Category: Family news/Updates

It rained all day today and because of that we decided it was the perfect day to do a little running around.  We hit up the Home Depot to price out materials for our upcoming home projects (paint the garage, replace a few boards, redo the electrical in the garage, reform the cement steps in the front of the house and leading into the basement, seal the basement floor, etc.).   Ajax was of course super pumped and tried out all the tractors.

We then hit up Ikea to look at a few toddler beds and general browsing.  I think by Christmas Ajax will be more than ready for a “big boy” bed.  He’s asked about sleeping in a “big bed” a few times now and sometimes will even ask to sleep in our bed for his nap.  This is odd as he has never, ever, not once slept in our bed. Ever.   However, he did take a nap in a big bed out at my parent’s house last time he was visiting and apparently has not forgotten it.   Ajax rolled around on all the beds at Ikea and said he liked them all.  We tried to ask which was his favorite, but so wasn’t terribly specific.  The only thing we got was that he definitely seemed to want one.   Also on the note of developments, I know I need to start seriously considering potty training, but I must admit I’m nervous and have been putting it off.

After Ikea we went to the Borders Book Store, but didn’t find anything great.   We then pushed our luck and had lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant.   At this point Ajax was over tired and decided to be quite the rascal throughout the meal.  At a restaurant kids must know there’s only so much a parent can do to control them so that by the time we left we had revoked lawn mower rides, his toy tractor, and insisted he was going to bed as soon as we got home.  lol.  Oh well.

Our afternoon was very quiet.  I went grocery shopping while Ajax napped.  Dave worked on his Lego comic.   When Ajax got up he asked to watch “Buzz and Woody”, so we all watched Toy Story and played.   For dinner we decided to do a picnic in our living room and Ajax thought that was pretty cool too.  I tried to explain that picnics are usually outside, but that the weather was too rainy to be outside, but I don’t know if he understood that concept.

I can’t believe today is only Tuesday.  It feels like it should be at least Thursday.   What a week.

Last night I had to work late so Dave and Ajax were on their own for dinner, which consisted of left over chicken and veggies from the night before.   Dave said that he prepared the plate perfectly for the nino, set it down in front of Ajax and all Ajax could do was turn his nose up into the air and proclaim- Noo thaaank youu!  He then picked up a piece of chicken and said- this is trash dad, no thank you!  Can you believe that? lol.

Dave said that he ended up bribing Ajax with several grapes to get him to eat some of the chicken.  They had done bath by the time I got home, but I was able to play with Ajax a bit before he finally hit the sack around 8.  Being an adult can be a bummer sometimes when all you want to do is be home with your family.

Although it is officially spring, it’s still very cold out.  But because it was so sunny Dave and Ajax couldn’t resist a bit of playing around outside.  Dave has been trying to teach Ajax how to play catch and today Ajax caught a few balls.  I was doing dishes and Dave and Ajax kept yelling at me from the yard to watch, so sorry the pictures a bit blurry, they were taken from the house.  Ajax also helped Dave collect sticks from the front yard and put them in the burn pit.  Ajax loves to help pick up sticks.

We did a bit of running today.  We dropped my car at the shop for an oil change and then Dave and Ajax hit up up Home Depot while I went grocery shopping.  Fun times.  We then came home and made homemade pizza for dinner, which was awesome.

We also got a jump on some spring cleaning and spent our morning dusting and moping.  We also wanted to get the house in order for Ajax’s birthday party next weekend.  Can you believe that Ajax is going to be TWO?

Today at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor there was an event called Brick Bash.   In case you are unaware of what Brick Bash is (I was clueless until Dave filled me in) it’s a Lego induced frenzy of activity where kids and adults get to see some pretty awesome Lego creations, make their own Lego creations, and there were even some robots thrown in.      Ajax was feeling better today, his cold finally starting to break up, so we decided an outing would be good for all of us.   And of course we all know my husband’s love of Legos.

We got to Ann Arbor around noonish and the place was actually pretty packed.  For some reason we didn’t think there would be many people there, but we were obviously wrong.    Ajax loved it all.  There were model trains made of Legos that he kept trying to chase (round and round the table we went), there were little robots that zipped around a platform just at the right level for Ajax to kneel next to, there were even some drums that kids were allowed to touch and play with.  Ajax did wonderful, he held my hand the entire time and not once did he try to dart away into the crowd.   Toward the end, he did start to get a little tired, so we packed him up and had a quick snack in the cafeteria before setting off.

What an enjoyable Saturday.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  Ajax is a bit under the weather, my dad’s a bit under the weather, and I’ve been a bit under the weather.  Were all a bit under at the moment, luckily the weekend is right around the corner.

The other day for dinner we had “every man for himself” night.  You know, the traditional meal where dinner is comprised of various odds and ends found in the refrigerator.   I had left over chicken burritos, Dave had a pork chop and some hill billy goulash with apple sauce, and Ajax asked for oatmeal.   This was so random, that Dave and I both asked him, what do you want?  Oatmeal, Ajax replied.   It’s so funny that little man is old enough to know what he wants to eat and to have the vocabulary to communicate it.   So Ajax had oatmeal and applesauce for dinner.   At least he didn’t ask for pancakes.   Lately Ajax has wanted pancakes all the time, breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Goodness I woke up tired today.  Maybe that’s why I confused my dates.

As my favorite consignment shop closed, I decided to hit up a mom-2-mom sale.  On Thursday I just happened to see an ad for one on the 12th.   Great I thought.  So this morning Dave, Ajax, and I piled into the car to head off to St. Matthews Church.  As we were sitting in the church parking lot I was thinking, how odd that a church would have a sale on a Sunday.  Where are all the signs and moms with strollers?  Yes, it was odd, so odd because today was in fact the 13th.  Darn.

As we were out and about Ajax was not going to let us just go home without some sort of actual trip.  So, we cruised over to the mall and let Ajax play on the indoor play scape.   Ajax had a blast and for the longest time it was just him and another toddler who was 27 months.  Those two had a great time and played so well with each other.  Ajax even worked up to going down the slide on his own (something he hasn’t been 100% sold on as of yet).

Around noon we headed home for lunch.  After lunch Ajax held me make butterhorns.  He is a good helper, but he now likes to lick the flour from his hands.   I don’t know if this is necessarily bad for him or not, but it just seems like a bad idea to me, so then it turns into a game with me constantly cleaning his hands and him trying to get the flour into his mouth.  What fun.   I also let Ajax knead a small portion of the dough and he did such a good job, but then he took a bit out of it and I freaked out.  That certainly can’t be good for him.

It’s 2 pm and that means it’s nap time in our home.  All is quiet.   Ajax fell right asleep as we’ve had a very busy morning.

Ajax slept in until 7:30 this morning (yay!) and woke up in such a good mood.  We kicked it around the house till about 8:30 or so and then set off.  We had breakfast at our favorite Coney Island.  We hadn’t been there in quite a while and the waitress was surprised at how big Ajax was (we always seem to have the same waitress, which is nice).  Ajax was great at the restaurant and ate a ton.  He also inadvertently got chocolate milk with his meal, even though I had asked for white.   I was going to send it back, but Dave said, let him have it.   Ajax was polite and talked to the other patrons and even gave them high-fives as we left.

We then hit up Target and the Library (Ajax loves the library, especially all the different puzzles).  Ajax was again wonderful at each stop.   We then hit up Toys-R-Us.  Dave and I want to get Ajax a tricycle for his birthday, but we were unsure what size to buy for him.  I picked out the classic radio flyer on Amazon (with the little bell and streamers- so cute), but the comments all indicated that the 12 inch trike was just way too big for most 2 year olds.  I was able to find a 10 inch trike, but just wasn’t sure which one to get him.  So, this is why we stopped at TRU, to check out bikes.   The 12 inch bike was indeed way too big for Ajax and I’m glad he got to try out some different styles of bikes.  I think we’re going to go with a 10 inch tricycle, which he should grow into nicely over the summer.

We also did a stop at the grocery store and dollar store, and then made it home around 1 pm.   Again, Ajax did wonderful throughout all our stops, to the point where Dave and I were just amazed.   After we got home Ajax had some lunch, helped me dump some ingredients into the bread maker and played before crashing.

The weather is now turning cold and I think we may get some snow before the day is through.  I have been dreaming about spring and summer, but I realize we still have a few more storms before that comes.

Also, my dad was nice enough to come into town on Friday to babysit Ajax for us, thank you dad!  Ajax had a great time.

Last night Ajax finally slept through the night.  A full nights rest was delightful; however, I’m not celebrating yet.  Ajax has quite the stuffy nose and as a result is pretty congested.   We’ll keep trucking and hoping for sleep.

Today we hung around the house.  Dave made us a wonderful breakfast with homemade hash browns and then we did a bit of cleaning.  My mom came over around 1 pm and then we headed to the yearly Nader family reunion.   There was a very good turnout this year, probably about 75-100 people.   Ajax had tons of fun playing with his cousins and running around the hall.  Ajax is a pretty independent nino and generally does not hang on me when we are out in public.  Although today was no different, because there was such a large crowd he would periodically come back to me, hug my leg and then run off to play.  He just needed a bit of reassuring that I was there.   He had such a good time and ran nonstop for about 3.5 hours.

We got home around 4 and then my mom took off for home.  We had an early dinner of crockpot lasagna (a first time recipe that still needs some work) and then let Ajax play and skpye his grandparents in Mikado.   Ajax dumped all his toys onto the living room floor and then proceeded to trample them, shouting- ouch, my piggies!  Somehow he has gotten to calling his toes, piggies.  It’s pretty cute.

I had Dave give Ajax a hair cut as his hair was getting pretty long.  Ajax did very well and stood still while Dave trimmed his hair.

Well, the rest of our week was pretty quiet.   I think Ajax’s ear is feeling better, however, I think he may also be teething, possibly cutting his two year molars, but I am not sure.  He’s been quite the hand full lately with some incredible tantrums.  He also hasn’t been sleeping at night.  I don’t mean he fusses a bit at night which wakes Dave and I up.  No, I mean full out hysterical screaming at the top of his lungs where Dave and I are tripping over ourselves in the dark trying to find the light switch because I swear someone has to be in my child’s room for him to be screaming like that.   Our neighbors probably think we beat our child.  I believe Ajax has to be on the verge of some developmental breakthrough, I have no other explanation why my son has not slept in the past two weeks.

Today we’ve done a bit of running around – we took my car into the shop (to have some part replaced) and then we stopped to visit my grandpa Valentine.  I had also wanted to visit my favorite child’s consignment shop in Canton, only to find out it closed!  I am so bummed.   I plan on buying Ajax a new training potty this weekend as I inadvertently bought him a “girl” potty, which is unsuitable for little boys.  How was I to know?