due.

Since Ajax started crawling and pulling himself up on things, it has been near impossible for me to make dinner or do anything in the kitchen without Ajax following me around, sometimes screaming, all while trying to pull himself up on my pants.  Once he succeeds in pulling himself up, he at times loses his balance and topples over.

Tonight in an act of desperation to finish dinner I actually gave him the mail (not quite sure why), but then when I realized how quiet he was I turned and saw him eating a hole through a yellow piece of paper advertising a local pizza place.   Luckily it didn’t spoil his appetite for dinner.

It took me a while, but I finally called my mom this evening and asked how to deal with a 9 month old throwing temper tantrums.

I’ve seen older kids, around 2-4 scream and throw themselves to the ground with their head back crying and thought, huh?   Well today Ajax threw himself backward, back arched, and just screamed at the top of his lungs (all because I tried to trim his nails, a thing which has never bothered him in the past).  I started laughing, thinking what the heck is this?  I didn’t even realize it was a tantrum because honestly I thought that he was to young for such nonsense.  My mom has assured me that no, he is not too young and to nip it in the bud early on.   I’ll let you know how we’re doing on that front!

Just one more update.  Ajax is now all over the place and giving him a bath in his little tub is now almost impossible.  He will grab hold of the edge of his little tub and pull himself into a squatting position and then try and launch himself over the edge.   He finds this to be great fun, but makes bathtime incredibly difficult.  Tonight we tried something different.  I bought a little anti-slip mat for the tub and Dave and I gave him a bath in the full tub.  Ajax thought this was the best thing ever.  He splashed and kicked and kept flopping on his tummy to grab at the water.  It wasn’t a very long bath as my back couldn’t take to much of leaning over like that.  But overall, great time!