The boy needs a haircut!

AJ's hair has gotten very long and difficult to tame each day. It is with great effot that I manage to make him look less wild each day. It is time for a hair cut. I promised grandpa Cook that he could be there for AJ's first hair cut, so I've been holding off until we visit him again. We will be heading to Kansas next week and AJ will be getting his first hair cut soon after. It will be a relief not to work so hard to keep the hair out of AJ's eyes. He gets so mad when the ends of his bang hair poke at him in his eyes.

With wild hair, he just looks that much more like a little trouble maker. The kid is so willful it's funny. Discipline is a bit tough with him because I can tell him not to do something and he'll not only do it, but defy me with a big grin on his face. (Such as in the following pictures where I've told him not to go up the stairs.) I left the baby gate down on purpose because I knew he would go up laughing all the way as I'm telling him no. It's a good thing he's cute.





Mostly, the deal is that AJ LOVES to be chased. He is the same way when it comes time to change a diaper, put on shoes, or whatever. All he has to do is see me take a diaper out of the drawer in the play room and he'll start smiling and running away. I don't even have to say a thing to him. He knows that I want to change his diaper and he knows that I'll chase him down to get it done. So, usually I'll just sit for a minute and ask him to come to me while he'll run around "the loop" in our house between the play room, kitchen, and hall way. He'll peek at me from one side, laugh and then run the other way to peek at me from that door way and then back again. He'll keep that up until I get up to chase him in order to get that diaper changed or shoes on.

AJ's Shelf

I bought this kitchen utility cart for a couple of reasons. First, I really don't have a lot of counter top space, so it's been nice to suplement for a little extra space when I'm preparing food or whatever. I also thought it would be nice to be able to have some wire baskets on the shelves below to hold things like potatoes and onions. It was a good thought. So far, I have been able to put things on the very bottom shelf without much problem. However, AJ has claimed the upper shelf. If I put anything on that shelf, he'll take it off. He likes to just stand and play with toys there, especially his cars and truck. I gave up trying to regain control over that shelf. Too many onions, potatoes, and bananas were hurt in the battle.

Play Group

Here are a few pics of AJ playing at our Wednesday playgroup. I never managed to get a good picture of AJ and Lauren when they were both facing me. Lauren is AJ's best friend at this play group. They look for each other when they arrive. Lauren's mom says that Lauren does not yet say "mamma" either, but each time they arrive at the church where the playgroup is held, Lauren starts saying "AJ." Recently, AJ has discovered the fireman's hat. This kid loves to wear hats.

Animal Chaos!

Okay, remember that once upon a time, AJ was very emphatic about keeping his Little People Zoo animals in the plastic bag? Well, Dave thought that this was funny and thought it would be interesting to see how AJ would react if Dave just took the bag from him and dumped out all the animals. The result? AJ laughed and laughed and then put his animals back just so he could dump them all out again. Now, he won't keep the animals in the bag. I put them back a few times each day and he'll dump them all out again. I can coax him into helping me put toys back in the toy box, but he will not put his animals away now. He'll dump them out, play with them awhile, and then leave them scattered on the floor. I'm not sure how well they can be seen, but this is a picture of AJ and his scattered animals.