Merry Christmas #2

We had a great Christmas this year. We weren't sure what to expect, but as always the Lord provided us with good company and fun times. We went over to a friend's house for dinner on Christmas Eve. Axel was a champ. He wasn't able to sleep during his nap because he was so excited that Santa was coming. He spent almost the entire hour and fifteen minutes he was lying in bed singing at the top of his lungs, "Santa is coming to town!". It probably didn't help that we had him open a gift on Christmas Eve morning. We were hoping the classic Christmas movies would entertain him while we were at dinner. The only problem was that we couldn't say no to Axel watching one movie in the morning. He watched "Santa is coming to town", if you couldn't guess by his singing and chanting at nap time. He absolutely loved to learn about good old Kris Kringle and how he started delivering toys to children.

We attempted to go to church as a family, but Axel's lack of sleep resulted in a total melt down about half way through the service. The place was way too packed to deal with a screaming child so we decided to leave. We stopped by the house to pick up the pack n play as well as Axel's pillow and blanket thinking he might want to crash early at our friend's house. We were pleasantly surprised by Axel's angelic behavior that lasted until 10:30pm! We told ourselves that we would leave as soon as he started to melt down, but it never came. It was such a blessing to be able to share a nice meal and time with friends without having to worry about Axel.

Axel did struggle to get to sleep, but I do believe he was in dream land just about 11pm. He woke just after 7am, which was a bit early for him considering he went to bed so late. Here is Axel on Christmas morning. It took him a few minutes to become his happy self. He was excited to see Mark, his elf, on the Christmas tree, and the plate of cookies for Santa empty. He knew that Santa had come and that Mark would be going back to the North pole until next year.

Axel was a great little helper as he climbed under the Christmas tree to reach the presents that were deep underneath.

Axel opened Santa's gifts first. He loved the train tracks that Santa sent him so much that we had to bargain with him to continue to open his other gifts.

We did give him amble time between gifts, but we realized the little guy really only needs a couple of presents. The difficult thing about that is he is loved so much by all of his family that EVERYONE sends him gifts. Hopefully our house will not be overtaken by toys. I already stored a few toys in the attic to make more room :)

To back track. On the Thursday before Christmas Axel was able to have another play date with our neighbor Rishaan. They just happen to both wear Mickey Mouse t-shirts that day. They are the cutest kids ever. One game they played for almost an hour was the sleeping game. They would run into Rishaan's room, lie in his bed, pull the covers up and giggle. They would then run out of the bedroom into the living room and repeat x 100 times. Hema was able to grab a picture of them as we opened the door quickly and caught them lying still giggling. I will have to post that once she forwards it to me. I only managed to get one photo on my phone. It is not very good, but you can see the Mickey Mouse shirts and how much taller Rishaan is than Axel.

On Christmas Eve morning, Axel and I raked the front yard and played in the leaves. Axel loves leaves.

He played in the leaves over the weekend when daddy and him raked as well. He actually told me that we needed to rake because there was too many leaves in the front yard. Here are a couple of pictures and yes, he likes to go into the yard waste bin. What can I say, boys will be boys!

Axel continues to amaze us and we feel so blessed to have such a wonderful child. He seems to be growing as he feels heavier and he looks taller compared to the dining room table. He loves to sing at the top of his lungs, no matter where we are. I really need to get a video of him singing, but he tends to claim up when he knows I am recording him. He loves to help and do what mommy and daddy are doing. He rather help do chores than play on his own. He is becoming more and more articulate and smarter by the minute. He loves to extend his bedtime and naptime in whatever way he can. He loves to fix things and take care of others if they are injured. For example, today he got a bandaid for me when I scraped my knuckle on the corner of a cabinet. He put it on me and said, "are you all better mommy?" I will leave you with a picture of Axel "fixing" his bike.

Merry Christmas #1

We had a small Christmas celebration on Saturday. I made chicken enchiladas and Spanish rice from scratch. It was not to bad for my first attempt. Everyone was really nice and pretended like they liked it :)

Desert was a bigger hit with the chocolate vegan cake (for baby Jesus), the persimmon cookies and the "to die for" pumpkin ice cream.

After everyone de-stressed from their travels and after eating dinner we got right into present opening. Axel was such a big helper. He carried all of his presents and then handed out everyone else's presents. Here he is carrying his super big present from Auntie and Uncle. This was his first present of the day. It was a giant cardboard space ship that is designed to be colored or painted.

Axel really wanted to put it together right away, but we were able to convince him to keep opening the other presents. Here he is with present number two. See how big and strong he is?

Guess what this heavy big present from Grandma and Grandpa is....yep, a big motorized truck! Here is Grandpa teaching Axel how use it. He did quite good considering it says for ages 6+ on the box.

Because of the present opening Axel missed his nap. He started getting a little cranky around 3pm. He decided he wanted to take a "nap" in his new space rocket. Here he is during his 60 second nap, smiles and all.

We had so much fun visiting with Great Grandma, Grandma Susan, Grandpa Brian, Auntie and Uncle Ryan. We were said to see them go, but were so grateful for the time we had to spend with them.

On a side note, Grandma Carol sent Axel a new hat and Louis a new sweater. We all absolutely love them both. She did such a good job knitting them. Here is Louis in his new sweater. I think it is the cutest sweater ever! I would wear it if it was big enough :)

And here is Axel in his super cute new hat.

I totally want it. Can you tell? I think it fits me perfect! Axel was kind enough to let me wear it for the picture, but since then he lets me know that it is his. He wears it all of the time, in and out of the house!

Sorry for the delay in posting this....the days seem to be running all together. Check back soon for pictures of this coming weekend and until then.....
Merry Christmas! May we all enjoy this special time of year as we celebrate the birth of our wonderful and mighty Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
God Bless you all!!!!!!

Santa and Lights

Axel and I have had a fun filled couple of days, despite Axel waking with a cold and small fever on Thursday morning. Most of the day was mellow with Axel resting at home, but his fever and cold couldn't stop him from going on a "chu chu train" to see the Christmas lights at Vascona Park.

I got Axel all bundled up as if he was going skiing. He was so overheated by the time that we were back in the car he immediately started stripping. The successful thing was that he didn't mention being cold once, which allowed me to feel good about taking my sick child out in the 40 degree weather to see Christmas lights.

After riding on the train around the park they offered a free carousel ride. This was the first time that Axel actually make it without crying or getting off before it started. This was also the first time that I took him to a place that allowed the parents to ride with their children. He had so much fun he kept telling me he wanted to ride a camel again in the future. The funny thing was this carousel is composed of only horses.

The following day while we waited for Santa Claus to park his sleigh and rein deers on the roof of Westgate shopping center Axel rode on Clifford for the first time. It is really fun for me to see how much more brave he is becoming and that he is starting to enjoy rides like this. I can remember how much I enjoyed them growing up so I hope he continues as well.

Santa arrived walking slowly with his cane. Axel quickly became his shy self. We were the first people of the day. Santa spoke with a soft gentle voice as he asked Axel what type of train tracks he wanted. Santa said he would be sure to tell his elfs to get started on making them and kindly gave Axel a candy cane. Axel then did a great job of consuming his first candy cane ever, with little instruction from me. I told him these candies are easy to choke on and that he needs to lick or bite through the hard candy. He then took it gave it one lick and bit right into it saying, "mommy I won't choke on it." he is just like his daddy in the sense that he can chew hard candy like that.

We have dinner plans with our neighbors again so Axel gets to play with his new friend Rishaan. Tomorrow we have another little party to go to so the crazy holiday fun continues. It is hard to believe Christmas is almost here. Next week we are having our Christmas gathering with Auntie Shannon and Grandma Susan and Grandpa Brian so for Axel gift opening starts next week!

Check back soon for more fun filled moments of little Axel!

Funny Axel

Axel has become quite the funny little man. I have mentioned his humor before, but it continues to grow and blossom. A few examples of what he has done this past week for laughs are as follows.

1.



Need I say more?

2. Putting a huge container on his head at a birthday party today and trying to walk around with it balancing on his head. I was unable to take a picture because I was worried that this container full of interlocking toys was going to fall on another child.

Yes....Axel really thinks he is funny. He is constantly saying. "That is funny mommy," "Axel is funny".

The funny thing about it is I laugh the most when he is not trying to be funny because his expressions and responses are extremely hilarious.

He will whisper in my ear "mommy is it morning time?" Or say, "Daddy you are squishing me, I am trying to sleep right here!" or, "mommy, do you want to go memorize the Grinch songs with me". They may not seem funny to you, but the big words, thought out phrases and facial expressions he has are what really get me.

We had our new neighbors over for dinner and Rishaan and Axel had their first play date. Axel and Rishaan were great friends by the end of the night, although they struggled initially. Axel wasn't very good at sharing. Luckily, Rishaan is super laid back and kept going to other toys. Axel had a blast playing "horsey" on Muhesh's(Rishaan's father) lap. His laugh is extremely infectious. It is almost impossible not to laugh along with him.

I tried to capture this on video, but the video doesn't do Axel's laugh justice so I will have to work on this for a future post.

Axel and daddy did yard work this morning in the freezing cold. Temperatures got down to the high 30's. Axel was so cold that for the first time in his life he said that he was cold and that he had to go inside to get warm. This is a huge break through since I don't think Axel has every admitted to being cold. He has taken many a cold bath and prefers to wash his hands in ice cold water rather than warm or hot water.

He was so cold that even an hour later he wanted to be wrapped in his blanket in the house and in the car on our way to Mason's birthday party.


Axel had fun playing with Mason's toys as well as the balloons. I wish I would have taken more pictures but just like usual now I don't seem to have my phone or camera next to me when Axel is doing something especially cute. Typically by the time I get the camera set up that moment is over.


Last night we purchased the elf on the shelf for Axel. He named his elf Mark. If you are to visit between now and Christmas be sure to ask about Mark. Mark goes to the north pole each night to tell Santa how Axel behaved each day and to relay to Santa Axel's Christmas list. Each night when Mark returns from the North Pole, Axel has to find where he is in the house because he always changes locations. I hope it is a fun tradition that Axel will like over the years.

Well time to start playing since Axel is up from his nap!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Axel made a Native American hat at school on Monday and he wore it all week long. He even wore it to bed one night. It was the funniest sight ever....his hat, blue goggles, and white gloves Grandma Susan bought him a year or two ago. The amazing thing is the gloves were still on in the morning, even though the hat and goggles fell off while he was sleeping.

The goggles have been a hit for a couple of weeks now, but the gloves and hat are his latest accessories that he can't leave home without.


On Thanksgiving morning we woke up early to see what the day had in store. If the weather was good we had plans to race up Mt. Hamilton, which is a local 19 mile climb to the observatories overlooking San Jose where mommy and daddy got engaged. Luckily, for Keith's sake the weather was looking better than expected and the race/low key hill climb was still on. I was a bit bummed because I was hoping to go to Sacramento to see family if it rained, but I was on board for the hour and half of suffering we had planned since I was given the okay to ride my bike again 4 weeks ago.

We had one of our friends/teammate's fiance drive Axel to the top. He had so much fun with Lovorka that he didn't really notice the horrible fog or cold weather. He was really excited to see all of our cycling friends and play on the top of the mountain. He knows when he's going to see the 'top of the mountain' now.

Here he is playing in the car/eating a snack. When I told him it was time to go he asked me to put the seat belt on. Poor guy was more than disappointed he not only had to get in his car seat, but that we were headed down the mountain and eventually home. You can see the gloves I was talking about above if you look closely in the picture below.


On Saturday our new neighbor that moved in a few weeks ago asked if we would like to go to a local sports restaurant for brunch and to watch the Michigan game. Axel and I went and we had a blast. Luckily, there was a couple of arcade games that kept Rishaan and Axel entertained because the place was packed and the food took forever to arrive. The food was well worth the wait and Axel and I had a delicious breakfast calzone!

After we ate we went to the Los Gatos "park". The boys had fun playing in the fountain while us mom's chatted.

We all hope that Rishaan and Axel become great friends over the years to come.

Last night we ventured to Bed Bath and Beyond for some quick shopping. Axel was absolutely amazed at the remote control helicopter that was flying in the store. He sat down with his pet pillow (although we had to leave his pet pillow at the store) in the middle of the isle and watched for about 10 minutes while we waited for a price check.

Axel continues to blossom and become more assertive. As one of our friends said, "I had to teach him about sharing, since he was bossing me around all morning as to what and how we were playing." It is nice to see his imagination blossom and to see he knows what he wants, but I hope he continues to learn how to play nicely with others.

Over the past few weeks Axel has only wanted to use the big boy potty. This is good because there is less clean up, but bad because he needs help getting onto and off of the toilet. He is afraid to use the step stool and he refuses to sit on anything on top of the toilet. Hopefully, by the time he is three he will be able to do everything on his own. We will have to see.

Axel is still wearing 18 month clothing. It is finally the perfect height as far as leg length, but the waste on most of them is still too big. It is funny how all of his pants seem to slip down. He doesn't really seem to mind. He will walk or run holding them up.

Although Axel is still small, he seems to be growing because I can hardly carry him like I use to. His coordination is light years better than before. He runs, jumps, does somersaults, and can handle his two wheel, no pedal bike now. He also puts on his shoes without assistance for the past couple of weeks.

He is becoming more and more a boy and less and less a baby/toddler. The one thing he has not yet grown out of is his affection and cuddle time. I hope he continues to enjoy being hugged and loved because I will really miss that when the time comes.

Ok, have a great week!

Szolusha Family Thanksgiving meal!

Happy Thanksgiving! We are in full holiday mode after the completion of our big feast last night. It has been a tradition for the 5 years that I have been with Keith to get together with his close friends for a pre-Thanksgiving meal. Tyler and Cynthia were initially the hosts, but Keith and I took over last year. It has grown from a gathering of 6 to a gathering of 16 adults and 5 kids!

Keith took the day off on Friday so that we could prepare for our 21 guests. Because we don't have a big table or enough chairs we always rent tables and chairs for the occasion. We were able to get the dining room set and the pumpkin pies made. We also managed to prep the devilled eggs, the sweet potatoes, russet potatoes and all of the veggies for the dressing with the help of Tyler and Cynthia, on Friday night. They went back and forth with helping in the kitchen to playing with Axel. Without them, I don't think we could have done it stress free and with a smile on our faces so we want to give them a BIG THANK YOU!

They were also a huge help yesterday. They sacrificed sleep to get up early in order to watch Axel, while Keith and I raced to the top of King's Mountain. Pictured above is Axel helping me make our pre-Thanksgiving breakfast of pancakes.

The race ride up King's Mountain was the 8th out of the 9 low key hill climbs, that I mentioned last week. We had a huge team turnout with an honorary member for the day, Stiffler, (a.k.a Mike) who is father to a new pair of twins! We had a great time and couldn't have done it without the help of our great friends! We feel so blessed to have such gracious, giving friends!

Here is a picture of me holding one of the 3 month old twins, Josephine. If you look closely in the background you can see Cynthia holding the other twin, Dillinger.

I did not do a great job of taking pictures since I was so busy cooking and cleaning and visiting with our friends yesterday. Keith did managed to get a few pictures at the top of the mountain. Here is our tuckered out little Axel.

This is a picture of 12 members of our fun Low Key Hill Climb team, "The Brown Zone".

And since I haven't put up a "family" picture in awhile here is the best that we can do for now :) Too bad Axel refused to look at the camera.....poor sleepy child!

We want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving! May God Bless you and your families during this time we our extra grateful for all of our Blessings!

Fall is here!

It is hard to believe Thanksgiving is around the corner and that we are in 5th gear speeding to the end of the year. I try to live day by day, but this time of year always seems to speed by more quickly than I can keep up with.

Axel is loving the fall weather. He learned in one of his Winnie the Pooh books how fun chasing, crunching and falling onto a pile of leaves are, so when he found the opportunity to do so he had an absolute blast. We were getting my car smog tested, so please ignore the litter in the pile of leaves :)

Axel also loves the rain. He loves to watch it, sing about it and most of all he loves to use the umbrella or his hood on his jacket. I am glad he likes it so much, because I am only a fan when it is a full on storm. The day after day light rain gets old quickly, so I will feed off Axel's love for it when the winter weather really gets here.

Axel has also had a love for the moon the past month or two. He always asks where the moon is in the morning and in the evening, when I pick him up. This week the moon was close to full or full so he was really excited every night to see it "come out".

On a fun note Axel is getting better and better at pin ball. Here is a video of him playing.

Axel continues to mature emotionally. I feel incredibly blessed that I can talk to him like an equal and explain to him why we cannot do something or why we have to do something. Most of the time he responds by saying, "Oh". Of course, he still is a 2 year old and when tired is not as responsive, but for the most part it is really nice. A great example of this was when I picked him up an hour early from daycare this week. He really didn't want to go because he was having fun with his friends. I told him that it was almost dark and that we needed to get home because Louis is afraid of the dark and would start crying if we didn't make it home before dark. When we got home, Louis was crying, and he immediately asked to turn the light on and let Louis out because he was sad and afraid.

On a side note, I finally had the opportunity to join Keith for a low key hill climb. It is a series every fall that has a time trial up one of the local climbs, one each week for 9 weeks. Axel and I helped out by volunteering for the first four, so it was really fun to get to ride/race one of them. It was quite invigorating to ride as hard as I could, despite not having the fitness after being off the bike for a few months. This was surprisingly fun for me, because I am not someone who likes to compete without proper preparation :) I am really glad I did and plan on doing the last two in the series if the weather permits. Here is a picture of the four girl team members, who happen to be my close friends :)

Here is a picture of the "entire" team today. We were missing a few of Keith's buddies, but it was nice to have the ladies step it up and help the team out.

That is it for now. Have a great week!

Happy Halloween!

Daddy was so excited for us to arrive home Saturday night. We had a big day of Halloween festivities for Sunday. Daddy wanted to take Axel to the pumpkin patch since he hadn't had the chance to go with us yet. Axel, of course couldn't argue about another chance to pet the pigs and goats.

We actually had the privilege of watching the pigs being caught and caged as the Pumpkin patch would be closing after sun down. The big lesson we learned is that pigs don't like to be picked up and boy can they squeal loudly!


once we got home from the pumpkin patch we immediately started carving the pumpkin. Axel was absolutely excited. He couldn't wait to draw the face and carve it out.

He was a little annoyed with all of the gutting of the pumpkin. I didn't realize how big our pumpkin was! Oops!

The next day I brought Axel to school with his Dalmatian costume and a vegan chocolate cake. His daycare does a great job of celebrating every holiday. The kids were going to the high school to trick or treat around the classrooms. I was really apprehensive at how Axel would do. Last year they went on a Friday so I was able to go with him and he didn't exactly have fun. Well when I arrived after work I was informed that he didn't go! What!! My poor child refused to go and thus stayed home with the baby, while the other kids went. I felt so bummed for him.

Somehow on the way home, whatever I said, helped change Axel's mind about getting dressed up and going trick or treating. He couldn't wait for daddy to get home so that we could go. He even ate dinner with his costume half on.

We went to our new neighbor's house, next door, to see if they were taking their son trick or treating. They moved in just a few days prior. We were in luck and they were just getting ready to head out. Axel and his new friend, Rashawn, were absolutely adorable.

They hit it off right away. Rashawn is 2 weeks older than Axel, so we are all hoping they become great friends over the years.

A funny side note is that Axel had so much fun trick or treating on Halloween night he woke up the next day and asked to put his costume on. He said he wanted to go trick or treating with his friends at school. It was a bit of a sad let down to tell him that he would have to wait until next year to go trick or treating with his school mates. Good thing is daddy convinced him that Thanksgiving was just around the corner which meant that the Grinch was coming back. That saved some tears and put a big smile on Axel's face. For those of you who don't know the Grinch is Axel's favorite movie. I think it is because that was the first TV/movie I let him watch, so he watched it almost every day for months! We had to say good bye to the Grinch in early March because I didn't want the Grinch to loose its charm.

Have a great weekend and make sure to check out the previous post I just did as well!