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.

Fun with AJ

Last week I interviewed for a two different jobs. I could tell right away that one of them was not what I was interested in doing, so I let them know that. The other is very interesting to me, but they had a lot of applicants and I fear I won't be offered that job. I thought I'd be more upset about that fact, but I'm not. AJ and I are having lots of fun and I don't feel lonely any more. I have made several friends through the play groups and activity groups that we attend every week. Last night, the guys all went to one house to play poker and the girls all came to our house to play games and hang out.

I know that if I go back to work, it will only be for something I know I'll enjoy doing, and I only want to work part time right now. I hate the thought of giving up all my time with AJ. He is more and more fun every day. He has let me read to him for some time, but lately he is wanting to be read to more often. I love reading to him because it's one of the few times that I get to hold and cuddle him in my lap. I have baskets of books all over the house so that he'll be inspired to have me read to him. If he brings me a book, I'll drop whatever I'm doing (if possible) to sit and read to him on the spot. I never used to know for sure if AJ could tell what the pictures were of if the book had cartoon like pictures. In the past month, I've been able to tell that he does know. If he sees something in the book that he knows the sign for, he'll sign it when he sees it. He has a book with fish that he'll start signing "fish" when he brings it to me. He has another book that as I was reading to him yesterday, he started signing tooth brush. I looked at the page because the words don't say anything about a toothbrush, and noticed for the first time that there is a drawing of a tooth brush on the counter. One of his favorite books right now is called "This little baby's morning." He will often bring it to me and then sign tooth brush because the book is all about the baby's morning routine and the baby brushes her teeth as part of the routine. AJ remembers this even before we open the book. Of course, he should know what it is about, he's only had me read it a couple hundred times by now.

AJ feeds himself

So, more and more I'm trying to relinquish control over the spoon to AJ. I guess I still want to feed him to avoid the mess and also keep him my baby. But, he is becoming more and more independent minded and wants to do it himself. So, I am letting him, but the result is just as I feared, he is messy and always, always puts his hands in his hair. This is the new hair style he created at breakfast this morning.

COSI fun!

This week AJ and I visited COSI (Center of Science and Industry). It's a huge children's museum. It was awesome! There is so much to see and do for all ages. We visited a lot of the exhibits, but most of our time on this trip was spent in the small kids' play area. AJ had a blast! This play area is so big, there is just lots to keep him entertained, but his favorite part was the water section. There are three parts to it. For the older kids, there is a thing that you can shoot water at different targets. Then there is just an area where kids can stand and play with toys floating in this one water tank. Then for little ones and babies, you can put them in these seats and there is a big fountain that pours down water in the center and toys float around and small fountains shoot up little squirts of water at various intervals. AJ played in this and the water tank and had a blast! I got a few pics of him playing here before my camera battery died. I was warned by a friend I've made at one of the play groups to bring an extra set of clothes in case he got wet. He got very wet! But that was okay. When he was done playing with the water and wanted to play in a different area, I took his wet stuff off, put dry on, and COSI offers clothes dryers so his clothes dried while we finished playing. I'll warn everyone, we loved this place. We're getting a membership and anyone who comes to visit is going to be dragged there to play with us!

Vroom vroom!

We finally unpacked AJ's yellow mini and put it in his room. He LOVES that car. Every day now, he gets in and out of it and plays around. We do not plan to put the battery in for some time. For now, it has served a good purpose in AJ's room. He plays for a while by himself upstairs while I try to get more unpacking done. I have just about unpacked everything that I can. I think that the only things left to be unpacked are Dave's Nebraska room stuff and garage stuff. That is Dave's territory, so if he wants to have the garage and basement cluttered, that is fine as long as I have a place to park in the garage.

My little Anthony is becoming more helpful in other was these days. He is more cooperative while I dress him now. He follows directions when I ask him to put his arms through the sleeves or stick his foot up for a sock. He'll take things to the trash when I ask. Now I'm working on getting him to put toys away in the toybox. Yesterday he was pushing a toy that has balls inside that pop when pushed. It was time to go up for bed so I told AJ to put the ball popper in his toybox. I asked him two times and he took it right over and put it in. I cheered for his accomplishment and he was so proud, he started clapping. He is not always so eager to clean up messes he makes, but this is a good start. He is funny about his Little People Zoo set. It has a plastic bag that all the zoo animals go in. AJ will get out a few animals at a time to play with, but always puts them back in the bag. If I get any animals out to show him, he'll take them away from me and put them back in the bag. Not sure what that is about, but I'm glad because I was concerned that the animals would be spread all over this place.

Anthony's Daily Hygeine

Every day I brush AJ's teeth and then I give him the tooth brush and he brushes for a while. He loves to brush his teeth. He also loves to brush his hair. He takes his daily hygeine rituals very seriously. He has now leanred the sign for brushing teeth and has developed his own sign for brushing hair to let me know when he wants to brush teeth and hair. Of course, this is usually when I am brushing my hair and teeth. I start to brush my hair, and he runs his hand over his hair. So, I give him his brush while I finish brushing my hair. Usually, when I'm done and put my brush back in the drawer, he wants to put his back in the drawer too. Then I get out my tooth brush, and he puts his finger in or close to his mouth and moves it back and forth. So, I first brush his teeth, then hand him the toothbrush, pick him up and brush my teeth holding him. He likes to brush his teeth while watching me brush mine in the mirror. When I rinse mine and put it away, then he hands me his so I can do the same with his brush. By the way, AJ now has 5 teeth to brush!

My funny boy!

Lately I've been reading about developmental skills that AJ should have by the time that he is 15 months old. Most of which were things he had already achieved, but one thing he hadn't ever done was stack blocks. By 15 months, he only needs to be able to stack two blocks, but I had never seen him do it. So, I sit down with him and try to show him stacking. He, of course, would take great pleasure in knocking down the blocks I built up. So, after several attempts at getting him to do it by himself, I gave up for the day. Then at lunch time, I slice him a banana on his high chair tray, he puts two slices in his mouth then proceeds to stack four banana slices on top of each other. Today, I take him to the grocery store and then when we get home, I bring him in, plop him and a couple sacks of groceries on the kitchen floor to run back to the car and get the rest of the bags. When I get back to the kitchen, he has taken out cans of vegetables and has three of them stacked on top of each other. So, my kid won't stack blocks, but I guess he has the concept anyway.

AJ and I continue to have lots of fun. We started back to our Wednesday playgroup this week. He was really sweet to a little girl who came crying. He kept patting her back and getting in her face, expressing his concern. Unfortunately, she did not appreciate his attempts at comfort.

Dave is not working as much now that he has things better under control at work so we have had two Zoo outings as a family. AJ loves the zoo. He gets so excited to see the animals. I was proud that he did not call all of the animals dogs. In fact, he gave the sign for cat when he saw the female lions. He loved the gorillas the best. We got to see them in an indoor building through glass. We let AJ get down and walk around. The gorillas were very active and would come knock on the glass. There was a baby gorilla just about AJ's size that was running back and forth and AJ would run back and forth laughing like he was chasing the baby. We must have spent a half hour at the gorilla exhibit and AJ still did not want to leave when we told him it was time to go. I wish I wouldn't have forgotten my camera again!

Christmas 2005

AJ had a great Christmas. The whole family got to spend time in Kansas with some of the grandparents. AJ enjoyed some time with all his cousins. With Ellie and Josh, he wanted to be a big kid and do everything they were doing, and with Dean, AJ wanted Dean to be bigger and be able to get up and play with him. A few times he would grab Dean by the hand and pull on him like he wanted him to come along. Though AJ doesn't look thrilled in his picture with Dean, it was only because AJ is not a fan of having to sit still for pics these days. He is a busy boy and always wanting to be on the go. Speaking of wanting to be on the go...AJ found the suckers on this trip to be his grandpa Cook and his friends Al and Steven. These were the guys willing to walk (and run) with him all over, take him outside, and play chase. All of AJ's favorite activities. AJ bonded so much with grandpa that when saying goodbye at the airport, AJ did not want grandpa to leave. When mom tried to take him from grandpa, he pulled his hands back and shook his head at me. He fussed when I took him away from grandpa, reaching his hands out for him and whining when he saw grandpa go out the doors. AJ is such a traitor! Thank goodness we are back at home and suddenly, mommy's existence is once again important to the little boy.

Though initially acting shy, AJ quickly warmed up to his grandpa Lentz who came to our house in Ohio today for a Christmas visit. He learned quickly that this grandpa was fun to play with as well. What a terrific holiday time we have had this year!

Home in Ohio

Though it doesn't seem that we've had lots of time at home because of all our travels, AJ certainly seems to know it is home. He has the layout of the house down and seems very happy in this house. He has developed a routine and seems to be learning more and more all the time. AJ's vocabulary at 14 months old only includes "dadda, dog, duck, down, and up." Notice that most of these words start with a "d" and none of these words include "mamma." Though AJ's verbal vocabulary is limited, he still communicates with us in his way. He has learned some sign language. He knows 19 different signs now. He has certain signs that he uses more than others such as "more" and "all done," but he does also know "dog, cat, fish, bird, ball, airplane, car, book, music, bath (another nighly favorite), food, drink, milk, up, hat, light, and fan. In addition, he knows how to grab us by the hand and pull him toward whatever he wants such as the door going outside.

Traveling Babe

It feels as though Amber and AJ have been on the go for the past year. By 14 months old, AJ had been on 6 different plane trips (25 individual plane rides in all). Within weeks of Thanksgiving, we were back in AR again for a wedding. Once again, AJ found that Mammaw was such a push-over. He found that she would take him outside just about any time he would walk her to the door and point to it. She would say, "Okay, let's get your coat on." So, now anytime I say to him that he needs to get his coat on, he gets excited thinking he is going to get to go play outside. This kid would live outdoors if we let him. He loved playing in the leaves and making leaf angels.

Thanksgiving 2005

AJ and Amber went to Arkansas for Thanksgiving. We had a great visit with Mammaw. AJ quickly figured out that Mammaw was a sucker and would do just about anything he wanted her to do. He loved holding onto her finger and walking her all over the house. Any time mom walked by him, he would immediately hold out his hand so she would "walk" him about the house. During this visit, AJ finally got over his fear of walking on his own. It was lots of fun to share this developmental milestone with Mammaw. She got to see him becoming braver and braver each day. He started by walking back and forth between Amber and Mammaw a few steps at a time. Then we kept moving further and further apart. By the end of the week, he was all over the house on his own.

11-05-05

First Word - 11/5/2005

Notes: At ten months, AJ began saying his first real word: DOG. He loves dogs and is very enthusiastic when he sees one. He is really enthusiastic when he sees most any animal and he thinks they are all dogs. For the past month and a half we have been living in a hotel room in Ohio waiting to get a house of our own. I brought with us only a few of his toys because we knew we wouldn't have a lot of room. The rest went to storage. I did bring one stuffed dog and one stuffed bear. AJ does know the difference between them. If asked where the dog is, he will either point to one of the real dogs or to his stuffed dog. If asked where his bear is, he will go get his bear, but he can't yet say the word bear. This picture was taken the last day in our house in Kansas. AJ was fussing a little bit and I got the camera thinking I would take a fussy faced picture and say he was sad we were leaving our home in Kansas, but as soon as I started to take the picture, he started to laugh.

One year old - 11/5/2005

Notes: On October 20th, AJ turned one year old. I can't believe how fast this year has gone. I walked past a mirror holding AJ today and stood looking at him in my arms. His legs dangled down so far. He suddenly looked so big to me, like he was a little boy and not a baby. How can that be? What really gets me is that it feels like no time at all ago he was tiny and I could hold him in one arm yet at the same time it seems difficult to remember ever not having him. He has been the greatest gift God ever gave us. He is such a sweetie. Lately, he has been giving kisses upon request and he will give kisses to his stuffed dog then put the dog to my mouth for the dog to give me a kiss too. AJ took his first steps the week before his first birthday. Unfortunately I missed them. He was staying with Grandpma and Grandpa Cook while I was at a conference and he took four steps by himself while with them. I thought after that he would be off and running in no time. I was wrong. He would only occassionally take steps by himself up until this past week. He learned how to push himself up to a standing position from the floor. He was so proud of himself, then he started walking. Unfortunately, he could only get so far in the hotel room before running into something. So, we started spending a lot of time in the hallway so he'd have further to go with no obstructions. He was doing better and better taking 8 to 10 steps at a time before falling on his bottom. I became afraid that I was encouraging him to fall because when he fell the first few times, I wanted him to be encouraged to keep trying and not get upset so I clapped and cheered him. After that, AJ would start to fall with great effect on his bottom and then clap as though he were saying "yeah, I fell again!" So, I started clapping and cheering while he was walking. So then AJ started to clap while he was in mid stride, lost his balance and went down very hard on his face. That was two days ago and he has refused to try to walk on his own since then. Dave tried to take him in the hall and pull out his finger AJ was holding onto while AJ was walking and AJ through the biggest fit. He screamed, threw himself down on the carpet and wailed. AJ is very sweet most of the time, but at the ripe old age of one, he has already learned to throw his body around and burst into angry tears when he is mad. It is hard not to laugh now because these tantrums are so cute at this age, but I fear we will be in grave trouble in the future.

hotel sweet home - 11/5/2005

Notes: So, as I've mentioned before, we have been living in a hotel for quite a while. AJ has been in his playpen. I miss the crib. I also miss sleeping through the night. I finally figured out why AJ keeps waking up during the night here. I was up late one night in the "living room" of the hotel room close to where AJ's crib is set up and I heard the outside door to the hotel slam shut loudly. AJ jumped and cried. I realized another time I was going to the bathroom that the same thing happened in the middle of the night. There are sometimes people here at the hotel who come in and out at all hours and since our room door is right by the outside door, it keeps waking up AJ when it slams shut. I fear that AJ is getting used to getting up at night and having mommy cuddle him badck to sleep. This may become a habit that will require breaking once we get into our own house. I can't let him cry here during the night because I don't want to wake up other people in the hotel.

Well since we have moved to Ohio, I have not returned to the working world. I have stayed "home" with AJ. I never thought I could be off work this long without missing it, but I really haven't. I really loved the job I left in Kansas, but have been having a ball with AJ. We have spent a lot of time figuring out things to do during the day to get out of the hotel. We frequent the Gahanna library a lot. They have story time for infants and toddlers every Monday, plus they just have a really cool library with lots of great books and videos for all ages. AJ likes to go play with the stuffed animals they have there and help me pick out books that are on his level in the little one's section. On Wednesdays we go to a music class for toddlers. AJ loves it. There is a lot of movement and singing and playing of instruments plus he loves watching other kids. There is another play group we participate in most weeks. We also frequent a mall about 15 minutes from the hotel that has a Zoo play area for kids. AJ really likes it there. Lots of kids and things for him to climb on and crawl under and through. We've learned that the mall that is just minutes from the house we are buying is building a new play area for kids that will be opening just after we move into our house, so we'll have another place to hang out. ....Okay, one last thing to add before we say goodbye to this site. Grandpa Cook says that AJ speaks Chinese and I must admit it does sort of sound like that at times. Dave and I had to smile this evening when we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaraunt. The hostess had a little boy with her. She told us he was 20 months hold. It wasn't very busy so she was letting him play around the tables. He brought out a big ball and was playing with it near us, causing AJ to start cracking up in laughter. This encouraged the boy to play closer to us and to try to interact with AJ. The boy started to speak to AJ (in what I truly believe was actual Chinese) and AJ appeared to completely understand him because he just babbled right on back to him and then the boy laughed as though the kids had shared this private joke. I thought Grandpa Cook would just laugh if he saw this happening and would be quite sure that AJ was indeed speaking fluent Chinese. My little genius. (Well, okay, maybe not so much a genius since he still doesn't say "mamma" unless that is, he is saying it in Chinese and I don't understand him.)

07-15-05

New Accomplishments - 7/15/2005

Notes: So the past two weeks have been busy for AJ. His Mammaw from Arkansas came and stayed for two weeks and so he had to show off for her. When Mammaw got here AJ was starting to get around the house by dragging himself with his arms. He would reach out with both hands, grab the floor and pull his body along the floor with his arms only. Each day during the past two weeks we saw some development in his mobility. He started figuring out how to alternate his arms to pull himself faster, then he figured out how to get the legs/knees going too. What he is doing now is an Army style crawl. He is capable of getting up and crawling on his hands and knees...he has done this some, but has figured out that he can get along much faster his "boot camp" way. In addition to this, he has also figured out how to get from his tummy to his knees and then to his bottom. This was a big deal to him because now he can crawl to different toys in the house and then sit up and play with them once he gets there. Now we really have to put everything out of reach! AJ can pull up on just about everything. His favorite thing to do is to crawl around and chase the dogs until they jump on the couch to escape him. The dogs used to think they were safe up there, but now the baby is standing and can reach them on the couch unless they get on the back of the couch. Mammaw got to see AJ's daily development but she left today before she got to see his newest trick. Today AJ learned how to side step holding onto the furniture. So he'll pull up at one end of the couch and hold on and walk to the other end to try to get a dog. Disney is too quick for him, but Mister has had his ears and tail pulled a time or two because he fell asleep and didn't see AJ coming. AJ has also figured out how to pull up on the couch and then reach out and switch to the coffee table. As much fun as this baby's new found mobility is, we definitely have to watch him like a hawk all the time.

AJ at 6 months

04-18-04

Busy Baby - 4/18/2005

Notes: All and all AJ has been a very busy baby lately. Last week we started a water babies class. Dave and I both get in the water with him. It is twice a week for three weeks. It has been so much fun. AJ just loves the water and is always so relaxed. One time he actually tried to go to sleep while we were having him do the back float. The water really wore him out though. The first night of class, we barely kept him awake until 7:30 PM, and he stayed asleep until 7:30 AM.

04-18-05

Notes: Okay, so I'm a little behind in adding this to the book. AJ has actually been eating solids for the past 3 or 4 weeks. He loves them! So far he has been eating cereal and we added a different veggie every few days. Today, he'll finally get a taste of the sweet stuff...FRUIT! This kid has loved every veggie I've given him, so I imagine he'll be crazy about fruit. The only complaint he seems to have is that he never thinks we give him enough food. I've been trying to limit his intake to some degree...not to be cruel, but because of his reflux disorder, the food we give never seems to stay down so we have squash and green beans oozing back up 45 minutes later. We have now been instructed to go ahead and feed him more, but we have to put him on a medicine that will help his stomach digest food better. We were trying to avoid more medicine for our little guy, but the doctor is pretty concerned that solid foods won't stay down either. So, we'll give the medicine a try for a month or so, and see how things are going then. We're told that if he is a year old and still not able to keep solids down without medicine, we may have to consider surgery. Let's pray that won't be necessary!

01/29/05

First Time I Slept Through the Night - 1/29/2005

Notes: AJ's actual first night of sleeping through the night was a couple of days before he turned 3 months old. He slept a 10 hour stretch. I got up at least twice to check to make sure he was still breathing. Then he went back to a pattern of sleeping 5 or 6 hours and then eating, gowing right back to sleep and sleeping another 4 or 5 hours (10 total at night). Three nights in a row now, he has slept 8 or more hours straight so we are keeping our fingers crossed that this new pattern will continue. He's actually sleeping longer this way. We put him to bed between 9 PM and 9:30 PM most nights, and the past three nights he would sleep 8 or 8 1/2 hours, then would still go right back to sleep and sleap until 9 AM when left to wake on his own. One morning I had to wake him to take him to daycare. This was a wonderful weekend for us because it was really the first that we got to sleep in with the exception of when we were in Arkansas and Mammaw took him for us. We don't expect all nights from here on out to be this good, but we can wish, can't we?