Thanksgiving Number 2 and more

Happy Thanksgiving from the Szolusha's!


To start off where I ended last week,Dad and Sonia, my dad and stepmother arrived late Sunday night. They have been a great help with getting little things done around the house and hanging out with Axel as Keith and I have had time to ride and spend some time together.

I will jump right to the good stuff and fast forward to this past Thursday which was Thanksgiving. We had a great laid back day as we went to the Mountain Winery for Dinner at 3:30pm. This was the perfect timing so that Axel could get his nap in and so that Keith and I could go for a ride in the morning. Dinner was fabulous and the greatest thing about it was no preparation or clean up was needed.

Axel was an absolute angel at dinner. He sat on my lap and actually allowed me to eat as he ate. This has never happened at any dining experience outside of our house. We sat right next to the jazz band, which I think helped entertain him.
Of course, Axel mostly enjoyed pumpkin pie again, although he did eat a little bread and deep fried apple crisps as well. Here he is enjoying the pie.

After his sugar high Grandma, Axel and daddy played with Mr. Donkey and Llama, that Grammy Goodrow got him when we were in Boston.



After the sugar high came crashing down, so did Axel as he decided to take a break to lie flat on the floor.

Here is a great picture of Grandma and Grandpa and the beautiful view. The Winery overlooks most of the South Bay.

On Friday we headed to Sacramento to see the rest of the Burgess Family. Axel had fun playing with all of his second cousins toys, especially the trampoline. He is still a little young to play with them, but he is becoming more interactive every day it seems.


Here Axel is with the lovely host, my cousin, Jill. Jill is the one who gives all of her three boys cloths to Axel when her youngest, now 3, grows out of them. It has been such a wonderful blessing to not have to go shopping. Especially because Keith and I both hate shopping! Thanks Jill!

Speaking of shopping we decided to get Axel a car for Christmas. We didn't have to give him any lessons. He was able to unlock the door and took to the manual transmission more quickly than myself :)



Actually, we were kind of weirded out that Axel wanted to play with daddy's car, especially since the last time he was in the car, he screamed/cried for nearly an hour and a half on the way home from Jill's.

On a happier note, Grandma helped me put up the Christmas tree, which was a lovely treat. We hadn't decorated a tree together in well over 10 years. It brought back many wonderful memories.

We are excited to have one more week with Grandma and Grandpa before they head back to the Midwest. We have lots of fun adventures planned for the week, so make sure to check back next week for more great Axel news.

Thanksgiving Number 1

What started off a regular ordinary week, turned out to be a fun filled week with many blessings. Monday night I had a great fellowship at BSF learning so many wonderful lessons from the older, wiser women in my group.
Tuesday night Keith's coworker delivered one of his 40 pinball machines for us to "borrow". I believe we will have the pleasure of playing "Pin Bot" for quite a few months. The whole family really enjoys playing. Here are Axel and me in action. He likes to tell me where the ball is and clap when the machine lights up.

Wed. afternoon we discovered that the end of living in a cold house was near. We were finally going to have a new high efficiency furnace installed in our attic on Thursday and Friday. This is a picture of the closet where the old furnace was installed against code and was not working. We had that ripped out and thrown away during our upgrade.


This has been a long 5 week debacle with 3 different furnace guys and dozens of calls and emails to our home warranty and real estate agent. The outcome wasn't exactly what we were hoping for because more money was spent on our part then expected, but we finally have heat and the potential for a linen closet in our house. I will cherish these two things for as long as we own this house. Not having heat has been interesting for all four of us and I can appreciate those who live without it on a regular basis. Now for the linen closet... Being able to organize my towels and sheets is a luxury I won't take for granted again. Who would have thought a 2600 square foot house would be without a linen closet? I didn't realize this until I had a dream the night we made the offer on the house. I woke up realizing that I didn't remember seeing a linen closet. This being the least of Keith's worries really grew to bother me as I love to be organized.

As far as Axel is concerned he didn't mind the cold or the house being without a linen closet. He dressed a bit warmer and had a ton of fun playing with our portalable heaters. Here he is grooming Louis.

Axel taking over Louis's chair.

On Saturday we had a big Thanksgiving dinner. Here is Axel and Daddy preparing the turkey before we put it in the oven. We slow-cooked the turkey at 250 for 5 hours and it came out moist and tasty.

Of course, I didn't remember to take any pictures all day, but here Axel is waiting for the Thanksgiving party to start.

Axel had so much fun with our 14 guests that the only thing he ate was pumpkin pie. Here he is on Sunday enjoying a big bite of Daddy's pumpkin pie. His skin has been horrible the past week because of all the dairy exposure and cold weather, but it is so nice to see Axel scarf food down, since he normally isn't a great eater.


Here is the happy dance and run with the pumpkin sugar rush!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Tons of Fun in the Sun

This week, despite still being sick for most of it was much more eventful than the past two weeks. Last Sunday Axel had a play date with Chloe, who is 3 months younger, but the exact same size and cuteness as Axel. They played marvelously together, except for when Chloe kept stealing Axel's cracker, where he would cry and scream in frustration :) Thursday Auntie surprised us and came for a visit. We had fun at the park. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, but Auntie did have her phone so we have one cute picture of Axel finally trying to hang from the bar over the slide like the big boys and girls do. He needed a little boost to reach, but I think he had fun trying to do what the big kids do. On Friday, I finally got on antibiotics, which was just enough time to enjoy the weekend and Keith's company party. Of course, we didn't do a good job of taking pictures and the few we took were not that good, but we did have a good time. Axel did great having a babysitter put him down for bed for the first time. I was quite nervous so I had Lauren come over the night before to put him to bed. Just like I suspected, this was the magic trick that allowed him to feel comfortable when we were gone. He didn't even cry and went right to bed....go Axel! He did get up at midnight to have a little drink of rice milk....or was it to check that mommy and daddy safely arrived home....:) One of Axel's toys of the week was daddy's ipod. Every single day he couldn't wait for daddy to take off the ipod and give it to him to play with. Axel was also really into building towers this week with his Lego's and working on his puzzles. Axel's tent was also a big hit this week. I couldn't believe how much time he was spending in there. We had fun climbing through the tunnel, but the most fun was just lying there looking at the colors of the tent and tickling each other. As you can imagine we made quite the ruckus so when the house became silent as I left Axel to play by himself I became a little nervous. I called for Axel several times without any response. I found him silently lying in the tent. This crazy quite phenomenon happened on more than one occasion. Today he brought his bike into the tent and was just lying there with his bike. I think if Axel was older he would choose to sleep in it he loves it so much! Axel also decided this week he wanted to carry things with him more efficiently. He started putting toys in his pockets and important paper in his shirt!
I have two cute videos to share since you all haven't seen the little guy in action for awhile. The first video is of Axel feeding himself yogurt. We reintroduced soy last Sunday and he seems to be doing fine allergy wise. He absolutely loves yogurt so I am glad that he is handling soy well. He still instantly lights up with any dairy products, but having the soy without any issues is a big help. The second video is of Axel feeding Louis and being his fun little self. It looks like the videos failed again. I will try to download them sometime later this week.

Have a good week. Hopefully the beautiful, sunny weather stays around for awhile for those of us on the west coast :)

Rain and Sickness

This week has been extremely uneventful as both Axel and I have struggled with a bad cold. Although Keith appears to have escaped the full blown cold he was a bit tired and run down this week as well. I have a few cute pictures from Halloween night taken after I did last week's post.

I often forget to mention our other son. Louis turned 8 years old at the end of October. He is doing wonderfully and loving life. Him and Axel are like true brothers who seem to fight and then make up with hugs and kisses.

Keith never wants Louis to miss out in the fun so here is Louis in his Halloween costume.

Here is daddy and Axel getting ready for the trick or treaters.

Of course Axel wanted to put on daddy's costume as well! Yeah...Mr. Money Man...I mean Money boy :)

I also had requests to show Keith and I in our costumes. This is the second time in 5 Halloweens that Keith and I dressed up and went to a party. It was lots of fun, but hard to recover from....hence my cold and feeling run down.

So we are lacking on pictures so I will keep this post short. Axel is still cute as ever as he grows his hair and learns more words. He is really into his sign language flash cards. He looks at the picture and then tells us what it is. He already spent an hour or so today looking through them.

He is a total book worm and loves to pretend to read. He has been pushing back his nap and bedtime again because his three books is not enough. I told daddy to be strict with the three book rule and then I break it by allowing him a forth book myself. I am such a softy. Speaking of softy..... We are having trouble getting Axel to eat sitting in his chair. I end up doing exactly what I told Keith I would not end up doing, and that is feeding him as he plays. My real concern is when should I get strict about this? I don't want it to be a habit, yet I am not totally sure if he is old enough to understand restricting food except at the table. Any suggestions moms, much appreciated.

Ok, I leave you with Axel playing in the front yard and him in his new favorite pajamas that Grandma Susan made him.


Oh....and its been raining :)

Happy Halloween

It is hard to believe that this is Axel's second Halloween. It is amazing how quickly the little guy is growing up and how quickly time passes. Axel is such a joy to be around. He lightens my heart and helps me appreciate how wonderful life is and teaches me how to live it to my fullest. And that is done by trying to enjoy every minute of it :)

As I say every week Axel's vocabulary and ability to communicate gets better by the day. There are words he says that I didn't even know he knew. Like asking us for popcorn.....which is his new favorite food. We think he likes watching it being made more than eating it, but it is just the same as he points to the cabinet where the popcorn machine is and says the word over and over.

This evening when I was giving him a bath he kept saying "wash, wash". I would then put soap on his hand and he would wash a body part. He pretty much knows all of his body parts and loves to show you where they are. Tonight my favorite was, "Butt, mommy, butt," as he pointed to his butt and washed it.

I also had the privilege of flossing his teeth for the first time tonight. He watched me floss and then he wanted to join in the fun as well.

Axel is suffering from another little cold. They are coming one after the other now. Hopefully, it won't be all winter long. The cold hasn't stopped him from playing though. He is getting really good at entertaining himself and doing hours of independent playing. It is really nice for me because I can get lots of house cleaning and cooking done while he plays by himself. He still has to play in the same room that I am in, which I find extremely cute and loving.

Axel and I went to the local high school for trick or treating and a "happy haunted house" on Friday. We met the kids from his daycare. He wasn't super thrilled about wearing his costume or the happy haunted house, but I think it was good exposure to get him use to the holiday for next year.

His daycare then had a little party back at the house. We lasted about 10 minutes before he was bored and ready to head to the grocery store. Axel loves to grocery shop these days. His bubbly personality lite up as he pointed to the pumpkins saying, "pumpkin" and "boo" while pointing to the skeletons and ghosts.

Axel loves the table and chairs at school. We have been looking out for chairs to go with the built in desk in the sun room since the day we moved in our new home. Grandma Susan bought him a lounge chair for the pool and outside this summer. He finally decided to use it during snack time on Friday.



The ironic thing is we finally found chairs sold separately from tables this weekend. (We have run into chairs only being sold with tables and we already have a table). Axel now has two solid chairs for his long play area/desk. Here he is drawing.

He loves to draw and pretend to write. I think he knows his first letter. He wrote it for grandma last week and tonight in the bath tub he pointed to the letter in Ameritech and said "A". It could just be luck, but Grandma was pretty impressed that he was able to write it just as I was!

He loved the chairs so much he pulled them into the family room so that he could sit and watch the game with mommy, daddy and Mr. Sock monkey.

Axel still loves to ride his bike and he still loves to run away when he is naked after bath time. Here is Axel doing both of these loves as he rides his bike from the bath tub to his room!


Axel picked his clothes out yesterday morning. I thought it was really cute how he wanted to wear the flannel Sesame Street pants the grandma made for him.

Today we dressed him up and walked to the grocery store. We had planned on taking him out to trick or treat, but with his cold we decided it was best to put him down early for bed, especially because he only took a 45 minute nap today.

Alright, I am missing the game so I must go and watch the Giants, hopefully win!
Have a great week!

Sacramento Zoo

This week Axel and I spent a couple of days in Sacramento with Grandma Susan. We went to the Sacramento Zoo and had so much fun that we didn't nap!!!! Without Axel's usual nap he was quite the crank mister and is still currently off of his schedule. He is crying now in his crib instead of sleeping his usual 1-2 hours.

Axel was super cute as always. He tried to feed the animals and climb in with them. He learned quickly that he couldn't do either so he contently watched the animals from his stroller, or Grandma or Mommy's arms.

Axel loves cars and trucks like most boys. He was able to ride one at the zoo.

He had fun walking along a little path in the zoo's backyard.

But he had the most fun at the playground inside the zoo. First watching the other kids, and after about 5 or 10 minutes of watching, running around and playing himself.



Back at grandma's house she was worried that she didn't have enough toys, since most of the toys that she has bought for Axel has ended up at our house. I told her not to worry. Axel had hours of fun playing with the water machine and swifting her floors clean :)

It is always a quick visit, but we were glad to get home before the bad stormy weather hit and so that I could continue to rest up from the cold I caught.

The potty training thing went south as he did not do any training at daycare and by the time Thursday rolled around he lost interest. I am super bummed, although I know I was asking a lot by trying so young. Now I get "mommy, poopoo" right after he has finished going. Oh well, we will try again in a few months.

Axel's communication continues to improve. He is starting to say little sentences, like "all gone", "bike outside", "mommy up", etc. When he is tired or frustrated, he returns to grunting and I have to remind him to use his words, but overall, it is exciting to see him pick up new words every day. For example, he is saying his name now, which sounds like A-sole, because he cannot say the "x" sound yet. He says, moon, sun, heavy, juice, tree, leaf, dirty, etc. Lately he has been pointing to his shoes and socks while saying dirty. It is so cute.....I guess I say things are dirty often.

On a funny note, Grandma Susan sent gloves last year with Axel's Christmas gift. He saw Grandma and I wearing them while going for a walk so when we got home and he found his, in his pile of toys, he wanted to put them on. Here he is giving daddy a high five and playing with them. Can you see how excited he was?


Well, Axel finally fell asleep for his nap. Hopefully, he wakes up his happy self and tomorrow he will be back on his normal sleep routine. Hope you all have a great week!