July 18

You guessed it. Another month has gone by. Ajax has now been on this planet for 7 months!

Sometimes it seems like a lot longer than that. I'm amazed at how much he knows already. But it has been a very short time and I'm glad we still have a long road ahead.

Notable things that happened this month...

Ajax finally got to meet his Aunt Missy and cousins Claire and Sydney (he already met Uncle Lyndon a couple of months ago).

Lyndon just finished medical school at Dartmouth, and they moved to Salt Lake City for a year while he does an internship. We went up to visit them on a Sunday evening a couple of days after they arrived. I think they were all happy to finally meet. Ajax always loves to have someone new to play with him.

Lyndon and Missy live in a beautiful part of Salt Lake City, so after dinner we took a walk around the neighborhood.

Claire and Sydney stopped to pick some flowers.

And Missy did her best to get Ajax to laugh, and succeeded. 

Ajax may not be sure how to handle so many girls. All of his girl cousins love to hold him, touch him, play with him. Missy is due with a baby in December. We're hoping it's a boy so Ajax has another boy cousin close to his age.

My two handsome boys.

I couldn't resist taking these photos of Ajax. He is just so cuuuuuuute! Jonathan and I probably think and/or say so ten times a day at least. 

This is my favorite photo of him at the moment. I adore that face. I think he might grow up quite handsome.

Since he lives close by, Uncle Garrett comes over for dinner a lot. He is great at keeping Ajax entertained. Especially if that entertainment involves jumping. Jax loves to jump. Here's Garrett and my niece Shanna jumping with Ajax:

Ajax has tried many new things this month, mostly thanks to his Dad.

He now loves to drink out of our cups. Whenever we have cups of anything, he will squawk until he gets a drink too.

 He also has to have a taste of any fruit we eat. For some reason he's much calmer with Jonathan. When I'm the one eating an apple, he's much grumpier about letting me have a turn.

He's also a big fan of graham crackers now:

A week or so ago, we all went to a goodbye party for our very close friends, Katie and Louis. They are moving to Boston so Louis can go to medical school. We will miss them! One of their other couple friends brought their new puppy. I wasn't sure how Ajax would react. I'm pretty sure that with Ajax, curiosity will always win over fear. 

He makes that noise he does in the video when he gets excited about something. He really wanted to touch that puppy! Jonathan is now even more convinced that we need a dog. I am not.

I know that some kids really don't like the feel of grass. Jax doesn't mind at all! He is perfectly content sitting right on the grass. He likes to grab it and pull it out of the ground. And then try to eat it, of course.

He also experienced his first real rain storm a few days ago. It hasn't rained much this year, so he hasn't had much experience with it. He wasn't sure what to think, but it did fascinate him for a while.

Because Ajax is so big and tall, we have a hard time finding pajamas that fit him. One night we had the brilliant idea of letting him sleep in one of our old t-shirts. But we couldn't find one quite small enough. He looked really cute, though!

I had to throw this picture in here because I bought Ajax these bright green shorts that I love. They are so adorable. I had to stop myself from buying them in several other bright colors and sizes. One of the best things about having a kid is getting to dress him the way I want. :)

When Jonathan is at work, Ajax and I get to spend a lot of time together at home. He is my buddy for everything I do, whether it's making dinner and doing the dishes, picking up the living room, or folding laundry. And since he is our first child, here are the almost obligatory photos of him sitting in a laundry basket. 

(Clearly, one was taken with my camera, and the other with my terrible camera phone. But this one was too cute not to include.)

When we're not taking care of household chores, Ajax and I play with toys, go outside on walks, read books, sing songs, and, most often, have crazy dance parties to whatever music I'm obsessing over at the time. He's quite the dance partner. Almost as good as his Dad.

I really think Ajax will have a personality like Jonathan--very outgoing and friendly. When Jonathan and I were first dating, and he met my little sister Amanda (who is 10 years younger than me and probably only 9 or 10 at the time), she told me that Jonathan reminded her of a puppy, because he was so nice and happy and friendly. Ajax is the same way. He will smile at anyone and loves making new friends. It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like. 

Case in point, we went to the baptism of Stephanie Rivera, one of the girls I worked with when I was President over the Young Women in our last ward. (For those of you not familiar with the LDS church, members in an area are part of ward congregations. Each ward  usually has about 300-400 members, and then all of the wards in one area make up a Stake. Orem, Utah, where we live, and which has a lot of LDS members, has about 20 stakes. The LDS church has a program specifically for young women, ages 12-18. Each ward has a young women's presidency that oversees the program.) Stephanie and her Mom live in a new ward, and at her baptism, we only knew a few people out of the 30-40 people who were there. Ajax didn't care. He smiled and talked to everyone, and let strangers hold him. He is very social, and I'm sure he will have a lot of friends someday.

By the way, Stephanie's baptism was wonderful, and I am very happy for her because she is finally happy. And she has found some great new friends who take great care of her and her Mom. Here's a picture of us with Stephanie, and Jens and Lilian Dana. Lilian was my 1st Counselor. It had been over a year since we had seen each other, so it was great to reconnect, especially at such a great event.

The other reason I think Ajax will be very social is that he loves to "talk." All the time. This video is just a taste of what it is like to be around him for any amount of time. It's fun and cute, unless you're in church or some place where we need to be quiet. Usually all I can do then is just look apologetic and hope no one minds his babbling too much!

Ajax is a wonderful blessing in our little family. We love him more than we know how to express. He adds so much joy to our lives, and we are grateful our Heavenly Father decided to send Him to us. 

Love you, little dude!