This week has been pretty low key. Keith found some ping pong competition from Cynthia, one of our close friends. So both Keith and Cynthia are looking forward to future ping pong "tournaments" at Tyler and Cynthia's house.

As far as Axel he seems to be in a huge growth spurt. I think that I mentioned last week that he has been eating quite a bit more than usual. Well, the eating streak continues which makes Keith and I happier than we can put into words. Having to struggle with food and getting Axel to consume it for over two years made us feel like inadequate parents at times. It seems we have turned a leaf and this won't be the case anymore. He is still picky, but he is becoming more open to trying new foods. Once he outgrows his dairy allergy (hopefully before he is 8 years old :) ) We will be open to a lot more family meals and food options for Axel.

While making waffles the other day, I found a perfect photo opportunity as Axel had his very first plumber's crack. He didn't even notice. He was just smiling away as usual.

This picture is for my lovely husband. He thought I was so funny when he saw it on my camera roll.

And here is a picture showing Axel scarf the waffles. I do believe he ate 8 mini waffles, which is equivalent to 2 big waffles in one sitting.

Keith and I continue to work in the yard cutting down our neighbors over grown "bushes" that are coming into our yard and covering lots of good sun exposure to our newly planted trees. While I was slowly chopping all of the branches into more manageable pieces for our yard waste container Axel had fun playing with our new boche ball set. I tried to play with him, but that only last about 5 minutes before I wasn't allowed to touch any of the balls :).

As I started to put the leaves and branches in the yard waste container Axel politely came up to me and asked, "Mommy are you going to squish the leaves now?" And then about 5 minutes later when I had squished the leaves down,he asked, "Mommy can I squish the leaves now?" So here you have Axel being a big boy and helping me squish the leaves down :).

Axel is playing more and more with Louis. He saw me throw a stick to Louis so he wanted to play tug of war with Louis. I get so proud when Axel takes the time to play chase, or feed, or pet Louis. I don't know why that makes me so happy, but it does.

Axel is still really into puzzles and stacking blocks and objects. He loves the blocks came he received from Keith's Aunt Lois.

He was so excited that he was able to balance all of the blocks.

Axel is still into music and loves to dance and sing. He can spend 30 minutes sitting playing with daddy's ipod. I have caught him both dancing and singing, but of course every time I go to record he him stops doing what he was doing and often asks, "can I see mommy?"

Thanks for reading. Have a good week!