Axel is 23 months!

That's right! Axel is 1 month away from turning 2 years old! It is hard to believe that time has passed so quickly. The big news of the week is that Axel decided he only wants to drink from strawed sippy cups and that Axel is just a week or two away from starting his new adventure with potty training.

First, the sippy cup thing, which is not a big deal, but still another change in his ever changing world. Here he is concentrating on putting the straw together. The potty training thing is a very big deal. He seems completely ready. He can hold his urine, he knows when he has to go both number 1 and 2 and he enjoys using the potty at times. This past week he has been going pee 3 times per day on his potty. The only bummer thing about this is he only wants to use the potty when I am changing his diaper. I can't seem to get him to break his play to go. He actually yells "no potty", if I ask him if he has to go while he is engrossed in playing. This morning I changed his diaper first thing, like always, but I knew he would have to go poop within the next few minutes. He told me he had to go poopies, but he didn't want to go on his potty. He wanted to play with his puzzles. I brought the puzzles and placed them on the big toilet and sat him on his potty so that he could do the puzzles while going number 2. Well, he threw such a fit that daddy got out of bed to make sure everything was okay. So, he refused to go and then he refused to put a diaper on. I was okay with the no diaper thing, as long as he went in the potty and not his pants. Well, I continued to ask him while he was playing and he continued to respond no. As soon as I left his side when daddy woke up and came to play Axel said, "water". there was this puddle of water coming from Axel's foot. That is weird I thought...Axel is completely dry and the puddle didn't smell or look like urine on the towel. 5 minutes later Axel said water again. I came back into the room not only to find another puddle, but I smelled poopies! Axel!!!! I couldn't help but laugh at this situation. I was laughing so hard, that Axel started laughing at me dumping his poop from his pajama leg into the toilet. We went straight to the bath tub. The floor, Axel and the tub were all cleaned in no time, but the thing that worries me is if we go cold turkey with no diapers during the day, what is going to change, that is going to get Axel to go to the bathroom, instead of continuing his play? I am sure day care will have the answers. They said they were going to start in March, so that could be this week, next week or the following week. We will just have to wait and see. On the topic of potty training. Can you believe that only one or two brands carry 18 month sized underwear? And no stores have them in stock. I have to get Axel's underwear on line and pay $10 for 3 pairs, plus shipping and tax! Outrageous! 2T underwear are for kids 28-32 lbs. 18 month underwear are for kids 24-28lbs. Axel is 20.5 lbs. I know that Axel is not the smallest kid who has ever gotten potty trained so what do other mothers do? So, I am not sure if you read the news, but apparently we were suppose to get the worst winter storm since 1976 to hit the bay area. Well, the storm fell short of what they promised. Yes, it was cold, low 30's, and yes it snowed down to 500feet elevation, but the winds and rain were nothing like they promised. It was sunny and in the 50's by mid day on Friday and sunny and mid 40's on Saturday, which was suppose to be the "horrible storm". Sooooo disappointing. I guess Keith and I are going to have to work to get Axel to see snow. Maybe next year we won't be so lazy and will take Axel up North.
Here is Axel playing in the water on Friday. It was suppose to be a down pour. Can you see how beautiful it was outside?

Anti-Social or Really Smart

We started off the week with a talk from daycare telling me that Axel is still not integrating very well with the other kids. "He is almost 2 now and he should be transitioning to playing with the other kids instead of independently", I was told. Apparently, during story time he is in another room reading his own books by himself. I was told that he does sing along when the other kids are singing, but he does it from another room. They have actually tried moving Axel to the other room by picking him up in the chair he is sitting in, but this only leads to him throwing a tantrum about how he wants his chair back at the table. So now they let him do his own thing and hope that he will grow out of this alone phase.

As the week went on, day care said that he was starting to play better with the other kids and is going outside more. Every time I go to pick him up he is either at the table with all of the kids doing the same activity as they are or he is outside playing by himself/watching the other kids play. It seems every week I am told the same thing....by Wednesday he is super social and Monday and Tuesday he is more of a loner.

This Wednesday I was told how smart Axel was. I guess he is one of the only kids who calls everyone by name. Most of the other kids call "Angela", "mommy" because Angela is too hard for them to say. Well Axel started calling Angela, Angela and now calls everyone else by their name as well. X Speaking of talking....Axel is talking up a storm. It seems as if he is always talking, which is definitely helping the tantrums. He still wants his way most of the time, but he is starting to learn screaming and crying about it isn't always the best way for him to actually get what he wants.

Last week I mentioned about no longer going into Axel's room at night. Well, it was a success. After just a few days he is back to sleeping between 10 and 12 hours straight at night. If he does wake I just let him cry himself back to sleep. this has really helped improve his eating during the day. He has become such a good eater the past week. I am hoping this will be the norm and not just do to a growth spurt. I feel like I have a normal kid now. He eats about 4-5 times per day about 200-250 calories at a time. Before he was only eating around 600 or 700 calories a day and then wanting milk once or twice a night. It is soooo nice to have a kid who sleeps AND eats.

Axel continues to love books. Here are some cute pictures of Axel reading.

Axel is really getting into pretend play. Here he is cooking.

Axel got a new book called 'Zoe's Hats', at the library. Here he is with his yellow hat on.

Well, I did not bring the camera to the grocery store, but I was able to get Axel to do a quick shoulder dance while we were reading the other night. Enjoy!

Tantrums and Silly Times

As we are approaching Axel's 2nd birthday his desire to do things on his own and have things go his way is becoming more and more evident. I have LOVED parenting up until a week ago. I am not sure if it is because I am soooo tired, but these screaming fits about EVERYTHING are taking a toll on me.

Last night, there was a struggle and wrestle match to get Axel's pj's on. He picked them out, but wanted a different shirt that was in the dirty clothes. After this wrestle match came dinner. He wanted hummus and crackers but wouldn't eat it. He was so mad and frustrated that he decided he wanted waffles with the hummus, but I didn't cave in. He already had 4 chicken nuggets and I wasn't about to go for a 3rd item for dinner. After letting him know it was time for bed he finally decided to eat the crackers and hummus, but with my assistance.

One minute he wants mommy or daddy to do it for him, while the next second he wants to do it himself. Tonight he cried and cried as he tried to open the freezer door. "Axel open", he said over and over. He just wasn't strong enough. I kept asking him if he wanted help. Of course, he protested and cried harder. Finally after explaining to him how hard it was to open for mommy I grabbed him and pulled him as he held onto the handle for dear life. Boy, was he excited when "he" opened the door.

After getting reassurance from another mom I decided to go cold turkey again with getting up at night when Axel is crying. He was quite sick and was getting up 3-5 times per night for sometime. Well, he is nearly 100% and was still getting up one or two times per night. On Friday night he cried for nearly two hours, after I went in to give him the milk and hug he was crying for. Well, no more! I gave him a big lecture on it before putting him to bed last night. He actually did quite well. He woke around midnight and cried for 30-45 minutes, but the crying never escalated to screaming like it usually does. I put in my ear plugs and luckily fell asleep, hence why I don't know the exact wake time.

Tonight he tried to play this game again. I gave him the same talk to let him know if he wants to drink milk he needs to do so now before I leave the room. He insisted he didn't want anymore and that he wanted to go to sleep. Well 5 minutes later he decided he wanted more milk. So I let him cry for 20 minutes just now, but luckily, I did not cave in to his "milkie" cry. He seems to be asleep, but I assume he is going to wake tonight. I am hoping within a few days he is back on track and sleeping his usual 11 hours straight. Looking back he has only slept through the night once in the past 5 weeks!!!! No wonder why I am grumpy and tired!!!!

Now on to the cute stuff. He is absolutely a funny kid. He dances and shakes his shoulders like you wouldn't believe. We go grocery shopping weekly and nearly ever week in whole foods he is rocking out to the music. I absolutely crack up laughing because the kid has rhythm and it is the cutest thing ever. I wish I had my camera to take a video of it. He is also a huge jokester. Last night he was hiding his "fish" behind him in the bath and then he would ask me with a huge grin on his face, "shark go?" "crab go?".

One of the funniest things he did this past week was put "lotion" on his face like mommy does. Here is the first gob of Vaseline.

I had to help instruct him to spread it on his cheeks, which he happily did.

I was laughing so hard by then that Axel started to imitate me and "crack up" as well.

He also took a bite out of the pizza dough we made Sunday night and then started to act like he was joking on it.

Of course he wasn't and then decided to happily eat the piece he bit off.

We had a nice relaxing Valentine's Day and hope that you all did as well.
Again, sorry for the lack of pictures. I will try to do better!

I leave you with Louis sleeping in Axel's chair while Keith and I watched a movie. Keith decided we need to get one of these for Louis' room.

Axel at 22 months

The past week has been such a blast with our little guy. Now that Axel is feeling better he is really blooming in his personality. He is such a little crowd pleaser. He knows when to give or blow kisses, or when to make the cute little grin with his head tilted to the side. He knows when to start dancing and singing or even how to tease you to make you laugh. He officially repeats EVERYTHING we say, which is really cute, most of the time. This morning as he was helping me make french toast by throwing the bread into the egg mix, I said "gentle" Axel. He said "gentle," as he threw in the next piece. I think he understood what gentle was by the time we were finished.

Besides Axel's vocabulary continuing to bloom, his climbing skills are finally improving as well. I haven't been able to tell if it was fear or strength that hindered Axel's climbing, but either way, it is much better know. He is able to climb in and out of his car seat and in and out of his high chair as well as up onto the couch. It is really funny because he tells us what he is trying to do as he does it. "Pull, mommy", as he tries to pull himself up on the couch. Now, that doesn't mean he wants help. He is only letting me know that he is pulling himself up.

As you might guess, his tantrums are kicking up in frequency because he wants to do more things by himself. This morning the two tantrums were about his sippy cup, and cutting his french toast. He wanted to have his old sippy cup and not his new one. I decided he was done with the soft top sippy cup and ready for the hard top sippy cup, whether he likes it or not. So he cried for a few minutes and gave into his thirst. Now, with the cutting of the french toast, the end result was him not eating breakfast. The good thing is I ignored the tantrum, helped him cut it when he asked for help, but then he still won in the end by not having to eat it because he was mad at it :) Kids sure are funny.

Axel continues to love books and reading. We are going to the library every week or two and picking out 5 new books for him to read. He absolutely LOVES the library and wants to bring ALL the books home. He finally is catching onto numbers, though, and understands that he can only bring 5 home (per my rules because I don't want to have to keep track of anymore than that :)- ).

Axel is really into stickers now and has fun playing with a sticker book he received from his great Aunt. He has so much patience and ability to concentrate it amazes both Keith and I.

Axel is also getting more playful at the park. He can go up and down a slide 10+ times now, which is really fun to see him say, "again, again".

Well, speaking of Axel, he just woke from his nap. He is talking to himself and his animals this very minute.....so cute! sorry for the lack of pictures. I should have more next week as all of us are feeling better :)

Ok, enjoy the game tonight!