November 18

Happy November!

That went by fast. Do I always say that? It always feels that way.

Ajax is now 11 months old! That means that next month will be his birthday! I am planning an adorable 1st birthday party for him, and I cannot wait to show you all how it turns out. But for now, let's recap the last month.

If you follow me on twitter or instagram, you've probably seen most of these photos. That's the nice thing about having an iphone now. I can take nice photos and upload them instantly! But really, these blog posts are mostly for me anyway. :)

After Ajax (mostly) got over his viral infection, we were able to get out of the house and do some festive fall things, like go to the pumpkin patch. 

We took Ajax on his first hayride. Sometimes, when we try new things, he doesn't react much. He observes.

And then when he sees something he likes, he dives in. Take this goat, for instance. He was not afraid at all.

He found all of the animals fascinating. He's never been afraid of animals. Jonathan is trying to convince me that this means we need a dog. Nope, sorry. Nope. We don't need a pig for a pet either. Sorry, Babe.

Jonathan thought it would be fun to take Ajax down this kid slide. Jax didn't cry, so I think that means he didn't hate it. It was a lame slide, though.

Naturally we had to set Ajax down for a classic fall photo with the hay and the pumpkins. I was able to snap this one in between him trying to eat the hay. 

After we had done most of the activities, we took a hayride out to the actual pumpkin patch. Jax wanted to stay there all night waiting for the Great Pumpkin. 

Ajax got into the Halloween spirit with this shirt his Grandma Schroath sent him. He makes a cute pumpkin.

On Halloween night, Jonathan had to work, so I took Ajax trick or treating for a short while with his cousins, the DeLucenas. Jonathan wanted him to be Hobbes from Calvin & Hobbes... but he was basically just a tiger. A cute tiger.

His uncle Guta the Storm Trooper loves Ajax and wanted to push him around all night. Jax couldn't stop turning around and looking at him.

After less than an hour of trick or treating, Ajax had quite the haul. So many people handed out full or king size candy bars, and he had plenty of other candy, most of which he couldn't eat. Guess where his candy went? Yep, Dad tax.

The first of November didn't start off great. Ajax started getting sick again. I'm not convinced he ever fully recovered from being sick in October. He had a bad cough and wheezing, so the doctor put him on a breathing treatment. We had to do it three times a day for 10-15 minutes for two weeks. Doesn't seem too bad, right? Well, Ajax isn't one to sit still and cuddle. He likes to be moving around and exploring. We only made it through these treatments because of Elmo and Charlie & Lola. And even then, it was rough. 

The worst part for me was that being sick has completely ruined his sleep schedule. He was sleeping through the night just fine before he got sick. Now he still wakes up once or twice every night. We're working on getting back to normal. Funny story, though. When he does wake up, or won't go to sleep, he stands up in his crib. I usually go in there and lay him back down and tuck him in again. Sometimes, this happens a lot before he finally falls asleep. Well the other night I went in to lay him down, and as soon as he saw me, he dove back onto the mattress and laid down. He knows I'm just going to lay him back down, so now he does it himself! Smart, cheeky boy. The first few times he did it I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing! It's the little things like that make me stop and think about how great it is to be Ajax's mom.

But don't get me wrong, I would really love for him to sleep through the night again! Thankfully, he is finally doing better and back to his normal self. Hopefully he'll be sleeping find again soon!

While he was sick, we had to keep him inside for the first week or so. Ajax and I had a lot of down time to hang out and "talk."

He's still great at mimicking. I taught him this in a matter of minutes one morning! It's hard to take videos of him because he gets so distracted, but you can see the trick in the first couple of seconds.

With Jonathan's new schedule, he is home in the mornings. I love how excited Ajax gets when he sees his Daddy when he wakes up! Usually he wouldn't see him until the end of the day. 

On election day, we made the short trip to our local elementary school to vote! I took this photo while we were waiting in line. I'd say about 85% of the photos I take of Jonathan turn out like this. Can't wait for Ajax to pick up on that...

Every once in a while, I get a great photo like this one. I love my handsome boys.

With football season still in full swing, and basketball season starting, that meant Grandpa Schroath was due for another visit. The weekend he came, it snowed a ton! Definitely the most snow Ajax has seen in his life. Grandpa helped him get acquainted with the snow.

Grandpa brought Ajax some Christmas books that Grandma found him at a garage sale. One of them was Frosty the Snowman. We got a kick of listening to his Uncle Garrett read him the story... but as he spontaneously translated it into Dutch! The pronunciation of
"snowman" in Dutch made us laugh. Ajax didn't care too much either way. He just likes stories.

That night, we headed out into the snowstorm and went to support our BYU Cougars in their home opener game. Ajax and I won four tickets to the game a couple of months ago--we've (I've) been looking forward to it for a while! I plan on raising Ajax to be a BYU basketball fan player, so it was exciting for me to take him to his first game! (Side note: the night before Ajax was born, I was at a BYU basketball game. But I don't think that really counts for him.)

He didn't know what he should think at first...

But he's into it now! Look at that concentration. Probably analyzing and picking up some pointers for later. I've already told him several times that when he's a bit bigger, we will be shooting free throws every day.

It was nice to have my Dad there for the game and to get to hang out with Garrett (and Cam, but he's not in the photo). And it was nice to have a few extra hands to help with Ajax (during timeouts, of course--otherwise he was glued to the court... not really. but one day).

One of my favorite things about having a kid is getting to dress him how I want. I couldn't resist buying this bowtie. Because bowties are cool.

I've probably been saying this for months, but Ajax loves to eat whatever we are eating. He won't eat his baby food anymore. I still haven't found a food he doesn't like, and he has tried a lot of different foods. One day, I walked in the kitchen to find Jonathan at the table eating a pie right out of the pie tin, sharing every other bite with Ajax. Oh boys.

Ajax's hair was getting too long. Part of me didn't want to cut his hair, because he's still a baby! The other part of me didn't want him to look like a girl. You can guess which part won. But someday (or never) I'll have to figure out how to deal with him growing up.

He was mostly good for the hair cut, as long as he got to hold onto the squirt bottle. I was worried that he would lose his curls, but his hair is still curly as ever when wet. I've been having too much fun styling it different ways!

I love his toothy smile. Especially his vampire teeth. He had both of those teeth in by the end of October. He's just now getting his two front teeth. Also, I think it's funny (mostly cute) how much more noticeable it is after his hair cut that his ears stick out! 

On days when Jonathan is at work and we need to get out of the house, our first likely stop is the DeLucenas. Angela and Guta and their four (almost five) kids love playing with Ajax, and we love playing with them. We've had some unusually warm days this November, so we've had some nice late afternoons outside on the swings.

Last week, Ajax had his first sort of play date with my friend's little boy! He is five months younger than Ajax, but they still had some fun together. Jax definitely needs to make some more friends and have some more play dates in the future. He loves being around other kids.

(I stole your photo, Karie! Hope that's okay!)

A few months ago, we booked a mini vacation to Park City for the three of us. With Jonathan's shift change, he ended up having to work one of the nights, so my mother-in-law Becky came up with Ajax and I for the night. We went shopping, out to dinner, and played lots. Saturday morning Becky went home and Jonathan drove up and spent the rest of the day and night with us. We took our first family photos in the afternoon, then grabbed dinner and a movie before we took Ajax back to the resort to swim. He only lasted about five minutes, holding on to me tightly. To be fair, the water was cold and not very pleasant, and there were loud kids all around us. We'll try again next week when we're in Boise for Thanksgiving! 

By the end of our short trip, we had worn out the poor dude. He had fun exploring a new place, though, and we all enjoyed the short break from home. Really it just made me more excited for our Thanksgiving trip! We haven't seen very much of Jonathan lately, so we will make the most of our time together. 

I can't wait to show you the photos we had taken of Ajax this weekend! You'll have to wait for his birthday post. But here's a bit of a preview:

Ajax is such a sweet, adventurous, silly, charming, adorable boy. He is always smiling, always making friends with strangers. People always come up to me and tell me how sweet and special he is. I always love the reminder. He's is stubborn, and gets into everything, and wakes me up at night, and still thinks it's funny when I shake my head and tell him "No!". But I love him for it. 

Happy 11 months, baby Ajax! Love you, sweetheart!