Axel's going to be a big brother!

                                               our baby girl at 16 weeks 5 days gestation

 We are super excited to announce that we are having a baby girl. She is expected to arrive in mid January, with the due date of January 17th. This child comes after years of prayers, lots of patience, faith and trust in our wonderful Lord and Savior. The time that has passed in between Axel's arrival and now has been a huge time of growth for the three of us. I can honestly say that we are all ready for this child. God has been working extremely hard to prepare us for his work and the coming of this second child I cannot wait to meet her. Axel is going to be an amazing big brother. He has been praying for a baby brother and sister for well over a year. He was a little disappointed when Keith and I had to break the news that only one of them were going to come at a time, but after a little explaining he took to the idea of having one at a time very well. The only catch is he thinks one is coming after Christmas this year and the other is coming after the following Christmas. Luckily, every day he is maturing and his comprehension and understanding only gets better by the day.

Two weeks ago, Axel participated in his first kiddie bike race.  Keith and I were really proud of him for wanting to participate. They get a bib number (383 for Axel) and a medal for finishing. He rode a few hundred feet with over a hundred other children under 7 years old. The children 8 to 12 luckily have their own race where they complete the entire course of about 1 mile.

As you can see from the picture it was complete chaos, but Axel did great going at his own pace and taking in his surroundings. He likes people cheering more than he likes being competitive about winning, which is a great trait, that Keith and I haven't always possessed. After the race I bought Axel some Italian ice, which he loved and then we watched daddy race. I was extremely famished after the long day of driving and being in the heat. My lovely husband kindly suggested that we stop by Applebees (after going to two gyros places that were closed). If you know us and my husband you know that we NEVER EAT OUT. And when we do it is usually take out, which would have been the case if we could have purchased gyros. I was happily shocked and enjoyed a steak and potato meal that I don't make at home. Axel was a trooper and had fun doing the activities page with daddy. For not going out very much I was amazed at how good Axel was. 

Last weekend was birthday party weekend for us. We had two birthday parties on Saturday, but only managed to make it to one gathering. Here Axel is celebrating our friend's twins 1 year birthday. He had a blast playing with the other kids and adults who attended. 

 And of course he completely enjoyed the birthday cake.....I mean frosting :) We went to a neighbor's house to celebrate his birthday on Sunday. Axel played in the water and of course enjoyed more birthday frosting, but I was unable to get any pictures.

 When I picked up Axel on Monday he was playing dress up with the older kids at daycare. He had these shoes on and kindly asked Angela, his care taker, if he could take them home to show daddy and Louis. He was more than excited to wear them home and then to wear them back to school the next day. He walked and jumped around the driveway for about 15 minutes before going into the house.

Almost every night after dinner until dark or about 8pm Axel rides his bike and plays with the neighborhood kids. This tradition started just a day or two after we purchased Axel's new bike at the beginning of the summer and has become quite the tradition. On Thursday night this week Keith snapped a quick photo of the Szolusha boys, which I thought was a very cute picture. 

 Here is "the crew", or the current crew until the three new arrivals. The current crew is Rishaan, Axel, Max and his sister Sophia. Our next door neighbor, Rishaan's mom (who is the one on the left) is due a week after me. Rishaan and Axel are only 10 days apart in age. Rishaan's mom is picking the date of January 18th as her c-section date so our little girls could be closer in age than our two boys. Pretty crazy, huh? Our new neighbor who is suppose to move in sometime next year (after fully rebuilding the house) is expecting in October, but I am not sure what the gender is. Anyways, the three amigos have a great time together and were singing up a storm while sitting in Max's yard. We are very grateful for having such wonderful neighbors and look forward to our children growing up together.

That is it for now. We have another action packed weekend next weekend so hopefully I will have some good pictures of Axel with family having fun soon. Take care and God Bless!

Summer time

Our summer months continue to be busy. It seems every weekend we have a BBQ or two. The past couple of weeks have been a little rough for me as I have been trying to recover from a virus I must have picked up with our travels. Summer colds are always difficult because life seems busier and rest seems less common. Luckily, I am slowly getting better, despite the sleep deprivation from watching the Olympics and out busy social schedule. Axel appeared to have the same virus but he was well within a couple of days. Like father ,like son; they both have awesome immune systems.

A couple of weeks ago Axel decided he wanted to help me fold the towels. He was a great sport and followed instructions quite well. I think he is a natural :)

 Last Friday Axel and I met Rishaan and his mother at Vasona Park. Axel and Rishaan had a blast going on the train and playing in the park. Here they are in the fake airplane flying to Boston and Georgia (per Axel and Rishaan, respectively).

 Last weekend was a hot one. Axel wanted to play on the slip n slide. He had more fun playing around the slip n slide and with the "football" players it came with. I was cracking up watching him :)

 Last weekend Axel also received a few gifts in the mail from his great Aunt Lois. Axel was so intrigued with the musical spoons that she brought to Boston I asked her if I could purchase some for him to have. She quickly responded with, "I have children ones at home that I give out to the students when I do my children's program". Great, I said. And low and behold just a week later Axel has his very own at home. He absolutely loves them and is constantly playing along with music from a CD or with something he is singing himself.

 Last weekend Axel surprised me when he got up from his nap (his only nap in the three days he was at home). I heard him opening and closing his dresser drawers and then I heard him go to the bathroom. After a minute or two, I went to check on him because he didn't come running out like he usually does. Instead, after changing his clothes, he decided to comb his hair with water. I was extremely proud to see him so proud of himself for being a big boy.

 For the first time ever Axel said, "Mommy, I want to use the fancy cart" at the grocery store. He has ridden in one of these before a year or two ago. I think this was at Home Depot or something of the sort, but he lost interest in it and has never asked to ride in one again. I was proud of him for wanting to do something new. He was very cute and had everyone we passed laughing. He kept saying, "beep, beep", to anyone that was in the aisle and made great sound effects to the steering wheel moving and us trying to make the turns from aisle to aisle.

 We went to two BBQ's last weekend, which made our days action packed. This weekend has been nice and mellow. Keith left yesterday afternoon for a race and arrived home this afternoon. Axel and I have had some great down time playing inside, outside at the park, and watching the Olympics. He was missing daddy this morning and decided to make a game up that included him preparing to go to daddy's race. Here he is all ready to go. Luckily tomorrow we will be going to watch daddy race two races in the afternoon so Axel won't have to pretend.

Next weekend is another busy weekend with three birthday party BBQ's. Keith's and my four year anniversary is this coming Wednesday as well. I probably won't find time to write, but definitely check back in a couple of weeks for some possibly exciting news!